Being an affiliate is something that is near and dear to my heart. My name is Kyle and I supposed you could call me a seasoned 
affiliate marketer. I love everything about the affiliate world (well, almost) and I have been ingrained in the affiliate marketing industry since 2002 when I got my start online.
I am not your typical rags-to-riches story, those are just annoying and you can head to any “make money fast” site online if you want to read that. Instead, I am going to explain exactly how I got acquainted with the affiliate world and what my path to success looked like online.
A Little Back Story
Growing up I was always a big dreamer… I knew I wanted to be great at something, I just wasn’t sure what. My first goal was to be a baseball player, my hero was Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics. He was fast, he as a great player, and to this day he holds the stolen base record. My problem, I wasn’t fast, and I wasn’t tall enough. Game plan destroyed.
Move forward 12 years later, when I was in school for computer science. I wasn’t all that interested in becoming a coder for the rest of my life, but I was very much interested in the business application of computers which was why I went to college for Computer Science.
It was while I was in school during a lab that I discovered affiliate marketing from a fellow student. He was making decent money with it already and was very cryptic about how it worked, but they showed me their revenue stats and I was blown away that they were actually making money on the internet.
I Saw Others Succeeding, I Got to Work
I saw the light, so to speak. I knew very well that if others could make money online, I could absolutely make money online as well. I just had to get a grasp of the concept of affiliate marketing and how it worked. I also needed to figure out how to get traffic.
My First 30 Days Online
My first 30 days online were a real eye-opener. Back in 2002 when I started out, I surely didn’t have access to advanced website platforms like SiteRubix @ Wealthy Affiliate, where you can create beautiful looking websites in a few clicks.
It took me over a month to fumble through building my website from code, literally. It ended up looking like a dog’s breakfast as well, something that I was proud of at the time, but looking back my first work was horrendously ugly.
So my first month online, I built a website…something that you will be able to do in minutes today.
The 3 Month Mark
The 3-month mark, I made my first sale online. I was very careful when getting rolling, the reason being is that I didn’t understand things like search engine optimization, I started within the PPC world with a budget of less than $5 per day.
Before I started my campaigns though, I needed to do market research, find affiliate programs, and learn how to properly construct ad groups. To show my old age (currently 35), when I started Yahoo was the most popular pay per click (PPC) network and I slowly learned the PPC game.
I made a few more sales in my 3rd month.
The 6 Month Mark
This is when things really started to get interested. I learned that once you have a “formula for success down” to increase your level of success it is just a matter of doing more of the same thing. In other words, SCALING your business.
By month 6 I was making consistent sales daily, my ad budget continued to climb as I continue to reinvest my money into my business which allowed it to scale. I was starting to near the $10,000 per month mark around month 6, with a great deal of these costs going towards advertising.
The One-Year Mark
I graduated from school, I got a job. That is what “œconventional wisdom” said was the proper way to go about your life. So that is exactly what I did, I followed convention and I got a job that I didn’t love working as a webmaster/designer for a telecommunications’ company.
I actually didn’t mind the work, but I didn’t love the environment. If you work in a normal job, you can probably appreciate that most people don’t want to be there and it can really drag you down.
Things were going really well on the affiliate marketing business front though, to the point where I was able to quit my job a few months later and become a full time affiliate marketer. It felt incredible, it felt a bit risky, but I was at the point where I was earning much more within the affiliate marketing space than I was within my $57,000 per year job.
I can tell you though, that underlying risk and pressure when you take a chance can actually serve your business well. It can be a true motivator and I know firsthand that this has contributed to a great deal of my personal growth (and business growth) over the years.
Then in 2005, Something Happened.
2005. The inception of WealthyAffiliate.com took place.
This was a pet project and something that I wanted to do for a long time, I knew firsthand that I could teach others how to build a successful business online, just as I had. I joined forces with Carson, whom was also a successful affiliate marketer and I went to school with to create something that was truly unique at a time, a platform for affiliate marketers to learn the PROPER way.
