Ideas For My 6000th Post
- Thread starter eliquid
- Start date
Oh shit, until now I felt proud that I made my first grand using a Pentium 3 with win95..
Backstory please.
OK, I had this laptop that I bought in like 2002 when XP was already out and all the rage, but I was low on funds and working like 2 jobs at the time and really needed a laptop to backup my desktop when I needed to travel. I didn't go to Bestbuy and buy this thing, I actually went to one of those Electronics EXPOS and markets that roll into town like 2x a years ( like gun and car shows ) and ended up picking one up from a vendor for a couple grand ( this was 2002 you know ).
It was a perfect little laptop even though it was an OS behind and wasn't a top of the line model, it didnt even have a fucking WIFI card ( hence the reason way I didnt have wifi ).
I used it whenever I would travel, which was not a lot but since my jobs always provided me a desktop and I have one at home too, the laptop didnt see to much action. Sometimes in 2006 it ended up being more of a toy for the kids then any actual work being done to it.
Somewhere along the way, the kids ended up breaking the trackpad/pointer combo thing on the laptop and we had to end up using a USB mouse to work with it ( hence the broken trackpad ) so that wasn't a huge deal.
Around 2007, I got recruited to come work for MediaTrust remotely and quit my current job and went to go work for them. This left me in a odd bind because now at this time, my personal desktop went dead and the only other machine I had was my work desktop from the job I just quit. Also, at home ( becuase I would be working from home for Media Trust ) I lived too far away for DSL/Cable and I was not going to sign up for Sat. internet and had to deal with 56k dial up connection.
I ended up working for MediaTrust and bouncing around home and my moms house ( who had DSL ) a couple times a week and then finally got a USB wifi card and then bounced around libraries and coffee shops until I got an office in town where I could get my own space and Cable.
This worked well for about a year, but then when my lease was up at my office and right before I renewed it, MediaTrust did a lay off of a ton of people in which I was included, so I didnt renew my lease on my office and thought that I had to fucking go find another job. At this point in my career though, i had found affiliate marketing and wickedfire and decided to just strike it on my own since I had been doing some affiliate stuff for MT anyways.
I went home, bounced around some coffee shops, and ended up making a little money on with affiliate shit on facebook within my first month being self employed ( like maybe $4k tops ). In my second month, I dropped that fucking laptop and destroyed half the screen.
It wasn't so bad I couldnt make out what was on the screen, but I had a bunch of dead black lines at the bottom of the screen and some of the section were slanted to the left enough to look blurry. With no steady job or paycheck ( and the $4k I made was going to bills I already had ), I had to suck it up and just try to work thru it.
Struggling that way for another 30 days, I made another $15k in the next month and promptly went and bought a new desktop monitor and hooked it up to the side my laptop and used that for the rest of 2008 ( this was around June/July of 2008 ) at home. I used this setup for most of 2009 as well right up until Oct. when everyone started running ads for cheap computers coming up for Xmas sales and bought a new Macbook, desktop, and new laptop.
1.Can we get Michael Bay to direct this?
2.What did you tell your wife when decided to do AM?
3.How much did you have left when you started AM?
1. ha
2. I told her I got laid off and had no job, which pretty much crushed her and me at the same time as we just finally got on our feet. I told her I thought I could do this affiliate shit and we should just try it. We had no where else to fall as we already just climbed out of rock bottom.
3. Well, I had no income at the time, but I had about $2k in saving and I had a credit card. I dont remember the limit on the card, but it was only like $1500 or so. I used that credit card to fund my first campaign and ended up having to pay the card off every day via phone payments and special auth. numbers to get it to clear for the same day billing from Facebook. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I just had to suck it up and not run anything really as payments wouldnt clear on the weekends. After a few weeks of that shit, I went and just started running everything on my debit card which didnt have a "limit" except the funds I had in the account. I got my POS limit raised to 30k a day on the debit card and promptly did that to 4 more debit cards so I could run upwards of 120k a day.. it was the only way I could do shit at the time.
^^ How did you survive on a family budget of $500 ? Did you eat your children/doormat/halfyourcomputerscreen?
You rely on your mom/family to give you supper and your kids learn what "shit on a shingle" and "ramen" is for lunch and breakfast. Kool aid becomes your best friend.
Also, you learn the dollar menu at every fast food restaurant and what days kids eat free too.
Electric and phone bills get paid late, you dont drive anywhere because of gas, and wear the same pair of jeans for 4 days before washing them.
How would you start blowing up a clothing brand (one with marketability and a local support base, not some shitty idea)
To someone starting out now, would you even recommend IM anymore? What kind of offers should someome starting out promote?
