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Make Money Online Easy – the Wealthy Affiliate University Review

Nowadays we have more opportunities than ever to build various sources of income, especially with the internet and a global market. This also means that there are more scams out there than ever – how does one know which program to trust and which to not? In this post I’ll talk about what everyone’s searching for – can you make money online easy? Well, that depends on how you define easy. Here I’ll give my Wealthy Affiliate Review.

PLEASE NOTE: There is a new scam out there calling themselves “Wealthy Affiliates.” Note they have an “s” at the end. I’ve looked at them, and from what I and my friend can tell, they are totally a scam. The legit one is the Wealthy Affiliate University, also known simply as Wealthy Affiliate. Please note the logo for Wealthy Affiliate. This one is legit, whether you sign up primarily to take advantage of the Wealthy Affiliate University online training, or want to use their awesome SEO tools to build any kind of website you want.

For myself, I started with Wealthy Affiliate in order to learn affiliate marketing as a blogger, since I’m building my career as a writer. But then, I decided to also use their SEO and website building tools and training to launch my own author website and blog, since I’m already a member there, and my first novel is being pitched by my agent as I write this in 2019.

Is Wealthy Affiliate University a Scam?

Please note again – if the company has an “s” at the end, as in “Wealthy Affiliates,” then yes, they are a scam as far as I can tell.

But Wealthy Affiliate University, aka Wealthy Affiliate (in the singular), is legit. I’m writing about this right now because they’re about to have their annual Black Friday sale, and this is the time to go premium with them.

One of the things I love about Wealthy Affiliate is that you can actually try them out for free. You can even launch some actual websites for free with their platform. They provide all the training you’ll need to build a successful affiliate marketing business through their Wealthy Affiliate University. The platform keeps track of your training and there are step-by-step tasks to help anyone become successful.

If you like the program, you can become a member for $49/month. This includes all of the training – and there are many various types and levels of training – as well as hosting up to fifty websites with them. They provide everything to easily buy your own domain name for any of your sites, if you wish (or use their free tool instead), and host your sites with them. I’ve now followed their instructions and have set up three different websites. They include all sorts of valuable extras with your websites with them, too, to help optimize your sites and keep them protected. Their tech support is unparalleled.

The best thing is the community – you will meet, follow and be followed by all sorts of wonderful people all over the world doing this along with you. Everyone is so friendly and supportive, it’s so awesome. My own mentor recently spent a month or more in Thailand while doing his laptop work from there – so cool.

So now with the Black Friday deal, it’s the time to purchase an annual membership – instead of the $49/month or the $359 a year, during the Black Friday sale you can get an annual premium membership for only $299 for the entire year. Once you get it on this price, you get to keep this low price from then on. Now this is a deal worth taking!

Make Money Online Easy

Is it easy? No, not really. For anyone who is serious about building a legit business, it takes lots of time, energy, focus and hard work. Will it pay off? Absolutely. There are so many successful marketers in the Wealthy Affiliate community to help and encourage us along the way – some of them are consistently making well over $2,000/month, some are at three figures a year. But this is from consistent, ongoing effort – going through all the training and spending at least a couple of hours a day consistently. Keep in mind, when you first start any business, you quite often have to put in a year or more of free work as the owner. It’s the same with affiliate marketing. You may start making some residual income in less than a year, or it may take more – it depends on you, how hard you work, how consistent you are, how focused you stay on the goal, how many articles you publish each week, etc.

You don’t have to be an experienced writer to do this successfully, the Wealthy Affiliate University gives you all the practical training you need to be successful. It just all depends on you.

Review of Wealthy Affiliate University

This is my review of Wealthy Affiliate University. I’ve been with them for over a year and just started making a tiny amount of money on my affiliate niche website. The reason I haven’t yet made more is because I’m simultaneously building my career as a freelance and novel writer. I need immediate income, so most of my focus and efforts have been on that. I finished my first novel, queried it out, and got an agent three months later. Then I spent time with agent, sending it back and forth as we honed and polished and edited my manuscript until it was perfect. Now she’s pitching it to publishers.

