In this post, I want to talk about how I spend my year trying to get a brand new website ranked. You see all these videos on YouTube talking about the benefits of Affiliate Marketing such as being location independent, making money, no need to put time into making products, passive income etc.
You rarely hear about the journey one has to go through to get to the point they talk about. This is why I’d take a look at my 2018 which I spend getting content ranked from a brand new website.
You’ll get to read about:
- My beginning
- Struggles
- victories
- Things I learned from the journey
- What I’d change if I had to do it again.
The beginning of the quest for freedom
End 2017 I read the book Rich Dad, Poor Day By Robert Kiyosaki. I resonated with a lot what was said in the book since I was looking for freedom and Robert was all about not trading your hours for money. He divided all expenses into two categories Assets and Liabilities.
Assets are sources that provide you with money while liabilities cost money. According to Robert, the difference between the rich and everyone else is that the rich only invest in assets. So I started looking for ways to acquire my first asset.
Stocks and real estate seem a bit too overwhelming to start in especially since I didn’t have the money to invest. So I decided to “make” my first financial asset. The prerequisites had to be it had to provide me with money without trading in hours for dollars.
After researching multiple methods that made money I chose to go with affiliate marketing. This way I could make content about what I found interesting, make a semi-passive income, and help people all at the same time.
I made a WealthyAffiliate account, created a website and started creating content for the website.
Misconceptions of Affiliate Marketing
It’s crazy how many people on YouTube are affiliate marketers. You see their earnings and the way they spend their days and it’s really easy to get a wrong image of what it takes to become an affiliate marketer.
I knew I had to put in some work to get things rolling but I didn’t expect that for almost a year I’d be working my butt off without anybody visiting my website. I knew getting traffic would take a lot of work but I wasn’t prepared for what came.
Committing to putting in the work
I looked all over the internet for answers about how long it takes to get ranked on the first page of search engines and direct people to your website. Almost every website have the same answers beginning with “that depends on…”. There was no definitive answer to my question.
At that time I started re-reading Mastery by Robert Greene in which he started talking about the process of acquiring a skill. According to Robert Greene, there’s a long period you have to put in the work before you come in what he calls the cycle of accelerated return. The moment all your work beforehand pays off.
I fully bought into what he was saying and I made a promise to myself not to quit until I got into that cycle no matter what happens.
Realizing your path is not theirs
I realized very early that getting to the point that you get organic traffic passive isn’t comparable to any other job out there. So you’re going to have to watch out for who you take advice from. I’ve had people who had their heart in the right place telling me I things like:
“… Shouldn’t you already be making money by now? …”
“… This is probably a scam. I’ve never seen anyone else make money with this? …”
“… You’re putting way too much time into this. Why not use that time to get a job with more security? …”
At first, these words would create doubt in my mind about being on the right path but then I realized they are giving advice based on their path and experiences. I needed to filter some of this advice so I wouldn’t give myself reasons to quit.
Holding myself to a higher standard
I was taught to try to rank on the first page of low competition keywords because that would be easier for brand new websites. I was writing a lot but for some reason, all my posts ended up ranking between 50 and 100. I started researching blog that gave SEO tips and when reading I realized that all their content was better than mine.
They went more in-depth with their subject, their content was more engaging and honestly felt more personal than mine. It was at that point that I had to make another mind shift. I needed to hold myself to a higher standard when it came to content creation.
If the websites on the first page had 1000 words I’d go more in-depth than them and make articles of 1500 words. If they added a 2-minute video I’d add a 5-minute video. I’d strive to make better content than the website that is ranked number 1 for that keyword.
After doing that for around the 7 months I started to see that some of my content started ranking pretty high with my highest ranked content being number 5 in Google results.
Sprints of extreme consistency
The maturation of a website is important but so is having fresh content. From a search engine marketing standpoint it’s also advantageous to post as much content as you can because the more content is out there the bigger your reach is. In the beginning, I started by posting every day but I realized that this wasn’t sustainable.
I started posting 3-4 times a week and every few months I would attempt a 30-day challenge in which I would post content every day. Honestly, I haven’t even finished one of these challenges but I did notice a lot of changes the moment I switched to trying to post every day. This is why till this day I still plan out 30-day challenges to increase my reach over the internet.
Getting my first sale and going on a run
After a lot of work and being challenged not only mentally but also physically this year I got an email while I was working on a post at a cafe. It said this:
The first piece of confirmation that I was on the right path after working for 9 months non-stop. I added other affiliate products that were complementary to Wealthy Affiliate all with a recurring commission.
It took a while but I successfully created a passive income stream that I’m trying to increase through putting out more content, increasing the lifetime value of my customers.
Learning to be more productive
My goal was to have freedom but some of these posts that I had to write on a daily basis sometimes took the entire day to write. This is where I had to learn to be more productive. I followed productivity courses in the past but I never took them as seriously as I should’ve. This time it would be different.
I used books like the power of less, getting things done and notes from live courses I participated in to come up with a way to create more content in less time. I’ve written a post about it if you’re interested which you can read by clicking here.
For those just starting on this journey, I can tell you it’s worth it. Not only making money online but the skills you learn, the mind shifts you have to make and much more.
I’ve learned a lot working on this website for a year and am looking forward to what 2019 will bring!
