Are you in a better place than you were 5 years ago?

erifdekciw

erifdekciw

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May 3, 2008
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Would you say you are better off than you were 5+ years ago?

How many of you made a successful transition into the internet of today from the easy money of 5+ years ago? Leave your egos at the door. Let's get real here.

I want this thread to be a deeper discussion than what has been going on around here for the past few months. I want to how YOU are doing.

Have things been good or bad for you?

I want to turn this into little experiment into some kind of deeper learning. If you're doing good, I want to know what keeps you motivated. What is pushing you forward to succeed... And if you're not doing so well these days, tell us what you think is holding you back. I want to learn more about YOU and turn this into a real discussion that will help both sides move forward.

With that being said I'll start...

5 years ago I was doing pretty damn good for myself. I dropped out of college to pursue my dream of working from home. My real goal in life was never to work a 9-5 job and to this day I can still proudly say, I've never worked a 9-5 job in my life, but I'm barely keeping that dream alive.

Like most of you I had big success running affiliate campaigns on stuff like ringtones, weight loss, skincare, etc. I was making good money for my age. I was on top of the world, but then it came crashing down...

My father passed away when I was 19. I honestly wish I could blame my failures on that moment of my life, but I would only be making excuses for my mistakes. I took a year off and partied and traveled the world. I honestly never really liked my father because he was an asshole, but he was the asshole that kept me anchored and pushed me everyday to prove myself worthy to his standards.

Once he was gone, I felt like the chains were broken and I was free to do what I wanted. A 19 year old kid with hundreds of thousands of dollars and no experience in finances was not a good mix. I spent a lot of my money and by the time I got back into the business I had no motivation to do anything.

Over the past 5 years I've been fighting to build up the drive that I once had at such a young age, but I feel like that drive left once I had nothing left to prove to my father.

Now I'm trying to desperately find something to motivate me again. Money doesn't motivate me like it use to. I've fell victim to the life of comfortableness. I only do enough work to pay my bills and pay for entertainment every month. Everyday I tell myself I need to get to work, but in the end I sit on my computer and do nothing.

The only reason I'm creating this thread now is because I know some of you are in my situation right now, and I know there are a lot of successful people here. I want to know what makes you tick. I want to know what drives the successful people and I want to know what is holding everyone else back.

Share your experiences here, I think we've all had our fair share of problems and I think we've matured enough to have a real discussion about something like this without looking down or attacking people for where they are right now.

I think both sides can benefit from this. So tell me...

Are you in a better place than you were 5 years ago? and what lead to you being where you are right now?
 


Hmm, 5 years ago? Oh yeah, definitely better off now. 5 years ago I was going through hell on earth, so doing better now.

Honestly though, my prime was about 10 years ago. Had a solid business, and was doing extremely well for myself back then. Wasn't filthy rich or anything, but we lived very well without worry. Ended up going through a divorce though, so that all went to hell.

Things are looking up right now though. Have been making some pretty solid connections with some quality people, plus have a few good ideas in mind.

Unfortunately, won't be making any new connections at WF. Jon has already told him, I'm getting the boot once the revamp is done. :)
 
22 AUG 2010, I was just starting sophomore year of college working at a startup at a PHP developer part time.

Haha things are way better now!

I'm living in Berlin, traveled to 28 countries, and have meaningful work, the work is online of course.

@Kioppa, awesome you're recovering from the divorce.
 
Hmm what you described is pretty common actually as far as the chasing of some old success goes.

I am definitely better off now than 5 years ago. A lot better. For me it was always about incremental changes in my business and simply not quitting when it got tough.

Started out with SEO and when I started making around $500 a month I didn't think how to make more with SEO but how to use what I've made and go into something that's in my opinion the next level. So I switched to PPC and was working on making that work for quite some time.

Then once I learned that and was doing well off with affiliate offers and paid traffic I started thinking what's the next step here? And it was of course to build my own product which was of course a total failure the first time we did it. But with the second one I think we used in a correct way everything we learned up to that point and from what I can see now after a couple hundred test sales is that there's a true long term potential here.

