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Since I no longer write monthly updates, I don’t really have a section here where I get to share the personal goings on in my life. Whilst thinking about this, I realised that unless you’ve purchased a product from me, you have no idea what I did to get to where I am today.
The bullet points on my about page tell a little bit about my story, but they definitely don’t give you the full picture. I decided that now would be a good a time as any to share my journey in the hope that it will inspire, motivate, and show you what is possible when you really want to succeed in this industry badly enough.
Lycos Tripod
The Lycos Tripod Site Builder was where my journey began. I had just witnessed a friend building a website on the computers at school, and thought that the whole process looked pretty cool. I’ve always been creative and self-motivated, so I instantly thought about how I could build websites and potentially make some money.
After some brainstorming, Tech-uk4u.tripod.com (awesome name, right?) was born. As soon as I set-up the site, I just knew it was going to make me a millionaire. I was totally nerdy and into computers at the time, so I created a site offering tips on how to fix various computer issues. Jammed printers? Covered. Slow computers? Covered. The “genius” part of this operation was when I decided to put a Paypal button on all of the articles.
I would give people the first paragraph of the solution, then insert the Paypal button, and they would have to pay $1 in order to get access to the rest of the article. How could the idea not make me a millionaire?
That’s easy. I didn’t get a single visitor to my site. Apparently traffic is pretty important if you want to make money from websites ;]. I had assumed that once my website was up, I would start getting flooded with traffic. As you can expect, I didn’t make a penny from the site, and my hopes were shattered.
This was 2005, and I was 15 years old. Though the site was a failure, the “bug” had been placed.
It’s Time to Become Cool
Since I failed with my mission to build a website around technology, I decided to focus on an offline hobby for a while instead. I had always loved messing around with music, so I decided to take up DJ’ing as my next big project.
For the next year I spent most of my online time on a DJ forum known as DJ Source. It ran vBulletin and was the most popular DJ’ing forum online. I have no idea why I spent so many hours on the site, as at the time I didn’t actually DJ. Maybe I just loved all of the arguments there with a user called “Benny” who, incidentally, kept threatening to kill me.
In the process of spending so much time on this site, I did end up convincing my parents to let me buy some turntables, and I also started a website, DJ Scene. It was a forum for DJ’s, running phpBB, and it was actually fairly popular. I had built up enough of a reputation on DJSource to get 200 or so members to join me and continue the discussions on my own site.
Running the site was an absolute nightmare, but I learned a lot. Users kept requesting features I would try to implement, but implementing new features in phpBB, when you know nothing about PHP, is like trying to read a book in Braille without anyone telling you which bumps correspond to which letters. Every week the header of the website outputted some ugly PHP errors, and I had to beg anybody I could find to help me clean up the mess.
Usually it was a guy named Steven, who was trying to build a popular hosting company. I would be really curious to know what he’s doing these days, now that I think about it. I owe him some link juice.
After a few months of running the forum I saw a post on DJ Source from a guy called Dean. He had just built a website called My DJ Space and was asking members what they thought of it. Since MySpace was the biggest thing online at the time, I thought the idea behind MyDJSpace was amazing. I told Dean that I would send all of my members his way if he split the ownership of the website with me. Dean agreed, and thus my next project was born.
It’s Time to Fail At Life
For the next two years I built a completely new version of MyDJSpace, which ran the social networking software phpFox, and did everything I could to market the website. I had learned from TechUK-4U that I couldn’t just build a site and expect people to use it; we had to get the word out there.
MyDJSpace became a place where DJ’s from around the world could upload their mixes, chat with other DJ’s and learn about equipment. If you were into DJ’ing, then it was pretty much everything you could need in a website.
That’s probably why it exploded, as we quickly had 10,000 members, top rankings in Google, and we were featured in the book DJ’ing for Dummies. I bought two copies of the book, simply because I was so proud of my achievements. (Side note: I saw a copy of the book in a bookstore last month and was disappointed to see they have taken out mentions of me in version two. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, since MyDJSpace has been dead for a long time).
I was putting so much work into MyDJSpace that I started failing in most areas of my life in dramatic fashion. I would work on the site until 4am pretty much every day, skip my first few lessons of high school (and later, college), go to one or two classes, and then come home to work on the site again. I managed to do this for about a year before my parents noticed. My college attendance report came back with a nice shock for them: my attendance rate was 40%.
Meaning, for every two classes I was supposed to go to, I turned up to less than one.
I wasn’t making that much money with the site, since we wanted to grow the community rather than overly monetise it, so I had to get a job in a clothes store making about $7 per hour if I wanted a steady income. For two years I would work there every single weekend, Saturday and Sunday, and dreaded each time another weekend approached.
My job consisted of putting clothes on rails, working on the fitting rooms, and scanning literally thousands of items with some nifty device to see if the price of it needed to be reduced. If it did, I would put a little red label over the price tag. I can’t put into words how much enthusiasm for life the job took out of me. If I think about it now I just feel depressed. Every single shift was spent dreaming of the day when I didn’t have to work there anymore.
I was making a good amount of money online, sometimes as much as $5,000 in a single month, but my problem was that the income just wasn’t consistent. I could make $9,000 in two months, and then $1,000 in total for the next six. I hadn’t found a strategy that would work consistently.
