I DID IT! I am FINISHED with the 8 week action plan at Wealthy Affiliate!!!

Another milestone day today!

I finally finished the 13 lessons that are offered at the heart of Wealthy Affiliate's Affiliate Marketing course. Now, I still have to go through the 543(as of today) other resources including eBooks, videos and tutorials, but I feel I am ready. So I started working on my very first website today. I can not believe how far I have come. If you look at my very first post on this blog, and the website I built after being today, you will see the difference. I am not saying, "I have arrived", all I am saying is that way back then, I did not have a clue what I was doing.

Click here to view my First Website

I remember my first day in the Affiliate Marketing world. I signed up for a clickbank account and then went to their marketplace and picked some random products to promote. Armed with my hoplinks, I went about on my social marketing networks (facebook, orkut and my e-mail signature) and dropped my links there. I found some forums and dropped some more links there. My day's work was done. Now all I had to do was wait. I woke up the next day, with the illusion that I am going to open up my clickbank account and it's going to look like one of those screenshots that some people had used to lure me into this business. I saw a big $0.00 earning. I saw the same again the next day and the next. I thought, hey, let me make a squiddo lens about something and drop some links there. Nothing. Click here to see my very first squiddoo lens(not very proud o it). Now I look back and laugh. I was so naiive. Nothing in the world is that easy. Yes as I always say, Affiliate Marketing is SIMPLE not EASY.

Today, I have an understanding of the nuts and bolts of the industry. I still have a loooooooooong way to go before I can call myself a pro, but I know it takes a LOT of work to succeed in this business. Good part is this is not like all those other scams I have wasted my time and money with before. The surveys, and the envelopes, the mystery shopping and the medical billing. I know that I have finally found something that not only is real, it has also taught me a lot. I feel that Affiliate Marketing is something where success is inevitable. It may be slow for some as many people come into this with little or no knowledge of computers, of the workings of the industry. But think of it like choosing a career. You will have to go to college, get some work experience and be there a while to really start making good money at it. It will also all involve some capital, the college fees being the biggest one. So why come into this field expecting to achieve success the very first day. All it takes is that you hang in there. I know I am going to. Heck, I am not investing any money in this really, so what is the harm in keeping at it.

Another thing I am happy about is that in the last 3 months or so that I have been in this, I have learned so many things other than Affiliate Marketing. I have learned so much about the internet and about all the many topics I have researched in order to write articles. I have learned how to do better research on the internet and not believe everything. I have learned that you can get a lot of things for free if you just know where to look. All this knowledge will help me throughout my life, not just in Internet Marketing.

I am very excited about what the future holds now that I am equipped with the training that I have got at Wealthy Affiliate. I have no intentions of letting go of my membership yet. There is just so much more there, I feel I have just scratched the surface. I can't imagine how much more empowered I will feel when I have gone through all the remaining 543 resources...of course, by then, they will have another 543 new resources uploaded for me to learn from. I am so happy I did not go about wasting my money on the wrong products, like many newbies do, I am proud that I have for once made the right choice.

Click here to see a complete breakdown of the syllabus covered at Wealthy Affiliate University and the free tools available to WA members.

Anu's Affliliate Marketing Diary-My 1st Milestone!

