$18,465 Commissions Made

In this case study, which is now over 15,000 words long, I have created a brand new website using the method taught at Wealthy Affiliate University.

I am going to spend the next 36 months, and then some, building my site and record every step to accurately review whether or not the teachings at Wealthy Affiliate has any merit in the ever-changing world of SEO and ranking in the search engines.

This will a 100% unbiased and honest case study as I am taking years out my own time to create content for this website.

I will record any profits I make along with any difficulties I find along the way.

Hopefully, this will become a success story! Is Wealthy Affiliate a scam? Well, we will find out in the next year or two!

I will also review the training, community and support in this article and how it relates to a real working website. This will be the one article which will show you if you can trust the training and believe in the method taught at Wealthy Affiliate.

If you are a newbie and reading this. Keep working and you WILL make it.

Traffic Progress &
Earnings To Date
(Updated, 18th Jan 2019)
(Next Update, 18th Feb 2019)

I have made this case study as realistic as possible. The progress is slow to simulate a "normal Joe" making a website for the first time. 

I did not want to make a website, which made a large amount of money right away, because I want to keep the results realistic.

Read More About My Thinking

Essentially, this case study is a worst case scenario!

Website Age: 29 Months

Articles Written To Date : 228

Keywords in Google: 1300+

Sales Made = $18.465

Profit

At the moment, my average monthly earnings is $636 p/month.

However, if you look at my earnings for the currents months, you can see I now clearing $2000 per month.

This means I am now approaching a good monthly income from this blog.


Earning Progress Graph month 29
29 month Webmasters Google

The Purpose Of This Case Study?

One of the main purposes of this unbiased review is to dispel the idea that Wealthy Affiliate is a scam or in any way untrustworthy.

It's only natural for people to winder if the training is worth the money and so here we go, let's take a look!

Probably the most common question I hear is “How Long Does It Take To Rank and Make Money??”

On the 13th of August 2016, I created a brand new website in the “make money online” niche and I am recording my statistics so people can see the progress.

The purpose of this case study is to show YOU – the newbie – that you simply need to “hang in there” and keep writing. You will make a success of it!

When you hit that wall at around 1 or 2 months and you have written so much but NO one is coming to your website, do NOT GIVE UP!

I know it is hard to keep writing when there is no one reading your material and no cash being earned but you have to understand it takes a while for Google to find you, index you properly and TRUST you!

All the points below are made with the assumption you have done all the WA training before this point. Do not read this and use it as a training module. I am simply recording the steps I took.

Month 1 – August/September 2016

The first month is simply about getting your structure of your website sorted and filling it with content to give Google something to work with.

What did I do in the first month – AFTER the basic WA training.

  • wrote 20 blog posts.
  • chose and paid for a premium theme. (make sure you have a lot of content BEFORE buying a premium theme. Makes it easier to set it up)
  • spent freaking hours fiddling around trying to work out the layout of the new theme.
  • got a premium banner made to look professional
  • worked on a menu layout which I believe will give value to the reader
  • posted on WA to get as many comments and feedback as possible – it hurts to be told negative things but they do help!
  • spent hours simply sitting looking at my website, trying to think from a reader’s point of view – in order to make it better,whilst drinking tea.
  • checked my Webmaster stats and Google analytics everyday – bad habit! But I can’t help myself.
  • watched Jay’s webinars as much as possible.
  • did a tonne of keyword researching for new blog post ideas
  • read through all my content to find new article ideas from existing posts

Website Stats From Wealthy Affiliate

  • Posts = 20
  • Comments = 59
1 month Wealthy Affiliate

Google Webmaster Tools

  • Clicks = 9
  • Impressions = 229
1 month Webmaster Google

Google Webmaster Tools Month 1

Google Analytics

  • Sessions = 309
  • Users = 163
  • Pageviews = 1,761
1 month google analytics

Google Analytics Month 1

The single most important thing you can learn as a newbie is that you HAVE TO BE PATIENT and keep writing!

It takes at least 3/6 months before you start to see any real reaction in your visitor count, rankings and most importantly – revenue!

Month 2 – September/October 2016

The second month is ALL about writing content!

Write, write and then write some more!

What Did I Do In The Second Month?

  • Wrote another 21 articles – bringing total to 41
  • Did a lot of reading and researching other websites around my own niche to see what they are writing about.
  • I also did a lot of competition research to see if there were any cool ideas out there regarding design, plugins and CTA’s.
  • Did a lot of keyword research to find new services to review and products to write about.
  • Kept asking for feedback and comments from the Wealthy Affiliate members.
  • Watched more of Jay’s webinars!

At this point, my design and layout were already in place so basically, I am now in a position where my only job is writing content, and coming up with new ideas for….. wait for it…. more content!

The research I did was in between articles when I needed a bit of a break from writing!

Google Webmaster Tools

  • Clicks = 15 – 66% INCREASE
  • Impressions = 747 – 226% INCREASE
2 month Webmaster Google

Month 2 – September/October 2016

Google Analytics

  • Sessions = 235
  • Users = 148
  • Pageviews = 548
2 month google analytics

Month 2 – September/October 2016

Important things to remember at this point;

  • it is perfectly natural and normal to get fed up at this point. If you find you are becoming less productive because you are frustrated then take a day or two off and change your routine. But make sure you come back!
  • writing a large amount of content when there is no traffic is incredibly hard the first time around because you don’t have the experience to know that the traffic WILL come.
  • Just keep writing!

Month 3 – October/November 2016

After month 3, I realised I have made a huge mistake.

I made some very poor keyword choices and I based almost all my initial 40 posts/pages on an area of my niche which is super competitive.

Much more than I thought.

This mistake basically nullifies all my 40 posts so far.

At this point, my website has taken a totally different direction than I first envisaged and I feel like giving up.

All that time wasted and now I am second guessing my choice of entering the "make money online" niche!

This is when 95% of people give up!

The third month was a difficult one for me. However, it serves as a good example of how life can get in the way and why so many people GIVE UP TOO SOON!

I was all set to complete another 20+ article month. But things kept knocking me off my routine.

First, my sister came to visit for a week, which was nice, but it meant I had to spend the evenings with her and my two nieces.

Then I got invited to a 4 different parties on the weekends where I got absolutely wasted and the hangovers were so bad I did not do anything for days after.

In between this I had a lot of social visits and seeing friends. It was just a busy month for me, socially. Not a bad thing at all – I had a wonderful month.

These disruptions knocked me off my routine completely and I lost all eagerness to do anything, the website was the last thing on my mind. I could barely keep up with my laundry!

This is the important point to take from this. At this point is when most new bloggers give up. After the initial excitement of joining WA and the surge of fresh articles and eagerness, things will always naturally fizzle out a little.

Most new bloggers at this point will give up because they lack the motivation to get back on it. Life will always throw you off your routine. Brush yourself off and get back to work. Publishing a few articles per month is better than giving up. Keep writing!

During this month I only added 2 articles and did little else. However, I am getting a few more clicks on the Webmaster Tools and I will soon be out of the Google sandbox!

Google Webmaster Tools

  • Clicks = 26
  • Impressions = 1410
3 month Webmaster Google

Month 3 – October/November 2016

Google Analytics

  • Sessions = 201
  • Users = 174
  • Pageviews = 382
3 month google analytics

Month 3 – October/November 2016

Month 4 – November/December 2016

Another really slow month on the creativity front. Just been so distracted with life and things going on I barely had time to do anything, to be honest. The initial “oomph!” I had when I first started this website has fizzled and I am finding it hard to get back into it.

I only added 3 more articles this month! But I am still here. I am still in the fight! However, the mistake I discovered during my 3rd month has really winded my enthusiasm.

It feels like when I am writing, I am writing for no one because there is no traffic coming to my blog and I can't see any of my news posts ranking in Google.

Google Analytics

  • Sessions = 285
  • Users = 139
  • Pageviews = 553
4 month google analytics

Month 4 – November/December 2016

Google Webmaster Tools

  • Clicks = 17
  • Impressions = 1272
4 month Webmaster Google

Month 4 – November/December 2016

Month 5 – December/January 2017

At this point, I got back on the keyboard! I added another 10 blog posts and tweaked a few visual aspects of my website I wasn’t happy about. Also, I have seen some movement in my “impression” count on Google Webmaster which is really encouraging!

Month 5 Impressions

My impressions have doubled in one month and I can see now that Google is taking more notice of my content. This is very encouraging.

Am I finally exiting the dreaded “Google Sandbox”????

I know these figures may seem tiny, and they are! However, you can see now that they are rising and at this point, the aim stays the same… add MORE content!

Keyword research – Content research – Write – Post – REPEAT! 

The more quality blog posts, relevant and helpful to your readers needs = more impressions = more visitors!

KEEP WRITING!

During this month I also;

  • Enabled AMP (accelerated mobile pages) which will make my website more mobile friendly. This no longer needed.
  • Make my website HTTPS to make it secure. Which is why I have no stats this month because I had to resubmit my sitemap to Google and reset my Analytics stats.

Month 6 – January/February 2017

On the 6th month, it was very clear that my website is building momentum and I got a gust of enthusiasm as I started seeing results in search engines. My impressions are now in the thousands per month and the clicks are starting to come in.

At this point, I am just going to keep writing. I have around 65+ posts and I am going to keep adding to this.

I am at a strange junction here because I am writing with great hope and enthusiasm even though I am still nowhere... BUT... because I can see things slowly increasing I can only imagine what lies ahead and I can't wait to see what happens.

Google Analytics

  • Sessions = 395
  • Users = 319
  • Pageviews = 741
6 month google analytics

Month 6 – January/February 2017

Google Webmaster Tools

  • Clicks = 72
  • Impressions = 3598
6 month Webmaster Google

Month 6 – January/February 2017

Month 7 – February/March 2017

Impressions are rising even more. Things are finally starting to look good.  Added 10 more posts in this month.

Since the first couple of months, I have not really changed much. I just keep adding more content and writing as much as I can. I can see now that it is starting to show the results as my clicks are increasing and so is my impressions.

If I go back and compare it to a few months ago there is a drastic increase! At this point, I have 71 published posts!

Google Analytics

  • Sessions = 274
  • Users = 237
  • Pageviews = 458
7 month google analytics

Month 7 – February/March 2017

Google Webmaster Tools

  • Clicks = 74
  • Impressions = 4425
7 month Webmaster Google

Month 7 – February/March 2017

Month 8 – March/April 2017

At this point, I am starting to see a larger increase in traffic and impressions. Over double from the previous 4 weeks in month 7. This is very encouraging.

Once again, it has been a slow month for me. I have added 16 more articles in this 8th month, bringing my total up to 87 articles.

Ideally, I should have about 160 articles by now. Nevertheless, any progress is good progress. A wise man once said that if you improve by 1% per day, by the end of the year you will be 365% better off than you were one year prior!

Google Analytics

8 month google analytics

Month 8 – March/April 2017

Google Webmaster Tools

  • Impressions – 8.913
  • Clicks – 155
8 month Webmaster Google

Month 8 – March/April 2017

Key things to remember at this point!

My progress is slow because of my own lacklustre attitude towards posting regular content. My personal and professional life has slowed down my posting frequency – this is totally normal in the early life of a blogger before the blog starts to make money so DO NOT let this discourage you.

If you scroll up to the top and have a look at my impressions and clicks from the first few months you can see how much the blog has grown, despite the infrequency of my posting. This is fantastic! Especially in such a highly competitive niche as the “make money online niche”

Month 9 – April/May 2017

Google Webmaster Tools

  • Impressions – 12.053
  • Clicks – 339

As you can see the traffic is starting to pick up around this point.

I added another 6 or 7 posts to my blog. My clicks in Google Webmasters DOUBLED and things are looking good.

