Move from affiliate-reliant launching to buying my own traffic...

So I left the Air Force in 2016 and dove head first into trying to launch an internet marketing business and live the laptop lifestyle. This was scary, considering I had 4 kids at the time (soon to be 6 of them) and my wife does not work outside the home.

The first several months were rough and scary, literally living off my tax returns.

But, Deo Gratias, we pulled it off.

Within a couple months I was making enough to pay the bills (barely) and put food on the table.

Within 6 months I had launched my own product (a $23K launch) and built a buyers list.

Within just over 12 months we had finally hit "six figure status".

Now, exactly 2 years later, we're a "multi-six-figure business" and have done over a quarter of a million in sales.

All that "sounds" good and objectively it is, I guess. We're grateful to God and proud of these little milestones.

But can I be honest?

It sucks.

Well, parts of it suck, at least.

The constant reliance on affiliates/JVs, the constant having to come up with another product to create and launch, the constant need to promote this or that guy's product so that maybe he'll reciprocate and promote our next one, the dips in income between launches (not a huge deal as our buyer list is big enough now and our email marketing skills are good enough that we can live off daily affiliate marketing broadcasts).

Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of great things about it. Being in total control of my day-to-day life. Sleeping in and spontaneously deciding and announcing to the wife and kids that today will be a "zoo day" or "such and such state park day".

But it's still an uncomfortable and inconsistent hustle.

So...


HERE'S MY WARRIOR PATH: Become self-sufficient for traffic and sales.

Frank Kern calls it "putting your big boy/girl pants on".

The rest of us call it "buying our own traffic".

So far all we've done in paid ads is retargeting during/after a couple launches. It went well, but cold traffic is a whole 'nother beast.


Specific Goal and Time Frame:


90 days from now, I want to have at least two evergreen funnels up and running with Facebook and/or Google ads sending traffic into them and AT LEAST coming close to breaking even (I know I can turn a profit in the long run via email marketing).


Main Obstacles:


Time: We're so busy with product creation and launches right now. Will need to find a way to squeeze this in.

Capital: Right this second capital is actually really good, better than ever, but we've got a lot of expenses building up for these launches and I'll need to balance everything so we have a good ad spend budget for this paid traffic endeavor.


Anyone with significant successful experience in this area, feel free to sound off. Would love to hear your input.

Will check in soon.

Steven Alvey