It was the year 2008 when I first discovered that making money online was a thing.

Jeez, that’s a LONG time ago.

I didn’t even realize it was so long until I started typing this post. WOW, I’ve been marketing online for over a decade.

Anyhow, back in 2008, I was just a broke college student trying to make ends meet.

Money was super tight and I had to depend on mom for my day-to-day and monthly expenses.

I was doing a degree in Chemistry and Molecular Biology because, at the time, I thought I wanted to be a medical doctor. And a degree in Chemistry and Molecular Biology is kind of a prerequisite to enter med-school.

And as you probably can tell, I am not a medical doctor.

The funny thing is, even though it is more than a decade since I’ve graduated with my BSc degree, I’ve never actually used that degree.

Not Once!

In fact, when my dog Mandy was a little puppy, she had a ball chewing up on my degree canister. So you could say she used my degree more than I did!

How I Became An Internet Marketer

Let me backtrack a little bit.

When I was in the final year of my degree program I accidentally stumbled upon internet marketing and the world of making money online.

I say ‘accidentally‘ because the truth is, I never actually went in search of it. In fact, I was completely naive to the fact that someone could literally sit at home and make a ton of money with just a computer and an internet connection.

Anyhow, I was drawn in by an advertisement that would forever change my life.

You see, I use to download movies online with my university buddies. It was something we liked to do when we were not writing up a lab or prepping for an exam. And it so happened that there was an instance where we were trying to watch a movie but we just couldn’t find the full version online.

Instead of giving up, I continue searching until I came across a website that claimed that they have the movie. So I downloaded the file. Little did I know back then that I was click-baited into downloading an ad from which that person would make a few bucks to a CPA offer.

So instead of actually getting the movie, I had downloaded a notepad file that was really an ‘ad’ about how to make money online.

To make a long story short, I never deleted the file and I eventually check out what was inside. And after following the instructions in that file I found out that there were people generating thousands of dollars online. You can read my entire story here.

The good thing though was that after a few weeks of researching I started to get the hang of making money online.

I branched off in the area of affiliate marketing.

This is simply is a term used to describe the process of promoting other people’s products to receive a commission when a sale is generated.

Below is a bird’s eye view of how affiliate marketing works and later on you’ll discover how you too can become an affiliate marketer and start generating a full-time income online.

Overview Of Affiliate Marketing

How affiliate marketing works is that you find a niche with an audience with a burning problem that needs a solution. This problem should exist at an emotional level as well.

This means that these people REALLY need the solution right away.

This is just a sample!

You can get a more detailed and step-by-step guide to finding the right niches by enrolling in my brand new market research-made simple training course.

Next, once you find an audience that has a problem, your job is to find the most effective solution and then align these people with said product. And once you do that, amazing things happen – you start to generate affiliate commissions.

Simple right?

Well, not exactly!

You see if you don’t find the right niche in the first place, everything will become extremely difficult. So finding the right niche to serve is really the foundation of your online business.

Back To My Story

It was a rough journey when I first started learning about online marketing back in 2008. There weren’t many training programs showing how to do things the right way.

So I had to learn by trial and error. In fact, I failed a LOT.

However, after a few months, I started generating a few sales here and there with my affiliate marketing business.

Long story short, after graduating with my Chemistry and Molecular Biology degree, I started job hunting. The few sales here and there from affiliate marketing weren’t enough to pay the bills.

You see, subconsciously I really thought I needed a “job” to start earning a good income to cover my bills and even more importantly, to help me pay off my student loan debt which was accumulating by the day due to high-interest rates.

So I sent out a few job applications.

After a few weeks, I landed a job interview.

I prepped for that interview like crazy and I believe I did really well. I was actually proud of myself and I was confident that I would land the job based on the feedback I got from the interviewers.

Except…

Two Weeks Later And I Got No Response!

After two weeks, I didn’t receive a response from the company.

Not a letter, not an email, and not even a phone call.

So of course, I took the initiative to call to find out what was going on. That’s when I found out that someone else had landed the position.

What hurt me more besides the fact that the company didn’t even bother to send me a letter or any form of communication was that the person who landed the job came from my graduating class.

After a few days of feeling sorry for myself, I brushed off the depression and started my job hunting again. After a couple more weeks, I landed a second interview.

Again I prepped and showed up early for the interview.

When I went inside the building, the secretary told me that the interviewer was sick and so the interview would have to be postponed for a week later.

