WA is also known as Wealthy Affiliate University, because just like a bricks and mortar university you are gaining an education. 

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However just as off-line what you do with that education is up to you.

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WA does not make you money... YOU DO.

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Your success is your responsibility.

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 WA gives you the right knowledge and a risk-free way of testing the water (free websites + expert advice and support).

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If you study the success stories from WA you'll discover that though all followed the step by step training as each developed their skills everyone modified the system to best suit their own UNIQUE skills and preferences.

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You will do the same... make this endeavor what YOU want it to be.

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You've got this :)​

Get Organized

My weak point. Cost me a lot of wasted time :(

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Obviously if you're already a great organizer, skip this section.

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Working online, learning and implementing is going to take a little organization.

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Most important you're going to start collecting login and passwords for websites, training, services, affiliate programs, maybe even extend this to stuff in your personal life?

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Also you may have more than one device (PC, tablet, partners laptop etc) you work from​.

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I would suggest creating a text file with all this information and storing it for free on somewhere like Dropbox.com or Google Drive, this way it's secure and accessible from any device that has internet access.

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I store everything that is critical to my online business here, now when some tech related problem occurs I can work from any device, anywhere, I've even worked from an Internet Cafe before.

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In the same vein use the Bookmarking function of your Browser to accurately file website content that you may want to revisit. If you don't know how to organize your browser bookmarks simple go to Youtube.com and type into the search box something along the lines of "how to organize bookmarks in Chrome". Obviously replace Chrome with whatever browser you prefer.

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I create a bookmark FOLDER for "Training" and create individual Bookmarks for training URLS that I will want to revisit. I have folders for WA Success Stories, Affiliate Programs, Potential Affiliate Programs, content Ideas, services I use, image sites etc... I have about 25 folders now which saves me a lot of time.

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You also want to organise your main working device using the same (or very similar architecture) to that of your bookmarks.

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Personally, I have a folder for each website I build that has separate subfolders for keyword research, images, affiliate links & tracking, articles, pdfs, site backups etc. This way everything I need to work on a site is stored together.

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Useful Free Utilities

Google Docs Voice Typing (Dictation) 100% FREE and AWESOME...

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CamStudio - Free screen capture software great for making screen capture videos, combine it with Microsoft free Movie Maker application and you're set up to make great video content at zero cost.

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I use notepad files a lot. I wanted a multi tab version for free... EditPad Lite 7 works great.

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Screen Grab Pro - Free screen capture software also has a video recording facility.

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Screen Grab Pro Delux (free) - can record any video that plays on your PC.​ (I actually prefer the simplicity of the basic version).

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Awesome Screenshot a great capture tool for your browser (I use Chrome and sometimes Firefox).​ Click here to see it in action...

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Photoscrape - Free image editing application that continues to evolve. 

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Canva.com another great free image editing service that's online based, nothing to download...

Personally, I like using mind-mapping to plot out ideas. Here's a great free one... click the image to visit their website...

If your spelling and grammar suck... mine do so I now use Grammarly... 100% free (there is a paid version but you don't need it)...

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Right, organized and with all the tools needed... Let The Fun Begin...​

1 - Choose An Interest - Niche Selection

Within WA there are people who build ONE big website, others who prefer many small 'niche' sites, and folks who hover between the two. There is no right way.

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If you prefer the idea of the one site, I would say it's vital to love the topic... you'll be spending a lot of time on it.

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If your a multi-site builder your passion for the topic is less important.

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Choosing an interest / niche - WA free training

The Kindle Book Method...

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Want great royalty free images? try this for size https://www.pexels.com.

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Also try pixabay.com and Unsplash.

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I mostly use Photoscrape to edit images (can use Canva if you prefer). 

"Super Sexy Sidebar - Return Of The Widget Editor" - Follow up to the above training introduces the excellent Black Studio Tiny MCE Widget Plugin (free) which makes creating compelling sidebar content so much easier than having to add html code into a text widget area.

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The Ultimate Tiny MCE WordPress Editor Plugin massively extends the capabilities of the standard editor.

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Thrive Themes and plugins. These are the themes and plugins I use on all my sites now. Yes they are premium. Once you've decided that you want to continue creating web content I would advise you check out the famous Thrive Wordpress Editor at least, it makes editing in Wordpress so easy and fun. Check out the demo video to see for yourself... (affiliate link :) )

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3 - Attract Visitors

Attracting visitors is CRITICAL to building a profitable website. In general there are 3 ways to do this...

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - Create content that gets ranked in search engines. 
2. Connecting with people on social media and in forums and communities.
3. Paid traffic techniques including, pay per click, pay per view, media buys, email marketing, and re-targeting.

