Introductions Thread

Hi all Fellow BuSo,

i am 30+ man living in Asia. Been working in Tech for some years. I've been building some websites in the side but nothing serious and got me only a scrambled knowledge and experiences. I am hoping to finally quit my 9-5 within 2 years .

Something in mind now :
- build affiliate website
- build micro saas generating decent MRR

I have some very basic HTML, CSS , JS, python and intermediate WP.

Any suggestion which way to start ? i target 1000USD/mo within a year.

photo-1516051733211-2492fab1d3a5
 
It depends on how much experience you have building content marketing websites. Assuming you don't have a ton of experience, I would suggest taking the following path.

Look for a niche that has some affiliate marketing opportunities, as well as some possibility to build a web app, SAAS, or something similar in the future.
Start with the affiliate marketing, and build up some authority in the site. If you're unable to get enough traction to get some reasonable affiliate sales, then you'll have to re-evaluate the endeavor.
If you are able to get the site rolling and earn some money on the affiliate side, get some traffic, etc., you're in good shape. You can then plan and build a web app or SAAS system that will be easy to market to your pre-existing and growing audience.

Also, I would suggest you don't target dollar values at the beginning (or even in the middle!). It's better to target the aspects of the business you can control, as opposed to saying "I want to earn $X by Date Y."

I would suggest making your KPIs into things that you have power over, such as the number of words of content written, number of blog posts, the site speed metrics, the number of emails sent out for backlink outreach, etc. These are much more useful metrics for a niche business starting out. You actually have the power and responsibility to meet them, as opposed to your readers/customers.

Estimating earnings before anything exists is really difficult. And if you miss the earnings you imagine, you can get discouraged and give up on the project prematurely. Of course, you'll need to keep earnings in the back of your mind to determine if it's worthwhile to continue with the project. But it's best to not keep it in the forefront at the beginning before you've built anything.
 
$1000 within a year is very doable.
Are you an asian living in asia or a westerner living in asia?
I ask because it might be important for your choice. I don't know the situation with affiliate networks in all the countries in Asia and how it works with Google/Baidu etc).
If you chose to make an affiliate site, you might want to think about if you could use your background from Asia, to leverage a site made for the US/UK. There are niches, topics and knowledge that might be common in Asia, but uncommon in the US. That could be something to get you going.
I've used my European background to do outreach and guest blogging in the US. Use what you have!
 
Hi Everyone,

I've been a member for a while...not sure what to write as an introduction but here goes 'something'.

I have been interested in working online for a number of years. Joined a number of forums from the Warrior Forum to Wickedfire. Most of the time I existed as a lurker.

I intended my first post to be about my current efforts at earning a full-time income online rather than on somebody's job...been there done that for years (decades).

However I need assistance with getting my son to believe in himself and his self worth. He has been attending college for a couple of years and is experiencing self-doubt. He is a great kid but he analyzes everything. Reminds me of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" seeking the ultimate answer to life.

Of course I tell him to just do it...be done...get on with life...than change what you can. But he still struggles and has become disillusioned with the status quo. He has taken a "break" from college but plans to go back.

School has never been his strong point. He is a great worker and gets along well with most everyone...no matter the age or race. He loves "doing" not talking or reading about it. He's very much a visual and hands on deck sort of person.

As a parent it's really difficult to see your smart, funny, hardworking child become so cynical. He's currently working at minimum wage and as a single mom I don't want to see him bottom out.

Is there anyone here who could mentor or teach him to make a livable wage online? I do not currently have the skills to do it myself...I believe some type of "win" especially being able to take care of himself will give him back his confidence and belief in himself.

He has nearly two months before Fall semester begins. He has only basic social media and computer knowledge but none as to how to make money online. I intended to teach him to do that after I started one myself.

His starting funds will be minimal $500 to $1000 but at the moment has plenty of time at least until he starts college and job.

Would anyone be able to mentor or guide him? Anything basic just to show what's possible? At least earn more than minimum wage or approximately $10 US.

Although I really want him to finish college...it may not be for him...at least not now.

Okay, that's my introduction.

Please let me know your thoughts or suggestions.

Thanks for listening...reading.

Jazzy
 
Welcome, Jazzy, and thanks for your intro post.

