13 Month Progress Report: Consistent Conversions are Coming!

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Just a little background for any of you who hasn't met me before...

I joined Wealthy Affiliate 25 January 2018. I started several websites because I was over ambitious and had unrealistic expectations of myself and the internet. Haha. Don't be sad about that..that's a reality I'm okay with.

I decided to stop all of the others and focus on one probably about 3 months after being here, and since, I work primarily on my website www.howtoentrepreneur.org. I also purchased www.howtoentrepreneur.com and I'll eventually transfer my content there.

I apologize for layout issues in this post, and even how streamlined the thoughts may be here. I could not get the headers to work, so this content will be all written in paragraph text. I also felt like writing what's on my mind, so the layout won't be formal like how I write in other places.

Now with that out of the way, let's get to the point of this post...

You might be at the beginning of the road or you might have been writing for awhile. After you've decided making money online is a goal of yours, it feels like such a risk! The career field is still fairly new and many of the waters might be untapped for you (and those around you).

I completely understand. What makes matters worse is when you decide you want to make Internet Marketing your career, it's all kinds of unregulated schools all over the place, and people that mislead and give you false expectations.

I know when I got here, I completely thought it was realistic to expect that I could make my full-time income within my first 6 months! It might be totally possible in a very low supply and high demand niche (like how Jerry is teaching affiliate marketing in mandarin).

I didn't have ideas like that though. I've always wanted to create a lifestyle brand. The path towards creating a Lifestyle brands hasn't been that easy for me to figure out, but I think I'm seeing my path now!

Can you imagine if someone decided to start a nursing or engineering school, what they'd have to go thru? There's much more regulation in other industries. In Internet Marketing, people can simply say "I make a full-time income" and think that qualifies them to teach others! Unfortunately, since, it's so rare to meet someone who makes a fulltime income online, those who do it tend to catch alot of ears.

There's lots of pollution in this career field because it's unregulated, and since I've been doing reviews, I've gained more and more understanding of that. Not all nurses can teach nursing. Not all engineers are good engineering professors, and not all successful internet entrepreneurs can (or will) be good instructors. Teaching requires different skills than doing.

Before coming here, I was like many others who have joined here, I had taken several courses that promised alot and delivered a little in order to learn this career field. I figured out some components of internet marketing like Digital publishing and parts of social media, but coming to WA has created exponential growth for me!

I wrote this post to encourage those of you who have been writing for a long time as I have. I'm currently near 700,000 words and 300 posts. My affiliate site is still not earning a full time income. With all that work, if your primary metrics are the money you're making, it can get very depressing. Mindset is key because the training provides a way for you to get to results, but it doesn't take you there--it's like a bridge. Everyone's destination is different, so there will be some experimentation for every website and every business startup.

But, man, have I learned alot!

I've earned online before thru selling services, but I've never made my business reliant on my copywriting. I've always done marketing services where I had to sell in person or by making a phone call. Selling online versus selling offline is different. It's been a pretty steep learning curve for me.

Added to that, this isn't the first business I've started. I've had several others, but online business is very different. I'll have to explain that in another post because this will probably be long enough. Haha.

My point is...

It doesn't matter your background (even if your background seems very relevant for this), it still takes time to "get" this journey. Each website takes time to really think out as well.

Added to that, I couldn't come up with a small niche that I could really feel connected to. I know most Internet Marketing teachers are sayign you should choose a passion or problem to focus your site around. Ideally, you want to pick something that laser targets an audience like "usingvalerianroottohealcancer.com".

That might have been a horrible example, but it made me laugh...Hahahaha. Hopefully, you get what I mean.

I didn't want to do that. I wanted my site to have more connection to my legacy. I couldn't see niches like what's recommended satisfying that, so I chose the harder road, and I have more sites in competitive niches that I plan to create (after this first site is much further ahead).

I love big lifestyle niches! I have all lifestyle authority sites in mind and I didn't want to compromise on that. As a result, I had to figure out how to make that work, and I think I'm onto something.

It took me quite a bit of experimentation to say I'm onto something, but I'm seeing a direct correlation between my actions and my results now. Before, I would do something and get a result, but I wasn't sure if it was a fluke or not. Now, I have more general awareness about which actions will lead to which results. This took me 1 full year to understand action and result correlations.

I'm very excited about my newfound observations.

It all started with making very small goals. When I got here, I had too many goals. I was:

  • Doing marketing work for local or freelance clients
  • Raising two kids: homeschooling a 10-yr old and nurturing a 1 yr old
  • Working on several websites
  • Doing social media marketing
  • Trying to achieve perfection with graphics and web design
  • I was spending alot of time on GOOD and TRENDING things but not PROFITABLE things
  • and my work-life balance was consistently swayed more towards motherhood than work (and that happens sometimes)

We have some great leaders here. We have amazing super affiliates and great founders. Jay, Kyle, Carson, Grace, Chris (Benji's Dad), Eddy with a "y", and many others have been so helpful to me! Added to that, we have some amazing encouragers in this community.

The overarching thing you'll find is simplicity matters and the little things count. You don't have to do Facebook, Pinterest, Youtube, Live events, say "hi" to everyone at the grocery store, and watch everyone in the neighborhoods' kids to be effective.

