Too Good to be True

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Yes, I know that we are told if it is

“TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE”

then

IT REALLY IS – NOT TRUE, NOT GOOD, THAT IS

I have heard that saying and the warning so many times in my life before and I bet you have too.  Mostly it is used as a warning to not fall for the “shiny object’ that will not live up to your expectations or what is promised.  We are warned and cautioned to just bypass anything that smells like its too good to be true.  I have lived by that warning and believed it for most of my life and I’m currently 64 years old.

But what if you found something that truly was “too good to be true”?

Can that happen?

Has it happened to you?

I’m happy to report that in the fall of 2014 (almost 4 years ago), I found that something that broke all those warnings to pieces and failed the “scam” test totally and completely.

I was searching for ways to make money online and I ran across a website named “I’ve Tried That” built by a guy named Steve.  Steve was promoting the Wealthy Affiliate University (WAU).  I read all he had to say on his site at that time and took note of the seven day “FREE” trial to check out the WAU training and the community.  He said I would not even have to enter my credit card to get the FREE trial.

I couldn’t find anywhere that he seemed to be leading me on and setting me up to be scammed, so I decided to do the FREE TRIAL thing.  I signed up and logged in with my trial account.  I began reading posts by lots of members and I began going through the training modules.  I got very excited about what I was learning and the communication and information shared freely among community members (currently over one million Premium members).  I read about successes current members were having, even some big successes and got to talk online with some of those “successful” people.  On Day 3, I was hooked and convinced that WAU was legit and not a scam.  I decided to go Premium that day and started paying the $47/month membership fee at that time, even though I thought that was a lot of money for me to be doling out each month without bringing money in at the same time.

Yet I was going through the training modules and building my first WordPress affiliate marketing blog site.  I had built websites before using software like FrontPage, Dreamweaver, Expression web and even doing some HTML coding in my IT job for the federal government.  I found that I loved WordPress the more I used it, especially the wonderful new features that plugins could provide for my website (and I didn’t have to be a programmer either).

I kept doing the lessons and learning more about blogging websites and how to write blogs and do something called “keyword research” – which really was both interesting and confusing.  The WA platform, training, and the supportive and giving, community was wonderful to be part of.

I had a great training platform, the best affiliate marketing training I have found anywhere, lots of helpful fellow members and I had set my goal to earn enough online to supplement our monthly retirement income, donate more to my missionary daughter and her family, and give to a charity I used to volunteer with.

Then suddenly my health took a MAJOR HIT – I developed diabetic feet and leg ulcers and I was in tremendous pain daily and especially at night when I sat holding my head in my hands trying to deal with electric currents running up my legs from my feet to my hips, praying to God to either take me home or stop this pain (I even considered doing away with myself). It was a bad time for me and no way could I sit at my computer and work.  I was taking loads of antibiotics and lots of prednisone, which affected my diabetes by shooting my blood glucose levels off the meter, giving me a “prednisone HUNGER” that made the pounds just pile on.  Needless to say, my WA account sat unused and I was still paying almost $50/month to keep my Premium account.

I saw doctor after doctor and I was beginning to fear I was going to have to have my feet amputated (yes, amputated – the word dreaded by every diabetic).  Then I was sent to a “wound clinic” to see if they could help me.

As I sat in the waiting room waiting for my first appointment, I heard people yelling from the other side of the door that patients were led through for their appointments.  I wondered about that, then my name was called and I was rolled (my wheelchair) through that door and back to one of the several cubicles, my medical history recorded and the dressing removed from my legs and feet.  Pictures and measurements were taken of each ulcer – now basically angry oozing deep holes in my lower legs and ankles and tops of my feet.  I think they counted over 15 ulcers between my two legs and feet.

The doc came in, looked over my wounds and said he would help me and he would begin today by surgically debriding each wound (Surgical debridement uses sharp instruments (such as a scalpel) or a laser to remove necrotic tissue from the wound bed).  Some scalpels, bandages, and ointments were laid out and then he told me to hold still, he was sorry but it was going to hurt.  He was right and I then understood the reason for the yelling I had heard earlier.  I’m pretty tough and held it together without yelling or screaming.  The doc finished up and said I was one tough lady.  He said he would prescribe me some painkillers to take before my next appointment. The nurse cleaned the blood up and medicated and dressed my legs and feet again, showing me how to do it myself twice a day until my next appointment.

I had several more appointments after that where the ulcers were debrided to clean the wound beds and they began to heal.  My vasculitis began in August of 2014 and I was finally released from the wound clinic in early June of 2015.  I was happy because I got to start my summer water aerobics classes. But I was still in the wheelchair because of no leg strength and a bad hip.  Once the wounds healed enough for the worst pain to stop, I began to work on my WA websites again and go through more of the training.

I had created several blog sites and started blogging on them – even though working on multiple sites was advised against in WA’s training, but I loved creating the blog sites and writing for my blogs so I plowed ahead.  I had a friend who was writing a cookbook and I told her I would help her, so I got very busy doing food photography for her and then creating her a website to promote her book when it was finished.  I enjoyed doing all these things and lapsed going forward with my training.

