Resources

You may have noticed the lack of updates last week. I decided to take the week off and enjoy my four day stay in beautiful Las Vegas. I’ll tell you everything, but first, I have a little back story for you.

Who is Steve?

I realized that despite having run this blog for almost three years now and talking to a few of you on a regular basis, most of you don’t even know who I am. Yes, I’m Steve from I’ve Tried That, but I haven’t really shared much beyond that point. I suppose it’s time to tell my story.

Let’s start with the basics. My name is Steve (that’s me on the right.) I’m 23 years old. I live in beautiful Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. I graduated with a BA in Information Sciences and Technology from Penn State, and I am a full time Internet Marketer. I play racquetball as often as I can and I love to travel. In the past year, I’ve been all over the US, the Caribbean, Taiwan and I have travel plans to visit Australia in the summer and Vancouver shortly after that.

It was during college when I first started making money for myself. I created a few websites, made a few dollars, and I was hooked. I loved the idea of making money strictly for me, but I never saw it as anything other than a hobby.

During my senior year of college, I spent a lot of time interviewing with companies, sending out resumes, and attending career fairs. I hated every single second of searching for a job. Nothing about finding a conventional job felt right to me. I couldn’t wrap my head around being miserable for 50-60 hours a week for the next 30 years of my life but I kept looking because I was told that I NEED a fancy high-paying job in order to SUCCEED in life.

After one particular day of stressful phone interviews and cover letters, I was ready to relax and enjoy the company of two of my old roommates who had since graduated and started their careers. We ended up talking mostly about their jobs and these people actually started BRAGGING about how much UNPAID overtime they were working, as if it was a good thing and they were doing their company a favor! It was at this was the exact moment that I decided 9-to-5 job would never be for me and that I was going to start my own online career.

I spent a few days lamenting over how I was going to tell my parents that I was stopping my job hunt and going in business for myself. Ultimately, they were not happy. (“You’re throwing away your education FOR THE INTERNET?! You NEED a job with BENEFITS.”) But there was little they could do to stop me from at least trying first. I graduated, jobless, but determined to make an online career work.

At this point in the story, I’ve Tried That was just getting started. The website was making some money, but not nearly enough to live off of. I had to find another way to bring in money and embarked on one of the scariest (and possibly stupidest) decisions of my life. No, I didn’t start selling drugs. I turned to Craigslist and started offering computer repair services. Now, most of my clients were normal, sane folk but there were quite a few times where I found myself alone with a stranger in his or her cold, dark, damp basement, working on an ancient Windows 95 machine, all the while plotting my escape if said stranger tried anything funny. There were honestly a few times where I found myself scanning the room looking for an object to use in case I needed it for self-defense.

I continued to do freelance computer work while trying to make it online for about 6 months. My online efforts were beginning to sink and my computer repair business was quickly taking over my life. This was NOT the direction I wanted to go. I wanted a way to make a living online from home, but my efforts were being diverted elsewhere. I needed to cut back on the computer repair business and focus my efforts on my online business. That’s when I decided to stop trying to figure this out on my own and seek out help.

How Wealthy Affiliate Changed My Life

During this time, we had conducted a review of the Wealthy Affiliate University here at I’ve Tried That. My old partner, Joe, had done most of the work on the review and I had briefly glanced around the site to make sure everything was up to scratch but that was it. I let my account sit dormant for quite awhile. One day, I was talking with a friend who was also a member at Wealthy Affiliate and he linked me to a discussion going on in the Wealthy Affiliate forums and thought I could benefit from the conversation and use some of the practices being discussed on my blog.

I logged in, read through the topic, finished it, and kept on reading. I read post after post and training article after training article until I thought my head would explode. Here I had access to one of the greatest online training programs in the world and I was just letting my account go to waste.

The key thing I took away from my first real in-depth look through Wealthy Affiliate was a scope for my new career. Before I was simply looking to make a money online, but now I had a title and goal: I wanted to become a full-time Internet Marketer and I turned to the training at Wealthy Affiliate to make this possible.

Wealthy Affiliate has a feature called the 8-Week Action Plan and I would have been completely lost without it. They break down the basics of Internet Marketing in a step-by-step system and they show you exactly what you need to do to make money online. I can attribute most of my success to the 8-Week Action Plan as it’s the same system I used to get where I am today. Prior to completing the plan, I only had a vague idea of what Internet Marketing actually was and here I am, less than one year later, and Internet Marketing is my full-time job.

My Trip to Vegas

I started this post talking about spending the past week in Las Vegas and I think it’s time to get back on track.

I was invited to go out to Vegas by Kyle and Carson, the two owners of Wealthy Affiliate, for a four-day all inclusive trip to talk Internet Marketing. I was one of ten people from the entire Wealthy Affiliate community invited out to Vegas. It was easily one of the greatest experiences of my life. Here I am, still a beginner and a Wealthy Affiliate member for only 8 months, and I’m getting flown out to Vegas to discuss Internet Marketing with some of the top marketing minds in the world. It was surreal.

The trip started off with a meet and greet Sunday night. Monday followed up with a full-day group discussion on the topic of Internet Marketing followed by free tickets to the new Viva Elvis Cirque du Soliel show. Tuesday, I got to sit down with Kyle and Carson and discuss MY future in Internet Marketing one-on-one (well, one-on-two.) They personally offered feedback and advice to help me build my online business. Tuesday night we had a farewell party and I left Vegas on Wednesday morning.

