My 17 Month Authority Site Case Study Continued : What I Learned While on Vacation

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Many of us start our businesses with lots of skeptics. Heck, we might be skeptical of what we're doing. Hahaha. It seems it would be pretty obvious other people would be skeptics, but I've seen many times differing views on a business startup that causes conflict: between friends, spouses, parents and children, or others.

In my case, when I started my marketing services business, my family wasn't verbally in disagreement, but they also weren't certain about the market for what I was offering. Then, to make matters more complicated, my son got sick almost one year into my services business, and I decided to stop all client work and start my business all over again with affiliate marketing as the primary source of income.

They had never heard of that, and I'm sure they wondered if I was losing my mind, but luckily, they never said that. Instead, they asked me, "Tiffany, are you sure you shouldn't get a job?", or "Are you sure this is going to work out like you think?", and despite my inner skeptic, I tried my best to wear pure confidence. Everyone questioned what I was doing: my husband, my son, my parents...everyone. Despite that, I tried to look strong and respond with, "This will work" and "I'll make sure this works".

Fast Forward 17+ Months

Now, nearly 18 months has passed in my journey and I've been getting messages "Congratulations! You've recieved a new WA commission" nearly every day EVEN while I spent a day at an amusement park! I made 21 new sales, 13 recurring sales, 10 domain sales, 165 referrals, and 134 referrals credits, so I was getting notifications about more money pretty consistently.

Now, all those who had questions about whether what I was doing would work see my proof of concept, and they're encouraging me to continue. My son, my husband, my parents, my sister, and others are impressed.

Stick it out if people around you don't believe in your business now. Don't take it personal. Prove your business idea works, start racking up sales and happy customers, and they'll come around.

If you haven't seen my most recent case study, you can tell, I'm still not able to forecast next month's income. The growth seems nearly crazy. This month, I doubled many of my records: in referrals, in sales, in referral credits, and I was on vacation where my productivity wasn't it's norm! I still managed to publish 9 articles, 9 videos, and engage quite a bit, but my productivity wasn't close to what I know I'm capable of.

As a sidenote, I'll be publishing this month's stats and income by the 10th, so you'll be able to see more details if you're interested in that. In the meantime, you can take a look at the previous case studies and training I've published here.

It felt really good because this month solidified my decision from 17+ months ago to focus on building an asset that made it possible for me to earn an income without a direct time-money exchange.

My Family Finally "Gets it"

Real estate and online business (or intellectual property as a whole) has many similar passive components. For each of them, there's a time where you work and a time where the work pays off passively.

My parents have always been in real estate. They've been investors since I was born. My dad bought his first house at 18 years old, and by the time I was born (when he was 25) he had turned the first property into a stream of rental income.

Now, they have several rental properties, several properties they've flipped, and they've always coached me to go into that business. I love real estate, but I don't want it to be my primary job. Instead, I'd prefer to be in a strategic position in real estate rather than day-to-day operations. I'd like to hire out many of the positions there, and focus my attention on the business that best uses my talents. I much prefer running a media company as my primary job.

I know I could probably work more on succession now with my parents and focus my energy on the real estate business, but I love affiliate marketing, and my parents have never understood it until this trip.

How I Explained Affiliate Marketing to My Parents

One morning, my mom and I were talking about the real estate business (which is fairly normal for us). My mom started doing her happy dance. Hahaha.

She was excited because one of their customers had followed her recommendation to go to one of their vendors who gives them a commission. In my mom's case, she manages several rental properties (mostly her own) and she refers tenants to hardware stores (for little DIY projects or repairs they want to do), insurance companies (for rental insurance), and when fellow property managers ask for recommendations, she refers them to vendors she uses. She never realized she was doing affiliate marketing!

When she was telling me the situation, I said to her, "Mom, that's affiliate marketing! That's what I'm doing too, but I'm just focusing a larger percentage of my income on referring others to good products and services."

At that moment, it "clicked" for her. She understood what I'd been telling her all along.

Affiliate Marketing and Many Merchants

In my mom's case, she works with many vendors, but most of the merchants track their referrals mentally or using very old school techniques. My mom will tell her referral "make sure to let them know I've sent you and they'll give you my volume discount", and the tracking is entirely trust-based.

They don't know about tracking software, tracking links, hyperlinking, link cloaking, or leveraging the internet to streamline the entire process. They also don't know the process is formally called "affiliate marketing" or how much their businesses could blow up if they knew!