It all started with one member. It was initially more of a “keyword list” website where we offered people a place in which they could list of high quality PPC keywords, along with potential ad groups. It was a huge success, people loved the service and we charged folks $359.88 per year and people absolutely loved the Wealthy Affiliate service.
12 years later, Wealthy Affiliate has evolved into the ONLY place internet entrepreneurs and affiliate marketers will ever need to go if they are looking create, grow or manage their businesses online. But it has been a lot of work.
The 15 Year Mark
Here I stand, 15 later being full time online. Most businesses don’t make it past 1 years, many more don’t make it past 5, and a very tiny percentage are thriving past 10. Why me?
I think my biggest quality and it is one that you should instill in yourself if you are struggling to achieve success online is to PUSH through the struggle. Keep at it.
A very small percentage of people out there are willing to push forward and push harder when times are tough. Why? Because QUITTING is the absolute easiest and most efficient thing you can do to remove yourself from any struggle. Don’t quit, don’t give up, and you will be WAY further ahead of 80% of people out there and also well on your way to creating a very successful affiliate marketing business online.
Trust me. I am not smarter than you, I just believe I work harder when it becomes hard to work!
My Mission With RealDealAffiliate.com
Like the name, I want to bring a whole lot of reality to the affiliate marketing world. There is a lot of outdated and false information out there and there are a lot of “expectations” that people have without truly understand what is involved in affiliate marketing.
I am going to shine the light on the affiliate world and provide you with a full spectrum of current, insightful and sometimes opinionated content that is based on my over 15 years experience within this space.
This includes everything from traffic generation methods, website development and design, affiliate marketing related product and service reviews, as well as straight up opinions that I feel need to get heard.
I am speaking on behalf of an industry and a base of affiliates that often times doesnt have a voice, but also speaking on behalf of merchants and affiliate programs that truly need that extra push to extend their reach within this incredible world we have come to know as affiliate marketing.
Join the journey with me. Follow me. Ask me for help. Offer your own opinions. Thanks for stopping by Affiliate Reality and listening to my story. Your story can be just as incredible and exciting with a little hard work and dedication.
Let’s make the affiliate magic happen,
Kyle
RealDealAffiliate.com
Really enjoyed reading your life story regarding Wealthy Affiliate. It was inspirational and got me going again.
I am working my way thru bootcamp again and, this time following your directions more carefully. Any comment regarding the website would be appreciated.
Thanks for your feedback here Roger and I am glad you like reading my story. I think that if you look at anyone that has so called “made it” online, or offline for that matter, will have very similar stories to share. Ones that surround hard work, dedication, persistence and given oneself adequate time to achieve success online.
If you ever need a hand with anything of your campaigns as you move forward through Wealthy Affiliate, please reach out to me within the WA platform and I will be happy to help you out.
Mate you really have a call to arms…love your speech
Glad you enjoyed my story Roger and thanks for stopping by!
Hi there Kyle. Since I joined Wealthy Affiliate, I have become a lot more Positive. Thank you for that. I’ve spent 2 years learning about Decentralised Currencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin and so on. That is why I’m choosing it as my Niche. You are an inspiration to me since you founded Wealthy Affiliate. You have given me a Website with methods to make it a success. For that I am truly thankful.
I currently have a product that I purchased that needs 1 sale so I can upgrade to Premium membership. I am from South Africa where $19 is a lot of money which I do not yet have. I’ve been jobless for 2 years now and your sites have given me what I lost a while back and that is my Creative Confidence. I would be honored to have you as a Mentor to help me make that first sale of a product called Rapid Profit System. Till now, it has been my saviour because without it, I wouldn’t have been able to put food on the Table.
Anyway, thank you again for everything that you are doing for the Affiliate Marketing guys and girls all over the world.
Choosing a direction for your business that you are passionate about is always a good idea. The reason this is because you first have to enjoy what you are doing. When you do, it doesn’t feel like you are working (even when you are applying hard work to your business).
