I have been self-employed since 1971 and often a serial entrepreneur during this time. I also have a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics and an MBA in Finance, both from the University of North Texas. I am fond of saying my PHD is from the School of Hard Knocks. In addition to more traditional businesses, including real estate investing and development, I have been very active in developing web-based properties since 1998.
Many have asked if the avatar I use online is supposed to be me. Yep, that's supposed to be me. I sent a photograph to a cartoonist and this what he came up with, the main differences being that I look a little older in the photograph and I tend to wear Polo-style shirts instead of what he has me wearing.
Many people struggle while trying to build a business online (or any business for that matter) and I want you to know it hasn't always been a piece of cake for me, either. I know what it’s like to be so sick you can barely hold your head up, but you must power through or the kids don’t eat and the doors to the business won’t stay open. I know what it is like to be the primary caregiver of a spouse or child for a significant time period, keeping the family going while working 60-70 or more hours a week at your business. And I know what it’s like to personally recover from a mild stroke and a year later cancer but you can’t stop working because so many others are depending upon you to keep things moving forward.
…when it comes dealing with health issues, being the primary caregiver for someone close to you, figuring out how to put food on the table and pay the bills no matter how hard you work. Maybe you are now in your retirement years and there just isn’t enough money to make it through until the next retirement check.
I don’t claim to be a “Guru” but – I know many of the self-proclaimed gurus and, frankly, I run circles around them when it comes to producing results with my online businesses. There are so many ways for people to make money online besides the typical affiliate marketing approach.
We own over a thousand eCommerce stores, service provider sites, informational authority blogs, viral media sites, online niche magazine sites, authority niche sites, micro niche sites, list building landing pages, product sales pages, and lead generation sites among other categories. In addition, we own thousands more Premium Domain names.
We go after the low hanging fruit, identifying profitable niches with minimal competition.
Using my background as a real estate investor and developer, here is how I view these web properties. The Premium Domain Names are my undeveloped properties in prime locations. Most of the other categories would be like owning shops in a strip center, Kiosks in a mall, or even anchor stores in a Mall. We also have our service businesses. The lead generation sites are our rental properties.
Here is an example. Most people think of a lead gen site as more or less a lead capture page. It is not. I cannot share our most profitable lead gen sites with you now, but I will give you an example of what I consider are essential elements to a good lead gen sites. Go to EZFinance.Loan and look at the page. It gets to the point, providing an easy solution to a problem. It does have the email capture feature, but it also has a phone number that is monitored 24/7 with a knowledgeable person on the other end of the line who can help the caller get the personal loan they need.
I am closer in age to 70 than I am 65 at this point in my life, and that is one of the reasons that I got involved again as an owner of Traffic Exchanges. I used to own a few back in the early 2000s and sold my last one in 2014 to help pay medical bills. I knew that TEs were a good platform to be able to reach out and help people who wanted to start an online business for extra income but may not know exactly what to do next or who were at retirement age and needed additional income in retirement.
So, hopefully, that is what is going to happen through the Trend Legacy Group of websites and this blog, that I will be able to help others contribute to covering their necessary expenses or maybe even reach their dreams!
The truth is, building an online business is just like building any other business, it takes consistent effort and hard work in the beginning. If you have an open mind, willing to consider other ideas and then pick and choose those you can put your own twist to as needed, then you just might make it. I don't think I can help anyone that is close-minded, or is a know-it-all or has an us-against-them attitude, always looking to find fault with everyone else.
Stay tuned and lets both found out where this journey takes us!
