Initial Goals Exceeded – Going Full Time (26)
Hey Stackers, just wanted to check in and let you guys in on what I’ve been up to lately. A few months ago I started a follow along. I kept up with it for a few weeks then stopped updating it. I know I know, probably one of the lamest follow along threads on the forum. I apologize for not keeping up with it, so to make up for my weak follow-along I’m going to dump an update and lessons learned in this massive post.
The truth is literally a couple weeks after starting my follow along I started to hit pay dirt with my adult campaigns. Money started flowing in and I found myself with a scarcity mindset. I had a single campaign with a single offer, a single banner, a single lander on a single traffic source that literally started to blow up overnight. I did not want to share anything that would comprise this campaign. Maybe it’s because of the cut-throat and cannibalistic nature of the adult dating niche, where people will ruthlessly rip your entire campaigns without a second thought. This ruthless nature of Adult traffic is also probably why only a select group of successful affiliates share any tips on the adult section of this forums. I will admit that even I participate in this banner/lander ripping at times; you almost have to if you want to compete. The adult dating niche is really all-out, no holds barred, guerilla warfare battlefield when you’re at the bottom trying to clime your way up the food chain.
For the past month and a half I’ve been meeting my initial goal of 200$ profit a day. I’ve even had stretch of a few weeks of 500$+ profit days. This was not easy in any way and took a ton of hard work, dedication and stress. For 3 months I lost money every day. I still kept chugging along because I had faith that if I built my affiliate skill-set that eventually I would have a breakthrough campaign. For the next 3 months I broke even. This wasn’t as stressful as losing money but it still wasn’t fun risking money every day and not seeing any return. I still kept my determination and kept concentrating on building my skill set and learning valuable lessons.
During this period I’ve been boot-strapping extremely hard. I’ve been eating eggs, rice, oat meal, noddle bowls and frozen chicken breasts purchased in bulk. I live rent free in the woods in a fire station (my day job). My internet connection is leeching Wi-Fi off of a friendly neighbor using a high-powered antenna I bought from amazon (I asked the neighbor for permission, on a side note if he ever checks my ip history he is definitely going to think I’m a severe porn addict lol). My primary pc is the same shitty desktop I built 7 years ago filled with bootleg software. My MacBook back-light went out few months ago, to use my laptop I have to shine my cellphone light at the screen. Every penny saved is more money to test campaigns.
This has also taken a huge time commitment. With every second of downtime at my day job I work on campaigns. If not that I read the affiliate blogs, STM or latest e-books guides on adult marketing using my cell phone. Between my job and affiliate marketing I have worked 7 days a week for the past 9 months, with only a few weekends off for friends weddings/ family birthdays ect. My old friends think I’m a ghost because I haven’t seen most of them in months. In all honesty I don’t really have an interest in hanging out with them anymore because our life goals are drastically different. I’m not interested in getting drunk, chasing girls and bullshitting around all day. I have a mission and goals that I want to reach and a business that I want to build. I plan to phase out my old peer group and replace them with similar minded and motivated individuals in the coming months.
My point is if you really want to come up from the bottom you have to change a lot of things in your life, grind fucking HARD and be willing to make some big sacrifices.
You’re going to have to have a lot of motivation for this and an almost illogical amount of mental positivity. Positive motivation is great. Things like business plans, goal setting, affirmations, visualizations and mediation are all very important. Keep your health on point, exercise and avoid junk foods and alcohol. Seeing the bigger picture is also important. I don’t want to stay in the adult industry forever but if adult dating is what I have to do to build the foundation of my online business then I’m not holding anything back and I will throw 100% of my resources at mastering this niche inside and out.
