So my journey that brought me to Wealthy Affiliate was a long one. In 2000 I had my first exposure to internet marketing. It was this program that promised to show you how to set up your own web business. The problem was, as is  with many programs out there, that it was one of those "nickel and dime" type programs. It had a task to be completed everyday. Or should I say it had a new product to be purchased every day. Of course, there was a "free" way shown. But it was always pointed out that if you were serious about  your business, you would consider it an investment and the profits would come easier and faster with each "upgrade." Needless to say, I didn't stick with that for long. I shrugged my shoulders, figured this internet thing wasn't for me, and forgot about ever trying to build a home based business.

But then my mom told me about a friend of hers who was selling these health products through a multi-level marketing company. So I contacted a local distributor in my area and went to hear her talk about the opportunity. It was a pretty high pressure sales pitch and I walked away from that "information only" meeting as a distributor.

I started to get to work. They had a "step by step" guide as well. Things like, wearing pins to get people talking about the company, printing out business cards, making lists of friends and family to pitch the opportunity to, to name a few. But the thing that set me on my current path was the Day 1 assignment. It was simply to write a story. The story would be about my ideal day, after I had achieved success with the program. I wrote a very descriptive narrative about running my home based business, in my lovely home, the cars I would have and the things I would do on a typical day where I call all the shots. That assignment is the reason I'm here, on this site, writing this today.

 The writing of my ideal day didn't stop after I quit that opportunity. After I had sworn off MLM, I still wrote my scenarios. It soon took root in my mind that I wouldn't be satisfied with anything else but seeing those dreams become a reality. I drifted from job to job, more unfulfilled and restless as the days went by. I tried opportunity after opportunity. I've made a few dollars over the years, but for every ten dollars I've earned, I've probably lost about 1000.

I probably would have been job hopping to this day if it wasn't for the fact that I was about to become a father. I started trying to find a more stable, better paying job. I finally settled for a job working at a juvenile "development center" which is a euphemism for a kiddie medium security prison. I soon burned out so I tried going to school. That didn't work so well, but that's another story. I started looking for another job and found one at a local financial institution, and I'm still there today.

All the while, I never stopped looking for ways to build an internet business. I was tired of losing money, being promised the world and being disappointed over and over. But it was like a gnawing obsession. I KNEW people were making money online, tons of it. I just had to find that one magic system, that one opportunity that would finally bring me everything I want. But of course life marches on, and I found myself going through a divorce.

After a horrible new relationship that left me deep in debt, I started looking for opportunities again. And, once again, I started to lose money. Money that I really couldn't afford to lose. Along the way, I heard about Wealthy Affiliate University. But I had signed up for other internet marketing membership programs before, and I wasn't quite convinced. But I started noticing there were really successful marketers out there that attributed their success to what they learned at Wealthy Affiliate. So with the start of a new year, I decided that 2010 would be the time for success. And after a couple months of waffling, I finally decided to join Wealthy Affiliate.

So here I am, day 2 of my membership here. I've started the action plan and am almost done with my first tasks. I really feel that I've made the first but most important change for my eventual success. I can now officially say I am an internet marketer(although very new and very unskilled) instead of an opportunity seeker. I plan on eating this elephant named internet marketing one bite at a time. March 6, 2011 will find me in a very different, yet familiar place. And why wouldn't it be familiar? 

I've already written about it years ago.