All right here it is, my "first" (technically second) blog post! Steve from I'veTriedThat recommended that I go ahead and do this my first day and I've done everything but this so why not give it a whirl?

My name is Ian and I'm hoping today is just the first on an awesome journey. I'm 22 years old and really don't have much going for me at the moment. Unexpected and unfortunate events as well as bad decisions have led me to where I am today and to say that I was pleased would be a blatant lie not only to you but to myself. Here's my story of how I ended up on Wealthy Affiliate, hope you enjoy!

I'm lucky enough to have a loving family that cares enough about me to let me stay with them as I try to get back on my feet. I know some parents who probably would have made other decisions in my situation so I feel very fortunate to be able to stay with mine. Nonetheless, it's definitely time to "shape up or ship out".

How was I going to achieve my independence? Well college of course. That was my plan 4 years ago but it has truthfully done nothing for me and wasted money. Granted, I could have stayed in college and finished a degree in something so I could get a regular job but I honestly was never interested in that. I worked part-time as a cashier for a grocery store during that time and it was agonizing after the first few months. I knew then I needed to do something else but what it was, I really had no idea.

Flash forward to today and I am luckily not working as a cashier anymore but my current part-time job leaves much to be desired. Add that on top of having barely any money to do or buy anything, let alone afford my own apartment, I set out on a mission to find ANYTHING online to make me some extra money.

Like most people, this quest of mine will wind you up in a whole lot of trouble if you aren't careful with all of those scam sites out there preaching how you can become rich in weeks or make a good living off of something silly. Fortunately I've been pretty smart about the way I handled searching and never caved in to any of these outrageous claims. Although one did almost catch me...

Now before I start the next part, I'd like to let you know that I'm an avid gamer. Like, I was the guy in high school that would get home, do my homework (sometimes), then play WoW or whatever else my circle of friends was interested in at the time. I've been playing video games since I was about 5 years old, starting with the NES and Zelda. Ever since then I've been hooked.

Now going back to the scam site, seeing as I really enjoy gaming, I was super excited to see that I could be a Video Game Tester and make a decent income doing it. Since I was looking for things I could do at home after my part-time job, this one seemed right up my alley. The website wasn't too over the top but still I couldn't shake off the feeling that it was "too good to be true". Finally, this lead me to my chance visit to Steve's website, I'veTriedThat.com which he blogged about the same website I just visited. Browsing around his site I eventually found out about Wealthy Affiliate as well as through his emails about making money online and the rest is history!

Whew, this introduction has gone on for a lot longer than I had planned but I just felt compelled to share my story on how I stumbled about Wealthy Affiliate. Hopefully it was entertaining enough to read through it all.

Now to finally close this out, I'd like to thank Steve again for referring me to this website. I was truly feeling depressed the past month or so and finding out about Wealthy Affiliate has rekindled motivation I've long since lost from my high school years. I haven't purchased any membership yet as I'm still on the trial account but I truly think tonight I will go ahead and give it a shot. From everything I've seen so far, I have a really good feeling about this. Even from the little bit I've learned about Internet Marketing, I already have a bunch of ideas for websites that I eventually want to try out.

Thanks for reading!

P.S. One of my goals is to blog my progress through the Wealthy Affiliate 30 Day Success Club so feel free to check in every day for an update on my progress!

-Ian