How I lost a lot and made it back in 6 months.... New Here.

by 77 replies
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Hi WarriorForum!

I've finally decided to join this forum. My name is Tom. I said to myself the best way to introduce a new face around here would be to bring an awesome story with it. So, here it goes...

I've had an Internet business for about 8 years now. It has changed over the years. Since 2008 my business has mainly been around 30 high volume sites that bring in most of their traffic from SEO. It was all affiliate based income, which was nice because I had no overhead. The business was doing well, earning well into six figures each year, and because of the little overhead I only needed 1 extra person to work for me.

Long story short... Panda/Penguin crushed my business. I mean crushed.
I lost 80% of my earnings over a 3 month span from April - June. I was devastated and frustrated. Almost even thought about getting a J.O.B.

Over the summer I began to diversify my traffic more. Mainly using paid traffic, things like PPV, PPC, and Media Buying. I studied successful campaigns and copied them to the T, put my own twists on them, and came out on top. I moved away from an affiliate based income, and started to build my own products that I could control.

This was the best move I have ever made.

Now with my new paid traffic skills and my own products I'm bringing in 100% of that commission. I'm happy to say that 6 months after my devastating destruction that Google caused me, I finally replaced that income that I worked so hard for. Moral of my story, don't give up, don't put all your eggs in one basket, and keep your head up throughout the trouble times.

Anyways.

I'm Tom, and I'm a Trafficolic.
#main internet marketing discussion forum #$250k #back #lost #made #months
  • Banned
    Cool story, I thought it was going to be a special offer. What kind of products were you selling and SEO software were you using? Thanks
    • [1] reply
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  • [DELETED]
  • Banned
    best advice anyone can give...........
  • Thats good news. Some people out there are just made to make money. And thats what you did, so good job.
    • [1] reply
    • Good job bouncing back!

      That's the way to do it!
  • So Tom, looks like Friedrich Nietzsche was right: "What does not kill you DOES make you stronger!"
    Never give up, as tomorrow is another day...
    Great story!
  • A lot of people who got crushed in 2012 by Google updates gave up altogether, it's good to see you kept at it and now have a healthy, diverse, business. Congrats.
  • Tom,

    That is an awesome story and very inspiring.

    I always tell people here in the forum to never put all their eggs into one basket.

    I would recommend to you since you created your own product, to set up an affiliate program for it so that you can get a lot of people over the next few years promoting it for you.

    Thanks for sharing such a great story.
  • [DELETED]
  • HI Tom,

    Thanks for sharing. Well done for not giving up. It's always darkest before the light and new success arrives.
    • [1] reply
    • Good story, keep up the good work. seems like the best way to make money online is to never give up. And never make google your jv partner LL
  • Is that correct ... its only taken you 6 months to create a $250k income?

    Thats pretty good going, I doubt many could report such quick progress.
    • [1] reply
    • The idea is he had 30 affiliate funnels that relied on SEO. They used to earn him $250K.

      When his traffic tanked he finally started paying for traffic. He was able to take the paid traffic and send it to the same funnels with a profit of $250K. I assume that's what he was saying.

      So he didn't exactly build the income in six months. He replaced the traffic sources over six months.
      • [1] reply
  • Great story and welcome to the Warrior Forum. Very inspirational to see that you were able to bounce back like that with such a vengeance. Which paid traffic method brought you the most success, PPV, PPC or Media Buying? Do you think you would ever go back to selling affiliate products?
  • Hey Everyone,

    Thanks for the comments. For Paid Traffic, I have found that PPC provides the most conversions, but not necessarily the best ROI. Media Buying can get you really cheap quality traffic, and if you funnel that traffic correctly you can do wonders. PPV traffic is alright, it's alot of testing, but you can get really creative with it sometimes.
    • [3] replies
    • Very inspiring and motivating story ... let's roll in 2013 !
    • SMB, great story. I read the subject and clicked through expecting some kind of coaching come-on. Thanks for making me wrong...

      Read the OP again. It took eight years to create everything. The six months was to replace the traffic the Panda ate and bounce back. Still quite an accomplishment, but not quite so Get Rich Quick...
    • Any tips on media buying? Do you use any specific platforms to source your media buys?
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Amazing.... Good job on keeping your head together, and coming out back on top!

    Another moral here: so many get caught up on using just SEO for their traffic. That's a HUGE mistake. Even if you're 100% legit in your link building and content, there's absolutely no garauntess your rankings will not get crushed from algo updates/negative SEO/what ever.

    Knowing how to drive traffic from many different sources is absolutely critical to long term success.

