4 Years at Wealthy Affiliate: The Harvest Begins

byTrodvies

1.1K followers

2 years ago

Published August 2, 2022

Intro

Wow! It's been one year since I last created a post in WA. That, for the very first time!

And had today not been my 4th WAnniversary, that would have gone on for longer.

Every year, on this day I write a blogpost to highlight my journey here at WA. Here's this year's.

On previous occasions, I summarized how things had been since I signed up to WA. This year, it's a little different. I'll just say how the last one year has been. Here we go!

Background

In my 3rd anniversary post, I foresaw my 4th year at WA to have been my year of harvest. And rightly so to a large extent!

During my 2nd year, there were a lot of things I experimented with. And by this time last year, I had several money-making prospects (included in the post mentioned above). But you never know how things would play out. One of the platforms I have experimented with 2 years ago and which I had not considered as a potential source of income is actually what became my focus in Year 4 and is behind the harvest that just began.

That platform is:

How it started

When I started off on WA and began to publish quite informational articles, a very regular visitor to my niche website asked whether I had a YouTube channel. I was like "Me having a Youtube channel!" It was unimaginable at the point! But that made me to begin to think in that direction.

Several months later, after reading this post by Reyhana, I created a channel, but did not upload any videos to it. That was in 2019. Then with much free time during the lockdown, I mustered the courage and began uploading videos - quite timidly at the beginning.

For the year and half that followed, I uploaded sporadically, usually after a few weeks or months. Inspite of that, the response from viewers was positive. And I used to be like, "Can you imagine that I'm not even putting much into the thing yet!" That told me that my knowledge was very much needed in the niche in question. (I'm quite informed on that niche and had always wanted to offer related services online).

What happened

The change came a number of weeks after I wrote my 3rd anniversary post. My wife being fond of YouTube had seen how people were making money 'like crazy'. So she encouraged me to focus on YT and do less everywhere else - which I agreed to. So I made a quite informative video, one that I knew was in demand. That was the turning point. The video took my subscribers from the 49 that the channel had taken two and half years to get to 143 within the three months that followed.

I did a few others after that but was still inconsistent when it came to posting. Until the last day in last year (2021) when I began to post consistently. That was the beginning of a new chapter.

Six months later, I met the YT Partnership Program requirements, applied . . .

. . . and was accepted after only 2 days and 17 hours (unlike most people who apply).

Humble Beginnings

On the first day of monetization, I made 4 cents (rediculous, you may think). The next day, the amount increased to 20 cents and then to 36 cents on the third day. Today, it's over a dollar a day, which I agree is still low. But what's interesting is that there's no limit to your earnings as long as you post consistently on the platform.

Youtube pays according to views. So as you continue to upload videos and your subcribers increase, that will result in more views. And your new videos will add to the old ones which will translate into even more views. So you can scale your income to any level. It all depends on the work you put in as Roope explained in this post.

More Success

One of my goals had been to make money online everyday. With Youtube, I've started experiencing that.

In addition, today, I have become an authority in my niche as Kyle teaches. My videos are being watched (all screenshots below taken today) . . .

. . . and I've started to harvest the fruit.

All of this, in addition to reaching the payment threshold for my previous income source (Google AdSense) two days ago:

Next Goal

My next goal is to consistently scale my Youtube earnings until they get to a level of subsistence. Then I will have achieved my goal of becoming a fulltime onliner which I've been working toward for a few years now.

Challenges

These humble successes have not been without challenges. I am a perfectionist and it takes me long hours to prepare, record and edit my videos.

I also face the challenge of noise from children in the heighborhood especially now that they're on vacation. Of recent, they had been very noisy during the evenings when I make most of my videos. So yesterday for example, I decided to wake up very early and do the video before they came out. But as if they knew my plan, for the first time they began the disturbances at 7:20 AM. I had to hold back on recording until after 3:00 PM before I finally got the chance to do so after letting more than seven hours go by without doing anything tangible.

Another challenge I face is the lack of time. As it takes me so much time to get my videos out, I'm left with practically no time for other online endeavors. Nowadays, I seldom publish articles to my websites; hardly manage my Facebook pages and group, and can not develop more e-products. YT is the also reason while I have not posted in this community for an entire year.

These challenges sometimes make me to want to return to just publishing articles on my website. At least in that case, I wouldn't have to try to stop noise from getting into them. But there would still be challenges if I did so.

One thing that cheers me up is when I eventually succeed in posting a video. The feeling of frustration gives way to joy at the sight of the achievement. There's also the fact that I'm earning from the effort being put in.

So yes, in the midst of the success, there are challenges. But like in everything we do, we have to overcome the challenges in order to succeed.

Prospects

My current plan is to reconsider how I work in order to resume other activities that lie dormant as a result of my focusing on YT.

The YT experience is also allowing me to build a following in the niche that I initially intended to do business in. I have services and products to offer when my audience really grows. So it's not just the earnings. It's a longterm elaborate business venture that is taking shape - which I'm grateful to WA for.

I can't wait to see where my YT earnings will be when I'm writing my annivasary post this time next year, as well as what this business venture will result into in the future, God willing.

All this makes me glad that I discovered WA. My world is gradually changing because I did.

Happy 4th anniversary to me!