Jazzy said:
School has never been his strong point. [...] He loves "doing" not talking or reading about it. He's very much a visual and hands on deck sort of person.
Click to expand...

Do you think he might be better off in a trade school?

Jazzy said:
Reminds me of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" seeking the ultimate answer to life.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've done that and wasted a lot of time. He'll have to ultimately realize that the answer is "there is no answer" and get his feet back on the ground and head out of the clouds. He sounds highly intelligent, and being cynical is a part of that deal. But what's the point of complaining about some lofty aspect of a thing he can't get the fundamentals down on (like a basic living wage). Feet on the ground, hands in work, head focused on his own goals and ideals and not trying to manipulate or be despondent about things he can't control.

Jazzy said:
Is there anyone here who could mentor or teach him to make a livable wage online?
Click to expand...

This is what the entire forum is for. All he needs to do is sign up and start conversing with us, and go through our free Digital Strategy Crash Course as a starting point. Of course, unless he's expressed an interest in this field himself, the most you can do is lead him to the water. He may not drink it. It's a very tough racket, too. This industry will make you extra cynical.

Jazzy said:
He has nearly two months before Fall semester begins. He has only basic social media and computer knowledge but none as to how to make money online.
Click to expand...

He can get started and have a website up and running, populated with content in that time. His first attempt isn't likely to be a home run hit either.

If he's going to focus on SEO, you're looking at 6 months to begin earning and 12 months to start to see real potential. Otherwise he needs to be doing "in the trenches" marketing to start to get traffic to his website immediately.

With $500 to $1,000, he does not need to venture into paid traffic at all.

My fear is you're hoping for too much too fast for him. Trying to ramp up to even earning minimum wage from knowing nothing about the industry is like saying "He's heard music before, but he has no idea how to play the guitar. Can he start earning a living wage in two months?" If he can learn the guitar, establish connections, learn music theory, purchase the gear needed, learn how to do maintenance on his instrument, learn the ins-and-outs of the music industry, etc... and start getting paid, all in two months.

It's also akin to getting a degree, even though you don't need one to work in this industry. That's how much there is to know. And nobody is going to spoon feed it to him either, so he'll have to buckle in and be a self-learner.

I'm not trying to be a negative nancy towards you. I just want to lay out a realistic look at things. We HAVE had people go from nothing to a full time income using the course I linked above, but they are definitely the exception, with the main variable being "are you willing to put in the work."

Have him sign up and look around and see if he thinks this could interest him. He doesn't have to do it for himself. He can sell services, work for a marketing agency, etc. Lot's of paths open up, but he's gotta do the learning first.

Best of luck with it all. We're here if he wants to get his hands dirty.
 
Hi Ryuzaki,

Thanks for your response.

A trade school is a valid question. Not sure if he is ready for the "demotion" at least as compared to his friends from high school and college. I believe he would look at it as being a failure. I must admit as a parent I would prefer he finish college. He is just such an intelligent person to see him stumped by such a basic life step is puzzling.

I didn't mean to suggest internet marketing is simply or easy but just want him to see there are alternatives ways to make an income other than college or a regular job.

I will suggest internet marketing to him and see where it goes. As you said the rest is up to him.

Thanks so much for pointing to the Crash Course and the offer of help from the forum.
 
Jazzy said:
Not sure if he is ready for the "demotion" at least as compared to his friends from high school and college. I believe he would look at it as being a failure. I must admit as a parent I would prefer he finish college.
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People caring about what other people think of them is the reason so many people are un-happy.

If he was able to work and be happy at McDonalds, like be REALLY happy as a human, enough so that he goes and feeds homeless people on the weekend cause he is so happy would that be a problem? Or would you rather he get his degree to impress his friends and impress you? He'll take that college and student loan debt on his back for the next 15+ years working some soul sucking corporate job and be miserable?

Happy or miserable?

I can assure you that when he is on his deathbed that neighbor lady from 2 houses down who's opinion you were worried about is not going to matter to him, he'll be looking back at all the regret and chances he didn't take cause he listened to other people and was peer pressured into a box, a soul crushing box, to keep up with the Joneses, who ever the fuck they are.