In the meantime, I got the idea to use Wealthy Affiliate to also build my author website. So I’ve started that and have been building up that site, not so much as an affiliate site (though I do recommend books found on Amazon once in a while on the craft of writing, etc.), but as my main author site. I’ve been using the SEO, research and training at the Wealthy Affiliate University to help me with my author site.

Since then, I became a Norwex consultant, mainly to get the awesome products at a discount, so then, I started a life hack website to specifically blog about all the great Norwex products as well as general life hacks.

I also started working as a freelance writer and have been ghost-writing novels for my first client. I’m no building my portfolio and getting some new ghost-writing clients for nonfiction as well.

So my focus and energies and time have been a bit scattered, and I’m working on three websites instead of one. I was getting a little discouraged that I’d fallen behind on the training and progress at Wealthy Affiliate, but one of the community members there (did I mention how great the community is?) encouraged me, reminding me that my novel writing is very important and that I’ve made much progress in that area.

Oh, I’ve also started my YouTube channel to eventually help promote my novel. In it, I play an inept magical school substitute teacher at Burrowgroves School of Magic. So that’s taken a bit of my time recently, too.

Wealthy Affiliate University Reviews

If you do any research online at all, you will quickly see that Wealthy Affiliate University, aka Wealthy Affiliate, is absolutely legit and a wonderful deal which you can even try for free. And don’t forget the Black Friday deal, to get their annual premium membership – now is the time to get that.

And remember that the online company calling themselves “Wealthy Affiliates” is a scam, from what I and my friend were able to tell (she accidentally signed up and was getting all sorts of email spam), so stay away from that one.

Make Money Online Easy?

It’s easy in the sense that you can work on your own time and from any location that has internet. It’s easy in that anyone can follow the step-by-step program and succeed at it. It’s not easy in that it takes consistent focus and hard work, and you can never give up even when you get discouraged. You have to be in it for the long haul.

Would I recommend it? Absolutely. For me, even though the passive income has been slow in coming (and my work very on-again, off-again as I do other career-building projects), everything I’ve learned and continue to learn has been very valuable. I’m building my author website in anticipation of my book series getting published, using the best SEO and website tools in the industry.

And did I mentioned the community on Wealthy Affiliate? They’re awesome!

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Jerilyn Winstead Encyclopedeia Magica, Jer's Updates

Latest Update on Being a Writer: My Writing Projects

What’s going on with my current writing projects? Here’s my ongoing updates:

Encyclopedeia Magica: Vol.1 – AlchemyEncyclopedeia Magica Volume 1 Alchemy

  • Quite a while ago: Asked Spirit for inspiration for my own unique novel idea – received it as I awoke next morning.
  • Over a few years: Worked on my novel in starts and stops. I was also running two business startups and parenting four teenagers. Biggest struggle – finding the time and discipline to write consistently.
  • More recently: Feb – GalaxyFest in Colorado Springs, where I attended a writer’s workshop and met full-time author Susan Lambdin. She became so excited over my novel idea (pun intended) that she offered to write the back cover blurb. Her enthusiasm acted as a catalyst and I started working seriously on my novel. Joined a local writer’s group, started participating in NaNoWriMo events, etc.
  • April – Attended BarCon at Pike’s Peak Writer’s Conference. Met and got to pitch to my very first agent: Natalie Lakosil with Bradford Literary Agency in CA. She immediately got the vision and asked for the full ms – even though I wasn’t finished with it yet. This was a miracle.
  • June – several revisions later, I finally finished my novel! After several rejections, I landed Natalie Lakosil as my agent in August. Honing it back and forth with her until we got it perfect. It’s a multi-layered never-been-done-before book.
  • Natalie had the brilliant idea of separating the three components of my novel (novel, potions textbook encyclopedeia, and puzzle workbook). I’d written it all together. Once separated, we were able to work on each separate part, making them perfect. Then we re-combined them and finished the story!