9 month Webmaster Google

Month 9 – April/May 2017

Google Analytics

Also, you can see my traffic is picking up on Google Analytics as well. This is because my BING SERP positions are also appearing and starting to bring in a small amount of traffic.

9 month google analytics

Month 9 – April/May 2017

Month 10 – May/June 2017

In month 10, I was very slow at updating my blog. I only wrote another 3 or 4 posts, bringing my total blog post count to 90.

Once again I had a very unproductive month but even so my traffic has increased a small amount – at least it has not decreased!

I can see a definite snowball effect ow building in my stats. My impressions and clicks are increasing at a much faster pace than ever before. Every month is increasing and I have noticed that some of my older posts, which I wrote 4 + months ago are starting to rise in the rankings and get clicks!

Google Webmaster Tools

  • Impressions – 10.433
  • Clicks – 436
10 month Webmaster Google

Month 10 – May/June 2017

Google Analytics

10 month google analytics

Month 10 – May/June 2017

Month 11 – June/July 2017

During month 11 and 12 I did not do too much work – as always! – and I only published some quite loose informational posts at around 1,000 words each. My summer months are hectic due to family commitments and other personal things that come around so I knew this in advance. This is why I decided not to do anything too difficult, I only needed to keep posting on a regular basis.

As you can see my stats continue to grow – albeit on a very slow progression.

Google Webmaster – an extra 3,000 impressions!

11 month Webmaster Google

Month 11 – June/July 2017

Google Analytics – a slow increase!

11 month google analytics

Month 11 – June/July 2017

IMPORTANT NOTE – this is another important point where you have to be able to accept a few slow months of growth. There are always stagnation periods where your analytics do not grow that quickly. Also, I am in the most competitive niche online, you should see these results in half the time I have achieved them.

Month 12 – July/August 2017

The last of my summer months and slow progress. I have some big posts planned for September to kick start my 2nd year of IpoopCash. However I hope you can take some inspiration from this case study so far. Even if you are in the most competitive niche online you can still make an impact.

Google Analytics

12 month google analytics

Month 12 – July/August 2017

Google Webmaster – Increasing!

12 month Webmaster Google

Month 12 – July/August 2017

My Plan For The Second Year - 2017/18

For my second year of this case study I am now in a great position. I will try and explain why, and also what my plans are for the second year.

  • Domain Authority has increased from 0 to 7
  • Page authority has increased from 0 to 21
  • I can now rank much easier and quicker for bigger articles.
  • Sales are coming in – total about $400 for the whole of 2017. (crap, but it is a start)

I am now solely going to concentrate on longer authority articles - minimum 3,000 words each. I will write reviews and informative guides (“best places to..”) kind of posts based on low hanging fruit keywords which I know I stand an excellent chance of ranking for.

My Aim: to increase my monthly clicks to at least 4,000 over the next 6 months.

Why is it taking so long to make money?

It is taking a long time because I am trying to simulate the “reality” of blogging. Most people will find themselves in this exact position where their blog is doing “ok” but nothing more. Why?

  • Most people choose the wrong niche first time around, just like IpoopCash (mega competitive and too broad)
  • My posting schedule has been erratic and random at best.
  • I have given little thought to my “overall target keyword”, I am just posting about anything vaguely related to “Making money online”
  • The reality of writing for no readers is hitting and I want to give up because I am running out of steam.
  • I have made poor keyword choices and a lot of my articles have been written as "fluff" and are not as good as I should have made them.

Do these points feel familiar? Then read on…

What is coming up?

Over the next 6 months I will show you how to juice up your old content and to treble your traffic. By February 2018 I will be making at least $400 per month from IpoopCash – ‘touch wood’.

How will I achieve this?

  • I will look over my Webmaster keywords that are ranking already and target the top articles which are ranking on page 2 and up. From there I will add additional content on these articles with proper internal linking and additional related videos and some other SEO tricks I have learned.
  • I will also publish more videos on YouTube to bring in additional traffic.
  • I will reach out to a few blogger to get some guest posting on my website.

Stats so far – see the trend?

case study analytic stats

Month 13 – August/September 2017

Once again mys tats are increasing each month. I have started to go back to my "fluffy" posts and adding more content. 

I have crawled through some older posts to find new keyword ideas and using my keyword ranking inside Webmaster Tools to target similar keywords. I use jaaxy to research these ideas to find low hanging fruit keywords.

At this point I try and make every single article I write as long and as valuable as I possibly can. I have noticed now, when I post an article and submit it to Google, I am ranking on Page 1 in a matter of minutes!

Webmaster Webmaster

  • Impressions = 14,192
  • Clicks = 623
13 month Webmaster Google

Month 13 – August/September 2017

Google Analytics

13 month google analytics

Month 13 – August/September 2017

Month 14 - September/October 2017

Hit 1,000 clicks in a month for the first time! Very exciting. A few commissions have started to come in as well on Clickbank which is nice. Finally seeing confirmation that I am doing the right thing and that my stats and sales will ONLY INCREASE FROM HERE ON IN!

All I am doing at this point is doing keyword research and writing as much content as I can (minimum 1500+ words). I am also making a YouTube video with every single article containing a small description and a link back to my blog post.

I can see there is traffic coming in as a result which is great.

I have also had a few emails from people, and comments on my YouTube videos, from people thanking me for my reviews. They tell me they were about to buy a product I reviews and gave a bad rating to, they thanked me for saving them money!

A very nice feeling.

Webmaster Webmaster

  • Impressions = 21,046
  • Total Clicks = 1,115
14 month Webmaster Google

Month 14 - September/October 2017

Google Analytics

14 month google analytics

Month 14 - September/October 2017

At this point I have about 133 articles. In this month I did not do much to be honest, I just kept adding more content as best I could and kept writing. Quite a quiet month.

Month 15 - October/November 2017

Webmaster Webmaster

  • Impressions = 27,149
  • Clicks = 881 
15 month Webmaster Google

Month 15 - October/November 2017

Google Analytics

15 month google analytics

Month 15 - October/November 2017

What Did I Do In The 15th Month?

I made a few important changes. I edited my website logo to include a small call to action. Encouraging visitors to click on my mail "sales" page.

This instantly added a few sales and recurring commissions. I have now started going back to older posts and tweaking certain CTAs and trying to make the posts more user friendly.

I have also noticed that many of my older posts, which were ranking nowhere, (page 3/4), have been given a bump. A lot of these articles are now at the bottom of page 1 and started to receive a small amount of traffic.

This does not seem like much but when you have keywords suddenly getting an extra 10/20 clicks per month, it adds up!

Month 16 – November/December 2017

This month has been good. I have purchase a green screen, just like Jay has in his webinars, and I have made some videos of me talking to the camera and posted them in my "About Me" page and on my sales page.

The aim is to make my whole website more personable and try and connect with people. I want them to see I am a normal person and I genuinely do want to help, not just take their money and run!

Making videos is so cringe worthy. I hate the way my voice sounds on camera and it is incredibly hard to get your voice across without stumbling and mumbling. Getting a take correct is tricky because you have to look straight in the camera and try to not say "ummmm" all the time!

It is surprisingly difficult! haha! 

I spent 3 days straight, trying to edit and tweak my videos. Writing scripts and trying to make them look at least semi professional. They are ok, but I will redo them in a few months once I have gained some more experience talking to the camera and all that...

My stats in Analytics and Webmaster tools are increasing a lot. I am getting more and more commissions and I can see daily emails coming in about paid leads and small recurring commissions.

I have also started an email list to collect emails. I have 6 people on my list!

Webmaster Webmaster

  • Impressions = 39.681
  • Clicks = 1,368
16 month Webmaster Google

Month 16 – November/December 2017

Google Analytics

16 month google analytics

Month 16 – November/December 2017

Month 17 – December/January 2017

During the 17th month I have focused on writing article about brand new products. This explains the sudden increase in clicks because I am managing to rank very quickly on Page 1 of Google. I submit my article and 'bang!' it's on page one within a few seconds and the traffic comes in.

I have started making additional YouTube videos as well, to complement my articles. Now every article I write I make a video review version as well which also helps drive more traffic to my website.

The revenue remained the same which I am very happy about. At the moment I have had two consecutive months with $400+ months in revenue. Fingers crossed this continues.

Google Analytics

17 month google analytics

Month 17 – December/January 2017

Google Webmaster Tools

17 month Webmaster Google

Month 17 – December/January 2017

Month 18 – January/February 2018

The 18th month of my case study has gone a bit slower. A few personal commitments has lowered my content output but I am still getting frequent commissions.

I added another 10 posts or so and am focusing on brand new Internet Marketing product releases, such as Ecom Profit Sniper and 30 Minute Method which have both ranked well and brought in a lot of traffic.

18 month Webmaster Google

Month 18 – January/February 2018

18 month Analytics

Month 18 – January/February 2018

As you can see from both my Webmaster tools and Analytics, my traffic is increasing steadily. I am also receiving huge spikes in traffic when a new product is launched which receives a lot of attention from email marketers and affiliates.

When a new digital Internet Marketing product is released there is a very brief period where this will get a lot of attention due to thousands of affiliates emailing their email lists saying, "You have to try this new amazing product!"

The revenue wasn't great this month but it is clear that things are now definitely on the rise and my traffic and revenue will only increase from here on.

Month 19 – February/March 2018

Things are really starting to kick off now!

I am starting to get about 10 or 20 new email subscribers every single day. Today my visitor numbers peaked 180 in one day, is in which insane!

I am now getting up to 6 starter members joining Wealthy Affiliate everyday and I am getting more and more premium subscribers. I have 10 premium members so far and 3 of them have become yearly subscribers.

This month I have concentrated on making training videos within Wealthy Affiliate to help my new referrals stay focused, advance with the training, and make the training more digestible.

19 month google analytics

Month 19 Google Analytics

This will hopefully, in turn, make them stay members longer and actually make money. If they make money they stay a member and I make money as well.

I tried to address issues like:

  • How to choose a nice?
  • What is the difference between someone who fails and succeeds online?
  • 5 separate inspirational videos, which will be sent out at certain time points, which will help keep them on track. These talk about mentality and progress and the importance of not quiting.

I have written another 10 blog posts and I am concentrating on new product releases in order to capitalise on the traffic spikes that come with those product launches.

My traffic is increasing every single day and I know as long as I keep writing, keep using natural SEO, things will just keep increasing.

Month 19 Webmaster Tools

Month 20 – March/April 2018

Here we are at the end of the 20th month of my Wealthy Affiliate case study.

By now I feel you can see that you should trust the training and that WA is NOT a scam. My earnings are now in excess of $500 per month and is only increasing. 

20 month google analytics

20 month google analytics

Back in August, when iPoopCash was only 1 year old, I said I was hoping that the website would be making $400 per month by February, and as you can see, I have achieved that goal.

20 month Webmaster Google

20 month Webmaster Google

This past month I concentrated on writing product reviews for brand new Internet Marketing product releases. There are very few I am able to recommend, unfortunately, as most of them are incredibly low quality.

A few examples of the products I reviews this month:

I try to keep my reviews as long and as in depth as I can. I make a point of stating that I actually buy each product, which I do, so I can give an honest opinion about each service as a consumer.

Month 21 – April/May 2018

Traffic is coming in steadily. I am producing more and more content and I am making more commissions.

This month I promoted Traffic Flow and FB Master's Training Program quite heavily and made over $600 in the process, which was good.

I have also started doing a recorded Q&A session on my YouTube channel which I have embedded on my website. The feedback so far has been good and I enjoy creating them.

21 month Webmaster Google

21 month Webmaster Google

21 month google analytics

21 month google analytics

I am also in the process of creating my own product, which is exciting.

The product has no name yet but I am going to simplify the process of making money with Facebook and bring it down to an easy to understand level. 

