mqsss
Regular Member
- Feb 24, 2012
- 454
- 389
Don't know why I'm writing this, but it's been lying on my chest and need to get it out, so excuse me. I've been in the SEO and affiliate marketing industry for very long time and got almost nothing to show for. I failed miserably and I'm not afraid to admit it.
I remember when I had a breakthrough. Banking $4k+ per month. I met plenty of people who were 12 months behind me, making peanuts. Now I'm the one in the hole while many of them live a stress free life with nothing but success after success.
About 7 years ago I had an online business (services). It was growing slowly, but it was enough to get me through. I decided to start affiliate marketing with Amazon. Had some gambling related affiliate projects back then and I was no newbie when it got to this. All the people I knew advised me to keep my business and have affiliate sites as side projects, just to be safe financially.
Didn't listen. Closed my business completely, moved into a studio apartment (22m2) where my bed was 5 feet away from PC and desk, put my social life on pause and went for it with my full dedication. Gained like 15kg in that time. My kitchen was a microwave on the countertop and refrigerator was for energy drinks mostly. After 6 months I won. The money was flowing in, opened a company and lived like a damn king for years. Had some $700+ days, had all the success I always wanted.
Somewhere along the way I got banned by Amazon for saying something about the price of a product. Had around $18k of outstanding payments and I could only say good bye to everything. Monetized my sites with other affiliate platforms, earnings were 90% smaller, so it was no use for me to keep them.
Went into other journeys. Viral sites, email marketing, PPC. Failed miserably and lost everything I created in the past years.
After 6+ months I managed to save a site. 301d it to another domain, used another account, and got back into the game. Kind of, the site lost 50% of its traffic after redirect. I was so afraid of another ban hammer that I didn't manage to dedicate my full time into Amazon any longer.
Created another account, started more sites and everything was kind of good again.
Shit happens, had an once in a life opportunity to buy a house for 70% below the market price. If I didn't, the house would be taken by bank. Didn't get a loan from the bank of course, so I had to sell my best site to get the cash. Sold the site through brokers. The buyer was happy. Probably not so much a few days (literally few days) after I got my payment since Google's medic update raped the site to death. I'd feel sorry for the buyer, but the buyer had an interesting email. [email protected]. This somecompany.com was a site full of headings like "we're experts, we're gonna help you make millions, we're the best". So if you're an expert, expert your way out of this, no problem.
Paid half of the house, borrowed the rest of it and here I was with my own piece of land, my own garden, my own trees. I own a fucking tree, hooray. I also bought a micro brewery setup. Nothing like drinking your own beer and urinating on your own tree afterwards.
At that time I had one site left. A project I had plenty of high hopes for. It was making about $300 per month at that time, but I had some finances left, so I wasn't worried.
I decided to start a business that Google or Amazon won't be able to rape. 9-5 is out of the question and the only thing I can do is create websites. I'm good with html, css, learning php, java. There's almost nothing I can't do really. So I opened a web design company. I knew that portfolio is essential and had none to show for. So I was taking clients in left and right, finished sites for peanuts just to create a portfolio and make a name for myself. Worked like a slave. I'm not good when it comes to business, so I allowed clients to rape me left and right.
It was fun at first. Answering the phone, improving my talking skills. I was rusty with that during SEO years. But the reality is that it's stressful job. 20% of my clients are shitty clients who drain me of my energy. Here are some of my clients, you do the math:
Even if a client seems alright, I can always expect a phone call 2 weeks after the job was completed. "WHY IS MY SITE NOT #1 FOR [insert $5+ CPC broad keyword]?".
About a year after my other affiliate project went up to about $1k per month and that was pretty much it. Sold it to pay the rest of the house and I was left with zero IM business. Almost zero. Have a few unmonetized sites on 6+ year old domains.
Web design company or not, I always told myself that this is temporary. SEO and IM is my passion. But at the moment I don't have the much needed time to get back into it and I'm in no position to move to a studio apartment once again and risk it all. This time it might not be a success that like it was years ago.
My web design company is kinda growing. Started to land better clients, have more workflow, and word of mouth started to bring new clients without advertising.
But this isn't it. Need to get back to IM because fuck the clients. But there are bills to pay and it's hard to find extra time to start a journey once again.
Why did I write this? I don't know. Services are shitty. SEO + affiliate marketing is a dream fucking job. You're your own boss. You don't have to answer the phone. You can take a day off. There's no schedule. There are no religious fanatics and no arsonists.
Now say something nice and tell me that everything is gonna be alright and I'm a little snowflake for working 10 hours per day because anything less than 14 is for pussies.
I remember when I had a breakthrough. Banking $4k+ per month. I met plenty of people who were 12 months behind me, making peanuts. Now I'm the one in the hole while many of them live a stress free life with nothing but success after success.
