- Joined
- Aug 25, 2016
- Messages
- 78
Rep Bank
$1,505
$1,505
User Power: 505%
Two days ago I "cashed out" and sold one of my Amazon affiliate site for $20k, and I'm moving on.
This post is long, so there's a TL;DR section at the end.
If you're new to the forums, I recommend scrolling down to the "Amazing Resources" section and reading through the threads I've listed.
The Quick Backstory
I created the site 2 years ago to fill a real need in the marketplace: there were no real reviews of certain educational products used by many high-school students. The sites I found during my search promoted everything on Amazon no matter how bad it was.
I talked to my teachers and got to work.
The site started out slowly, but then I experienced my first $100, $500, and $1,000 month.
The site is seasonal, and based on my data this spring was going to result in my highest income yet at nearly $4,000/month.
...At least until Amazon halved the commissions for my category and Google decided that my site deserved a 20% traffic cut.
Ouch.
I got front row seats to the play titled "Complete lack of control- here's why your business isn't fastlane and can collapse on itself at any moment." (Highly recommend that you guys don't go see it. The acting is terrible.)
Anyway, I was planning on selling off the site at $40,000 at a 25x multiple, but decided to sell off now because of the uncertainty and because I somehow stumbled upon the Millionaire FastLane on my phone and reread it again.
The Realization
I realized that the affiliate business I'm in isn't sustainable, and that I've slowly been moving away from providing value to a more cookie-cutter approach with a general non-value based review site.
That ain't good!
I needed to do something that would actually help people so I recorded website testing videos on reddit for free.
Then I got to edumacating myself.
The Education and Mindset Shift
No matter how much MJ makes fun of the Four Hour Work week and the "two dad guy," they were the ones who started me on this path of entrepreneurship.
I've read a ton of books since then, but the Millionaire FastLane and Unscripted are definitely up there as the most real and true entrepreneurial books out there.
I got a fastlane subscription and read through all the INSIDERS gold threads and digested numerous gold/notable threads on the outside. I bought copywriting books after reading through Sinister's thread and after realizing that this is a skill I've been loosely practicing for the past couple years. I've struggled through AndrewNC's threads, took in Andy Black's videos, and kept trying to improve myself day in and day out.
The Result
I feel better than I ever felt and I'm currently seeing opportunities everywhere. Most of them aren't ones I'm going to pursue right now, but it's crazy how many business opportunities went by unnoticed every day until I let myself notice them.
I've improved my relationship with my parents and girlfriend using the advice on this forum, but most of it boils down to this:
My Plan of Action
I have heaps of WordPress experience, and I've created a couple websites for a local business before, so that's what I'm going to do.
I live in a different area now, ripe with opportunities for better websites and I'm excited to provide some real value to my community.
This won't be a fastlane business to start out (and potentially not ever), but my ultimate goal right now is to help out business owners and see if they have any other problems that are going unsolved and then solve those problems and potentially turn them into a fastlane business. I'll be "vehicle blind," and "idea hungry" which means I won't limit myself to only looking for SAAS-based ideas, and focus on "problem-based" language.
My "UVPs" for the website-creation service will be:
Thank You
Thank you to @Andy Black for the amazing videos and the unreal amount of value that you bring to this forum day in and day out.
Thank you @SinisterLex for your videos and posts. They are more helpful than you realize. You provide both inspiration and as close as you can come to step-by-step advice without literally opening my mouth and spoon-feeding me like a momma bird. Thanks mate
I'm halfway through @IceCreamKid's secrets thread, and the amount of mindset shifting information and pure LOVE in there is unreal. (ICK. Words can't describe how helpful you've been in my journey. Thank you man...)
Thank you @AndrewNC for showing me my limiting beliefs and forcing me to push through the pain with your most recent post. Your laziness post in the "frustrated you're not feeling any success" thread especially resonated with me, and I want you to know that your threads and videos have truly improved my life.