I was talking to some friends today and they were telling me about the student loan debts they were still paying off and how it was holding them back, meanwhile I'm complaining about not hitting an extra 15% increase in MRR goal I have. At that moment I realized how crazy of a bullet I dodged by not listening to my parents and "going to university getting a degree" and playing it safe. Realistically if I'm tired in the middle of the day I can go watch a movie at noon, they can't. I can go on a quick vacation for 3 day or 21 days, they need Karen from HR to approve that shit, lolwtf, fuck all that.

I asked my friends if the master degrees were worth it - there was a long pause, that pretty much answered that question.

Have you ever question why at 18 years old the banks will let you take out $100K in student loans but you can't get $20K to start a business from that same bank? Wouldn't the $20K to start a business have a better chance of getting a return on investment quicker than that $100K student loan debt. A business can triple it's income in a year, or even 6 months. How many jobs allow you to magically triple your income? Maybe if you are sleeping with Karen from HR...

It will also come down to your own feelings. Are you pushing him towards college cause it's a reflection on YOU and what your neighbors and family might think?

He has to find his own path in life, so many of us are still trying to find our own path, how can you really say "college" or "entrepreneurship" is for him? Someone that wants to run a business usually has that in their DNA. If you look at most entrepreneurs they did stuff as a little kid that showed that business spirit like sold candy at school, traded baseball cards, and mowed lawns for money.

You knew him as a little kid, what were his interests and what made him happy? Let him explore those options and topics. You have to remember the internet has opened up a whole new way of thinking about making money.

You can literally talk about Smurfs or Disney Princess toys all day on a YouTube channel and bring home $50K a month.

There are video gamers just streaming themselves playing video games making $100K a month - before we even talk about the different sponsorship opportunities.

There are Knitting channels on YouTube - Ads being ran against them and the creator is making bank.

The sea of opportunities to make money are endless in a passion he or you may have.

So "making money" on the internet doesn't mean having to create a website or become a business owner.

Don't let that fucking box crush your soul or chain you to a life of misery - or his.
 
I stayed in college cause I didn't want to be a dissapointment. I regret it so much.
 
Jazzy said:
A trade school is a valid question. Not sure if he is ready for the "demotion" at least as compared to his friends from high school and college. I believe he would look at it as being a failure. I must admit as a parent I would prefer he finish college. He is just such an intelligent person to see him stumped by such a basic life step is puzzling.
Click to expand...

It is sad that people see the trades as a lesser job. This irks me so much. The trades are great jobs and can be a stepping stone for people who have a ton of ambition, but don’t know their path.

I knew what I wanted to be in High School. I knew I needed a degree to get there. I went to school for 6 years to get my Masters Degree and $60k debt. I would never be where I am today without my degree (I guess technically, I could be here, but it would have been unlikely due to a number of random occurrences.) But let me tell you about my colleagues who didn’t follow the same path as me.

A guy I work with went into the trades to be a laborer on a construction site. He did that for a few years and has a pension, but he wanted to be something else so he decided to go back to school, which the union helped fund. He graduated and joined our company. He has been there a while and is now a Partner at the company. He is 3 years younger than me, but he is an owner of the company I work for. All from starting in the trades.

I know a carpenter who never went to college, but who went on to become a construction supervisor for a major construction company. He doesn’t swing a hammer anymore. Instead he is in charge of construction for a project that is changing the face of a major university known around the world.

I know a guy who did his 30 years in the union. He started fresh out of high school. He also went to school on the side, which was paid by the union. He does a job very similar to mine. He has 3 kids that he is helping put through college now. The guy looks like he is 40, but he is in his 50s. He has his shit together. He started in the trades, but is financially capable of helping pay for 3 kids in college.

I took a traditional route, but the other 3 guys took the trade route and we all ended up in the same place, but they didn’t have the debt.

Trades don’t limit you. In fact, they are a great start for someone who doesn’t know what they want, but who is a hard worker with good intelligence.
 
Thank all of you who took the time to respond.

Background:

I am Black /African-American. My mom was a maid and my father a laborer. There were 4 children in my family and later 1 grandchild. My parents worked many long and odd hours to support everyone. They wanted better for their kids than what they had, as most parents do. They managed to encourage and put all of us through college. That is no small feat, especially, in the US, with our background and race.

I saved 18 years into a pre-paid college fund to pay for most of his college expenses. So yes, I want my child to do better than myself, which I must admit to me, means a college degree.

