My Top 10 Career Moments

Life is packed with ups and downs; highs and lows. Some days are unmemorable while others feature snapshots which are forever etched in our memories.

I recently was a guest on a podcast and was asked this question. \”What was your single greatest moment as an entrepreneur?\” I was stumped. I\’m blessed to have had so many great moments that I couldn\’t name one that was more significant than others.

Now that I\’ve had some time to think about it, I recognize there were some truly defining moments that have helped shape who I am today. Some of them are the obvious low-hanging fruit. Others are the less publicized moments that were just as profound to me. And one of them isn\’t what you would call a \”success\” at all. Yet, the impact it made on me helped shape me in a positive way.

I thought I would share my top ten list of entrepreneurial moments from both categories and why they were significant. I have ordered them in order of impact.

1) The AdSense Code charting on the New York Times Best-Seller list

Most people don\’t know that I wrote my first traditionally-published book in 1997. With the assistance of Bonnie Bruno, a writer in Oregon, I secured my first publishing deal with an independent house called No Starch Press.

The book was called Internet Family Fun: The Parent\’s Guide to Safe Surfing. It was essentially a directory of sites that would be deemed family-friendly. I didn\’t look at writing another book for some time.

It was fall of 2005 when I met David Hancock at Armand Morin\’s Big Seminar. I handed David a CD featuring a PDF of the 2nd edition of my top-selling ebook. AdSense Secrets. He suggested that my book would make for an excellent physically published book.

I understood the credibility that would come from sharing my material in printed form so I agreed to write the book. David\’s small publishing house, Morgan James Publishing, was still new on the independent publishing scene. I told him that I was going to be his first New York Times Best-Seller. He laughed a kind-hearted laugh.

In March 2006, The AdSense Code came out with a robust marketing plan behind it. I can\’t recall exactly how I found out about hitting the charts, but I do recall I was the one to deliver the news to David. It was an incredible rush and one that created unprecedented momentum for me and my career as a marketer.

2) iFart Mobile reaching #1 in the iTunes AppStore

There\’s so much to the iFart story that I really ought to write a book on the subject. Perhaps I will some day.

But what I\’ll share now is what happened on December 12, 2008. After having submitted the application to the AppStore in October and not seeing any hope that Apple would reverse their previously publicized decision to NOT release fart novelty apps, I had already moved on to other things. I tried and it was out of my control.

On that day in December I was in Palm Springs, California. I was about 20 minutes from taking the stage before 800 or so entrepreneurs when I received a phone call from the home office. \”iFart has been approved by Apple and is now in the AppStore!\”

I didn\’t expect it and was delighted beyond belief. My marketing machine went into high gear and the app hit #1 in the world on December 22, 2008.

Needless to say, there was much rejoicing. The success of the app showed people my fun side while earning me a tidy sum. To this day, I regularly meet people who are floored to discover that I am creator of the app that made a stink all over the world. You just can\’t make this stuff up!

3) Producing and Hosting The Next Internet Millionaire

Eric Holmlund is one of the brightest marketers I\’ve ever met. Soft-spoken, calculated and passionate, Eric is a brilliant man with a big heart and great integrity.

After our fantastic success with Instant AdSense Templates, I approached him with the idea of shooting a reality show that would take elements of Donald Trump\’s The Apprentice and mix it together with the Internet marketing niche to serve the growing online video market. Eric would produce and direct the show while I was the host and Executive Producer.

An ambitious project that would never have happened without the dedication and talent of Eric, the production team, the contestants and my support staff, in 2007 The Next Internet Millionaire was the world\’s first competitive Internet reality show.

With the exception of the final episode, the entire show was filmed over a two-week period in Northern Colorado. An exhausting whirlwind of drama, both on set and off set, the resulting product is something that I am still tremendously proud of, earning us an honorary Webby Award in 2008.