The Blur In-Between
Working on MyDJSpace was more of an on-off thing, rather than something I constantly focused on. In the space of four years, I focused on a number of different projects online. Both successfully and unsuccessfully.
Here’s a few:
- Proxy Sites: I built some proxies which allowed my college friends to access sites like Facebook and Youtube which had been blocked. They blew up, thanks to some clever SEO, and I later sold them for a few thousand dollars.
- Celebrity Gossip Blog: After hearing how easy it was to make money writing about celebrities, I decided to give it a try. I wrote 4 posts per day, for a month, before contemplating slitting my wrists because I really did not care what Paris Hilton was getting up to. Needless to say, it was ridiculously easy to get traffic to this website, but I sold it after the first month.
- ViperChill: Does this ring a bell? I actually started ViperChill back when I was 16 in 2006. At that time it offered web design and internet marketing services. Through the years the aim of the site has changed a lot, but I would always neglect it after a few months.
- Marketing Forums: After becoming really passionate about internet marketing, I created a fairly popular marketing forum. I had to create a few fake accounts and discussions to get the ball rolling, but it was fairly successful. Forums are hard to monetise though without a ton of users, so it didn’t take me long to abandon this project.
I could go on but the list is huge. To say I’ve tried everything is an understatement. Link selling, ad promotions, random niche websites that I didn’t care about and even the odd blackhat tactics. Not all things that I’m proud of but all of the testing taught me a lot in a small period of time.
The highlight of all of this was probably a writing competition that I won online, on EarnersForum.com. I won a brand new PC running Windows Vista for my winning entry on marketing. This wasn’t a highlight because I got a new PC, but because I finally had something physical to show for the thousands of hours I had spent trying to make money on the internet.
Ironically, it actually exploded when I tried to use it for the first time. I hadn’t changed the setting on the back which adjusts the power voltage between UK and USA standards.
Goodbye Newcastle, Hello Cape Town
In the midst of my success with ViperChill and the marketing forums I was running, I was also active on a few other sites. I would often come across a member of an SEO forum on my journey to become better at SEO (let’s call him John) and to say he was an SEO genius is an understatement. I contributed to the site with posts about my success getting on the homepage of Digg and getting tons of traffic from Fark, but I had no idea those posts would lead to what they did.
One day I received a random friend request on MSN. It was from John’s boss, pitching me about the idea of coming to Cape Town to head up their new Social Media department. I would get to train the team, work with big companies, and see another side of the world. I still had a year left of college, so I politely declined but assured him I would speak to him in a year after I had finished college if the job was still available.
I went on with my day as usual, spending time with my cousins. My mom came home from work later in the day and I laughed as I told her about the offer. “This crazy guy in South Africa wants me to go and work there” I said. She was surprised I had said no, and urged me to rethink it. “You don’t enjoy college, you hate your job, and this is what you want to do when you finish college anyway.” She was right.
Within 30 seconds I had decided that was it. I was going to leave England and go and work in South Africa. I didn’t know one single person in the country, and all I read online talked about how bad crime there (here) was. Yet, the chance to work on my dream projects was enough to lure me away from everything and everyone I knew.
My Dad is a fairly serious man, so I was totally shocked when he laughed out loud when I phoned him about the news. I guess it’s hard to take any phone call which begins with “Dad, I’m moving to South Africa” very seriously. I did have the full support of my family though (I was just 18 at the time) and a few weeks later, I touched down at Cape Town International.
Taking Things to the Next Level
In South Africa, I learned a lot about myself as a person, matured a lot, and had a chance to put my many marketing ideas into practice. When working with Hewlett Packard, I was competing with big marketing teams from all over the world, representing the HP brand in their specific countries. Though I was working on my own, I sent more targeted traffic to the HP website than any of the other marketing firms. Combined.
I helped one British newspaper hit the Digg homepage over 40 times, and when working with Bacardi on a unique project I actually took down their servers. Ironically, because I sent them so much traffic and took their website offline, they didn’t see a good conversion rate and stopped working with us. Some companies will just never get it.
Besides doing well for the company and our clients, I had a lot of success on my own. In the two years I spent working in South Africa, I built a large number of very profitable and very successful affiliate websites. Once I found a unique niche angle that was working well, I then used that idea across a number of industries, and started making a lot of money.
I also started PluginID, a personal development blog that documented my journey in South Africa and the things I learned about spirituality, motivation and productivity along the way. I came to the point where in January 2009, I was making more money in just a few hours per week with affiliate marketing than I was at the marketing company full-time, so I decided now was a good time to leave.
As much as I enjoyed the job, there’s nothing that compares to being able to work for yourself and on projects which totally excite you. I returned to England where I continued to focus on my affiliate sites and PluginID. PluginID reached 75,000 visitors per month and had over 7,000 RSS subscribers. I ended up selling the website for a mid-five figure fee.
I knew that I was going to miss having an audience online, so it made perfect sense to resurrect the ViperChill brand at the same time I sold my personal development blog. In the last 14 months I’ve helped spend over $200,000 on websites, sold 95% of my online properties, and continued to try and make ViperChill the number one marketing blog in the world.
