Hi, my name's Roderick, but on the internet, I usually go by my middle name, "Nathaniell".
I'm an internet marketer, and One More Cup of Coffee is a website where I teach people how to start an online business and make money from home.
I wasn't always an internet marketer; in fact, I've done quite a few different jobs over the years.
Internet marketing was just the career path that 'clicked' for me, mostly because I could do it from the comfort of my own home and according to my own schedule.
But let's start a bit further back; if you're going to get to know me, you should know a bit about where I'm from and what I've done.
People always ask me...
They say, "Well, you got started in 2010. Did I miss the gravy train? I'm sure there's too much competition now, so I'd never stand a chance!"
But the funny thing is that it's easier than ever to make money online. Why? There's two simple reasons:
- More products are being sold online now. People are shifting more and more of their shopping habits to the online world and that just wasn't the case even 5-10 years ago. Even small businesses and grocery stores are selling their products on the internet!
- There are more tools to make starting your business easier. Before, you had to code everything in HTML and be internet savvy. Now, there's tools to automate everything. Thousands of people have made the journey before, and you can use their wisdom to make your path easier.
It's kind of like traveling. In the past, you had to take a ship and spend weeks on the ocean to reach far-off places. Once there, you had to make your own adventure!
Now, You can reach any destination in the world within 24 hours. There a guidebook for every country in every language, and there are smartphone apps for instant translation to your native language.
I grew up in California, but left soon after graduating high school to travel in Europe. I was completely bored in the US and wanted to see the world. At the time, I had a friend living in Prague, so used her house as my "home base" between trips. When I needed money or had some down-time, I freelanced as an English teacher.
Eventually I landed a pretty sweet job as a kindergarten teacher, so I was officially getting paid to play duck-duck-goose and hide-and-seek for a few hours a day.
After a few years doing that, I broadened my horizons and set my sights on China. I wanted to learn Mandarin and start the next chapter in my travels.
China was wild. I made tons of friends, traveled all over the country, and became fluent in Mandarin.
But after being in China for a while, I began thinking about my future. It had been ten years since I left the US. I was having a blast traveling, but I had no job security and saving any money very difficult working for low wages.
So I hatched a crazy plan to make US dollars while working in China. I wanted to start an internet based business so that I could work on my computer in China but earn US money. Even just $30 per day was basically a full time income in China.
I made many mistakes along the way. I wasted time taking surveys. Then I joined a pyramid scheme. One time I stayed up until 4AM to watch an educational webinar that turned out to be a total scam.
It took me about six months of fumbling around: browsing around different sites, joining tons of mailing lists, watching hours of promotional videos, and following my share of purported "gurus" before I came across Wealthy Affiliate.
They were the legit online training center I was looking for. After three months of training I had made my first sale through my website. Six months after that I was generating regular sales. After a total of eighteen months working on my website I was earning over $10,000 per month so I quit my job in China and bought plane ticket back to the USA.
Welathy Affiliate PUMPS Out Success Stories.
From 2017 you can see that there are people with websites less than 1-2 years old earning $500-$8698 per month. One person even posted about how they had to evacuate during Hurricane Harvey, but their business kept making money in the meantime.
Then, look at the success stories from 2018. One person made $4,550 by their 7th month of online marketing. Another made $489 in a single day, and yet another sold their blog for $30,000 profit!
2019 was a banner year with a guy earning $3700 in ONE DAY, and a 65 year old person talking about their 5th year in the biz. Can you see how each year people are starting new businesses and making money? Are you ready to join the club?
2020 is amazing so far, despite the global pandemic. Traffic is up. Conversions are up. This year I'm blogging about what's going on inside Wealthy Affiliate here on One More Cup of Coffee so you can see why I'm still a member after 10 years.
Thanks to my affiliate websites, by 2013 I owned my own home, a brand new truck, and a motorcycle!
I was actually making money online!
So it's 2019 now, I've returned to the US, and work full time as an internet marketer. I've been running my online business full time for 5 years now.
I've got a couple sites, but what I really enjoy doing is helping people make money online. The website you're looking at right now is my passion.
One More Cup of Coffee is about helping YOU.
