I launched my Internet marketing business while living in a self-designed pole home among gum trees, palms and jacarandas at Tuan, a little fishing village in sub-tropical Queensland, Australia.
Tuan is so small it doesn't have a shop, and until late August, 1997, every time I went on the Internet it cost me a toll call.
Living in a village without a shop didn't stop me from earning a good living on the Internet.
While large dot-coms have soared and crashed, we've turned a hobby into a thriving business which now has one full-time employee and several part-time employees.
My wife, Joanna, and I recently achieved our dream of buying a beachfront apartment at Golden Beach, north of Brisbane. We spend warm, sunny winters in Australia and summers in New Zealand, where we have friends, family and employees.
If you're interested, we have some gorgeous photos further down the page.
Why are we successful when so many companies have failed on the Net?
I don't just write about affiliate programs. I work at this stuff. Nearly all our revenue comes from affiliate commissions.
We do it by concentrating on niche markets and promoting products which interest each target audience. Our PayPerClickSearchEngines.com is an example of that thinking.
I read endlessly. I own a large library of Internet market manuals and keep adding to it. Also, by interviewing super affiliates – those who earn more than the average wage earner – I learn insider tips and techniques which are working today.
I'm also a strong believer in the "Give, then take," philosophy. (That's why we publish OTHER PEOPLE'S money-earning links in the AssociatePrograms.com directory.)
There's a lot more to being successful than that, of course...
A lot of self-styled "experts" are eager to give you advice and, as you've probably realized, much of it is self-serving hype or out-of-date. In my free Associate programs Newsletter I give you tips from the winners – people who are earning good money TODAY – from affiliate programs.
Many Net gurus will advise you to copy other people. I believe it's better to be original. I prefer to think for myself – and encourage you to do the same. That's how AssociatePrograms.com began. I was looking for a directory of Associate programs, couldn't find one, and so I launched my own, in January, 1998.
I began PayPerClickSearchEngines.com in exactly the same way. There wasn't a directory of pay-per-click search engines, and so I started one.
I joined my first associate program way back in 1997, but I still get a thrill each time I receive a "You've achieved a sale" message from an affiliate merchant.
Joanna and I used to be journalists, but the stress of our high-pressure jobs wasn't giving us the quality of life we wanted. After some soul searching, in 1989 we resigned from our well paid jobs and began working part-time.
I set up a hobby web site in 1996 and that's where I began learning about Internet marketing. Two years later, in December, 1998, I quit my part-time job so that I could devote more time to my fast-growing Internet business. Before too long, Joanna joined the business.
We reckon Internet-based businesses are ideal for our style of life. We love being able to walk on the beach while the work we've put into the business carries on making money for us.
Date Added to Directory: 6/5/2002, Current Content: 10/11/2008, Days in Directory: 2320
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