I have some huge goals ahead of me, so trust me when I say that this is just the beginning. Thank you for being part of the story…
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Love the personal journey bro.
sometimes in life I guess you have to fail enough to find your success. Although this is not essential by any means but a lot of people go through that process.
Persistence and consistency is essential to achieve any degree of success in any field.
i glad to see you creating a variety of applications around the brand and it will only contribute towards immensely towards the authority you stamp in the field.
Well done and thanks again
Thanks Azzam,
Glad you enjoyed it.
“sometimes in life I guess you have to fail enough to find your success”
That definitely seems to be the case for me
I think ViperChill probably already is the #1 marketing blog in the world. It’s helped me more than any other site has done.
Haha, thank you Brandon
Number 1 marketing blog my ass!
Lol’d
Many people believe that heading onto the Internet will mean they become overnight success. In my experience and other colleagues within the affiliate industry especially it takes a good couple of years to become successful (whatever that may be). By the sounds of it, this is fairly similar to your journey. A year or so and then it really kicked on.
This is a really good post for anyone starting out. Long may your success continue!
Hey Will,
It definitely seems like you have to through a bit of trial and error. Thankfully there are some courses out there that speed up the process, but you do have to put the work in.
Thanks. You too!
very inspiring post, just curious but which British newspaper?
. Subscribed !
I’m not allowed to say. Thankfully the other clients in this post weren’t under an NDA.
I’m stoked it inspired you. Thanks!
Incredible story, I bet your dad is still laughing
Are you back in the toon now?
Haha
Nope, I will be there as of July
Let me know and I’ll buy you a coffee / tea / bag of chips in Whitley Bay – who could resist!?
Glenn, you’re simply awesome. What will I say to this story? Well…
My story looks like yours but yet without the big success. I just neared my first one thousand dollar yesterday. I’m 19 and enjoying it.
I’m sure this road will lead somewhere. One day, I’ll achieve all my goals one at a time. I’m getting into something big very soon and I know it’ll be exciting…Glenn, keep it rolling. I love your courage. I love you!
Tim
Thanks Tim,
As a sidenote, please don’t keep typing your name as “Come and Join blah blah blah”. I’m guessing that’s not what your parents called you
Fantastic read Glen. Great to here from a fellow Brit crushing it.
I find a combination of the real life posts and the advice posts great as it gives a run down of what you have achieved and what is out there for people who put the work in and use their brain effectively.
I’m currently part of the niche site journey and things are going well but like anything they could be better. Alot of the decisions I’ve made in regards to rejecting client work for my own projects have been inspired by things i’ve read on Viper Chill. You talk me one very clear lesson, especially if you work in SEO and that is ‘build your own projects as well as your clients’. If you can rank a client well in Google why wouldn’t you work on your own projects too?
I look forward to the rest of the journey. All the best.
Ryan
Hey Ryan,
Good to see you over here. Thanks for the kind words, and totally agree with you about the success on your own projects aswell.
Keep well.
Hey Glen,
always nice to read these long personal-development style posts. Time to start a new PluginID again, you’re really good at this:)
I’m sure there are many more adventures ahead and ones that you’ll write about in a couple of years how they made you a million dollars or more.
*Excited*
Diggy
Hey man,
I’ll hopefully be doing it more with the $1M blog, where applicable. Baie Dankie!
@Everyone – Click on Diggy’s name. He’s launching an awesome product today
looks like Diggy found Benny
http://www.upgradereality.com/guy-speaks-8-languages-interview-with-an-irish-polyglot
Heh. Definitely not the same guy.
Thanks for sharing your story Glen, it’s just as inspiring as all the other awesome content you share. While you have done a lot in such a short time, it is easy to see the hard work and passion required to get you there. Well done mate, keep kicking ass!
Hey Shaun,
Thanks a lot for the comment. I intend to do so!
Hi Glen, first time commenter but a long time reader! It’s great to read more about your journey – your personality is the biggest draw on this site for me. I literally “stumbled” across last year and have been hooked ever since, even starting my first website.
Hey Lyle,
Glad I finally convinced you to comment
Best of luck with your site!
Glen you are awesome, Truly inspiring. There’s a reason I included you in that list of inspiring entrepreneurs under 21
Thanks Ben, and thanks for the link!
Sure. FYI I added you on Skype, have a question about your developer, who I’ve started working with.
This should most certainly inspire the masses into action. But then I am somewhat cynical too as getting peeps to lift their provebials and get things done must also come from within.
Thanks for sharing your life journey!
But then, surely it was a lot of personal motivation which drove you too?
Hey Jeremy,
You’re welcome. Yeah I was definitely self-drive; but that doesn’t mean other people can’t be as well. In fact, I think that’s what everyone needs. Coupled with a real passion for doing this “online thing.”
Hi Glen, I truly love your life story. Like Lyle, I’ve been reading your posts for quite some time, and it’s my first time commenting there. ViperChill is really a great place for me to ‘chill’, and get all the marketing knowledge from you. There’s once i tried to read as many articles as i can in one sitting.
Your story inspired me, and i believe inspired many people to create something like you, to be able to live in the clouds one day like you.
