What Happened To Me And My Business In The Past 2 Months (And What I’m Gonna Do Next)

updateHey there,

It’s been such a long time since my last post, and I’m sure you’ve been eagerly waiting for my update.

Well, so many things have happened these past 2 months:

Got Tired After the Successful Product Launch

Thanks to the trust I’ve been able to build up on the blog, my very first product launch went really well as explained here.

But I got really stressful shortly after the launch because of so much pressure from dealing with technical errors, customer support, refunds, not-so-good customers, etc.

Honestly, I didn’t enjoy running the membership at all.

I did want to help every member to be successful, but I’ve been an affiliate for over 4 years, and I really enjoyed the “passive” aspect of it, so having to answer questions of over 70 members everyday really stressed me out.

Lost the Niche Site Challenge to Josh

The niche site challenge I started with Josh Ecusa from FormYourFuture.com last year officially ended with Josh as the winner.

His site is now consistently making $1000+ a month while my site was penalized in one update 2 months ago.

My biggest mistake with this challenge was outsourcing all the SEO to a friend and completely ignored the project. The site did rank in the first page but suddenly, all the rankings dropped somehow.

Confused with What to Do Next

The first week of March was a pretty low time for me as I was confused on what direction to take for my business.

I didn’t know what to do next.

I lost motivation in everything, and I just wanted to take a break.

Then something happened.

Made a Mid-Five Figure Income with Teespring

A good friend of mine introduced me to Teespring as a new way to make money online.

In case you don’t know, Tee Spring is a place where you can sell your own custom T-shirt. I started to take action immediately.

Well, My first 2 campaigns failed.

I lost $160 but I didn’t want to give up, I turned to him for advice, then started churning out campaign after campaign.

The profits went up dramatically. One month later, I was sitting at over 300 campaigns and a mid-five figure profit.

I won’t reveal the number or the exact method on the blog, but if you’re interested, check out this course.

I learned so many things from it and I’m sure you can make money with Tee Spring too if you’re willing to take massive action after quickly going through the course.

Anyway, I don’t answer questions about Teespring on Cloud Living, so please don’t ask me via comments or emails. If you want my advice, here it is: “Go to Teeview or Teespring Discover, analyze successful campaigns, then make your campaigns based on the trends.”

Chilled Out for a Month

People tend to get lazy after making a fortune, and I’m no exception to that.

I chilled out for a bit while thinking about my future, what I’m gonna do with my life, what’s my greatest passion, etc.

I also played a lot of video games with my friends, traveled to Saigon to meet up with the DC, worked out really hard to get the six-pack,etc.

Confused with What to Do Next Again

I was pretty happy overall.

I had money, time, and freedom.

But I still felt like something was missing.

I wanted to work.

I realized that money was not my biggest motivator.

I just wanted to see how great an entrepreneur I am and how far I can go.

So I started to think about work again but I was confused.

What am I gonna do next?

Building niche websites?

Running paid traffic campaigns?

Building an SAAS? I didn’t know.

I wanted to do everything. But I just couldn’t.

“FOCUS is the key to success”. I repeatedly said that to myself.

Lost Motivation on Running the Blog

When I started the blog last February 2013, Cloud Living was just a place for me to document my journey and share my knowledge in order to help other people to succeed with doing online business.

But as it grew into an authority blog, I felt more responsibility to keep updating it with high quality content and helping even more people.

But like others, I got only 24 hours in a day and the blog was taking too much of my time (and money too).

Some more experienced friends told me that I should monetize the blog. That was a great advice, and I agreed with it 100%.

Monetizing the blog will allow me to make the blog better.

I tried but information product was not my thing as I explained above.

So I can tell you that from now on I won’t charge for information again. Instead, I will create something of value (service/tool/plugin) that you’re willing to pay for.

I really admired what Spencer from Niche pursuits has been able to achieve with his products like Long Tail Pro, Niche Website Theme, Domain Java, Rank Hero, etc. That’s a great model to follow in my opinion.

Got My Energy Back

It took me a while to get fully inspired and motivated again, but the downtime was totally worth it.

What I’m Planning Ahead

I no longer rush to make more money as I have enough cash to survive for a few years now.

I’m gonna take it slow this time. It takes time to build a successful and sustainable business. And I’m willing to wait.

Here’s what I’m planning to do next:

1. Build Up My Niche Website Empire Again, One Site at a Time.

Why still niche website? Well, I’ve been doing that for a long time and know a lot about it. So why not? Why try something new that I’m not familiar with when I can make a good living with niche websites? Again, my goal is to build a sustainable business, so my approach changed a bit. I will write a blog post about that later.

2. Keep Growing Cloud Living into One of the Best Resources on the Internet about Building Profitable Affiliate Websites.

I know it’s a hairy goal, but I think I’m pretty close. I just need to put more attention into the blog and serve my audience well. If you love Cloud Living, do remember to spread the word =).

3. Try Another Way to Monetize Cloud Living.

I’m not giving up on getting your money =). But it would be something extremely valuable that you would be willing to pay for.

4. Travel More and Explore the World.

I’ve always wanted to become an adventurer when I was a child. Luckily, my job can afford me to do that. I’m gonna visit Singapore and Malaysia this month. If you’re living in these cities, shoot me an email and we will meet :).

That’s everything I wanted to say for today. Hope you enjoyed the post.

Cheers,
Tung

Tung Tran

I’ve built and sold a bunch of highly profitable internet businesses since 2010. After selling my last one in November 2020, I decided to go all... [Read full bio]