Welcome!

Hey there, thanks for visiting my Blog. Well I guess I should begin with a little about myself.

If you hadn’t guessed it already my name is Alex, 17 year old guy from the UK… Well Norfolk to be precise which is a bit rubbish but its home ey? I’ve been online for roughly two and a bit years now and for at least 2 of those years I’ve attempted to set up some form of business in one way or another. My first experience with making money online was, if I remember correctly Affiliate Marketing, where I made one whole sale! great huh? not really… but it was enough for me. Knowing that it was possible really fueled the fire and I’ve been hooked on Internet Marketing ever since. I don’t know what it is, the internet is such a great source of information and I feel it gives truly everyone an opportunity to set up a successful business regardless of age or background…and thats the beauty of it, the truth of it is everyone has something to offer.

My first business selling a digital product was a bit of a shambles sadly, I purchased the website at £70 or around that price and the usual domain etc. The website was called the health kit, the plan was to sell an ebook on natural diets. I had the guy from the Kodak adverts put together a voice over for me which cost around £30 (bargain! honestly it sounded great) and uploaded the website. Within the first week traffic was poor, I’d only just turned 16 at the time and really didn’t know how to market effectively… popular free methods of today such as article marketing and viral were unknown to me. Google Adwords were my main source of bringing in customers, but with a tiny budget going up against the big dogs just wasn’t worth thinking about. So, my beloved website even though full of my blood, sweat and tears took a trip to eBay. The 7 day listing had ended and I was shocked! It actually made a profit…selling for £210!! I couldn’t stop smiling for the rest of that day, at last I’d actually made a bit of money worth talking about…!

What would I do with this new capital? much needed at that, I took a gamble and decided to reinvest in some much needed knowledge….The first ebook I ever purchased was the Rich Jerk and I grew to find out what a Jerk he was! however a great read from a marketing point of view. It pretty much covered all I needed to know at the time, mainly Google Adwords for me.

After waking up one morning in the summer of ‘06 I received an email from the customer who had purchased the website from me, being my first big’ish sale online I was a little hesitant to open the email. I was thinking the worst (like usual), is something up? I REALLY hope she doesn’t want a refund? but I decided just to open it up and find out… It was completely the opposite in fact! she was very happy with the website, thank God! but needed help. Help which I was more than happy to give, I worked with her for about half a month, trying to share as much knowledge I had picked up from eBooks and online so that she could attempt to run the business successfully but it turned out she just didn’t have a clue. At the time I took on my first summer job, a Hog Roasting Caterer, to get ready for my annual trip to Spain. Time was of short supply and I really couldn’t dedicate any more time to helping, so she offered to pay me… It was great! my main job was to take care of all the advertising, from Adwords to Email copy and I was getting paid to do it!! I would do Keyword research each day and report back to her once the Ad’s were in place and that was the way things were for some time.

All in all it lasted around 2 and a half months , I’d returned from my holiday at this point and had just received my results from school (we’ll talk about them another time). She felt it just wasn’t making her enough money, and she also ran another business on the side that couldn’t be put in jeopardy. For some time due to my income being slashed I was a bit short on cash, until I went for the Interview…

I decided for now school just wasn’t for me, I don’t know why, I had great friends and the option of going on to A Levels was open but the life just wasn’t what was wanted at the time. So.. the dreaded Interview and how it came about, as luck would have it after going to meet with one of my careers advisor’s in my local town, ITV in Norwich needed a position filled. So I got on my suit after organizing the meeting and hopped on the train to possibly the best city in the UK (my sad opinion), Norwich. I was well and truly overwhelmed, but the guys were great and very welcoming! and I walked out an employee…

I’d never in a million years pictured myself working for Anglia News, I grew up watching it on TV with Kevin Piper and Clare Weller being my local hero’s (if you’re not from East Anglia you probably won’t know what the hell I’m on about) but didn’t think I’d be working in News… especially not at 16. Well as you can Imagine the Job involved doing things that weren’t the most glamorous BUT who cares? My official title was Broadcast Assistant, I had my own desk, computer and get this about 4 TV’s within watching distance (not a good idea especially if its got sky sports one, Oz Aerobics ;D the guys reading this will know what I’m on about). Life was great, traveling to work everyday and commuting, one of my early childhood dreams which I grew to despise. I still work there to this day in fact on and off but Its taught me a lot about myself, others and the working environment which I thank the guys there for giving me the opportunity.

So, I had my Job. This was bringing in more than enough money (especially when my great mum didn’t charge too much for rent) to start investing in my next venture. I took my time searching different websites and forums for opportunities to go into a business 50/50, my thoughts were that it might be worth my while buying into something already making money and the expertise of an individual a bit more experienced than myself. I think it was around Christmas time when I found that individual. It was going to cost me £500 to buy a 50% stake in a successful dating website with over 800 members. I mean this was a lot of money to me but after looking over the sales sheets of the past 2 years of it being established it seemed like a worthwhile investment. I went ahead, I wouldn’t say I’m rubbish with money but this was quite a calculated risk. The website proved to be successful, everyday it would be a case of advertising, checking members profiles and customer support. I made my money back eventually but it really wasn’t that worth while in the end, I’m not afraid of hard work but it was very time consuming and pretty boring in fact. January 07′ I decided to get rid, again making a bit of profit but I really just wanted to refocus my attention on my Job.

For about 2 months I just had a rest from Internet Marketing and joined possibly one of the best groups on the planet… the Warrior Forum

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I’ve been a member for around a year now, if you’re serious about Internet Marketing I suggest you join. I mean only recently have I begun posting but theres seriously a lot of information to learn.

I found myself so engrossed In what was going on here that I chose to just focus on learning the ins and outs of IM and the art of making money online. I had also stopped working at ITV full time in August and after arriving back of my 4 week surfing holiday such an amazing sport, started a new Marketing course.

Me attempting to surf>>>

As far as my story goes I want to stop there, one reason being I actually believe it or not don’t enjoy talking about myself non stop and the other I’d like to share what I’ve learned in posts to come. The reason I set up this blog is really to help anyone, literally anyone who’s starting up online or in business in general through articles and what little advice I can give! The other reason was to help me, Its time I reminded myself of all the key things I’ve been learning and structuring that process through articles I’m guessing is the best way. I hope to provide some Interesting pieces over the coming months, varying from SEO and Video Marketing to articles on motivation. With the new world online that is Web 2.0 things are changing rapidly, my other aim is to keep you guys in the know about the latest trends and news on the Internet. These changes are huge, I mean if I knew what I do now back when I had a business such as the Health kit, I would be driving traffic to it left, right and centre. So… please any of you with questions please ask! I love speaking with like minded people and helping in any way I can.

All the best and thanks again for reading this incredibly long post

Cheers

Alex