Thanks for commenting as well then, Ding
Good luck on your journey!
awesome post. i think my first website was called XtremeCash at xtremecash.geocities.com – this was probably 1996 or 1997.. of course it made me loads of cash (just kidding)
i really wish i would have stuck with creating websites, trying to make money online, and learning more.. instead i took about a 12 year break before i got back into things in 2008 when i started making niche websites. needless to say, i’m not making the type of money (yet) that i would like to be making online.
Hey Mike,
At least you’re sticking to it now. That’s all you can do
Hahahahaha – I had a Lycos Tripod site and an ill-fated celebrity gossip blog back in the day. Makes me kind of nostalgic for the good old days of blatant and inappropriate optimism
Quite a journey you’ve had so far, but still, nowhere left to go but up!
Copycat
Indeed!
I always used to enjoy all your write ups, esp. with this personal touch of yours, am totally inspired. Getting into groove, thanks a ton. Reading these kind of inspirational posts once a while makes me to charge myself for the next couple of months. One thing I realized myself was, hard work never fails. It would certainly give a hand and take you to a higher level which you would have never thought of.
That’s awesome, Sri.
You’re very welcome.
You don’t hear stories like yours that often, it would be awesome if more people the drive and passion like you do to succeed. Oh and persistence, I don’t think anyone can make it in the online marketing world without PERSISTENCE.
So true,
Thanks Wilson!
Glen – when you say you spent $200K on websites – does that mean that you purchased existing websites or that you spent money promoting sites that you already have?
Purchased existing websites. Just a couple though.
Glad you’re back, so I can learn a little more with you
Where did I go?
I have to say that this was very entertaining to read. It’s always interesting to see one person’s journey and discover what it took them (failure, exploration, etc.) to reach where they are today.
Hey Tanner,
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Glen
This is my first time commenting on your blog, your story is very inspiring, I appreciate the massive value you offer in your blog every time. I will purchase Cloud Living HQ whenever I can, I do affilaite marketing for the hispanic market.
Saludos de Mexico!
Thank you for taking the time to leave your first comment, Alan!
Glen, super cool post
You mentioned previously somewhere, that in one period of time you were in that phase of buying one info product after the other, and then you decided to just stick to one site ….. it was here you started to see some success …. could you delve into that period of time in a little more detail, just out of curiosity. What was it that made you change your mind and stick to one site?
Sure.
I kept starting things because I heard about other people making money with them. The proxy sites and the celebrity blog are a good example of that. I was a member of a few marketing forums so would always test new ideas and industries I heard people have success with.
To be honest though, I just didn’t enjoy most of them. Especially the celebrity gossip blog. My income was all over the place, and I just wanted to focus on something that would allow me to keep my income at a solid level. That was my main inspiration.
I’ve been working on a Q&A community site for a while for SEOs and I would love to see a post or two by you that goes into more detail about starting, growing, and monetizing a community. I’ve been filling the site with seed questions and badgering friends to participate but have yet to see the site “take off”. I’m getting a trickle of long tail traffic but am still working on getting to the tipping point where the site becomes self sustaining.
Great blog, always appreciate your posts.
Probably the hardest way to make money online. It should be easier in the SEO niche though.
Thanks
Yeah, I figured going with a vertical like SEO would make things a bit easier. If anything, could be a channel for advertising good affiliate products and any products I create as well.
Since you worked with Digg so much, I have to ask: what do you think of the recent make-over aka “complete fucking catastrophe resulting in them crashing and burning”?
Cheers,
Andrew
They messed up and they know it.
Game over for Digg.
(Plus, Reddit is way more awesome)
Hey Glen!
I have to leave a comment on this post. Love personal posts and your story is inspiring. Glad you decided to share with your readers.
Thank you Moon,
Late to the party again, huh?
Haha
<3
It’s wonderful that you’ve made it this far. I know you have a great future ahead of you. We can all agree that it’s a positive thing to fail at first. It’s only in doing so, that we really learn how to be successful in the future.
Well done to you!
Thank you Anne,
I always appreciate your support!
Hi Glen,
I have been into self help and personal development for some time now, but have to say it was really inspiring.
Yeap fixin and upkeeping forums/communities can be a tough job, especially if you are not some php wizard.
And after this i to add your name to my list of inspirational b(m)illionares
Here are some of the entries
Edison,Walt Disney, Hennery Ford,Richard Branson, Bill Gates,Michael Dell, Steve Jobs,……, Mark Zuckerberg n Glen Allsopp
can anyone guess whats one thing that all these ppl in this list have in common apart of being awesome and have loads of money
They’re all male?
No they are all school/college drop outs
Hah, that’s interesting.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Glen,
I have been into self help and personal development for some time now, but have to say it was really inspiring.
Yeap fixin and upkeeping forums/communities can be a tough job, especially if you are not some php wizard.
And after this i to add your name to my list of inspirational b(m)illionares
Here are some of the entries
Edison,Walt Disney, Hennery Ford,Richard Branson, Bill Gates,Michael Dell, Steve Jobs,……, Mark Zuckerberg n Glen Allsopp
can anyone guess whats one thing that all these ppl in this list have in common apart of being awesome and having loads of money
Very inspiring story Glen,
It’s funny because I still have ownership of a DJ blog that’s still going at it; it’s one of my best sources of income. Odd parallels there.
