My Journey to Success in Digital Marketing
I began this blog in 2022 as a full-time business with the intention of scaling. My goal is to make this blog become one of the most profitable blogging businesses ever.
My goal as a new blogger is to earn $3,000 per month with the potential to scale up. I have a plan to make $200,000 in less than two years with no advertising.
I am very passionate about creating a step-by-step practical guide for my subscribers. This guide will aid my subscriber to make passive income effortlessly.
Ultimately my vision as a blogger is to provide my readers with top-notch tools and resources. This will give newbie bloggers a head start in running their blog as a business.
I wasn’t always an expert starting out as an affiliate marketer.
You don’t have to become an expert to start a career in digital marketing. I had to put in a lot of effort and hard work to become better at my craft. You too can follow my lead to get started on your journey to financial freedom.
There is no shortcut to success in life. Anyone who became a millionaire paid due diligence to their craft and got rewarded big time.
Like every other human, I have weaknesses too!
I got delayed at some point because I was very ignorant of the following limitations in my life.
- Procrastination
- Self-entitlement
- Over confidence
- Over convenience
- Complacency
- Doubt
- Low self-esteem
- Fatigue
My identity crisis was a major roadblock to my destiny. I kept working on myself by reading a lot of books about the lifestyle of successful business owners.
Ultimately I studied my thought patterns and actions with the aim to fix the wrong mentality. My goal was to build a mindset to stay at the top.
Like everyone, I had a passion to start my a business. My ideas will remain futile if I didn’t put in countless hours of hard work.
Here is my story, let me take you down history lane to show you how it all started.
My Family background
My life journey has recorded a long line of success and failure. I give gratitude to God because I am moving from a position of victory in Christ Jesus.
My late father Mr. Stephen Okah who passed to the afterlife in 2005 was the only male child of his mother. In my late father’s living days God blessed his family with 6 children.
I came into this world to meet my elder sister Joy. I was born into the Okah family on June 8th, 1994.
The rest of my siblings came into this world as God granted grace to my late father and his family.
My siblings and I were young when we lost our dad, my mother Mrs. Grace Okah became a widow with 6 children to care for at a young age.
God has continued to remain our backbone ever since.
He was with my family through the storms of life and in times of great financial crisis.
The Great Struggle
My late father was a civil servant to the Federal Government of Nigeria. He worked as a secretary for many years. Losing my Dad at a very young age shifted all family responsibilities to my mother.
God was faithful and He always granted us financial help through people we didn’t expect.
My late father’s inheritance got transferred to my mother, his gratuity, and other assets he owned. God blessed my mom with the mindset of investment. She never hesitated to invest my late dad’s gratuity into a kind of capital investment fund.
This investment company operated in line with the Nigerian stock market as at 2007. My mother’s investment funds paid off with a whopping 50% return on investment. My mom used these profits to fund her kid’s school fees and house upkeep.
The majority of the profits my mother acquired through investments got used in the development of a rental property in Abuja.
Although my mom got funds to proceed with the building. She couldn’t hire a property development company to manage her project. My mother became the project manager for the building construction, she was able to complete the building project by wisdom.
My mom later ran short of building funds because the investment company started a crisis. Many investors incurred great losses. My mom became frustrated. 50% of her building project had not been completed before the investment issue. She was relying on her investment funds for the completion of her project and got stocked.
The rental property my mom owns in Abuja is a miracle. It was by God’s grace my mom was able to complete that project.
I thank God for blessing our family with my mom she is such a virtuous woman. She placed the welfare of her children above herself to make sure we were established in life. My mother worked hard to ensure all 6 six of her kids went to school. She provided for our basic needs, she was the mother every child like us would ever desire.
God was with her and all the things she did prosper. The rental property my mother owned in Abuja was able to cover payments for school fees. Although it was not easy to manage a rental property in Abuja considering maintenance factors. My mother had not managed any property before so she was quite inexperienced, she had to learn on the job. My mom passed through many obstacles and incurred so many losses from the start. She often fell into the hands of bad tenants who exploited her and made away with many years of rent.
In spite of all these challenges, trusting in the Lord for our provisions was one thing she didn’t overlook. My mom isn’t the kind of woman that relied on people to solve her problems. She always figures out her plans to generate income for her children’s training in school.
