What's the biggest risk you took with ecom?
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eliquid
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Isn't ecom,
but biggest risk I took was taking the last $1300 to my name back in 2008, right after I was laid off from my job, on my birthday, and buying ads as an affiliate to 2 products no one had really heard about before from 2 networks that weren't well known at the time, on a billing cycle no one had ever seen either.
If I were to pick one that HAD to be ecom...
I would say spending 17+ hour days/weekends/holidays for months on end with an ecom client that was stagnate when they came to me in an industry I absolutely knew nothing about. Took me about 9 months, but I got them from a flat 3-year consistent mid 8-figure annual revenue flatline... to almost breaking (like a few digits under ) 9-figures in that 9 months time. That company today, is doing 4x annual revenues now from when they first came to me 3 years ago.
I can consistently find where 70-75% of the revenue/results is all from Paid Ads and my work when I dig into the Analytics of it.
Hundreds of people's jobs would have been impacted possibly if this didn't do well.
but biggest risk I took was taking the last $1300 to my name back in 2008, right after I was laid off from my job, on my birthday, and buying ads as an affiliate to 2 products no one had really heard about before from 2 networks that weren't well known at the time, on a billing cycle no one had ever seen either.
If I were to pick one that HAD to be ecom...
I would say spending 17+ hour days/weekends/holidays for months on end with an ecom client that was stagnate when they came to me in an industry I absolutely knew nothing about. Took me about 9 months, but I got them from a flat 3-year consistent mid 8-figure annual revenue flatline... to almost breaking (like a few digits under ) 9-figures in that 9 months time. That company today, is doing 4x annual revenues now from when they first came to me 3 years ago.
I can consistently find where 70-75% of the revenue/results is all from Paid Ads and my work when I dig into the Analytics of it.
Hundreds of people's jobs would have been impacted possibly if this didn't do well.
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How much did you make from both risks? For the latter one, do you still get any money from that?
Well, biggest risk is my company I'm starting. Lost $60,000 so far and we're doing the paperwork for getting a license. First try didn't work. We're on try 3 right now. Has been 3 years since I started. I still believe it will pay off.
eliquid
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Each on it's own was over 7-figures
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That sounds like a tough but valuable experience! I can relate to taking big risks for e-commerce. For me, it was investing in ads without really knowing what I was doing at first. I spent a lot on strategies that didn’t pay off, but it taught me a lot about targeting and conversion.
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Spent around $100K buying the copyright to stock video / music.
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Wait, are you saying you got paid over a million dollars from each of those things?
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as for this thread, I now believe that you shouldn't take risks if it risks wipping you out. You should only take risks, where if you lose, you don't lose much. I think the question of this thread comes from a bad place.
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I guess it depends on your risk profile.
Part of the issue with the internet is that you only tend to hear from the people that the adage of "go big or go home" worked for.
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Well, the threshold for posting on the Internet is quite low. Idiots are able to do it.
The lessons is called "Head I win, tails, I don't lose much" and its from The Intelliget Investor. Risking it all to win big quickly causes people to have a high chance of losing everything. Whereas someone who takes calculated investments, where they don't lose it all if it goes bad but have great upsides, can invest for a long time and use the effect of compounding to their advantage.
The best investors are not people who got amazing, lottery like returns all at once; but ones that had mediocre returns year after year and let compounding work in their favor. The majority of Warren Buffet's wealth was acquired after he turned 65. Its like 64 billion of his money was after 65. The first 1 billion was before 65.
As someone who is 35, I feel pretty good about my investment timespan now
eliquid
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Yes -
The one from 2008, the affiliate stuff... I pretty much helped spearhead the whole negative billing option and 2-product fake blog/fake new article craze that launched thousands of affiliate careers.
While I didn't invent negative billing, I did invent the LP many still use today - back in 2008. If you see a fake blog ( flog ) or a fake new article ( farticle ) LP.. you can thank me as the inventor of it. Especially if it has 2 products on it.
