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When I was working in a clothes shop, dreaming of making a living from the internet, I remember one thing that really kept me motivated was reading success stories from other people. Just knowing that someone, somewhere was doing exactly what I wanted to do was enough to keep me putting in the hours.
Earlier in the year I shared an example of two moms making over $5k/m online. Today I want to share another case study with you and reveal how one guy in New Zealand is making up to $10,000 every single month in the Forex industry, one of the most profitable but competitive industries online.
His name is Cam and he was more than willing to share some of his insights in the hope that you’ll be inspired to create your own success story and get some new ideas in the process.
I’m sure you just want me to get right into the interview, so away we go…
“How long have you been making money online? How did you get started?”
I’ve been making money online for about 4 years. It’s a long story… and in all honesty I stumbled into it really. I was playing golf at a work event alongside a guy who was my account manager at an advertising firm. He was telling the story of his ex-colleague (whom I had dealt with before) and how he had made his first million trading futures after just 6 months of leaving his job! I decided to find out how this guy had managed to do it and made an effort to get in contact with him.
He was very obliging and gave me some links to the courses he had done and the path he had taken. I had to take a $1,000 “leap of faith” to buy one of his recommended courses and spent the next 6 months learning how to trade. I loaded the course onto my iPod and listened to it on the bus most days. Then one bus ride to work I thought to myself “I wonder how many more of these courses are around and how good would it be if people could compare them online?”
Excited by my new idea, I did a quick Google search when I got to work and to my astonishment there where hundreds, if not thousands… and the icing on the cake was that they would pay me commission if I referred people to their sites to buy their products. So I embarked on building my first affiliate site, a trading system review website, called Trading Systems Rated.
“Most marketers I know have suffered a number of failures before find something that works. Did this happen with you?”
My first ever venture online was a complete failure and wasted 6 months of my time. Shortly after my first child was born, my wife bought me the book ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’. After reading it in about 2 days (which is about 2 months shorter than most books I read) I decided to register a business in preparation for making my millions. An idea came to me a month later. I was going to create a social network specifically for neighbours (this was before Facebook hit the big time).
I spent the next 6 months building KnowMyNeighbour.com from scratch and it launched it with a fizzle. Then, after realizing that I didn’t really want to connect with my neighbours and there was going to be no money in it unless I had millions of visitors, I decided to pull it down…never to be mentioned again!
“Why did you decide to focus on the Forex market?”
After having success in the general trading system market I could see that Forex products were the most prevalent and had low barriers to entry for consumers. Almost every product launch was a Forex product of some variety from manual to automated systems and almost all of them had affiliate or referral programs that were easy to sign up to. I was hooked as I had started trading Forex at the same time.
“Could you tell us more about one of your top earning sites, ForexReviewsRated?”
ForexReviewsRated.com has been around for almost 3 years now and reviews all types of Forex trading products from systems to signals and automated trading robots. It has a focus on trading robots where I run demo tests in what I call my “Forex Lab”. If they make the grade I’ll trial them on my live account and if I feel their risk/reward ratio is good and that they’ll be profitable over the long term they become “Graduates”.
I get about 15-18,000 visits a month (8-9000 unique visitors) with most of the traffic (73%) coming from search engines and the majority of that from Google. The remaining traffic is a split between Direct and Referring sites. I also have an active email list which generates some good spikes in traffic and revenue. The site generates between $3,000 and $10,000 per month. Usually it’s around the $5,000 mark and this comes from a variety of sources with the majority from affiliate commissions.
It originally started earning money with Google Adsense (which I no longer use) within a week and from affiliate commissions within the first 3 weeks. My first sites (TradingSystemsRated.com and StockBrokersRated.com) were about the same.
“What software are you using to run the review site?”
I tried out about 4 different WordPress review plugins and found that WPReviewEngine, although it cost money, was exactly what I needed. It seemed to work better with affiliate sites than other free plugins.
I took a little while to get my head around how to customise it but once you test a few things out it soon becomes obvious. Their support is really good and they helped me out when I needed to integrate it with my theme. I ended up moving my trading systems site to WordPress and used the WPReviewEngine plugin. If I ever start another review site in the future, this will surely be on my list of plugins.