    Cheers Tom
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Never give up is great advice.
  • Ton this is really an interesting story, good to know that you recover as many didn't.
    Thanks for sharing.
  • Ton this is really an interesting story, good to know that you recover as many didn't.
    Thanks for sharing.
  • Great story well done! It's refreshing to see that not all these thread title's lead to "now click here to see just how I did it" :p
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      It won't be long now.
  • what is your best recommended paid or media buying traffic?
  • great story!! but just asking, if you lost 80% of your earning, you still have those 20%, is that pretty much ?, and for your past golden years, did you did you not investing anything ? where did the money go ?
  • Congrats on the job well done! Prediction: 2 weeks later we see a WSO. Lol.

    Keep up the great work!
  • Awesome story and great job getting away from google!
  • well done tom for working to get it all back

    SEO is certainly a risky game, that's why I got out of it over a year ago

    Having your own products to sell is way more profitable that's for sure

    Paul
  • First of all, nice and inspiring story. There are more than one lessons for internet marketers to derive from your story:

    1. Don't give up. Keep trying.
    2. Every adversity also brings about with it potential for something new and much bigger.
    3. Don't put all eggs in one basket. Diversify.
    4. Google is not a reliable traffic source, specially with all the games it is playing from the past 1 year.
    5. Paid traffic and product creation are very good avenues which affiliates should look into. You can make a huge amount of money with these. If you are not trying them, you are missing out on very good long-term business models.
  • Well done Tom and good luck for the future.
  • That's an awesome come back. Hope you will release a WSO soon
  • In a way, if there was no panda or penguin, you would never have tried paid traffic sources and the awesomeness of it. Challenges makes us stronger. !

    Good for you.

    And good for us since we need not go through it again.

    But some people are still attracted to "free" traffic from SEO and they pay the price with YEARS of their time
  • Very inspring and appreciate your success story that keep many of us motivated!
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • Banned
    Welcome. Inspiring story. Glad to hear there's life after Google and you were able to rebound.
  • Hi everyone,
    Nice story and inspiration!

    The traffic is king and don't relay on google!

    All the best and see you on top
    E
  • Congratulations on your (regained) success. I'd also like to know about the media buying if you don't mind sharing. Have never done any of that myself.
  • Welcome to WF. Thanks for sharing your story. Was good one.
  • I think you're incredibly lucky or full of crap. You just made some products and bought some ads now your back on top? I doubt you're telling the truth. I would say 99% of the people on here do this as a side gig and almost no one makes a living.

    I've been on here and other forums for years, made countless info products, programs, unique sites etc and purchased 1000's worth of traffic and made squat. I highly doubt you made anything or very little.

    I think he should show proof or someone should delete this thread!
    • [2] replies
    • Then It might be time for a career change.

      While i appreciate your ignorance, I'm here to learn from others, not here to prove myself to random people on the Internet. The close people to me in my life can see my success and experience it.
    • It's fine, let him elaborate on the story.

      We can learn from others' stories, even if it is learning how to pick a liar/shiller
  • One of the best lessons from your story is that:

    1. Do not put your eggs only in one basket
    2. The SEO traffic is not reliable for long term success
    3. Learn ppc, ppv and media buying techniques selling your own products.

    Diversification is the key point here. Your story is very helpful and illustrative.
  • Newbies who are just making their way to IM (like me), they will get a lot of inspiration after reading this story. One thing is a fact, there is nothing as "Easy Money".
  • That's an awesome bounce back! It's awesome how you recovered from such a devastating situation.

    Great inspiration.

    Jake
  • Interesting story.

    So how did you replace that income (250k) with products? That's a huge amount for someone who does products.

    Can you elaborate a bit more on the product part? What sort of products are we talking about? Were they related to your area of expertise (if you had any)? It's quite an amazing story, in all honesty, because that's the highest amount I've heard for someone doing products, and I'm talking of amounts I know are verified as I've heard other IMers claim higher figures that are made-up/lies; 250k in 6 months is big.

    I believe I talk on behalf of everyone when I say that we're thrilled to know a bit more on the product part and give us some motivation

    Thanks for any further sharing of your story.
  • I also got hit my same updates but as hard as you. I'm also looking into trying Media Buying but I have no idea where to start, do you recommend any course for that?
  • Products:

    Niche Software (mainly), Memberships, and tangible items (holiday season).

    Where to start?

    Media Buying is all about experience, it's about losing money to gain data and then using that data to optimize your campaigns. I lose about $1,000 on every new project just to gain some audience data to ensure I'm about to spend big dollars on the right site placements.

    $250k is not a lot of money. Maybe we come from different neck of the woods, but in the world of bigger business this is not a lot of money.
    • [3] replies
    • Perhaps $250k is not a lot of money is the fantasy world of IM forums where everyone claims to be a millionaire without backing up their figures. In the real world (verified claims), it is a lot of money considering you have basically no overheads, and considering it was made in 6 months and in your particular case; a case which you haven't really described despite the questions asked.