Other Top Secret Writing Projects

  • 2018: Playing around with several new novel series – shhh.
  • 2018: Attended a Pike’s Peak Writers Workshop on Freelance Writing. After that I landed my first freelance client, and have been ghost-writing her four-book fantasy series. It’s amazing to be paid to write novels! Finished Book 1 by Christmas.
  • 2019: Finished ghost-writing Book 2 by end of May.

Blogs

  • 2018: Needing income after closing my businesses and saddled with business debt, I started learning how to do affiliate marketing with the Wealthy Affiliate platform. Such a great community with lots of classes, training, tools and help from a friendly people.

My Uncommon Life

What am I up to? Several of these have to do with my writing projects.

  • Learning to read and write Egyptian Hieroglyphs, along with learning all about Egypt, ancient and modern.
  • Learning Astrology in preparation for the second book in my Encyclopedeia Magica series.
  • Learning to use GetResponse CRM and email list tool for my author site – highly recommended by a successful business friend.
  • Working my way through the Wealthy Affiliate training program, building my coffee site and my author site.
  • Taking my 17yo son on a short trip or two to visit potential colleges, starting with UPenn in Philly.
  • With my husband, training and preparing for our 3-hour hike on the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland this August.
  • After my hip replacement surgery in March 2019, I’m starting back larping again this month – hooray!

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Jerilyn Winstead Jer's Updates, Writing Hacks

Get a Book Agent – I’ve been signed!

This journey of becoming a novelist and writer has been so fascinating. After working on my great big idea, my very unusual novel, on and off for sevearl years, I finally finished and got a book agent (also called a literary agent). This author can’t stop dancing!

Becoming a Writer

From the beginning and throughout the entire process I’ve been studying, learning and practicing the principles of the Law of Attraction – reading all the books by Esther Hicks, the original source of this material. There are also a ton of YouTube videos where you can listen to Esther Hicks answer all kinds of questions. You can also search under Abraham Hicks.

Through these principles I first asked for an original idea for my own novel. The next morning I awoke with the first few sentences in my head. The whole idea was full of magic and I’ve been enchanted with it ever since, even though my work on it was on again – off again, for many years.

Finishing the Novel

At a sci-fi/fantasy conference I took an author’s workshop. When she learned about my idea, she became so excited she offered to write the blurb on the back for me. Her enthusiasm acted as a catalyst and I began writing in earnest. I joined a local writer’s group whose main goal is to get our novels done. In about a year, and with the help of NaNoWriMo virtual camps, I finally finished my novel. Then I spent another whole year plus a few months revising and editing the novel, studying and applying the craft of writing from recommended books like The GMC, My Story Can Beat Up Your Story, and Editor-Proof Your Writing.

Get a Book Agent

A writer friend highly recommend I attend the local annual writer’s conference. We have a big one here in Colorado Springs: The Pike’s Peak Writer’s Conference. It is so popular and fun that even the speakers often ask to come back.

While I was still writing my novel, not quite finished, I went to the writer’s conference one evening to attend “Bar-Con,” where everyone networks around the bar. A writer friend introduced me to my future agent, though I didn’t know it at the time. But I was able to pitch my story to her and she immediately saw the vision of my unique book. She asked for the full manuscript–a miracle in itself! I told her it wasn’t quite done, and she said to take my time, not to worry. Of course, I didn’t expect it to take over a year later!

Many Queries Later

I completely finished my book, revisions and everything, finally. This year I attended the full 4-day writer’s conference and pitched my story to five agents, receiving five rejections and one literary director and editor who loved it. I sent the full ms to the original agent from last conference, and also queried it out to about 15 agents in the U.S. and the U.K. (my story is set in 1665 London). Then I waited for two months, sending it out to agents here and there.

