My First Sale - only 9 days after joining WA!
GIVING UP ....
At some point I will share my very interesting story of how my online marketing journey begun back in 2010, but for the sake of being relevant to the title of this article I am going to fast forward a bit for now.
Between 2010 and 2014 I managed to earn around $33000 online which I guess is not that much considering that this was over a period of around 4 years.
However, just as things started to gain momentum I got hacked and a lot of my hard work got totally destroyed and I did not have the technical skills to sort out all the destruction that was caused through the hacking over a great amount of my websites.
I had no idea where to even start and did not have the strength to rebuild everything from scratch. I also did not feel that the effort I would have to put in to rebuild everything would justify the little earnings in comparison for time exchanged, precious time that I will never be able to get back.
So, you guessed it, I gave up!
MY RETURN TO THE ONLINE WORLD ...
So what motivated me to make my return to the online world in January 2019 after such a devastating experience and being inactive online for more than 4 years? Well, you guessed it, my family.
My brother always admired the fact that I was able to make some sales online as he recognised that it takes a lot of time and dedication, especially in the beginning, to generate some sales. He suddenly out of the blue decided that he is going to make money online and give it his absolute all. His motivation is financial freedom for him and his family and we share the same goal in this regard.
He joined WA in the very beginning of January and then convinced me to join a couple of weeks after as we decided that together we would like to create security and financial freedom for our family. However, before he asked me to join WA, I already had this sudden urge to try my hand at online marketing again and that was my New Years resolution.
RESURRECTING THE DEAD ...
On January the second I decided to completely rebuild an old website of mine that lay broken for more than 4 years (note that it is built on a brand new domain). I relentlessly worked on this website for around 3 weeks and was now finally ready for doing business.
AND THEN IT HAPPENED ...
9 Days after I joined WA and 23 days after rebuilding my website from scratch on a brand new domain, the magic happened. My first sale after being inactive online for more than 4 years and this time around in what I would class for myself to be a record time.
The sale was for the amount of $165. However, I have a very funny story to share about this sale that I would probably remember for the rest of my life, but more on this a little bit later. :)
CURIOUS ABOUT THE NICHE?
First of all you might laugh if you hear what the niche is, because I did when someone first introduced me to it. This in itself is a story for another day, but it all came about when someone from a different country that I met in an online marketing Skype group asked me if I would be willing to drive sales for him here in the UK.
Are you curious about the niche? Well the niche is embroidery of all things lol. As a male and perhaps due to my upbringing embroidery was the last thing I could ever imagine myself getting involved in and initially I point blank refused to promote it as I was not sure about how my friends would view it lol :) I was simply doing this person a favour by uploading his embroidery site onto a UK domain in order to rank better in Google for the UK market and we agreed to share the profits. I told him though from the start that I will not be promoting it though, but happy to manage the website.
Slowly but surely, some sales started coming in and I did like zero promotion. Maybe he did some promotion for it, who knows? I then realised that there might be some money to be made here and just then the hacking took place and destroyed everything. That was also the end of us doing business together.
MY SURPRISING SALES STRATEGY
First of all I built what I believe to be a reasonably respectable and well presented website. As I am a seller of computerised embroidery software I was able to offer a free trial of the software to embroidery facebook groups.
The beauty of the trial is that it runs out and if people like the product then of course they are going to buy it after trying it. I was lucky to have one of the admins of the embroidery facebook groups being very supportive of me and actually encouraged me to offer free trials, but not only free trials, but also discounted prices on my products should her fellow group members be interested.
Offering my products at a discounted price for a limited period of time proofs to be too much for some of the hardcore embroidery enthusiasts to resist it seems.
The result: You got it - sales!
The reason I am calling this a surprising sales strategy for me is because in all the years that I have done online marketing I have never experienced an admin of a facebook group ever to encourage me to sell within their facebook group lol. She was however very particular on me being incredibly transparent providing very detailed information in regards to the trial, prices, turnaround times etc. Still, must be the first admin from a facebook group I have ever met to be like super supportive and so on board as she is.