Thank you @Fox for documenting your website building progress and leaving not even breadcrumbs, but pretty much a map with coordinates for people like me to follow.
And an obvious thank you to @MJ DeMarco for creating this forum, writing the books, and showing me what's possible.
If any of you are ever near Ann Arbor, MI, let me know and I have to take you guys out to a bar, coffee, restaurant, whatever you're feeling like at the moment. It's the least I can do to thank you for the incredible value you've provided on this forum. (Or if you're in New Orleans this summer before August).
TL;DR
Sold an Amazon affiliate site for $20k. Now going to create WordPress sites for local biz while looking for pains business owners have. Thankful to a lot of people.
This post is long, so there's a TL;DR section at the end.
If you're new to the forums, I recommend scrolling down to the "Amazing Resources" section and reading through the threads I've listed.
The Quick Backstory
I created the site 2 years ago to fill a real need in the marketplace: there were no real reviews of certain educational products used by many high-school students. The sites I found during my search promoted everything on Amazon no matter how bad it was.
I talked to my teachers and got to work.
The site started out slowly, but then I experienced my first $100, $500, and $1,000 month.
The site is seasonal, and based on my data this spring was going to result in my highest income yet at nearly $4,000/month.
...At least until Amazon halved the commissions for my category and Google decided that my site deserved a 20% traffic cut.
Ouch.
I got front row seats to the play titled "Complete lack of control- here's why your business isn't fastlane and can collapse on itself at any moment." (Highly recommend that you guys don't go see it. The acting is terrible.)
Anyway, I was planning on selling off the site at $40,000 at a 25x multiple, but decided to sell off now because of the uncertainty and because I somehow stumbled upon the Millionaire FastLane on my phone and reread it again.
The Realization
I realized that the affiliate business I'm in isn't sustainable, and that I've slowly been moving away from providing value to a more cookie-cutter approach with a general non-value based review site.
That ain't good!
I needed to do something that would actually help people so I recorded website testing videos on reddit for free.
Then I got to edumacating myself.
The Education and Mindset Shift
No matter how much MJ makes fun of the Four Hour Work week and the "two dad guy," they were the ones who started me on this path of entrepreneurship.
I've read a ton of books since then, but the Millionaire FastLane and Unscripted are definitely up there as the most real and true entrepreneurial books out there.
I got a fastlane subscription and read through all the INSIDERS gold threads and digested numerous gold/notable threads on the outside. I bought copywriting books after reading through Sinister's thread and after realizing that this is a skill I've been loosely practicing for the past couple years. I've struggled through AndrewNC's threads, took in Andy Black's videos, and kept trying to improve myself day in and day out.
The Result
I feel better than I ever felt and I'm currently seeing opportunities everywhere. Most of them aren't ones I'm going to pursue right now, but it's crazy how many business opportunities went by unnoticed every day until I let myself notice them.
I've improved my relationship with my parents and girlfriend using the advice on this forum, but most of it boils down to this:
- Be unselfish.
- Love the people around you.
- Truly listen when others talk.
- And understand that no one is perfect and you also have numerous mental blocks, limiting beliefs, and other baggage like every other human being out there.
My Plan of Action
I have heaps of WordPress experience, and I've created a couple websites for a local business before, so that's what I'm going to do.
I live in a different area now, ripe with opportunities for better websites and I'm excited to provide some real value to my community.
This won't be a fastlane business to start out (and potentially not ever), but my ultimate goal right now is to help out business owners and see if they have any other problems that are going unsolved and then solve those problems and potentially turn them into a fastlane business. I'll be "vehicle blind," and "idea hungry" which means I won't limit myself to only looking for SAAS-based ideas, and focus on "problem-based" language.
My "UVPs" for the website-creation service will be:
- Quick and great customer service. Love your customers and they'll love you. I'm available nearly 24/7 except for my sleep time and gym time, but I can make changes even then if needed.