Negative motivation is also very powerful. I knew that if I didn’t make something happen during the 4 months of fire season, then my ass was going to be out in the Oregon rain forest running chainsaws with ignorant roughnecks all winter. I did this last winter and it was not fun at all. Waking up at 5am, running chainsaws all day in shitty weather with retard roughneck coworkers then getting home at 6pm and trying to work on affiliate marketing was not an ideal situation. I was willing to work my ass off online to not have to go back to this job. Every time I felt like giving up I thought of this bleak alternative and I knew I could never give up. Also, what helped a lot was looking at the worst possible outcome. Even if I lost everything, I still had a job with benefits and cheap housing that I could fall back on. I would also have a slew of valuable lessons learned from failures and skills that I developed that I could use to attack another niche.
One of the hardest hurdles to get past is getting comfortable spending money. It hurts really fucking bad throwing your hard earned money at things that aren’t going to guarantee a return. You have to conquer this fear one way or another; it’s literally like slaying a dragon. It’s going to take you forever to test your campaigns/creatives/traffic sources if your only spending 50$ a day because you’re worried about losing money. It’s a tough hurdle to get over but eventually, you increase your daily spending bit by bit and spending 1000$+ a day on traffic becomes common place. Remember that every dollar you spend is an investment in your future. It buys you data, and provides you with important lessons.
Some final advice. Learn how to use Photoshop and Dreamweaver. These are your most important tools in my opinion. They are the paint brush and canvas for the painter and the sword and shield of the warrior. Make banner templates until your brain dead then make some more, then test them. Don’t be lazy and just rip banners and upload them or just crop and resize, make actual psd files. Get really comfortable and quick at making Gif banners. Get comfortable with Dreamweaver and learn a little coding. Most things I learned about Dreamweaver I just picked up by jumping headfirst into the program and reverse engineering certain features on landing pages and then adding them to my landing pages. DW was confusing as shit at first but the longer you spend in this software confused and pissed off with a headache the more confortable you get over time. There are so many free tutorials online you really have no excuses for not learning these things. Yes you can pay for people to do these things for you but it’s faster to do them yourself and not have to deal with a VA or fiveer when you’re in the boot-strapping stage.
Bottom line: don’t check stats, don’t waste time surfing the web, and don’t even waste too much idle time on the forums. 1) Make banners and landers 2) Test banners and landers. Once you hit that high CTR banner, combine it with the right lander its money in the bank. These are the two most important things that will get you a winning campaign. It’s really that simple, everything else is a distraction.
Even though I’ve had some recent successes I know I still have a ton of things to learn and I have to constantly stay on my grind if I want to keep the ball moving. Thanks to everyone on these forums. I have learned a ton the posts here. Do a deep dive on STM, there are some very valuable posts from 2011 and 2012.
I’m excited to finally go full time next month and hopefully I can keep the upward spiral going. My next focus will be doing large scale flat rate media buys on adult web traffic and expanding to adult mobile traffic. I also want to start a 4-person master mind group next month, once I get moved into my apartment and get my office set up. My next goal will be consistent 1000$/profit per day and I know now that this is very attainable. Hopefully with a full-time dedication to affiliate marketing I can hit this goal within a couple of months.
This post got super long but I had a lot of stuff I wanted to get off my chest. I hope this post will provide motivation for you guys who are currently struggling with adult. Thanks for reading and keep grinding brothers!
-Drock
Thanks for this post, I'm just starting out with paid traffic and it's stories like these that keep me going!
The STM quickstart suggest Muse to build websites, you say DW. Is DW better to build landers with?
I know WordPress well, but I need to pick up either Muse or DW soon.
Good luck in all your future campaigns!
Congrats on your success and best of luck jumping in full time ! 
Mehdi
inspiring post and congrats!
You're a champion man this is really cool stuff man, brilliantly said and I wish you the best of success this stuff puts the fattest smile on my face dude. It is Possible for anyone to do this, note his points down!
This is the attitude i had when getting started. FULL OF VIOLENT HUNGER!
I didn't care about anything except succeeding. I scarified everything i had to and went balls to the wall for 2 year straight. I locked my door, turned off my cell phone, ignored food hunger, ..water pfff who needs it!