Note from Glen: I know some of the people behind the plugin so asked if they would offer a discount for ViperChill readers who may be interested in starting their own review site. Though they’re already running a 30%-off special for Christmas, they kindly created the coupon code ‘ViperChill’ which will take 50% off the price of your order for the next 72 hours.
“How are you driving traffic to your network?”
I’ve done all sorts in the past and some work well for a short time but in the long term these are the things I do now:
- Put up good and valuable information because this will get you links from sites that you wouldn’t normally be able to get links from. This all helps with your search rankings.
- Follow trends. If you see a particular topic of interest, write a post about it. This also helps with search traffic.
- Start an email list. This is guaranteed traffic and should be your main goal in the beginning.
- Always respond to emails that you get via the site. These people may start commenting on your blog or post links to your blog on other popular blogs/forums. These days I can write a fairly quick and dirty post and expect my regulars to review the product for me and add comments that Google and other visitors love.
“When you work for yourself it can be hard to ‘get going’ at times. What keeps you motivated?”
It helps to have an interest in your niche. The FX market has so many dimensions that there’s always something to keep me interested. Five things that motivate me are:
1. Setting short term goals which are fun to achieve. Some of mine have been: a $1,000 week through Clickbank and a Clickbank “full house” where there are no $0 bars (this means you made a sale every day for the past two weeks) – I achieved both of these at the same time funnily enough.
2. Setting seemingly impossible goals, e.g. pay off my mortgage in two years, get 50,000 subscribers on my list in one year, make $10,000 in one day
3. Reading books written by those who have been there done that, e.g. 4 hour work week by Tim Ferris
4. Looking for an opportunity to do things better, e.g. trying things out on the site to see if something works better or creating other site ideas and taking them to the market (another site of mine is ForexDealDay.com a one day deal site for Forex products)
5. Building relationships with others in the industry and those that have common interests, e.g. I’ve recently partnered with a 17 year Forex veteran from South Africa and now we’re selling his system called the ForexPipMagnet.com using the brand and reputation I have built up through my review site
My drive comes from reading books that help change your perspective and give you focus like “The science of getting rich” by Wallace G Wattle and “The secret”. I find that it’s a bit like a video game where you’re the player. The deeper you get into the game the more exciting and addictive it gets. You get to the stage where you just can’t get enough of it!
“What advice would you give to ViperChill readers who might not be seeing results they expected from their internet marketing efforts?”
I would say:
- Always think long term. Ask yourself this question: Are you providing real unique value to your visitors/subscribers?
- There’s always a cheaper and quicker way to do everything. If you know this, you’ll find the way. This happens to me all the time. A better alternative presents itself out of the blue, even when I’m not looking for it.
- Your worst day can be followed by your best day. Even if you’ve had your worst day of visitors/sales in ages, tomorrow could be your best. This also happens to me all the time.
- Subscribe to every list you can in your niche and learn from what others are doing.
- Aim high. If you want to make $1,000 a week, aim for $10,000 instead.
My Thoughts
Anyone who gets free cloud niche updates will know that I’ve sent out emails about ‘review’ sites before and explained why they’re so effective. These type of sites can can make a lot of money with little traffic because you’re intercepting a sale before someone actually buys something.
The person is likely to already be in the buying mode and just wants to see what other people have to say about their potential purchase. If they stumble on a site that recommends it (or a related product) then there’s a high chance that they’ll make a purchase, earning you money through any affiliate links.
I remember review sites being around when I started out in 2005 and I still see them making a lot of money for people in 2011, further proving how effective they can be. The reason the particular review format (ranking products against each other) works so well is because when you spend money, you want to get the best product. If I’m looking for reviews of a certain hosting company but someone is showing me why a different company is better, I’m likely to go with the new option.
If you’re looking for a style of affiliate site to build then a review site seems to be a good option. Since they are commonly run on top of WordPress, it’s then easy to add fresh, unique content to your site as well. I think Cam will agree with me that their laser focus on email subscribers and affiliate sales means they won’t always be the prettiest sites, but they can generate incredible conversion rates.
Special thanks to Cam for taking the time out to share what is working for him! I hope you all enjoyed the post.