- No more "nerdy tech guy" jargon unless they want that. I'll help them create a better looking website that gets more sales without them having to worry about "migrating hosting" or "changing nameservers" or anything like that. From my limited experience (and Fox's thread) it's better to say "I will move your website to make it faster. Here's what I need from you" rather than waste people's time with long descriptions they don't care about.
- The business owner can easily change the website later without having to hire a tech guy if they need to. I'm assuming most people would rather hire someone, but these assumptions need to be tested.
- Downloaded a new theme (Divi) I will use to create websites for my clients. It's the most powerful theme I've every worked with, and so far it can do everything that I would ever need, but we'll see if that's true for my clients. If not, I have other themes I've worked with before that should work.
- Set up my "I will create websites for you" website to learn the basics of the theme.
- Read through half of Fox's thread on his website coding business.
- Found the head of a local Meetup group to message a day before their next meetup.
- Create 2 amazing free websites. If the Meetup group doesn't work, I'll go through the local dentistry and industry websites and see if any of them need improvement. (I just had my wisdom teeth out last week, and my dentist's site definitely needs improvement.)
- See if the amazing value I provide to my free customers will result in referrals and if they know anyone who needs a website done.
- Transition to charging for websites. Provide incredibly value every time and make my customers happy.
- Keep creating websites and look for reoccurring business problems that need to be solved.
- Fastlane my way to financial freedom. Eventually. It's a process, not an event.
Thank You
Thank you to @Andy Black for the amazing videos and the unreal amount of value that you bring to this forum day in and day out.
Thank you @SinisterLex for your videos and posts. They are more helpful than you realize. You provide both inspiration and as close as you can come to step-by-step advice without literally opening my mouth and spoon-feeding me like a momma bird. Thanks mate
I'm halfway through @IceCreamKid's secrets thread, and the amount of mindset shifting information and pure LOVE in there is unreal. (ICK. Words can't describe how helpful you've been in my journey. Thank you man...)
Thank you @AndrewNC for showing me my limiting beliefs and forcing me to push through the pain with your most recent post. Your laziness post in the "frustrated you're not feeling any success" thread especially resonated with me, and I want you to know that your threads and videos have truly improved my life.
Thank you @Fox for documenting your website building progress and leaving not even breadcrumbs, but pretty much a map with coordinates for people like me to follow.
And an obvious thank you to @MJ DeMarco for creating this forum, writing the books, and showing me what's possible.
If any of you are ever near Ann Arbor, MI, let me know and I have to take you guys out to a bar, coffee, restaurant, whatever you're feeling like at the moment. It's the least I can do to thank you for the incredible value you've provided on this forum. (Or if you're in New Orleans this summer before August).
TL;DR
Sold an Amazon affiliate site for $20k. Now going to create WordPress sites for local biz while looking for pains business owners have. Thankful to a lot of people.
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Membership Required: Upgrade to Expose Nearly 1,000,000 Posts
Ready to Unleash the Millionaire Entrepreneur in You?
Become a member of the Fastlane Forum, the private community founded by best-selling author and multi-millionaire entrepreneur MJ DeMarco. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has poured his heart and soul into the Fastlane Forum, helping entrepreneurs reclaim their time, win their financial freedom, and live their best life.
With more than 39,000 posts packed with insights, strategies, and advice, you’re not just a member—you’re stepping into MJ’s inner-circle, a place where you’ll never be left alone.
Become a member and gain immediate access to...
- Active Community: Ever join a community only to find it DEAD? Not at Fastlane! As you can see from our home page, life-changing content is posted dozens of times daily.
- Exclusive Insights: Direct access to MJ DeMarco’s daily contributions and wisdom.
- Powerful Networking Opportunities: Connect with a diverse group of successful entrepreneurs who can offer mentorship, collaboration, and opportunities.
- Proven Strategies: Learn from the best in the business, with actionable advice and strategies that can accelerate your success.
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with the most..."
Who are you surrounding yourself with? Surround yourself with millionaire success. Join Fastlane today!
Join Today