Out of all of this, I think the most important thing that we can take away is to destroy the distractions. It can be scary to remove all the projects you have running because they support you but at the same time you really can’t put a ton of work into your main venture.
Awesome to see things work out.
Hey Murlu,
That’s cool. Good to see other people taking my place in the DJ niche
Thanks for sharing Glenn. Its always great to hear people’s stories
This is really awesome Glen and you’re such a great inspiration to me. It’s so cool to see that you’ve had a lot of failures and that’s what makes you a winner: You’re always ready to learn from your mistakes and do what is right.
Thanks so much for the awesome post and have a great day!
Hey Oni,
You’re very welcome. Keep rocking.
Great post glenn, very informative and inspiring to see how your sites developed
Thanks Mark.
See ya mouth:) don’t mind me. I’d deleted it from my mind but since I replied on mobile, my history plus commenting details was already stored so when I hit the ‘submit’ button, I discovered it and…
I tried to post another comment but it keep bouncing back so, gotta leave it. I promise you I wouldn’t make that mistake again.
Btw…:) my name is Tim and not blah..blah…blah… just say your on Pat’s blog. Awesome as always and I wonder how he caused your spendings to go up…waiting for him to reply.
Enjoy your day bro!
Tim
What an inspiring story Glen. Love it.
Thanks for sharing this awesome post. Have a great time.
~Dev
Great journey and especially chuckled when heard about the celebrity gossip blog. I started a ran a big one myself but outsourced most of the writting because like you said I’d rather slit my wrists then care about what so called Celebrities were up to.
Haha, nice to see I’m not alone
Thanks for the comment David.
You are an absolute inspiration Glen, and I can hardly imagine where you are going to go from here, as you are already so successful at such a young age. Thanks for continuing to share your wealth of experience with us. I love reading your articles more than anyone else’s.
Cheers
B
Thank you Brendon
Dude, thanks for the bio. There are few experts in the field that will give as much information as you did here in this post. It’s actually quite riveting (as all your posts have been) and inspiring. I know its not a rags to riches story but it was nice knowing that you didn’t wake up one day with an idea that just happened to take off, you took your lumps along the way and kept on going. After a few years, I think I am at the tipping point myself. I asked myself several times why I keep going as the dollar per hour has been microscopic but I guess its just because we like it. Anyway, nice to see we have company and I only hope things get even bigger for you.
Jeff
Hey Jeff,
I’m glad you liked it. Not rags to riches, but I have definitely changed a lot on the journey.
Thanks for the comment.
I see a lot of pride in there. I see you are proud of what you have done with your life in so little time as compared to your peers. You should be proud indeed.
My story is something similar i started back in 2008 and have come far . Not a big fish yet but do watch out.
Keep up the good work.
PS: I wont be wrong if i said you were my role model
PSS: you got every one off your facebook ?
Hmm, I’m not so sure to be honest. I was definitely proud of MyDJSpace being featured in a book etc.
Right now? I just feel like I have a ton of work to do
Nice one Glen!
Another great read. I came across your blog last year and have since bought Cloud Living ebook and just installed your viral widget on my site.
I am hopefully just about to take over a 50/50 share in a Facebook Fanpage with over 200000 fans. The present owner has really lost interest in it so I approached them about taking it over. Even though the person who started the Fanpage has not interacted with it much, it still grows and has an active wall.
There is also a website which goes hand in hand with the Fanpage which has not been updated since last year.
In your opinion how hard do you think it will be to monetize this Fanpage and site? Let me know if you would like to know the niche!!
Be good to have your expert view on it.
Regards
Darren
It would really depend on the niche
Glen,
Thanks for sharing your story. I’ve been reading your stuff for a long time and it’s always good to know more about the man behind the blog.
I’m just waiting for the day that we will see your income reports, Pat Flynn style
We’ll both be dead
Hey Glen,
Great read. I love reading the stories behind successes. It’s been great working with you lately too. I am truly jealous of your location independence
-JKT
Hah, thank you James.
I’m in awe of your programming skills
Glen,
Always looking forward to your updates!
I’ve come along way (mentally) from when I started reading your blog till now and getting a sense of how things work. Now more than ever I know that you have to do something you are interested in to get / achieve success.
I mention your blog (and Pat’s) to so many people who are interested in online / affiliate marketing as you both give a detailed no BS rundown.
Wish you all the best and keep the posts coming!
Thank you Ralph,
I always appreciate your support.
My name is Benny but I’m totally not that guy that lived in France first of all cause I’m Chinese!
Great post. Reading your story was entertaining and inspirational. I wish it was longer so it wouldn’t have ended.
I don’t know how I didn’t know about your blog till a few days ago but I’m hooked like a big fish.
I’m glad you’re hooked!
Glen, to me, this is a story of HARD WORK that eventually brought SUCCESS. I’ve learnt that success doesn’t come overnight. Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome Fisayo,
Thanks for the comment.
Very inspirational.
I have been a reader of your blog since April of last year. And all I have to say is that I truly admire your personal and style of writing. Just like this post.
