How To Go From Accountant To Internet Marketer
Being stuck in a career that you don’t like is tough. But, leaving it all behind to try internet marketing would be considered by many to be an extremely risky move.
I gave up being an electrician to go internet marketing… My thinking (at the time) was that, if this internet marketing didn’t work out I could always go back to the trade. So, I didn’t think that it was a risky move at all.
Irwin gave up being an accountant to live his dream of building profitable businesses online. He has built a successful Amazon review site and also has a website giving people some great advice on changing careers. I think this website has some great potential, but first, let Irwin tell you his story…
Irwin’s Story
My name is Irwin and I live in Southern California. I am a full-time internet marketer. I quit my career as an accountant in December of 2012 because I couldn’t stand accounting any longer. Plus, I love business; especially how business works on the internet.
I love to run, play basketball, hang out with my wife and read about internet marketing.
I invested in coaching to build Amazon review sites (4 or 5 months at $297 per month.
Also, I paid some guy recently $1,500 to coach me on how to make a product to show people how to build amazon products (it’s going to be a WSO from Warrior Forum). The big thing he’s going to show me is how to do webinars and sell the attendees on coaching. This fee is per month and I already regret paying him this amount in the first place. I’m just hoping to break even after making the product. I’m currently working on a video course.
I’ve also made money with eBay, Craigslist, etc.
I currently make money online as an Amazon Affiliate with most of the income coming from a review site I built from my coaching. I have made a decent amount so far, more than enough to cover for the coaching I paid initially.
I started making decent money on the site in February of this year. I made about $480 in February; I’m currently at $1,200 for March (month to date) and I believe I can make more per month if I can improve conversions.
Although the site is experiencing success, there’s a lot more work that needs to be done because some reviews aren’t converting when I believe they should.
I don’t want to be a full-time affiliate (only). I want to help people/ solve problems that I believe the internet can solve.
I built a niche website ChangingCareersAt30.net. I was getting about 1,200 uniques/ month until Google tanked my rankings on a few longtail keywords. The site is crap, but the traffic (when I was getting it) is so highly targeted. I surveyed the visitors when I was getting traffic and most of them want to change careers, but don’t know what they want to do.
I believe this niche is hungry for information and I can help them (and make some money at the same time).
I have A BUNCH of ideas; too many to be honest with you.
I won 2nd place in a startup competition here in San DIego called Startup Weekend. The idea was to help people who forget to cancel their free trials (think Netflix and Amazon Prime) and to help people manage their subscriptions. It’s called Subscribify. The developer has been busy lately so the project is on hold, but that’s just an example of the kind of ideas I have in my Evernote.
I definitely want to make more than any doctor or pharmacist, and I want to work when I want to work, which is a lot because IM doesn’t feel like work to me most of the time.
I definitely want to make AT LEAST 6 figures a year, it would be great if it would be by the end of 2013 (6 figures in revenue would be fine for 2013).
Relying solely on Amazon for a living is too risky for me. I have to diversify my income stream.
I’m a hard-worker, I know good money can be made online. I’m passed the most difficult part, which is believing that money can be made online. However, I know for me to get where I ultimately want to go, I will need coaching.
I have what it takes to make it to the next level. I’m ready for this; I’m all in and I will do whatever it takes to avoid working a dreaded day job again!
Thanks again for this opportunity.
My comments to Irwin
Great story Irwin and congratulations on the awesome success you have had, in such a short period of time.
It sounds like your bases are covered with your Amazon review site, so I won’t comment on that. You are right though. An Amazon review site is risky because you could spend all your time and effort building a $10,000 or more per month commission from Amazon, and have it all taken from you overnight.
Relying on any one thing in business is a recipe for disaster. Amazon can change the rules and your income could stop overnight. Hopefully, this never happens, but you must prepare in case it does…
Moving on to your ‘Changing Careers At 30’ website. This is an awesome idea because you are solving a problem which presents itself to many people. I have 2 sons who are 19 and 16 and they are trying to make a decision about going to university. I have spoken to many people who have done the whole university thing, started work and then realized they didn’t enjoy the career.
It seems like this is a big problem and many people are scared about having to retrain and start all over again, in a new career. Your website could be the perfect resource to help them out.
It sounds like you know that the website needs to be upgraded. If you could share what your thinking is, I’ll do a critique of the site in the next post.
Cheers
Ian
