Made millions. Now at 0 again.

[Seonetworkuk]

Hey everyone, just want to preface that I've known about the forum for a long time, joined a while ago, and occasionally would bump into it here and there, just like today.

I have a question as to what I should do because I truly do not know what to do.

To make a long story short without going into too much details. I am 23 right now, from age 16-19 I've ran a small "agency" but more so a freelance type thing of email & sms marketing for eCommerce brands, generated a lot of money for those branda ( mid to high 7 figures ). And got paid a percentage (performance fee, because my offer was "I do the job, don't pay anything upfront, but you pay me a % of the revenue".

Worked perfectly and I had a couple stable clients that I worked troughout the whole time during those 3 years. Well the money I've made at the time (mid six figures for the 3 years), I ended up basically blowing almost all of it on dumb shit (drinks, partying, hookers, a $30k audi TT that I totalled while on my way to register and insure it so money down the drain ), the only good thing is I didn't have nor do I still have any debt + I paid off the loan for the apartment I still live in with parents).

I am saying all of this, because right about the time my savings account was very low, I also lost my clients in a span of a week due to reasons outside of my control ( 2 clients had exits, 1 retiring & 1 dropshipping store blowing up so they moved on)

I was like no big deal, i'll find new ones and i'll be back on my horse soon, well fast forward couple months, thousands of cold emails that were personalized manually sent one by one, I noticed a trend in the replies :

- Fuck your guru
- Tell your get rich mentor to blow in my ass
- Why are you the 100th person to be sending this email today pitching same stuff

And similar, and I figured out that the niche of eCommerce was flooded with "get rich quick" students of Iman, Tate's and alike idiots, so I stopped for a bit and had to take some time off due to health reasons aswell.

Then comes a point where I decide to enroll into Uni for at least some benefits so I did that, and tried getting clients on the side nothing worked.

Completely stopped focusing on that part of my life for the past 2 years, but still kept in mind that I will figure out a way to make money again which hasn't happened.

Honestly I've had a huge goal since the start (i keep my childhood journal still) , I was 13 when I started dreamimg of having a big ass company that owns many companies and crushes the industries. (And this was my idea with email marketing aswell [Freelance -> Agency -> Equity -> Roll up -> High 8, 9 Figure Exit, Invest and live off a portion of the interest & retire]

Well, I am nowhere near close to that goal, but I still keep it in the back of my brain, because I truly believe it can be done.

My question basically is does anyone see how I can get out of this situation?

My thinking is I am already very well versed in email marketing for eComm and have the results so I am thinking of finding a remote job for email marketing positions ( I live in a 3rd world country btw, so I have to figure out how to land a remote position, if you have advice let me know ) and then since the job would provide capital i'd be able to slowly transition into the path I've mentioned earlier.

Any toughts, advice, suggestions from experienced and seasoned guys or people who've gotten out of the same quicksand before?

TLDR;

I did email & sms marketing for eComm stores, made a bunch of money for them and for me, lost the clients, did outreach figured out it became saturated, never got back on my feet again since that happened years ago, trying to figure out what to do

Email marketing has been a bit slow lately, so maybe try mixing in cold calling to find clients — it still works in some niches. Another option is to build up some courage and approach local businesses directly. You could offer them the same service you used before, either on a subscription model or even a % of revenue.


A lot of business owners would be open to it since they don’t have to pay anything upfront, and with your strong background in this field, it might be easier for you to land them compared to someone just starting out.

 

[Ni12]

Why are you looking for clients? Create your own product/brand and advertise it with your email and SMS skills.

 

[seomaster5]

You started from zero and earned millions already. You are in good.position to do it again now.

 

[edithwadee]

do you still work with onlyfans?

I said I declined the offer it's not an industry I'd be proud to work in on whatever side of the coin, but to each their own.

Email marketing has been a bit slow lately, so maybe try mixing in cold calling to find clients — it still works in some niches. Another option is to build up some courage and approach local businesses directly. You could offer them the same service you used before, either on a subscription model or even a % of revenue.


A lot of business owners would be open to it since they don’t have to pay anything upfront, and with your strong background in this field, it might be easier for you to land them compared to someone just starting out.

