Introduction - My Story So Far & Why I Have Decided To Do This

The Story So Far

My name is Liam, I'm 30, I live in the north west of England and I made my first tentative and skeptical steps into internet marketing almost one year ago, in February 2009. It's funny, but the seed was planted a couple of months before, when with Christmas on the horizon I typed 'Free Wii' into Google. We were thinking of getting one, and although we could afford one(not as comfortably as I'd have liked though), I was curious to see if there was actually a way to get things like that for free(legally of course!). I took the search results with a big pinch of salt, bookmarked one of them that looked interesting and didn't think much more about it. We bought the Wii at Christmas and like many other families around the world, jumped around like idiots playing tennis and boxing on Christmas day. I decided that I would look more into this 'gifts and gadgets for free' thing after the holidays.

In January '09, I started to take a more detailed look at these 'freebie' sites, and to my surprise it all seemed above board, and people actually were getting these things for 'free'. Well, not completely free - they had to sign up, complete an 'offer' then refer others to do the same. Long story short, I did this(I think it was an online bingo offer) and set about referring others in order to get something for myself. Myself and my wife decided we wanted a Wii Fit. To qualify for one, you had to refer 4 others to sign up and complete an offer. Seemed simple enough. From reading around a popular freebie forum, the general consensus was that you needed to have your own website in order to refer people. My wife set about building us a site - she's very good at designing, whereas my strengths lie more in writing content and organisation. We got our site up and started promoting it. As this was my first taste of anything that could be deemed 'internet marketing'(other than a couple of sites hosting our music in the past), I knew pretty much nothing about hosting, SEO, list building etc etc etc. This was a nice, almost gentle introduction to the IM arena though.

When promoting this site through various means, I kept coming across various 'business opportunities'. Although most of them looked too good to be true and 'scammy', some of them really intrigued me. One kept popping up again and again and it was called Global Domains International. Apparently, people all over the world were making 'quiet fortunes' promoting this opportunity. All you had to do was sign up for a .WS domain package, then refer others to do the same. You would receive $1 per month for everyone you referred, but for every FIVE people you referred you would receive a bonus of $100! I finally decided to give the 7 day free trial a shot, and carefully selected a 'sponsor'(i.e the person you sign up under). I had really high hopes, my sponsor was making thousands per month and taught all his methods so I thought if I just put in lots of time and effort that I'd be able to do the same. I also joined a few other opportunities too.

After a few weeks, nobody had signed up under me and the money I was shelling out every month for various biz opp subscriptions was gradually increasing. Still, I still felt confident that I'd be a great success and it was only a matter of time before the money started flying in. Every day I would hit the traffic exchanges, post links on social networks, post blogs, use safelists, send out E-Mails - blah blah blah. The results? A few sign ups here and there, but my pride and confidence was gradually taking a beating. Here I was, someone with very little experience, someone who isn't really a natural leader trying to recruit people into things which(rightly or wrongly) a lot of people in the IM industry look upon as unreliable and poor value. Now I'm not going to bash anything or anyone in this blog, it's not my style. Some people might say these MLM type opportunities are 'a scam' and such. I'm just going to say that they just aren't for me and I wouldn't really encourage others to get into them, especially those new to IM. It took me 3 months or so to finally start moving away from this kind of stuff, and a little forum called The Warrior Forum was instrumental in that.....

So we're now in June 2009(Not NOW, I mean THEN!) - I join a couple of forums so I can learn more and maybe(cringe!) promote GDI and the other similar opportunities I was a part of then. When I joined the Warrior Forum I began to learn some hard lessons. Firstly, I wondered why nobody seemed to talk about 'biz opps'. All I seemed to see was talk of 'niches', 'list building', 'membership sites' etc etc. I didn't really understand it all to be quite honest. Still, I was there to learn and surely being in such a highly populated place would enable me to get some more people on board with the opportunities I was promoting. WRONG! At the time I had a site/blog promoting these opportunities. One of my first posts on the WF was asking for a review of it. I genuinely wanted feedback, because I wasn't sure about the design, or some of the content and wanted some fresh ideas. The thread was deleted. I was slightly annoyed, but I figured it was because they saw a bunch of affiliate links on there and I was new, so kinda understood. A few days later though, something really annoyed me. Being new, and admittedly nieve - I wasn't using my own pic as my avatar. Instead, I was using a pic of Leona Lewis, the singer and admittedly, my number one 'celebrity crush'. (Myself and my wife are going to see her in June, her first ever tour - woohoo! Tickets paid for with a Clickbank cheque too - booyah!).

