About

My name is Bev. I am happily married mother of five great children, I work part time as a retail manager and I am well on the way to becoming a full time Internet Marketer.

Below I will tell of my experiences and share with you the costs  to me of some bad decisions. I do this in an attempt to try and prevent others from making the same costly mistakes and offer you the opportunity to the fast track to internet marketing success!

My Story – My Internet Marketing experiences – So Far

I started working online about four years ago looking for ways to earn money through affiliate and/or internet marketing. I had heard the stories about people who had started with nothing and had become wealthy and successful by using the internet. These “Super Affiliates” stories are all over the internet. I had very limited knowledge of the internet or how it worked and thought I was pretty smart because I had figured out how to send attachments on my emails…

My first Internet Marketing Mistake

So I had a go at it, I registered with a company that has affiliate products and tried to advertise directly on one of the most popular search engines. This was a big mistake; my first mistake – but a huge one. This search engine administrative staff contacted me and basically wanted to know why I thought it was alright to run ads linking directly to an affiliate sales page. Luckily they gave me the benefit of the doubt and believed me that I had no idea that those types of strategies were not allowed and I didn’t get “Slapped” or get a lifetime ban.

To Web Page or not to Web Page – That is the Question

It was suggested to me by the helpful people at the major search engine that I could have my own web page, advertise through them to link to my webpage and then send people to my affiliate links from my webpage. I thought, great that sounds easy so I looked into it. When searching for web page designers I found that this was going to be an expensive process, some quoting from $500.00 to $100,000.00 and more. I was discouraged; I knew nothing about web design and could not afford a spare the money even for the cheapest option.

My next lesson

Even though I was discouraged I still had an interest in internet marketing. One day I was looking through out local newspaper and found an ad. I went to the website listed in the ad and left my contact details. I was called by a lovely lady who introduced me to a program in the area of personal development. I had been reading personal development books for many years and to involve myself in that type of internet business was something I could feel good about. I talked about it with my husband and we decided that we would give this program our dedication for six months and then assess the outcome.

A new Internet Business

I signed up; initial fee was only around $50.00 USD. I was optimistic and positive that I had found that answer I had been looking for. They recommended companies that would set up a website for you with a sales page for around $130.00 (hosting was an additional $50.00 USD per month). There was free training but then the other fees came in, access to the main company’s webpage $40.00 USD per month and infrastructure $90.00 USD per month.

Many people had huge success with this business and I had personally met some of them. I liked the positive vibe around the business and people were doing very well introducing others to it. It was optional to buy the personal development package but I thought “How can I promote something I know little about” so we decided to buy the package at a further $1,800.00 USD. I considered that this was expensive at the time but it is a good program and I still use it to keep focused and positive.

On the way – Well… maybe not

The idea behind this business was that you would advertise in the media or internet and people would visit your webpage, leave their details and then you would contact them by phone and invite them to take a look at the business. The company provided scripts to use on these phone calls, I thought the scripts were a bit pushy, but it obviously worked so why mess with it. There was a lot of interest; I was making on average 6 phone calls a day, some internationally. The phone bills and advertising costs were large and were taking around 50% of my weekly income for my 9-5 JOB. I did manage to have one person sign up in the six months but as there is a required two qualifying sales the revenue from that went to the lady who signed me up.

At the end of the six months my husband and I sat down and added up all of the advertising and program costs and made a business decision that we could no longer afford this drain on our resources, I knew that for some people this business worked very well, however this one didn’t for us.

The next step – To Learn Internet Marketing

I knew deep down that Internet Marketing was something I would love to do; I just hadn’t found the right vehicle yet. Now that I had a little experience with owning a webpage and how to edit it I was hungry to know more. I started leaving my details on websites who offered courses and programs to learn more about internet marketing.

My Next Mistake $$$

I was contacted by phone by a Company based in the US. The internet marketing program they offered sounded great, they made some huge claims of my potential to earn online based on what they taught. I was really excited. Over 4 different phone calls (with two different salesmen) they gained my commitment and I handed over $6,100.00 USD. These men were very convincing and did not mention cost until they had me agreeing to participate. These clever salesmen had me believing with absolute faith that I would achieve online success in a matter of weeks. They are very good at what they do.