Second, when you choose a passion it will lead to much more seamless communication with your audience and this is going to come in all forms of content in your business. From actual content you will publish, to conversation you will have within your comments, to activity on social media, to email, to the creation of sales funnels, and at the core of your business, being able to help people in a way that leads them to trusting you.
Stick with it, keep pushing forward in the right direction, and you are going to do great. I know you are quickly going to make Wealthy Affiliate your home. 🙂
This is an interesting story. I recently heard of the affiliate program myself and then decided that I want to try it out. I am a member of the wealthy affiliate site and am still a little suspicious about this whole online money making thing. but this story does motivated me. Thanks
It is only natural to be suspicious of “make money” online, because many people that try to represent the industry and that are claiming to be teaching affiliate marketing or internet marketing are in the business of ripping people off. And many people have been ripped off.
Outside of this world of schemers and scammers, there is a really lucrative and VAST world of affiliate marketing and Internet entrepreneurship. The process looks a little something like this:
(1) You choose a direction for your business (could be anything).
(2) You build a website, which is in essence your foundation or storefront/communication for your business
(3) You build out your content, your get ranked in Google, you learn how to actively promote your site
(4) You integrate promotions, advertising, etc to monetize your traffic (the make money part)
This is a process that worked back in 2002 when I started out, and it still works to this very day. So before you get caught up in a “make money opportunity” that sells you based on hope, some guys and gals hanging out on a beach attempting to motivate you, remember there is a real legitimate and tangible way that those “doers” out there are actually creating real business. This is something that we teach in detail, and have been doing so since 2005 within Wealthy Affiliate. I recommend you check it out and at the very least get yourself a Starter membership (which is free).
Often times I am so emotional when I encounter success stories of other people. How they have struggled in life for a decent living and that’s the direction where I want to go. I joined Wealthy Affiliate because I believe in it. I see it’s legit and moral because you founders I believe are moral people.
It’s already one year and I would like to hear from my teacher a direct word saying, you have done this improperly, that is wrong and you have to do this in order to earn.
I know many will come to you and learn because you can teach more than in a formal schooling. You have the real deal.
Well the thing is, anyone that has achieved any level of success at ANYTHING, whether they are running a clothing shop, have built a piece of software or are running a successful affiliate marketing business have overcome hurdles.
The problem that I see is that people feel as though their circumstance is unique when they run into problems and feel sorry for themselves, and end up giving up at most things they do in life. That is why people fail. Those that succeed, take those challenges, embrace them and work to overcome them (and do, in most cases).
At the end of the day, you are competing with yourself. Sure there is competition out there, but most people are unwilling to do what those that are succeeding are. If you do what those are succeeding are doing (working your tail off, and working to overcome any hurdle), you will have a brilliant journey ahead of you.
Hi Kyle,
Really enjoyed your article about yourself it has inspired me to come back to Wealthy Affiliate to train and learn more about affiliate marketing. My problem was I never could decide on a niche but now I have a couple in mind, I would like to build into a stream of residual income . Thanks for helping people to achieve there dreams with your helping hand . As soon as I accomplish the training I will be up grading to Premier.
Regards,
Robert
Choosing a niche is really something that you should not stress yourself out over. A niche can honestly be anything that you want, what are you passionate about and/or what are you interested in?
That is always a great starting point. There are millions of directions you can head and rest in comfort knowing that your first niche doesn’t need to be your last. With time, you will likely be involved in many different niches and generating revenue within many, and that is completely fine.
Over the years I have been involved in a wide variety of niches, everything from voice over IP, to dieting, to helping people find their genealogy (ancestors).
If you ever need a hand as you dig into the training at Wealthy Affiliate, feel free to get in touch with me inside of the community and I will be more than happy to help you out.
I suppose wanting to be great at something leads to something great. Wealthy Affiliate is a behemoth now, isn’t it?