4) Speaking at Robert Puddy\’s Focus 4 the Future event In Charlotte, NC

When I talk about public speaking, you might think I would focus on the more epic moments such as speaking on Tony Robbins\’ stage, being invited to train the marketing team at Microsoft on the subject of social media or delivering a talk to more than 5000 people at the London O2 arena.

But while those and other speaking/keynote engagements are quite memorable for me, I have to turn the clock back to that small conference room in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2005. It was there before an audience of 27 people that I gave my first marketing presentation.

Alongside the other speakers Mike Filsaime, Gary Ambrose and Craig Perrine, I fearfully, but boldly, stepped up to deliver the goods for the first time.

My presentation was about making money with AdSense and it concluded with a pitch to purchase an AdSense training product and coaching from me for $1997.

I was pleased to have sold my product to five people that day. But even more satisfying was discovering the gift that I had in me… the gift of effectively communicating before a live audience. The other speakers said there was no way that was my first talk.

But it was. I was humbled by their kind words and excited to speak again as soon as I could. I was hooked.

There\’s nothing wrong with a healthy ego, but please know that I truly do recognize this ability as a gift. It is something I believe was given to me. What I haven\’t shared are the things I am NOT gifted at. Trust me… It\’s a LONG list!

I\’m still grateful for the trust Robert put into me that day, as well as the support of Mike, Gary and Craig, all who encouraged me and told me I would do just fine.

5) Selling ClassicGames.com to Yahoo!

It was an unremarkable email that landed in my inbox one day in 1997. My webmaster, fully aware that I enjoyed games, sent me link to one of the earliest Java-based multiplayer game sites. A grad student at University of California San Diego had coded software that allowed people to play a handful of card and table games against others in real time.

Named after his Springer Spaniel, the site featuring hearts, spades, chess, checkers and a couple other games was called SpringerSpan.com.

I approached the programmer, Eron Jokipii, and proposed that we join forces. If he would continue to code and support the site, I would handle the marketing and publicity.

We renamed the site ClassicGames.com and proceeded to see it grow on an almost-daily basis. Thousands of people registered to play games and hundreds were concurrently enjoying connecting to others around the world in real time.

I still have the original email from Yahoo!

Eron and I went to Yahoo! HQ in San Jose for discussions. To make a long story short. They ended up acquiring ClassicGames.com in its entirety, including my partner.

I cashed out of my first seven-figure deal and Yahoo! had a foundation for their now-massive Yahoo! Games site.

6) Earning $30,000 in commissions from drugstore.com

Back in 1998-1999, online merchants were all about acquiring new customers. With their VC funding burning holes in their pockets, they eagerly sought out site and email list owners that could drive new customers their way.

As an incentive for the customer, they would offer free merchandise. As an incentive for affiliates, they would offer a bounty for each new customer.

I worked with a number of merchants as an affiliate using this model. pets.com, staples.com, reel.com and several others resulted in successful campaigns. However, none were more successful for me as an affiliate than drugstore.com.

In order to incentivize new customers, they offered $10 off their first purchase of $10 or more. Essentially, those early to the game were invited to walk off with free stuff.

As an affiliate, Drugstore paid me $10 for each new customer that took advantage of the generous offer.

In short, I referred something like 3200 people to the site through my link, receiving a bounty check for $32,000. Ah, those were the days!

7) Licensing content to a foreign site in 1996

Most solopreneurs started with absolutely nothing. In 1996, I had almost no money in my savings account and was wondering why I started this online venture in the first place. Things just weren\’t working out the way I thought they would.

It was when I started thinking about getting a J.O.B. to take care of my family that I turned to an authority greater than myself for assistance.

That person was God.

Whatever you believe is fine with me. But at that moment I remember falling to my knees and pleading for Him to drop money out of the sky if I was to continue this venture.

Within a week, I received an unsolicited email from a gentleman in Washington state who claimed to represent a Japanese multimedia conglomerate. I had never heard of the man who contacted me or the asian company whose name I couldn\’t pronounce.

