Do you remember how you made your first-time money online? What was the thing that you sold/promoted? How did you promote it? How did you feel when you first saw that sale? I remember my first sale ever online, which was on May 19, 2008. Been more than one year now. It was a Clickbank product related to downloads. It made me feel like flying over the clouds when I checked my account and noticed that sale. I was so happy that I knew my life would never be the same again. It took about one month for me to reach that level, from zero knowledge on internet marketing to having made a Clickbank commission. Although it has been more than a year now, I am not at the point where I would like to see myself today, due to some offline factors. Nevertheless, I can say that I will not leave this path until I find myself at that point someday. I will try to briefly explain my process from zero to first sale, below. I don’t remember how exactly I got infected by the internet marketing virus back in April 2008, however what I remember is that I found myself searching for some guide on how to make money online. I was like an internet marketing virgin and vulnerable to all the attacks by the sneaky internet marketers at that time. All the promises and fantastic offers were to good to be true, and I believed most of them. Luckily, I was not someone who could be sold easily. After some research, I decided on joining a membership site where I would find the necessary information and tools to start and follow step by step whatever they suggested. Fortunately, I came across two of the great courses of the time. Wealthy Affiliate and Profit Lance. I did a lot of research on both programs, as what features they had, what people said about them. My final decision was the Wealthy Affiliate University, although I believed that Profit Lance would have been a good choice too. Let me open a paragraph here about Wealthy Affiliate, because they deserve it. I stayed as a member for three months and I was totally satisfied with what they offered; great articles, tutorials, videos, software and a priceless forum. I would continue my membership if it was not for some offline reasons. Thanks to WA, that was the first and last time I spent money on a how-to-make-money product. I learned the very basics at Wealthy Affiliate and now I figured out that I do not need any more make money reports since I know almost all the things about it, just what I need is to take more action. Back to the story. In a short time, I learned about affiliate marketing, digital products, promotion strategies and finally Clickbank. I signed up with Clickbank and started to explore it. At one instant, I stumbled upon a forum post by a fellow wealthy affiliate, Travis Sago. I am sure most of you have heard of him before. The post was related to Clickbank and USFreeads. Travis was illustrating in videos how he used USFreeads to promote Clickbank products. I really liked the style of Travis, he was explaining each step so detailed that I followed him immediately. I registered at USFreeads for a premium account. I went to Clickbank Marketplace and grabbed an item -a product related to downloads- without looking for much. Then I created a really simple ad on USFreeads that described the product. I created some more ads about other products that I found in the marketplace. The next day, when I checked my Clickbank account, bingo! I had made a sale from the first ad. I jumped out of the chair and started dancing. Words can not describe your feelings at that moment. I made two more sales like this in the following days. It was just some plain simple ads on USFreeads without any marketing. It was the beginning for me. And I knew that it will not end soon. So, what is the story of your first sale?
Wow- that is a long post. I don't remember much with my first sale ( I was to pre-occupied with getting passed the requirements of clickback), but I will say this it's a joy every time I see a sale. It's almost like the first every time. But I can tell you this is was not an over night I had a sale after I had done something, it took time and persistence. I actually more enjoy my checks in hand. I have made my sales in many different ways: Squidoo | Article | Craigslist (I have USFreeads Account and never had much luck with it)
My first sale was an affiliate product but I don't remember anything else (what was the product, how did I promote it, etc). More than 8 yrs passed since that happy moment
I got started in IM about a year ago and I think I made my first sale on the first or the beginning of the second month. It was a clickbank product which paid out close to $30 if I remember correctly, the first sale was the greatest feeling ever. I also tried wealthy affiliate and it was great site to join for a month, but only for a month. It's a great place to get the basics down but you ain't gonna get anything advanced there. Heck, ain't no one gonna teach you how to really make money online, that I had to figure out myself.
The first money i made was with adsense back in january 2006. But the first sale i got was in june 2006.. i sold a copy of the rich jerk.. lol. Made like.. 30 bucks or something. It was awesome. I jumped up and down for like 10 minutes.
My first affiliate sale was back around 2001ish. It was for some generic viagra for Genbucks Don't remember the exact date, but I made about $150 in commission lol.
Mine was a commission junction sale. I had promoted some tickets. I actually generated quite a bit of traffic but didn't get a sale immediately. I was actually ticked off. But then I went back a few weeks later and noticed I made two sales about a week or two after that. I was pumped.
My first order came from from YouTube, as I posted some videos there, with my affiliate link in the Description tab. It's a really good place to connect with your potential customers.
Yeah mine came out of the blue... had set up a site on zencart and then forgot about it, and about 2 months later got a sale... with no marketing !! I was like this is good...however since then, still not had many sales... but am hoping now i am here with bunch of people with knowledge that will start to change !
I know how it feels when you work on something hard and see nothing in return as you expect in a short time. However, I got my lesson in the past year that you need to work consistently on anything to see success. I have some projects that I didn't see any return in the first month, but then, things start to go nicer. The key point is not to get focused on the short term success and not to get distracted with having no success at the beginning.
My first sale was a Clickbank product and I was so excited I couldn't contain myself. Then when I reviewed the sale information it turned out it was someone I knew who had no idea they bought it from my website. It just made it that much more entertaining to know they bought it without knowing it came from on of my websites.
My first sale was an ebook I wrote myself. It was really funny. It never did sell all that well after that. I was getting ready to sell the ebook and someone purchased it while the site was on the market!
Sorry to hear you had that experience with WA - I have found it very resourceful. (and I am past the basic) I have now been with them over a year. and it's all been well worth it.
I could tell from your signature it's well worth it for you, but to each his own no? Don't get me wrong though, I reiterate the fact that WA is a great place to learn the very basic and their forum is a good place to get encouragement from other Internet Marketer's. The member's ebook section is good as well, but you are not going to find anything that you can't find say in a place like DP. I give you this though, it's a well organized system they have there and so it might be worth the membership for some people. Again, to each his own.