I disagree that email has been slow lately, as I've researched quite a lot the previous days, most important benchmarks are same or better then a few years ago when I started.

Ecommerce stores don't usually have a way to cold call them to get to the decision maker, so I am thinking of cold email (but since that venue of outreach is a full of spammers and saturation by other "email marketer/agencies/consultants" i'll try to figure out something more useful)

As far as local businesses go in my country, because of the infrastructure and all the idiotic laws I wouldn't be able to render my service to local businesses, I did try that because I had a couple of friends whose parents own businesses that rely on local leads but yeah not doable at the moment.

Why are you looking for clients? Create your own product/brand and advertise it with your email and SMS skills.

Because I do not have the money at the moment to fund the paid traffic side for testing what products stick and then sticking to the winning one and scaling.

You started from zero and earned millions already. You are in good.position to do it again now.

Yeah I agree, just have to get out of 0 cashflow per month phase into something better so that I could start saving up capital or scaling the freelance game into agency into the other stuff I mentioned.

 

[ChinkLear]

You can ask 2 old clients to introduce you to other companies. This will increase your reputation, instead of you applying yourself and having to compete with hundreds, even thousands of other competitors who are applying like you. Not to mention they have experience, degrees and better relationships.
In addition, going to university is also a good thing. It will help you gain more knowledge and relationships, and it will help you a lot in the future.

 

[india]

Hey everyone, just want to preface that I've known about the forum for a long time, joined a while ago, and occasionally would bump into it here and there, just like today.

I have a question as to what I should do because I truly do not know what to do.

To make a long story short without going into too much details. I am 23 right now, from age 16-19 I've ran a small "agency" but more so a freelance type thing of email & sms marketing for eCommerce brands, generated a lot of money for those branda ( mid to high 7 figures ). And got paid a percentage (performance fee, because my offer was "I do the job, don't pay anything upfront, but you pay me a % of the revenue".

Worked perfectly and I had a couple stable clients that I worked troughout the whole time during those 3 years. Well the money I've made at the time (mid six figures for the 3 years), I ended up basically blowing almost all of it on dumb shit (drinks, partying, hookers, a $30k audi TT that I totalled while on my way to register and insure it so money down the drain ), the only good thing is I didn't have nor do I still have any debt + I paid off the loan for the apartment I still live in with parents).

I am saying all of this, because right about the time my savings account was very low, I also lost my clients in a span of a week due to reasons outside of my control ( 2 clients had exits, 1 retiring & 1 dropshipping store blowing up so they moved on)

I was like no big deal, i'll find new ones and i'll be back on my horse soon, well fast forward couple months, thousands of cold emails that were personalized manually sent one by one, I noticed a trend in the replies :

- Fuck your guru
- Tell your get rich mentor to blow in my ass
- Why are you the 100th person to be sending this email today pitching same stuff

And similar, and I figured out that the niche of eCommerce was flooded with "get rich quick" students of Iman, Tate's and alike idiots, so I stopped for a bit and had to take some time off due to health reasons aswell.

Then comes a point where I decide to enroll into Uni for at least some benefits so I did that, and tried getting clients on the side nothing worked.

Completely stopped focusing on that part of my life for the past 2 years, but still kept in mind that I will figure out a way to make money again which hasn't happened.

Honestly I've had a huge goal since the start (i keep my childhood journal still) , I was 13 when I started dreamimg of having a big ass company that owns many companies and crushes the industries. (And this was my idea with email marketing aswell [Freelance -> Agency -> Equity -> Roll up -> High 8, 9 Figure Exit, Invest and live off a portion of the interest & retire]

Well, I am nowhere near close to that goal, but I still keep it in the back of my brain, because I truly believe it can be done.

My question basically is does anyone see how I can get out of this situation?

My thinking is I am already very well versed in email marketing for eComm and have the results so I am thinking of finding a remote job for email marketing positions ( I live in a 3rd world country btw, so I have to figure out how to land a remote position, if you have advice let me know ) and then since the job would provide capital i'd be able to slowly transition into the path I've mentioned earlier.

Any toughts, advice, suggestions from experienced and seasoned guys or people who've gotten out of the same quicksand before?