Essentially, they got wind of the content I was creating on my site and they wanted to license it so they could translate it and put it on their new site in Japanese.

They offered me $5000/month to license this content. Of course, I gratefully accepted the offer and gave thanks to the heavens above. Call it what you want, but I saw it as a direct answer to prayer.

Since this occurred in 1996, I think its safe to say that I was among the first to license content on the World Wide Web.

8) Being interviewed by Bob Rankin for Boardwatch Magazine in 1996

Shortly after WorldVillage.com began getting traffic, I received an email from Dr. Bob Rankin, a frequent contributor to Boardwatch Magazine. The definitive magazine of the online world, it was an honor to be interviewed by Bob. He and I become friends and I still have a copy of the magazine in my keepsakes to this date.

9) Selling $1,000,000 of Instant AdSense Templates in 2007

As long as I had been doing business online, I didn\’t enter the information marketing space (what many mis-label as Internet marketing) until 2005. I remember hearing about John Reese and how he broke the $1,000,000 launch barrier with his Traffic Secrets launch in 2004. The product sold for $1000 and John crushed it. It\’s common for high-price point infoproducts to break the million dollar barrier now, and many have done multi-millions.

However, in 2007 I don\’t believe any low price-point products broke the seven-figure barrier. That is, until Instant AdSense Templates 2.

Eric Holmlund and I had a very successful launch of the original Instant AdSense Templates earlier that year. Recognizing the need for my AdSense Secrets readers to be able to put up their own website quickly and easily, our product resonated and sold approximately $300,000 in a week\’s time.

We fine-tuned the product and gave the people more of what they wanted, specifically incorporating the latest platforms, an upsell and a continuity program into the offer.

I don\’t believe in manipulative techniques such as false scarcity or false urgency. If you say a product is only available for a week, you had better pull it from the market in a week. And if you say only a certain number of units are being made available, you had better stop selling the product when the number is reached.

We said we would sell the product for one week, or once we reached a million dollars in sales. And we would stick to it.

The lead-in product was $197, the first upsell was $97 and the monthly continuity program was $79/month (if my memory serves me correct).

The product blew up the Internet and we reached the $1,000,000 goal in just five days. I can\’t say for certain, but I have a hunch this was the first low price-point information product to break the million dollar launch barrier.

10) TextCastLive.com

2008 was a very busy year for me. With a string of successes and a growing staff, I began diversifying my projects… perhaps a little too much.

One area that interested me was the mobile marketing niche. I knew that it was going to be huge and I wanted a piece of the pie.

I had my team create a mobile platform called TextCast Live, which was essentially an auto-responder service for mobile phones.

A complex system that required an expensive backend from a mobile provider combined with custom code to make messages deliverable, the platform was fantastic.

But the platform never took off, probably because I was so distracted by other projects that I didn\’t really give it the attention it deserved.

I hung on to the business for a few years, half-heartedly seeking investors and then buyers.

By 2011, TextCastLive had become a burden for me, but due to the six-figure investment and countless man-hours which went into its creation, I found it difficult to pull the plug.

But when I finally made the decision to shut it down completely, I discovered something unexpected.

I was relieved. The burden was lifted.

It was in that moment that I no longer felt like I had failed. It happened the moment I stopped paying for it.

That was an important lesson which I\’ll never forget, and it helps to shape my decisions in regard to projects that I take on these days.

11) To the Future!

I did say Top 10, didn\’t I?

Well, here\’s one more.

The future is so full of promise for everyone. Whatever we\’ve done in the past, we have the opportunity to build upon those accomplishments.

Waking up each day is a great blessing, and it means our work is not yet done. In fact, it only makes sense that our greatest work is still before us.

I adopt this philosophy in my life and believe that the future is going to be awesome!

If you would like to see a graphic representation of my history as an Internet entrepreneur, you may enjoy this biographic.

How about you? Would you please share your greatest accomplishment(s) with me in the comments below? I would love to celebrate your successes with you!