So again when I saw that I said okay, I have my own product here that I'll work on for years probably what's the next step? And as it came some companies asked us for marketing consulting so we set up that. Which was kind of a step in the right direction but not what I'd prefer doing long term. Optimizing business models of another companies for a fixed pay without owning a % of the company just doesn't motivate me enough.

And now we've started two new companies to counter that issue with two different teams who already have awesome products but both need someone that knows how to market a good idea.

So this is where I am now. Co owner and CEO of two new companies, one of them in the chemical industry with a unique and really solid product where we partnered with a chemist that developed a product years ago but didn't market it correctly and another in the clothing line with a team that is in retail for 25 years now but they don't have any online presence. Having shares in different companies and being a part as they hopefully become extremely successful is a step forward again and a totally new territory for me. And by the next year I'll be thinking how to go for the next step from that too. And again and again, every time building on previous knowledge and trying to tackle something even bigger.

This is how I stay motivated. I'd die of boredom still building links and doing SEO, I'd also have trouble finding motivation to make ads and optimize a marketing funnel for an affiliate offer. But when I was at that point it motivated me because it was something new and exciting.

I don't really do this intentionally like waking up one day and deciding to go for the next level, it's more like being hungry to build something big and finding the optimal way to get to that point. So like Arnold says, stay hungry my friends.
 
A LOT better, thanks for asking!

Been through a divorce also, @Kiopa; got stronger & better focused now?
I bet you do!

Got a part-time job that pays the bills,
also giving life self-empowerment seminars (my enjoyment now),
and getting checks from my affiliate grinding.

Motivated now to make the final jump to full-time freelance,
mainly doing more seminars or delivering an online version;
done some tests, not quite satisfied still...
 
I'm definitely doing better mentally and financially than I was five years ago. Turning 30 in the past year really fucked with me for a while until I realized how well I was doing compared to where I was a few years ago.

Also lol @ tags.
 
I am trying to focus on the power of now that was written by Eckhart tolle,

try to do that everyday, its hard, because we always think about the past and the future and not the current moment, I am practicing that, its tougher than anything. The past is gone, the future, it will come sooner or later, but live in the moment, no one really does, well I do when I am drinking, good times.
 
I'm doing waaay better now than five years ago.

Back in 2010 I was at a crossroads - get a corporate job or go self employed. Happy to say that so far I've not spent a second in a proper office-cubicles-and-shit workplace and doing really well now. But it was a tough 3.5 years tbh. Very tough. To a point where some months I would barely make enough monies to buy food.
 
Want purpose? Get enough money to support at least 3-4 kids. If first 3 kids are girls, you'll want that extra cheese to have room for a possible 4th boy. I know a neighbour who wanted a boy so bad, but he ended up with 4 girls. At this point he couldn't support the 5th kid.
You'll definitely want that baby boy to pass on all your knowledge, choose his dreams and likes and make him what you didn't were in your young life, fuck him up mentally and he'll end up doing the same etc.
What was this thread about, I'm drunk.
 
August of 2010....

This was a bad month for me back in 2010 and the end of the year got worse.


If we are talking about the couple years around 2010, my prime at that time ( for affiliate marketing and revenue ) was in 2008+2009, so I was coming off that peak.


I had decided going into 2010 I didn't want to focus on affiliate marketing anymore as my sole income. I had been doing affiliate marketing since 2001 ( as an affiliate in the adult industry ) and already had 9 years in the game being an affiliate at that point and hit (I thought ) the apex of that part of my affiliate career in 2008-2009. I thought it was time for a new challenge now.

I wanted to do something else and I wanted to not be at the bottom of the food chain anymore, so I spent all my time in late 2009 and all of 2010 trying to do something else except being just an affiliate.

2010 saw a year of bad business deals with a few former partners and I think also ( I could be wrong on my dates ) the time when Visa and MC got rid of a lot of mids for negative option billing which set me back also in another project I put a lot of my own time and money in and was 2 weeks away from launching from. I think this was also the year I got my first major C&Ds and started looking into lots of legal issues with my former and current business dealings.


I was already in a small depression coming into early 2010 and those events above ( plus a few more ) set off 2010 as one of the worst years ( business-wise ) in my life.