TLDR;

I did email & sms marketing for eComm stores, made a bunch of money for them and for me, lost the clients, did outreach figured out it became saturated, never got back on my feet again since that happened years ago, trying to figure out what to do

This entire niche is saturated now. You already have an edge of proven track record. This unique track record will help you secure a remote job and stand out from the saturated market.

 

[edithwadee]

You can ask 2 old clients to introduce you to other companies. This will increase your reputation, instead of you applying yourself and having to compete with hundreds, even thousands of other competitors who are applying like you. Not to mention they have experience, degrees and better relationships.
In addition, going to university is also a good thing. It will help you gain more knowledge and relationships, and it will help you a lot in the future.

That was one of the first things I did when I lost them (even when I had them I asked for refferals in exchange for discounted service charges etc etc), but the exits they had have an inhouse marketing team and did not need my services, and I know because I've been in contact with the buyers of the store & those old clients of mine after the exits. I did my best to get any help to get my foot in the door especially with refferals because I was thinking that will be the easiest to get back on my feet.

Even recently I was in contact with one of them, asked if they or someone they know need help with emails, but the answer was no.

This entire niche is saturated now. You already have an edge of proven track record. This unique track record will help you secure a remote job and stand out from the saturated market.

Yeah I believe so too, that the eComm niche is filled with "marketers selling services" even tough I'd personally say 95% of them are no good (focused only on money ) and just are in that space because they saw it in a YT video or something similar because it's a low barrier to entry and I guess from personal experience what I've seen a lot of them don't mind lying to get further that road if it makes sense.

Aside from the saturation part, I most definetly have way better track record then them, just have to figure out how to get to those eComm brand owners in a better fashion then them and scale from there.

 

[PeterNorthpole]

There's no one who questions the authenticity of this user who comes with an account that has been aged for 4 years and now all the sudden starts posting?

 

[edithwadee]

There's no one who questions the authenticity of this user who comes with an account that has been aged for 4 years and now all the sudden starts posting?

Where exactly is the problem? Not selling anything, not trying to do anything aside from post my story and ask advicd from those who mighy have some and poat the progress that will happen as I go along the journey to restart.

As I've stated in the post I've been on BHW before to read up on stuff that I found interesting.

Anything else?

 

[MrDenz]

@edithwadee please use the multi-quote option. Thank you.

 

[PeterNorthpole]

Where exactly is the problem? Not selling anything, not trying to do anything aside from post my story and ask advicd from those who mighy have some and poat the progress that will happen as I go along the journey to restart.

As I've stated in the post I've been on BHW before to read up on stuff that I found interesting.

Anything else?

by 16-19 you were making 7 figures in a third world country. If that doesn't raise any eyebrows then I don't know what to say.

And you are indirectly asking for a remote job as well with your "experiences"

My thinking is I am already very well versed in email marketing for eComm and have the results so I am thinking of finding a remote job for email marketing positions ( I live in a 3rd world country btw, so I have to figure out how to land a remote position, if you have advice let me know ) and then since the job would provide capital i'd be able to slowly transition into the path I've mentioned earlier.

 

[p3n7357]

Why don't u make clients resch you instead of you pitching clients. In today world Trust is a big factor in online space. If I was in your place I would specialise in one type of ecommerce and start cresting contract about it and as a cta add your saas service

 

[edithwadee]

by 16-19 you were making 7 figures in a third world country. If that doesn't raise any eyebrows then I don't know what to say.

And you are indirectly asking for a remote job as well with your "experiences"

You did not understand my post, I generated over 7 figures for my clients during the 3 year period, I made multiple six figures for myself for services rendered for generating that revenue for my clients.



I am just stating what I am planning to do (I am outreaching on job boards for remote jobs, most have US-only or LATAM-NAM region, but I am still applying to those too, costs me nothing could benefit me a lot)

Why don't u make clients resch you instead of you pitching clients. In today world Trust is a big factor in online space. If I was in your place I would specialise in one type of ecommerce and start cresting contract about it and as a cta add your saas service

Yes I am planning on doing a YouTube channel aswell as another user suggested to basically "pre-sell" them for the calls and then close for services if that makes sense.

