Don Herman Want an extra $500-$1,000 a month in retirement? See the simple, no-scam way I built a website that pays — free training included.
As owner of Cowboy Concierge, I was able to turn my travel hobby and some additional timeshare weeks into real income – all from the comfort of home.
I retired from my career as a school district CFO several years ago, and after punching a few items off my bucket list, I realized that if I was going to keep pursuing my dream of traveling the world, I needed a little bit more income. I tried several different ideas – most involving contract work which took a big bite out of my travel time (thus defeating the entire purpose!) Other ideas just didn’t bring in enough money to even make it worth the effort. That was when my partner Dwaine and I took an inventory of our available assets. We realized we had a good pool of unused timeshare weeks that we just might be able to turn into cash – but how?
Turning Your Niche Interest into Cash
Without even knowing it, I had stumbled onto a niche – an interest that I was passionate about, that could motivate me to sharing my experiences and eventually capitalizing on the expertise I brought to the discussion.
I knew I had a product that people would want, but I had no idea how to get this opportunity in front of the people who were interested in it. And that’s where online marketing came in.
Earning Retirement Money on the Web
To earn money online, I knew I needed to create an online presence for people to interact with. There are a lot of avenues for online exposure these days, from trendy Tik-Tok videos to Pinterest pins, Instagram for photos and Facebook for keeping up with friends and family. But to make money online, you need a place of your own, where people can formally interact with you and your business. Hosting your own business website gives you the freedom and control to offer products, services, advice, reviews or a dozen other valuable avenues for revenue generation.
Your business website is the hub of your money-making activity. Every other social media outlet will link back to this website, whether it be a YouTube video, a Twitter tweet or a Pinterest pin. Without this foundation, all that effort will go to waste. Your business website will capture all the interest your videos, tweets and pins generate, turning it into revenue for you!
How I Created a Money-Making Website
But, unfortunately, I knew literally nothing about creating a website.
I’d worked with computers as a CFO, of course, but the whole website-thing was not something I’d ever messed with. So I looked for help. And that’s how I stumbled upon Wealthy Affiliate.
I know it sounds impossible, but I signed up for the introductory free training with Wealthy Affiliate and I was off and running. The training was step-by-step, accompanied by very clear videos that explained everything in great detail (and I needed it all!) But more than that, Wealthy Affiliate had a community of people who were graciously willing to help a newbie like me get through the first rough patches with helpful, immediate advice that really made it work.
After the first week, I had a free website up and running. Yes, it was completely free. Was it pretty? Mmmmm . . . not so much. Did it have everything I needed to start selling? Oh no. But it did show me what I was going to need to do to make it all work. And for free, that knowledge alone was a great bargain.
Earning Money Has to Start Somewhere
Once I learned how to build my own website, how to update it with new content and build Cowboy Concierge on other platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, I finally started seeing activity on my own site. I started gathering names for my mailing list, and sent out short ads, showing what weeks we had available to people who had already expressed interest in our units. And I started making sales! Weeks that we should have just wasted as lost inventory started turning to cash. And it still does to this day.
Later, I started working on another interest: Baking. I created Baking Naturally, a website that shares recipes and specializes in high-altitude baking. I make money there through advertising and product reviews for items on Amazon.
Once others found out that I knew how to build websites, they started coming to me to help them with their ventures. I built two more websites for friends who used them to post their own artwork for sale online, and to post stories and articles they’d written over the years to make them easier to share with friends and to broaden their online footprint.
Where To Find Instruction and Training
Wealthy Affiliate is a website-creation and hosting service that provides training to beginners just like you. The first basic lessons are absolutely free, as is the hosting of your first website! You can run through the step-by-step instructions in just a few days, and have your very own website up and running in a week or less. It’s an investment of time that can help you figure out if this is the avenue you want to pursue – and all with no risk at all.
My Experience With Wealthy Affiliate
I had poked around a bit, trying to find information on starting my own website before running into Wealthy Affiliate. What I found was a huge number of very scammy sites that seemed to just want my money. They would dangle an idea, but then tell you that to get things going, I had to invest thousands of dollars up front! That terrified me, and for a time I gave up the idea altogether.
But then I saw an advertisement for Wealthy Affiliate, and I was intrigued. I checked out the site, looked up the reviews, and then dove in. After signing up, I found I had immediate access to the Beginner’s Training, with a few emails telling me how to work through it, how long it might take, and an occasional encouraging note to keep going. Nothing terribly intrusive like the other sites.
I started at Step 1 and worked through the lesson. There were videos that guided me through every step, as well as through text instructions. I did get bogged up a few times, but I was able to ask a question and got immediate answers from other members on the site.
After the first three lessons, I had a website up and running! It was rather small and pathetic, but it was live and it was mine! And I hadn’t paid a thing.
How To Create Content for your Website
Of course, over the next few months I added a ton of material to my site . . . but I enjoyed every minute of it! Remember, we already had the timeshare, and we’d taken tons of photos of our travels. All my website allowed me to do was share my enjoyment with others. I learned how to post new articles quickly and easily, how to add photos to enhance the appeal, and how to broaden my reach using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
And then came the really good part . . . the money. Through Wealthy Affiliate, I learned how to monetize my site with some advertising, some affiliate sponsorships, and by reviewing and recommending products and services. Between my two websites, last year I earned over $15,000 – and I only work a small portion of each year! The more effort you pour into it, the higher your income will be.
Your Only Obstacle is . . . You!
Can you earn that much? Maybe. I will say it took a good year’s worth of work to start seeing real traffic, and to build up a mailing list that was broad enough to generate interest. But like I said – it really was fun. I got to share my adventures with family and friends, post some of my pictures, and ultimately I developed a base of viewers.
Yes, you really can learn how to create a website to earn money. With your own interests and motivations, and with the excellent guidance you’ll receive from Wealthy Affiliate, you could be off on a new online adventure. And you can learn the basics for free! If you’re like me, you’ll be up and running in less than a week, with a website you can mold and shape in any way you want.
Why wait? Click on the banner below to check out the great program at Wealthy Affiliate. Once you sign up, you’ll receive free instruction, a free website hosted by Wealthy Affiliate, and the support and guidance offered by the entire Wealthy Affiliate community. You really can’t go wrong.
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