My First Online Earnings
Well, hello there!
Today is a major milestone day in my online adventure.
I woke up today to my first direct online earnings.
It’s just 7 weeks since the first session of Dean Holland’s Quick Start Challenge Turbo 2.0 (April 8, 2014), and I just made earnings of $127.66 (on May 30, 2014).
It may not sound like much to others, but for me, my first online earnings are a breakthrough of massive proportions. Quite literally, I didn’t believe this was possible for me until I really did it.
And I did it by cutting myself off from all the distractions, shiny objects, “pushbutton” solutions, do-it-for-you software, bunny trails, wandering butterflies, get-rich-quick schemes, lawn elves, swamp gas, nay-sayers, fast-talkers, and the latest-gimmick merry-go-rounds that I’d been drawn to for more than 10 years.
In short, I owe these first earned-on-the-internet dollars to following just one tested system and forsaking all others.
It all boils down to picking one thing and staying stuck to it like road tar on the bumper of a black Buick in the middle of the hottest day in mid-July. And that made all the difference.
My first four sales all came on the same day using the same advertising medium: solo ads. To use solos, as they’re sometimes called, you pay someone with an email list of potential buyers to send information about your product or program to their list.
Be careful if you start to use solo ads yourself. The industry’s earned a reputation for some pretty unsavory characters. To stay on the safe side, I checked out solo ad vendors on the Warrior Forum; this solo ads testimonial page, Paul DeSousa’s approved solo vendors page; another solo ad testimonial page; a Facebook solo ad market group; this page of vendor ratings by Joshua Zamora; and ‘s solo ads rolodex.
I picked 5 ad vendors and sent them each a small order. Two of them came through with ads and 3 did not even after all that research! A couple of them didn’t even respond to my emails.
All the sales so far are from one of the vendors. I’ve rewarded his performance by placing a larger order regular order with him. The other vendor’s ads generated a lot of responses in the form of people giving their emails to opt in. Part of the system I am using is a continuing series of emails sent to prospects who have opted in. So there’s every reason to remain optimistic that there will be further sales as time goes on.
I’ll certainly be posting updates here as time goes on, so stay in touch.
Now, of course, I plan to raise my sights. Next goal: My first $500 in online earnings!
Awesome Phil! You made it buddy. Your first dollar and then some. Very cool indeed.
Thanks, Scott. Just following in your footsteps, my man.
I watched the video you added Phil. So proud of you and now you get to take your wife on a little vacation. That’s so great! Keep posting about your success and your travels once you start hitting the road. 10 years is a long time and you deserve this!
So very much appreciate all your contributions, Scott. You opinion means a lot to me.
The train has left the station… Enjoy the ride and congrats
Reg, I like your comment about the train leaving the station so much that I allude to it in the video I have added to this post. Notice where I talk about the little engine that could. Really appreciate your comment. Thanks.
Great post and encouragement for people to keep working for that result.
Keep it rolling.
Chris, I really wanted to be encouraging, and from your comment, I gather that I have. Let’s all roll together.
You should be proud of being like that Buick bumper (yes, I’m old enough to remember those heavy metal cars)!
I have not tried solo ads, so the information you have given will point me in the right direction for doing the research.
If my poor memory serves me right, the first time I heard about these kind of ads, were in the Gary Halbert archive letters. Of course, back then, it was about direct mail lists; but the principles still hold true today.
Dawn, I chuckled in recognition at your comment about your memory serving you right. As for solo ads, I just wanted to build some momentum with my business. So I threw caution to the wind and made an investment. From my perspective it worked out okay. I will admit that the first batch gave me a lot of butterflies in my stomach, but now I’m a believer. Of course, it’s essential to select a reputable, reliable source. I look forward to following your success.
Posts like yours here are life-blood to people like me and Averil. It is a scary place our there, and we so want to be successful and feel we are getting somewhere.
Most of us do our utmost level best to get things right in life and to do so without causing pain or suffering to other people. So your success is helping us in our success. Please keep inspiring us!
As always, Richard, thank you for your thoughtful comment.
What I’m finding is that staying with a plan and following it almost “mechanically,” that is, with as little emotion as possible, is what works for me.
Awesome Phil! I am sure it was a through the roof kind of feeling and excitement. Happy for you too. I have yet to do any solo afs. Not sure if I got it right, did you use more than one vendor for the same pitch? In any case, now you can proudly say “I did it and I am continuing to do it bigger, better!” 😀 Look forward to hear more success stories from you. To your Abundance! 😀
You are right on all points, Sandy. It was an out-of-body experience, and I’m highly motivated to go on to bigger and better. I did use several solo ad vendors and I tested both the Partner and the 2-step landing pages. “Partner,” the single-step approach is outperforming 2-step by a 4% margin in my tests.
Thank you for your encouragement, it does mean a lot.
I knew you could. I knew you could.
Thanks, Colleen. It’s nice to have people in your corner
Fabulous Phil! Here is to many more days of consistent income!
By golly, Norene, let’s all get there!
Hi Phil
We just got back from finally meeting Dean at the UK Seminar. He spent 2 days giving of himself entirely to his friends, clients and partners at the Manchester Conference Centre.
He utterly focussed on the job in hand – talking between and after each session to everyone and anybody who wanted his ear. It was an uplifting and rewarding experience for us and we are still buzzing four days later…
We wrote a ‘first impressions’ post on our blog which I would like to share with your subscribers if you don’t mind – not to promote my own site but to give people our personal reaction to meeting Dean Holland – is that OK? http://blog.downlandgraphics.co.uk/?p=1486
By the way – I appreciate your blog very much, as it is something I am aiming for – professional, tight and to-the-point.
Also Happy 65th birthday and congratulations on your 4-figure birthday present. Thanks and well done
Richard, if you’re asking if I would run your post (http://blog.downlandgraphics.co.uk/?p=1486) as a guest piece, the answer is yes, and it would be an honor. (So I hope that’s what you’re asking.)
Saw the photo of Averil and you with Mr. Holland in Manchester and loved Averil’s T-Shirt. (Good marketing, that!)
Thank you for the birthday wishes. I’m really not 65, though. I’ve just celebrated 29 for the 36th time.
Well, Phil – I was just thinking that it would be the next best thing to actually being at the Seminar. As we are so new to this and don’t know much about blogging protocol, I hope I haven’t broken some unwritten rule by asking? By the way. Averil and I were looking at your video blog yesterday. I reckoned you were probably 36, but she thinks you are nearer to 29 anyway!
No rules broken and I’m delighted that you asked if I would publish your post as a guest piece. Great idea, and my next action is to get it done! Thanks for thinking of me.