Thank you for sharing with us your motivating journey.
To your success Glen!
Hey Edgar,
Thanks a lot for the comment. Appreciate the feedback
Hey Glen,
That’s a very interesting read and a good story! You’ve made an impressive progression from the shop store to hop star..
I was intrigued by the following quote:
“This wasn’t a highlight because I got a new PC, but because I finally had something physical to show for the thousands of hours I had spent trying to make money on the internet.”
Why don’t you count money as being physical? You could certainly use it to buy something physical!
Finally, what was the SEO company in South Africa? That was a baptism of fire I bet, I know some of the bigger companies are usually very (very) demanding.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers,
Mark
I invested the majority of my money back into my projects (usually unsuccessfully).
Nope, they weren’t that demanding. The company was Shake.
Thanks!
Glen!
200 grand on websites fooking hell pal I wish I had 200 quid haha
Give me a shout when your back in toon mate would love a coffee and a brainstorm in Starbucks!
Inspiring story, Glen. In particular I liked hearing about you pulling up stakes and leaving for South Africa. I’m an American, living (by choice) in the Philippines. So many other foreigners write me and ask about getting a job here so they can make the move … a very difficult thing to do … but especially for those laready earning on line, a piece of cake. Do what it takes to earn online and then where you happen to live just doesn’t make any difference.
One of the hardest concepts it seems to master is, that you cna live in one place and earn from anywhere you chose to.
Glen,
Fascinating and inspiring. Gonna make my kids read this one…shows them whats possible.
Thanks for sharing more of your story.
Awesome stuff Glen….Im signed up and looking forward to some new posts!
Greetings from hot, sunny Bloemfontein, South Africa.
I wouldn’t call it “lording the Internet”, but an interesting story nonetheless.
http://bit.ly/enjmEF
I didn’t know you knew all of my websites
Don’t get so defensive, I was actually making you a compliment. But unless you are Google, you are not the “lord” of the Internet.
Heh. Lording is actually just a fun term I use with my friends.
I don’t count myself as the Lord of the internet.
Mind sharing some though!
Either way, congrats on your achievements. I actually have you in my RSS and have been reading you for a while now
.
Baie Dankie
man, this is great. sorry to add to the digital noise, but really, this is such a great post. you are inspiring. you hear that a lot. shoot i read it a lot on here. but you are. i am working really hard to make my life my own and i can point to you as a thank you.
so thanks.
Thank you David,
Best of luck to you!
That’s a very interesting story indeed. Quite inspiring as well! It is actually cool (no offense) to see the struggles that you had to go through. I no longer do this, but when I first started researching making money online I came across all of these blogs where people were making money and I just assumed at the time that it happened for them on their first try. It is reassuring to know that you put in hard work and had many failures along the way. (As I’m sure most of them did)
Turns out some of you are human =D
I enjoyed reading you story Glen. You’ve achieved a lot. I know what you mean about the clothes shop, I used to work in bars and hotels for manager who didn’t get it. Dreading going in for $7 an hour is anyone’s idea of hell but a lot if people think that’s just how life is. Its pretty sad.
Anyone who has not checked out the cloud living HQ site check it out. Its worth a lot more than Glen is charging for it. There is no waffle it just tell you what you need to know.
Love the song on the last vid too.
Regards,
Adam
If I had the money I would definitely check it out!
But yeah working for $7 per hour sucks. Miniumum wage here in California is $8 per hour but I seriously hate working for anyone else so I’ve decided to never do it again! Super great story though, good looking on the transparent review on his Cloud Living HQ site. When I get some money I’ll come back and give it a look!
cheers!
-Chris Alta
Well holy crap am I late to this commenting party or what?! I’ve purchased one of your product Glenn and still didn’t know this level of detail. Great to read.
It seems to boil down to a few key lessons: take what you learn from one project/experience and apply it to the next, take advantage of opportunities as soon as they arrive, and leverage those opportunities for the next one. Learn from the past but never let it hold you back.
Freaking great to see the action you’ve taken at an early age (I being your elder, but not by way too much). An inspiration to be sure.
I actually feel old
Haha, thanks Robert!
This is an awesome story man!
Sounds like you’re a php computer wiz too when you talk about building all of those websites!
You switched from passion to passion but I can see your true passion is marketing and just driving traffic to certain websites, helping people in the masses and building a tight knit community! That’s sick! And spending $200,000 on websites! Damn!
Do a lot of outsourcing?
I haven’t yet hit up any forums to start building my community up, any recommendations?
Cheers!
-Chris Alta
Your story depicts that one has to taste the flavor of failure before biting a chunk of success
You worked hard to achieve success
I’m curious about the sale of PluginID. What motivated you to sell it? Did you lose interest or did someone present an offer to you?
I stopped having much to say on the topic to be honest. I felt like I had given the best advice I could on around 150 topics, and didn’t want to keep posting just for the sake of posting.
I listed the site for sale, but ended up selling it to a close friend.
Hi Glen,
this is an awsome story, very inspiring
Im 23 right now, from Germany… Its funny because you have a similar story behind your carreer like me. When I was 12 i built a forum with more than 2000 members but messed it up after 2 years because i had no time for it. I had an offer with 1000 DM (old currency of Germany), for an 12 years old kid it was a high amount of money but i decided to go on
I hope that someday I can show up a success like you did. Im daily on the scout after profitable niches and startup ideas.