And also doing job outreach, and hopefully once I get one, I'll have enough saveable income (85-90% of it to invest towards scaling from freelance to agency)

 

[p3n7357]

You did not understand my post, I generated over 7 figures for my clients during the 3 year period, I made multiple six figures for myself for services rendered for generating that revenue for my clients.



I am just stating what I am planning to do (I am outreaching on job boards for remote jobs, most have US-only or LATAM-NAM region, but I am still applying to those too, costs me nothing could benefit me a lot)

Yes I am planning on doing a YouTube channel aswell as another user suggested to basically "pre-sell" them for the calls and then close for services if that makes sense.

And also doing job outreach, and hopefully once I get one, I'll have enough saveable income (85-90% of it to invest towards scaling from freelance to agency)

Not just doing youtube i was saying to specialise in only one type of ecommerce to narrow your niche even more and start building trust over interest youtube, website, x, instagram or tiktok

 

[G33K]

TLDR;

I did email & sms marketing for eComm stores, made a bunch of money for them and for me, lost the clients, did outreach figured out it became saturated, never got back on my feet again since that happened years ago, trying to figure out what to do

Hey man, first off, props for being real and putting this out there. I feel you deeply, because I’ve been in a similar spot, just on a slightly different battlefield.

A few years back, I wasn’t a millionaire, but I was killing it with programmatic SEO. I've built a system (way before ChatGPT blew up) where I could auto-generate high-quality articles using my own algorithm. The sites ranked, they converted, and best of all? Clients were coming to me and bringing more clients. It felt like a self-sustaining machine. I got so confident in the model that I took the leap: bought an apartment (on mortgage), moved to the capital city… life was good. I thought this was the new normal.

Then, two years ago, things started drying up. Old clients stopped renewing. New ones? Ghosted. Referrals? Gone silent. I tried everything (outreach, ads, tweaking the model...) but nothing stuck. And honestly, nowadays? No one’s impressed by an auto-generated content site Everyone’s doing it, Google’s smarter, and the market’s flooded. My online income is basically flatlining.

Now I’m sitting here thinking: maybe it’s time to go back to the real world. I’ve got solid skills in electronics and programming, so I’m looking at options, maybe fixing gadgets, maybe diving into dev work full-time. But the dream of making it online, of building something scalable and free from the 9-to-5 grind? That still burns! I haven’t given up on it, but right now, I’m stuck in the same hole you’re in: trying to figure out the next move.

So yeah, I get it. The confidence, the crash, the silence after the noise. But here’s what I’m starting to believe: this isn’t the end. It’s a reset. We both have real skills, experience, and most importantly, we’ve already proven we can build something that works. That doesn’t disappear. Maybe the path isn’t the same as before, but I think if we stay sharp, adapt, and stop chasing the old model, we’ll find a new angle.

My ideas? This chapter sucks, but it doesn’t define the whole story.

And one more thing: you seem to be much younger than me and I really hope that you're still able to generate new and fresh concepts to make real money online.

Good luck!

 

[virtualpurity]

small "agency" but more so a freelance type thing of email & sms marketing for eCommerce brands, generated a lot of money for those branda ( mid to high 7 figures )

If what you are saying is "true", and you were that good at it than why aren't you doing affiliate ?

Affiliate Marketing - that's your client list right there, and a huge one as well, pick a niche / product, do the same thing you did for the previous companies you worked for - just this time do it for you.

Grab a nice offer that you like, promote it, grab the affiliate %, use that to build up your business and brand. Starts small and build up. Sounds simple right ?

 

[Killswitchs]

money will come don't worry

 

[edithwadee]

Not just doing youtube i was saying to specialise in only one type of ecommerce to narrow your niche even more and start building trust over interest youtube, website, x, instagram or tiktok

Yes, I forgot to mention that, but yes I will definetly niche down inside the ecomm industry to specialize in one sort of niche and go from there, my bad for not replyimg to that.

Hey man, first off, props for being real and putting this out there. I feel you deeply, because I’ve been in a similar spot, just on a slightly different battlefield.

