Made $100k+ before 21 with SEO and now feeling lost.

As many of y'all - I started pretty early and it all started from me wanting to help out my family. Did fairly well after 2-3 years of trying different things like YT, social media and then SEO.

I've done three different SEO jobs, worked with tons of clients for freelance SEO and sold 20+ websites when niche sites were popping.

Not only this, I was able to do a lot for my family and travel to 8 different countries and also lived abroad for a while.

Money-wise, I'm still doing very well and I am grateful but I feel like I've hit a plateau with SEO.

I do full-time consultancy, which is client work for SEO. And, that's my only income source now. Gone are the days when I was doing multiple things and actually saw the possibility of something more.

I have stopped building niche sites altogether as they take a LOT of time and recently Google completely trashed the industry by destroying really well-done genuine sites. If they don't stand a chance doing honest business, there's no point for me to even start.

Niche sites were my only hope of becoming a millionaire. Now that's very well gone.

I have been doing freelance/jobs/consultancy in the SEO space for so long that I'm kind of over it.

I have worked alone for so long that I don't even feel like building an agency alone one tad bit. I don't want to do freelance and compete with hundreds of people who pretty much do the exact same thing as any other successful SEO and get paid 5 bucks an hour or less.

People say hire someone or partner up - I don't want to hire someone to do consultancy as it doesn't take much of my time and I have nothing to do after I've finished client work for the day. I haven't yet found a good match for a partner and I've been to multiple conferences. Everyone either started early in the 'golden times' and is too successful OR doesn't have any experience in SEO.

All the big SEOs making serious money are really only doing agency stuff. They are either selling courses or services as an agency. That's it for the most part.

Yes you could argue people still have sites and real businesses with SEO and they do work but it's extremely hard and drains you out mentally. Still a very high chance of it going wrong.

I'm from India so I can't just rock a local business site, rank it and build my plumbing company to six figures USD a year. You get treated like shit and paid peanuts for most of the work you do here.

I recently started digging in the paid affiliate world - stuff like sweeps, CPL, CPA, eCom, iGaming and more but to be honest, no one would give out their secrets if they're making money with it here. A lot of people are doing illegal stuff or borderline illegal stuff like blank checkouts. I've dug down the forum and YT rabbit hole watching all vids and tutorials such stuff and there's no real meaningful stuff to directly implement. Too many hidden secrets to actually succeed. Right from actually getting offers privately that convert well to optimising your media buying campaigns to cloaking to getting around ad account bans - it all seems too much to not know before starting out. Not only that, some people literally scam ad companies off of the credits and farm accounts or some people cloak and push really shady antivirus ads. It does make good money and I'm sure majority of us would do it but to find decently accurate information on that alone is super hard.

Not sure what I wanted to do with this post but just wanted to get it out and talk about it I guess.

It was indeed a long way of saying I feel directionless and lost.

Well, thanks for reading and have a great weekend.

You're not alone in feeling lost, as I feel your pain. I recently started trying to get into affiliate marketing again, after leaving it for several years and it's overwhelming at times. At least you have something to fall back on. I'm a stay-at-home dad who has been out of the job market for several years and have no real career built up. I'm in my thirty's and look around and see people my age doing well for themselves and then self-reflect on what I've accomplished in life, and it makes me feel lost and hopeless. The only real income I get is from gig work and I'm currently losing money in affiliate marketing, yet I'm still pursuing it. Maybe I'm just crazy.

I just wanted to put it out there that you're not the only one feeling lost and directionless.

You got to hang in there though and keep pushing. Do what you got to do to pay the bills and then pursue your passion whatever that may be. Obviously, there is people out there making bank.

If you ever need someone to vent to or talk to you can always send me a message, I'm always looking to make new friends regardless of skill.

It's easy to get comfortable in client work - that's for sure.

Stop exciting yourself and taking it on emotions.