Greetings from Germany,
Zsolt
Awesome story – great to get some background on you and appreciate where motivation and hard work can take you…
Very inspiring Glen. I enjoy reading your personal blog posts, they remind me that it’s not always easy and even though some projects don’t work out, others will.
Awesome Post Glen. Btw, will you please tell what font do you use for the “Share this article” widget after the Post?
Angelina
Hi Glen.
Newcastles loss is Cape Town’s gain. I hope it is not too long before I can write a similar story.
Great lifestory Glen!
I’m pretty sure that as you go through life, you’ll have more amazing stories to tell us. Really inspiring!
Well this is great journey that you’ve. Congrats.
first off i just wanna say I just started using google reader to keep track of my rss feeds instead of visiting all the sites i frequent one by one. (how I have not done myself this favor 9 months ago I dont know). anyway scrolling through the posts I definitely read more of your posts than anything else I come accross. Maybe its because we share some similar ways of thinking
second, is there some un-seen relationship between web designers/developers and djing? I’ve been spinning records here and there for the past 3 years and have known plenty of others who do the same thing.
There something to it? what do you think?
That’s an immense amount of activity over the trailing 14 months. Over $200K spent on websites and you’ve sold 95% off them; just – wow. You’re only getting started? Ha, you’ve done more before age 25 than most people accomplish in a lifetime, man.
Keep rockin’ it and thanks for always delivering top notch content.
Jon
Thanks Glen,
I’m sure I’m not the only one that appreciates how down to earth you are (even with all the success you’ve enjoyed). It tells each one of us, hey, keep plugging away and good things will happen.
Live it LOUD!
Loved you journey Glenn! pretty amazing post i must say.. One thing s clear from your journey that if you want something in life you will have to go after it, and it will be yours!
Wow – What a great story Glen
A real inspiration – thanks for posting!
Wow that is some life you have led to be so young. I think you will be successful at anything you do. If you want to read the rest of my comment you have to send a dollar to my paypal…lol
The story would make for an intresting hollywood make…………….inspiring till the end.
Thanks for sharing
Nice story Glen, just goes to show everyone works at different speeds. Glad to see it is possible.
I’ve just got round to reading this post. Thanks for the inspirational read, and best of luck!
Ben.
I enjoyed the personal touch of this post. I also liked the “about” snippet of the new layout, at the bottom of the page. Well done!
Lesson number one is : don’t be scared of failing, well done again
Thought you were supposed to move to Bangkok? From the post I cannot quite guess if you are still in South Africa or you are back to Newcastle.
The Thai embassy lost my passport, so I had to postpone the trip. I’m still in South Africa
This too was a great read. Despite not showing up to class, you certainly learned to write well. Only problem I have is it once again leaves more questions than answers! Which of course is the true mark of a knowledgeable marketer. It’s like reading the cliff notes and knowing more than a few details are missing. Inspirational none the less.
I love your story.
Poutine
Hi Glen,
Its easy for us to forget that being successful is a combination of the many failures and learning experiences that we go through and from the outside it looks to other people that we have ‘found’ some magic formula.
Thanks for sharing you’re story.
cheers Ron
(52 y.o. beginner online marketer)
Ah, I thought I had already read this story from you somewhere. Just got caught as I am a email subscriber of your blog. And I think this is the only blog where I have read every new blog post from the beginning to the end (except for this one here, of course
I knew some of this journey from old posts but it was awesome to read it all together. You run one of the best blogs on the net now so big congrats and what an awesome journey!
I started in lil ole UK and am in Egypt right now, leaving soon but not sure to where!
Fantastic read Glen. Love your story .Keep inspiring
….and because of that….I think I’ll take the IT job being offered to me in South Korea. You have an inspiring story. I think I’ll go try to make one too. I’ll chase my dreams and see where that gets me. Thanks for the motivation, Glen!
Glen, great personal journey, love these insights. Would like to heard more from you about the best way to sell (and buy) website for a profit, your experience on that seems quite relevant!
cheers!
Wow, reading that was quite inspirational! My jaw literally dropped when I read ‘back in 2006, when I was 16′…it took me a few seconds, but we’re the same age! I can’t imagine being offered a job and moving to South Africa – I will definitely continue to follow viperchill.com – you must be doing something right!
Strange Geordy accent Glenn?
Are you doubting I’m from Newcastle?
Yes!
http://vocaroo.com/?media=v8q8YWZY5AwTl77CU
Hey Glen,
Nice post, Can’t believe that you were in South africa!
I’m also from south africa i am 17 years old doing grade 12
hope to see you when you come back to SA. Thanks hope to be like you one day.
Hey Glen,
I have been absorbed by your site for the last 10 hours. I literally just learned as much as I could from it. I have to say that you have done well in your mission to provide people with valuable content and education to succeed online. I just wanted to personally say thank you! I have been searching for a clear plan of where to start with internet marketing and your site was the only place I found that! Great work! P.S. I’m really curious if you would be willing to share the name of that signature font that you use all over the site? It’s very appealing to the eyes and easy to read.