Also, as a Black Male in the US, college is a method for a Black person to distinguish yourself as above the norm. Yes, unfair and racist but that's the reality here in th US.

My son is an intelligent, compassionate and personable individual and I do not want him viewed as just another statistical black person. Again, some of you would view that as just catering to small minded people but it is also, the difference between life and death in some situations.

I want the best life possible for my son, and right now, a college degree will open more doors and create more opportunities than any other in the immediate future. However, I also want him to be happy and confident and right now he isn't. So if, trade school is for him, I will gladly follow his lead and accept whatever choice he makes.

Growing up he loved watching "How Things Are Made" a television show explaining the creative and manufacturing process for products. In High School, he joined the Engineering Club and learned about Robotics. He decided Engineering was the field he wanted to pursue.

Conclusion

I want what's best for my child but he will ultimately, have to, decide his path. I will always be his cheering squad.
 
What does he do in his down time? Does he play any sports or have any pastimes?

Constant work and stress.. sometimes you just need a release, let the mind wander somewhere else. Even if just for a few hours a week.
 
"My son is an intelligent, compassionate and personable individual and I do not want him viewed as just another statistical black person." The bolded is what matters.

Quit limiting yourself and your son based on race. If you keep bringing up your race and having a negative hypothesis about everything based on your race then you and your son will never even try to move forward because what's the point, everyone is racist and you're oppressed.

"I want the best life possible for my son, and right now, a college degree will open more doors and create more opportunities than any other in the immediate future. However, I also want him to be happy and confident and right now he isn't. So if, trade school is for him, I will gladly follow his lead and accept whatever choice he makes." Again, the bolded is what matters.

At the end of the day, your son needs to figure out what he actually likes- you can't tell him this, and neither can his friends or guidance counselors. He also needs to not have a self-limited, negative hypothesis view anymore because of what people around him are telling him.
 
Replies:

Dsoul,

He loves figuring out how things work and the outdoors(fishing and hunting). He went from a country environment to the city so it has been an adjustment. You are right, he does need a stress release. He played soccer in high school. Hopefully, he will find some activity to help him relax.

Thanks for your response and helpful suggestions.

---------

DanielS,

Why is it that whenever someone mentions Race there is always an obligatory response that it's a fragment of your imagination (paraphrasing here)?

If I had a $1 for everytime I have heard or read that Race doesn't matter in life: I would have enough money to buy the 40 acres and a mile promised slaves after the American Revolution and wouldn't need Slavery Reparations.<sarcasm>

Also no doubt "Black Lives Matter" is not necessary because "All Lives Matter" right.

There has indeed been great strides for Blacks in society. It is much different from my youth and a huge difference from my parents. But to say it no longer matters is for people who are either narcissistic, gullible, indifferent, ashamed or blind to their fortunes. Imo

Race matters, Income matters, Education matters and to a certain extent: Age, Disability and Sex matters as well. To say otherwise is purposely putting on blinders to go through life.

I do agree it shouldn't hold one back to achieving goals. Others have in the worst of times and circumstances.

Obviously, there is a disconnect between my words and your understanding. I believe that individuals are responsible for their own path whatever the obstacles.

A question for you:
Are you stopped for a simple traffic violation every month in the neighborhood you live and or the road to work? My son is. That's scary for any parent...especially, given the possibility of "mistakes or misunderstandings".
 
What DanielS is trying to say is that race only matters because YOU allow it to matter, same thing goes for income an education.
And by allowing it to matter you are victimising yourself, and allowing for your subconsions to make excuses for not succeeding.

If you want to change the world then start by changing the person you see in the mirror every day, change your perception and the world will change.

No I'm not stopped for a simple traffic violation every month, however there was a time in my life (when I was a athlete) that I was stoped for being in posseion of narcotics at least once every week (and btw. I'm white/caucatian), at first it was annoying, specially since they never found drugs on me (for a very good reason, I never involved my self with drugs)but as it continued I just laughed at the police inside and almost pittyied them for their stereotypical view of people, which I assume also often most have let a lot of drug useres and sellers go because they didn't look like they were users and sellers.

I don't have a college degree, I alsways was the black sheep of my familly and to this day I am still percieved as such only due to the lack of my degree, yet I've accomplished great things in life, things that most people never will.

You are the person you decide to be.
 
Hi everyone!

