The Truth About Internet / Affiliate Marketing - My Internet Marketing Story
The Truth About Internet / Affiliate Marketing - My Internet Marketing Story Part 1
What you see below is a post that I had written around 2009 or 2010. Don't quote me. I was going to document all the "how to" manuals I bought for internet and affiliate marketing. I planned to share all my trials and tribulations surrounding the idea of making money online. Honestly, I forgot about this Blogger profile. I stumbled upon it today and am going to pick it back up. Read my original post. Then, beyond that, I'll be adding to it. I didn't edit my original post much. I made the edits I did make in a blue font. After that original post, I'll be throwing in some additional insight.
Why Write The Truth About Internet and Affiliate Marketing, AKA Internet Marketing?
First.....................Here's why I'm excited to pick this up. Why I'm excited to actually do this. It's because I originally did internet marketing for my ACTUAL business. A finance business. I discovered that you could also use internet marketing to do affiliate marketing (selling other peoples products AND getting a commission for it). I'm excited about it because it worked at it in my spare time and made money. I did that for about 2 years. The money I made is noted below. I didn't make TONS of money, but I did make money at internet and affiliate marketing. I did it mainly from making websites, blogging, and writing articles. I dabbled in paid marketing, but not much. I didn't have the extra money for trial and error. Hence, I sought out FREE ways to get affiliate sales (aka sweat equity).
BUT, what's more exciting is that after I stopped doing it, money still continued to funnel in..............not tons, but it came in and I was no longer actively pursuing it. HOW GREAT IS THAT?! MONEY COMING IN TODAY FOR WORK I DID YESTERDAY.......OR LAST WEEK, OR LAST YEAR OR 2 YEARS AGO. Looking back, I wish I did continue. I might have been able to stop doing my day job where I make alot of money................for someone else. BOO! Also, If I nurtured what I started, I would have made more money rather than having the residual income slowly taper off over the course of about 4 years.
Original Internet and Affiliate Marketing post that was never published:
Here is a very brief story about what got me into affiliate / internet marketing AND some of the truth's I've discovered along the way. This is sort of an internet marketing journal if you will.
My intent is to help other people that want to make money online by doing internet or affiliate marketing. Hopefully you can learn from some of my mistakes and discoveries.
I am not a super affiliate by any means (yet), but I have made some money online and my online / internet / affiliate marketing business is growing.
***FYI, At no extra cost to you we may receive a commission when you click on links within this website.
***FYI, At no extra cost to you we may receive a commission when you click on links within this website.
My story at a glance (and my internet marketing earnings):
-
I started out in the financial services industry before the real estate bubble back in May of 2000.
-
I eventually got to ride the financial services roller coaster. I originated home loans from May, 2000 to September 2007. I can proudly say that I did it with integrity and honesty. In fact, I did not originate 1 Pick A Payment loan (despite the fact that the bank I worked for pushed those products like crazy).
-
November 2007 was my last day getting paid for originating traditional home loans (I originate reverse mortgages now and have a blog / website about reverse mortgages) The company I worked for closed down on September 17, 2007.
-
I Decided to start my own commercial finance company (equipment leasing & project financing broker).
When I set out to learn internet marketing for my business, I first discovered Affiliate Marketing (selling other people's products online). This was new to me. It excited me.
I got lured in by some crazy sales pages........you've seen them if you have pondered the thought of learning internet marketing........"just copy what I do....It's earned me $152,777 dollars in the first 90 days.......
I quickly learned that it's just not that easy, BUT I also learned that it was possible to make money sitting on my butt by doing internet / affiliate marketing.
It's been two years now since I first tried internet marketing.
-
The first year (2008), I made about $280 and had a few successes and lots of failures, but I was determined.
-
The second year I made about $3000 (2009)(moving in the right direction right?!)
