The Bragging Thread - Inspire A Newbie

[MetaData]

This is the thread for posting screenshots and bragging, not for conversation, commentary, and asking questions about people's brags. We want users to be able to scroll through and see inspiring pic after inspiring pic, not read a bunch of questions and comments.

If you're feeling proud of it and want to inspire other members, here's the place.

This is where complete beginners and look and say "Wow, hey, this really is possible afterall..." I think everyone remembers their first commission or their first affiliate check, their first order shipped or whatever the case may be. It feels great, you want to stand on a mountain and shout "I DID IT!!!!" Here's your mountain. This is what it looks like at the top.

Don't worry if your numbers aren't ridiculously huge yet, we're not here to compare peeners or vageeners.

 

[Charles Floate]

My bank account as of yesterday -

I blocked out the sort code/account number, obvious reasons #NigerianNeedsMyAccountNumber&SortCode

 

[aPhillyiate]

Well I'm not going to post my bank account but I'll post an old CB account that is tied to one of my first affiliate sites that just keeps doing its thang. I have it set to $500 payment threshold and every few months I'll get a check in the mail right around the time that I've forgotten about it again.

 

[ddasilva]

Holy shit! What are you doing to make that money?

SEO + Affiliate Offers.

 

[vinnypolston]

Great stuff everyone!!

[image broken]

[image broken]

Launched WP Pumper a few months ago and things are taking off slowly.. but that's okay with me. It is easier to manage support requests and such at this rate.

The reasoning for the two different dashboard screenshots. I was initially running sales through a Wufoo form and then swapped over to e-junkie to add an affiliate program.

Disregard the dates on the e-junkie image. That was default. You can see I started selling through them on after the 12th.

So all-in-all we are looking at $161 on Wufoo and $607 on e-junkie. This includes two test sales through e-junkie.. so it is actually 493 through them.

Still looking at $654 for the month though. Haven't had any refunds. Average about 2 hours a week right now on support requests.

My goal is to at least double this in the next 3 months.

 

[Devil Anse]

Wow. Good job everyone!

I started playing with Amazon a little bit a few months ago. It's finally starting to happen:

Nothing amazing but it's a start and a realistic vision for newbs! Gotta start somewhere

 

[Tavin]

This is a thread I can get behind

ddasilva wins the thread.

Not so fast my friend. This needs to be a proper pissing match.

One day earnings:

Sales amount in 2013 from just one account I think (Had many others too)

I have a partying problem

Playing a little bit of blackjack with 21k

that much money, ever though of buying a Ferrari and just cruising around town thinking you made it in life?

I actually was lucky enough to learn a pretty big lesson early on and was humbled very fast, when I almost lost everything from being overconfident. It's easy to see that much money coming in, and think you're all of a sudden some business guru, that can emulate your success in other forms of tangible and intangible business models. I was wrong. It takes precise knowledge + hard work + luck.

So I mostly save everything I make, except for my bills, and fun money like above (Vegas). I have a family to provide for. The best thing that ever happened to my bank account was having kids. It pushes me everyday to wake up and work.

sidenote: I did try to buy a Ferrari last year, and have it shipped from California (eBay), but the owner was full of shit on his listing, so I'm relegated to driving around my corvettes, but I love them.

just one more question. After finally realising how to make money online (especially big amounts like yours) why still spend time on forums and answer newbs questions? Just curious..

I've had lots of help along the way, I didn't figure it all out alone. It's been a combination of hard work and meeting people willing to help me along the way. I've met a lot of great people through forums, and wouldn't be anywhere near as successful as I have been without them. I also really respect the founders of this forum, because I've had the chance to work with them on different levels.

You have to give back, you have to pay it forward. That's how karma works. A few years ago I was just another person dreaming of generating enough revenue online to escape the 9-5. I was just another person begging the well to do for advice. I was just another noob. Don't ever let anyone discourage you. Start by not letting yourself, hold you back.

 

[RiverStyx]

I think a good question to answer to give the n00bs some perspective and make them feel less like slitting their wrists would be to say how long it took you to get to the level you are currently at. For example one of my sites I have been running since '07. Sure, it brings in thousands per month but of course it wasn't always that way.

Everyone started at 0 (or negative) at one point.

 

[stackcash]

say how long it took you to get to the level you are currently at.

It takes a solid 6 to 12 months of focus to learn and fundamentally understand what does into creating a profitable web property. Guys like @ddasilva and @Tavin are so successful because they take their knowledge of how everything works and add-in their own ingenuity, marketing knowledge, and sweat equity to take a basic strategy and develop it into a real business that they can bank on.

At some point, you have to move away from the romanticism of making money online and look at it from a sound business standpoint.

To more specifically answer your question, I've been at the content business for 4 years. I have about 45 writers/editors/assistants working for me now and I enjoy a normal "middle class" lifestyle.