P.S. We’ve had some interesting discussions on the ViperChill Facebook page lately so make sure you hit ‘Like’ if you want to get involved. On Monday I asked how people were planning to change their marketing tactics in 2012 and I personally learned a lot from the feedback. Thanks as always for your support!
RSS Subscribers: 
Whoo! First
Hah, you’re the new Alex
I saw it as it got posted on Facebook and I couldn’t resist. Nice interview though
sweet discount on a good plugin
Thanks man. See you in a few weeks!
It sounds bad but I like reading that others have had failures before they’ve had success. I guess it means there’s still time for me to make my fortune!
Hey Adem,
If it helps then you’ll be happy to know that I’ve had far more failed websites than successful ones
And yes, of course there is.
Your interviews of fellow internet marketers keeps me motivated
Good to hear Owais!
Enjoying these Glen, but would love to see more that don’t associate with MMO at all.
Hey Gregory,
I really wouldn’t put Forex in that category (especially since Cam is a trader as well) but your feedback is noted. Thanks!
When you’re starting out, its difficult to know who exactly is making any money and who is over inflating their earnings to sell you some crap, rehashed product. When you find the ones who are making good money, it can inspire you to the next level, for sure. Nice article and thanks for the 50% coupon.
Hey Martin,
Thanks for the comment!
You’re welcome
Great market and a great business model – no wonder he’s doing well!
Thanks for sharing this interview. I especially like the idea of setting small, measurable goals at the same time as truly audacious ones – makes the whole thing more fun, for sure
Thanks for sharing!
Hey Sarah,
Good to see you over here…it has been a while!
I appreciate this post very much as most of us struggle to monetize our domains.
But posts like this make us not to give up and to keep trying !
Thanks for this Glen…
You’re welcome. Cam provided some great answers!
- G
I have still some specific questions for you in the forum section..
I will appreciate your guidelines when you could find some free time..
Hi Glen,
Awesome interview. It is really great to see case studies like this, who aren’t associated with MMO or IM niche.
Thanks for sharing and have a great day.
Hey Dev,
Haven’t seen you here in a while either. Thanks man!
Thank you for sharing this case report. I like the different approach he took with his business model (from the site type to his income streams). I was surprised by the income he was generating with that traffic.
Hey Roshawn,
Yeah, one of the great things about this type of site is that they convert very well, so the visitor count doesn’t have to be as high. Of course, the traffic is very targeted as well
Thanks for the comment!
I am the developer of the Pip Magnet he speaks of in the article – How I came to be in a JV with Cam is due to hie will to win – he sent me an email selling some or other – I sent him a reply saying -”mine is the real thing ” i use it and made money – within 24 hours the jv was established – this will go right to the top – his integrity and honesty – though thousands of miles away is the scarce commodity that motivates me into greater things – watch his announcements and see me put the deed to the word. Cam I see my association with you as the start of big things.
Hans
SnrTrader
Hey Hans,
A friend passed me on to Cam and I can agree with your ‘integrity’ comments. He’s clearly trying to give back which I really like to see.
Good luck with your project!
Hey Glen
I just spoke to my business partner about a couple of our “stale” review sites and will be buying the plug-in. Thanks for the tips and the coupon
Cheers
Mark
Awesome!
Good luck Mark
Hey man,
awesome case study, it’s always so refreshing to see other people making money in niches other than IM.
I’ve seen a couple of these review type sites that are making serious bank. The wpreview plugin seems like a nifty little tool for anyone doing review sites. I’m thinking of even adding a review type page to my blog with personal development products.
Thanks for the discount on the plugin, good deal for $50.
Cheers
Diggy
Finally got you to comment, huh?
Baie dankie
Solid piece and I appreciate the tip on a good WordPress review app. Going to look at ways to integrate it ASAP!
Hey Hugo,
Thanks buddy. Let me know what you end up doing
I am actually in the process of looking at trying to revamp one of my review sites, so that plug in may be just what I need!
Thanks for the change of pace post!
It’s always nice to mix things up a little.