Looking back, I still find it hard to believe that I even attended this conference. It was a great honor to be invited and an even better learning experience.

I Need to Make a Few Things Clear

I’m not some sort of Internet Marketing genius and I don’t have millions of dollars. I still live in the same small two bedroom apartment and I drive the same 1997 Honda Civic I bought out-of-pocket in high school. What I do have is a comfortable lifestyle and a growing career in Internet Marketing.

So, how did I go from a complete beginner to being invited to a personal conference in Vegas less than a year later? Proper training and a will to succeed. I knew that if I couldn’t make it, I’d have to go back to either searching for a real full-time job or back to stranger’s basements to fix their computers. I wanted no parts of either.

How Wealthy Affiliate Can Help You

My story is not all that uncommon. Everyday new posts fill the success section of the Wealthy Affiliate forums. You can see people talk about the thrill of making their first commission online and later see the same people talk about quitting their full-time to pursue a full-time Internet Marketing career. The point is that anyone can get started with Internet Marketing. You don’t need prior experience; you just need help and I truly believe Wealthy Affiliate is the answer you’re looking for.

My suggestion to you: click here, read more about what Wealthy Affiliate offers, and join today. If you’re hesitant about joining and want to ask a few questions, then click here and send me an email first. I’ll be more than happy to answer every single question you may have.

I’m very much an active member of Wealthy Affiliate today and you can find me on the site under the username: IveTriedThat. You can add me as a friend once you’ve joined and contact me directly on Wealthy Affiliate.

What You Need to Know

• There is NO SECRET to making money online. You need three things: a good work ethic, a good training program, and a good support group.
• You need a good work ethic. Most people who set out to build an online career quit because they expect to use the Internet and get rich quick. This is not possible! Just like any other job, this is hard work and if you stick with it you CAN SUCCEED.
• You need a good training program. You can’t reasonably expect to sit down at a computer and make a full-time living without some sort of guidance. Now, good training doesn’t have to cost thousands of dollars. The cost to join Wealthy Affiliate is only $47/month and they will teach you how to make over 6-figures a year. Good training is such a worthwhile investment.
• You need support. A good community makes a world of difference. If I didn’t have a group of people I could pitch ideas or ask questions to, I would have never made it this far. The Wealthy Affiliate community if filled with both new and old members and you can even contact the owners Kyle and Carson for support directly.
• I NEVER make a recommendation just to make a quick buck. I’m recommending you join Wealthy Affiliate because I honestly believe that what they have to offer can HELP YOU better your life.
• I do want to help you succeed. I’m here to help answer any questions you might have. All you need to do is email me.

My Recommendation

So, ready to get started? Do you want to learn how to actually build an online business from the ground up? Do you want to work alongside me and thousands of other Internet Marketers all working to achieve success online?

Well then click here and come join me at Wealthy Affiliate. The best part about Wealthy Affiliate is that everything is included. There are no upsells or add-on packages or any of that garbage you commonly see with the make money online scams out there. One program. Everything is included. Even personal coaching and help. If you join and decide it’s not for you, no problem. You can easily cancel your account and be done with the whole thing.

Click here and create an account at Wealthy Affiliate. I highly recommend you do so.

I’ll see you on the inside,
Steve

Okay, so I wasn’t featured at all. But Eddy from WorkAtHomeNoScams.com wrote a post titled, “Top 5 Reasons I hate Working from Home” and as I was reading it, it felt like Eddy was writing about my life.

I know it’s odd for a work at home blog owner to write about why he hates working from home, but there’s a lot more to this life than most people don’t realize. When you think about working from home full time, you probably picture an easy going life where you get to do whatever you want, whenever you want, while wearing whatever you want.

Yes, there are quite a few perks, but there are other disadvantages you don’t have to deal with when you work in a traditional job. Take this example, a lot of people seem to think what I do is easy and not professional. Someone went as far as to argue that what I do isn’t important because, “it’s just a blog.” The same guy went on to belittle my line of work by saying his 8 year old nephew has a blog and he could do what I do.

So yeah, just like every other job, working from home has its advantages and disadvantages. Eddy’s latest post covers a few of the disadvantages, including assumptions, loneliness, TAXES, juggling, and people talking about his career path. It’s a fantastic read. His take on loneliness really hits home. Here’s a short excerpt.

2. Loneliness.

I don’t mean to get all sensitive on you, but one of the things that I actually miss about working offline is the everyday interaction with my co-workers, “sight seeing” in the park with my boys, after work drinks, etc. I feel like I took a lot of that stuff for granted while being there. The truth is working at home full time makes you feel isolated and you become a hermit. Now for my personality this isn’t such a bad thing. But even so, I do miss that human interaction. I’ve had to resort to Facebook and sites like Mylot to alleviate some of that loneliness. I also visit my ex co-workers from time to time. With that all said, would I trade being at home full time to be back to the rate race? Hell to the nah! I’m not that lonely and why I have a dog! But seriously I do occasionally miss that social interaction.

Loneliness is definitely the biggest drawback regarding working at home for me. There are days where I definitely miss being able to talk to someone face to face regarding problems with my work. Like Eddy, I still wouldn’t trade my current job for a full-time one in an office, but there a few things I do miss.

I highly suggest you click here and read his post entirely. It’s well worth the time. Be sure to leave him a comment too!