When the price of oil fell 18 months ago, the Russian Rouble fell and prices here in Russia doubled, as most products are imported. I was lucky to increase the number of courses (lecturing) that I secured to compensate for some of the loss of spending power.
However, I was running faster, doing more work, just to stand still. Domestic prices continued to rise even when exchange rates stabilised. I sought and obtained more work, but lecturing is seasonal – little work in summer after the end of the academic year. I am a contractor, paid for the work I do, but no holiday pay. I was reaching the limit of the amount of work that I could do during the academic year.
Professional courses have been evaporating in response to economic uncertainty, so I could not fill the summer with those.
It became clear that a new income stream was desirable and could become necessary.
A friend in the UK has been trading on E-Bay and Amazon for years, filled his house with amazing items.
I guess he has made some pocket money and built a Meccano set from the proceeds (which having three daughters, but no sons, he could not justify before). From his experience, I decided that I wanted to avoid physical delivery.
Living on the edge of Moscow city, my delivery would be limited to Moscow city and its suburbs for items that are not airmailed. Also, I would have to finance inventory and compete with the locals, who I could not expect to hand me a profitable slice of local market.
In contrast, if I could deliver products via the internet, the world would be my market.
A number of products floated in front of my eyes from downloading free products. I was interested in those involving accelerated learning, including subliminal teaching (though my aged computer could not run the product I chose), though I found the hypnotic MP3’s and Law of Abundance materials more suitable for others than for me.
An early (and current influence) was Devon Brown in the US, who speaks with experience as if he was 20 years older (as I have told him).
I caught on to the idea of Affiliate Marketing, as I have produced accounting products for websites, (see the previous two blog entries) and believed that I would be able to market more products as an affiliate than a product designer. 50% commission sounded good to me, leaving all the marketing and support to the product designer.
Was this the straight path to riches?
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