What's your story when your first started out in AM? Here's mine and I need advice
Hi everyone, it's my first post.
I've seen the newbie guide and forum threads. I have also seen posts elsewhere stating that you guys are starting to get - on a weekly basis - questions similar to what I am about to ask, so I apologise if this is starting to irritate others. I'm sharing more details about my situation probably more than the other posts. Call it a last resort try or desperation if you like
Any insights/advice for this newbie aspiring to make money in affiliate marketing would be very much appreciated.
If ever you get to the end of my post, kindly tell me your insights, advices, tips or action plans on what I need to action to realistically earn from the effort that I am expending at the moment.
I’m a 33 year old male. I work for one of the largest international bank earning pretty decent salary compared to most of my peers. I don't mean to brag, but while I'm not exactly the star of the bank, my position is quite respectable. I don't want to appear to conceited, but I'm sharing this to you because I need you to know that I have the learning ability to make this work. What I'm lacking is the technical skills, knowledge, flying hours and mentors like you guys in this forum.
I currently work from 8am and won’t come back home till 7.30pm (it was much later before I found internet marketing).
My family and I got broke when my dad died of cancer last year. Family savings, albeit enough, was soon depleted because we needed to pay hefty medical bills before he eventually passed away.
Money was the main motivating factor for me and family to get back on track. It was in Feb 08 when I found the world of internet marketing.
I’m an informational type of guy – so I spent considerable time (averaging 3 hours a night after work) to educate myself on the web. I’ve since spent close to $2,000 on membership sites, ebooks (mostly craps) and DVDs. I got smarter now and stopped buying them.
I’ve lurked around forums like Warrior Forum, digitalpoint, just being an observer. Then, I found wickedfire, hence this post.
My first real action was 4 months ago, Aug 2008 when I attended a local SEO bootcamp – since then, I’ve been in touch with the community and spent hundreds of hours online after my office hours.
My hours are now like 9am – 7.30pm (office) and 8.30pm – 12.30am (oftentimes it went on to 3am during the first 2 months). So it’s like about 10 hours in office, and 3-4 hours at home. My personal life hasn’t been spectacular thanks to my hours now. This is happening like 4 days in a week and 1.5 days during weekend.
I haven’t made a dime as yet, but this is because I haven’t taken action until 2 weeks back when I decided I’ve downloaded, read enough materials to really start something.
I made $1.36 from Adsense on my first blog – it was more of a test site for me to understand how Adsense works.
Past few months have been very draining. I am extremely frazzled out. Some of you prolly went through the same experience. I’ve wanted to try blogging, Adsense, PPC, building a portal etc. It was information overload at best.
After much consideration on my current situation, I wanna focus on Affiliate Marketing. This is also a result of the research and reading I did during past 4 months, especially yesterday’s inspiration from Kieron Donoghue’ income report posted somewhere in this forum.
Here’s my situation:
1. I like to think I’d still keep my job despite the crisis. I’m still getting my bonus as I exceeded my yearly target at mid-year.
2. My supervisor and the big boss! however is starting to notice that I’m losing the energy and focus at work. I’ve been coming to office late and leaving earlier. The hours have taken its toll on me … and I’m concerned and at times am in doubt if I should ever keep doing what I’m doing now.
3. I've cut down a lot on my clubbing and golf to save up some money to fund my venture. I’m now at a stage where I’m done with much of my research and I wanna start daily action one step at a time. In fact, just a min ago, I got a call from CODEAC (first call from the Affiliate Network - I applied only two days ago with no site reference!)
4. I wanna start an affiliate website probably like Kieron Donoghue’s sites. I am learning to use Wordpress a lot due to SEO factor and cheap cost (am using the free theme now).
5. I have plenty other commitment in life, but for this venture, here is the effort and money that I’m putting in:
- Initial Capital - $2000
- As long as the web is not generating revenue yet, expenses that I can afford to spend is around $300 per month - from my monthly paycheck. My bank is literally becoming my banker to fund my future business.
- Time I can invest is
i. 2 uninterrupted hours a day during weeknites (max. 3 hours a night unless I wanna start screwing up in the office)
ii. 6 uninterrupted hours during Sat and Sun
iii. 3-hour monthly meeting with my local bootcamp community (where I get help and mentoring from top proven SEO engineer and Google Adwords Professional
iv. A 2 week off from work coming year end which I will put to good use to spend more time on this venture.
d. I’m already putting into action my daily plans, small steps at a time, from doing up a Wordpress site, writing 2-3 articles, setting up accounts with the affiliate network (just got my COPEAC app approved - told them I heard them from wickedfire
I don’t know if you could more or less relate to my situation based on my post above, but if you do, I would be grateful if the experts here could share some insights or tips on the following questions.
- For those moonlighting when you first starting out, how much time do you spend at nights when you were first starting out?
- And which gave you the most revenue when you were first starting out? Affiliate Marketing? Ad Banners etc? Blogging?
- What’s the most cost effective way to start out: I can’t write well (not yet) as you could probably tell by now, so I’d be hiring freelancers on my topic areas. I’d probably hire a developer to develop a unique Wordpress theme. I’d probably be paying for some autoresponder service etc.
- I'm not that tech-savvy especially with cpanel, but am comfortable with Wordpress and finding info on the net. My local friends can probably help with PPC and SEO
I need to know if I'm on the right track. I'm starting to get concerned with the mental and energy drain. It's becoming harder for me to sell the idea to my family; it's becoming harder to give the same level of energy and focus at work when I've this consuming obsession with my web venture.
I'm aware that AM world is becoming competitive and expensive to promote. How do I find those niches? Any techniques you could point me to?
Your most candid advice would be most appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
davids
"Do unto others as you would want them do unto you"