I log on and my avatar has mysteriously disappeared. Being a noob and being an annoyed noob, I make the error of starting a thread in the main part of the forum to ask why it was deleted. Big mistake! For want of better terminology, I got my ass kicked around in that thread. I thought it was very unjust at the time, but looking back now - I think I deserved it purely on the strength that I was so nieve. Newbie with a few posts, girl in his avatar, MLM in his signature. To the experienced Warriors, it didn't really look good. I was genuinely upset though. I think some people thought I had the female avatar in order to gain some kind of advantage, to fool people into thinking I was female. I was actually accused of being a scammer, which really hurt because I'm honest to a fault. Yes, it's often been said(by my Mum, no less) that I am TOO honest. I have never, ever been comfortable with lying so don't do it and have a problem with people that do. Now at that time, the 'scammer' tag was completely untrue, but arguably the 'spammer' one wasn't. In the biz opps I was a part of, myself and other members were encouraged to reach as many people as possible, by as many means as possible. So although I was never one to blatantly post links(think of the viagra spammers that make a mess of your blog comments) where they shouldn't be, I wasn't really providing much value during my promotion so it was perhaps a fair assessment. Instead of arguing, I dusted myself off, used a pic of myself as my avatar and decided I wouldn't let that bad experience get to me. Although, at the back of my mind was a vow of "I'll prove them wrong". The people in that thread have probably forgotten all about it, but I'm pretty sure I have by now. I certainly hope so.

After a few more weeks on the WF, I started to rethink my entire IM existence. I was jaded, making very little money(next to nothing in fact) and I saw all these people apparently making a great living by offering real value to everyday people. All this talk of 'niches', 'listbuilding' and such confused me, so when I saw a thread offering a free ebook which was a simple guide to niche marketing, I jumped at the chance to download it. It was written by Warrior member Lisa Stoops. I don't think she's a big poster these days, but that book offered so much value and really set the ball rolling for me. I decided on a main niche I was going to get into. I had a lot of personal experience with this niche, lots of people were looking for information on it so it seemed ideal. By now, I had learned a lot about SEO and such, so I knew a lot of the basic things to do to really get the site myself and my wife built, off the ground. You know, things such as a keyword rich domain, decent keyword density, alt image tags etc etc. Without giving away the niche(finding out isn't difficult though!), we immediately jumped to the first page of Google for the title of our site. Now the exact title doesn't get many searches(e.g. our site is 'dog training online' but we want to rank for 'dog training') but it was still nice and proved I had done a good job, SEO-wise.

For the next few months, I added content to the site, promoted it and generally tried to build it's presence. In August I started to get into article marketing in a big way, and to this day that is where most of the money I have made has come from. I'll talk more about that in the next entry. Over the next few months I built some more sites in other niches too. Some did OK, some I have decided to discard. I have learned a LOT during this time, especially being a member of the Warrior Forum. Financially speaking, I've probably made around $500 or so thus far, and it has yet to be consistent. My best day was back in September when I had an $82 day.


So Why This Challenge? Why Make A Blog About It?

I have decided to take on this challenge, and document it in this way for a number of reasons. Firstly, I think having a set goal is a very powerful motivator. Not only is my goal in writing here, it is my desktop wallpaper too - '$1,000 - January 4th - February 4th 2010'. It's in the middle of a collage of pics that represent the things I want long term - everything from guitars to brand new fridge freezers to holidays/vacations in the US and Australia. I highly recommend you do something like this too - it forces you to focus. Where did I get this idea? You guessed it, the WF! So thank Warrior RebeccaL, not me! I'm going to make sure to update this blog at the end of EVERY day, that way I can make sure I'm doing enough, and I can also see over time what IS and ISN'T working - you can too! I highly encourage you to try and learn some lessons from this if you possibly can, even if it's just how NOT to do things. Back in early December, after 5 weeks of not making a CENT, I decided there was no way I was going to let this happen again. I decided to swallow my pride, and ask for some help and guidance on the Warrior Forum:-

Click Me

I decided to take a couple of weeks off over Christmas, re evaluate and come back in the new year, refreshed and more determined than ever.