In August my agent, Natalie Lakosil, told me she loved my book. She arranged a phone call and offered me representation! By now, I’d received enough rejections that I accepted from the original agent who saw the vision.

Next Steps

It was so exciting to get a book agent! Now I’m in the interesting phase of Natalie and I collaborating to make my novel even better with more revisions and edits. I knew going in this would happen somewhere along the line towards publishing, and I’m really enjoying watching my novel get better and better. I’m learning that a good novel is sometimes more about what the author takes out, than what she leaves in. Less can be more, allowing the reader to bring more of themselves and interpretations to the story.

So what is the big idea, what is my unusual novel? It’s a potions textbook that has accidentally gotten out of Hogwarts and into the muggle world. It looks like an old encyclopedeia, with black and white woodcuts throughout. When you start reading Encyclopedeia Magica: Volume 1 – Alchemy, you discover there is something weird and alive in this book. Without giving it away, let’s just say you will be pulled in to becoming the magical hero of the story, if you wish to take on the challenge, and learn about a young girl who had to dress like a boy and became an alchemist’s apprentice, before the book defeated her. Now it is up to you to save her!

What is the take-away to get a book agent?

  • Study and practice the Law of Attraction, to bring the right ideas, circumstances and people into your life – everything by Esther Hicks and Abraham Hicks
  • Join local writer’s groups. Go to your nearest, best writer’s conference (they offer scholarships).
  • Make yourself write, study the craft, and finish your novel.
  • Network with agents and editors at conferences. You can also query your writing to agents with the online service, DuoTrope – worth the $5/month.

Onward and upward, my writing friends!Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Jerilyn Winstead Jer's Updates, Writing Hacks

US Literary Agents for Young Adult – How I Got my Agent

To clarify, my first novel is technically Middle Grade. I had originally planned it to be YA, but then I met my agent – over a year before she became my agent. She and others since her told me to make my story MG, so I changed it. Here I share my journey to agenthood with ideas and resources on where to find US literary agents for Young Adult (and Middle Grade too).

How I Got my Agent – Local Writer’s Conference

First, I highly recommend attending your local writer’s conference, or go to the nearest good one you can find. I happen to live in Colorado Springs where we have one of the best conferences every April: Pike’s Peak Writer’s Conference. Denver hosts the Rocky Mountain Writer’s Conference every August, and now Utah has a big one in September. I know the Romance Writers Association hosts their annual conference in a different city each year.

A year ago I didn’t have the money to attend the full conference. So I took the advice of the other writer’s in my writer’s group – at least go to Bar Con. Show up in the evenings when everyone is hanging out at the bar – this is where much of the networking happens. One of my friends was there attending the conference, as well as several of my writing buddies, so when I arrived Saturday night I got to visit with them first.

Before I even came I attracted and intended and prayed that I would meet exactly those I was meant to meet tonight. I’ve been studying the Law of Attraction and everything by Esther Hicks for a little bit now – if you want to land an agent, I highly suggest you read every book by Esther Hicks and listen to the videos on YouTube (search Abraham Hicks). It will change your life.

Join a Writer’s Group

Now I wouldn’t even have known to go to Bar Con if it weren’t for my writer’s groups. I had been in one writer’s group for a while which met weekly. I made strong connections there. One of those writing buddies later became one of the main leaders of our local conference – he was the one who introduced me to my agent that night at Bar Con, because he knew my story and knew she would be interested.

It was valuable being a part of that writer’s group for a while. Later I switched to another one – its main focus is for us to get our novels done – this was invaluable to helping me actually finish my novel.

When I was at Bar Con that night, I was still writing my novel, it wasn’t done yet. But I mingled and visited with several people. One writer had just gotten published – he highly recommended I get the book My Story Can Beat Up Your Story. He said before that book he couldn’t get published. Then he applied the principles in that book to his novel and he got published. This is the kind of vital information you get from visiting with other writers.

