About Me ...
I was a victim of the mortgage industry.
I was a Wholesale Account Executive in the mortgage industry for the last seven years, with five years prior to that as a successful loan originator (before the subprime “boom”). My success allowed me to rebuild my life after a divorce. More importantly, it allowed me to give my children the life they deserved without needing to depend on anyone else. It also gave me back the second home at the beach that I lost along with the divorce.
ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END. It all began changing in late 2005 when my brother (and only living immediate family) died from an aggressive brain tumor at the age of 44. I would get my children ready for school in the morning, but couldn’t find my own motivation. I was going through the motions, trying to force myself through the pain in order to be able to go out and see my clients. There were times I arrived at someone’s office and broke into a cold sweat and was afraid to get out of my car. Afraid of what? I didn’t know – my clients had become my friends over the years. We laughed and joked each time I saw them, so there was nothing to fear!! Yet, fear I did … and fear turned to panic … and panic turned to an inability to function.
Fortunately I had made a lot of money over the years and had the savings and investments available to pay my bills when my commissions started to plummet. Those same savings carried me for over two years. Fortunately (perhaps unfortunately?) for me, the mortgage industry had started to change in early 2006. As my “numbers” dropped, so did those of all of my co-workers. This simply meant that my inability to get out of bed to do my job was masked by the ongoing tumbling of a troubled industry. I didn’t know what to do and didn’t feel like I was committed or driven enough at that moment to do anything new – so I did nothing. Well, that’s not exactly true – I did get to watch my six figure savings disappear and live in constant fear of running out of money. Even that wasn’t enough to get me out of the funk that began in 2005. I was finally laid off from my job in November, 2007. By this time I was down to perhaps six months reserves. Worse than that, the real estate market in Massachusetts was taking a serious nose dive. Both of my homes had dropped in value, eliminating the choices of refinancing them. I couldn’t even sell either of them without losing six figures earlier down payments and rehab costs! I was screwed.
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And now ...
A victim no more!
Over the years I read a lot of stories about people making pant loads of money in affiliate marketing. I foolishly believed that they were making money hard-selling ineffective products with bogus claims of losing "20 lbs in 7 days," or "stay hard all night long" male enhancement products or black market Viagra.
I started doing my own research the early part of 2007. I found over 140,000 companies who advertise on the internet using the assistance of affiliate marketer relationships. As I started to think about it, I realized that it was purely common sense. As an Account Executive, I was paid a commission on every loan that I brought my company to close. Affiliate marketing is a very similar concept. I bring the sale to the Retailer via a click ad that contains a unique affiliate number buried into the HTML on my website. If the customer makes a purchase, I get credit for that purchase. It’s really that simple. Some retailers pay as much as 60% commissions!
Research affiliate marketing opportunities! There are LOTS out there. Clothing, Health and Beauty, Business Services, Computers/Software, Financial Services (credit cards, loans), Household items, Online services, Sports and Recreation. The list is ENDLESS!! Choose a few or choose as many as you can find. There is certainly power in numbers!
Build a website. It can start off very small, there’s LOTS of room to grow! The affiliate companies you sign with give you everything you need to advertise on their behalf. You can start with a cheesy site like I did – and then expand it as you start making money.
Look for companies that act as Networks for many affiliate companies. This makes it easy to track your earnings!
I host with GoDaddy!
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