The concept is a simple landing page, which you drive Facebook traffic to, that captures emails. This is obviously not a new idea but the other products I have reviewed which use a similar method never really give good enough training which leaves people confused.

Month 22 – May/June 2018

This month continued to grow. I have had a couple of successful email campaign promoting some products which I reviewed. They were promoted via Warrior Plus and the conversion rate was good.

I have also made contact with a couple of very big product vendors as a result of my commissions. They now know my name and I am going to approach them soon to ask them if they will promote a product I am going to create.

22 month google analytics

22nd month's Google Analytics

22 month Webmaster Google

22nd month's Google Webmaster Tools

Month 23 – June/July 2018

As July has trickled past and my efforts with Wealthy Affiliate continue to move forward I have started produce my own product. 

I have called it Taking Action Online and it is a membership website where I can put up my own training modules and help people make money online.

I have done this because my email list has grown to almost 1000 now and everyone I talk to is screaming out for guidance and I figured I may as well try to fill that void.

In terms of traffic, it has not risen as much as I though and here is the reason why. I made a mistake.

At the beginning of May I started to exclusively review Warrior Plus products, which was a bad choice. I thought it was good move because they sell by the thousands every single day and I figured that they would provide me with ample traffic, but this was not the case.

As it turns out they perform very badly in the traffic avenue in the search engines. After writing 10+ reviews, the traffic was less than I would get from writing 1 ClickBank product review, so I wasted most of May and June on that, which was a shame but a lesson well learnt.

23 month google analytics

Month 23 - Google Analytics

23 month Webmaster Google

Webmaster tools - Month 23!

Month 24 – July/August 2018

As my website approached the 2 year mark things have settled down nicely. I am now clearing $1,000 every month and I spent the whole of August creating my own product, Taking Action Online.

This meant that I made zero progress with IpoopCash because I spent my entire time creating the training modules for my new course.

However, this is when the natural SEO comes into play and my traffic to my site remains stable. Everyday I get hundreds of people coming to my site, which is such a great feeling.

24 month google analytics

24 month google analytics

24 month Webmasters Google

24 month Webmasters Google

Month 25 – August/September 2018

The 25th month saw a drop in profits due to my lack of promotions. I have been focusing 100% on my membership site at Taking Action Online and so I have only created 2 new reviews for my blog, here at ipoopcash.

I currently have over 60 paid members and things are looking really good.

The traffic to my site has been stagnant, due to my lack of work output, but this is a sacrifice well made. I now have my own product and service I can be proud of.

My next step is to integrate an affiliate program into my membership site and contact other affiliate who can promote me. This will be the launching pad for me and if it goes well then myu earnings could double overnight!

Challenges I Am Facing & How Wealthy Affiliate Helps Me!

The main challenge I have faced, when creating my own membership site, has been the technical side. There are a lot of options and access rights to deal with and when I opened it up to the public I got hit with a lot of emails from customers who were getting error messages and so on.

Some users had issues logging in, or perhaps they could not access certain pages and so on. There were also issues with payment details and my checkout page had to be completely redesigned.

There is quite a bit of pressure on me when I implement this because there are user on my site live and they are expecting a good service. Before, when I promote other people's products, that pressure is not there because I don't deal with any of that side of things.

How Does Wealthy Affiliate Help and Inspire Me?

Whenever I feel a bit deflated and angry at my own lack of progress, I turn to Wealthy Affiliate. I read through the forum and answer people's questions because it reminds me of how far I have come.

4 years ago I knew almost nothing, but not, I have my very own membership website where over 60 people, so far, are relying on my guidance and content to help them move forward.

WA helps me a great deal because the story of Kyle & Carson is very inspirational and their own blog posts inside WA chronicle this fact. They continuously update their own blog post wall with stories from their own past and current challenges which they face.

This is incredibly inspiring for me and it gives me that little kick I need sometimes to keep moving forward, even when I feel deflated or frustrated with my own work.

25 month google analytics

Google Analytics after 25th month!

25th month Webmasters Google

Google Webmaster Tools after the 25th Month!

Month 26 – September/October 2018

My 26th month has seen my traffic steadily decrease. My content creation has been slow the last 8 weeks as I have focused all my attention on my membership site. I now have over 100 members and the feedback I have been getting is fantastic!

In the next month I will return to writing regular content to try and push my traffic up to 200 hits per day. I do not want my blog to suffer too much as a result as it is my main traffic source and my main way of getting new subscribers to my list!

26th month Webmasters Google
Google Webmaster Tools after the 26th Month!
26th month google analytics
Google Analytics after 26th month!

Month 27 – October/November 2018

As I finish my 27th month of this case study I have cleared $2,500 again. My focus now is 100% on developing my membership site which has been created as a result of iPoopCash.

I now have over 25 hours of training material inside Taking Action Online which I am very proud of.

My organic traffic has stalled completely and is now decreasing but this is because I have not produced any new articles or reviews.

27th month google analytics

27th month google analytics

27 month Webmaster Google

27 month Webmaster Google

Month 28 – November/December 2018

As Christmas approaches and I have shifted all my attention to Taking Action Online I am now noticing a slow and steady decrease in my traffic to iPoopCash.

This is obviously expected as I am not producing any new content, hence there is no reason for my traffic to increase.

I am making the sacrifice of short term traffic reduction for an increase in earnings as I am now getting a steady flow of new members to TAO. I am charging $24.95 per month, as opposed to the $6.99 when I first started back in August.

The plan now is simply to keep adding more content, the core training is now almost finished and I am working on case studies and gonna start doing live webinars!

28 month Webmaster Google

Webmaster Tools - 28th Month

Google Analytics - 28th Month

Month 29 – December/Jan 2018/19

As my attention has been completely focused on Taking Action Online I have not created any new content for iPoopCash for some time now.

In January I will return to write a few more reviews for my blog but my main focus is now going to be on TAO as this is where the true money will lie.

As a result, my traffic is obviously remaining stagnant/decreasing as I am not getting any new traffic coming into my site.

29 month Webmasters Google

My Full Review Of Wealthy Affiliate University in
conjunction with this case study


In this review, I will take you inside Wealthy Affiliate and show you every single thing that is in the members area. I will cover all the training and resources in depth so you can get an accurate image of what you can expect.

I will hold nothing back as I uncover the good and the bad aspects of the training available. Will this be a scam? Well, I think my case study proves that it is not, but let me take you inside and show you around.

Here is my unbiased and honest opinion about Wealthy Affiliate:

Blogging is a wonderful way to turn any topic or niche into an online business. You do not need any experience or any technical knowledge, which means this attracts all kinds of people.

Wealthy Affiliate has broken down the process of creating a blog into bite size lessons, which enable all skill levels to digest the informations easier.

Blogging is an overwhelming process for most people as they get bogged down in all the terminology, traffic methods and strategies to increase revenue and user friendliness.

Blogging is a long-term progress. However, unlike most types of affiliate marketing, it is a safe method and it has longevity. Anyone who starts blogging within a community, like Wealthy Affiliate, will have that security blanket of knowing that the SEO strategies they are using will produce results in the long term. 

Obviously, buy results, I traffic to your website and commissions in your wallet.

This review is incredibly long, well over 15,000 words, but it goes to illustrate how dedicated I am and how serious I am about making money online.

I would never have been in this position had it not been for Wealthy Affiliate and the training they provide.

What Is Wealthy Affiliate University?

Wealthy Affiliate is a number of things and it cannot be summarized in one sentence so it is easier to list what it is. This way you can get a full scope of what to expect when you join.

I will go into great detail about all these points in a minute, but I will start with a list so you get an idea.

  • A community of over 1,000,000 bloggers - spam free and promotion free. Imagine Facebook but with no adverts, irritation memes and irrelevant content. Just a lot of people who want to help each other make money online.
  • Dedicated training on how to build a profitable website with over 100 training modules and hundreds of hours of video tutorials. Literally a step by step training, showing you how to make a fully functioning website which will make money.
  • Full website hosting service, domain service and keyword research tool, with 24/7 support.
  • Full forum and F&Q area where members can get immediate answers to any and every problem they face.
  • An innovative "Pay It Forward" system where members are rewarded for helping others.
  • and much, much more! I will now go into more detail!
What Is Inside The Premium Members Area?

Inside the members area you have a whole plethora of tools and information you can use to your advantage so you can boost your chances of making a successful online business.

What I love is that there are no upsells, and at no point does anything cost extra. Everything that is here is included in the price of the monthly membership. Fantastic value for money.

So, let's take a look at what is inside the members area of Wealthy Affiliate.


Certification Training

The certification training takes you through the whole process of creating your own WordPress website, step-by-step. Kyle walks you through the entire process in 50 lessons and covers everything in the smallest detail.

I am covering all this training lesson by lesson a bit further down in this article. You can skip to it here, if you like.

Live Chat

The live chat feature allows you to ask questions and get immediate responses from other people in the community. This includes the higher ranking members who have a wealth of knowledge to share. 

If you ask a question, you are immediately given a resource or a training module as a solution to your problems. This feature is wonderful because it does solve a lot of problems quickly.

You can also use this feature just to chat and get to know other people. You can ask them more pertinent questions about anything you a curious about. The community is very honest and many people share their traffic stats and earning stats to inspire others.

Affiliate Bootcamp

This a 70 lesson course on how to create a purpose built affiliate website, designed to promote WA itself and any other product within the 'make money online' niche.

This route is not to be taken light heartedly because the competition within this niche is fierce and it takes a long time to get established - just look at this case study I am conducting in this very article!

I am covering all this training lesson by lesson a bit further down in this article. You can skip to it here, if you like.

Wealthy Affiliate affilaite bootcamp
Live Training Classes

Every single week there is a live webinar on Friday nights. These are done by a chap called Jay and he is one of the top guys within WA. Each webinar is usual about 1 hour and 20 minutes long and each week has a different them and topic. 

They are always trying to help their members optimize their websites for SEO and for the user experience. As the Google algorithms change, so does the training within WA which makes it so valuable.

As you can see from the screenshot here the topics vary week by week and other areas that have been covered in the past are:

Jays webinars inside Wealthy Affiliate
  • Changing WordPress Themes
  • How To Stream Live On YouTube
  • CTA Optimisation
  • How To Hows Your Own Webinars
  • Using Google Analytics Features

Jay even spends 4 weeks building a case study website right in front of the WA members. You are shown step by step, just as they teach you, and the website in question ranked quickly and started making money with 3 months!

Fast forward to today and it is making over $400 per month, despite only consisting of  a few pages and just being left to its own devices after the initial case study period.

Keyword Research Tool

The basic keyword tool allows you to research keyword to find out the competition in the SERPs. This is vital to gain high rankings in Google and Bing because this search tools tells you what people are searching for, search volume and gives you a good idea if your website will be able to compete.

Wealthy Affiliate keyword tool

Throughout the training you are taught about keyword research and Jay has made several webinars where he delves deep into Jaaxy, which is an advanced version of the WA keyword tool, and shows all the members exactly how he does keyword research. 

You are even shown behind the scenes within Jay's private Google Webmaster tools, so you can see how well the keyword tools results work.

I myself, use Jaaxy all the time and it is probably the most important tool I have.

WA Affiliate Program

The affiliate programme is incredibly lucrative and emotionally rewarding. Not only do you get to invite people to create their own WordPress website, using the training inside, but you get paid to do so.

Normally, earning commissions from a product review is not very rewarding because most of the time you do not use that product after your review period. With WA it is a different story... 

When i get a new referral to join WA it is genuinely exciting for me because I believe in the community and training so much and I know that the person who has joined is going to get the best training available.

I know for certain that if the new referral really immerses himself/herself into the training and applies the strategies, they will make a successful website and they WILL make money.

It is quite rare to genuinely believe in a product you promote to this level. I certainly have never felt this strongly for any other product I promote.

