What's your success story?

joconnor424

joconnor424

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Sep 27, 2011
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I've been working on AM and IM for awhile now and have yet to have any real results. I'm not whining about it as I know I still have lots to learn and all that jazz. But I'm curious what others "success stories" are like? What was your moment where you found out you can make money doing this?

I'm not asking for business ideas or any of that shit. I'm really just looking for some inspiration. What was your first money making campaign like? How long did it take to get money coming in on that campaign? What happened in that campaign that helped you "get it?"

I don't know. I've always enjoyed success stories told by those who've made it. It's interesting to see the lessons learned on your first revenue earning campaign. I'd like to know what I can look forward to.

If this kind of thread has already been established please accept my apologies!
 


Inspiration comes from within. If you're looking for it this isn't the career for you.

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Well, I'm not sure what kind success story you are looking for but here is some modest "success" depending on how you look at it.

A year ago I helped my friend who was in the military start a company. He wanted to get out but wasn't sure what to do on the outside and the peer pressure to stay in there is insane and brainwashing you to think that you will fail on the outside.
So he tells me he is considering starting a business (let's say cleaning company). I jump all over the idea and have a nice looking WP site up and logo/branding up within a week. He was amazed and shortly after he said he would get out provided I can get some phone calls coming in by the time his contract is up (within 3 months).

Within 2 months we have a phone call a week for service and he decides to get out for sure and start the business. It all goes smooth and by the time he got out, he was getting 2-3 calls a week and stepped right into this business with the money he saved from going to Afgan.

Now a year later, his website gets him 70+ phone calls a month and he is making serious $$. (He ended up paying me a decent bit and is working on building me a budget based on his leads)

I took the model I used for his business and did it for a local business in my city for a different industry. I started generating the same level of leads and within 3 months I had two sites rented out for 1200/month that are still paid regularly (5 months so far).

I would spend more time duplicating that process but my current business (web & seo) runs me ragged managing commissioned clients.

I'm not making millions yet but I was able to help a good friend start a business and have some nice side income generating.
 
I like to tell my ecomm story because it's more dramatic than my affiliate marketing story.

I decided to manufacture some computer case components in 2002.

I had the skills and the contacts to get it done.

I knew nothing about anything though.

So after 6 months of trying to wholesale my parts, with no takers, I decided I would retail them.

I didn't know anything about retail.

Sunk all of my savings into getting a website developed with a shopping cart.

Launched like Dec 2, 2002.

Didn't get my first sale until Dec 22 or 23.

I was so incredibly depressed. Along the way, I never considered that I would need to have customers in order to have sales. Classic mistake, I built a product/service for a market that I wasn't even sure existed.

A year later, I was smarter and doing 6 figures in sales part time with 50% margins. Of course, I got hit by two credit card processors going down, and was almost $15k in debt.

When I closed the store in 2006, I was up a lot, and had a good thing going. I had to quit for family reasons (and fatigue).

Affiliate marketing is a lot of stumbling from one thing to another.

I'm back to wanting to put down roots and build relationships again. Affiliate marketing as most do it, is a young man's game.
 
I'm sorry but I think that's a dumb statement. So many successful people in all facets of life have drawn inspiration from someone in their lives. Whether it's their peers or heroes or parents, you can rest assured that inspiration was drawn from someone other than themselves.

Now if you mean confidence, I can agree with you. Self confidence is absolutely necessary to be successful at anything. But inspiration is not confidence. I hope that's what you meant.

bobby_custard said:
Inspiration comes from within. If you're looking for it this isn't the career for you.

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Thanks blureach and guerilla, that's the kind of stuff I'm looking for!

I started an ecommerce site and had very few sales (two in a span of six or seven months). But I've recognized obvious weaknesses in my store and marketing and will be addressing those.
 
joconnor424 said:
I'm sorry but I think that's a dumb statement. So many successful people in all facets of life have drawn inspiration from someone in their lives. Whether it's their peers or heroes or parents, you can rest assured that inspiration was drawn from someone other than themselves.

Now if you mean confidence, I can agree with you. Self confidence is absolutely necessary to be successful at anything. But inspiration is not confidence. I hope that's what you meant.
Click to expand...

I agree to a point but I've realised that if friends have expressed an interest in what I do and need some sort of inspiration rather than jumping in to their own vision 100% then it doesn't work for them. Generally they've wasted time and money.
 
joconnor424 said:
Thanks blureach and guerilla, that's the kind of stuff I'm looking for!

I started an ecommerce site and had very few sales (two in a span of six or seven months). But I've recognized obvious weaknesses in my store and marketing and will be addressing those.
Click to expand...

What are you selling?
 
Well i've travelled down many paths that ultimatley led me to where i am today.

But i'll tell you how it all began.

T'was a wednesday evening and there I sat logged on to a forum which shall remain un-named. There I saw sheeps and shepards. These shepards where not your usual cloak wearing farm hands that aproached their job with dignity. no. These men guided their sheep with much charisma and charm. They had trained these sheep to do many mind boggling things.. such as paying $27 dollars for their magic button type e-books. Of course us being humans with fully funtional brains know that no magic button exists. But don't worry, sheeps dont understand people talk. They will never understand this.

On this glorious day, I too decided that I would become a shepard. I too will use my re-hashing skills and slap together some drivil and feed it to my herd of sheep. Somehow, my sheep didn't find it strange that every two days I'd have a fresh e-book for them, hot off the stove. They'd simply reply with BAHHHH heres $27. And I'd say good.. eat.. eat you fluffy bastard you.

Needless to say, this lead me into the path of greatness.

So remember my son, if you were to stumble upon this sheeps-pen of a place and gain your status as a shepard. NEVER EVER EVER EVER forget to put a 7 at the end of your price. For this will somehow anger your sheep and they'll turn their faces toward you and bite the very hand that had beed feeding them.

Now go and seek the truth

Tony
 
Success story? How bout a got really fuckin lucky story.


Basically I got into building adsense, sites winter of 2010.

A few months later google went and kicked the crap out of the content farms that had been ranking for most of the longtails.

Then there was a long parade of months where the flavor of the month bst thread would turn your sites into one week wonders.

That string of luck gave me the financing, and motivation needed to look deeper. Few months earlier, or 6 months later and I probably would probably still be hustling yugioh cards on ebay and burning the money on overly ambitious web projects that just lost money.
 
Some people get motivated by others.I started 5-6 years back to make bucks so that i can pay bills on my own ,very soon it grown to very large tree and now i make most of money here that i cant make in every day life.What ever it may be ,never give up.Always keep working implementing new ideas and reading forum,taking suggestion from people
 
I made half a million passively from adsense by making a shit load of web apps in 2010. Unfortunately, the income has dried up and I've spent the last year and a half trying to find the next big thing without much success. I'm starting to get frustrated, but at least I have plenty of money sitting in the bank for now.
 
@transistor, if you had built mailing lists (instead of adsense) you would still have a business.

Not criticizing you. I totally failed with email with my ecomm business, and I could have been sitting on a lot of passive cash from email marketing if I had done it too.

Building a list is always a good idea.
 
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