I found it interesting when you mentioned (among other things) how you weren’t tall enough to be a baseball player. I didn’t think you had to be really big for baseball, unlike football or basketball. FYI, I Googled “Rickey Henderson” and it says he’s 5’10”, which isn’t that tall at all.
When I graduated high school, I was only 5′ 6″ (I grew 6 inches after high school). Basketball was one of my loves, and I definitely didn’t have the skills of Spud Webb. There are physical limitations to becoming a professional athlete that are predetermined by your genetics and environmental factors, your location, your friends, and the school you attend.
Creating an online business doesn’t have these same limitations, it can be done from anywhere, you can do something that you are passionate about (I could create a substantial website within the basketball niche) and there are no limitations in terms of your audience or how big your business can grow. It is a beautiful thing.
I have a question for you. If I have a budget of $1,000 to start a business online and some time on my hands, what would you recommend. I want your honest answer because I am really tired of spinning my wheels and it is impossible for me to determine the good from the bad in the online world.
As crazy as it sounds Oreal, $1,000 is a good starting budget to have with an online business. It can truly take you a long ways online and you can self sustain on this amount of money for several years. I know you are proably being told otherwise out there as there are many very expensive programs/products that cost well more than that.
Here is how I would apply this amount of money to my business, if I were starting fresh within the affiliate marketing space today.
(1) Wealthy Affiliate Premium Membership – $359 per year, or $49 per month
(2) Purchase a few Domain assets – $15 per year
(3) Buy a premium theme (if you want) – $29-$99
(3) Save the rest of your money
Seriously, this is everything you need. When you join Wealthy Affiliate, you are getting an all encompassing platform to run your entire business. It includes training (beginner to advanced), it includes a website platform, a content management platform, state of the art hosting, a keyword and research platform, live weekly classes, networking with over 1.3 million members, coaching and mentoring directly from the experts, and active updates just about every week as WA continues to improve. So that has you covered for just about everything you need.
The other cost could be a domain, if you want your own .com domain (like my realdealaffiliate.com). These are inexpensive you are basically buying up your own online real estate. This is your brand and for the cost of $15 you can get your own domain and you can actually purchase these right through Wealthy Affiliate and they are automatically connected to your website.
And then maybe a premium theme, which is the design of your website. You are going to have access to close to 3,000 different designs for free within WA, but at some point you may want something more specific and these are very easy to integrate with your website at Wealthy Affiliate if you ever wanted to do that.
So for under $500 per year, you can manage, maintain, create and truly grow a business within absolutely any niche/industry that you are interested in. That is my recommendation and I am a full proponent of utilizing the BEST resources online, in particular when they come at the most cost efficient price. BTW, you can check out Wealthy Affiliate through their starter membership for completely free so there is ZERO obligation to ever pay. I recommend you check it out. I will also be there to personally coach you with your business if you ever need a hand.
Mate, what you and Carson have made available to the common people and us old schoolers is really motivation in itself. I am a premium member with WA and from looking around inside the arena there are a lot of people who believe in you blokes. I am grateful that you and Carson are genuine people and are setting a trend of keeping up with the modern way of affiliate marketing by exposing the latest and easiest way of starting an online business but you earn my greatest respect from being honest. I am an old schooler and the only computer I had when I was a young bloke was a calculator, and that was when I was in year 9 at school. I believe in you and Carson and now I believe in myself. Thank you.
Thanks for your kind words Darrin and I am so glad you are enjoying your experience at WA. We treat business a lot differently than most folks, in particular in this industry. We put people before money, and we teach others to do the same. The thing is when you put your best foot forward and you are willing to help people before you expect something in return, it leads to longevity in the business world (in any niche)>
I like you, grew up a generation where computers and the Internet became something new. I remember first using a computer in Grade 7, lol. Now the generations grow up don’t know what life is like without a computer, and that is great and completely fine. That doesn’t give them an advantage over you, as we are all on an even playing field and the technology you have access to WA is truly taking the technology out of building a business. 🙂