But That Second Interview Never Happened!

As you may imagine, I showed up on time again and was ready to crush that interview. I was excited because I had even more time to prepare myself.

I was determined that I would do whatever it takes to land that job.

In hindsight, I can say that it was fortunate for me that I never got that interview. You’ll soon see why it was a fortunate situation for me.

You see, when I showed up for that interview, the secretary told me that just the night before, the interviewer had passed away.

I couldn’t believe it!

That’s when I realize that God was really sending me a message.

At the time my affiliate marketing business was barely making around $200 per month. It was a good little pocket change for me at the time but it wasn’t anything to brag about.

The truth is, even though I had graduated from University and had a lot of free time, making money online was like a little hobby for me. I didn’t really take it seriously because ingrained in the back of my mind was that I needed a ‘good’ job to be considered successful.

After all, I just finished a Bachelors’s degree in Chemistry and Molecular Biology.

So why should I spend hours in front of the computer on a so-called online business?

But Then I Had A Paradigm Shift.

That’s when I thought to myself, what if I just spent my time working on my own online business instead of job hunting?

I knew it would be a difficult road ahead but I also knew of the possibilities because I saw that other people were making tons of cash online from the comfort of their homes.

Right there and then, I made the decision to focus 100% on my online business.

I started to focus solely on affiliate marketing because I learned early on that it is one of the easiest online businesses to start. I didn’t have to worry about creating products or customer service/support or anything that would require a lot of upfront costs.

Remember, at the time I had very little cash to work with.

But what I did have was a lot of FREE TIME!

So I rolled up my sleeves and put in a ton of work.

All I wanted to do was to make $1000 USD per month online.

If I could get to $1000/month, I wouldn’t need a job because that was more than what the average job paid in Jamaica at the time.

The exchange rate from USD to Ja dollars was about $1 USD = $87 Ja at that time. This was enough to pay my rent and living expenses on a monthly basis.

It was tough initially because I didn’t have a step-by-step guide to follow to show me what to do. The few training programs that made sense at the time were super expensive and I didn’t have the budget to invest in them. I had to figure out everything on my own.

But once the work I put in started to compound, the results started coming in fast.

I was pumped and motivated more than ever.

The first month I went full time, my income went to over $300+, the second month I made $800+ and the rest is as they’d say – History.

8 Months After Going Fulltime I Paid Off My Student Loan Debts

This was one of the most exciting days of my life.

My business was generating a good income and besides my basic living expenses, I was saving like crazy. After 8 months, I had saved up enough money to pay off my student loan debts in full.

I went to the bank and withdrew the cash and walked into the student loan building and paid off the balance and then walked out like a boss. It felt like a HUGE load was lifted off my back. I still remember the day like it was yesterday.

Now, this is why I said I was fortunate when I wasn’t able to do the interview for that job that I was hoping to get. You see, if things had gone how I had imagined them initially, then I probably would have landed the job and put my online business on the back burner.

Who knows, I probably would have gotten the job and still be working today and drowning in student loan debts with all the high-interest rates accumulating month after month.

Making Money Online Has Changed My Life!

As cliche as it may sound, making money online can really change your life.

Let me be honest, when you are just starting out, it can be frustrating and depressing especially when you are putting in a lot of work and not getting a return.

I was lucky to find some good niches and offers to promote earlier in my online journey. As I said earlier, there weren’t many training programs to follow so I had to test a LOT of stuff on my own.

But once you’ve got some results online and you see the possibilities right in front of your own eyes then you’ll be more confident to work even harder to ensure your online business becomes successful.

When you have an online business that is generating an income that can take care of all your living expenses then you are basically free. Imagine setting your own work hours and working from anywhere you have a computer and an internet connection.

How would that make you feel?

AMAZING right?

There are a LOT of benefits to running an online business. And the sky is the limit!

Again, don’t get me wrong, there will be a lot of uphill climbing especially in the beginning. However, you get out what you put in.

If you put in the work, you reap the rewards.

Just make sure that you are putting in the correct work – as not all work is equal. Focus on doing tasks that will grow your business and help you to reach your financial goals.

When Should You Start Your Online Business?

Well, the best time to get started on your online business is TODAY!

Don’t know where to start?

Sign up for this free training to learn the best way to start generating an income from affiliate marketing!

Have questions?

Follow me on Instagram and send me a DM and I’ll be sure to guide you in the right direction.