Inside the WA Affiliate portal you get access to banners and interactive links which increase CTR on your website. You can also set up automatic messages to your referrals,depending on their stage within the training and you get detailed stats on your clicks and traffic through your affiliate links.

Ambassadorship

This part of the community is wonderful and it is what makes it so interactive, engaging and helpful.

WA operates on a Pay-It-Forward system where you are encouraged at every step to help and guide other less experienced members.

Let's face it: When you try and make a brand new website with no prior experience, with CSS knowledge or technical knowhow, you are going to run into some issues. So to have a place where you can post an issue and get almost an immediate response from another member is invaluable.

pay it forward in WA

There is a ranking system which rewards you for your engagement, your contribution to the forum and training modules and how much you help other people.

Which Is wonderful because it encourages all members to give a little bit back and help someone who needs guidance. This means there is always someone there to help you and show you which training module applies to your problem.

This feature also leads to connections being made as you make new friends within the community and build a strong bond between people.

Site Comments

WIthin this feature you can offer blog comments to other member's websites. The idea is that you write two lengthy and valuable comments on someone's blog post and in exchange you get one back.

This is great for SEO purposes because it fills your blog posts with keyword rich content which is relevant to your topic. It also increases natural engagement as any organic traffic with sees the comments will be more inclined to leave a comment when there is already a discussion going on.

As the pay-it-forward method is in full swing, you need to give two comments to get one back. This ensures that there is ample supply of comments and you can even exchange your comments for cash! 

Site Feedback

This feature operates on the same principle as the Site Comments. You submit your website details and then other members give you constructive input on how you can improve your website. 

You can ask for feedback on your:

  • Written Content
  • Site Design
  • Layout
  • Use of Images and Media
  • General Feedback
Wealthy Affiliate feedback section

This allows you to make some very intricate and important changes to your website as a third eye and opinion is so powerful. Other people will see things in a whole different light and this will not only benefit your organic traffic, but it will increase user experience, click through rates and make your blog optimized.

Sometimes feedback can hurt your feelings but at least it is honest and you can make changes BEFORE your website is exposed to the SERPS.

Not only that but you may avoid an important mistake which could end up being penalized by Google or hurting your ranking in someway. Some of the people giving feedback are full time Internet Marketers and they really do know what they are talking about.

Site Content

The Site Content editor is more or less the same as the editor on your dashboard within WordPress. The only difference is it is optimized on your writing and spell checking. There is also an integrated image database of images from Pixabay, Pexels and Unsplash which gives you instant access to over 1,000,000 images you can imbed straight in your post.

Normally you would have to download them from the database webiste, then upload them which is a bore.

SiteContent Editor

The purpose of the site content feature is to make you focus on just writing solid content and make it simple and easy to read, away from all the fancy template builder plug ins and such.

WA teaches you to focus on creating excellent content and not to spend days and hours designing your website. Just a simple but beautiful template will do just fine, because your content will be epic!

Content will drive traffic and revenue to your site, not a beautiful website.

Is The Training Any Good?

In my personal experience, the training with Wealthy Affiliate University is the best money can buy. Especially for only $49 per month! Just the amount of tools you get inside the members area is easily worth $150 per month on their own!

What I like about the training is this:

  • 90% are video tutorial which makes them so easy to follow.
  • Every aspect of blogging is explained in such a simple and straight talking manner even a child could understand it.
  • There are no "hidden secrets", just straight forward methods and logical strategies.
  • The answer to 90% of all your potential pitfalls and queries are right there - you just have to look or ask.
  • You are never alone.

When i worked through the training I immediately felt like I was in safe hands. I never felt like there was content being missed out or withheld for any reason. Not only that but every single topic - regardless if it was about keyword research, content writing or social media - was covered in such great detail!

So, let's take a look inside the training and sink our teeth into what you will get when you join Wealthy Affiliate.

Certification Training

So, as mentioned earlier in this post, the main training is the Certification Training. Here you will take a niche or topic that you are passionate about, such as a hobby or an interest, and use that as your inspiration for your website creation.

Here is a brief summary of what you will learn inside each of the modules.

WA Online Entrepreneur Certification Getting Started Level 1
Level 1 - Getting Started

Part 1 - Getting Rolling

The first part is all about setting the scene. Kyle welcomes you to Wealthy Affiliate and shows you around the members area to give you an idea of where things are and the purpose behind the training you are about to take.

Kyle talks you through your profile set up and speaks about what kind of person this is for, who will benefit from this training and it is an easy introduction to your up and coming life as a blogger!

Part 2 - Understanding How to Make Money Online

The second part covers the glorious topic of MONEY and how you will make it. Kyle discusses the customer process and how you earn commissions from place like Amazon, etc. You are introduced to the flow of organic traffic and the channel you will use to earn money.

cycle of making money online

Part 3 - Choose a Niche

In this lesson, you are taught about niches and how to choose one. Kyle talks to you in depth about what a niche is and gives you some examples of products to promote and what to focus on when you decide which niche to center your website around.

You will be shown how to find affiliate programmes related to any type of products, which will help you get an idea of commission rates and which products have a larger range of appropriate affiliate vendors.

You are shown some clever ways to narrow down your niche decision and how to research your interest and hobbies to potentially find something you may not have been aware of.

Part 4 - Building Your OWN Niche Website

Finally, you get to build your website! You are shown around the Wealthy Affiliate site builder dashboard where you can either build a free 'Starter Website' or you can import an existing domain or you can buy a new one via WA.

You then choose your template and BOOM, you click on "Build it!" and 30 seconds later, you website is ready to go.

Kyle proceeds to show you around the WordPress dashboard and talks about the plug-ins and setting and what they all mean. A nice introduction to your website.

building a free website with wealthy affiliate

Part 5 - Setting Up Your Website

In part 5, you are shown around the WordPress admin area and instructed on how to setup your initial framework for your website. You activate your All-In-One and Image Optimizer plugs in and tinker with a few setting to get it ready for Search Engine Optimization.

You are also shown through the other tabs withing the WordPress Admin area:

  • Posts
  • Pages
  • Media
  • Comments
  • Appearance
  • Plug Ins
  • Users
  • Settings

You are walked through what they all mean and in what context you will be using them. This probably may seem very confusing but trust me, in a month it will be second nature to you as you build out your site and fill it with quality content.

Part 6 - Getting Your Site Ready for Search Engines

Getting your website optimized for search engines is vital. That is what Kyle teaches you in this video. He talks you through what SEO is and the importance of getting organic traffic to your site.

You update your site's home title and description and activate your keyword settings.

This training is short, direct and to the point. Perfect!

wealthy affiliate seo

Part 7 - Creating Your Initial Website Content

Within this training session, Kyle talks about creating content and he explains that we are all writers and communicators. Do not worry about the writing part of this training, it will come naturally with time. 

Many people assume that you need a degree or be incredibly smart to write beautiful content but do not think that way. Everyone is able to write engaging and interesting content, with a little bit of practise.

You are taught how to use the Site: Content platform which comes with the WA membership.

Content added in this module:

  • About Me page
  • Privacy Policy

The about me page is an important section on any website and the reason for this is because it encompasses what you are about. This page shows your readers who you are and the authority you have within your niche. 

There is no right or wrong because this page will evolve with time as your own knowledge and Internet journey changes.

making a website with wealthy affiliate

Part 8 - Creating Custom Menus on Your Website

Here you are shown how to create the menu structure on your website. Within the Appearance -> Menu section of your WordPress dashboard you can add menu item, move them around and layer them into an orderly fashion.

You are shown a couple of nice tricks to making your website easier to navigate. Kyle talks through the importance of keeping things consistent and refining the process of your readers navigation.

It is incredibly important that your readers can find their way around your website with ease. The longer people stay on your website, the more Google will see your content as authority content.

Part 9 - Understanding Keywords, The Start of Your Content

Understanding keywords and how they fit into your SEO strategy is very important. Without performing keyword research you are effectively writing blind and hoping that your content will rank. 

This training shows Kyle digging deep into the keyword tool, Jaaxy, and a thorough explanation is given on:

  • What a keyword is.
  • How to find good keyword.
  • How to use the estimated traffic statistics.
  • Understanding the SERPs
  • Understanding how a keyword fits into your website's future traffic.
keyword research with wealthy affiliate

Part 10 - Congratulations and Your Next Steps

The last lesson is a summary of what you have learned so far and you are invited to take part in the next modules. If you are on a started membership then this is as far as you can go before you need to upgrade to a premium membership.

However, at $49 per month, this is a steal. If you consider the amount of tools and helpful resources you get, you will be hard pushed to find an equivalent training platform online.

Level 2 - Building Your Own Traffic Producing Website

Part 1 - Your Own Domain, Your Brand.

In the second level of training you start off with buying a domain name. Up until this point, you have been building your website on a Siterubix sub domain which is free but it is not suitable for branding or developing your blog properly.

In order to develop your blog and make it 'truly yours', you need to buy a domain name.

Kyle goes into great depth about branding and how to choose a proper domain name related to your niche. Choosing a proper domain name is important because it represents what your business is about and the first impression is very important.

Part 2 - Move On Over, My Brand Has Arrived

Next, you learn how you transfer your Siterubix training website over to your official domain name. This sound very confusing but it is just a couple of click. Kyle walks you through every single step and it only takes a few minutes.

Once you have completed the transfer, you have your very own, branded and OFFICIAL website! Congratulations!

Part 3 - Creating Keyword Rich Content

In this training you are once again taught about keywords, but in much more depth this time. Content is king and knowing how to write a post that is keyword rich or vital.

You have to write relevant and helpful content so that the search engines know what your blog post is about.

You are shown:

  • How to perform keyword research.
  • How to break up your content.
  • How to write keyword rich content.
  • How to create a catchy title.
creating content which ranks

Part 4 - Setting Up A Domain Specific Email Account

This training is short and sweet and will show you how to set up email accounts for your domain/website. Obviously, you need an email for your business and Wealthy Affiliate allows you to create multiple email addresses for your sites, if you need more than one.

You can also forward your email to a central place like Microsoft Outlook or Gmail, for example. There is plenty of training on this as well.

Part 5 - The Traffic Breakdown

Here you are taught how content results in traffic from Google and Bing. Kyle talks you through SERPS (search engine page results) and describes in great detail about what these listings are doing, in relation to the keywords.

Once again, there are more examples of keyword searches and traffic volume estimates. I know you may be bored of keyword research by now bit it is invaluable. Keywords is the root to all traffic because this is what people are 'Googling'. Without understanding keywords you will never be able to make money from your blog via organic traffic.

Part 6 - Making Use of Visuals

Using images is also very important. However, it is difficult because there are some copyright laws and you need to find royalty free images. This training is very important because you get a nice collections of websites which have millions of CCo (Creare Commons Zero) images. This means you can use any of these images for anything you want, without worrying about copyright infringements.

This training also shows you how to add relevant images to your content. Images can convey so much without writing a single word down to it is important you give this some thought when you choose your imagery.

to do list and using images

Part 7 - Understanding the Low Hanging Fruit

The 7th part of this level is about low hanging fruit. This is once again about keywords but, more specifically, low competition keywords. Here you are shown how to find and target keywords with a small amount of traffic but with very low competition, meaning you can get traffic to your website easily.

This is an essential part of your overall strategy because, as a brand new website, it will be challenging to rank well in the search engines. But, with this training, you can easily start generating traffic to your website.

Part 8 - Making face as a real person

Here you are shown how to edit your user profile to make it more personable. It is important that your readers see YOU, because this will create a connection with your readers and they can put a face to the written content.

Part 9 - Amplifying Your Google Love With Google Plus

This is a neat little trick you are taught. Google loves it when you share content on their Google + platform. Here you are shown how to create a Google + account and how to add and share your content properly. It is a short, but sweet lesson.

google plus

Part 10 - Boosting Your WA Ranks!