No one was pushing negative billing offers though and I was actually one of the first as we were the AOR for the product that basically started that in the affiliate spaces. That with also me also being the first person to run such LPs ( 2 product fake blogs and fake new articles ).. I pretty much dominated FB, Google, Yahoo, CPV networks, Plenty Of Fish, and tons of 3rd party networks that ran I/O's.
Everyone copied it though and saturated it.. leading to the Illinois District Attorney leading the way years later to shut down negative billing and offers like that.
Does it sound crazy I would Net at least a million from that? I know people that did $400m from that one tactic alone.
The FTC stepped in and said they stopped over a Billion dollars of this. A billion dollars of something I helped start.
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On the ecom client one -
I took these people from doing mid 8-figures 3 years in a row ( same number in the 8-figs every year ) to hitting a few digits shy of 9 figs in just 9 months. Why wouldn't I get at least a million of that? Especially when I can prove 70-75% of that growth was directly from me and paid ads I ran?
As of today, they are now doing 4x those 8-fig numbers in annual revenues and have 3 new additional brands launched from that initial success.
Shouldn't be crazy that I would get a piece of that pie, right?
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Ok so you made a million scaling affiliate offers, what did you do with the money?
Earning money is one mentality; keeping the money and not squandering it is another; and teaching your family how to keep the wealth and not lose all the value you worked for in your life is yet another.
Very interested about this.
eliquid
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The 1st million?
I bought a modest house in semi rural Kentucky ( 30 minutes from a major city ) on some land. We're talking 3 bedrooms, 3 baths and 3200 sq feet on a few acres - Not some mcMansion with 6+ beds and 6 baths that's 10k sq ft on a beach somewhere. I also bought it in 2008 when prices were dropping on homes like a brick everywhere. Its in a HOA, so it's not farm, but it's not city either. Got a great deal all around.
I bought a Honda SUV and a Toyota SUV - not lambos or Jaguars ( although I really wanted a pristine 98 white ferrari testarossa, but decided against it since it couldn't tow a boat ).
Paid off some debt, went on a few vacations ( we're talking Disney World here, chicago, nyc, and Florida beaches - not Fiji in overwater huts or lavish stays at the Four Seasons in Monaco ).
Bought a used $10k pontoon boat for fishing and going out on the lakes.
And the rest I put back for a rainy day in various places.
- 529 plans
- Solo 401ks
- Pension
- Physical Silver at $11-$15, then sold over the years when it hit $25-$40.
^^ Even sold some last year at $30-ish
- testing new business ideas like direct mail and building my own ad network
- started a supplement brand
That was the 1st million.
I still made more as an affiliate for years later, but that's how that 1st went.
Then I started consulting for brands like Alibaba, TeamViewer, John Deere, MalwareBytes, Virgin Group, The PGA, and others with the free time I had now because affiliate marketing isn't an 8 hour a day job and you're always the low end of the totem pole as an affiliate... made even more money doing this than as an affiliate.
And then I also started on SERPWoo and ran it for like 10 years I think, right @CCarter ? Wickedfire says 2014, but I was doing it for 2 years before it went up on Wickedfire as a Alpha product and we closed down in 2022.
The only time I wasted any money, was I thought family and friends would honestly pay back what I lent them when they:
1. Needed down payment money for a car
2. Needed money for Christmas
3. Needed money to make their rent
4. Needed money to bail out of jail
etc
But that was a very low amount of money to begin with, and for sure a waste. This doesn't happen any more!
Money wasn't squandered or blown away.
There are people where I live that I know only make $80k annually and they have a bigger house, more expensive car, and go on fancier vacations than me... with 10 hobbies that all drain their wallet and they have no savings at all ( because they came to me for their rent payment ).
I'm for sure not the person you would ever think has more than $100 in my savings account.
I make new money if I need something, I never touch old money for things I need or want.
So if I need $45k for something, I find a way to make $45k and pay for it. I don't reach into my bank account and "just pull it out" - something I learned from Rich Dad, Poor Dad.