I've been involved in online marketing for longer than I can remember.  I've had success and I've failed. I've made friends and the occasional enemy. I've learned HTML, Wordpress, SEO, Email marketing, Banner Design, Php code and Sales Funnels.

I've worked with Adsense, eBay, Amazon, Clickbank, JV ZOO and Countless affiliate programs.

I've tried every paid and free traffic source out there from Traffic Exchanges right through to Google Adwords (now there's a way to burn money).

I've launched my own products with various degrees of success.

For better or worse Internet marketing is now part of my DNA - I have the scars to prove it.

I can honestly say that my experience has taught me one thing - the money is not in the list but in the relationship that can be built with subscribers.   It's taken me way too long to really understand that.

The sooner you truly "get that" the sooner you can build a real business in any affiliate niche.

So why should you bother following me?

It's a fair question and one that usually sees people display screenshots of Paypal accounts which seem to me to be as genuine as three dollar bills.  I'd like to think we're both a little better than that.

The only way I can answer your question is to tell you my story and it isn't the prettiest.or all that glorious.  It is real.

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MY STORY

I started in on line marketing way back in the dim dark noughties.  I was frustrated with my career as a bank manager and was looking for a way out.  Internet marketing seemed the logical solution.

So I got involved in a big way.

I had no idea what I was getting in to.

Predictably, I crashed and burned...badly.  I lost thousands before I knew what had happened.  I refused to give up.  Gradually, I learned what had to be done and after about a year I started to generate regular profits.  Maybe a couple of hundred a month no more than that..but I was starting to feel good about myself and this whole Internet marketing business.

Then everything went to hell in a handcart.

The company that I had invested so much faith, work and money in just disappeared.  One day it was there - the next day it was gone.  The owners were nowhere to be found and I literally had nothing to show for the time, money and emotion that I had poured into  what I mistakenly thought of as "my business"

It hurt and I was close to giving it all away. 

By chance I had come across a marketing masterpiece called the Traffic Jam by Graham Hamer.  The book focussed on giving people what they wanted - traffic and income and the strategy was really simple - rebrand it and give it away in exchange for an email address.  It had multiple traffic generating and income producing links.

I took a couple of days to rebrand it and really didn't appreciate how good it was and everything it was saying for at least a couple of months after I started to promote it.  The book generated a consistent string of subscribers and commissions for me.  Just writing that makes me smile.

The book went through 4 revisions and  formed a core part of my business right up until 2010 when I decided that the real money was in SEO and decided to follow that path.

It was a lot harder than I expected and terribly competitive.  By the time I drifted back to what I knew Graham had retired and sold his businesses and I found it hard to pick up the pieces.  I wrote a re-brandable book based on the traffic jam, but it was not as good, nor as user friendly and it did OK without setting the world on fire.  I sold it and moved on, testing, tracking and looking for the spark that Graham Hamer had given me.

Scott Douglas TE Profits filled the void for a while using a simple variation of Hamer's strategy and honing in on Traffic Exchanges.  It worked, but by the time I got involved TE Profits was at saturation point and one of its key elements (the Traffic Wave autoresponder) was being undermined by team strategies.  I still like TE Profits and love what Scott did, but at the time it wasn't enough for me.

I drifted in to the solo advertising market. The money was good, but the relentless subscriber churn, the lack of engagement and the tarnishing of my brand left me hugely dissatisfied.

By 2013 a combination of unresolved personal issues and deep dissatisfaction with what my online business had become left me with severe depression.

For eighteen months I struggled to behave like a human being and my Internet business all but dissolved...except it didn't.

What I discovered was that many of the products and services that I had recommended over the years continued to pay me regular commissions.  They were the products that I had endorsed and recommended with sincerity and honesty before I let my business fall apart.

I'm still receiving commissions today from products I recommended four or five years ago.

As I began to recover, I found that I could use the skills that I had learned to good effect in the freelance market.  For a while this was enough, but inevitably my mind returned to online marketing and specifically building relationships with subscribers via email marketing.
 

I watched for a while and found that the industry was becoming dirtier and a little nastier.   Rather than be dismayed by this, as I had been several years ago, I saw this as an opportunity.  The market needs honesty and sincerity.  I intend to give it.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM ME

One of the things that amuses me now about Internet Marketing is the fake it till you make it mentality that pervades the industry.
 

It drives me nuts and I used to actually pick out products and gurus and write scathing reviews.  That's counter productive.  I'm too old, cynical and flawed to waste my energy lecturing anybody about the snake oil salesman out there.  Everybody has to learn the hard lessons through experience.

All I can do is share my real experiences.

I intend to do it with  some humour (which may or may not amuse you), reference current events and only recommend products and services that I've either used myself or have had experience with the product owner previously.

The best teacher is example.

If you follow me, hopefully, you will see someone role modelling how to be an affiliate marketer/ online business owner.

I can't promise you that you will like me or agree with me, I can promise to give you the benefits of my experiences.

You can't buy that.