In this last training session Kyle recaps o what you have learned so far and introduces you to the Wealthy Affiliate Ambassadorship and how the ranking system works within WA.

Essentially, the more you contribute, engage and interact with other members, you gain rank and gain social status within the community. This encourages people to contribute to the pay-it-forward ethos which makes Wealthy Affiliate so fantastic and rewarding.

There is a slight slaw in this system due to the fact that a relatively inexperienced member can easily rank quite high and subsequently give bad advice to someone. So I would advise you to due your due dilligence whenever asking for advice from someone within WA. 

Members will always help you but I would certainly get a second, a third and a fourth opinion whenever possible before acting on advice.

You are encouraged to post your first blog post within the forum to document your progress, this is to bring you into the community and boost your self esteem because you will get very positive feedback from your peers. It works like charm!

increase rank in wealthy affiliate
Level 3 - Making Money

Part 1 - Understanding the MONEY in Online Business

In the 3rd level of the training we get into the good stuff! We are now talking about money! Money, money, money!

The first part talks about the flow of money and the customer lifecycle. You are introduced to the main principle which is the aim to help you readers BEFORE you try and sell them something.

understanding money

I other words, you provide them with the information they were looking for in a genuine and honest manner, the selling part will happen in a natural and engaging manner. If you try and force product o then, your revenue will suffer for it.

Part 2 - Understanding Affiliate Programs & Networks

WIthin this training you are shown the behinds the scenes of affiliate networks and how to make money with your website. Kyle shows you some figures and estimates to give you an idea of how much money you can expect to make.

Kyle goes into great detail about relevance and show you a selection of affiliate programs you can join and he discusses how to utilize the affiliate links so it will not affect your Google rankings.

Part 3 - Relevant Affiliate Programs are Everywhere

In part three you are shown how to find relevant affiliate programs to your chosen niche. Every single niche you can think of has an affiliate program. This is what you are taught in this video. 

Kyle illustrates a nice trick to narrow down your search and find a relevant and reliable affiliate program for your website.

Part 4 - Adding Affiliate Links to Your Pages

This is another training about affiliate links. You are carefully shown how to add Amazon affiliate links to your website. Short sweet, and as always, to the point.

Part 5 - Instant Access to a MILLION products

Another short training lesson, this one doesn't need to be long, to be fair. You are shown inside the Amazon Affiliate programme and you learn how to add coded affiliate links, direct from Amazon, onto your site so that it automatically ads a picture, buy now button and a price.

Part 6 - Leveraging Product Reviews

In this extensive tutorial, Kyle talks you through how to write a valuable and comprehensive product review. He emphasises the point here of helping, before you sell, as mentioned in a previous training part.

You are taught what information to include and how to structure your reviews. There is quite a lot to digest here to watch it two or three times until it sinks in.

woman-hand-desk-office

Part 7 - Getting Paid for Ads on Your Site

This short lesson introduces you to Google Adsense. This is a method of monetising your website by placing Google Ads on your website. personally, I think this is a waste of time because the pay is so little and it detracts from the value of your website.

However, Kyle covers this in the next training lesson where you are taught about the difference in pay structure between Adsense and normal affiliate links.

Part 8 - Earning Pennies OR Dollars?

Here Kyle talks to you about the importance of understanding the difference between the payment structure of affiliate products and adverts, such as Google Adsense.

There is no right and wrong but I think most people, myself included, prefer to link directly to an affiliate link. THis is because the payments are always higher and you control what is being advertised.

Google Adsense can be irritating and the last thing you want to do is to detract from your content, which is supposed to give genuine and honest content. This is tricky to convey when there are too many distractions on the page.

make money with wealthy affiliate training

Part 9 - A Brilliant Way to Track & Understand Your Traffic

This section shows you how to set up Google Analytics so you can track your visitors movements and to see what people are clicking on and how they interact with your content.

This is incredibly important because you see how many people come to your website, you also see which page they visit, for how long and much, much, much more!

Once you develop your skills you can use Google Analytics to great effect by dissecting your data, create goals and really hone your conversion skills by tweaking your site, based on the date that the analytics give you about the behaviour of your visitors.

Part 10 - With Help Comes Financial Success

In this tutorial, Kyle lays down a breakdown of everything you have learned so far. This creates a nice overview of the process of ranking, what your goal is and what your potential is. He covers traffic generations, revenue potential and talks about your future with WA and what you can achieve.

financial success with wealthy affiliate
Level 4 - Mastering Social Engagement

Part 1 - What Does Social Engagement Mean to Your Business

In this first lesson, Kyle covers why social media is so important to your blog's growth. You are shown in what way you can increase traffic and revenue by creating shareable content and how to create social accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Google + and Pinterest.

Social media is by no means essential for your business but it is incredibly powerful and any blog which does not use it it missing out on a lot of traffic.

Part 2 - Making Your Website a Place to Engage

Here you are shown how you can create an engaging content and encourage people to leave comments. Blog comments are so powerful because they create natural SEO content and the visitors are likely to come back to check your website out again. 

Once someone feel like they have made a 'connection' with a blog author, they will come back, and Google loves that!

Kyle talks you through some cool tactics on how to achieve this in a simple and organic way.

engage with your audience

Part 3 - Using Facebook the Right Way

In this section, you are shown how to use Facebook in the right way by engaging your audience and learning what kind of post you should be publishing. With Facebook, it is incredibly important to be engaging and interact with the audience in order to secure most impressions. In order to gain most exposure you have to be interactive and Facebook loves showing popular posts which means you have to learn how to use Facebook EdgeRank to its full effect.

Part 4 - Pinterest & the Visual Social Hemisphere

Within the Pinterest training, you will be shown how to create an account and you will develop your skill in navigating Pinterest and learning how to pin and publish posts.

Pinterest is yet another social platform which a huge potential for free traffic. Kyle explains in great detail all the ups and downs of Pinterest.

Part 5 - Incorporating a Sound Tweeting Campaign

Once again you're learning more about social, only this time it's Twitter. You learn how to tweet your first tweets and you learn how to use keywords and target relevant trending topics within Twitter. Kyle gives a good overview of how to optimise your Twitter activity.

twitter campaign to engage audience

Part 6 - Google Plus or Minus?

The Google Plus training shows you how to create a Google Plus account, the benefits of using it and you also get shown how to post content. You are taught how to link it with the or Wealthy Affiliate account so you can connect with other like minded bloggers.

Part 7 - The Benefit of Being Social at WA

In the next section, Kyle talks about the benefits of being creative with in the Wealthy Affiliate platform. When you create valuable content within the forum it gets ranked in Google, and it ranks really well. This is a fantastic opportunity because when you contribute to the forum and it ranks in the search engine, when someone clicks on that link, you get the referral if that person joins.

Part 8 - Make Your Campaigns Social Branding Animals

Kyle goes on to discuss the importance of writing quality content and making people want to read it. You are shown further examples of the importance of being social and sharing valuable information to your readers.

Social media is a very powerful platform to get your content and written words out to the masses and, ultimately, drive traffic to your pages.

branding your business

Part 9 - Using the Wealthy Affiliate Social Community

Next up, we have the social engagement within the WA forum.  The social aspect of WA is incredibly powerful. You can create content, such training or blog posts.  You can also ask questions and chat with other members in the Live chat feed.

Not only that, but and you can follow and connect with any other member within the platform. Kyle continues to discuss these in length and the benefit this will have on your ability to develop and move forward.

Part 10 - You Cannot Be a Master of Everything

The final section deals with time management and realising the importance of controlling how much time you spend on social media.  Kyle goes on to say that it is vital to keep creating quality content and to keep developing your blog at every stage of the training. There is great detail ehre about how to best achieve efficient time management.

overwhelmed at wealthy affiliate
Level 5  - Achieving Maximum Success Through Content Creation

In the last part of your training, you learn more about content creation and how to build your website further. Content creation is the most important thing you do. Content is King, and all your keyword rankings and all the traffic depends on the content you write.  Without valuable content you have nothing. Without content you have no readership, no shareability, no conversion rate, no rankings, and no commissions.

Part 1 - Content is YOUR Business

Content is king, that simple. In this lesson, Kyle talks about the importance of content and how you need to write it. It is important to keep things simple, in order to engage with your audience, and to make your content shareable.

What happens is this. As you write content in a natural and organic way, keywords and rankings occur on their own and you will rank for phrases you never even intended. Your content will flow beautifully and become much more readable and valuable for your audience.

It is vital to remember to give value and right for your order, not the search engine. 

Part 2 - Setting Up Google Webmaster Tools

In this lesson, you are shown how to set up Google webmaster tools. This is a very simple process and you are shown how to do this in an easy to follow video tutorial.

Webmaster tools allows you to keep track of your keyword rankings and it also allows you to see how your visitors are finding your website. These analytical statistics allow you to come up with new article ideas and product angles to increase your traffic.

webmaster tools

Part 3 - Improving Indexing Times and Speeds

This simple tutorial shows you how you can submit a sitemap of your website, which will help Google crawl and index your content. Google needs easy access to your content and URL's in order to get an accurate image of what your website is about and where it should rank you.

This is very important because it is the only way Google understands what your website and content is related to, in other words, what your website is about.

Part 4 - People need to read your content

It is vital that your readership can have a pleasant user experience when they browse your website. This means you have to have content which is scannable and easy to navigate.

You can achieve this by using:

  • Bullet points
  • Small paragraphs
  • Headlines
  • Writing in simple and common language

At the end of the day, the person reading your content will probably just be an average Joe who is surfing the web for information. They want simple, easy to follow and valuable content. They do not want an essay or technical mumbo jumbo - they just want the answer to the query.

make your content readable

Part 5 - A Year is a Short Period of Time, Yet BIG for Business

This lesson focuses on your mentality towards creating an online business. You have to think long term and accept that if you enter this for ‘the long haul’, you are more likely to succeed.

Kyle shows you some simple methods which will help you visualise the future in relation to your blog content and potential traffic.

This lesson is incredibly important for people who are impatient and unsure about the future goals of their website.

Part 6 - Writing Within a Devised Plan Architecture

This section talks about the purpose behind your content and the message you are trying to convey. Kyle breaks down an article into paragraphs and emphasises what message you are trying to get across to your audience in this article.

At the end of the day, your readers, are looking for information and answers to their questions. it is your job to give it to them. 

writing with a plan

Part 7 - Writing Your Content With Conversion Intent

Here you are shown how to write content with conversion in mind. In other words, you are writing the content with the intention of gaining something from the reader at the end. This could be:

  • a sale
  • an email address
  • some sort of interaction with your page
  • clicking on a link to another article on your website
  • sharing your content
  • and so on

The most important thing to consider here is that your content must be relevant to your users query. Whichever query brought them to your website needs to be answered and this is what creates conversion - relevant content.

Part 8 - Injecting Comments with Intent

This lesson Focuses on comments and how you can use these to inject value, internal links and increase engagement on your website.

Comments are the perfect platform for you to answer your users queries and you can do this by inserting links to other resources on your website and links to products and services which will help your readership with the query.

Comments open up a whole new avenue of potential keywords and content which will help you rank better in the search engines.

engage with your wordpress comments

Part 9 - Bing and Yahoo, They Are Still the 33%

In the second last lesson you are taught about Bing and Yahoo, the two second largest search engines. They are much smaller than Google but they still hold more than 25% of all searches, which is quite a lot when you consider there are billions of people online every day.

You are shown how you can utilise Bing and Yahoo to gain more organic traffic to your website. You are shown how to submit your sitemap and given some advice about what to avoid, such as:

  • Clocking
  • Link schemes
  • Social media skins
  • Meta refresh redirect
  • Duplicate content
  • Key stuffing
using yahoo for organic traffic

Part 10 - Articulating a PLAN for the months and year ahead

Finally, you have made it to the end of the training. The last lesson focuses on your future plans and your long term thinking with regards to your content and your website’s future.

