Omelette Parlor with Dylan

About

My name is Craig Junghandel (pronounced: yoong-handle). And since you’re probably wondering… that would be German. From what I know, its meaning is loosely translated as young businessman. Again, I don’t know how accurate that is, but I do know that in Germany they rock the umlaut over the a. My relatives in the U.S. do not write their name with the umlaut, but I’ve taken it upon myself to bring that back.

And no… unfortunately, I do not speak German, nor have I ever been to Germany… yet. It’s high on my list of places to experience, though.

Who I am

I am a freelance web developer with a penchant for internet marketing as well. I work from home, or anyplace else that offers Wi-Fi access. I was born and raised in sunny California, currently residing on the beautiful Central Coast, where I’ve lived for over three decades. I began my adult life thinking that I wanted a career in architectural design, but ended up focusing more on work – leaving the career plans on indefinite hold. I continued with part-time schooling at a local community college, but never really found what I felt was my true calling.

During this time, I worked at a local independent record store. Due to my incredible people skills, attention to detail, knowledge of the music biz, and just overall awesomeness, I was promoted to store manager within a few years. I was a 20 year old guy running a record store — how awesome was that?!

I continued living the dream throughout my early and mid 20’s – still going to school part-time, but with most of my focus on record retail. Once I crossed into my late 20’s I figured it was probably time to start thinking about my future. My plan at that time was to become an online entrepreneur – making my riches by way of selling collectibles online. Well as you may have guessed, that dream didn’t come to fruition, but it unknowingly set me upon what is now my present career path — Web Development & SEO.

At any rate, the record store job was great and the business was thriving during this period. Nearing the millennium, CD sales were exploding and I was riding the wave. I wasn’t getting rich working there, but I was at least living comfortably and enjoying life.

In the meantime, I kept at my web design hobby thinking that just maybe… someday…

I fortified my web design skills by taking a few courses over the years, then eventually got pretty decent at it. In early 2007, I decided to pursue a career in the field, but much to my dismay, I found that the pay rate for someone with my experience was lower than what I’d been making selling CDs!

A few short weeks before my son was born, fate would intervene and deal me a devastating blow, but one that also would prove to be the impetus needed to get me off my ass and start designing professionally… I lost my job.

The record store which I’d worked at for nearly 18 years was closing for good.

Almost overnight, my life as a full time record store manager and part-time musician – soon became – full-time stay-at-home-dad, with a part-time gig as a start-up web developer.

Not long after I began my career as a freelance web developer, I started exploring other ways of using the internet to make money. This is when I discovered what I wanted to do when I grew up… I decided then that I wanted to become a successful affiliate marketer.

Realizing that I could make my own money, through projects that I create and manage, without me actually having to sell any goods or provide a service, had me terribly intrigued. This seemed like the perfect thing for me to be doing while in between client projects. I was right.

It was then that I set sail on another career path — that of an affiliate marketer — not really making any money, but learning a lot as I pressed on. My job as a web developer allowed me to pay the bills, but I felt that to make any real money, I’d need to master this affiliate stuff.

What I do

Riding the helicopters with my son at Legoland
Legoland!

I am a web developer, web services provider, SEO, and internet marketer.

When I’m not playing World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, watching videos on YouTube or killing time on Facebook, my time at the computer is generally split between working on clients’ sites and and on my own personal blogs.

If being self-employed is a qualifier for success, then I am; However, I’m not what I would consider successful (as far as the bank account is concerned)… quite yet. I’m getting there, though, and I intend to chronicle my adventures, as well as share my findings and teachings here on this site.

Most of the big IM (i.e., Internet Marketing) sites you see online are maintained by individuals who have arrived, and are quite wealthy. I thought it would be fun, and motivating, to start a site about a guy who’s taking the journey.

That guy being me. 😉

Although I’m no Jedi Master when it comes to profiting from the web, I’ve definitely had some successes.

  • I’ve made as much as $225 in a day, without doing any work (on that day, anyway…).
  • I’ve made as much as $2,700 of “passive” (I use that term loosely, as this stuff is hard work ya know…) income in one month’s time.
  • I’ve built brand new sites which were earning hundreds of dollars per week within months.
  • I manage websites that receive traffic at the rate of thousands of visitors per day — with some days reaching into the tens of thousands.
  • One of my projects has made the front page of Reddit multiple times.
  • I get paid every month by no less than 4 affiliate networks, including ebay, who dumps hundreds – and sometimes thousands – of dollars into my PayPal account each month.
  • Amazon once gave me a $389 gift card for a month’s worth of converting traffic I sent their way.

To those of you who are making substantial money in the IM industry, those numbers aren’t anything to brag about. However, most people who take a stab at affiliate marketing usually fail before they even see their first dollar. Why… because they usually lack the patience, dedication and determination to make it happen.

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