Welcome to Day 3!

In day one, I introduced myself. In day 2, affiliate marketing. Today, there are two things ready to rock and roll.

We are going to look at the “make money online” industry in general, and then we'll do some tasks to get our business set up.

Let's Get Real About Setting Goals

How long will it take you to build a full scale business so you can quit your job and work from home?

There are a lot of variables, so unfortunately, I can't give you a clear answer. It took me two years. I know a girl that did it in a year, a guy that did it in 6 months, and one other that did it in 4 years. Your story will be unique.

It's like opening up any other kind of store. The donut shop downtown will have different profits than the clothing store at the mall. They are different businesses, with different customers, different locations, and different owners.

What are your money goals? How hard are you willing to work for them?

The funny thing is that I achieved my money goals many years ago. I earn quite a bit of money online now, and now my goals have shifted. Now I want more time! I've started outsourcing many tasks to virtual assistants or freelance writers so that I can make more money and do less work.

4 Simple Tips For Seeing Faster Results!

Everyone likes to see fast results. In general, more work = more results, so keep that in mind. Here are some simple tips for supercharging your results.

1. Take Action Daily

Sorry to hammer this so much, but too many people want to just read about how to do something rather than actually do it. Taking action includes writing articles, creating graphics, making keyword lists, and engaging in social media.

2. Ask Questions

It's natural to feel like everyone knows more than you, but you need to remember that everyone, at one time, started as a newbie. Ask anything you like inside Wealthy Affiliate. It's the internet and you'll never have to see these people in real life, so please, ask as many boring, silly, simple questions as possible!

3. Believe That It Works

Too many people come to me and say, “I'll just put in 20 minutes a day until I see some income, then I'll do 20 hours per day”. They have this equation backwards!

You need to be working hard, or you will not see results. Sometimes, you will work for three hours on your website and see no income for the day. It will be super frustrating! But if you repeat that process daily for a couple months, you will start seeing $5, $25, $125, per day and more.

The only people who fail are the ones that quit

You never know when success is right around the corner. Create good daily habits and make this a lifestyle for yourself. Don't get jealous when you see other people success before you. Focus on your own story.

4. Create Good Daily Habits

I'm not gonna lie, sometimes it's a struggle to get work done. When you have a job, family, and those random obligations that pop up, it can be really hard to squeeze in an hour per day for your online business. Creating good daily habits is key to balancing all this stuff.

Start with something small, then grow from there.

For example, if you want to wake up and get an hour of writing done before work, you don't have to do that on day 1. Just wake up 20 minutes early and have some coffee. Then the next week do the same, but log into Wealthy Affiliate this time. After that, just read some blog posts. Then do some keyword research. Then do some writing.

Each day get a little better, and in a few weeks you'll have created the awesome habit that will help you grow your business.

Realistic Goals For Making Money Online

• Expect to spend at least 30 minutes to 1 hour every day doing something on your website or in the lessons
• Expect that you will not earn money for at least a few months
• Expect that you will not get rich over night. Success will come slowly, then snowball
• Expect that you will get frustrated and confused sometimes, and that's natural!

Those are all kinds of bad news expectations, so let's look at the positives that you can expect

• Wealthy Affiliate is full of newbies like yourself that you can consult and collaborate with
• You can achieve a full time income within a year or two
• There is no limit to the amount of income you can earn online
• Eventually you can outsource many of your daily tasks, thus reducing your work hours
• You can use these skills to work on other people's websites to earn money
• You can sell your website for a huge profit (40x monthly earnings, so a website earning $1,000 per month can fetch $40,000!)
• Online sales are growing across the globe, so your business will naturally grow as the internet grows
• Websites are online 24/7, so you business never sleeps and you can make money 24/7/365

Is Affiliate Marketing A Scam?

I'd be willing to bet that you are pretty fed up with the “Make Money Online” (MMO) industry by now. It seems like everyone has a system or program or strategy which makes everything easy-peasy. No big deal. Just a dab of the secret sauce and boom! Now you're a millionaire!

I have a few rules I follow to decide what's a scam and what isn't.

• Does it promise fast or easy money?
• Do you have to resell the same product to your friends?
• Does the advertising show examples?
• Do you get a clear idea of what you're buying before you purchase?
• Are they cold-calling you for “personal coaching”?
• Is it more attractive to recruit new members, sell actual products?

These are signs of a scam. Don't feel bad if you have been a victim of a scam. Many of us have, including myself.

Back in 2010, I joined a “brand new social network” that was supposed to overtake Facebook because it paid the members instead of sending all that money to the CEO of the company. It sounded real nice!

The trouble was, you had to pay a bunch of fees to get in the network, and then you were asked to recruit friends and family so you could make money from their fees. It was basically a social network pyramid scheme.

I was super embarrassed to have been sucked into such a dumb program, but it can happen to any of us.

How Is Affiliate Marketing Different?

Affiliate marketing is different because you are providing real VALUE to people.

Businesses make money because of the value they create.

Starbucks makes money because they sell better coffee than McDonalds. They also have a drive through (like McDonalds), while your local roaster does not. This combination of quality and convenience is why they are a multi-billion dollar company.

What's your value as an affiliate marketer?

You provide information!

People ask questions all day long into Google. 

• how do I lose weight on a keto diet?
• how much should I pay for a tractor?
• what's the best way to get my dog to stop peeing on the carpet?
• why do I get a headache in the afternoon?

These questions have answers, and they all have a way for you to make money by answering them.

• Article 1: How Women Can Lose Weight On A Keto Diet (promote exogenous ketones from KissMyKeto.com)
• Article 2: Top 10 Mini-Tractors For Your Large Back Yard (promote tractors from HomeDepot.com)
• Article 3: Your Dog Peeing On The Carpet Is Probably Because of THIS (promote no-accident spray from PetSmart.com
• Article 4: Four Leading Causes To Afternoon Headaches At The Office (promote water bottles for hydration from Amazon, meditation app from Apple Store)

Those companies actually do have affiliate programs, and all offer opportunities to make money from your content. The value you provide to readers is explaining complex topics a simple way. A person buying a small tractor doesn't want to read 100 articles and compare 30 models. That's your job!

You do the research, then distill the information into bite-sized chunks that are easy to digest.

All of that is to say that creating your affiliate website is not just about making money. It's about helping people, and helping people is a great foundation to any business!

Tasks For Today

1. Complete Lesson 1 in the Online Entrepreneur Certification course. Lesson 1 will give you an introduction to the site, and ask you to complete your profile. That should be pretty easy. If you have the time, you can also do Lesson 2. It will teach you how to make money in affiliate marketing, and ask you to make some goals.

2. Check out some recent success stories of people earning money with Wealthy Affiliate training. You can read  2018 – Another Year Of Success Growth At Wealthy Affiliate or Is Making Money Getting Easier In 2017 And Beyond?  Here's an updated 2019 version. These are Wealthy Affiliate members posting about their first sale, their biggest earning month, how much money they earn, or even pictures form recent vacations paid for by their online business.

3. Ask a question in live chat. (seriously) This question can be anything. You can ask something you've really been wanting to know, or just introduce yourself and see what everyone is talking about. Sometimes people chat about their businesses and share ideas, other times they just joke around and have fun with other internet marketers.

See what's happening and join in. Pretty much everyone is friendly and happy to help. Making connections at WA will help you get the assistance you need when you get stuck.

(Bonus) 4. Brainstorm one article idea for your website. What question would someone ask in Google about your website topic, and what answer would you give them?

Are you ready for Day 4? We are going to look at a bunch of different business models that can be used to make money on the internet. Look for [OM2C] in your inbox!