I finally did it! After 3 months of researching, reading, confusion, procrastination, failures and disappointments, I finally wrote my first article yesterday, got it published and YES...IT IS ON THE FIRST PAGE OF GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS!!!!
Got started back in April with this Affiliate marketing stuff. How did I stumble upon this? Well, really interesting story. I had always been a late riser...all my life! My parents tried their level best to convince me to change my habits, but I never quite believed that my waking time had anything to do with anything. Well, life changed after the kids entered the scene. My toddler insisted on waking up at 6.30 every morning regardless of how late he slept. I was not only miserable, but also resentful, depressed and feeling trapped. One day I made the decision. I was NEVER going to allow him to wake me up again, because I was going to be the one who beat him to it. Yes, I was going to wake up early! Everyone that knew me, was shocked and skeptical. I was confident, but did not know how. So I turned to one of my most reliable friend-the Internet. I had always turned to it for answers to my most pressing questions. What I stumbled upon is this blog by Steve Pavlina. I got the greatest tips from him for waking up early, and they worked. I became and early riser and realized how I had cheated my self all my life. I loved waking up before life came calling, I loved the ‘me’ time, I loved the power it gave me, and I discovered that I was not sleepy all day. This was new to me. It was funny, the less I slept, the better I felt. I was getting so much more done too. The guilt that was always with me had gone away. My life was changed-forever. Now, what the heck does this have to do with Affiliate Marketing? Well, as I read more and more articles on Steve’s blog, I found that there was this world of Blogging and Affiliate Marketing which I never knew about. This world of opportunity and endless possibilities. I had finally found my calling. I was going to dive right in. Not only did I now have more hours in my day, I even had something I could do with them to make a good amount of money.
It seemed simple enough, start a blog, and Google will pay you for the ads. Hmmm….not really! Turned out, Affiliate Marketing is simple, but it’s not easy! I started reading up on anything and everything I could find on the subject. There was a lot out there, which seemed nice, but it only meant that there was that much more competition. But I was not going to give up, not so early in the game and not so easily. After all, there were big rewards to be had for those who hung in there. I decided to take this challenge head on.
I did my research and signed up with Wealthy Affiliate University.
Day 1, buyer’s remorse kicked in. I started wondering if I had fallen for another one of those spams. I felt I had wasted my money. But was I in for a pleasant surprise. The resources and information at Wealthy Affiliate were endless. So that is what I buried myself into. But along with a lot of information comes a lot of confusion. I had so many ideas, I was not sure which way to go. If only I had followed the Action Plan outlined at Wealthy Affiliate…duh! The one thing I must say here about the Wealthy Affiliate community is that the people here are EXTREMELY helpful and giving. They are always ready to answer questions and are very forthcoming with the information they have to share.Click here to find out more about Wealthy Affiliate and some other comparable products.
Well, yesterday, I finally took action. I woke up and set my goal for the day. 1. Write an article. 2. Sign up for article directories. 3. Submit my article! That is exactly what I did. I stopped overanalyzing, procrastinating and doubting and went ahead and wrote my first article and submitted it. Within hours, it was LIVE! And today, it is on the 1st page of the Google search results for the keyword Wordpress Express. My article even got picked up by another website which I have not even heard of and is live there too. Click here to read my article.
So there….that is my first milestone in Affiliate Marketing. Please bookmark my blog for updates to my Affiliate Marketing diary. If you are new to this world, it may help to read my blog as a real life case study. Also please feel free to ask any questions that you may have or leave your comments. I will have regular updates here. Wish me luck!
Oh by the way, if you would like to visit Steve Pavlina’s blog, please click here.

Bought My First Domain Name

Ok, I bought my first domain name today. Since the last time I wrote here, I have been hard at work. As you can see, I posted my favorite affiliate marketing videos. What did I do that is worth mentioning? Well, I feel like I have done some good planting and am waiting for a good harvest at least in beginner terms. More specifically, I went and watched the 3 videos on potpiegirl's website and applied the principles. Each day since Monday, today is Wednesday, I found one good product I wanted to promote, built a squiddoo lens for each one, and submitted articles to bring me traffic. And it is working. I am making progress. I am getting traffic to my lens and yes, some clickouts too. I can only smell my first sale now.
Oh, about the domain name, yes, I finally took the plunge. I found one niche I think will be hot and decided I am going to spend some time building my online store around than niche. So I went and bought a domain name. It was a little challenging to steer through all the stuff they throw at you when you buy your first domain name. But I managed. So today, I am the proud owner of a website...chuckle. I felt out of all of the web hosting services out there, 1and1 seemed to be the most reasonable. They have some good packages and great prices for sure.
If you are interested in Affiliate Marketing Training please click here.