My name is Daniel and I'm 22 years old. I've been in the entrepreneurship game for about 4 years now, and I've spent 3.5 of these 4 years failing (learning).

Originally, I decided to pursue entrepreneurship after quitting my factory job. I had this factory job for 6 months, and I hated it by month 2, so by the time month 6 came around and my contract was over, I was happy to be leaving.

The first venture I pursued was affiliate marketing. I grasped the concept quite quickly, and I started a website in a niche that I was (and still am) passionate about. However, I only completed about 3 articles and then I completely reset the website because I was tired of writing articles and hadn't gotten any sales after 3 months.

After affiliate marketing, I pursued YouTube marketing. Basically, I uploaded creative commons videos, optimized them following YouTube SEO best practices, and earned ad revenue via. Google Adwords. Obviously, this was back in 2016 when any YouTube channel could monetize using Google Adwords.

Eventually, YouTube brought in their partner program requirements and none of my YouTube channels qualified for monetization privileges, so I decided to stop trying to earn money on YouTube via. Google Adwords.

Around September 2016, I started offering a particular service on Fiverr. In my first month I earned $200.00, and in my 7th month (March 2017) I earned $940.00. Things were looking great! Until of course, Fiverr had to screw me and remove my successful gigs from their search results. I went from earning $940.00 in March 2017 to earning $488.00 in April 2017. My earnings kept decreasing and I earned $28.00 in August 2017. I decided to pull the plug at this point and move on with the $3500.00 (approx.) I made during my 11 month Fiverr stint.

In December 2017 I returned to YouTube. I daily uploaded for 3 months straight (December 2017, January 2018, and February 2018) and I saw great growth on my channel in terms of month-over-month viewership. However, by the time April 2018 rolled around I was burned out on creating YouTube videos, so I quit YouTube again.

Now, something I should mention is, I started automating Instagram accounts in November 2017 (I used the money I was earning from Fiverr to pay for my software and proxies). By the time August 2018 rolled around I had 6 Instagram accounts totaling 102K followers. I ended up making about $200.00 from Instagram shoutouts in August 2018. Then all my Instagram accounts got banned because Instagram decided to purge accounts using low-quality IPV6 datacenter proxies. From 102K followers to 0 followers in 24 hours.

So, what did I do next? Well, I went back to Fiverr of course!

In September 2018 I earned $235.00 on Fiverr. Great, things are looking up! Can you guess what happened next? My earnings declined because Fiverr decided to remove my gigs from their search results... again. Deja vu! In December 2018 I earned $40.00 and this caused me to pull the plug on Fiverr... again.

Over the course of 2-3 years, I had successfully managed to build my income on 3 platforms only to have it all disappear overnight with the flick of a switch.

Oh well, plenty of lessons learned!

In January 2019, I decided to give Upwork a try. In January 2019, I earned $472.50 on Upwork. After hovering around that same number for the next few months, I managed to earn $1500.00 on Upwork in May 2019. In this most recent month (June 2019) I earned $1755.00 on Upwork, and I'll make a minimum of $1600.00 this month (July 2019). I managed to find a client on Upwork who has an agency of his own, so he's essentially outsourcing all the work he gets to me (in my area of expertise).

Now... here's the deal.

I have a terrible record with platforms. Every platform I've depended on has in some way screwed me over up until this point. This is 100% my fault and I take total blame for this. Depending on a specific platform for earning money is basically a disaster waiting to happen. So then WHY am I still earning all my money through a platform, being Upwork?

I need to find a way to earn money independant (for the most part) of a specific platform- eventually.

I've learned so, so much over the past 4 years. I've taken all the best courses (according to the internet) and I've been blessed with the opportunity of having direct access to information from other entrepreneurs in forums like this one. If I actually make the effort to create a website with a legitimate sales page, send cold emails, market via. social media, etc. then there's literally no reason I cannot earn a solid income online independant from a particular platform. I'm too smart to be this broke.

Here are my goals at this point in time:

1. Earn $2000.00 per. month on Upwork by October 2019 (5 hours of work, Monday to Friday).
2. Create a long-form sales page/letter for my service on my own website (service will be $500.00 a month at this point).
3. Reach out to 100 potential clients via. personalized cold email.
4. Convert 3/100 potential clients into paying clients (totaling $1500.00 a month earned) by February 2019.

