I started two different businesses when I moved to British Columbia. A Bed and Breakfast and a real estate agency business. I needed a small business website creation tool. I had always used hosts that provided a website design tool. These tools are very easy to use but also very limited in the number of pages you can publish and the features you can implement to create your presence on the web. I decided to learn how to create a site from scratch using a content management system (CMS) such as Joomla, Dupral or WordPress. While looking for information on these CMS I found Wealthy Affiliate.
Let me tell you about Wealthy Affiliate and how it helps me with small business website creation and can also help you.
Overall features of the program
- Website Hosting Company: YES
- Web Design Tool: YES – SiteRubix
- Keyword Search Tool: YES – Jaaxy
- Training: YES – two different types
- Support: YES – very efficient support team
- Community: YES – thousands of members all over the world
- Price: Two levels – Free starter membership – up to $359 a year for premium members
Step by step training
Wealthy Affiliates offers two different types of training: Certification and the Affiliate Bootcamp.
I started with the Certification training. I learned how to build a functional website for a business I already had: www.alpacaproductsnservices.com. This is a seasonal occupation I do every year from April to July. Certification training is very well adapted for people who have an existing small business or are thinking of starting a conventional small business. The first course shows you how to build your first website and how to use keywords to get indexed by search engines (SEO optimized).
The Affiliate Bootcamp is a fantastic program. It is well adapted to start an online business. It is based on being an affiliate for some or many other companies who will pay you for your referral traffic to their products and services. The opportunities are unlimited. The more you work on this program, the more you benefit.
The best part about these training programs is the feedback you get from experienced members and members like you just starting with Wealthy Affiliate. It is a great community who share ideas and help each other.
Support
The support team is readily available through messaging in the Wealthy Associate environment. They are savvy about any website design topics. In addition to the support team, any question you may have can be voiced to the Community. Experienced members will share their ideas and help you get through any hurdle. The chat tool is also a powerful source of all kinds of neat information.
You will have many decisions to make concerning website names, titles, keywords, niche… The fact that the training sessions are built as blogs, everyone can make comments and ask questions. This is where you can test your ideas and build strategies. The Community is very giving with impressive know how.
You will be writing a lot and you can find members that have written about the subject you are looking for. They might even have created a training session on it. The search tool in the Wealthy Affiliate environment is very powerful.
Keyword Tool
When a new website is published on the WWW, the web spiders will eventually find it. The search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo and others will index it. The ranking of the site will depend on many factors including keywords. The better the index, the closer the site gets to the first page on a search.
Wealthy Affiliate will introduce you to Jaaxy and explain how to choose the best keywords out there. There are a couple of characteristics to determine and Jaaxy is the perfect tool to analyze them. It will tell you the average number of times a specific keyword is used in searches all over the World and how many competitor sites use them. This is a fantastic way to determine the strength of a keyword.
Free members have access to a limited number of functions in Jaaxy but enough to get started and really understand the principals behind content indexing. Premium members can use more functionality. The paid Jaaxy access lets the user search for keywords more efficiently and offers a larger keyword storage capacity.
Jaaxy is totally integrated into the Wealthy Affiliate environment and includes tools such as site ranking, affiliate program searches and other very nice functionality.
Your First Website
CMS. Wealthy Affiliate uses the WordPress CMS for building websites. WordPress is recognized as the most used website content management system in the world. It is flexible and adapts to any types of business.
Website Design. When you build you site with Wealthy Affiliate, you will be using Site Rubix. This application is very powerful and includes a domain manager, a site manager, a site builder, a content editor and other useful functions.
- Domain manager: Here you can buy a new domain, transfer a domain hosted somewhere else, renew the registration, create subdomains and essentially manage the domains you own.
- Site Builder: The builder will let you build a new site from scratch by either creating a free site (yoursite.rubix.com), a site for a domain you own or register a new domain. The builder will initiate the site and install WordPress. You can then use the Site Manager or the Content Editor to create new pages or posts and edit the content at a later date.
- Site Manager: This manager will give information on the domains you own including site health, index status, number of pages and posts, and lets you log into the site to edit pages, posts or any site features. Login through this interface is a click of a button. It will give you the WordPress password for the users associated with your site. It will let you create new users for your site and change the WordPress password if required.
- Content Editor: The content editor is a cool tool. It lets you write content from scratch or from a template. You get information on your document such as number of words, number of subtitles and number of paragraphs. This information is important when you set word count goals for your site. Another neat feature is the ability to set a paragraph as a header (3 sizes available) or normal text. You can use bold, italic or underscore characters, create bullet or numbered lists, embed links, insert free use pictures and complete your document using the spell check. You can also upload your own pictures and insert them into the text. When you are done, you can publish your new document as a post or as a page. You must specify the website you want the document to appear and the user. The user will appear as the author on your web page.
- Themes: A WordPress page uses a theme to control the appearance on Internet. Free members may choose from 6 different mobile ready themes. Premium members have thousands of themes to choose from. All themes have the default characteristics and specific features according to the type of site you want.
Affiliate program
Along with teaching you how to create a website and get it found by the search engines, Wealthy Affiliate provides you with a very profitable affiliate program.
Refer new members. Wealthy Affiliate will pay you for referring friends and other acquaintances to the program. The program is very flexible for everyone. They can choose a niche very different from yours and exploit the power of having a business presence on the web. When you refer a person and this person becomes a member, you will receive between $4 to over $89 per member depending on the activity they decide to accomplish. If your referral is a performer, the amount you earn will be higher.
Statistics available. You have access to all the statistics you need to successfully plan your actions through you membership dashboard. You can analyse the number of clicks on your sites, the number of referrals you have initiated and many other numbers that will help you focus on results.
Links and banners. Wealthy Affiliates supplies a large number of banners and link rich pictures that can be inserted into your text. They link to your specific affiliate number and when people take action (become a member…), you earn the affiliate commission.
Niche. Your affiliate program may be based on any needs you have identified. For example, you may want to work with young people completing college, friends starting their retirement, others not liking their jobs, people liking their jobs but not the income. You could work with teachers, nurses, any professions you are familiar with. The more you know about your niche the better. Your passion will give you wings and your business will flourish.
Small Business Website Creation
I though I had decent knowledge about website design before I joined Wealthy Affiliate. I am impressed with all the new things I am learning every day. This experience is totally thrilling and very fulfilling.
If you own a small business or want to start one, you will need web presence. This program is incredibly efficient. You can build a functional website within an hour and improve it with help from very experienced people.
Click here to get more information on Wealthy Affiliate. If you have questions or comments, please write them below. I will be happy to contact you.
Nicole