      So, after getting crushed by Google's algorithm, how did you suddenly adapt and make those products? Niche software? Are you a programmer or did you outsource it? I'm interested in how you adapted to this; we hear here a lot of rag-to-riches stories, which is wy people tend to remain skeptic to stories like yours.

      I, for one, would love to hear more on how you adapted
      • [1] reply

    • You opening post started well, now you just seem to be digging yourself a bigger and bigger hole...
    • Banned
      Do you contradict your self with these sentence? ... or maybe, I didn't understand something...

      And just one more comment:
      For me, to lose something, means to have it first.
      When you don't earn as much as you planned, I'm not sure you can name it as loss.

      Otherwise, great and inspiring story. Thanks for sharing it.
      • [1] reply
  • Good job. We must never give up. Diversification is a real asset.
    Interesting story
    Jesisco
  • Congrats Tom, I'm glad you got back up on your feet
  • Hey Tom,
    You story is very motivational.
    We all know we shouldn't put all the eggs in the same basket, but we are still doing it.
    I think the most difficult part for you was to figure out how to get a product supplier. Was it?
  • Brilliant, JUST Brilliant Tom!

    Like the bit about you *almost* had to get a J.O.B!

    Even better that you are now making B.A.N.K once more

    Similar thing happened to myself when I invested *heavy* in domain names in 85, forgot to renew some of them... not all! THEN bam... worth nothing, them 10 years later, most were changing hands at $500k + EACH!

    Got back into it, re-renewed the ones that I nearly lost, have not looked back since then...

    So can be done and can be done more than ONCE!
  • Wow, great job SMB, and welcome to warrior forum!

    Nope, you cannot rely on Google. I have a love/hate relationship with Google. I love google chrome for my browser and I cannot stop using google for search, maps, and images. But they banned me from adsense very shortly after I signed up and I hate the fact that they're trying to take over the world (lol). I don't trust anything that tries to control everything and become a super power.

    However, my sites never saw a drop from panda or penguin and I think it's because I don't try so hard to cheat the system. If you are actually writing good content, I think Google can tell, so the big google updates will not hit your site like it does for all the super SEO'd websites/pages.

    And I agree with many others here that you cannot keep all your eggs in one basket. Having many traffic sources and many income streams is the best way to go because then if one fails, or even just drops for a period of time, it will affect you very little.
  • Great story Tom!
    I fully agree that 250k is not that much for a business.

    Maybe you could realize a course on media buying? Sounds like you know a lot about it
  • [DELETED]
  • Nice comeback.

    Approximately what were your expenses last year? and is that 250k projected earnings?
  • Hi Tom, thanks for joining mate, and congratulations on the recovery of your business.

    .
  • Thanks for sharing this. It just goes to show that you can't give up just change your angle and start again! As for creating your own products. This is diffinitely the thing that has changed my business. People on my list buy my products more because they know me!
  • what is your best recommended paid or media buying traffic?
  • What a great post, i really like it, that why is we need to look for the benefit every situation may carries, because every adversity carries the seed of equivalent or grater advantage, only if the person involves try to check the situation with open mind.
  • Great job, Tom!

    I love inspirational stores like this. I agree that relying solely on SEO will be detrimental. I've moved on from free to paid traffic long ago and the results have been nothing short of outstanding.
  • Congratulations Tom! I always love to hear about comeback stories from other entrepreneurs. It gives others and myself extra motivation to succeed!
  • Glad you bounced back dude. Congrat. on your new system.
  • Very Inspiring, when I am going to have hard times in the future I will go back and read this post
  • [DELETED]
  • wow...it's a good story. I know, it's not easy to re-start everything. The most important thing here is keep being positive. Love your story thanks for sharing
  • Great comeback. i might be wrong here, but are you the former
    member LMC? haven't seen him posting around as much after panda. he also told us
    he was focusing on ppc.
  • I'll try to spend some time writing some information. Right now it's busy during the week so I can't spend as much time on here as I would like.

    Sam, no not me
    • [1] reply
    • Why did you edit your thread title to remove the $250k figure and change it to "a lot"?
  • i Like your story... (Y)
    and i hope this idea can change our life...

  • Because it seemed that people had a problem with my title.
    I think I may lurk around a bit more to feel out the culture of this IM forum.
    • [1] reply
  • Am I alone on OP's questionable intent here?



    one Authority - pretty obvious isn't it?

    two Liking - look at the thanks in his original post, and there is no real content there for others besides the obvious that paid advertising works better than free optimization.
    step three scarcity

    three Scarcity - I'm busy guys, Ill get back to your questions later, in the mean time, keep this thread going by asking questions and liking my first post.




    I feel like I am reading an example unfolding from a supplement to Robert Caldini's book.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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