You commit major psychological fallacies in thinking. As a typical 21 year old, I was doing the same. https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/i-am-a-hard-loser.1427935/



There are several psychological issues and cognitive biases evident in this thinking:

1. All-or-nothing thinking: The author sees things in black and white terms, especially regarding niche sites and SEO. They believe that if they can't become a millionaire through niche sites, there's "no point" in pursuing it at all.
2. Overgeneralization: The author makes broad statements like "Google completely trashed the industry" based on their personal experience, without considering that this might not be universally true.
3. Mental filtering: They focus heavily on the negative aspects of their situation while discounting positive experiences and achievements.
4. Disqualifying the positive: Despite acknowledging past successes and current financial stability, the author minimizes these positives and focuses on feelings of stagnation.
5. Jumping to conclusions: The author makes assumptions about the futility of certain paths (like building an agency) without fully exploring these options.
6. Emotional reasoning: The author's feelings of being "over it" and "directionless" are influencing their perception of future possibilities.
7. Should statements: There's an underlying belief that they "should" be progressing faster or achieving more, leading to frustration.
8. Labeling: The author categorizes people into overly simplistic groups (e.g., "too successful" or "doesn't have any experience"), which limits their ability to see potential partnerships or opportunities.
9. Personalization: They seem to take Google's algorithm changes personally, as if these were directed at them specifically.
10. Fallacy of fairness: There's an implicit belief that things should be fair, leading to frustration when they perceive unfairness in the industry or job market.
11. Comparison trap: The author frequently compares themselves to others, leading to dissatisfaction with their own progress.
12. Tunnel vision: They're focused primarily on SEO and related fields, potentially overlooking other areas where their skills might be valuable.
13. Catastrophizing: The author views challenges as insurmountable obstacles rather than problems to be solved.
14. Learned helplessness: There's a sense of powerlessness and lack of control over their career trajectory.
15. Confirmation bias: The author seems to be seeking information that confirms their negative outlook, potentially overlooking contrary evidence or opportunities.

Call a therapist, asap. Tell them what you've done because you weren't ready for that.
Work on YouTube. It's more normal. https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/on-niche-tests.1584297/page-2#post-18015295



See, I am 26 and I had so many jobs in digital and see what I switched to:


- a space cadet (current role),
- an email lead collector for commission,
- a janitor and an assistant,
- a front-end developer,
- a wordpress webmaster (not developer),
- a content writer,
- informatics system planner with t-shaped marketing approach (4ever, WOW!),
- a developer of browser automation using Python + Chrome + self-fulfilling prophecy (I do it now).
- video production software developer (I do it too now).
- a developer of browser automation using Playwright PY and Puppeteer Node.js (Past)

The rule is to do everything on my own and not get hired by anyone. Attempt therapy every week and meet with people who went through similar experiences - you won't find them on the internet because there are only virtual avatars.

I am blocked, differently.

I have many good things going on now, but got stuck at 100k like you.

Given your SEO level, you should think of building a brand of something, through a website that could serve as your base to then retarget. Find a niche you can social on top and paid ads on top.

Don't forget Youtube, Tiktok and Pinterest are also search engines. Use them.

Crypta said:

I am blocked, differently.

I have many good things going on now, but got stuck at 100k like you.

Given your SEO level, you should think of building a brand of something, through a website that could serve as your base to then retarget. Find a niche you can social on top and paid ads on top.

Don't forget Youtube, Tiktok and Pinterest are also search engines. Use them.

Click to expand...

In such situation best is to take a year of break, do normal jobs, attempt some healthy, non-business circles and sort your life first.

This place is full of scarcity like money was some unattainable object... nope, it's available in billions.

Money in current stage is fiat written in databases like this "today we have 10 zeros, ahh, let's add one more row, now we have 11 zeros"....

reaaski said:

Stop exciting yourself and taking it on emotions.