This may not be the best way, but it was my way and it worked. HUNGER!
Yes! This gets me pumped!
Congrats man!
Congrats, you do have the right mindset.
I do have a remark though, you mentioned you want to phase out your current group of friends. Don't. I've had the exact same mindset a few years ago when I thought "why would I want to hang out with these mindless weed-smoking and alcohol drinking people who don't have a lifegoal?". I kept working, working and some more working and totally neglected my social life. Of course I did make new friends who were also entrepeneurs, but at a certain point my entire life consisted of work. What happened next was I got a huge burnout. Not because of faillure, I was already making 1500 euro / day profit at the age of 19, but because of lack of motivation and thinking "is this what I want for the rest of my life?". Money is awesome, but (real) friends is something that can't be bought. Now, I don't hang out every weekend with the friends I just mentioned, but once/twice a month works out perfectly. Basicly I can turn off my mind during those times and just go with the flow. When it's monday again I'm pumped up to blow up my next campaign!
This is a better success story!.. Well done and good luck, I sincerely hope you make it big time.
Awesome story! That's the real hunger! Only like this man! Good luck!
Originally Posted by caurmen
Thanks for the support everyone. I glad my story has been able to inspire some of you guys.
@malachii:
Never used Muse before so I cant say much about it. From what I gather it seems to be a less robust version of DW. If it's Adobe software it's probably high quality regardless. However, DW is the industry standard for WYSIWYG editors. Understand that the first time you open up DW you will be lost, but like I mentioned start out editing already built landers and you can learn a lot quickly. Good luck man and remember for every stumbling block you run into when learning these software the answer can always be found somewhere on google.
@stackman
Yes I am a HUNGRY mofo. I got sick of middle america jobs within six months of graduating university. I knew I had to get out of the 9-5 system or I would never be happy. Trying to prove myself to lesser men for a little carrot on a stick is no way to live. I have no idea how the average person does this for 45 years.
@maynzie
Thanks for your awesome case studies bro! I recommend everyone read all of maynzie posts asap, they will make you wise.
@scito
I understand your point and I do have certain friends that I will have for life. I deleted my facebook a few months ago. The funny thing was I had over 1000 "friends" but these true friends, I can literally count them on one hand. I understand theirs a balance in life, but the reason I'm grinding so hard isn't for the money, it's for the things that money can bring into my life. Experiences, awesome people, new places, travel, new skill sets, self-development ect. I'm trying to build a system that can bring all of this awesome into my life and I'm willing to sacrifice a year, two years, however long it takes to build this system.
I honestly can say that it is IMPORTANT that you weed out your friends that only bring negativity into your life and start hanging out with like-minded individuals if you want to grow as a business person.
For example I had to "break up" with my best friend for AGES when I decided to go fulltime last year. We were always talking about starting our own business and stuff, but he never actually ACTED towards it and weighed me down, we worked together at a job that he got me, and when I said I was quitting to go fulltime into affiliate marketing he started giving me all this negative feedback, and saying it wouldn't work, it's too risky, that I wouldn't have money to pay my bills...I HAD to let go if I wanted to succeed man.
He's probably playing GTA V when i'm here busting out landers & banners right now at 2 in the morning lol
I reached out for people that were into business and investing and now one of the guys that i'm tightest with to this day is the leader of our local PUA Lair and he's into real estate, and started promoting local parties. Very positive and fun guy, we're even planning on doing some investing together soon, we discuss business ideas whenever we hang out and overall, brings a positive vibe into my life, we're competing to see who can make more money and it's a healthy friendship!
"Don't end your friendships, money can't buy that blah blah" Well...you can always get new friends that are probably much cooler than your friends you have now AND that will HELP YOU IN LIFE. I made so many GREAT FUCKING AWESOME friends from being involved in affiliate marketing, I do not miss my "old friends" at all man.
