How I have progressed through Wealthy Affiliate
How it all began;
A bit of history for those who don't know me. I originally signed up to WA 8 years ago. I had recently lost my job and was on the look out for income and decided to open an eBay store. I decided to use what I was learning at WA to drive traffic to the store and improve sales.
Another curve ball,
As things turned out I actually landed another job just 2 days after loosing my last one but as I had already signed up to WA for a month (back then you didn't get the chance to try before you buy it was all in for $49 a month) I decided to continue and learn all I could.
As I was earning in the 9-5 world I was in no hurry to grow quickly but did manage to put in about 10-15 hours a week on my new side line. I worked at this for about a few years putting all sales profit back into inventory before a local shop keeper asked if he could join me. We both invested a similar sum and started to build together.
It worked well,
his contacts in the trade and the continuing growth in the store were providing results and by the third year of our venture we were making about $1500 a month profit. Not an easy feat with him being in control of shipping and me on inventory and content creation but we made it work.
Yet another turn in the road,
at this point I landed a further job with a wholesaler, one were they wanted my skills in e-commerce (something I learn't a lot of here at WA) however it was still in the same niche and as a result I needed to quit my sideline on eBay as the conflict wouldn't be proper. I was getting fed up with having to pay constant attention to inventory anyway so...
I had some thinking to do,
in the end I agreed and sold my half of the store to my partner and took on my new role in e-commerce. My now ex-partner was not concerned with the website and as I had a it built I had decided to keep it going but turn the traffic towards Amazon.
This took a bit of time re-writing and re-directing links etc. Some posts that didn't fit were re-worked into ones that did and more content created. This had led me to late 2017 so by the time 2018 had started I was just about ready to build further.
The next chapter,
it was here that I read Dylan's training on working with best of's lists and decided to give it a try as clicks through to Amazon were still very small. Traffic was also low so I didn't expect big things from it yet anyway. So the process began of creating content and building links.
By the end of February I had made a small figure in sales and was excited of the possibilites. I continued to build and seen a steady increase in traffic, CTR's and sales up to my peak in July.
I was thinking if it continued till the year end I may break $500 per month but alas things went sideways.
The dreaded Plugin failure,
I was using the plugin EasyAzon to build my Amazon links and around Sept it broke. I lost all links and coudn't get it to work. I tried support but got no resolve. I eventually decided to bin it and start with my own links building them the old way as I didn't want to get another plugin to fail.
So Sept through Oct were pretty useless as traffic, CTR's and of course sales were down. I worked as hard as I could to get all the links up again before the November and December cyber season and managed to rally towards the tail end of the year.
As my niche is seasonal with mid summer being the peak it didn't surprise me of the hump in my progress but with the hiccup its not a fair reflection. I need a full year to see how it should look. Anyway as you can see I did manage to make some money on Amazon and with a bit on ad platforms I was happy enough with my progress. 
It leaves me excited for 2019 as I start the year already poised to receive sales and now with a writer signed up to work along side me I plan to have a lot more content published this year.
Thinking of flipping?
So anyone out there thinking about changing their website or starting again learn from this. It can be done as websites can be re-worked into something other than what they were originally created.
I'll have another update at the year end to see how we got on and may have a few updates through the year so check in with me every now and again.
Mark
Recent Comments
17
No problem Claudette only too glad to let others know that there are more ways to do this online thingy than meets the eye.
Very interesting story! Thanks for being so candid and sharing it with us.
Success to you in 2019.
C & P
I'm not one for being secretive, many in here have shared their stories to inspire me. Hopefully this will inspire others to continue even if things aren't going to plan. There is always another way to go.
That's a great story, Mark. And it has a happy ending :-)
I'm sure this will be a great year for you!
Ian
It's going in the right direction anyway. Just need to continue with content and sharing to see where it takes me. I'm sure I will beat 2018 figures anyway.
Absolutely. I think once yopu get a bit of momentum going, it tends to run on under its own steam :-)
Ian
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Your story was very interesting, and right on. I have just changed a website to another niche and already its doing better. I had fewer links and content which made it easier, but none the less it's going to work out.
Take care,
Bill
Great to hear Bill, yes I agree one way may not make enough sense to your readers so changing things can make a difference. Once you start to get traction making small changes at a time can make better and better conversions. Its all about testing, testing and testing some more,