I hit a rock bottom near the end of 2010 with everything.


From that point, I started building back up again. It was horrible and grueling.


Thinking I was starting over again coming into 2011 was depressing in itself and I battled that demon for a long time. I pretty much rebooted and started completely over with nothing:

  • Almost no liquid cash left in savings AND no current income stream
  • No email list
  • No network of real trusted contacts to help me
  • Things I thought were assets, but they weren't cash flow positive yet
  • No plan or system to get back on my feet


Compare that to today, and yeah.. I am a lot better off now than then.

It wasn't easy. I had to relearn everything I thought about business and making money and what I thought I knew about myself.

I am still learning and relearning every day. It's still a struggle every day to be your best mentally and physically. I am still haunted by the fact I can lose what I have today just like I kinda did back in 2010.

Even though I learned from my prior mistakes and have systems set up to ensure that doesn't happen again, the haunting feeling of losing everything I had once already almost and the struggle that I had to go through to get back on top again is what keeps me pushing forward every day.

It's the feeling I am sure my grandparents and great grandparents had when they had tons of money under their mattress but wouldn't put it in the bank or spend a nickel of it no matter what. They grew up during the depression and experienced it and even though things got better, they were haunted and learned from that lesson and made sure they never had to live through that again, but it still pushed them to be thrifty and avoid the government banks every day going forward even when things were better later on.

I'm not perfect and I still fail and sometimes slip back into my old ways. But I am human and I am 600% better today even when I fail than I was back in 2010.






​
 
Shack said:
You'll definitely want that baby boy to pass on all your knowledge, choose his dreams and likes and make him what you didn't were in your young life
Click to expand...

Are you saying you can not do this with a girl?


Your view of women must be excellent.
 
Alright Dr Phil, let's get emotional here...

Financially? Definitely yes. Miles ahead of where I was 5 years ago (c.f. buying link wheels and struggling to properly monetize a site).

Health? Love? Family? Pretty much the same as 5 years ago. Can't complain I guess.

Socially? Not so much. This work from home thing is not doing great things for my social life. I'm thinking more and more that the best thing for me would be to open a physical office and hire actual people to work for me. This would force me to develop some leadership skills and learn to physically lead a team. I feel like if I keep working from home I'm gonna end up like one of those misfits living with a bunch of cats and leaving the house only at night to avoid social interactions. lol

Also I feel some kind of "void" from not having created anything. I mean, 50% of my time goes towards working my clients' sites, the other 50% goes towards promoting external affiliate offers. Nothing is my own. Anyone else on the same boat?

All I want at this point is create a unique product/service that people would be excited to use. It's not even about the money anymore, it's about that feeling of having created something useful that you can call your own.
 
I'm in a worse place in some ways and in a better place in others.

On one hand I have no responsibilities, plenty of time, and I'm not tied down in a dead end relationship like a few people I know.

On the other hand, I have a lot more pressure on me, much more so than before, and my social life has pretty much gone.
 
I'm going to assume you're talking financially. Yes I'm better off (read: more money) but it hasn't changed my lifestyle or attitude. There comes a time when you have a boat load of money and more money isn't going to change anything or make you happier. You can't buy your way to permanent, fulfilling happiness. More cars, more houses, more possessions aren't going to keep you from getting depressed. Once you reach a certain level of comfort having more money becomes a moot point.

You gotta find what motivates you. For me, I have money but I don't have shit all to do. So affiliate marketing is my game, my muse if you will. Impressions, clicks, clickthroughs, conversion rates and profits are all high scores to be beaten. It's a rush.

Ultimately this "obsession" (as my wife calls it) allows me to take my family and friends on great vacations a few times a year. Being able to explore the world and experience new ideas with the ones I love is what truly makes me happy, it's money well spent.
 
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I'm in a much better place than 5 years ago. 5 years ago I was an affiliate looking to run a stable e-commerce offer. This was my second attempt. My first attempt was in 2007, but due to the nature of the product (herbal smokes), I kept losing my processing despite the low chargebacks and nice profits. After about 6 months of that, I moved back into being an affiliate until 2010.