Just my 2 pennies.
I still hang around with the mindless drug/sport/girl talking dudes I've always hanged out with, just don't let their lack of ambition attribute to you, but some of the times I've had with them I would cherish for ever. All about the moderation!
"One of the hardest hurdles to get past is getting comfortable spending money. It hurts really fucking bad throwing your hard earned money at things that aren’t going to guarantee a return".
This rings so true. It was one of the hardest things for me when starting out. I always thought to myself if I had $50,000 of capital it would be so easy to make more money, because you have that buffer that soothes your mind, and funds to try some unorthodox ideas. When you do have that fear you play it safe, which keeps you in the same thought process of the affiliate herd. This typically means small margins. As soon as you step out of that process you will see bigger losses, but more importantly bigger gains.
Most people have the fear of spending money when starting out, but trust me it is worth battling through it. You'll get to a point where you look at money different. You will look at it as a tool. Just another part in the campaign creation process. Or even credit to play your favorite game "make money online" .
bravo clubdrock. i trully believe that every success comes hard darn lots of hard work. who says money is easily earned?
your story is a big motivation to many, especially newbies like myself who are just about to get our feet wet.
Congratulations on your success so far, keep it up!
Originally Posted by scito
I love your thinking.. I totally get what you say about deleting your old friends who don't have the same goals in life.. they are a HUGE drain on my life and depress the fuck out of me.. I'd like to live in the woods just to focus on AM and get to the top. When you realize what your passion in life is, nothing else should stand in the way.
^ thats something I get caught up in, still young but I can really start to see what people mean
Jim Rohn — 'You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.'
Originally Posted by maynzie
What's the use of money when you have no one true to share the joy with? Don't let their lack of ambition attribute to you, but always remain true to these friends!
^ Moderation is definitely the key, thats why I'm so grateful for this community and skype, if I didn't get 1/3 of my day spent talking with people who want more out of life, my motivation would of dried up a long time ago.
This is the badass think i read, am new here and am reading this forum for past two days-since i joined, am 21 and my father is a bit bitching that am not eating sitting all day long in front of pc, my gf says i dont have time etc..my mind is like who cares? I dont want to have life waking up at 5am going to work by bus filled with people with faces like "oh well next fucking day at my boring job, and god knows what the boss gonna tell me cause i didnt hit the yesterdays company goal"
Fuck being average and do big things !
Thats my motivation even when i have debts but am gonna keep grinding and pushing cause i know am gonna hit it.
Thanks for this super forum and posts like this !
Originally Posted by 1vansyl
One thing that can help you tell if you have a genuine friend is to observe how genuine your friend is in other aspects of their life.
- Is your friend a genuine friend to their other friends, or do they use or manipulate people for their own purposes? Do they talk poorly about their other friends to you when those friends are not around?
- Do they reveal to you secrets or personal information of people who they consider friends? If you tell them something in confidence, can you expect them to keep it that way?
- Is your friend genuine in trivial everyday situations, as well as monumental occasions, or do they put on a vastly different face depending on who they are with? And, do you feel like you can be your genuine self around them, or do you become a vastly different person when your friend is near?
- How does your friend behave with people with much more talent, success, money, social status than them? How does your friend behave with people with much less talent, success, money, social status than them? How do they treat people they may have only met on message boards and social media?
If they're your friend strictly because they like you as a person and enjoy your company, then they're genuine. They will want to look out for your best interests and try to help you. If you're a genuine friend, you do the same in return.
If they're your friend because they want to use something you have, such as money, resources, connections, etc. then they are not genuine. They're just using you to get what they want, and when they have it, or when you no longer have it, then you'll mean nothing to them.
Do all these signals tell you that your friend is a good, genuine person? If so, then odds are that you have a good, genuine friend.
And when it comes to genuine friends, it is definitely not quantity that matters.
adapted from http://www.quora.com/How-do-you-tell...end-is-genuine
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