Kyle points out a few outsourcing resources and illustrates the importance of thinking long term, in terms of your content, traffic, potential earnings, and the effort involved.

When it comes to blogging, you have to think long term and imagine the compound impact of your content down the line. Even if each blog post only brings in 20 hits per month it will soon start adding up when you have two or three hundred blog posts over the next two to three years.

The people who ‘make it’ online think long term. The ones who fail are too focused on the short term gains and ultimately give up.


is wealthy affiliate worth the money
Is The Training Worth The Money?

The training inside Wealthy Affiliate is absolutely worth the money. Every step is broken down into easy bite-size chunks which is perfect for a beginner. Even someone with moderate experience with affiliate marketing will benefit from the training.

The step-by-step training progresses in a linear and practical way where you add content, develop your skills with WordPress and learn more about your chosen niche as you progress.

It takes the edge off of learning and the fact that there is a step-by-step process means its easier to stay on track, as opposed to going it alone and not really knowing if you're doing the right thing.

When you try and make money online it is a very lonely and precarious situation because you never really know if you're doing the right thing.

  • Is your website setup correctly?
  • Are you performing correct SEO?
  • Are you a call to actions enticing enough?
  • Why does your menu bar not aligned properly?
  • Why do I get an error when uploading image?

These are just a small fraction of the questions you will encounter when you try and build a website online using WordPress, because ultimately, it is a long and frustrating journey.

Trying to generate an income using a blog is not easy and if you compound that with isolation and loneliness it becomes almost impossible but when you use the training at Wealthy Affiliate, and take advantage of the support and the community, you are never alone.

Is The Support Efficient?

The support at Wealthy Affiliate is incredibly effective and they usually respond within half an hour of you submitting a ticket, regardless of the nature of your tickets.

Compared to other hosting providers like HostGator or Bluehost this is incredibly fast because most other providers will have a 24-hour window where they will respond.

Over the years I have had many issues with my websites ranging from:

  • Problems with coding
  • Theme issues and coding problems
  • Plug-in compatibility issues
  • Hidden errors created by myself by mistake
  • Problems with webmaster tools and indexing errors such as 404’s, image errors and much more.

Each and every time I had a problem the support staff answered and fixed my problems within the hour. I can honestly say, I have never experienced hosting with support that reacts and helps you that quickly. 

customer support at wealthy affiliate
How Much Does Wealthy Affiliate Cost?

To join Wealthy Affiliate is free and with the free membership you get access to the first 10 lessons within the training area, which will introduce you to the Affiliate Marketing world.

Not only that, but you can build free websites using the siterubix subdomain and you can continue to use a limited version of Wealthy Affiliate as long as you want for free.

The premium membership costs $19 for your first month, this is an introductory offer to introduce you to the life within Wealthy Affiliate. From there, it is $49 per month, which includes all the hosting, the support, the community and also the basic membership of the Jaaxy keyword research tool.

Trust me when I tell you that the $49 per month is incredible value for the tools, services and resources you get inside the community.

You can also pay for a yearly membership, which is $359 per year, which saves you a nice chunk of change. There is also one or two sporadic yearly membership sales throughout the year, where you can get the yearly membership for $299.

cost of wealthy affiliate
Any Common Complaints?

The most common complaints amongst new members at Wealthy Affiliate is that they get information overload. This is because there are so many resources and so many training modules they can get a bit lost at the beginning.

Now this may seem like a strange thing to have as a negative feature but this is a very common problem. Beginner bloggers join and soon become bogged down in too much information and they lose heart, become disheartened and some of them do quit in the process.

There are also some complaints about the cost, which is kind of strange when you consider that the $49 per month is cheaper than most other hosting providers who provide a fraction of the resources which Wealthy Affiliate has.

I think this is a cosmetic issue where the $49 ‘looks’ more expensive than the pricing charts at places like HostGator or Bluehost, where they advertise their hosting at $4.99 per month. However, at closer inspection, you will see that the hosting at the competing hosting providers is typically more expensive once you add the extra features, such as:

  • SSL certificate
  • Keyword research tool
  • Premium support
  • One on one coaching,
  • Hosting features such as bandwidth and storage space.
  • And many more ‘additional costs’ which Wealthy Affiliate does not have, but the competition does.

Overall, the hosting provided at Wealthy Affiliate is by far the best you can get for the price.

10 out of 10 for wealthy affiliate
My Overall Opinion

My overall view of Wealthy Affiliate is that it is the perfect place for a beginner blogger or affiliate marketer to learn the initial stages of creating an online income. The tools and features inside, including the hosting, are fantastic and they are more than suitable for even the most experienced affiliate marketer.

It is very important to feel like you have a home when you're working online. You need a community you can be a part of, in a trusting and honest way, without feeling you are being sold something at every turn.

Wealthy Affiliate is that community.

There are some downsides, but 90% of everything you get inside is a pure positive feature which will definitely enhance your performance in the online marketing world.

That is why I recommend it. That is why I love it. That is why I will always be member and I always recommends Wealthy Affiliate to anybody who wants to make money online.


What about you? Have you had any experience with WA? Leave a comment below and let us have a chat about it.

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  1. Hi,
    I must say this is the best article I’ve read in a long time about how to make money online with a study case.
    What I liked more of it it’s that you show with pictures and explain every step you did month by month.
    Oh boy!! this is like a good e-book to read, think I learned more on your article than on a few “online courses” I’ve paid for.
    I must say I already pined to Pinterest as I’m sure I’ll be back to read it again, you share a lot and so many good points to pay attention that I want to read this article at least twice.
    Thanks so much for sharing your knowledge!

  2. Hey there,

    I have been meaning to join wealthy affiliate for a long time now but something told me to get a quick review on it before taking any action, and am very happy I did.

    The increase in traffic through the months through the training you received from wealthy affiliate sure confirms that the university works.

    I now have no doubts when joining it. Thanks a lot for building confidence in me about it.

    1. Hi!
      Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Yes, Wealthy Affiliate does work and it is trustworthy!

      I created this case study to show that if you are patient and willing to work through your own mistakes that you will see results, even in one of the toughest niches online, the MMO niche.

  3. I am a premium member with WA but only into the process since February. My niche is not to promote WA but focus on Music and affiliate programs.

    I am certainly impressed by your blog post and your statistics are impressive.

    I am finding there is a win some, lose some, fall on your face steps that can’t be avoided no matter how much mentoring.

    I was reading your about me and the struggles you encountered until your break through.

    It is a skill that has to benurtured and everyone learns at their own pace.

    Great read, I am inspired.

    Thank you

  4. Great case study on Wealthy Affiliate. Your Month 3 problem has been my current situation. I am very happy I came across your article.
    After reading your page I feel a bit more motivated in pursuing my online endeavor..
    Wealthy Affiliate sounds like a great community to join. I have been trying to learn this all on my own. However now I think you have shown me a much better approach.
    Thanks for sharing your journey!
    Brendon

  5. Wow, this is a great, detail information about how you can honestly make money with Wealthy Affiliate! I recently join this program and started my website, so I am very much looking forward to my website to grow.

    I like you showed us how to check the traffic. I can certainly use that for my own progress.

    I am very curious, at the month 3, you realized your keywords choices were not good. How did you find that out?

    Thank you for sharing this. It is a great encouragement for those who started Wealthy Affiliate, or wondering about this program!

  6. This is by far the most amazing article I have seen on affiliate marketing and the whole make money online subject in general.

    I can relate to so many things you mentioned. I am not nearly as analytical of my own practices as you wear in your own review of yourself.

    So many graphs and no BS about your own BS. You inspired me to step up my game big time. Great post man!

    1. Thank you very much! I appreciate your kind words. I think it is important that people learn that Wealthy Affiliate is the real deal and it is worth the time and effort. You have to work hard and implement what they teach you but you can definitely see results if you learn the basics of SEO and take action.

  7. Wow, im-pressive. I really appreciate how you broke down the WA service step by step. It is insane the amount of value that is there. I remember I started with a company called AWOL academy and ever time i turned around, the price kept going up and up!

    Then I stumbled on WA and it has been a breath of fresh air.. thanks for the clarification in the study.

  8. Thank you so much for your informative post that has opened my eyes.
    I was contemplating to give up on my affiliate marketing project which seems to be stagnant.
    I now know why it took me so long to get traffic to my website.
    When I started, I used to write very short articles. The situation got worse the time I suffered from writers’ block. A time I found my enthusiasm to write had completely gone.
    Your post has made me realise where I was getting it all wrong. I can’t wait for your next article!

  9. I totally agree with you as I am also a premium member of the wa community since 4 years, currently i am running 3 successful websites and also earning well. As a beginner the video tutorials made it a very easy task to setup a site and whenever you have any queries you can ask the and they are always ready to hep you. Their seo “jaaxy” is also very informative and serves you well. However, it is also true that anyone can help you in setting up a website and can tell you about its inside outs, but it is you who will make your site successful. Many factors such as the niche of your site, your social media activity and most importantly your writing skills(which will definitely keep on improving by time) contribute in generating traffic and hence making your website a success.
    Great post bro.

    1. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. WA is a safe and honest place to learn how to make money online. 

      As you say, if you work hard and follow the basic rules of SEO then blogging is a great way to earn a living online. I often wonder why people questions whether or not the training is legitimate because anyone who is a member for more than a few hours can see how good the training is.

  10. Thanks for this in depth case study about what is possible and realistic to achieve with an affiliate marketing website. I must admit that I am around 60 articles into a website dedicated to the “make money online” niche. I have to say that I too am finding this market very crowded. I am not 100% sure if I want to continue with this website or create another website entirely in a new niche. Your website helped me to realise that I have to be patient and just ride it out a bit more. I was just wondering what your top tips are to help stay motivated along the journey?

    1. Staying motivated is hard, especially if you have a busy personal life. The simple fact is that you just have to seek inspiration wherever you can. You can use the WA forum and reach out to people there. 

      Everyone will tell you the same thing: Keep working and move forward. Everything you do will beneficent you in the future, some in ways you never dreamed of.

      The training inside Wealthy Affiliate is trustworthy and worth the time and effort. My case study shows this and I think that anyone who is wondering if WA is a scam can see that it is not.

  11. Let me just say this was a great read or case study, I am also in the same boat and have been searching for answers because I also have not made any money. But now after going through this I can see some light at the end of the tunnel and it feels great! Thank you for caring enough to take us through all of this, it was great.
    JesusB

    1. Thanks for taking the time to comment. A lot of people wonder if Wealthy Affiliate is worth the time and effort, and I am here to show the reasons why it is 100% worth the time and energy it takes to build a sustainable and profitable blog. 

      I am not going to sit here and say it is easy, as my case study shows it is not, but if you keep working and dig deep, then you will see results.

      People will doubt you and try and pour doubt over your efforts but keep learning about SEO and keyword research. Keep writing high quality articles and you will see results.

  12. Wow, wealthy affiliate does actually sound really promising! I am just starting to think about a business idea and need a platform to help me out with everything as I have no idea where to begin, I think I am going to take your word for it and try Wealthy Affiliate! Thanks for the great article 🙂

    1. I am glad to hear it. The material you learn inside WA is fantastic. You are taught how to do organic and simple Search Engine Optimisation which ensures your business survives all new Google algorithm updates.

      The community is alive and vibrant with thousands of members interacting and helping each other out. |

      The live webinars, with Jay, are so valuable because you get the chance to ask a real expert questions live!

  13. HI, this is an impressive post. And idea, it’s nice to see through someone’s progress with such details!

    And I have to say writing 20 posts a month is impressive too 😉

    I can’t wait to read the next months and see how the website is doing!