After being in this industry for about 9 years now, I've seen hundreds of scams, misleading offers, and hyped sales pages claiming that you can make lots of money fast with a "secret system". It's all a load of BS.
Making money online is possible, but it takes work. Looking at the big picture, two years is not a lot of time to turn a website into a six figure business, but it can seem like a long time when you're grinding out content day after day.
I made a lot of mistakes along the way. I wasted time, money, and energy over the years. But I also learned a lot during the process!
Now I want to share my knowledge with you and help you start earning money on the internet, through your own website.
- You pick the topic
- You pick the products
- You write the content
- You reap the rewards
I created a free starter course that you can join that is designed specifically for newbies looking to start making money online. I've taken out all the hype and scam tactics that gurus use, and explained the concepts of how I make money on the internet through my websites (I own several now)
You can join the free course below. It includes a free membership account to Wealthy Affiliate, the same place where I got started in 2010. They've updated the training since then of course, so you'll get access to the updated modules for 2017.
By signing up you get a combination of information - the free training inside Wealthy Affiliate, plus my personal insights and tips via email.
If you have any questions or comments about me, my business, or online business you can leave a comment below! I check these weekly, so will get back to you ASAP.
What do you think about blogging in multiple languages?
Different language, different audiences…
Do you think there is a smart way to fit them all in one blog?
Or should they be different sites?
Just one language per website. I recommend starting in English since most ecommerce is done in English, and most online shopping is done in the USA, with Canada/UK being a far second.
Hey Nathaniel, great post. What are your thoughts on entrepreneurship/business counseling websites?
I’m not sure what you mean David. It really depends on what they’re selling. Or are you trying to start a business like this?
Hi. Not sure if you can answer my question. I’m thinking of freelance writing/starting a blog. I would like to write about depression, specifically from a Christian viewpoint. I’ve been told there wouldn’t be much money in this niche though. I’ve been a stay at home mom for 21 years and do not have a higher education background or previous experience in a career. Parenting and marriage have been my career. One thing that stands out to me about my life is my husband suffered with depression for more than a decade. I was his sole caregiver. His whole story climaxed and he did (amazingly) recover for the most part. I learned so much through this trial about depression and how to care for a loved one. This is why I want to write about this topic- it’s what I know. But, as I said, I’ve been told there’s not much money, services, or products associated with mental health…therefore not a very lucrative niche. I really would love to help people who are in the shoes I was in because it’s a very difficult role to be in. If I don’t niche in this area, what could I niche in, seeing I have no educational or career history? Any words of wisdom for me? Thank you!
There are absolutely ways to make money from Christian blogs and mental health blogs. You WILL have to look at your blog as a business though, and strategize how you want to make money. Opportunities are not going to just appear. You have to figure out how you are going to work in affiliate promotions into your blog in some way. If you just want to tell your story, then no, there’s no going to be a lot of money in that.
But if you want to legitimately help people with depression, then there are absolutely methods for monetizing that.
The key is that you have to want to HELP someone else.
Hi Nathaniell,
I’m thinking to create a site that compares VPN?
Its this a good niche?
Which type of marketing should I use ?
If you have any suggestion it will help me.
Thank you.
VPNs are extremely lucrative. Plus, with the recurring commissions, you can really stack those commissions to snowball your earnings. I did VPNs for many years, but sold my sites to move on to other, more interesting niches.
If you want to compare VPNs, go for it! It’s pretty competitive, but so are all the most popular niches.
Hey Nathaniell!
I love fantasy sports, but there really isn’t much to sell (It’s more knowledge based).
I have 2 questions (and you may have mentioned this but)..
1) How did you get your ideas flowing to finding a profitable niche quickly? (Besides the adage of doing what intrigues you.)
2) How do you figure out your SEO to finally taking action on that niche?
Thank You.
Ben
Here’s my post on fantasy sports, including how I’d tackle the niche.
Otherwise, I recommend finding products you want to promote, doing a review of them, then brainstorming questions people would ask, where the ANSWER is the recommended product.
2) I’m not sure what you mean by “figuring out” SEO. SEO is the same for all niches. The keywords you go for will vary from niche to niche, but even then, there are some basic principles to keep in mind that don’t change from topic to topic.
Here’s how keywords and SEO work together.
Hope that helps Ben!