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INSIGHTS6 MIN READ

One Year at W.A. - So Many Waveforms, So Little Time.

TJSchlenker

Published on October 3, 2018

Published on Wealthy Affiliate — a platform for building real online businesses with modern training and AI.

One Year at W.A. - So Many Waveforms, So Little Time.

Hello, friends. I'm taking this moment out of a busy day to show you all the truth - or at least, the truth for ME. The reality of what to expect from your first 12 months investing into what W.A. teaches will be all over the map from person to person, but, at the very least, it always helps, when you're trying to get somewhere with no GPS on your cell phone or map, to have someone who's BEEN THERE tell you how they got there, and what to expect.

The chart you see above is my snapshot, TODAY, of my exact first 12 months investing into what W.A. teaches. If you've taken the training, you know what it means. If you haven't taken all the training... well, what the heck - what are you WAITING FOR??? lol

What that picture tells me is that the training works. In other words, IF you do what W.A. tells you, you WILL successfully launch and grow a blog site substantially.

A lot of how you do that is work. As in... work. Not playing. Working.

Here's what I've written in WordPress:

I had wanted to complete one HUNDRED posts by one year in, but family stuff and house renovations that we're doing ourselves kept me from it.

But that wasn't all. I also took a three-week break from all writing, COMPLETELY, in July. iI did that because no matter how fast I was banging out articles, the site still wasn't growing any faster.

I got ticked at it and took a break.

But I soon got back on the horse. The stats started growing again, even tho' I wasn't doing ANYTHING, so I was encouraged to re-mount the saddle.

As of today, here are my W.A. stats:

And here is the entire year, looked at from the standpoint of Active Users - in other words, how many people total come to my site and when:

The highest it's reached was 533 monthly at the end of last month.

One of the things that so mind-bending and frustrating about this kind of work is the stats don't seem to be based on what DO at all. They just seem so random most of the time. Example: You see those last two big monthly spikes?? I wasn't doing anything different.

In fact the decline you see around June made me so mad, because I was writing MORE, per week, than ever.... and my users went DOWN! GRRRRRRRR!!!!

So I've learned to pretty much disregard the short-term spikes and troughs and just ask this simple question: Overall, or on average, are my numbers climbing?

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I would have to say yes, though not as much as I'd hoped.

I'm encouraged this week to see that, with no AdSense or AdWords ads posted since May, I no longer have any days when NO ONE visits my site. There's now always at least 5 to 10 everyday. You can see that on the chart:

See how it never touches the bottom after around August?? That's cool.

But what everybody REEEEEEEALLY wants to know is... well, you know...

SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!! lol

No problem. But there's hardly any, really. I am an affiliate with Amazon only, and one year in I have still received NO checks from them, for the simple reason that I have YET to even reach $20 in profit.

Discouraging? A bit. But there's another way to look at it: ten to fifteen people DID link to Amazon through my site and I successfully made money from this machine I have constructed.

What does that tell us? That it works. If it didn't work, then I'd have keel-hauled the ship long ago and started building a cabin on some island. But onlytwo months in my first sales happened, and proved that THE MACHINE WORKS. And the machine is what W.A. teaches you how to build.

In fact, I will say this: everything that we have control of works just like W.A. says it will. It's the things we have NO control over that don't.

For example, here is my biggest drawback: I am successfully sending people to Amazon via my links almost every day, and the number keeps growing.

But they don't buy.

Are my links relevant to the article titles? Perfectly.

Do I create a sense of desire and urgency for the product in my writings? You betcha. That's why they click.

Are the products I'm recommending good choices, with great reviews and respected in my industry?

Yup.

(pause)

SO WHYYYYYY ARRRRRRRREN'T THEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY BUUUUUUUUYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The answer to that question is.... who knows? But one thing is sure: I can't stop now. My website has become REALLY cool, and I believe it's just a matter of time before things start kicking in from the buyer's standpoint.

You'll still see me here. A lot. This is going to work. Heck, it already does. I think it's just a matter of scaling what I have to reach more people.

I'll probably still have to take a part-time job for the holidays. Here's hoping I can find something that doesn't drive me batty. lol

I still, by the way, have not joined into any of the W.A. Affiliate Bootcamp hooplah. I'm not the kind of guy who can go around pointing people to something and saying it's a success when I haven't even seen it myself yet. Especially when it's for my own gain. Seems a little deceitful and self-serving. To each his own though.

For now, I thank you for being interested in my journey here. Be confident that when there's any insights that might help you to be shared, I will share them, as well as any causes for celebration.

Which I think today is. Riches or not, I have achieved great things over the past year, and have SO MUCH to show for it. That kind of effort and dedication is never wasted.

Best of success to you all from your efforts. And thanks to all who answered any question I put forth in my first year.

An especial big shout out to VisaliyG and DylanRieger. You guys have been available and helped more than anyone. Thanks, brothers.

Until next post... see ya at the TOP!! ;-)

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