WARNING: This story is personal and edgy. On purpose. I’m making no friends saying what I say here. But right, wrong, or indifferent, it’s stuff that I feel needs to be said.

The 6 AM Grind and the Weight of Failure

I remember it like it was yesterday…

It was around 6 in the morning on a summer day in August and the sun was just out.

I stood up from my office chair where I had spent the last 18 hours or so working to head upstairs to my “regular” sleeping place.

Most of the times I was falling asleep on the chair in front of my computer screen.

So I went upstairs, took a quick glance at my 3 kids sleeping in their rooms and went straight to bed where my wife was about to wake up in an hour or so.

I could feel the weight of my body on the bed and while I wanted it so much, I just couldn’t sleep.

My mind was still awake.

I kept thinking all those deep -100% in red campaigns -money gone forever- in my tracker.

Burning my eyes and heart and any hope I’ve had left for achieving financial freedom.

After about 30 minutes or so of turning around and not falling asleep, I’ve realized it won’t happen.

So I stood up, made some Greek cold coffee and sat in a worn out sofa on the balcony in the hope I’ll get some cool air before I was to have another go at it again…

For another 18 hours or so straight.

Like I’d done so many nights for the last 3 months or so.

The Invisible Marketer: From Income To Rock Bottom

I am no one special.

But I’ve been smart (or lucky) enough to have a good income from my online marketing activities (selling own products, promoting others’ and so on) since 2010.

Here are a couple of videos showing my PayPal accounts for just 1 month, from 2016 and 2020.

The reason I am sharing these with you is so I can show you that I’ve done a few things right.

I’ve seen a whole lot of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

But due to several bad (or not taking at all) decisions I’d found myself left with $400 on my one credit card left.  

And with 3 kids sleeping in the next room and a wife relying on me to support them like I always have, it wasn’t a pretty situation to be.

I just couldn’t figure it out.

I was doing what everyone else suggested doing (in forums, YouTube et al).

I would set up an offer, buy traffic and track the results.

But instead of my campaigns being the type of “Hit ‘n’ Go”, easy breezy, like so many others in the scene suggested…

They were more like Hit ‘n’ Miss!

So then I would try yet another offer.

And another one.

Still with the same (no) results.

And even when I’d had some success, because I was running campaign after campaign, I wouldn’t get paid enough.

And that led to having cash flow issues.

And money was running out faster than I could think!

So while I was trying to enjoy a bit of the summer sun before I head back to a fluorescent lighted room, for yet another battle with traffic sources, networks and offers…

The Gambler’s Trap: Hooked On “Hit ‘N’ Go”

So while I was trying to enjoy a bit of the summer sun before I head back to a fluorescent lighted room, for yet another battle with traffic sources, networks and offers…

I had lost my way.

I was hooked on the potential immediate returns of the “Hit ‘n’ Go” approach.

I now realize it…

I was …a Transactional Marketer.

I was exchanging money (for traffic) to get a sale (conversion) without any real control over the process – A very short-term thinking.

I was buying and sending traffic I didn’t own nor controlled, straight to an offer’s page (direct linking). And some times I didn’t even control that either.

Why “Hope” is a Terrible Marketing Strategy

The problem, when you’re a Transactional Marketer (short-term instead of long-term thinker) like I was, is that you are relying for a lot of things in luck and hope.

You are hoping the ad platform will send you good, bot-free, traffic.

You are hoping everything will be “captured” properly.

And any conversions your traffic has made back to your ad tracker.

And that’s assuming you’ve setup your tracker correctly to begin with…

And many marketers keep doing that.

Hoping to get conversions as soon as possible.

It might work for an offer or two, for a day or two.

But more often than not, it doesn’t.

And they jump to another offer.

And start this transactional process all over again.

Hoping for a different result this time around.

But hope is not a strategy.

But such is the pull of our natural bias towards the easy and quick and shortcuts and “just point and click” solutions.

We tend to gravitate towards the secrets, the loopholes and the sexy tactics, over fundamental strategies.

The pull towards the promise of easy and fast over the hard and slow.

But the thing with these tactics is that very quickly, the Instant Wins stop working – if they ever began (for most) to work in the first place.

”…It’s the Instant ROI (Return On Investment) potential. It can have an effect on you (instant wins – dopamine hits – It’s just like gambling….”

– A friend of mine

The Balcony Epiphany: No More Gambling

Let me be absolutely clear on this…

By buying and sending traffic always directly to an online offer, made me a Transactional Marketer.

I realized that I was relying the livelihood of my family, on traffic sources (& ad networks), that don’t always “play nice” or fair, to keep things afloat.

It’s a big gamble to take!

I was gambling.

I was gambling with my money and the well being of my family, by acting and being a transactional marketer.

Right then and there, at 6 in the morning, sitting sleepless on my balcony I decided to change.

What was the simple shift I made? In Part 2, I reveal the first crucial step I took that started turning losses into profits, and the even bigger realization that transformed my entire approach to paid traffic..