Good luck with your ventures
thats great if there is a “real” forex site out there as its probably one of the most scammy/overhyped niches outside of IM there is. most of that Forex stuff is pure junk and most of those forex robots arent profitable in real world money so that is good if the site adds real value with someone who actually trades
Thanks for this guest post Glen (and Cam). It is very encouraging whenever you provide the opportunity to understand how those a little further along the curve are having success.
Cheers,
Jeff
You’re welcome Jeff,
Thanks for the comment!
I love this post. I love reading success stories.
I’m very interested in review sites. It’s funny because today I’ve been working with a customer who has a review site and doesn’t know how to monetize it. Crazy.
Cristina
Hah, that’s an odd coincidence.
Hope all is well Cristina
I am with you I love inspiring stories. that’s what keeps me motivated.
Awesome Edgar,
Thanks for the comment!
10K/month is my dream, biggest dream. Impressive
Nice case study. It’s quite a long interview Glen, thank you for sharing it with us. Unfortunately, I’m not into the Forex niche. Still, there are so many strategies in the interview that I can implement for my niche!
Efbio
Me neither, but I agree that it’s nice to see and I always get some little nuggets of info to help me in the industries where I do operate.
Thanks for the comment Mas.
Glenn, this is really refreshing article for me. Actually am not running a review site but I might have to incorporate a review page on my blog. I like your blog theme.
Joseph
Thanks Joseph!
Nice article Glen, I didn’t know that there was so much money only in the reviews of Forex Niche. I am from India, and our number one online newspaper TimesOfIndia heavily promotes iForex currency trading advertising through their news portal.
Hah that’s pretty interesting. I wonder if it performs better than other markets or they just received a specific sponsor.
Hi Glenn, just want to thanks for the coupon, it works !
No problem Rosetta
Hi – nice post, thanks
It would be good to know:
1) If cam is a trader too – I assuming so.
2) If cam actually buys all the products he reviews.
And for personal interest – what were the trading courses his friend recommended at the start of the post were – e.g. ” I had to take a $1,000 “leap of faith” to buy one of his recommended courses”
Hey Simon,
Cam does say he is a trader yes, but I’m not sure about the second question. I’ll send him a mail now and hopefully he can get back to you
Thanks for the comment!
Hi All
Really pleased to hear this article is of help to people… this is the sort of thing l use to get inspired by myself! Who’d have thought a few years later it would be about me
Simon, in answer to your questions:
- I use to buy alot of the products I reviewed,especially the ones that looked promising. Now I have a good reputation in the industry I get given most of them to review free of charge. Some prior to launch and some post launch.
Anyway, the course was by a chap called Kim Reily… and to be fair is a little outdated now. I’m not sure if it’s still available.
- The reseller for the course that got me started has since been declared bankrupt… I know this because I became his affiliate and sold a couple of the courses myself… and he still owes me some commission.
Oh, and yes, I trade daily… mostly automated trading as running multiple sites does take a litle time
Cheers
Cam
Thanks for the answers Cam!
Cam, it was great to read about a fellow Kiwi who has seen success from online business. Your interview also gave me a few ideas about how to expand a couple of other niche sites I have so thank you!
I wish you continued success with your ventures.
And thanks Glen for posting this interview. I love reading case studies and gleaning new ideas from what is already working for others.
Hi Glen,
Another good post and case study for how you can have great success online!
I’ve always been told to try and a void the Forex niche though? Obviously Campbell is killing it!
Whats your thoughts?
Thanks
Stuart
Hi,
Thanks for the interview. However, I think it provides very little value as many questions remain unanswered. Especially when he talks about the parts how he promotes his site it would be interesting HOW he is doing things. HOW is he approaching industry experts, HOW does he start a joint venture, WHAT are the key facts to consider etc.
Obviously it’s nice to read how somebody makes 10k/mo and somewhat motivating, too. If that’s the sole purpose of this post, then it’s totally fine. BUT if you’re a little into internet marketing you’ve read the same kind of tips over and over again, because those tips just work, there is no short cut. However, it would be highly interesting to get a glimpse behind those standard phrases by, for example, asking: How does your internet marketing day look like? Which tools do you use to structure your content/contacts? And much more…
But as I said, probably that wasn’t the purpose of this post. I am pretty much done reading how people make x amount of money as I my self can finally live off of my internet marketing revenue. I want to know HOW other marketers work but this probably can’t be covered in an interview.