Oh...and I also added more tags to my other squiddoo lenses. Funny how you come up with new tags every time you revisit your lens. I am starting to understand a little more about tags and keywords now...feels good.
So I will check the stats like every breath and wait for that first sale. I sure will be on the rooftops, yelling, when it happens....you will know it too. Keeping my fingers crossed!
Click here to see the squidoo lens I made today.

My Favorite Affiliate Marketing Training Videos

If you are a beginner in Affiliate Marketing, you have come to the right place. I know there are a lot of eBooks and other resources for information out there...and that is great but it can totally boggle you mind in the beginning. Trust me, I am walking the rope......I know how hard it is to decide what to save and what to delete from the mind's files. Plus there is so much to learn that implementing what you have learned gets so over-analyzed and people are afraid to take the first step. Unless you set the ball rolling, you WON'T make your first dollar. So, I have here a bunch of videos that helped me and will help you too. I know they will.

How to be an Affiliate Marketer - this first one puts Affiliate Marketing in perspective

So what exactly is Affiliate Marketing. Well, you already know the basics, YOU, the affiliate connect the user with a product he or she is looking for. It is all about finding solutions(read products) to people's problems, and you make a commission for the sales you drive. That is it. Sounds simple enough right? Yeah right! It is simple NOT easy. You have got to be willing to work hard AND work smart. By 'work smart' I mean you can't just do the digging and find the gold. You have to know where to dig and how to dig. That is where many people fall short. So here are some videos that will shed some light where it is needed.

This one of my favorites because of how simple 'potpiegirl' makes it. It really is not as complicated as everyone who is new to affiliate marketing makes it. I know there is a ton of information out there and it is hard to keep your focus, but the main theme is simple. It is hard to lose your focus when you are flooded with information, but this video will keep you on track.
 

 

How easy was that? I stumbled upon 'potpiegirl' on my first day at Wealthy Affiliate. I think her videos and tutorials helped me the most. If you are a Wealthy Affiliate member, do go and look her up. If not, she has her own product called 'One Week Marketing'. It is one of the highest ranking and most sold product on clickbank and I personally recomend it. Click here for more information about 'One Week Marketing'.






Finding a Niche - Some Insider Tricks

So they talk a lot about finding a 'Niche' for your endeavors and you will mint money. Easier said than done. This video is really good at clearing the fog that newbie marketers face with finding a profitable niche.




Keyword Research & Market Reseach

Now I like this one because keyword and market research is one of the most important aspects of Affiliate Marketing. If you find a hot market but don't have the right keywords for your work, you will not get found and if you have great keywords for a dead market, your pages will never convert. So either way, you need to know how to do a good market and keyword research and this video introduces Alexa.com to hit it right...and it is by 'potpiegirl'-my favorite.





How to Get Started With Squiddoo

After you have researched you niche and found keywords, you want to stop overanalyzing and get your hands dirty. Go ahead and build your first Squiddoo lens. It is not as hard as you think. Just do it. You will get better at it as you go. I know t might seem daunting, so here is a video that shows you just how to get started.



Click here to check out Socialmarketing101.


Page Ranking and SEO


Ok now, you may make a wonderful lens on squiddoo, you may put in all the keywords you thought were relevant but never get any traffic if your keywords are not what Google is looking for. Been there, done that! So here is another video by potpiegirl that explains how you can get your squiddoo page found and ranked high on Google.




I hope watching these videos gets you started on the right track. Remember, the key to making any money here is to take the first step. You may feel like you want to know everything there is to know about Affiliate Marketing before you get started. The truth is, you will never know all that is out there. The good thing is, you are allowed to make as many mistakes as you like in this business and mistake teach you lessons you would not have learned otherwise. So stop procrastinating and build you first lens today. Then another one tomorrow, start your free blog and write at least 2 articles this week and submit them to at least 2 article directories to drive some traffic to your lens. And please check out potpiegirl's 'One Week Marketing'. If you are going to make any investment in Affiliate Marketing training, and at some point you will, this is the best money you will spend. I wish you Good Luck!!!

PS: Click here for some more good Affiliate Marketing Training Programs.