That was a little of an exaggerated joke, but if you're an ambitious person like I am, you'll know what I mean.

You don't have to do it all to see growth in your business.

Since December (I think), I've been working with Jay as a coach. He saw that I was doing many things and doing well, but I could have more results if I did less things, and HE WAS RIGHT! I was scared to try, but after following his advice on many things, he was right. I had added so many things, that I wasn't as effective at following the training as I could've been.

Be results-focused.

While I was doing alot of things, how many of them were actually driving sales? I had to answer questions like, "Is getting lots of traffic satisfying without getting lots of sales?" or "Does engagement matter if I'm attracting people who want ideas, but don't want to make a purchase?"

Those were some tough decisions to make. As a result, I changed the priority of metrics that matter, and it got much simpler to focus.

I was having up to 10 clicks per day to WA, and I began to set goals like:

"I want to get my clicks to stay beyond 10 clicks per day consistently"

That was my 1 goal. I didn't have 10 goals. As a result, I spent all of my time and focus trying to figure out what I need to do to get more than 10 clicks consistently.

Then, it continued to go up from there. I experimented. I tried experimenting with:

  • Content relevancy
  • Content layout
  • Site design
  • Site navigation
  • Site Speed
  • Themes
  • Graphics
  • Optin location
  • and other things until I achieved that 1 goal

I tried turning over every stone until I could see a pattern of positive results, and I recommend you test and test and try as well! It just so happened that since I've achieved that goal, I have also seen consistent daily referrals! I get at least 1 referral per day, and it's been that way for that last 17 days!

I know many of you are probably wondering about my traffic. Last I checked, I had 3700 pageviews in 30 days, but more than 1K this week! I thought I would have needed to wait until a certain traffic metric (like 10,000 pageviews/mo) or so before seeing consistent conversions, but it doesn't look like that.

My traffic isn't significant at this point in my opinion. Many others with less content have much more traffic and income than I do, but that's the path I'll enjoy in the end. I'll be happy having my broad authority site in the end. Plus, since I've been making so many tweaks, my traffic has been VERY inconsistent. Since December, my traffic has been increasing at about 60% month over month. I'm seeing a major incline, so it' hard to say what my traffic is on average!

Look at my search console....it looks very exciting! And, when I look at some of my CTR's even at insignificant positions (like 8, 9, or even on the 2nd page!), I'm getting pretty good click thru rates! Some of my 8th and 9th position rankings are getting CTR's of 50%!

I'm so excited! I'm starting to get it--this internet marketing thing is starting to "click" more than ever! If you're writing and writing and feeling like your not getting results, stay with it! Keep experimenting.

If you're in a big broad niche working towards eventually building an authority site, then think about your site as a compilation of several niches: still, start with one. Even MMO isn't a niche, which is what makes it take so long in the beginning. If you're considering the bootcamp route, it's even better to go even smaller than MMO.

Going back to my previous example, you don't have to have usingvalerianroottocurecancer.com. You can choose a health niche domain, but in the beginning when you're trying to build your authority, you have to focus your content around a small niche (and mostly create reviews, best of's, and comparisons), then once you're authority is established in one small category (as evidenced by your income and traffic), then you scale out.

That's what I've been learning. Things are starting to get exciting! I'm seeing more sales and conversions coming my way!

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Recent Comments

23

A good and beautiful write up. Thanks for all the encouragements. You are so amazing and determined. Keep it up! We will be there to read more from you.

Thanks Bilchina. I'm glad you found this helpful.

Way to go, Tiffany! Everything is looking great for you!! I love your Search Console chart. Movin' on up...! :)

- Christina

I'm starting to love my search console too. Lol. Thanks Christina.

Congrats and thanks for your advice.
I wish you continued success.

Thanks Christine! Same to you!

Congrats! Thanks for the great advice. I wish you much success.

Thank you! Best wishes in your business also.

Congratulations! That is great advice to focus on one goal at a time. I need to do that for my website, I think. Maybe I will be less overwhelmed that way and can see progress more clearly.

That's definitely been the case for me!

Congratulations Tiffany, sounds like you are doing something right for sure. Keep it up. -shirley

Thanks Shirley! Definitely milestones that show me I'm going in the right direction.

Wow! I am greatly humbled. I did not imagine myself reaching 700,000 words. You are my heroine.
Joseph

If you're in this for the long haul, then you can expect to surpass that by far! It's about making a positive impact with people, and sometimes, that's what it takes.

Great post, I enjoyed it, and I am happy for your success. Your site looks great, very professional and thorough. Wishing you all the best!

Thanks Jessibelle! I appreciate your compliments.

Enjoyed reading your blog because I'm a firm believer of staying consistent and not necessarily with A LOT of things, but maybe in a one or two things. While I know there's so much to do, I want to do things well - that takes consistency and commitment - plus a lot of patience with myself since technical stuff isn't my forte but the training is fantastic here. Enjoy the journey and know that success will come as long as we stay focused on always evaluating our progress, make adjustments as necessary and keep moving forward. Believe and achieve!

Great advice!

Told you it would turn around.

You did, but man, it's hard to believe that when you're hearing crickets! Haha.

Thank you for sharing. I really wish you success.

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