But honestly, Glen, that’s your own fault. With your own in depth posts you set up the ladder that high that it becomes very difficult to compete with yourself
Mauricio
Hey Mauricio,
Just an FYI but I caught this in spam so you might want to send Akismet an email.
Obviously I disagree with the ‘very little value’ comment since I personally got quite a bit out of it and it seems I’m not alone, but I wont go into that. Why don’t you propose some questions you want to ask? Cam has already posted in the comments here with answers to questions from other people…
There’s always going to be something I miss
- G
It is always great to read case studies like this. It really helps with motivation and it seems that whenever I read a case study about someone making big bucks online it makes me work twice as hard that day/week.
So keep them coming
Thanks!
Hey Dave,
Will do! Thanks for the comment
Hey Stuart,
Thanks for the comment. I guess that would depend on who said it to you and why they said it.
It’s one of the biggest (and most profitable) niches online so there is no reason I would discount it personally. I’m just busy enough as it is
- G
Hi Glen,
Thanks for sharing this interview. I like especially this part: “Just knowing that someone, somewhere was doing exactly what I wanted to do was enough to keep me putting in the hours.” It´s the same thing that keeps myself on the way.
Kind regards
Markus
Hey Markus
You’re very welcome. Thanks for the comment!
Good post. A good interview is often about asking the right questions so I’m glad to see this is the case here. I especially like the part about motivation, in this type of industry it is sometimes easy to know exactly how to do something but not have the motivation to make it happen!
Thanks Dan,
Motivation is a big interest of mine so I’m always curious about other people’s answers.
Appreciate it!
- G
Hello Glen,
This case study has motivated me to continue my make money online venture. As of this time my goal is to earn at least $10 per day (at least I earn) from GA and on the coming year, my target is 10 times the current one and it would be $100 a day combining GA and click bank and I wish I would be successful with that small target in mind.
Hey Scolex,
Glad to hear that it inspired you. Best of luck!
hey , glen , stop doing this and
give me some MONEY , HELP PLEASE I AM 21 here ‘s my story : http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AkydIbGGQnL5DRrW3Qm3_AsE53NG;_ylv=3?qid=20111208062557AAw3dbD
Hi Annie,
I’m sorry but I’m not sure how to help you personally. I know you are a regular commenter here so I hope everything is okay.
I have tweeted the link for you in the hope you can find someone who can give you what you’re looking for…
I find that the most interesting part about this article is the stigma that FOREX has as a “spammer” community, and here is a story that truly provides a need for people, real value. That’s worth something!
Glen, very inspirational..review sites work because the get traffic that is almost ready to buy or traffic that is ready to buy.aka buying traffic.this has given some ideas for review sites and topics.
Yep, absolutely.
Awesome! Good luck MK
- G
Great Stuff Glen!
Something a bit different than you would normally write about
Ralph
Hey Ralph,
Yep, like I said above…it’s good to mix things up once in a while
Hope all is well…
Hi, Glenn.
Following your blog. Awesome.
I’ve seen your Cloud Blueprint, and am starting to implement your ideas.
I know I will learn more from taking action than anything, so I don’t want to ask you about “what is the perfect way to achieve this or that (subscribers, etc.)”. You already gave tons of value in that video series
, and I thank you for that.
However, I’d like to ask you these two questions:
1)Do you really think that selling on the first email is a bad idea?
2)How did you make this (share the Love vs subscribe) box at the end? Is it a WordPress plugin?
Thanks : ).
I enjoy this post. It has peaked my interest in Forex markets.
This case study is very interesting. Excellent idea, forex is one of the most excellent niche but very competitive. I was in forex 3 years ago and knowing people will spend there dollars for a system. Your idea seems good on the other niche. Maybe I should not let these fly until tomorrow.
Thanks for the interesting post Glen, and Cam for the idea. Cheers!
Hi,
Just wanna say, even though I’ve read enough of your posts to recognize you don’t want people treating you weird, you’re kind’ve where I wanna be when I’m your age.
