From $0 to $3500/Month And The Journey Continues...

Dear Steemitorians, First off - I'm not a special person with some gifted qualities like Seth Godin or Tony Robbins. I'm an ordinary person and literally know a little bit of internet marketing.

Here is my story...

I'm from Lahore and thanks to the rulers, life here is very expensive.

I was encountered with a crisis situation that completely devastated me.

I had no other option but to quit the job so I did it and now I was heading towards my rental. Please note that I live with my family. I was contributing almost 50% of the monthly expenses. Now that I had quit my job, I was actually putting a huge dent on the earnings. The goal was to manage the crisis situation.

I had three options to cope with that situation:

i. To Go For Another Job: I had got some internet marketing skills so I could get some job with some extra effort. (Obviously, that would take some time)
ii. To Take Loan: To ask some friend or relative for help. (Again, not an option for me as I knew paying back is a more difficult job)
iii. To Go For Freelancing: I'd got some familiarity with the freelancing/working from home/the laptop lifestyle. I had no previous experience in this field but I had created an account at www.elance.com so I decided to give it a try.

Filled with fear (that actually became the driving force to keep me motivated during that hard time) of not fulfilling my commitment towards my
family, I started applying for jobs. I got 3 responses from different employers and one of them hired me for a $300 job. My job earning was $450/month in the company where I quit my job. My surprise touched new heights after getting this first freelancing job. Everything starting looking different. I wanted to tell everyone in the world about this success but I kept my cool and started thinking on how to deliver the assigned job and get full star rating. I still remember I got 4.7/5 rating for that job.

I worked hard and soon my earnings surpassed $1000/month. Internet marketing is ever changing industry so to keep pace with it, I kept looking for different courses to update my skills. The problem that I faced was that there was plethora of information available on the internet so it became confusing which one to choose and where to start learning the next thing. I started following videos of different marketers on YouTube and on some other platforms. After spending hours and hours of time on these free courses, I failed to update my knowledge. So, I had to take some paid courses for Facebook PPC. Meanwhile, I kept delivering projects at Elance. I never commited anything that my team (yes, now I had a team working for me) could not deliver and it paid off in the long run.

Then one day, Odesk and Elance merged and became Upwork. They started charging very high fee for the initial pay. So, I started focusing on other business development channels. Despite taking my focus off the Upwork platform, I still was earning good money there.

I'm still working as freelancer and have come a long way from $0 to $3500/month on average. I was thinking of returning what I've learned after years of struggle. I learned about Steemit and this blog is a token of love with you lovely people.

My next post would be a case study about a campaign that raised $50,000 in 24 hours at Indiegogo. I was part of the team and it was a great learning experience. I would like to share it with you.

As I said, I know little bit about internet marketing but I would love to share all what I know with the beginners. The key to success is GIVING, not TAKING.

So, feel free to ask any question below and I'd happily answer whatever I know.

This introductory blog was aimed at encouraging beginners. If you found it helpful, I'd be happy to know about it in the comments section.

Stick around as the next article is going to be an informative case study.

Love,

Yasir Bokhari