WA does a great job of teaching all traffic getting methods. But don't try and master them all at first (insanity lurks) you only need to get competent at one or two. Most people start with SEO because they have more time than money available for paid traffic.

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Imagine having the ability to find commercially valuable keyword phrases, that you can use to create compelling content around that will attract free search engine visitors, who will benefit from your content before taking the action which you suggest (clicking an affiliate link to buy a product, joining your email list, clicking other links to find out more, contacting you... the choice is yours).

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This obviously takes practice, but is the skill set WA is teaching, and it starts with keyword research...​

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​SEO - Tools & Training

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Jaaxy - FREE access to Kyle's game changing keyword research software. There is a premium upgrade for heavy keyword researchers...

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Kyle shows you how to do the 'Alphabet Soup' keyword research technique. If you do nothing else read this post.​

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WA Free Keyword tool training here.​

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Keyword Optimizer Pro  FREE PC based software for doing keyword research (alphabet soup technique)
Watch  the video below to see how it works...

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Building A List / Email Marketing

The phrase "the money is in the list" gets used a lot.

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The fact is that if you are building a long-term business / supplimentary income stream having an email list WILL Improve your conversions... even done badly!

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Building a list AMPLIFIES your business.​

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All the success stories from WA talk about wishing they'd started list building sooner. I too wish I'd started sooner.

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Click here for to learn how to make money from email marketing.

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The key tool for this job is called an Auto-Responder... I use both Aweber and Active Campaign.

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Aweber is a great company and solid product - great value for money :)

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Active campaign is more expensive but offers a lot more list segmentation and 3rd party application integration...

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If you're just getting started Aweber is the way to go with a $1 dollar trial followed by $19 per month.

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If you want to know more about email marketing here's a great free pdf from Aweber that'll really help.

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Attracting Visitors Through Social Media and Communities

​Social media isn't my thing. Not because it doesn't work because it does. Simply because it takes a lot more time than I'm willing to invest.

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Therefore I don't collect much information on the subject.

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What I do though is make sure all the content I post on my website(s) is syndicated on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, and if appropriate YouTube. I do this primarily for SEO /  backlinks (the only backlinking I do).

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Using IFTTT to syndicate your blog posts automatically...​

I posted on this here...​

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In that post I mention a plugin I used to give me better control of my RSS feed. The link to where you can get that plugin is here http://semanticmastery.com/rss-recipes/    UPDATE I don't use this plugin now. Not because of any problems with it, it's just that I don't need it's functionality.  If you're planning on building big IFTTT networks   you should use the plugin as it will help your SEO.

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4 - Earn Revenue

Wealthy Affiliate teaches you how to create a website with content that people (and search engines) love.

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What that website is about can be up to you. Therefore there are actually lot's of ways to earn revenue from a website which attracts visitors. Here are the obvious ones...

1. Affiliate Marketing
2. Selling Ad space on your website (Google Adsense is a very popular and reliable)
3. Selling your own services and products
4. Selling SEO services to local companies (big demand for this)
5. Collecting email names from your visitors​ and profiting from Email Marketing
6. Any combo from the above.

Your own website really can be a fantastic earner, only limited by your imagination and efforts.

Finding Affiliate Products and Services to Promote

​Most people look no further than the obvious big networks Clickbank (great for info products) and JVzoo. The downside for following the crowd is more competition. So how do you find 'private' affiliate programs?

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​My favorite way is using a search engine... here's how...

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​niche / subject AND "affiliate program" typed into any search engine... looks like...

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​acne AND "affiliate program"  (the acne can be replaced with your niche / product idea, the capitalized AND tells the search engine to only return results with both criteria present, and the speech marks show the search engine a phrase of two or more words... affiliate program in my example). 

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"dog *" AND (affiliate OR partner OR "joint venture" AND program) 

The above search term is just showing off really, this will give you all dog training / accessories / beds/ collars/ blankets and so on affiliate programs. But if you replace the * (wildcard) with say training you really narrow down your results... give it a try see what you think.

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Click here for a huge list of affiliate networks...​

Trendhunter.com If you're interested in promoting high end physical products this site will give you tons of ideas...

Sell Your Writing Skills As A Service

Here's an idea. If you need something that will pay you money (weekly) selling your writing services may interest you. True you'll only start out at a low rate but you'll have money coming in and you'll be learning a valuable skill (writing for the web).

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Also your writing only has to be 'adequate'. So don't fear you'll not be good enough.​

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And... you could start your more lucrative affiliate business on the side?

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Interested in writing for the web?... click here (I'm not affiliated with this service).