I ran into my old friend from my first writer’s group. He introduced me to an agent, Natalie Lakosil. I chatted with her for a little while, then got to pitch my novel. Right away she asked for the full manuscript – this was a miracle!

“Okay, I will finish it as fast as I can,” I said. She told me to take my time. I’m sure glad she said that, because my novel didn’t get finished until a year and three months later! But the reason it got done at all was because of my writer’s group. I finished writing the novel, then spent a year revising and editing it.

DuoTrope

This year I joined another writer’s group which meets weekly for coffee and chatting. I get such valuable information there from other writers I often take notes. One of the writers had just sold a short story using Duotrope. I had never heard of it, so checked it out and tried the free subscription, then joined for $5/month.

Duotrope shows all the current market, contests, agent and editors and what they are looking for. You can submit to paying markets and contests as well as non-paying. It has a Submission Tracker to track who you query or submit to, it is so useful! A great resource to find both global and US literary agents for young adult and other genre novels – it’s all organized and listed right there.

Duotrope: an award-winning resource for writers
I find it really fun to enter the various writing contests. I also used this platform as my tool for querying out my novel to many agents.

(Note – I do not get any compensation for recommending Duotrope – I’m just passing on valuable information and sharing this wonderful resource. At $5/month, they’re not in it for the money either!)

Of course I sent the full manuscript to Natalie, but queried about 15 agents over the course of a month this past summer. The Submission Tracker shows when you are expected to get a response by.

I also got to attend the full writer’s conference this year – I was awarded a partial scholarship which helped greatly. It was so fun being there for the whole thing. One editor helped me rework my whole first page – it was wonderful. I learned so much from all the classes, connected with a couple of editors, and got to pitch my novel to five agents! Most of them told me my novel was too novel, that publishers wouldn’t want to take a risk on such an unusual idea.

So, two months later, when Natalie emailed me back telling me she absolutely loved my story and wanted to talk to me on the phone, I knew that she got the vision of my novel – she’d seen it right away. By this time I’d received several rejections and was still waiting to hear from many other agents.

Do Your Research

Before talking to Natalie on the phone I researched online to see what a standard agent-writer contract looks like. After I had spoken with her last year I researched her and her agency. I knew she was legit since this large writer’s conference only brings in legitimate agents. Be careful who you hand your novel over to. Using platforms like Duotrope and meeting agents at writer’s conferences is a safe way to go.

When she offered me representation, I knew I wanted to go with her. She’d known right away which publishers would be very interested in my unusual novel. She has the confidence to go with it, and loves my idea and my book. I looked over the contract and saw it was the standard one I’d already researched.

All of the Above, but Law of Attraction most of all.

When it comes down to it, everything that’s happened with my novel, from its inception to landing an agent, has come from me attracting it successfully and in perfect timing. The more you study and practice the Law of Attraction, the better you’ll get at bringing forth your desire. Practicing these principles also taught me to completely trust all of this to God and relax about it. Then things just began falling into place – it’s awesome to watch.

In the revising process I did study and apply My Story Can Beat Up Your Story, as well as two other highly recommended books: The GMC and Editor-Proof Your Writing. The more you study and hone your craft, the better your novel will be. Attending the conference and going to writer’s groups also vastly improves your writing and changes your novel towards the best – don’t neglect these. These things are what marks a professional writer taking this seriously, from those who just dabble.

All of this applies to US literary agents for young adult as well as for other genres and other literary agents. I even queried agents in England, since my novel takes place in 1665 London.

Which techniques have worked for you? Where are you in the process? Please comment below, we all benefit from each other’s journeys and stories.