The program was for an eight month course which included weekly coaching calls. The few calls I received were very simplistic and not that helpful, my coach had a laid back personality type and didn’t seem to know very much about internet marketing at all. He also had no concept of the time difference and rang very early in the morning many times and once at 3.00am waking the whole family. The program itself was also very basic and after loading many pages of basic information you were asked to complete a multiple choice section (testing section) that my 10 year old found easy to complete. It was a bit of an insult to basic intelligence.

They assured me in the initial phone calls that if I did not wish to continue with the program that I could get a pro rata refund and after 8 weeks I requested they give me the refund for the unused 6 months of the program, which I’m still waiting for and do not expect to get. I’ve had numerous emails back and forth with them sighting me as the problem and stating that the reason why I have not succeeded with their program is because I didn’t give it enough time.

Taking a different tact

At this point my very patient and supportive husband was beginning to shake his head and I can’t blame him for that. I still knew that if other people could make success at internet marketing then I could too. I had not yet found the right method and my past failures were meant for a reason, I wasn’t sure what those reasons were yet, but I had learned a lot about what not to do.

I decided that I had learned enough to try going it alone and set up a free blog page with links to affiliate products I was promoting. After a couple of months of blogging and trying to gain as much free education on internet marketing online as I could, I still did not make a sale. The free internet marketing information online can often present conflicting subject matter and opt in lists see dozens of emails arriving in your inbox all trying to sell you one program or another to improve your chances of actually making sales. I did buy in to a couple of these affiliate based programs but I found these programs to be confusing, expensive and didn’t deliver what they claimed.

Back to Education

My husband and I were invited to attend a free seminar on internet marketing in our capital city in May of this year. This invitation came in the form of an email and was probably one of the “opt in” lists I had left details with. I encouraged my husband to attend with me as I did not want to make any more costly decisions alone. At the end of the seminar he said that he was impressed with the presentation and said this was something I could definitely do, they offered a 100% money back guarantee, so to us there was no risk. We decided to enroll and spent close to $9,000.00 on program and advertising costs over 4 months with revenue under $400.00.

Again the program delivery was not to our expectations or to original claims (in my opinion). This matter has recently been resolved (over 5 months later) but due to legal conditions stipulated by the company I can not disclose the outcome. Lets just say that I’m not over joyed, but happy enough with the outcome.

Thousands gone but I would not give up.

At the seminar there was a guest speaker, Sean Rasmussen. He was a successful affiliate and internet marketer who had sold literally millions in affiliate products and had created an internet marketing business that was based on ethics and integrity. Sean presented as a genuine person who had the desire to show and educate others about internet marketing. I started to follow Sean online and opted in to his mailing list. In June 2009 Sean invited me to participate in testing his new forum. I accepted and it has been the best internet marketing decision I have made so far.

Success is here and now!!

Through what I have learned from Sean’s book “Year of the Affiliate 2.0” and by being a member of the forum I made my first affiliate sale on the 30^th of June 2009 and have not looked back. I now average around $70.00 per week profit from my first free website I set up through the training and instruction I have gained through the Year of the Affiliate forum and book and I’m currently developing 2 more sites (including this one). It might not sound like much money to you, but to me it is a solid start and something I can build on. I have managed to do this in my spare time, and with working and a family of 7 to look after, I’m sure you can imagine my time is precious. The sky is the limit and it’s great to see affiliate success is possible and retiring from traditional employment is just around the corner for me.

Update March 2010

I now have 5 self hosted websites (2 of which are bringing in some income) and I’m trialing new products to help improve traffic, ranking and success to my sites.

Conclusion

I have just proof read what I have written in the context of the third person (like I’m reading about somebody else) and what comes straight to mind is “Why didn’t she give up, she would have saved herself many thousands of dollars and probably saved some head aches as well?” The only response I have to that is this; I knew that if others could make money online then I could too. The people I saw making millions from affiliate marketing and other internet marketing strategies didn’t seem to be any smarter than me, they were average in most respects, the only difference was that they all had to learn, and that they kept trying until they got it right.

At times I was discouraged, at times I contemplated throwing my computer out the window or in the trash, but something with in me knew that this is achievable and it is by “finding the right way” makes the process all worth while.

Now, you don’t have to take my word for it, there are many success stories and stories of repeated failure in relation to internet marketing, the choice is yours. I hope that if my story and experience of internet marketing will help even one person save money and get on the right track, then I have succeeded.

If you can relate to what I have shared then check out the links on this site or click on the linked picture below, it may save you many thousands and with some work and effort on your part, provide you with a passive income so you can build the life you dream about and turn it into reality!

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