A few years back, I wasn’t a millionaire, but I was killing it with programmatic SEO. I've built a system (way before ChatGPT blew up) where I could auto-generate high-quality articles using my own algorithm. The sites ranked, they converted, and best of all? Clients were coming to me and bringing more clients. It felt like a self-sustaining machine. I got so confident in the model that I took the leap: bought an apartment (on mortgage), moved to the capital city… life was good. I thought this was the new normal.

Then, two years ago, things started drying up. Old clients stopped renewing. New ones? Ghosted. Referrals? Gone silent. I tried everything (outreach, ads, tweaking the model...) but nothing stuck. And honestly, nowadays? No one’s impressed by an auto-generated content site Everyone’s doing it, Google’s smarter, and the market’s flooded. My online income is basically flatlining.

Now I’m sitting here thinking: maybe it’s time to go back to the real world. I’ve got solid skills in electronics and programming, so I’m looking at options, maybe fixing gadgets, maybe diving into dev work full-time. But the dream of making it online, of building something scalable and free from the 9-to-5 grind? That still burns! I haven’t given up on it, but right now, I’m stuck in the same hole you’re in: trying to figure out the next move.

So yeah, I get it. The confidence, the crash, the silence after the noise. But here’s what I’m starting to believe: this isn’t the end. It’s a reset. We both have real skills, experience, and most importantly, we’ve already proven we can build something that works. That doesn’t disappear. Maybe the path isn’t the same as before, but I think if we stay sharp, adapt, and stop chasing the old model, we’ll find a new angle.

My ideas? This chapter sucks, but it doesn’t define the whole story.

And one more thing: you seem to be much younger than me and I really hope that you're still able to generate new and fresh concepts to make real money online.

Good luck!

Is this AI generated? (If it's not apologies, just sounds like it)

Congrats on the previous success & K wish you good luck too and thanks for commenting.

If what you are saying is "true", and you were that good at it than why aren't you doing affiliate ?

Affiliate Marketing - that's your client list right there, and a huge one as well, pick a niche / product, do the same thing you did for the previous companies you worked for - just this time do it for you.

Grab a nice offer that you like, promote it, grab the affiliate %, use that to build up your business and brand. Starts small and build up. Sounds simple right ?

I did think of this before and "tried" it for a bit.

Everyone understands how affiliate marketing works but thanks for suggesting.

But in order for me to do it, I need capital to allocate towards learning paid traffic (Never did paid ads, except a few times when I tried something with a client, that flopped and we moved on from that).

And that paid traffic would yield leads for email list, data points, sales and all that, but as I said capital is needed.

I do think there are a few ways to do it for free I guess (but I am not too sure how to make it work, except that it will probably take a year by my judgment to even get the sales which isn't really the highest ROI on my time at the moment, so I think remote job into freelancing into agency would be the best right now?)

money will come don't worry

Thanks for commenting.

Yeah I am not worried so much as for money, I do have a financial goal, but my primary "drive" is just building what I had in mind and that sense of achievement and pride I'd get from building a company from 0 to the exit stage all the while having awesome colleagues, great services/products and great culture inside the company if that makes sense.

 

[G33K]

Is this AI generated? (If it's not apologies, just sounds like it)

Haha, no, this answer was not AI-generated. But it was AI-translated, since English is not my mother's tongue

Congrats on the previous success & K wish you good luck too and thanks for commenting.

Thank you! Let’s all hope for the best.

 

[MoneyFinder]

Unfortunately with AI everybody suddenly thinks they have become experts in every industry, while in reality they are masters in none. Most of my clients now think because they can ask chatGPT how to do SEO and they get 'answers', they think they can do it by themselves. I said ok, good luck. One by one they are coming back and I have doubled my asking price. Sure, i will have less clients, but at least the ones I have will make me more money with less work. My point is that I have completely reversed course. i use to do mass work, scale all the way up. This no longer works. I am now scaling down, way down but asking for a LOT more. it seems to be working, but only time will tell if it is a good strategy. I suggest you find and focus on less clients and ask for a LOT more. You say you have the experience, that by itself is incredible added value. Use that in your favor. Have you thought of making lessons on udemy (or many much better places) based on your past experience? This is value that can be sold. The less is more approach here is try to find a FEW marketplaces for your lessons instead of many and let them deal with the masses, you focus on what you know.