    Thanks for the infos and have a great day!

  14. Philip,
    Thank you for this amazing case study!
    Not everyone knows how much Time it actually takes before you can start receiving success!
    I know when I started, I wanted to make money fast!
    I can see why most bloggers get burnt out after the first few months, but if they stay and see it out! It could be so lucrative!
    Thank you for sharing this amazing ongoing case study for Wealthy Affiliate, I personally believe it is worth the money to get all the tools and resources you need to be successful with your online business ideas!

    1. Making money online with blogging does take some time. The great things about it is that the cost is very low and even someone with little experience can do it. 

      Using affiliate marketing strategies to drive traffic from Google and capturing their email leads to continuously drive traffic back to your website is a very simple but effective way to make money online.

      Using training material from places like Wealthy Affiliate is so incredibly powerful because the training is trusted and it works.

      Half the battle is knowing who’s training and strategies to trust, it is proven that the method that Kyle and Carson teaches really does yield results.

  15. What you have written is pretty amazing. I love how you break it down for your readers to get a better understanding of how wealthy affiliate works. I believe that wealthy affiliate is the best there is when it comes to building an online business with the methods that we are taught. I would encourage anyone to become a part of this community that is making a big difference in the lives of so many people.

    1. Building an online business takes time and effort. Most people do not have the stamina or the patience to learn about SEO and keyword research and so on.

      There is a lot of trial and error involved but with a community such as WA you have a real chance at succeeding online.

      The main benefit is that you always have somewhere to turn.

      Let’s say for example you are editing your website in WordPress but you can’t figure out how to move your menu items around or you are having difficulty with an image that won’t align properly.

      You can then jump into the forum at WA and post a question there and they are usually answered withing a few minutes! The community is worldwide so the support you get is 24/7.

      People who question if Wealthy Affiliate is the real deal are people who are too impatient and looking for “quick cash” which, unfortunately, does not exist online.

      Thanks for taking the time to comment and I hope my reply proves useful!

  16. This is an amazing page. You have packed in so much information here. I loved the two year study. As someone just beginning the affiliate journey, it was inspiring to read about you ups and downs. As your site began to grow, I felt encouraged that in the months that follow, I’ll be able to write about similar results.

    Including information in bite size pieces about the training offered at Wealthy Affiliate is so helpful. I’m sure people are going to love this page be motivated to give it a try.

    1. Thank you so much for taking the time leave a comment! It means a lot!

      Creating this case study has been a challenge. It has become very long and I have spent 2 years writing it. 

      I wanted to show potential users who are wondering if WA is a scam or possibly a low quality service that the training is great and the methods they teach do work.

      Everyone will “Google” a scam review or try to find an unbiased blog post about it, so I thought I would provide this service. As with many fake reviews, they are easy to spot. However, in my case you can see that I have actually worked through the training so I can provide the most genuine and honest statistics as I can.

      By the end of 2018 I am hoping to be clearing $2,000 per month from this case study.

      If you have any question regarding my journey then please do let me know and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

      Cheers

      Philip

  17. Wow. One of the most in-depth case studies I’ve ever laid my eyes on! My impression after reading this was that you had done a lot of hanging in there, yourself, and you’re genuinely interested in seeing others learn from your mistakes and that you’re not just in this space to sell stuff but to educate the reader. Thanks for the post.

    1. Hanging int here is a huge part of making a success of any business online. Beginner affiliates often assume that money comes quickly and they give up way too soon. They build a website and then almost immediately start questioning every strategy and method they have been taught because they are not overnight millionaires. 

      Success takes time. You have to build your foundation of your business and take one step forward.

      Learning SEO, WordPress, writing blog posts and keyword research is not quick process. However, it is a very safe and sustainable way to drive traffic to your website. 

      The monetisation happens naturally and over time to start making real money online.

  18. You have an incredibly thorough breakdown of Wealthy Affiliate and your progression as the months pass. I joined wealthy affiliate and was a bit hesitant due to other scams out there, but after a few months I realized it was not a scam. You are given access to many things, like the graphs you posts regarding google analytics. I, like you, have been tracking my website progression and it has been a roller coaster much like yours.

    I agree with your ‘is the training any good’ conclusion in that the training is! You nailed everything on the head with wealthy affiliate and I love your step by step, month by month progression from when you started, hit that 40 post wall, and current status. This is by far the best break down of any I have seen and I look forward to reading more of your posts!

    1. Hi! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. 

      I want to break everything down to the last detail so that people can see that hard work really does pay off. 

      Making money online is just like anything else in life, it takes time and effort. I wanted to illustrate that the training inside WA is genuine and if you apply what they teach to everything you do online, the results will come.

  19. Hello, I just read your sites content and am really impressed by your dedication and honesty. You rightly point out that people give up too soon after a set back, when success could be just a matter of months away. It truly takes time to be successful at anything and the same is true Ipoh making money online. Thank you for your work so far and I hope to see more of your journey soon. Kenny.

    1. Thank you very much for your kind words, Kenny. 

      People often get lost in the world of SEO and blogging. They spend too much time worrying about what other people are doing and get bogged down in the finer details and the geeky stuff. 

      When it comes down to it you simply need to follow some basic rules about creating great content and some basic SEO features. The rest is down to consistency and hard work. 

      Your rinse and repeat over and over again. The results come eventually.

      As long as you are honest and you write from the heart, everything will fall into place.

  20. I understand the frustration of trying to explain to everyone how amazing something is and trying to explain its not a sca is extremely hard to prove. I love your diagrams, and your way of getting your point across is perfect. How long have you been in WA for now?

    1. I have been with WA since 2014. Like most others I didn’t do much for the first year and then restarted a new website. Now, however, I am reaping the rewards after many years of struggling. I am now clearing $2,000 per month and seeing real results.

  21. Wow, this is a great case study! You really went out of your way to make this article. It was a good read.

    I’m a member of WA for over three years by now, and I started as a complete beginner. Before I found WA, I tried Shopify, but I couldn’t figure it out. This is the big advantage WA offers, as a complete newbie like me could slow but steady gain more experience with Internet Marketing.

    Today I have a few affiliate websites that are actually making money thanks to the experience I’ve joined some other programs (which are a bit more advanced), but I will keep my membership with WA, as they still offer me a lot of knowledge.

  22. I’ve spent the last two months looking into internet marketing training and Wealthy Affiliate has popped up on numerous occasions – it’s great to find an article that actually covers the effectiveness of the education instead of just blowing a trumpet for it! 

    My main drawback has been the price of premium if I decided to take it on after the initial lessons – do you feel that the money paid for the monthly subscription is worth it from a newbie’s point of view?

    I’m also a little worried about the learning curve this sort of thing involves – are the lessons jargon-free and suited to someone like me (who knows near enough nothing about the subject?).

    Looking forward to your response,

    Chris

    1. Hey!

      Yes, the lessons are completely newbie friendly. Kyle, the creator, talks you through everything and the training is tailored for the completely new and inexperienced.

      Jay, the live webinar coach, does an equally great job of making everyone feel welcome and teaches at such a great level. Nothing is left out and everything is explained in great detail.

      The price includes the hosting, keyword research tool and all the bells and whistles. All you need to buy is a domain name and you never have to buy anything else again, not until you start making some real money from your blog.

      Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! It means a lot to me!

  23. Dear Philip,

    Thanks a lot for sharing your case study and a great in-depth review on Wealthy Affiliate.

    Recording your statistics Month by Month is awesome and its a great testimony to your great success and Wealthy Affiliate works!

    As you said it well “Hang In” and “Keep Writing” is the key to the success!

    I bookmarked your post it contains loads of valuable information. Being a full-time blogger I can see the hard work you put in your site and you are a great success story. Hats off to you my friend!

    I am a Wealthy Affiliate member since November 2016 and they helped me to quit my day and become a full-time blogger. Since December 2017 I am working from home.

    The training inside is absolutely worth the money.

    Much Success!

    Paul

  24. Wow! Incredibly thorough article. I would recommend this to anyone worried about how you can make money online with affiliate marketing.

    I’ve been involved in online marketing for around 4 years, although primarily in PPC advertising, so the knowledge on SEO and keywords you’re giving out is huge to me.

    I’m also really impressed by the dedication you’ve put into documenting every step of your journey. Do you find that doing that actually makes it easier to stick to it?

    1. When you record your progress of building a business online, I do feel you stay focused because you take the time to analyse what you have done. Much like split testing a PPC campaign, you sit back and think about where you are. 

      Also, it allows you to plan a bit and try and imagine what your future might hold. I also wrote this review to inspire others because I know how hard it is when you try to build a website. 

      Trying to overcome the Google sandbox and figuring out all the SEO stuff is very confusing in the beginning, and most do give up. The purpose of this post is to show that the training inside Wealthy Affiliate is honest and it does deliver results. Thanks for taken time to leave a comment, Tom, it is much appreciated.

  25. Hi Phillip. Your reviews are a go to place when I really need to know about a product or service, so I already have the greatest respect for your work.

    This Wealthy Affiliate review is a masterpiece and, as usual for you, there is a wealth of detail and information.

    I read through your chronology of events and was impressed because I have gone through similar stages as you but not so successfully. What I have now is a handful of “things to do” which I have gleaned from your diary.

    Like you, I have made a few mistakes, discovered at a later date!! (unsmiley face.)

    I do have a couple of questions:

    1. How long did it take you to put together the 15,000 words?

    How did you plan and structure it?

    I need to consider doing something similar (different topic, for my own site. I am in the middle of a 10,000 word eBook but I find I write better when I get stuck in and focus on nothing else until the project has been completed. Other “urgent” issues get in the way and I loose steam.

    Maybe I need to plan and modularise a lot more.

    The ethos of your article is one I can endorse 100%. We jokingly refer to Wealthy affiliate as a university but, quite honestly, the quality of courses and support go way beyond most modern universities.

    I have to congratulant you. This is a masterpiece and a reference manual for anyone researching Wealthy Affiliate.

    I will be using it myself from time to time to help formulate some of the finer points of what is on offer. in my mind.

    When people talk about the cost, they could look at two factors:

    1. There are other courses and seminars which teach small parts of the information and they regularly cost hundreds and thousands of dollars each. There is no community to ask for help and you often have to learn the lot over 1 or 2 days. With Wealthy affiliate, you can take as long as you like, rerun bits and ask questions of Kyle or 1 of thousands of members.

    Add up all these small parts to achieve the same as the W.A. courses and it often runs into thousands of dollars.

    2. The hosting, as you point out, is of the highest quality and, if you utilise the 25 free website hostings, incredibly cheap.

    I would like to add a little about the cost. The Black Friday deal, annual membership is a fantastic offer.

    I have rambled Phillip, and I could have rambled longer.

    Well done and please keep writing these masterpieces.

    1. Overall it has taken me a year and a half to write this review because I have been writing it on a monthly basis since I created this blog post. The structure of it just appeared naturally, and I have not given much thought, but for SEO purposes I probably will restructure it soon.

      To be honest, I don’t think about the length of the post I keep writing until I feel I have said what I have to say. That is the best way to do it, and that is the best way to bring in traffic. People want to see that your honest and above board and you do that by creating excellent content.

      Luckily I was taught that at what affiliate, so there are. Thanks, time to leave such a long coherent comment, it does mean a lot to me.

  26. Wow this is an impressive article and very well detailed and explained. It’s so good to see how other online marketers are very transparent when it comes to what strategies and methods they use. You have covered so many good points and offer so much here, I really do appreciated. wealthy affiliate is definitely a great place to start building the online business, but it takes time and dedication to make it work. Thanks again.

    1. You need to persistent and hard working to make a blog successful. Building up an organic level of keywords and traffic takes time but when it comes it is so worth it. You need to learn how to write good content and the basics of SEO, the rest comes along naturally as you progress: YouTube videos, theme design, basics CSS coding and so on.