As far as creating profitable web assest, it's not my main focus these days. I've sold sites for $x,xxx and have had sites that made $x,xxx per month. My best advice is take a single strategy and stick with it as long as you can. Make it work. Then, when you feel you can make a predictable amount of money before you start the project, expand on the strategy with your own ideas. Create a repeatable process and scale the fuck out of your business.

 

[Benni]

I'm game.

Ecom site #2:

Ecom site #3:

(all same time period; past 30 days trailing)

I've got to ask, do your run dropship sites or do you do proper ecommerce and handle: wholesalers/warehousing/shipping/return?

I also run an ecommerce site but my levels of turnover are nowhere near yours.....yet
I just find it a rather big pain organizing the wholesale/import of goods and then the customer service and shipping aspect of it and I'd be interested to know how you scaled up to where you are. I'm still at the running it out of a room in my house stage with one employee for customer svcs- granted, its a dedicated room but still.

My biggest business has 2 warehouses (1 east coast and 1 west coast) 65k SF between the 2. I use a 3rd party logistics provider for the west coast and have 12 employees in the east coast location. Between the 2 we hold about ~1.8M in inventory.

The second largest venture is my inventory but held and manages in a 3PL warehouse managed by my partner.

The last one (highest traffic but lowest conversion rate) is education and digital services, so no physical products at all.

I'm currently working on 2 new ventures; 1 is an info-as-a-service product that I'm selling like SaaS and the other will be drop ship with a nice deal directly with the manufacturer.

@Benni do you have any recommended reads for getting into drop shipping? I have been toying with this idea for about 4 weeks now, I think i found a good product to push and found several dropshippers who look like they provide what im looking to push. They however looking for a monthly fee, which i've read could potentially be something to stay away from. Any info or write-ups to read would be GREATLY appreciated

Honestly (and this kind of sucks) but not really.. Shopify has put together a resource (but it's super beginner).

So this is going to sound super hammy but "I know a guy," who helps get brick and mortar stores setup with affiliates so they can begin to transition sales online, and I can ask him if he knows of/has any resources.

Thanks for the information that's really illuminating. In e-commerce what would you recommend as a good margin for physical products? That would really help me evaluate the potential of any new ventures or products lines I introduce.

Personally I would never touch anything under a 50% margin, you need enough wiggle room to cover muck-ups form the shipper and damage in transit, plus ideally you want to be able to stack enough in a capital reserve account to keep a cushion to operate the business in case you're manufacturers/suppliers ever run into a crisis (which is *going* to happen at some point).

 

[ddasilva]

For those looking for a little guidance, here's some key principles that I believe in, and use in my business.

1. Despite what anyone tells you, fuck micro-niches. Go after the big markets, where the money's at. Sure, you could make a decent living have 36 micro sites monetized with adsense, amazon, clickbank, etc.... But if you really want to "kill it", you'd be much better of with a smaller number of sites in big markets. When I say big market, I define that as 1 of 2 things. (1) A market with a shit load of traffic available with countless number of long-tails, sub-niches, etc.... or (2) A market with HIGH paying offers (I.E. forex, binary options, gambling, etc...).

I'd rather have 5 sites making $10k each, rather than 50 sites making $1k each. Much easier to manage from an SEO and content standpoint. I prefer a high ceiling over a high floor.

2. When researching a market to enter, don't be scared off by other affiliate competition. The more affiliate competition, the better. Don't be scurred. If you don't see other affiliates ranking for the terms you are considering to go after, that should be a hint. Despite what you've been told by guru X, no competition isn't a good thing (in my book at least). There may be some small exceptions to this rule, but it runs true for the most part.

3. As your bankroll grows, learn to outsource! There's many processes involved in the SEO game, with many of them being monotonous. Treat your SEO like a CEO. Once you find a formula that works for your, systematize as much as you can so you can hire others to help you scale. Ideally, you'd eventually want a: (1) Content Manager (2) Web Designer / Wordpress Expert (3) SEO Assistant. If you're on a budget, you can hire full-time Filipino employees for $250-400 a month, or just outsource to a team on a per-project basis if the thought of having an employee scares you. This step is essential if you want to scale your business and really take it to the next level. 1 man can only do so much on his own. Be the brains of the operation, not the muscle.

4. Promote high paying offers. I wish this tidbit was more complex, but it's not.

 

[Phenom]

Not much compared to these ballers in here, but this is all earnings from my first site that I sold and my CPC was awful lol

 

[Andrewkar]

This is screen of the closest to my heart bank account right in my country...
(divide it by 3 to get US $).
Nothing special I know but, some time ago $2000+/M made online was my biggest dream. Maybe some of you have similar dreams right now... ?

[image broken]

Most of my $ comes via PP and other processors thanks to my own products (almost nothing from aff networks!). Some income is from freelance sites.
This above is one of two most important bank accounts I keep in my country. The other one is at around 20-25% of this one. Majority of my income comes through PP and other similar companies ("few" of websites...).
I have also bank accounts in UK and Mauritius (Nothing close to this one above however, they serve other purposes... Avoid taxes like a plaque...).

