FAILURE STORY: NerdSmasher

[NerdSmasher]

Well, I may not have a success story just yet, like AroundTheWorld does; but I can certainly share my failures! Haha


For my 15th birthday, I went to a local Scottrade and opened an account with them; and that was my birthday gift. An account with $500 from my parents, and $150 from my savings. Within a month and a half, the account was at $1,800. Sadly, however, two months later, it was closer to $300. Somehow, I couldn't bring myself to sell what I had, and keep even the $300, so now that account sits somewhere around $0.14.


Last summer, I started a business advertising different affiliate programs from websites such as Clickbank, and Commission Junction. In all of a month and a half or so, I made about $4,000 and spent about $500. Not bad for a 16 year old, eh?
Then, Google banned my adwords account, and I was completely unable to continue doing what I was doing. Sadly short lived, but I still made a good deal of money with almost no work involved =)


Around September of that year, I took most of the money that I earned from my affiliate business, and decided I would try my hand at options. Having a year or so experience with the stock market, I felt confident that I at least wouldn't lose much money... but options were a fascinatingly different game. I originally put $1,500 in my account; but that quickly fell to $500. So, I put in another $1,000. Lost all but about $100 from that experience.


And, as it stands, I'm sitting on about $400 total in my life. Almost back at zero, lol... hopefully I don't go that far down, though :nonod:

But, all of these experiences have given me a wonderful education in the financial world. And, I'm not even 18 years old yet! So, I challenge you to go out and try! You may fail... clearly, I have at times. But, you'll learn. And, besides, the best way to get better is through practice.

 

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[AroundTheWorld]

Thank you for sharing!!

A golden rule of investing . . . . cut your losses QUICK!

 

[cmartin371]

Thank you for sharing!!

A golden rule of investing . . . . cut your losses QUICK!

Thanks for sharing! ATW hit the nail on the head with the above quote. Anyone can trade or invest money. It's all in how you manage the cashola that really counts.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Thanks for sharing and some speed+

Mind telling us why Google banned you? What specifically did you do?

 

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[AroundTheWorld]

Failure is not only about understanding that we all stumble, but it is also about...

LEARNING THE LESSONS! So, Nerdsmasher, what did you learn from these experiences? How will you do things differently as you move foreward?

 

[mtnman]

Thanks for sharing! Sounds like you need to find out why you got the g-slap and get rolling with some smarter marketing again, gain more knowledge about papers, and get rolling again. So what if you lose more money, you're two steps ahead, you just don't know it.

Some speed for doing!

 

[randallg99]

lol, reminds me of some of my first "ventures"

glad you can look at it with humor as quickly as you have.... it took me a long time to put my emotions aside when efforts came up short.

rep+

 

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[NerdSmasher]

Lol, well, Google banned me for what I can only assume to be multiple reasons, one of which probably being finding out that I was under the age of 18.

However, I must say that my major problem was that the main thing I was advertising as an affiliate was music downloading sites. Now, apparently this was against Google's ToS, which I didn't know, but a list of things you CAN'T advertise with Adwords is listed here: https://adwords.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=guidelines.cs&topic=9271&subtopic=9279
The problem, though, was how everything happened. You see, I was running a few campaigns, and many different ads with these different campaigns, originally. So, I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention to any one campaign, or ad, for that matter. But, at some point I got an email saying that one or more of my ads had been turned off. The reason being a problem with the copyright. I looked at my ad, and didn't believe that it had a problem with anything that was copyrighted, so I just put it back up; and sent an email back to adwords support saying that they needn't disapprove my ad, because it is fine.

So, the ad stayed up, and I thought everything was well. Eventually, however, my ad got taken down again. So, I put it up, again, and tried changing a few things... but the general message was the same; cheap music downloads. Eventually, however, it got taken down... again. I kept sending emails to the support team, but they never did anything. And, after this happened 4 or 5 times, they simply suspended my account. I called in, and they basically told me that Google reserved the right to terminate any ads or accounts at any time, and wouldn't help me.

Moral of that story is; if you're having a problem with any ads on Adwords, I recommend CALLING customer support... as they do nothing with your emails, but send back an automated email saying that they'll look into it. And, if your ads get taken down too many times, you may just get banned. So be careful.


I know it's all about learning the lessons, and I certainly believe I have. I learned that it's better to actually talk to people, as compared to sending emails (thanks to Google). And, I've learned that I need to manage my money better while investing in the stock market... in fact, that's almost the entire point of the stock market. I still haven't found an exact formula or strategy that works for me in that area, though. But, that's what I'm working on now, and have been for almost 3 years... it's just been slow going with such limited capital. But, I'm sure it'll all be worth it =)

Also, thanks for all the rep and support guys!

 

[NerdSmasher]

lol, reminds me of some of my first "ventures"

glad you can look at it with humor as quickly as you have.... it took me a long time to put my emotions aside when efforts came up short.

rep+

Well, I look at everything in life with some humor... it's part of my optimism
Don't get me wrong, I'm upset that I lost money. But, I know I'll get it back. And, I'm young, so I can afford to lose money now. Life's all about having fun; and I'm enjoying myself thoroughly, whether I am looking at the present, or thinking about the future. They're both quite bright for me, in my opinion. And that's what really matters :coolgleamA:

 

[czach41]

Not to hijack this thread by any means, however, I feel this is a relevant spot to post my brief failures so far. My first failure occurred about two years ago. My friend from high school called me up, and apparently, his roommate met a businessman with the new "hot" product. It was going to make a lot of money! So I hastily invested a decent sum of money into it. As the weeks went by, months passed, onto over a year and a half, I was resigned to the truth: scammed! The guy went down hard about 5 months ago.. it was in the news and stuff. Am I mad about it? Nope. Bitter? Nope. Once I learned that money is something that can be created, my focus has been to create it, not dwell on the loss of it. It was my choice anyway. Getting upset and bitter about choices I made in the past does nothing for my future. So, I learned a few lessons, but this one sticks to my mind the most: I cannot depend upon anybody but MYSELF when it comes to wealth creation. It is up to me, and me only, to make it happen. Sure, there will be people along the way that help, but it comes down to my choices and actions. This was quite a stark realization I had (losing this amount of $ tends to do it to a young man without a lot of it). So, I keep my head up, learn from my mistake, and continue to progress on my path.

 

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