I joined as an affiliate sometime in August last year, taking advantage of the week-long free trial. Near the end of that week I found out that in order to opt out I would have to call a certain number long-distance, Monday to Friday 9 to 5 Pacific time. That meant between 1 to 9 am Manila time.
I did not opt out immediately. The $10 a month charge seemed reasonable considering that it came with a domain name of my choosing and a free website with web-building tools provided and a ready-made business selling GDI memberships.
It was not as easy as it seemed, though.
The initial come-on said no selling, but I was expected to keep sending emails to relatives, friends and acquaintances inviting them to GDI. I wasn't keen on doing so.
The website was there but even with their web-building tools there was not much I could do with it. I don't know html and couldn't improve on it. Even to my own eyes, the resulting site looked unappealing despite my best efforts at putting in what I thought was good content pitching the business.
I also did not know how to drive traffic to the site, perhaps because I felt lukewarm about it in the first place.
In the end it just stayed there online, unnoticed, while I continued to pay for it. It just got a few visits after I linked to it in my recently-opened blogs and at MyBlogLog. Still, no takers for the GDI business I was pushing. Not even in the links in my other blogs.
I know, I know. This is all my fault. There's no one I can blame for it, not even GDI. I'm sure it's true that there are a lot of people out there earning from the business.
It just wasn't the right fit.
I know now that the only kind of business or money-making venture I can succeed in is something that I'm comfortable with or, better yet, something I'm passionate about.
My goodness, I know this already. Why do you think I stuck to freelance writing and romance writing despite the fact that I could have been more secure employed? I chose my passion, that's why. And it has supported me through the years.
So trying to force myself to make a go of the GDI business was really a stretch and I should have seen it earlier.
Well, I lost $90 before I woke up and let go of the dream. It wasn't me so it wasn't for me. I had to cut my losses.
Now I have that figure to target initially for my new blogs. I hope they make up for what I lost, and then LOTS more! :-)
I'm also feeling my way here. Will my passion for writing also translate into success in this medium? There's so much more I have to learn still beyond content. There's also the technical side and networking.
I gave up on GDI already but I'm not giving up on blogging anytime soon. I hope my visitors don't give up on me, too.
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4 comments:
Good call on that one. It kinda sounds like a pyramid scheme, don't you think?
I'm not really sure about the definitions of pyramid schemes and network marketing. It would be safe to say that it's an affiliate marketing program, but one that requires more aggressive action than most, I guess. I prefer to just put the info on my blogs and leave my visitors to choose and decide for themselves without my interference. Not a very good salesperson, I know, but it's probably because I, myself, hate hard sell.
I've been there before and I can say it takes up much of your time without much gratification. Now I find blogging a better proposition 'cos it's more satisfying. It's not the money that counts (in my case) but like you said if the moolah is there it's more like a bonus.
Right, Markk. Do share your blog address with us so I and my visitors can drop by :-)
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