I have been asked a few times lately about my background – what did I do prior to this, how did I get started in PPC to affiliate marketing, how long did it take to be successful, how long before I quit my day job etc. Well here’s the full (long) story.

I got my degree in Biology, and worked in a university research lab for a while. I really liked it, but science is almost always funded by short term grants that expire so its hard to keep a steady job. I had always been interested in computers so I got a job as a typical tech support monkey for an ISP. It only took me a few months to realize phone support was a soul crushing pursuit, so I began studying to get some certifications. Back in the day, you could get a decent tech job with a good interview and a cert. So I studied my butt off, and got my A+, MCP, MCSE, and eventually CCNA. For about 7 year period I worked my way around various companies up the I.T. ladder. First as a systems administrator, doing basically break/fix, server deployment, and back end stuff Windows stuff. Then I moved onto Cisco stuff as a network administrator, working on routers, switches, VPNs, etc. A few companies went out of business, a few I left for different jobs. Fast forward to 2005. I finally had a great paying, easy job with a stable company. They treated employees ok, bonuses every year, raises, 3+ weeks vacation, benefits, everything. Yet for some reason I just couldn’t take it anymore. The corporate politics, endless meetings, being on-call, sitting in a cube all day, working to make someone else money. My life had become Office Space. Then one day it just clicked – I had to get off that treadmill.

I started reading everything I could find about making money on the Internet. First I tried selling stuff on Ebay. I bought Dell laptops using coupon codes and resold them. This actually worked and I was clearing about $100 per laptop. I just couldn’t do enough volume to make it worthwhile and the shipping and inventory aspects sucked! Then came a big revelation. You can make money online without selling a physical product! I wrote a short guide on home networks security and tried selling that from a website – but that didn’t work. I started really reading up on the SEO stuff and started making crude sites with Adsense on them. That never really panned out. I tried building databases of stuff and building sites around it, that didn’t work. I build some directories. Those actually made some pretty good money. But not enough to quit my job. I tried a bunch of other sites than went nowhere for a few more months.

Then one day I read a post in some forum about these things called cost per action networks. I joined Azoogle and Commision junction and since I didn’t have any high traffic site, started reading up on PPC. Within a week I was running my first PPC campaign to a CPA offer. I tested like crazy working probably 18 hours a day between the 2 jobs for several months. Those months were filled with nothing but work, testing offers on CJ and Azoogle, and thinking outside the box. But only 4 months after my very first campaign I was hitting the top 10 list on Azoogle. 6 months later it was time to quit my job. My family, friends and co-workers all though I was completely crazy leaving a good job to work on my “online stuff. But walking out of my bosses office after giving my notice was one of the best feelings ever.

Monetary milestones are common measures of affiliate success. Your first $100 day, first $1k day, first $100,000k month or whatever. Those were all just icing on the cake though. Setting the goal to quit my job and actually doing it is still the biggest and best milestone of my career. Since quitting, things have accelerated and the business has expanded to a point I couldn’t even image the day I resigned from my job, and I have never looked back. Even though I work way more now than when I worked at a job, it is so much more rewarding building your own business.

So the point of all this is if you are that guy in the cubicle reading this, just like I was 3 years ago there is hope. You can make a living online and quit your job. I know it might sound impossible but it’s very true. It won’t happen overnight, and its definitely not going to be easy, but it is possible. It just takes commitment, dedication, a ton of hard work, and a little luck never hurts.

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