I have always enjoyed challenges in life. I've never been the most confident of guys, but somehow at different times in my life I have risen to the occasion and been able to bring out the best in myself. A couple that spring to mind are learning to play guitar - I come from quite a musical family, yet had shown no interest until the age of 16. It was then that I first picked up a guitar. I'm sure people thought I'd get bored and/or not be very good at it. I stuck with it, and in the 13+ years since I have got to what I consider a reasonable level(I'm my own worst critic though). I have written, recorded, produced and engineered lots of original songs, learned other instruments and more. Of course, all this is very much on hold at the moment, I have barely picked up a guitar in the last few months. I do miss it, but one of the many great things about being able to express ones self through music, is that it is always there when you need it. Another time I did the seemingly impossible, was when a 'wet behind the ears' 22 year old still living at home and extremely nieve and inexperienced in life, I flew to the US alone and stayed there for 4 weeks. There's a lot more to that story, but that's a whole another blog! Also, I was afraid of flying and had never done so before, so to face a fear and overcome it felt really good at the time. Hmmm, I always hate to sound like I'm blowing my own trumpet(not my style at all!) so I'll also add that I have fallen short many times too - in life, work and otherwise. That's what being human is all about though, isn't it?

This challenge isn't just about the money. I mean, yes - that money is going to be a big help to myself and my family. Although we're FAR from rich, we don't consider ourselves poor either. This challenge is about setting a goal, and working each and every day to reach it. Doing so is vital in life, not just IM - but if you are in IM yourself you'll know just how crucially important having a goal, and a plan undoubtedly is. Will I reach my goal? In terms of the $1,000, even I have to acknowledge that the odds are stacked against me. Why? Simply because I have yet to make even a third of that amount in a month prior to now. So on previous form, it'd take a brave person to back me. HOWEVER, I am actually VERY confident of doing this and not only reaching the goal, but SMASHING it. This is because of the following things:-

-I have learned and acknowledged what I have done wrong in the past
-I have a detailed plan that I am going to follow every day
-My motivation levels are at an all time high
-I've gone 'public' with this challenge so want to prove I can do it
-I have lots of time, and lots of support

Even if I don't reach that 1k, I'm sure I'll have learned a lot, and it'll only be a matter of time before I am making that kind of money online. Hopefully those of you that are following along will have learned some things too.

I've talked about myself and money WAY too much so far, let me be clear and tell you that I count myself very fortunate to be in a position where I can actually make a difference in people's lives. Yes, that's right - us internet marketers actually do just that, no matter how small. Some people(non IM's mostly) think it's all about selling things and making money, but I think of it like this - we are helping regular people with problems, desires and needs. Whether it is someone who wants a better relationship, a healthier body, to make some money to put more food on the table, or to break an addiction - we are in a fantastic position to help them. When I started out, I didn't really see this as much as I should have. Yes, I have always tried to offer valuable help and advice, but I have been guilty of concentrating on the end result rather than actually making sure to provide value to people. Value first - money second. That's the way I think of things.

I intended to spend maybe 20 mins - half an hour writing this introduction.......that was now hours ago. I'm really sorry to have written a mini novel here, I hope you weren't too bored! Before I started, I was actually considering buying a domain, installing Wordpress and having a really nice looking site, but I thought I'd keep things simple(and quick) with a simple blogger page. OK, here's how things are going to go - at the end of each day I am going to post about the things I have done that day and my general thoughts. I'll also keep my income updated. I'll also post separate entries in between talking about specific techniques, strategies and products. There will be a few affiliate links here and there, but only for things I personally use and recommend. Any income that comes from these links does NOT count towards my final total. I'm probably going to post some screenshots too. Hopefully I'll have plenty to show! Wish me luck, take your ringside seat and have a fantastic day.

Liam