If/when I am earning a total of $3500.00 a month, I will then shift my focus to creating a digital product in my areas of expertise and selling this product via. paid advertising and email marketing. I'm thinking the price of the product will be $365.00 or $720.00 depending on where the market is at in the future.

My BIG goal is to be earning $4000.00 a month so I can comfortably move out into my own apartment by June 2019. I'll be 23 years old by then and while I don't mind living at home with my parents, I think having the pressure of needing to earn money in order to not be homeless would be good for me.

Anywho, just wanted to introduce myself to the forum and tell my story. Thanks for taking the time to read this long post and I look forward to providing value to this forum in my area of expertise.

BTW- My area of expertise is YouTube marketing. Feel free to ask me any questions about YouTube marketing and I'll be happy to answer! (I also know a lot about email marketing and Instagram marketing, but I don't really have any measurable results to display my expertise in these areas).
 
Welcome aboard.

I see a pattern in your story. You've been doing low-quality (basically spam) stuff that either gets banned, or can't meet the basic requirements for monetization, or you give up on it too soon. I've done the same thing in terms of losing my income a few times. It sucks really bad. You've shown persistence for sure.

I hope you run into the problem of running out of time because you have too many clients. Then you can raise your price or train an employee and start scaling harder.

Best of luck with this. Service-based business is big bucks.
 
Ryuzaki said:
Welcome aboard.

I see a pattern in your story. You've been doing low-quality (basically spam) stuff that either gets banned, or can't meet the basic requirements for monetization, or you give up on it too soon. I've done the same thing in terms of losing my income a few times. It sucks really bad. You've shown persistence for sure.

I hope you run into the problem of running out of time because you have too many clients. Then you can raise your price or train an employee and start scaling harder.

Best of luck with this. Service-based business is big bucks.
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Thank you!

I 100% have given up far too soon on past projects. For example, I started my first YouTube channel in 2011. Imagine if I would have simply uploaded 3 videos a week over the course of the past 8 years, combined with what I know about YouTube marketing- I would have had at least 100K subscribers by now.

As far as raising my price, I'm currently working at $20.00 an hour for 4 hours a day for my current client on Upwork, and I actually had another job lined up at $25.00 an hour for 4 hours a day for another client, but the project was a complete mess so I "fired" the client before I even gave him 1 hour of work.

Have you ever had any doubts about raising your prices in regards to providing a service? Or maybe you have some thoughts on this: I'm worried about out-pricing myself from the market. Meaning, I don't know if I can even provide enough value to clients in order to justify charging more than $25.00 an hour, as the work I do seems like it's complicated, but it really isn't.
 
Yeah dude, let go of the spammy approach and just focus on getting really, really good at one thing.
 
It's been a while since I've been on UpWork (way before they switched over to their new paid credit model) but I had the most success a) pricing myself at nearly double the average rate of other freelancers and b) getting clients off of UpWork as soon as possible. If you're getting a lot of repeat business, you can make more and your client can pay less if you cut out the middleman. Also, if you're confident in your work, have a clearly-defined project scope, and feel comfortable with your relationship with your client, then fixed price projects can be a gold mine.
 
Yeah...

So the reason why UpWork is working for you is because you are providing value in a non-spam way.

Focus on providing value.

All of your prior projects provided no real value with the exception of maybe your Fiverr stuff. But from what you wrote and your history, I'm assuming your Fiverr stuff was low quality, spammy, or against their terms or service.

You also gave up too early on stuff.

2-4 months is too early to give up. Quitting on a client before you start work is too early too. But in your specific case it might not have been too bad since many of the things you were doing provided no value anyways.

At this point you are giving specific value to specific people of what they want. That's why it is working.

Keeping doing that in new areas, and you will have success.

.
 
eliquid said:
Yeah...

So the reason why UpWork is working for you is because you are providing value in a non-spam way.

Focus on providing value.

All of your prior projects provided no real value with the exception of maybe your Fiverr stuff. But from what you wrote and your history, I'm assuming your Fiverr stuff was low quality, spammy, or against their terms or service.

You also gave up too early on stuff.

2-4 months is too early to give up. Quitting on a client before you start work is too early too. But in your specific case it might not have been too bad since many of the things you were doing provided no value anyways.