You commit major psychological fallacies in thinking. As a typical 21 year old, I was doing the same. https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/i-am-a-hard-loser.1427935/



There are several psychological issues and cognitive biases evident in this thinking:

1. All-or-nothing thinking: The author sees things in black and white terms, especially regarding niche sites and SEO. They believe that if they can't become a millionaire through niche sites, there's "no point" in pursuing it at all.
2. Overgeneralization: The author makes broad statements like "Google completely trashed the industry" based on their personal experience, without considering that this might not be universally true.
3. Mental filtering: They focus heavily on the negative aspects of their situation while discounting positive experiences and achievements.
4. Disqualifying the positive: Despite acknowledging past successes and current financial stability, the author minimizes these positives and focuses on feelings of stagnation.
5. Jumping to conclusions: The author makes assumptions about the futility of certain paths (like building an agency) without fully exploring these options.
6. Emotional reasoning: The author's feelings of being "over it" and "directionless" are influencing their perception of future possibilities.
7. Should statements: There's an underlying belief that they "should" be progressing faster or achieving more, leading to frustration.
8. Labeling: The author categorizes people into overly simplistic groups (e.g., "too successful" or "doesn't have any experience"), which limits their ability to see potential partnerships or opportunities.
9. Personalization: They seem to take Google's algorithm changes personally, as if these were directed at them specifically.
10. Fallacy of fairness: There's an implicit belief that things should be fair, leading to frustration when they perceive unfairness in the industry or job market.
11. Comparison trap: The author frequently compares themselves to others, leading to dissatisfaction with their own progress.
12. Tunnel vision: They're focused primarily on SEO and related fields, potentially overlooking other areas where their skills might be valuable.
13. Catastrophizing: The author views challenges as insurmountable obstacles rather than problems to be solved.
14. Learned helplessness: There's a sense of powerlessness and lack of control over their career trajectory.
15. Confirmation bias: The author seems to be seeking information that confirms their negative outlook, potentially overlooking contrary evidence or opportunities.

Call a therapist, asap. Tell them what you've done because you weren't ready for that.
Work on YouTube. It's more normal. https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/on-niche-tests.1584297/page-2#post-18015295



See, I am 26 and I had so many jobs in digital and see what I switched to:


- a space cadet (current role),
- an email lead collector for commission,
- a janitor and an assistant,
- a front-end developer,
- a wordpress webmaster (not developer),
- a content writer,
- informatics system planner with t-shaped marketing approach (4ever, WOW!),
- a developer of browser automation using Python + Chrome + self-fulfilling prophecy (I do it now).
- video production software developer (I do it too now).
- a developer of browser automation using Playwright PY and Puppeteer Node.js (Past)

The rule is to do everything on my own and not get hired by anyone. Attempt therapy every week and meet with people who went through similar experiences - you won't find them on the internet because there are only virtual avatars.

Click to expand...

Jeez, are you a therapist? This is good.

tylero said:

Jeez, are you a therapist? This is good.

Click to expand...

No. I just talk to professors, doctors, 7 - 8 figure money makers a lot.

Afterglow said:

stuff like sweeps, CPL, CPA, eCom, iGaming and more but to be honest, no one would give out their secrets if they're making money with it here.

Click to expand...

BassTrackerBoats will tell you how it's done for sure. https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/if-i-can-make-189-00-in-a-day-using-facebook-you-surely-can.760255/
Same for GringoMonkey. https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/guide-top-cpa-method-that-making-a-killing-right-now.1621118/page-4#post-18004766
And Lucky.Sparks spoke a lot about it as well. https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/thank-you-for-3-years-of-free-traffic.1543935/
AllOutAnime shared a concept of "greatness" which is... GREAT! https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/my-journey-to-greatness.1516469
Splishsplash described processes of becoming a millionaire. https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/how-to-become-a-millionaire-in-2023-for-real-only-thing-that-works.1448868/
I post at least 5 posts related to those models every day.

Do as most people do, build something that caters to Indian businesses online and hire a shitload of good sales guys for % of the sales. No sell, no cost.