In 2010 I was anxious to move on up from being an affiliate to offer owner. I was making good cash but I knew this wasn't going to last. I was preparing to launch a straight sale biz opp offer. I even had a custom CRM built for the offer. The offer failed. The chargebacks were absolutely insane on it and I kept losing my processing. It ended with me being owed $150k USD by a Latvian bank that still hasn't paid me.

Fortunately I was able to salvage the CRM I built for that previous offer and launched a new rebill offer with a good quality product that has been running very well since 2012. Chargebacks are quite manageable, and I learned from my past mistakes and figured out how to properly load balance. I also have a custom load balancing system built into my CRM that has some unique features that aren't available in commercial CRMs like Limelight.

I'm very happy where I am today compared to 5 years ago, and am looking forward for the future. I'm in the process of launching several more offers.

Also I don't do 14 day trials like some of the more aggressive offers out there. I do 50% discounts on the initial order for my current offer and for my new offers I'll be doing a 30 day trial where the customer gets the initial product for free (just a 4.97 processing fee) and won't pay full freight until the second order is shipped. It's more expensive to do it this way due to the upfront advertising costs, but I believe it leads to a more sustainable offer that doesn't piss off the consumer. With my upcoming offers the consumer actually does get the first product for free as a loss leader.

90% of the traffic I run is internal, but I do have a few affiliates I work with as well. My first offer was 100% dependent on affiliates, and it ultimately led to its downfall. So now I prefer running my own traffic and using affiliates as a distant secondary source of traffic.
 
eliquid said:
Are you saying you can not do this with a girl?


Your view of women must be excellent.
Click to expand...

I couldn't agree with you more. It's just a pathetic way to view women. I actually had a very smart lady who has been in this industry for 15 years help me out big time with something I've been working on. She's way smarter than all of the misogynistic idiots on here put together.

Glad to hear that you're kicking ass though.
 
Mentally? yes. Financially. broke lol

5 years ago I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life.

Fast forward to today, about to turn 25, sleeping on my friends floor, living out of a suitcase after getting buttf*cked with this software company i started at the beginning of the year.

I left a 6 figure job doing biz dev at a large affiliate network for mailers. Went all-in on this tool I was building. I had investors lined up with verbal agreements, a partner with previous success in the industry, and a developer hungry to prove himself. Thought i was ready.

Long story short, ex-employer starts asking for a ridiculous amount of equity, threatens to sue. Partner turned out to be insane, I let him go, he threatens to sue. Investors get scared away.

Few months go by, I've lost all my savings, lost my GMC Terrain, kicked out of my apartment, my moped gets stolen and I'd basically be homeless today if my friends would let me.

Today, I'm working part time now for a local startup here in Vegas, and I'm doing biz dev for affiliate networks on the side at. AffiliateAppointments.com

I'm investing most of my money into building out an email list. I see the next venture being primarily data arbitrage.

All in all. I'm happy this happened to me. I'll make for a great story one day when I'm F*CKING RICH!!!

hit me up on linkedin if you want to connect. https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterkell

#itsnotoveruntilIwin
 
You know what's cool. My business that I started back in 2000 is still humming long just fine. I haven't owned it since fall of 2005, but nonetheless, to see it still humming along and doing well in 2015 is pretty cool, you know? That's my baby, so I'm glad to see it's still being well taken care of. 15 years in the online business world is a long time, so apparently I did something right.
 
Kiopa_Matt said:
You know what's cool. My business that I started back in 2000 is still humming long just fine. I haven't owned it since fall of 2005, but nonetheless, to see it still humming along and doing well in 2015 is pretty cool, you know? That's my baby, so I'm glad to see it's still being well taken care of. 15 years in the online business world is a long time, so apparently I did something right.
Click to expand...

Well, you havent owned it since 2005. Sounds like SOMEONE else did something right all these years ( at least 10 )
 
eliquid said:
Well, you havent owned it since 2005. Sounds like SOMEONE else did something right all these years ( at least 10 )
Click to expand...

That's a nice ego destroying reality check for Kiopa_Matt.

I remember the last time Kiopa_Matt sold a business, it involved several unhappy wickedfire members who got thrown under the bus after being guaranteed lifetime updates.
 
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