Hey Clint,
Thanks! If you’re talking about the post titles then the font is Aurulent
- G
Hey Glen, that one is nice too but the one I was curious about was the one used in headlines such as your Frequently Asked Questions section. Thanks again!
Wow man, I love it!
The good thing is that everything you did, you gave it it’s time and make it work! It looks like marketing is in your blood
Keep it up man!
Truly… Awesome !
Enjoyed reading about your journey, the most interesting part I feel was about MYDJSPACE
You really inspired me
Pretty right its reaIly hard to get a phone call from a teenager n take it seriously that hes moving abroad
persistence n hard work always pays, cause how can you be defeated when u arnn’t quitting
Greetings!
You’re life story was incredibly inspiring & motivating. Obviously, the internet marketing aspect of entrepreneurship is only continuing to rise and you found a way to succeed. In the past I have attempted to create websites and blogs, but to no avail. My question, is how did you learn how to conquer the internet and web design? My knowledge of computer technology is still only limited, but I want to find a way to break the barrier and succeed myself. Through your writing, I have learned to stick to a goal and keep going, or cut your losses and start again fresh, but what other advice could you offer on the technical side of creation? I have the motivation and the passion, but I just don’t know enough of how to achieve my vision and it is extremely frustrating. Let me know anything that might help,
From someone who wishes they were in your position!
Great story and I’m always glad to see a fellow Geordie doing well, Glen. Your advice us informative and useful and your personal journey is inspirational. Your article on the future of blogging was the best I’ve read. All the best.
Really liked your blog! I also go along in this niche, I hope your blog article to help me! Sorry I write through the translator, may be an error, we must still learn English))).
Glen,
I remember Viper Chill from 3-4 years ago when I first stumbled upon it and I was at first shocked; how can a teenager actually have so much ambition and is being business driven while most of them spend time (and money) “socializing” – drinking and partying and living more or less carefree. I started reading your blog then and I was excited about the content you have put on and it was all for free. After these few years have passed I have to admit that I should smack myself on the back of my head not keeping up with what you had been doing and had to show and teach. On the other hand, it might be a good thing. I’ve been working in IT and digital video broadcasting industry for last 10 years (at least) and also tried and failed a couple of times in online business. I must say that I had achieved a point where I had what I wanted but I was still working a 9-5 (or even more) job, it only paid very well and I had a chance to travel around the world. However, as most of the jobs in such industry are contract based, you can guess, there’s no guarantee and it can happen over night that one finds himself in a struggle again. Since I’ve worked so hard for so many years and would now again have to start from point 0 with a new employer or my own business I simple got fed up with working for other people or companies. While guys like me make them millions (literary) and we scoop a few grand a month for being one of the top engineers in the world and being available 24/7 and rarely being at home with my friends and loved ones, this simply isn’t enough. Money has no value when the only thing you have is bragging on FB about another 5 star hotel I was enjoying after 10 hours of sweating behind head ends and data centres. This time I’m determined to make it work on my own and realize what I’ve always wanted – to be independent and help people around me do the same. Returning to your blog and taking a couple of hours to see how far you’ve come in such short time has helped me make a short term plan for the first step; learn from what you have given us here and then get into action. Since I’ve got so many different talents and a wide range of skills, there’s only one challenge left – me and knowing what exactly I want to do. The toughest thing I find nowadays is finding my place where I can provide a great value and market it on my own and not sell my skills to another multinational corporation (unless they offer me a team leading position
).
I believe that you’re going to hear from me again in following days/weeks as I might have questions when I go through your training material.
In the end I can say that I’m very happy for you that you’ve succeeded as you have envisioned and planned as well as I’m even more happy to see that you have out even more value out here for all of us to learn. You are simply a great example of a future business and attitude that makes this world a much nicer place. Thank you very much!
p.s. sorry for a very long comment and talking about me so much, but I was simply blown of my chair after reading your blog today and had to tell about how I feel about it.
ur sense of humour is amazing though… never knew an autobiography could be such fun….. venturing into internet markerting in Nigeria and hopefully i’ll become an overnight millionaire *wink*… cheers to meeting u in the clouds maybe even overtake lol…
Hi Glen,
Good job mate.. truly enjoyed this journey of yours..
…
I did write a stupid comment earlier on your viperchill to get your attention (I tried pretending to be dumb and helpless, I thought those are the types you respond to) but now I know you are too good to be fooled
Working on my thing and I promise you, I won’t stop until I get your life (your lifestyle to be more precise).
Take care mate. And thank you for Viperchill.
This is a really motivating post Glen, thanks for sharing. i have started blogging recently and i am new to affiliate marketing but i must admit that you blog has helped me a lot in understanding blogging and affiliate marketing.
Nice inspiring story
Wow Glen! Truly inspirational. Since I’m “a new kid on the block”, I’m still discovering things. I have just recently stumbled upon viperchill and it’s great. An important fact that I saw in your story is that you learned by your mistakes and by plunging in yourself. That’s very important. Taking risks and moving forward. And your young age is a motivation for a young newbie like me, who is a bit doubtful to move forward.
Cheers!