THE FUNNY THING ABOUT THE SALE
This is actually hilarious and further up in this article I mentioned that I will never forget this sale for many reasons. Two reasons. Firstly because this was the quickest I have ever built a website and the quickest I have ever generated a sale since `I decided to return to the online marketing world.
And secondly and the main reason I will never forget this sale is because, wait for it, wait for it.....
I made a loss of $10 through this sale! The funniest thing ever ....
SO WHAT HAPPENED?
My Woocommerce plug-in tax calculation was not setup correctly for all countries, so when I tested it, it added 20% tax for me in the cart because I am from the UK. However the sale was from the US and the plug-in did not charge any tax for the transaction from the US.
On top of that I was already offering a 10% discount via a coupon, so the unknown to me error in the tax calculation resulted in a $10 loss.
BIG DEAL?
This is no big deal to me at all. I think it is hilarious and so memorable for so many reasons. I have definitley learned a lot from this experience and was luckily able to rectify my mistake before any more sales started coming in.
All I care about is, that I made that sale!
The first of many to come in 2019!
DOES MY NICHE MATTER?
Just so by the way my niche used to be in the fitness and supplement industry as well as the selling of online marketing software as an affiliate and I managed to make some sales. So it is true what Kyle is saying ... Your niche does not matter that much, it is all about what you do within that niche and how you go about marketing it and marketing yourself.
Thanks so much for reading. I really appreciate your time and I am wishing you loads of success here on WA in the year 2019 and onwards.
KInd regards
Schalk
Recent Comments
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Nice post. I think that understanding that the niche is not as critical as it is usually made out to be but instead how you position yourself and how you add massive value to your audience.
Thanks so much for reading and glad you could take something from the article. Wishing you loads of success!
Thanks so much for the feedback and for following my online adventure. Glad to follow your adventure also!
Thank you so much for your kind words. I am glad to be back. Together we will have success for ourselves and our families!
Welcome back to WA, Schalk, what an interesting story! I have enjoyed reading it, you have amazing energy and I can visualize you joining the rank of top Super Affiliates pretty soon!
Wishing you the best for 2019.
Jacqueline
You are a brilliant writer...It was like watching a thriller, you had me almost in tears, then on the edge of my seat, waiting for the next thing and then in laughter about the whole funny bit...I am glad I hung around waiting for your post, it was well worth the wait...maybe one day you can get more money from e-books on the funny side to making money on-line.
I cannot wait to read more of your success blogs/trainings/whatever...so happy for your success!
Ilaisaane (Saane in short)
Judging from the way you expressed your roller coaster experience reading the article you are certainly a talented writer yourself. And the funny thing is that my life is funny. The funniest things always happens to me that never seems to happen to anyone else. I can indeed write a book about all the funny things that has happened in my life. My name is a German name. It means "God's servant", but more particularly "God's jester", so basically God's clown lol. But the funny thing is that although I sometimes live up to the meaning of my name it feels to me as if though it is the other way around. It feels to me as if there is a higher power out there that created me for his entertainment and allows funny things to happen to me all the time so that he could have a laugh :)
Thank you for the compliment, it is probably because I grew up doing different leadership rolls as part of my dad's ministry and then now in leadership roles within toastmasters. Public speaking enhances my writing skills. I too believe in that higher calling and you have a wonderful name, I am truly blessed to have met amazing people like you in my journey here. My goal to making money here is not only for my family, but to help out more in my community and the third world. Therefore I hope that you, may also fulfill your purpose here in WA as well :)
True, that is what it is all about - being able to help others. Sure I heard the name toastmasters somewhere? Does it have anything to do with honing your webinar skills?
Lol! and I thought I was bad, when I first joined it, I thought it was all about drinking wine and practicing how to make a toast. It's about learning the skills of public speaking and leadership. Most of the American Presidents were members, used to a men's only club, now women can join also. I have made a lot of friends and already sharing my online endeavors in my speeches (hopefully I get a few wanting to join).
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Awesome and thank you for sharing, Schalk! :o)
Thanks so much Terrand for your interest in my article. It is much appreciated. Wishing you loads of success here on WA!
Thank you and you are most welcome too, Schalk! 👌👍😉