I’m a real live internet marketer. I make money on the internet. I don’t find clients or sell stuff offline, everything I do is online.

Sometimes I forget the amazing accomplishment that is.

There is still a huge portion of the population that have no idea where to even start making money online.

So how did it happen? Oh boy, pull up a chair!

I’m going to go through a play by play history of how I became an internet marketer. It wasn’t a straight path, like most things, and I’ve still got lots to learn and ways to grow (don’t we all). Here’s how I got where I am today.

1999 – Learning HTML & Websites

It all started in 1999 when my lab partner in college, Elizabeth, handed me a sheet of paper with HTML code.

We had somehow been talking about making internet pages and she knew how. I was interested but had no idea at the time what I’d do with website. I took the sheet of code, went to the computer room at our school and signed up for a Geocities account. From there I started building my own website.

My first website was a hobby site for beaded jewelery I used to make. I would scan photos of my jewelery into the site for people to look at. It wasn’t a business at all, I just was having fun and playing around.

2001 – Hobby to Business Venture

Years later I had a new hobby, soapmaking.

I had learned how to make soap at college through my course in Chemical Engineering Technology. We had a laboratory session on making soap but we weren’t supposed to use it (I guess if we messed up the recipe and it was lye-heavy they didn’t want to get sued). The soapmaking really peek my curiosity and I decided I wanted to start making soap at home. So my home soapmaking hobby was born. I started brewing up all kinds of stuff including other bath & body products like lip balms, bath salts, bath bombs and more.

Then I had my son. I was on maturnity leave and I couldn’t imagine leaving him and going back to work. I had always wanted to have a business but this new, amazing little life fueled a determination like no other to have a successful home business. I wanted the freedom to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. So I turned my soap hobby into a business and I started my own ecommerce website.

I learned so much from this first business website I owned. I learned how to set up a shopping cart, charge shipping, charge taxes. Then I had to learn how to get traffic and how to turn that traffic into sales. These were the basics but thinking back now they are just as important today to any new business as they were back then.

From what I learned I started a new website for other soapmakers to teach them how to make money with their websites.

Eventually I decided to move on from the soap business.

2002 – Offline Sales Lady

I started a business that has nothing to do with internet marketing.

I was a representative of a company named C.S.T. (Canadian Scholarship Trust Plan). What I did was sign new accounts up for an R.E.S.P (Registered Education Savings Plan). This plan is a government registered saving plan for parents of young children to save for their future education.

This was a business I didn’t use the internet for. A very big lesson I learned in this business though was to never just follow the money. The ONLY reason I really joined this business was because of the extravagant claims my sponsor made about how much money she made as a rep. I was entirely drawn in by the idea of getting huge paychecks and if you’ve ever done the same you know that money along is not enough motivation to keep a business going.

2005 – Network Marketing on the Internet

I came across the Mia Bella company as I was searching online for a new business to start. After I scrapped the soapmaking business I had gone back to work for a few years. I needed a break, a rest, time to regroup. I never game up on the decision to own my own business.

Mia Bella candles seemed like a perfect fit for me so I joined as a representative and started building my website. The point of the website was to tell people about the business opportunity of selling candles and making money. I did well with it. From that site I recruited a fairly strong team.

I ran the candle company all while I was working full time. I was hoping to be able to quit my job on the income from that business but it just wasn’t happening as quickly as I wanted it to. Again, this was a case where I considered the business opportunity and didn’t look closely enough at what I really enjoyed doing.

2006 – Starting a Virtual Assistance Business

After I quit the candle company I was feeling pretty discouraged and a little desperate even. I remember seeing a friend post on her blog that she was no longer accepting virtual assistant clients and she would no longer be working “dollars for hours”. I thought to myself that I would much rather work “dollars for hours” at home in my own business than be out there in my factory job making money for someone else, so I opened up my doors as a virtual assistant.

My virtual assistant business took off very quickly. I started off at an unbelievably cheap rate ($5/hr) and then grew my hourly charge from there. It actually provided me with enough money to quit my factory job! I was so excited.

The problem with my virtual assistant business was that I never thought it to be a long term solution. I wanted a business I loved and I wanted passive income. I mean, I had traded one boss for a whole bunch of bosses and over time I started to become unhappy, resentful, stressed out and burnt out.

2008 – Finding the Mojo, Marketers Mojo!!!

I love what I’m doing now. My goals are now completely aligned with my values, my personality and my desired lifestyle.

Here at Marketers Mojo I just get to be me, to share my story and my knowledge with people like you and people like me. People who are coming to my site to find out how they can build a business they love without being the sleezy ‘car salesman’ type persona. It’s entirely possible and it feels great!

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