Private Marketing Conference in Las Vegas Afterthoughts

Just a week before leaving on my 4 months trip through South East Asia I flew out to Las Vegas for a yearly private Wealthy Affiliate Super Conference, all expenses paid.

If you’ve been following my blog for long enough you probably already know that I am an affiliate for some major networks such as Amazon and CJ as well as smaller companies who run their own affiliate programs. Wealthy Affiliate is one of them.

Initially I joined WA out of desperation in 2007, it was the last program I was ever going to join. I am not going to explain my whole story again since you can check it out here. I’ve made my first online money because of WA, I’ve learned so many different things there and I never had to look for a job since 2007 because of Wealthy Affiliate, I’ve also made new friends online and offline because of WA. Their training is top notch and the community is simply amazing.

These are just some of the reasons I’ve decided to become their affiliate and I proudly endorse them. As you know I only promote products and services that I personally have experience with and that I love, regardless if I am being compensated in any way or not (I do not get paid for several services that I promote). Another great reason to be a WA affiliate is the recurring income. I refer a new Premium member and I get a commission as long as the person stays a paid member. A lot of my referrals stay active within the community for YEARS (because they see great value in WA), some have been there for almost as long as I have.

However this post isn’t about how affiliate marketing works, this post is about Wealthy Affiliate Super Affiliate Conference. I attended this event and made a video so you could get an idea of what’s going on there. What happens in Vegas stays on Extra Paycheck Blog 😉

Watch the video then keep reading.

Seems like a lot of fun, doesn’t it?

Partying and going to shows wasn’t the only thing we did though. We actually spent 3 days in group meetings where we talked about business strategies, we summarized the past and made some plans for the future.

I had my expectations from this conference but these expectations were highly exceeded. This is the reason I am talking about it today and suggesting you attend the next marketing conference, convention or a simple meet-up, no matter how big or small it might be.

When we work (especially as solopreneurs) we tend to lock ourselves up in our own little world, in our bubble. We might be missing some crucial aspects of our business growth, we might be overlooking some of our biggest problems and we might be spending way too much time on things that don’t matter and don’t push us forward.

Connect With Other Entrepreneurs

When you meet up with a group of people who are achieving their own success in their own way you also meet a group of people who can help you see your own business with a new set of eyes. These meetups unite us because in the end we all share the same goals: to achieve our dreams and to lead better lives. This is why we start our own businesses in the first place.

I’ve heard some great ideas and strategies but I have also made new friends. Some of these new friends even offered to share their resources with me to help me grow my business, how awesome is that? I am also not excluding a possibility of future partnerships on some projects. Networking is important. Go to meet-up website and join your local group. If there isn’t one, create it.

Besides the group conferences each one of us got a chance to spend 2 hours with Kyle and Carson when the focus was on our specific business model. How we create content, how we get traffic, what kind of conversion rates we’re getting and how we can improve all of that. I was happy to hear that the guys thought I was doing well but I was even happier to get their advice and opinions on how I could step it up and take my online business to the next level.

The 3 Rules of Success

In-between the public and group meetings we also got a chance to have a few interesting conversations with other top performing affiliates. I must admit that I was super excited to finally meet these folks (and see some of the familiar faces) and I was simply blown away by some of the stories, business strategies and “secrets” of these people!

Here are a few VERY important points from these conversations:

• Do not over-complicate things. Move forward step-by-step, you’ll learn what you need to know when the time comes.
• The secret to success is… hard work. I know it’s a bummer and not much of a secret but you should know that.
• Seeing the results of your labor might take longer than you expect but you should keep pushing forward.

I’ve been guilty of over-complicating certain things. I’ve been frustrated when I was unable to see the desired results and I’ve abandoned a few projects when they were probably on the borderline of success. Thankfully I understood that there isn’t a shortcut to success a while ago.

Another common trait I’ve noticed among these online entrepreneurs was that most of them (if not all) took massive amounts of action every single day. Sure, we might try to learn everything we need to be fully ready to launch our business but here is the truth: You will never learn everything. You will never create a perfect website. You will never earn a single penny if you don’t start taking action.

All the knowledge in the world is useless in the hands of those who don’t apply it into action.

But I Don’t Have Any Free Time…

Another interesting thing that I noticed among the affiliates at the Wealthy Affiliate conference is that most of these people were very busy and passionate people in general. Besides running an online business (and constantly trying to grow it) some of the affiliates have children and families to take care of. Some were into sports and spent several hours a day training (‘sup Vitaly). Some were into crafts and were spending a lot of time on creating a new business around that.

This is where another thing hit me: “But I have no time for it!”… Every now and then I get emails from people complaining how they work 6 hours a day, 5 days a week so they can’t invest any time into that online business. Usually they proceed by asking me how they can make $50,000 within the next 3 month with only putting in 2 hours of work per week into the business. Usually I reply with: “sorry, you can’t”.

You must invest time into your business. There isn’t such thing as “no time” but there is “bad time management”. Everyone has extra time to invest into their business if they want changes in their life. Watch less TV (actually STOP watching TV altogether). If you spend a lot of time cooking than plan your meals better and cook twice a week instead of twice a day. Pay your bills online instead of going to the bank. Hire a nanny for your kids to give you a few extra hours. Wake up earlier and get a few hours of work done before heading out to your job. Learn to manage your time.

I remember this one particular period in 2007 when I first joined Wealthy Affiliate, I would sometimes spend 30-40 hours at a time in front of my computer. I would spend 3 hours learning how to do something than I would spend the next 10 hours doing it. It doesn’t sound exciting at all but this allowed me to start making money. That’s the secret. Time and effort.

Was it worth it?

I’m sure that after reading this post you already know my answer: Heck Yeah!

Thanks to Kyle and Carson for flying me out to Vegas. Thanks to everyone at the conference for sharing your tips, strategies, ideas and laughs. Can’t wait to see you all in 2017 😉

Will you be attending the next year’s conference?

Check out my #1 Recommendation in online business training.

If you do have any comments or question, please do use the comment form below!

– Alex