I made my first (crappy) MFA website when i was 15, but recently being 19 I’ve been pursuing making money properly since I started travelling the world – I’ve gotta become self sufficient within 4-5 months or the money runs out… so incredible motivation!
Just wanna say that you along with perhaps 4-5 other people/websites provide me with good information that makes me just know ill be successful.. not just the making money side of things but the mentality required. I just know I’m going to make good money and live my dream life.
Thanks a lot for many of your posts. They were informative and helpful,
jonny
You’re welcome Jonny,
Thanks a lot for that comment. It keeps me doing this
Hey, this was a great article. Is there any way you could put me in touch with Cam via email? We’ve got a product, http://www.trendfollowing101.com that is really high quality and even though it’s not forex, it’s still an investing product and maybe he would be interested in a joint venture with us. Let me know, I’d really appreciate it! thanks!
I don’t want to post his email publicly but there’s a contact form on some of his sites that were mentioned
Thanks for the enlighting case study/interview Glen, I’m going to check out the WPReviewEngine for a project I’m working on. I always get great information from your blog.
Now that’s load of money
Finance niche blog or website always tend to make more money even with less traffic than any other niche.
Hey Glen,
Even though I don’t like Forex nor it interests me, the content of the interview was top notch.
It’s amazing that there are literally hundreds of people getting out of nowhere with these success stories.
“I was dead broke, barely knew how to check my e-mail and then I had this idea…”
Two years later they are top earning marketing leaders!
Really encouraging, I think I’m going back to square one with the cloud training.
You have a paid training too right?
Thanks in advance!
Sergio
Hey man, thanks for pointing me out to open office for creating pdf files with working links.
Sorry for posting this message here, I read about Open Office in one of your posts. I just want to say many, many thanks.
Cris
You’re welcome
Hey Glenn,
Re: niche sites — Do you usually advise people to build out a ton of mini sites and see how they naturally rank and get traffic before building them out,
or do you just get a nice keyword with a good product, decent traffic /low competition and just decide to dominate the competition with a lot of content and quality?
I have no idea how I didn’t find this place until now..
Thanks man,
Alex
My brother is cleaning up in the Forex niche. I’ve just started my own mini-site to see what happens. Thanks Glenn for chiming in on this one.
I tried the forex niche back in the day but wasn’t patient enough to see it through and never had the capitol I felt I needed for investing in an actual Forex account. At that time I remember that I needed a minimum of 10k to see any real money from Forex trading.
Great to see someone found success with it though
Loved the article. I like hearing about success on the internet. Looking forward to some success of my own one day.
Thanks Glen
I’m going to setup a couple of my Forex domains for forex review sites.
My intention is to still sell most of my forex domains.But even with the competition in this forex review niche there is still room for a great quality forex review site.
With the plugin and discount i’ll make it happen.
Yes there is a lot of Forex junk in the currency trading industry. Its just a matter of looking at the other Forex websites and not making their mistakes.
I really enjoyed this article and always appreciate the effort and length of time you put into your work. You make everything worthwhile for your readers and it’s nice to see someone providing unique and creative content. There’s too much of the same rehashed information on the internet and you do a great job, Glen! This article continues to give me the confidence that I will have a successful online business one day.
I’ve been in this niche for many years and all I can say is that the difficulty to make money is getting tougher every week. The methods used on this site should be considered for sure, but in other niches. Unless you have a solid site that is aged in the Forex niche, you may want to rethink your options.
Great Interview and I’m glad I came across it. Keep these case studies coming.
Fantastic article, Glen. I love how thorough and insightful all of your posts are. Just top drawer, all the way. I’m hooked.
Wow Glenn this is a fantastic article.. I think about start a mini niche site in the forex niche, but its so crowdy.. Thanks for the great inspiration..
It’s interesting how you said you started out with Adsense at first and then switched over to affiliate ads. I think adsense is great for those just starting out because all it takes is a click to see some instant cash. However, once you get better at SEO you can see a lot more ROI if you can make affiliate sales. And of course if you can sell your own product it can be the most rewarding financially and personally.
Brilliant article Glen! If there where more people like you in the world then wouldn’t everything be so much easier? You have inspired me to get off my backside and get moving. Thanks for the information.
You are giving a really awesome info, Glen!