Leow-John.COM-The Internet Marketing And Personal Blog of John Leow!

I started off in March 2007 officially with the aim to break into making money online. It was a very messy journey at first, but i’ve charted out the focus i want to take. Through this almost 3 months, i’m quite glad that i’ve managed to at least make my first $71.7 through lots of hard work and research!

My personal goal when i started off was to start creating a steady stream of side cash to supplement my NS(National Service) income when i am in the army in July. However,though it looks like i’ve earned so little these three months, I constantly believe that making money online is not a short term thing that makes you rich overnight, but that you’ll need to have a long-term mindset. Through it all, the small seed profit of $71.71 i believe it will begin to snowball, as i learn more and keep persevering.

Here are the chapters of my progress since March:

Mid March 2007:A New Beginning

The interest to make money online seriously was stirred up in me when I had just graduated from my polytechnic, and i was worried about my university fees after a talk with my dad about him having to strive so hard to support 2 families, my grandma, my auntie, and me. So, i remembered the potential of the Internet as a source of income besides working for people,that if i really learnt to do it and was successful, it would remove a heavy financial burden for my dad. So, I did some research, and i decided to do the ProfitLance course, which I purchased online for $67.

I learnt alot about the basics of internet marketing through that course, and that was where my mindset towards making money online began to change, to a long term view. Till today, i’m still a member, and i occasionally return for information and tips. It was high quality, and kudos to Mr Micheal Andrews, the founder, who really has a passion to help other people succeed online!

I also tasted the most failure and setbacks here, when i made the costly mistake of setting up 4 MFA(Made for Adsense) blogs, and tried to promote them for the sake of getting a quick buck. At first, i got my friends to help click the ads, but then i realise that my blog wasn’t having much visitors, and that i was earning money the black hat way, in addition to costing me tons of wasted hours maintaining those blogs.

Lesson Learnt: Count the cost before you do anything!Don’t start what you can’t finish..

End March-Mid April 2007:Anticpating the future

I had not really made any money online yet, but i planned to build a steady and fixed base of income sources before venturing out to do affiliate marketing. During this period, my two main income sources were my day job as a tele-receptionist(I was fortunate to get this job!), and my referral networking programs like Hits4pay.com and Slashmysearch. I decided in the beginning that i would earn some income first from them, and then invest some of the earnings back into tools and ebooks that i could learn from.

I begun my day job on April 2 at my tele-receptionist company, working odds shifts from 1-10pm daily and paid me $7/hour.(That’s why i was so fortunate to get the job through a friend!) . In the meantime, i worked on promoting my referral programs Slashmysearch and Hits4pay aggressively when i had the free time.

Lesson Learnt:If you do not plan your financial resources, you plan to fail!

Mid-April-End-April 2007 :Strategizing And Executing Plans

This was also where i started poring over books about making money through network marketing at Times bookstore. One useful tip i learnt about network marketing was the power of the old fashioned business card. Being inspired by the credibility a business card builds for me, i went to apply and create 300 business cards which i designed myself for the Hits4pay program.

I also designed posters, and pasted them at bustop classified boards, and hid my business cards secretly between bookshelves and books at libraries, bookstores like Times! Could you imagine the results i got from that?

I had 10 referrals from that secret tactic in just 2 weeks! in the meantime, i posted and participated alot in the Slashmysearch forum, and by the month end, i had about 60 referrals in my Hits4pay downline from people clicking on my signature in the forum,business cards,friends,and psoting on Friendster bulletins. I even had a telephone call from an anonymous guy in Singapore who saw my business card somewhere and was keen to join Hits4pay. (he later became my downline!). The power of the business card haha.

Ok, i bought some 25 referrals too from Buyrefs.com for about $7.95, and was pleasantly pleased with the fast delivery of referrals. However, only about 30% of my purchased referrals were active, but still they contributed to my earnings significantly.

However, it was my most strenous month, as i worked from 1-10pm daily, and had to juggle between work and focussing on my referral programs. I frequently slept at 3 am daily just to post in forums, and to do research about ways to increase my referral downlines. But i feel it has paid off well, because now i have a consistent base of downlines who earn me about $1 weekly.

Lesson learnt: Hype in a new thing will drive us to our keyboards for awhile, but passion will drive us to success.

End April- Mid May: The Trickle Begins To Pour In

Starting beginning of May, I started seeing trickles of income start pouring in from my efforts. However, my greatest achievement so far was the closing of an affiliate sale on Buyrefs.com as i earned USD$27.94 on May 18!

Here are my earnings report so far(In Sing Dollars):

Income Source $

Buyrefs.com 42.18

VistaPrint 3.02

SlashMysearch 6.04

Hits4pay 5.33

Bloggerwave 15.1

Total: 71.7

Through it all, I’m now game set for earning greater profits online! My future plans now include investing $180 in Keyword Elite, a high quality keyword research tool to dominate my Google Adwords campaign, and to make $100 in affiliate sales by month end.. Yup, so stay tuned for more!

Lesson Learnt: Never underestimate the day of small beginnings!