  27. Thanks for taking the time to create such an extensive case study! You are very methodological in your approach, which is something I don’t see very often.

    It’s great you actually show that you’re making money with affiliate marketing, because I see so many articles of people claiming this and that method is the best, without actually showing some proof.

    You say that AMP is no longer needed. Would you care to explain that? This is something I never implemented, but I always had my doubts about if I should still do it. Thanks in advance for your answer!

    1. I found that AMP always flagged up too many errors. If your images are small and you host videos and so on at YouTube or Vimeo then your page will load quickly enough.

      You can still use AMP, for sure, but for me I found is alarming how many errors I kept getting in my Webmaster tools. Perhaps it was not compatible with my theme, not sure.

  28. Great post, I am also in the process of doing a running total type post to help people decide if WA is for them or not.  I can personally say that it definitly is the best way to make a blog that I have found.

    I have been trying to make money online since 2011, and although I was able to publish a blog, I didn’t really understand how to generate traffic until I moved over to Wealthy Affiliate.  Not only do you get the best training, but you also get help from other affiliate marketers who have had the same issues that everybody does.

    Having access to experience has really made my websites more successful.  I get traffic that converts!  

    1. Organic traffic is the key. Unless you want to spend $1000’s on trial and error with paid advertising from Facebook and Google, then you need to learn how to execute SEO. 

      Organic traffic converts so well because the user intent is right there. All you need to do is to be as honest and as forthcoming as you can, the reader does the rest.

  29. I read the entire case study and it is amazing! I love how you documented so clearly your personal and professional interaction, the amount of posts, the amount of income, the impressions vs. the clicks, and so on. I am currently in the 8th month of my new website and it can be painstaking when you have put in so much effort and you’re not seeing the commensurate results. For me, at 8 months, I have 430,000 words of content, 181 posts, and 871 comments so far, and still not showing consistent income. My highest month so far is $400, but based on all of the videos you see online about how easy online business can be, you’d think I’d be making a full time income by now. Your case study shows how it really is in a competitive niche (like mine). Thanks for this thorough case study. I want to continue coming back to it to see the growth. Do you plan to continue this now that you’re making consistent money?

    1. Hey! Thanks for taking the time to comment! I will continue this case study for as long as I have the website! 

      I am so glad this article has given you some hope and trust me that your earnings and visitor number will get better and better. Do not lose hope!

      Your work rate is impressive and I would recommend you delve deep and find different angles and ways of approaching blog post topic ideas. The what the competition is doing and then think, “How can I do that better?”, then you go and do exactly that!

      The MMO niche is competitive but your work rate will shine through and beat the competition. Bloggers come and go just as quickly as the products we review. Keep working and you will get through the thick competition.

  30. Wow! This is probaby the best case study I found on WA. You have done a great job by providing all the results with proof. You donot have just an opinion like many WA reviews but a long case study to prove the quality of wealthy affiliate training. I had few doubts about WA but I am going to take it seriously. It seems like if it works for you then it may work for me too. What would be your tips to be highly successful within WA?

    1. If you want to be successful with the method they teach you inside Wealthy Affiliate then you need to be patient, hard working and be self aware enough to learn and move forward.

      You are going to make mistakes with your blog, content, SEO and many other aspects of affiliate marketing, but you need to push through the frustration and keep working!

  31. I have read several other Wealthy Affiliate members’ case studies as well, and like you they all show success after about 1-2 years. I started blogging with Wealthy Affiliate back in 2016, but I did it wrong the first time and wasted a whole year for nothing. Now I’m on my second website and I’m about a year in, only getting about 400 visitors a month.

    But I’m convinced I’m on the right track this time around and so looking at results from people like you gives me the perseverance to keep on going knowing eventually I’ll join your ranks in making $1000+ a month.

    My advice to any Wealthy Affiliate newbies would be to follow their training very closely and do exactly as they say. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel, just follow the steps they lay out for you and you will eventually see progress.

  32. I’m really impressed by all the information you managed to fit into this post, and from what I have read, it’s all good stuff.

    Something which really caught my eye is that fact that people do tend to give up after a short while of trying this out properly.  It is a shame as I’m sure they have good intentions, and they have their dreams, but these things do actually take quite some time to materialize.

    It could be quite a few months, or even years, but the point is not to give up, providing one is going in the right direction, otherwise, all your efforts and hard work will not be of any use to anybody.

    Oh, and Wealthy Affiliate is most certainly not a scam.  If it were, I wouldn’t be a member there…

    Thanks once more for such a fine post, Philip.

    James

  33. Hi Phillip,

    Great job with this review, it obvious that you spent a great deal of time putting it all together. I came across this review, after finding Wealthy Affiliate by accident. 

    Or at least that Saturday morning; I thought it was an accident, but as you indicated in your review, the program teaches people to write their content as one person who is talking to another person. This is what caught me eye!

    Once I listened to the first two lessons it was clear to me that Wealthy Affiliate is something different and if someone is looking for some training and does not mind putting in the work, they can be successful in an online business.

    Thanks for sharing this information, and taking the time to do this.

    Have a great day!

    Chad

  34. Hi Philip,

    It was interesting going through your long blog on your personal experience research on Wealthy Affiliate. I couldn’t believe that you actually took a two year survey of your journey as you grew your website. I think this is something I would love to do too, tracking down all the pitfalls as well as the successes I have made.

    I would like to congratulate you because of the great job you have done here. You have not only researched and documented but you have also demonstrated and proved that Wealthy Affiliate really works and it’s never close to being a scam but an opportunity that should be explored with dedication and commitment.

    I love those screenshots you have posted here because they are enough proof of what you have talked about. 

    With much gratitude

    Paul.

  35. I really loved the way you broke down WA training review. Couples of years ago I was struggling on the internet searching for a way to make money online, I faced a lot of scams websites and I lost a lot of money back then. I have been a WA member at about 4 months, the first thing that really impressed me, was the way the community welcomed me I will never forget that feeling. I have to say that you really encouraged me to write articles with a minimum of 1000 words because my target was 800-1500 worlds which are not good for the newbie and for those who are focused on organic traffic just like me.Thanks for sharing this incredible review

    1. Hey! Thanks for sharing, means a lot.

      Writing lengthy content is tough because people are always in a hurry. There is a tendency to misunderstand pushing the “Publish” button with progress and thinking that publishing more blog posts i better, when it is the opposite. 

      Writing fewer long and quality articles is far better, both for SEO and the visitor, if you want to build a long and sustainable future for your blog. 

      Google wants to see content which solves the users search query but also provides valuable resources and solution to the topic.

  36. OMG…Why didn’t I find this post sooner?!!!  Everything you’ve said (at least up to month 7 is spot-on)!  I say this because I’m on my month 7 now so I can’t verify beyond that, yet.

    This would have saved me so much time.  The part about poor keyword choices fits my situation too and disruptions abound no matter what month you’re in.  Some of them self-inflicted, others from external sources.  Staying and/or getting back on track is key.

    I’m actually keeping this post bookmarked as my new reference moving forward with my site.  Thank you so much for taking the time to post this month-by-month road map, if you will.  I might be able to shave some time off using it as a guide.

    In my opinion, granted it’s only 7 months old, WA is definitely not a scam.  The community is great, training is amazing and the hosting is top-notch.

    Tanks again!

  37. If Wealthy Affliate is a scam, why does the things they teach works? This is my simple question. They have a training on how to get my website indexed and it works. If it is a scam, they wont bother giving any value. Today I can earn about $100 everyday during my sleep. Your result in impressive, I wish to learn more from you.

    1. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment and yes, you’re right, if people think WA is a scam then why do so many people see success with it?

      The training they share is 100% organic and highly targeted. Everyone who pull their socks up and get to work see great results by building a WordPress website and learning the basics of SEO.

  38. Damn! It’s very long article you have there. It’s a income report in 2 years collected. Love to see growth on your website. I love the way you shows the snapshot of the Google Analytic, really convincing. As a fellow WA members, and as a someone that always stalk your website, this article really brilliant. I don’t know how much time you spend to put this all together. Honestly, I not read all the words. I just scroll through the article to see what you’re trying to talk about. And I believe, anyone that see this article will be amazed. The growth might be slow but it prove that the way WA teaches is acceptable. Thanks for this article 🙂

  39. As a newbie into the world of internet marketing/blogging and a new user to WA, I thank you for this post.  i found it informative and, to be honest, It showed me some areas where I probably really need to lift my game.  The best thing about this post, in my opinion, is the complete outline of exactly how much work it takes to start making the money that you now are.  I have seen so many “fly by night” shonks telling my – usually via Facebook – how I can be making 7 figures in just a few weeks!  We all know this is not true but they certaiinly suck enough people in.

    I am also a new members of WA, I totally backup your comments.  Yes, It can be overwhelming and there is so much to look at that it can actually distract you from the real end game which is your website. But having tried so many other things that only ever give you half the story per payment checkpoint, WA is the most cost effective and really helpful site I have come across.  in 1 month I have a website that is generating  a little traffic all for the cost of my monthly membership $49 and my website domain $14.   No income yet, but as you rightly point out, this is a long game. 

    Thanks for a great article and good luck in getting this message out there – it is well worth it!

  40. This a well-documented case-study for Wealthy Affiliate, thanks for sharing your journey in making money online with this amazing platform. This simply shows that Wealthy Affiliate works, not just for a few lucky people, but for anyone who is dead serious about making real money online. Of course, it will take hard work and dedication in order to succeed. But what’s great about this platform other than the easy to understand and follow lessons and training is the community of people led by the owners Kyle and Carson who are always available to help out.

    I did set up an analytics account so I could track my performance but one thing I need to work on I guess is writing more valuable contents. There are times when I run out of topics to write about and after spending some time thinking about what topic to tackle next, I often end up brushing it aside. Your progress has really inspired me to get back on track and remember the reason I signed up with Wealthy Affiliate in the first place. So thank you Philip, keep rocking it!

    1. If you ever struggle with content creation idea then head over to https://answerthepublic.com/ and type in a single word.

      You immediately receive an endless amount of queries that people have and you can then take these and do some keyword research to see which questions have low competitions and high search volume!

      Cheers

  41. Amazing article. I believe the most important part is that you show your monthly progress and not so much analyzing WA. Since in order to become successful people will need at least a year or more it is important to see how slow and difficult it can be in the first year and how things are progressing every month. For those starting now it will definitely help them see things from a real perspective and this is the most important thing as WA is a platform for a marathon and not a sprint. Great read, amazing work!

    1. The first year is always tough – mainly because you make so many mistakes! haha! 

      If you keep writing great quality content and lengthy content then Google does get a good sense of what your website is about.

      I got my first page 1 ranking after 3 months after I started which solidified my confidence, that helped a lot!

  42. Hi Phillip,

    I am a member of Wealthy Affiliate and I have to say I am extremely impressed with your extensive review and Analytics.

    You have broken down each and every component very nicely. You have inspired me to write more and work harder. I am going into my 2nd year at WA.

    I kinda wasted 5 months in my first year with Wealthy Affiliate, but didn’t give up. I think that’s the best advice one can give.NEVER GIVE UP!

    I actually have that written on my white board at home above my desk. I am now writing 2 blogs a day, but sometimes only posting one a day because I also have created a YouTube channel and would like to make a video for them.

    I am also in the process of creating a training membership program, but it will be a while before I get it up and running.

    Thank you for your insight to all the hard work you put into this and I would love to eventually get to the level of making 3,000 a month. I know I will in time. And time is what it takes.

    Again thank you and look me up on WA. let’s connect.

    All the best!

    Aaron G. Griffin Lifestyle
    “Actions Lead To Results”

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