Sometimes life just gets in the way.  My mother in law had lived with us for the past 12 years – since my father-in-law had died and she began having more and more health issues.  In the fall of 2015, she had a major illness and was in the hospital for a couple of weeks and then she started to get better and returned home.  It seemed like my days were consumed with doctor appointments for both myself and my mother-in-law and we were both in wheelchairs.  Life was difficult and I didn’t have as much time to work on my websites and training.  One day I had to take her to a doctor 45 miles away.  I finally found the new doc’s office building and got myself out of the car in my wheelchair and got her in her wheelchair and then I was trying to figure out how to push myself, my MIL and drag the cart with her oxygen tank all up to the 5th floor to her appointment.

Things were tough and I stayed pretty tired out with little extra energy.  All this time, I would continue to create a few blogs for my blogsites; try to go through a lesson every now and then but I had never gotten around to monetizing any of my sites.  I had not begun the WA boot camp training – just some of the regular certification training.  At the end of 2015 and another hospital stay, we moved my MIL into a local nursing home to get the care she required and that I could not provide.

It was now 2016 and my husband decided he would retire and we would sell our longtime home in central Arkansas and move to where we had purchased our “retirement home” in 2013. This was the city of Bella Vista and the Ozark hills of northwest Arkansas.  We fixed our longtime home up, staged it and put it on the market.  Our house sold quickly and we moved in July of 2016 to the beautiful hills of northwest Arkansas.  We moved my MIL to a nursing home near us.  I finally had time to spend on my WA training and websites.  I decided to take advantage of the Black Friday Special in late November and I locked the $299/yearly price in.  I am so glad I made that decision.  Now my monthly fees averaged just under $25/month – less than the cost of a meal out for Mel and I.

I hosted several blog sites as part of my Premium membership on the WA platform.  This saved me from having to pay for hosting elsewhere – a pretty cool saving.  I only had to pay the annual $13.99 domain registration fees.  I could have 25 paid domain sites hosted and 25 free siterubix websites hosted as part of my Premium membership. That’s up to 50 websites with no additional hosting fees to be paid.

I slowly got back into the WA training and creating new content.  I actually created a WA promotional blogsite and began to create content for that.  I still had not placed a single affiliate link on any of my sites and I had about 9 of them.  But I was enjoying the WA community and learning a little more from the training during 2017.

In the fall of 2017, a former website client contacted me to create a new website for his small business, and I worked on that at the end of the year and into 2018.  I was paid to create and host this site at WA as part of my Premium membership.  I love getting that several hundred dollars and a little each month for hosting the small business site as part of my membership.

I also started working with 3 of my artist friends on creating art blogsites for them, helping them get their art images online into Fine Art America, Redbubble, and Zazzle.  I do this for a % of their online sales.  Then Kyle offered me participation in the Super Wealthy Affiliate Group (SWAG) – a unique training year guided by Kyle himself.  I jumped at it and decided I needed to FINALLY get real with this training.  As part of the SWAG group, I actually began to blog regularly and place affiliate links within the two sites I decided to concentrate on besides the work I was doing for my 3 artist friends.

As I’ve continued through the SWAG training, I’ve become dedicated to succeeding and reaching my financial goals with my online work.  I’ve found the training continues to be excellent, detailed, continually updated and the community even more helpful than I had realized.  I follow hundreds of fellow Premium members, many of whom have indeed received monthly income from their online businesses for a while now – but I was dragging at this.  WA has added the “Site Content Creation Tool” and it is the best thing since sliced bread (blog creation wise at least), especially the ability to search a library of thousands of free images to use in my the blogs I create.   Then the addition of Jaaxy lite with unlimited searches was another awesome addition to my WA benefits.

Recently, with the new user interface, Kyle and Carson have outdone themselves. It is so easy now to find help and to do the training, content creation and communicate with the community.  I feel that I have finally hit the right “groove” with the SWAG training, finding an accountability partner in another Premium member and am looking forward to seeing success at the conclusion of my SWAG training year.  WA members have helped me reach the sales I needed for my Amazon Associates account and get dozens of comments on my websites (important for google ranking).  Kyle is carefully walking the SWAG participants through the WA Bootcamp training to reach success by the end of the SWAG year.

Once again, I’ll share the two types of membership available here in WA. The Premium Membership column lists the awesome benefits of Premium membership.

In Conclusion

I just wanted to share with you my journey and how happy I am that I have found this amazing place to learn and grow, working from my home, and know I will be touting reaching my goals this time next year.  This time next year, you will be wishing you had clicked on the special link above and joined me here in the the best affiliate marketing training available online – Wealthy Affiliate University training and hosting platform.

Comments

I love to get comments and answer your questions.  Please leave yours below.  Also, if you have enjoyed reading this article and think others might also, please share with your friends and on your social media.  Thank you for visiting my website – Shirley

NOTE:  This post includes affiliate links, which, if clicked on and a product purchased, I get a small commission (with no increase in cost to you).