This week we are sharing with you a remarkable story of one of our affiliates – Markus Rockey from The Used Car Guy website.

Read more below, to find out how one of our customers gained a residual income from a life of being in cars so he could spend more time with his daughter and family.

~

This is my story of how I made a success with online marketing using my knowledge of selling cars, internet marketing and luck! I now co-run a successful SEO agency, alongside several high paying affiliate marketing programs and pay per lead websites.

I started out wanting freedom and didn’t want to be accountable to other people anymore. It was in my DNA to choose when I wanted to work (this affiliate marketing for dummies guide does just that). At the time I was working long hours cleaning, prepping and selling cars but after enough years of long, unsociable hours things began to take their toll on me, emotionally and physically.

Bedridden and needing to find an income source

Finally, the hours and stress came home to roost; I had prolapsed two discs in my back, I was bedridden but still needed to find a way to get some money.

Things had become very strained, I was broke, and on top of this, I had been helping my dad through a difficult time. Things were tough, to say the least. So, out of pure desperation, I bought my first laptop with a hope that lying on my back I could still make money.

I began reading about running an online business, building websites etc. and found a sense of creativity and power.  The ‘digital Nomad’ lifestyle appealed to me. No rules except helping clients really – even then I created my solutions.  I tried endlessly with different affiliate programs and online business, and nothing could work, I was four years in, and totally broke.

I continued with the support of my loving partner Michelle, who stood by me all the way.

Write on what you know

It was the pink elephant; I had been drumming away at trying to sell, things on acne, cage fighting gear and even haemorrhoid cures, but at the end that just didn’t pay.  Michelle encouraged me to start blogging about my experience in the motor industry. It was like the Pink Elephant in the room, I had sold millions and millions of pounds of cars, but what I wanted was new and shiny, probably because I wanted to create a new shiny solution – I guess that’s what a lot of us do in the beginning, we don’t want to do what’s boring.

Michelle gave me the idea to build a website and talk about how to buy or sell a used car correctly. I wrote some cool articles and blog posts that helped motorists, I then came up with some creative ways to drive traffic to the site (SEO, Social etc.).

Chancing on a high paying affiliate site

I enjoyed what I was doing, had some authority but wasn’t making any money doing this until I finally came across a proven strategy – affiliate marketing with a high paying affiliate program. I found Webgains and signed up with them, one amongst a plethora of such companies (I was later to find out that Webgains were one of the good guy’s).

Part of my site content was about using HPI check products when buying a used car in the UK.  A well-known car checking service.

One night after seeing my father at the hospital over the weekend, I got home on a Sunday night, emotionally exhausted.  I checked my phone.  Of course, I had done this countless times over the last 18 months.  We weren’t destitute, but we were very hard up, living hand to mouth for our basics.

Then Bingo…

£68.00 had been credited to my account. All profit (kind of! Felt like it anyway, affiliate marketers know the true cost of content creation).  Questions I had pursued for the endless month had been answered.

I ran upstairs to wake Michelle, over joyed. It was odd, I know to most £68 wouldn’t mean much, but when I woke her up, she got it straight away. We celebrated like kids dancing in the rain.

My advice

If you are a builder, pick up an offer on tools and start blogging about DIY.

If you’re a Gardner who loves growing stuff why not tell people all about it? The seeds you buy, where you buy them from (hint, hint), how much compost you use and the best time of year to do A, B or C.

In some ways, I’m glad I didn’t luck out on the acne site or boxing gloves because I wouldn’t have focused on what I knew and helped consumers with insider information.

Spending time with my family
I now have consistent residual income from the Used Car Guy that has led me to multiple online industries and sources of income.

What does this mean?
I’m there to take my daughter to school, and there to pick her up, have dinner with my family, leisurely enjoy the weekends. We’ll be going on a cool family holiday abroad this year. It’s been a grind, but well worth it.

If you have any questions about how Webgains high paying affiliate program helped me find freedom, do reach out to me.

Marcus Rockey
The Used Car Guy