 

 

 

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Jerilyn Winstead Jer's Updates

Receiving Inspiration and NaNoWriMo Saves the Day

I learned that several famous authors received their original ideas by inspiration – from a dream or the like. So, many years ago, I prayed to receive an inspiration for a novel. The next morning I woke up with the first couple of sentences in my head, I saw it clearly: “Alpha, first letter of the Greek alphabet…Hello, my name is Alpha, I am trapped, please help me…”  Alpha reached out to me from the ether and told me of her plight.

So I received a tiny germ of an idea, just the first few sentences (I’m not including it all here since I don’t want to give the story away). The idea fascinated me, captured my imagination, sent a thrill through me. What will happen to Alpha? What happens in my story? What is Alpha’s story? I knew the book was like an old encyclopedeia with alchemical terms, like a Potions Class from Hogwarts. This novel is my answer to a deep desire to attend Hogwarts.

Thus began my journey as I worked on my first novel, on and off, for many years. It required a lot of research, which I love to do. I struggled the most with finding consistent time to make myself work on it – the first challenge of all writers. I was also running a business, then started a second, and raising four teenagers. My auburn hair began to gray.

But I continued working on my novel off and on for several years, spending the bulk of my time doing historical research and learning alchemy myself.

Then I met full-time author Susanne Lambdin at GalaxyFest and attended her writing class. I shared my story idea with her and she became so excited she offered to write the blurb on the back and connect me with her book reviewers and network. Her excitement acted as a catalyst, getting me fired up about my story again and finally figuring out how to work on it consistently.

I started participating in the various NaNoWriMo goals throughout the year (National Novel Writing Month plus their virtual writing camps) and joined a more aggressive local writer’s group. They meet every other Monday night to give feedback on each other’s works, to learn the craft of novel-writing, and to push each other to write at least 2,000 words a week and get our books done. I was encouraged to stop researching and get the writing done – the research can continue alongside the writing. I had been stuck in the research hole for a long time so this was what I needed.

I got serious with my writing and spent a year finishing the novel. Whew – I thought the main work was done. I was wrong. It took me two years of working on it steadily to revise and edit. I learned so much.

Finally in June of 2018, I finished my novel and kept dancing all day. I’m now Encyclopedeia Magica Volume 1 Alchemyquerying it out and one agent is reading it!

It’s called Encyclopedeia Magica: Volume 1 – Alchemy.
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Jerilyn Winstead Jer's Updates

About Me

Welcome to my author site! Here you’ll have the latest on my published works plus tips on the writing life and miscellany from my weird mind and journey.

From Mom to Mermaid to Writer

I love historical medieval re-enactment and costuming. I raised four kids, homeschooling them part of the time, making many costumes for them over the years. As they got older I founded two mermaid businesses – it was great fun telling people that I’m a mermaid. Mermaid swimming is the most amazing experience ever. I enjoyed the challenge of creating a costume that can function in water.Mermaid Jerilyn

I was active in the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) in my 20s, then recently got into larping (Live Action Role Play). Costumes + adventure! I participate in both our Middle Earth-style larp (elves, hobbits, dwarves, etc.) and in our post-apocalyptic larp (zombies!). I dream of attending the Hogwarts-inspired larps one day. I lost 20 lbs the summer I started larping – it’s my fitness program.

Through all this time I wrote and published several articles in magazines and volunteered in a historical writing project. I’ve spent the last several years working on my first novel off and on, finally finishing in 2018. I’ve been studying the craft of novel-writing and I love every part of it.

The Challenging Life of a Writer

Transitioning to full-time writing is a great adventure. I hope to share with you my journey, my struggles, triumphs and tips. Let’s help each other on this unique writing path – it is unlike any other.

Keep up with Me

This site is to keep you informed of my own published works and to help each other along the way of making it as a writer. Join our writing community here – we can all use an encouraging word or idea now and again. And share our own progress in our writing projects.

If you ever need a hand or have any questions, feel free to leave them below and I will be more than happy to help you out.

All the best,

Jerilyn zombie larp

Jerilyn Winstead

www.JerilynWinstead.com

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