I read the whole thread but I can't remember if you talked about having a real job while doing IM.. I work 40-50 "on call" hours a week. So my schedule blows. How did you stay energized and motivated to keep grinding out work, this is something I struggle with (I write content as a side gig)
To someone starting out now, would you even recommend IM anymore? What kind of offers should someome starting out promote?
I read the whole thread but I can't remember if you talked about having a real job while doing IM.. I work 40-50 "on call" hours a week. So my schedule blows. How did you stay energized and motivated to keep grinding out work, this is something I struggle with (I write content as a side gig)
You seem to enjoy teaching and have the real world experience to back it up. Ever consider an IM seminar business like they do in some of the paid IM forums?
1. You need to hit up social on your own brand, then hit up other brands and ecom site owners. Get it viral, the rest will take care of itself.
2. Money is my motivation, money never sleeps. I know that sounds like a gay answer, but money gives me options and with options you can do anything you want and so can your kids.
I see it as big as email is. Case in point, we send out mobile SMS alerts to our customers about deals and inventory we get in. We earn as much revenue, sometimes more, then our weekly email blast.
As far as people coming to our site via mobile and finding us ( not a blast we send out ), have a quick TAP to buy for established members is huge. For affiliates, mobile is already huge in other areas. Its only a matter of time before retail mobile gets a nice chunk of that.
I have off and on, but I dont know if I wanna go that route. Where in KY are you bro?
I only wash my jeans like once a wear, just pop them in the freezer to get rid of any smell and as long as you're not a dumbass who spills sauce all over them then you're good to go.
/hipster.
Do you regret buying your boat? Most people who buy say they wish they just rented as the maintenace/docking fees just don't make sense.
I have a few cashed up bogan friends who are thinking about purchasing something, I've been trying to convince them against it but would like to hear your opinions on it.
In hindsight, do you think you should've pushed the double rebill on other traffic sources or are you glad you didn't? (Most of the FTC stuff seems to have been targeted at media buyers for example).
In terms of your children, have you thought about how you want to deal with money with them? E.g, will they get an allowance/have to do chores? What about when they turn 18/21 etc? In your will?
If you and the family ever find yourself in Melbourne then hit me up and you've got a place to stay.
Man, im not even sure if your trolling me or not.. but I got a deep freezer and might take some of my kids jeans and try it. Do you wear them right out of the freezer too? lol
Ive had a few boats now, I can for sure say I regret buying a brand new boat off the showroom floor and docking it and only using it like 1x a month for sure. Especially in a state where you can only really use it 6 months out of year too.
Older boat though, it is somewhat OK. It comes down to dock fees and maint. for sure and how you keep it up. An older boat was a much better investment and keeping it in a cave during the winter cut down on costs as well ( the temp in the cave stayed 72 degrees F, so I never needed to winterize it ).
It would have been better all round to just rent one though.
Hard to answer. I did a ton of volume on FB alone. Much more then some people did with media buys and Adwords and emailing combined. Though, many people also did more then me on those channels too.
From an experience level, I dont regret it because I already have a ton of experience in email, Adwords, and media buys now. From an income level I do say I regret it, but thats just becuase Im greedy as fuck. From a mental/stress level, I am glad I only stuck to FB. I couldn't imagine spreading myself thin like that across 4-5 more channels.. FB was already a lot to deal with the way I handled it.
They will need to do chores for sure. Im not giving them free money, not even for their first car or college.
Thanks for the stay, when I get down that way I will hit you up for some drinks and shit. Maybe even some deep sea fishing if your into that.
Every business I ran I always found dealing with employees harder than dealing with customers. What is your best tip on dealing with employees especially online from far away countries.
I hear what you are saying about doing it yourself. Do you think it is better to keep it core and manageable. By the way, I sent you an e-mail on Spamwow.
I hear what you are saying about doing it yourself. Do you think it is better to keep it core and manageable. By the way, I sent you an e-mail on Spamwow.
Firstly, thanks for doing this. It's always great to hear from someone who's made AM work for them.
I have a question: what criteria do you use to select the campaigns you run? How do you tell what you think is going to work and what's toilet?
Do you just go off your gut instinct or are there specific things you look for?
I have a question: what criteria do you use to select the campaigns you run? How do you tell what you think is going to work and what's toilet?
Do you just go off your gut instinct or are there specific things you look for?
Ill be answering these sometime in the next few days, havent forgotten you guys. Just been busy.. keeping em coming and Ill make 1 big post
Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com
There is a part where he says that his kids find stuff around the house to do and they negotiate a payment with their dad. Interesting IMO.