10 Years with WA - 10 Tips to Succeed with Proof

Can’t believe it’s been 10 years since I was sitting on my bed debating back and forth if I should take the BIG step to become a member of Wealthy Affiliate…

For me I can say 10 years later that it was one of THE best decisions I made for my online marketing career. I’ve enjoyed trainings, Webinars but maybe the most important part... the connections with you guys.

There are many ways to measure success. My biggest success I would have to say is the time online marketing allows me with my kids.

The freedom it gives me, to set my own schedule and work on my own terms. It has allowed me to not only spend time with my family but to travel and enjoy the things we love together. This to me has been priceless!

Doing this for 10 years I’ve learned a lot through my journey! It’s been ups and downs, joy and happiness but also frustration and disappointment. I knew though that I wanted to make this work so bad that I had no other options, I had to make it work!

I was thinking of different ideas for my "10 year anniversary post" and decided to share some real stats and numbers with you along with some tips to make this work...

I run a few different sites. On my online marketing site I do a case study, where I share traffic numbers, income, rankings and more, so I will base the facts on that case study site and share some of those numbers here.

The case study site is based on the training here at WA. You have everything you need to build a successful website, right here! Thank you Kyle and Carson for providing a platform that allows us to learn and grow, to connect with others and to create our own future…

Let’s dive in.

10 Years with WA – 10 Tips to Succeed (with Proof)

First real briefly about the site. The reason I started it was because I was curious if it was possible to make any real money with the Amazon Associate program. Some said yes some said to avoid the program, I created the site to see for myself.

The site had to have the following criteria:

• The site had to be in an evergreen niche, I chose health.
  
• It had to be hands-off, where I could outsource most content.
• It had to be monetized with Amazon products.

The site is now 2 years and 9 months.

1. Organic Listings Brings Traffic

This site is built on well-written content that is user-friendly and slightly SEO optimized, ranking naturally in Google and other search engines. When using organic listings it does take time to build up traffic to your website.

With patience though organic rankings can bring good traffic. This is the traffic for November 2017.

2. Consistency Pays off

Right now, I have 5 articles go live every week. It didn’t start out that way though, I started with 2 articles weekly and built from there. This method of building traffic does take time but if you stay consistent rankings will increase and traffic improve.

3. Lists Works

There are many different types of posts you can use. Informational, how-to, a guide to… These are all great but one thing that works really well for this site is list posts. Posts like “Top 10…”, “The 5 Best…”.

These are the top 5 traffic generating posts and pages of the site for November… These are the actual posts (without me writing out the whole title) from the site ranking top 5 in traffic. I have two top 10 lists with different items...
Lists works!

• Top 5…
• 5 Best…
• Top 10…
• Top 10…
• 5 Ways…

4. Reviews Converts Well

The list posts then point to in-depth reviews of the products. This is where the visitor can get more specific information about the product. From the reviews I link out to Amazon. How do we know if the traffic is relevant and convert?

Looking at the conversion rate over at Amazon associate account will show if the traffic is targeted and relevant.

Conversion over at Amazon is around 10%. I would say that’s targeted traffic that convert pretty well.

5. Good Content Will Make Your Visitors Stay and Read

We all have different reasons and goals with our visitors. One of mine is to provide great content that makes the reader decide if a product is for them or not. If it is… great, if it’s not… then they have gotten the information they needed and can look for a different solution.

To check and see if your visitors are actually staying on your site and reading the content, I like keeping an eye on the Avg. time on page.

For this site I have an avg. time on page of 3 minutes and 28 seconds. That means that they are actually staying and reading the content.

6. Outsourcing Can Be a Great Time Saver

One of the criteria’s starting the site was that it had to be hands off, that I could outsource most of my content. I’ve been lucky to have found a couple of great writers to create content for the site.

I know a lot of people don’t have much luck with outsourcing here are a few outsourcing tips:

• Be very specific of what you want and what you need from the writer.
• Find niche experts.
• Don’t pick the first writer you find, give them a test job and see if it works out.
• Give very specific instructions for the articles until your writer knows exactly how you want your articles, even down to the subtitles.
• When you find a good writer, hold on to them and treat them well.

I get my writers from Upwork. The key is to find a writer that YOU work well with, a field expert that writes great content for YOU.

For the case study site - The content is ranking, the traffic is improving and the conversions are pretty good I would say that’s proof that my writers are doing a good job.

Note: This is not something you have to do, you can absolutely write all the content yourself.

7. It Is Possible to Make Money with Amazon

So, the main reason to start the site was to see if it was possible for me to make money with the Amazon associate program. My conclusion is … YES, it is possible to make money with Amazon.

The case study site made $1986.34 in Amazon commission for November 2017

8. Test Different Affiliate Programs

This site was based on monetizing with Amazon products. During the process, I’ve come in contact with different companies wanting to send products for me to try out and review. One of them promote high end health products and wanted me to join their affiliate program.

I was debating back and forth, the commission was better but I knew that Amazon converted pretty well… anyway I decided to give them a shot. I’m glad I did!

Using both Amazon and this independent program has been a great combination. When Amazon changed their commission structure earlier this year, this program kind of filled the void.

Looking at the November numbers I’m sure glad I took them on!

The cases study site made $1,169.22 from the independent affiliate program in November 2017.

This totals a commission of $3,155.56 for the case study site in November.

9. Patience Pays off

When starting out it can be highly frustrating to not see the wanted results, to not get the immediate traction that we are looking for. In today’s busy world we tend to move on to other things if we don’t get that immediate fix. Don’t do that with online marketing.

Be patient, it really does pay off. Let's look at the history of this site.

Income for the Case study site after expenses:

• November 2015 - $108.94
  
• November 2016 - $2,198.46
  
• November 2017 - $3,023.06

10. Believe in Yourself… Don’t Quit

If you are new and just starting out promise yourself that you will give this an honest go. Something brought you here, you are here for a reason, it is part of your journey.

Don’t say... if this doesn’t work out I’ll do something else… It has worked for many people and it can for you too. You just have to find your way of doing it.

Believe in yourself and DO NOT Quit.

I’ve been here for 10 years lol. That's a long time!

Imagine where you can be in 10 years if you give this a good try…

Make 2018 your success year!!

Vicky