At age 25, I was broke, had no formal education and I was working as a baker for a well know french bakery in Montreal. I worked late night shift at $12/h and I saw no end to what I was doing and I had no alternatives in sight.
All those years from 17 to 25 yrs, travelling, partying and living the full blown hippie lifestyle only had 1 thing at the end of the rainbow for me...a life of quiet desperation with absolutely no plans for the future.
Catching the Opportunity Market Bug for the First Time
You've probably came across those money making opportunity...most likely from a pop-over or pop-under ad whenever you try to stream a movie for free on putlocker. For some odd reason(I call it Providence), I decided to actually watch one of them.
The concept was interesting. Everybody blogged under the same domain so that everyone benefit from the alexa and google page rank of each other and the rest of the blog was designed with banners ads that lead to a fairly high converting sales video and upsell process going from $25/mo to a $3500 one time offer...all of it with 100% commission every 2 sales...plus some multilevel commissions. The products included the blogging platform with the sales process, some very high level marketing courses and daily audio tapes.
In any other circumstance, I wouldn't have bought from a sales video from a complete stranger but something told me that I had to buy into this. What other option did I have?
Preparing my escape hatch
I needed a way to free up a whole lot of time, get steady cashflow while I dedicated 100% of my time to this new venture. Fortunately, I had nosebleed almost daily from the flour. So I went ahead and got a paper from doctor to stop working because of "flour allergies".
Now on employment insurance, I had lots of time to find a better job and dedicate 100% of my time to writing blogposts and learn internet marketing.
Blogging Daily is for Wussies
The formula was simple: blog daily, tell others, get money.
So, I set out to blog twice daily, in my second language, every day for a full year. Re-invest my earnings into more info products and learn how to run ads on Facebook and other places.
Even though I didn't make a dime for a whole month of blogging, I kept on plowing forward. Lo and behold, my first commission came in. 60 articles of at least 1000 words got me a whopping $25/mo commission!!!
I was ecstatic. (don't laugh)
It was the first time in my life that I've made money for myself and not as an employee. I was by then working as a flight attendant, which was the perfect job since I worked only about 80/h a month and guaranteed minimum paycheck.
Fast Forward a Year Later...
After a year of this circus, I looked back at where I was at. I spent every dollars I've earned to either information products or advertising budget.
Why I am grateful about this
For some odd reason, I am born with the "look at the bright side of things" gene. I was still broke, true. I didn't quit being an employee, true. But I've acquired skills that can't be learned in school...which are now my bread and butter.
Blogging daily allowed me to become quite a good copywriter. I've learned how to write in a way to sell something...would it be an idea, a product or a service. Believe it or not, copywriting is one of the highest paid job in the world.
The infoproducts gave me a solid understanding of email marketing, facebook advertising, sales conversions, website design, psychology, etc. While I was blogging I started my own website, so I learned about wordpress, html and css too.
I attribute a large part of my success on steemit to what I've learned during that year.
A year and a half ago, me and my friend started a marketing agency for the resort industry on the west coast of vancouver island in Canada. I've been working from home or anywhere with an internet connection, I take a bath or go shoot some arrows with my bow whenever I feel like I need a break. When the time will be right, I'll be able to be home when my kids grow up.
I wouldn't have this situation if it wasn't from the epic amount of work and failures I've compressed in that year and the one that followed.
So keep your head up if you've just got on steemit and didn't make as much money as you thought you would. You have such a sweet deal compared to any other platform...it's not even funny.
Also, Remember that a lot of your success depends on your ability to stick to something and to invest in your skills. An investment in yourself is what will always pay the most dividends in the long run.