Once my mom and dad "got it", then they could see the power of what I'm doing! They also started mapping out how they could take more initiative to earn a higher income from referrals. There is so much potential for affiliate marketing because:

  • Many merchants don't know a more streamlined and easier to manage process exists
  • Many people don't realize they can get paid from referring people to products and services they love
  • and, the internet is making commerce so much easier

The Priority of My Business is Clear

Added to my mom and dad understanding my business model, I was able to solidify it works and how I do it. They have major work ethic, but they could see my seriousness about my business because my work hours were similar to theirs.

They would wake up early to follow up on tenant requests, pay invoices, coordinate repairs, and so on. While they were handling the tasks of their businesses, I was shooting my videos, doing my blog posts, doing research, or outlining the courses I'll be publishing soon.

They grew confidence in my business by seeing my dedication, perseverence, and results. I have two kids: one 12 years old, one 2 years old, and I was babysitting my niece who is 7. Added to that, my parents have a huge social circle, so there's always lots of people visiting, and many people wanted to catch up with me since I've lived away from my hometown for the last 13 years.

My days were full, but because of my commitment to my business, I would muster the energy to wake up before 6 AM every day to work, to break away a few times per day to respond to referrals and PMs, and to stay up at night to tie all loose ends. My discipline grew my confidence and it made everyone around realize how serious I am about my business.

People who thought my business was a hobby or a "side thing" that I'm experimenting with realize now that my business is a very serious thing because I treat it more serious and more priority than if I was working for someone else.

Moving Forward with More Confidence than Ever

In addition to my growing confidence personally and in my family, my WA family was so instrumental. I saw the messages from you all asking me if I was okay since I've been away more than normal, and those that showed appreciation for my blogs and training.

I saw the results of people who have taken my training and reported higher commissions, higher conversion rates, more traffic, and other exciting results. Thanks so much for sharing your results with me and using your results to encourage others!

Every succes story I hear from my training inspires me to make more training, make better training, and to stay on the path. It's like confirmation that I'm blossoming where I'm planted, so thanks so much!

This trip awakened so much confidence, reassurance, motivation, and overall, it changed the trajectory of my future. I'm sure I'll be referencing the impact of this trip for years to come.

Thanks WA family for all of your support and trust me, I have my best blog posts and training coming.

New Challenges

I walked away from this trip realizing I could do better with communicating to people who have been following my life journey for years. I could do better with rekindling relationships with those who need my help. Also, I could do better with maintaining my health while pursuing my business goals. I don't need to neglect exercise simply because I want to create lots of content.

As a result, I decided to implement some new challenges and reconfigure my schedule to make these things happen. In the month of August, I'll be working towards these goals:

  • Reinvest my sales into PPC
  • Set up a PPC campaign
  • Continue learning about PPC advertising on Google and Bing
  • Exercise daily to start my morning (and send my extra weight gain into the past--Hahaha)
  • Record more lifestyle content on mobile
  • Post lifestyle content and blog content onto Instagram and Facebook
  • Create 8-12 Pinterest pins and share them
  • 8-12 blog posts
  • 8-12 Youtube videos
  • Spend 1hr/day optimizing old content
  • Spend 1/2 day Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on course creation

Let's see how I do. I like shooting high and giving it my all. I need to increase my # of prospects more (especially if I want to make it to Vegas), so I'm focused on increasing my traffic.

How are you challenging yourself in August 2019?

What new tasks are you taking on? What new habits are you implementing? What new thing are you trying to learn? What old thing are you getting better at?

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Recent Comments

76

I love reading your posts, it is always very inspiring. :)

August for me is all set up, I made my plan and it is all about Phase 5 of the Affiliate Bootcamp. By mid-September this phase will be done and I'll move to the 6th one!

I think things are going well, I must not stop.

I'm glad the posts are inspiring to you. You're doing great with growing your website and business. Keep it up! I'm sure you'll see great results soon.

Tiffany!

You managed to convince your parents about affiliate marketing... And they have a great work ethic. Put all your heads together and expand your property portfolio with affiliate marketing.

If your Mom is doing referrals already, this could really snowball as it is on your side already.

I am very interested in doing video and am researching ways of creating them without huge expense.

I discovered flixpress.com. Very useful as I am a beginner when it comes to video making. Although I do understand lighting, sound and angle. Let's see where our journeys take us!