I know all of this is nothing when compared to the stuff people have posted above but, it is what it is (for now at least...)

P.S I decided to hide expenses details because I have there some really stupid things going on... names for categories..

 

[eliquid]

Hmmm..

I normally try to stay out of bragging threads as I am a pretty anti-social person. I will try to reveal some things about me, without getting into too much detail or specifics exactly. I don't like people knowing too much about me.

1. Got laid off my job on my birthday in 2008 ( June ) and decided to put my 12 years ( at that time ) of digital experience to the test as an affiliate full time. By Decemeber of that same year, I hit my goal of becoming a NET millionaire and created one of the most abused and profitable landing pages of all time within my space.

2. I decided to live a simple life. No Ferrari's or Mc Mansions. No blow and hookers. I used my profit to buy a modest family home in the woods, 2 new SUVs ( no, not caynnes or something high end like a Mercedes.. but a honda and toyota ), a boat, and take time off to spend with my kids while traveling.

3. I've gone into debt multiple times in my life ( over 10 times ). Sometimes for good reason ( rental properties ) sometimes for stupid shit. I've even done this after making my big break. Each time I have been able to climb out of it using my skills within the digital marketing world. No, I don't think its stupid to go into debt and shit does happen sometimes. Knowing you can easily get out of it and having a plan is critical though.

4. I've been apart of several start-ups that went from nothing to:

• Over $30 Million in revenues in the international B2B ecom space ( medical equipment )
• Over $9 Million in revenues in the international B2C ecom space ( soft goods )
• Over $1 Million in the PAAS B2C wine/alcohol space with investments from someone on Shark Tank
• Over $38 Million in the Performance Marketing space ( MediaTrust )
• Over $20 Million in the Education Lead Generation space providing students to online universities

5. I am now working on my very own SaaS, helping digital marketers understand SEO and their SERPs better.

 

[Jim]

I've done a lot of things in digital marketing. Most recently, launched an app 5 weeks ago that got 100,000 downloads in the first 48 hours. Five weeks later and we have over 5mm events recorded in the app. Got into TechCrunch, Forbes, Yahoo, USA Today, etc.

 

[dwa]

Really impressive earnings posted on here. I started out learning how to make myspace html templates, which led to websites and web programming..then internet marketing..etc.

Snapped this pic a while back. First time using mobile ads at the perfect time.

 

[nvanprooyen]

Stripe account for a e-commerce site from September through today...

[image broken]

Goal is $3M this year from that site. I have a lot of work to do

Also, hello. Seeing a lot of familiar faces on here from WF.

 

[jakesnke]

Inspired, I need to up my game.
A small site I put up a year ago to get a feel for things, total earnings since site went up.

 

[Indian]

Budget I managed in adwords for the last 90 days. I know there are people who manage the same in much less time. #bragging #Inspiration

 

[Shooter]

I'm just getting back into IM, but back when AOL Search was still relevant I was make $800-900 per day @ 15 years old thanks to maneuvering my way into a decently high up editorship in the DMOZ adult categories. It only lasted for about 3 months or so and then I was back to "only" making $3k a month.

U still doing dmoz?

No, they kicked me out right around that same time period. I knew my days were numbered when I saw in the highest level editor forum (that I could read but not post on) some top level admins discussing the problem of spamming editors, with one clearly discussing some things I had been doing. I think it was only a week or two before AOL quit using DMOZ in their search results.

 

[ShiftyBanana]

Inspiring thread to an IM noob. The best I've done is ~$700 overnight selling stickers.

 

[John P.]

Well even if im new it does not mean i can't brag and motivate some of you guys

Here we go

I also wonder where's Carter

 

[Juxtapo]

Went from a boring average kid with double digits in his bank account throughout 90% of high school wasting what little money I had on energy drinks and fast food to someone getting shit done

Sort of pathetic compared to the majority of you guys, but it was pretty damn significant when I was in high school. Being able to check stats on my phone and see I've already made more $$ than my teachers have some days before lunch even started. Guess I gotta step my game up and raise my standards!

 

[Stephen]

I am new here but I will give you a little story of before and now what I am doing...

In 1999 I launched an ecommerce store selling leisure products, I built an online magazine around it and I guess I was one of the very first people to understand "content marketing". It worked very nicely, I grew revenue 50% year on year until I was turning over $500,000 and this was from my parents house where I was mainly drop shipping and sending out 15-30 orders per day from the stock that I did keep. It all came tumbling down when I had a car crash and I had not outsourced any of the business to anyone, it was 100% me who ran the business. As it was a highly seasonal business and that coincided with my crash I was not able to survive the winter and had to call it quits.

Since then I have worked in SEO both client and agency side, 2015 is the year I am going to build something for myself again using everything I have learnt!

So, my number one rule will be once things are up and running to automate and outsource as much as possible to build in some safety margins and system redundancy in case of a problem!

 

[Ricky]

So as a Jamaican, new to the internet marketing scene, I can say I've achieved a bit and am proud to show it

[Brag]

[/EndBrag]