About 7 years ago I had an online business (services). It was growing slowly, but it was enough to get me through. I decided to start affiliate marketing with Amazon. Had some gambling related affiliate projects back then and I was no newbie when it got to this. All the people I knew advised me to keep my business and have affiliate sites as side projects, just to be safe financially.
Didn't listen. Closed my business completely, moved into a studio apartment (22m2) where my bed was 5 feet away from PC and desk, put my social life on pause and went for it with my full dedication. Gained like 15kg in that time. My kitchen was a microwave on the countertop and refrigerator was for energy drinks mostly. After 6 months I won. The money was flowing in, opened a company and lived like a damn king for years. Had some $700+ days, had all the success I always wanted.
Somewhere along the way I got banned by Amazon for saying something about the price of a product. Had around $18k of outstanding payments and I could only say good bye to everything. Monetized my sites with other affiliate platforms, earnings were 90% smaller, so it was no use for me to keep them.
Went into other journeys. Viral sites, email marketing, PPC. Failed miserably and lost everything I created in the past years.
After 6+ months I managed to save a site. 301d it to another domain, used another account, and got back into the game. Kind of, the site lost 50% of its traffic after redirect. I was so afraid of another ban hammer that I didn't manage to dedicate my full time into Amazon any longer.
Created another account, started more sites and everything was kind of good again.
Shit happens, had an once in a life opportunity to buy a house for 70% below the market price. If I didn't, the house would be taken by bank. Didn't get a loan from the bank of course, so I had to sell my best site to get the cash. Sold the site through brokers. The buyer was happy. Probably not so much a few days (literally few days) after I got my payment since Google's medic update raped the site to death. I'd feel sorry for the buyer, but the buyer had an interesting email. [email protected]. This somecompany.com was a site full of headings like "we're experts, we're gonna help you make millions, we're the best". So if you're an expert, expert your way out of this, no problem.
Paid half of the house, borrowed the rest of it and here I was with my own piece of land, my own garden, my own trees. I own a fucking tree, hooray. I also bought a micro brewery setup. Nothing like drinking your own beer and urinating on your own tree afterwards.
At that time I had one site left. A project I had plenty of high hopes for. It was making about $300 per month at that time, but I had some finances left, so I wasn't worried.
I decided to start a business that Google or Amazon won't be able to rape. 9-5 is out of the question and the only thing I can do is create websites. I'm good with html, css, learning php, java. There's almost nothing I can't do really. So I opened a web design company. I knew that portfolio is essential and had none to show for. So I was taking clients in left and right, finished sites for peanuts just to create a portfolio and make a name for myself. Worked like a slave. I'm not good when it comes to business, so I allowed clients to rape me left and right.
It was fun at first. Answering the phone, improving my talking skills. I was rusty with that during SEO years. But the reality is that it's stressful job. 20% of my clients are shitty clients who drain me of my energy. Here are some of my clients, you do the math:
- Convicted arms smuggler who smuggled arms in his van. Guess what he needs a site for? Moving service.
- Scammer who did time in jail for scamming people for millions. He doesn't even have a company here since the govt would take it away from him. So he partnered with prominent lawyers and politicians who do the dirty work for him.
- A whorehouse.
- A religious fanatic who wanted to pay me with prayers. Found her on TV talking about how people who drink alcohol will go to hell. Guess what she drank in 2 of our meetings. Beer.
- An arsonist who burned down the multi-apartment building 10km from where I live at the moment
Even if a client seems alright, I can always expect a phone call 2 weeks after the job was completed. "WHY IS MY SITE NOT #1 FOR [insert $5+ CPC broad keyword]?".
About a year after my other affiliate project went up to about $1k per month and that was pretty much it. Sold it to pay the rest of the house and I was left with zero IM business. Almost zero. Have a few unmonetized sites on 6+ year old domains.
Web design company or not, I always told myself that this is temporary. SEO and IM is my passion. But at the moment I don't have the much needed time to get back into it and I'm in no position to move to a studio apartment once again and risk it all. This time it might not be a success that like it was years ago.
My web design company is kinda growing. Started to land better clients, have more workflow, and word of mouth started to bring new clients without advertising.
But this isn't it. Need to get back to IM because fuck the clients. But there are bills to pay and it's hard to find extra time to start a journey once again.
Why did I write this? I don't know. Services are shitty. SEO + affiliate marketing is a dream fucking job. You're your own boss. You don't have to answer the phone. You can take a day off. There's no schedule. There are no religious fanatics and no arsonists.
Now say something nice and tell me that everything is gonna be alright and I'm a little snowflake for working 10 hours per day because anything less than 14 is for pussies.