All the best,

Stella

My parents are still very engulfed in real estate, but with their new understanding of what I do, who knows what will happen. They never thought of making a full income from referring people to products or services, so the business model was pretty intriguing to them.

I've never heard of flixpress, but if it's helping you, that's great! For me, I started video without many bells and whistles, and I was able to get great results and growth. Don't overthink or overstudy about it. Just go for it and improve as you go.

Best wishes with getting into video this month!

Thank you!

Wow.... I can feel the energy all the way across the Atlantic... Great post and more power to you for your attitude even when people were not sure you could do it.
I love the phrase "I tried to my best to wear pure confidence".
I wish you continued success and happiness.
This post has made my day and it is only 9.30am here.
Thanks for sharing your story and I hope to hear more as an inspiration that this system works if you want it badly enough.

Best wishes
Gaz

I'm so glad you could feel the energy. It's amazing how we can encourage one another all across the world.

You'll definitely hear much more inspiration from me about how this works if you want it badly enough because that's my experience.

Fantastic and inspirational post. Congratulations on your hard earned and well deserved success 😀

Thank so much Dave. Best wishes in your business.

Wow, thanks a lot for the valuable information and as always I am inspired. You are a great source of motivation for us.

Really happy about your progress and growth. Hats off to your commitment, hard work, and dedication.

I'm so glad this inspired you Paul! I think your increase in content creation is really going to propel you to get great results too. Thanks for your continued support.

GOD Bless!

Congratulations! That is great that you are doing so well and that your family "gets it" now.

My family is in real estate too. My grandparents and parents both did it and now my husband and I do too though we started on our own. We used his VA loan to buy a 4-plex. We live in one unit and rent out the other three. Basically, the building pays for itself. Now we also manage a 6-plex for my Mom. We hope to get another building of our own just as soon as we possibly can.

I love your explanation of how your parents got what you do when you showed them how it was similar to what they already did.

My husband and I both have regular jobs in state government now but we hope to be free of them someday between real estate and websites. We will make it work!

Thanks for sharing your journey!

Jessica

I think it's great to live in a self-sustaining building!

It sounds like our families have a lot in common. My grandparents, parents, and my generation is in real estate as well. My husband and I have one rental property, but that's it for us for now. My husband is much more eager, but I'd prefer real estate as purely a vehicle to grow money rather than as a job.

I think you probably have the best of both worlds now with your job giving you stable income and benefits, and your business giving up extra income and a place to be creative and helpful. I'm sure you and your husband will achieve all of your goals because I can tell you're a go-getter all the way.

Thanks for your well wishes and best wishes for your continued growth.

Thank you! It has been pretty hard with 10 units to manage plus jobs etc. I had to take off from work yesterday to deal with the 6-plex and today to deal with the 4-plex! We do things after work and on weekends as well.

We don't have much free time since the 6-plex is in pretty bad shape and everything needs to be repaired or replaced. We keep telling ourselves it will all be worth it in the end!!

Our building is in great shape except for the damage from the 7.1 earthquake we had last year. We will be getting a Small Business Administration Disaster Loan to repair the damage soon. We may have to have the entire building (3 stories) re-leveled.

We are still fully rented though and have very good tenants (military, doctor, teacher etc.).

Congratulations. I know you are working very hard and it is paying off!

Business takes time regardless of which one you start. Who needs free time? Hahaha.

We'll get free time one day. Hahaha. It's so nice that loans like the SBA disaster loan exists! Natural disasters like what you experienced are very difficult (or nearly impossible) to plan for.

Yes. It is still stressful since it is a loan not a grant. We still have to pay it back!

I agree but it’s better than a disintegrating building.

You are a very smart young lady.
Your ability to learn and earn is a credit that I admire.
Being an old bugger I have trouble learning this new technology.
At 78 years of age, I still have 22 years to learn it.
Tom.

Hahaha. You can do this Tom!

Sure can. Ha, ha to all who can not but sit back in a chair looking at a TV just waiting to die.
Just home from the second funeral this week.
Tom.

I'm sorry to hear about the funerals. I agree pursuing professional development is much better than sitting around waiting on those.

If only gets better from here.

I'm doing my happy dance.....woot woot. What's the next milestone you think I should be anticipating?

Vegas my Friend!

Wow congratulations!

Thanks!

"Mom! That's Affiliate Marketing!" PRICELESS!!

CONGRATULATIONS TIFFANY!!

Thanks so much! Isn't it funny how we explain what we do so people "get it"? Hahaha. I'm glad my family understands now.

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