At this point you are giving specific value to specific people of what they want. That's why it is working.

Keeping doing that in new areas, and you will have success.
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Thank you for your feedback!

So, I will say the 1st go around with YouTube that I commented on above was spammy. Creative commons videos are typically low-quality, low-value videos. Also, I guess I could say that the Instagram automation I did was kind of spammy, even though I did have a legitimate following of real followers with 5% to 10% engagement rates.

As far as it goes for Fiverr, I was actually offering the same service on Fiverr that I am currently on Upwork, but just with less time put in. The service I offered on Fiverr wasn't against the T.O.S or spammy or anything- Fiverr simply removed my gig from the search results because "everyone deserves a chance to earn money on their platform" (their words, not mine).

(I would attach a screen shot showing my Fiverr stats, but I can't seen to get the image upload to work, so I will say that I received 324 5-star ratings vs. 1 1-star rating)
​
With all this said, I 100% agree with your statement about 2-4 months being too early to give up. As far as quitting on the client goes, if I would have had more information about where they were at with the work they did before getting in contact with me, I would have avoided the project from the start. However, only after asking more and more questions and "feeling out" the client did I get a real look at how poor of shape the project was in.
 
Hi there
Just a quick introduction. Was a ski and climbing bum for many years, travelling from place to place and season to season before settling down in the European country that is now home. After a fairly lengthy (for me) and stable period in travel, I finally chucked it all up in the air and taught myself to create web pages and graphics around the turn of the century.

So a bit of this and a bit of that since then, including web design, SEO, cross-border and -language marketing until these days when I'm running my own sites and dodging most attempts to get me working on other people's.

Also currently trying to get my head around social media audience building and marketing, which for an old fart like me is like learning a new language or three. And that's what brought me here, having noticed @CCarter 's thread over at Th3 Core and read the blog post they were talking about. Was active on WMW in the 'olden days' and more recently at the sadly now-defunct SEOBook forums under different usernames but time for a new one anyway.

Hope to contribute if I can and keep up with what's going on with online stuff.
Steve
 
ToffeeLa said:
cross-border and -language marketing
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Welcome Steve, this is a great place to learn and contribute.

I'm interested in your experience with the quoted. I plan on moving to my other "home country" and being doing exactly cross-country/cross-language marketing, though I'm not sure exactly what model or product to offer.
 
bernard said:
I'm interested in your experience with the quoted. I plan on moving to my other "home country" and being doing exactly cross-country/cross-language marketing, though I'm not sure exactly what model or product to offer.
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That was what initially tempted me to move from the travel industry into website and content creation - in those days the standard of English (my native tongue) was fairly appalling as a 'second language' on most websites in this country. So I started out offering web design including translation services (on annual contract following initial site build) and built up a word-of-mouth reputation. I transitioned fairly quickly into online marketing as well (since most site owners knew the traffic was on English-language Google) and I had the advantage of being able to use natural language search terms.

Eventually I got sick of site owners being reluctant to do any relatively simple work themselves (content creation, link-building) and thought I might as well use the skills I'd collected and rank my own sites.

Nowadays things are of course a little different. The standard of non-native English has probably risen from 30/100 to 66/100 and there are adequate (although not good) online translation services available (which still will not necessarily help with search terms or user intent).

If you are fluent in a non-native language you will always have that as a USP for your own services or projects. I was chatting to a friend's daughter the other day who is about to go off to university. She has grown up fluent in two languages and is going to study two other languages at uni. She wasn't sure what she planned on doing afterwards and I told her that if she was interested she should take any courses on online marketing just to give her a background and see if it might be a fit.

Someone who knows SEM and social media marketing AND who can speak four languages should be able to walk into a good job at a marketing agency who has got their head screwed on the right way.

Caveat to the above: too many people are too convinced of their own skills in another language (see earlier point about the poor standard of English on travel websites). Despite having been fluent in two foreign languages (to the point at which I would dream in them) I would never attempt to translate into those languages myself. Unless you have been brought up with two languages it is very unlikely that your skills will be anything more than adequate.
That also means that it might be a tougher sell for someone with those skills because a business owner might say "Oh we already have Mathilde or Stefan who can speak good English" when their command of the language is mediocre but better than the owners.

Still, there are always multiple ways to use those language skills yourself within the realms of content creation and online marketing.
 
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