My goal for my third year is to hit the 5 figure mark and do $10,000 or more (problem here was that I had some family issues etc. I slowly tapered down on internet marketing for my business AND affiliate marketing. BUT GUESS WHAT............I still made about $2800 from affiliate marketing.........JACKPOT........THIS WAS FROM WORK I ALREADY DID............NOT SOMETHING I WAS ACTIVELY DOING. The problem is, if you don't nurture, the residual income will eventually stop. Last time I got a check was in 2016. It's now June 2017.
- Year 3 (2010) I made about $2200.00, BUT I wasn't doing anything new. This was from old stuff.
- Year 4 (2011) I made about $1500..........same, this was just residual income.
- Year 5 (2012) I made about $800...........still just residual income.
- Year 6 (2013) it tapered down to about $400.............still on residual.
- Year 7 (2014) it tapered down to about $200.
- Year 8 (2015 it tapered down to about $100.
- Year 9 (2016 it went down to about $60.
- In 2017, I have not gotten one affiliate sale.
I'm still excited though. Think about it. I made money from work did as long as 6 years ago. I sure wish I would have kept at it. That's why I'm back. I've slowly been building a website for my reverse mortgage job. Now, it's time to get active with internet and affiliate marketing.
If you are thinking about learning internet marketing, I'm going to tell you the god awful truth.
I'll tell you what I bought in terms of learning the business. I'll tell you what worked for me and what did not, etc. In some regards, it's easy. But it's NOT simple. It WILL
Tip #1, remember this: Rome did not get built in a day. It is the very same thing with building your internet marketing business.
NEVER forget this analogy - Imagine you are a mason (brick layer) and are building your own little empire.
It's not what you do today that counts, it's what you do on a regular & consistent basis that counts.
Yea, it's great if you write 10 articles (article marketing isn't as relevant today as it was in 2008-2010) today and get them submitted, but if you don't do anything again for three months you won't see big results (by the way, I'm still only doing article marketing and am not doing any pay per click - more about that later).
You would be much better off if you said "hey, I'll devote 1/2 hour to an hour a day, five days a week then you would by doing the gangbuster to zero approach. Think about it. Write just one simple article 5 times a week. At the end of a year, you will have 260 articles that are making you money. Consistency is the key!
Here's a list of what I tried internet and affiliate marketing (I'm going off memory because I didn't get to this part of the post back in 2009-2010):
1. Wealthy Affiliate - Is a complete bootcamp and affiliate marketing community. I Had a membership there for about 6 months and it gave me a great foundation.
2. An ebook about internet marketing. I actually got this first. It's a book that was written by Kyle and Carson, the owners of Wealthy Affiliate. I actually bought that book before I got my membership to Wealthy Affiliate. It was decent, but good enough to get me started in getting web traffic. I wanted more. Hence, I joined their community.
3. I also bought some book about marketing with Twitter. I never did very well with Twitter in terms of Affiliate marketing.
4. I bought a tutorial on how to do article marketing. I don't remember the name, but I got a lot of business from this. Again, this is less relevant today than back then.
5. I bought something from ClickBank called "Blogging to The Bank". It doesn't look like it's still available. I ended up returning it because I thought it was to techy for me.
Hands down, I got most of my best knowledge from everything I learned from Wealthy Affiliate and freebies..............and alot of trial and error.
2. An ebook about internet marketing. I actually got this first. It's a book that was written by Kyle and Carson, the owners of Wealthy Affiliate. I actually bought that book before I got my membership to Wealthy Affiliate. It was decent, but good enough to get me started in getting web traffic. I wanted more. Hence, I joined their community.
3. I also bought some book about marketing with Twitter. I never did very well with Twitter in terms of Affiliate marketing.
4. I bought a tutorial on how to do article marketing. I don't remember the name, but I got a lot of business from this. Again, this is less relevant today than back then.
5. I bought something from ClickBank called "Blogging to The Bank". It doesn't look like it's still available. I ended up returning it because I thought it was to techy for me.
Hands down, I got most of my best knowledge from everything I learned from Wealthy Affiliate and freebies..............and alot of trial and error.
Comments
Post a Comment