It’s not easy starting over, I know from first hand experience.
Depending on how long you’ve been following me or when you started…. you may know my story.
I’ll give you the short version very quickly…
I worked three jobs during the 90’s until I started making money with affiliate marketing. I found success in the late 90’s, early 2k’s and eventually, one by one, quit all of my jobs.
At that time, people were not in tune to how I was making money, something that hasn’t really changed to this day. I was living in a nice apartment and had a brand new car, all with no job, or so they thought.
Fast forward to 15 or so years later and I had one blow after another. I had no money and no marketable skills to actually go get a job. Could you imagine being of a certain age and trying to get
a minimum wage job after doing so well for so many years? It was awful and just ate away at my very soul. I was mentally crippled with fear for my future. I was depressed for a long time. I knew I had to
do something, but sometimes a confused, overwhelmed mind does nothing.
I was finding moderate success with Amazon until I received a letter saying that I was violating trademarks of EVERYTHING I was selling…. So all of my listings were removed until I could figure it out. Once again, I was paralyzed with fear about my future. To top it off, I was under the constant worry that I was going to be evicted from my apartment. That day eventually came and it was NOT a pleasant experience. My last source of income had dried up, Amazon AND I was being evicted, along with my sister and 10 year old nephew around Christmas. To say I felt like a failure in life was an understatement.
I had been banned from eBay and Google for breaking the rules and now Amazon was drying up….. I had no marketable skills….. I was in a very bad way. To say I was hopeless is not even getting close to how I felt.
So my sister, nephew and I got evicted around Christmas…. I had zero dollars coming in because of the Amazon situation…. The Universe led us to a house, nicer than what we had, for only a hundred dollars more. The energy in the house was somethng I never experienced. I still can’t get over it. It just radiated positive energy… The sun burst through the windows… it was very bright and airy… I really think things like that effect you… the energy of the place where you spend most of your time…
Anyway, my sister and former partner pretty much paid
my portion of the rent. I scrambled for things to sell, looked for ways to make money online…. It was awful. Feeling desperate, hopeless and useless is not a good way to feel. I was in full panic mode. I felt like I was a burden to everyone in my life.
In about three months after we had been evicted, things started to slowly improve. I got my eBay account back, they sent an email one day and that was it! So I started to find hope again.
I started selling on eBay once again…. I was selling the inventory that I was once selling on Amazon….. But I was in a sticky situation that I just could not seem to get out of…. I was paying rent in a warehouse (bc I had big plans) but not enough money to keep buying inventory. I could no longer ship my items to FBA (I used the warehouse to process an send to Amazon) so I was just hanging there…. not really able to move forward….
Ebay puts selling limits on your account, so although I had a lot I was able to sell from Amazon, the money trickled in, but not fast enough to keep up with my bills.
This is already getting too long (I realize that) so to make a LONG story short…… I have my eBay, Amazon and Google Adsense account back and I’m back in the game as far as those go….. There are several CPA networks I use, but that’s for another time.
I had these accounts but the money still wasn’t coming in fast enough to keep up with what I owed on a monthly basis…. So what did I do?? I had to GET A JOB. Yes, I reached a point of being at ROCK BOTTOM, even with all the positive developments and so I went to Indeed.com…
I was feeling hopeless, overwhelmed and to the point of ending my life…. Yes, it was really that bad. I submitted my info (not even a resume) to four different places… one of them being a Political Survey Call Center…. I went to sleep (after lots of sleeping pills), not expecting to hear
anything back. I was hoping I would not even wake up in the morning, I really didn’t.
I’m not going to go over all the details, but the call center actually called me back and I’m now working for them. The pay is a lot more than I would otherwise get and I’m able to work from home. The only problem is, work is VERY slow because of the corona virus….So I’m not getting very many hours right now…. It was good in the beginning. My boss (feels odd to say that) told me though, when it’s over, that we can work as much as we want to…. which I did when I first started. I can’t begin to tell you how gratifying it was to see my first paycheck in my account… For the first time in a VERY long time, I traded my time in for money… I have worked so many hours, for so many days, weeks and years to get very little in return…. To actually get a paycheck for my time was a blessing.
Even though it’s slow with them right now, I’m applying to other call centers so I can keep the money coming in….. It takes money to just LIVE, let alone to run a business. At least now I feel hope, that’s something we MUST have, right?
I’m not out of the woods yet….. not even close… I still have several obstacles to get over and problems to overcome…. But at least I have some things to work with now. I’m going to use my knowledge and my income to do what I did in the beginning… Trade in my Time for dollars until I can
get my business to a point I don’t have to anymore…. I wish I had done it sooner, that’s a big regret.
But NOW, I am MUCH more careful on what I spend my money on….. no fancy trips…. no conspicious spending here….. I’m not going through this once more… It’s a road I NEVER want to be on again…. When you get to a certain age and have to start over, it effects your ego… it’s rough…
You don’t want to be in a situation where you are dependent on others too…. and that’s what I’ve been going through. It’s not empowering….
So anyway, while I trade my time in for dollars…. I’m working on my business….
Below are traffic stats from a niche blog I built this past Sept… Shown is the traffic so far this year… It had some fb traction due to groups, pages…. Search engine traffic started trickling in about December…
It’s a reminder to diversify and keep building… This blog ranks for keywords I wasn’t even trying to rank for… It earns revenue with Adsense. If you want to learn how to build your publishing business with blogs, etc, then listen to my interview with Nick James, to see how he did it… digipire.com/nickjames You can also follow my journey where I trade my time in for dollars @ journalmyhustle.com…. The website is still in development….. so be sure to keep tracking back.
Until then, keep following my journey…. you just never know where life will lead you, do you?