I remember many nights my mother would go praying to God for her children’s provisions.
My mom always wanted every challenge solved so she often worried a lot about responsibilities. She always thought about a time of relief from a mountain of burdens. She only had a small cycle of people that were willing to assist her.
During those periods, we trusted in the Lord God for all our supplies, and he never failed. There were times we had no food to eat and no money in my mom’s bank account. She was still constructing the rental property in Abuja drying her account to empty. I remember certain times in my secondary school when I was in the boarding house. I used to manage a one-time provision from my mom. At those times I rarely got visitations from my mum because they was nothing she could provide at those times.
Challenges and Success in Academic
As a young boy, I was able to surmount many challenges in life, especially in my academics. I will not deny I had difficulty getting good grades in school. I focused on the important priority of my life which was to make my mom proud.
Before I got admitted into secondary school in 2005 I was struggling with my academics. In elementary school, I remember my mom will always praise me for being an excellent kid. She was not happy with my poor grades in primary school. My mom never settles for less, she pushes me to be at my best always.
I was very playful as a little kid and rarely took things seriously. My thought patterns were very strange for a teenager with an ambition to succeed. I used to think life was easy and every event in life will take its due course. My mentality made me lazy and dependent on my parents for everything.
I was so wrong with my mentality.
I got punished for a bad mindset in secondary education. I repeated a class as a result of my poor grades. In that moment of failure, I thought my world will end. I was so ashamed of myself because of how I have disappointed my mother.
Transformation is very important in any system, and a change of mindset will birth change in any man.
Going through the transformation phase of my life was when I repeated a senior class at my secondary school. I made a vow never to fail in my academics from that point. I started putting my decision into action which made me excel in the long run. I became a top-of-the-class student In chemistry, I was top of my class at some point due to hard work. I never found the need to cheat in any examination, I knew preparation was the easiest path to success.
I took this new found mindset of preparation to the university and I graduated with honors in Computer Engineering. I acquired a second-class upper division at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria.
I won’t say I had It all easy in the university. The determination I developed made me succeed so long as I remained focused.
Settling for a Career in Information Technology
Growing up as a young kid I had a drive that was pushing me to a divine purpose in life. Finding that purpose has been a defining moment in my destiny today. I was 6 years old when I desired to become an Aeronautical Engineer. When I saw the airplanes move in the sky I was always excited. I had a desire to learn the operation behind their movements. At those times in my life, I thought my destiny was calling me to be an aeronautical engineer.
As I grew older to get admitted into a Nigerian university then I realized Aeronautical Engineering was a course that required a lot of finance. I was in a state of a dilemma because the course will impose a lot of pressure on my mother. My uncle advised me to become a computer engineer. He was a computer scientist at the university where I later gained admission.
My uncle considered a career for me in Information technology as a computer engineer because I knew how to operate electronic gadgets with little to no guidance. Also, I was to inherit his textbooks on computer software development and programming after I got admitted to the university. My career as a computer engineer made me a jack of all trades type of person. I had knowledge of many fields and concepts in information technology but I never was a professional in any.
The reason I wasn’t a professional in any of these fields was that I had no coach to guide me. I was doing every step on my own. I love researching a lot and I always get excited when I hear people discussing interesting topics. The internet and television always brought about trends in technology, engineering, medicine, and finance that pique my interest. Blogs in the technology space, especially in the software development niche drew my attention. I participated in several forums online that discussed computer programming in general.
I conducted targeted research to confirm major concepts and theories to begin a successful career in ICT. This research helped me with the best choice of a career in information technology. Setting up a career in information technology made me see ethical hacking as the best fit for my career. I was very curious to understand how electronic devices operated. To be honest I derived most of my passion from watching Hollywood movies. I loved how these ethical hackers worked for the foreign government agencies like the CIA and FBI. These ethical hackers will use hacking tools and technology to try and get the bad guys. Because of my passion for ethical hacking, I cultivated a mindset for problem-solving.
9-5 routine the Cause of my Downfall
My journey through life has not been a smooth ride. I have experienced a series of trying times, although I will not deny I had great success at many defining moments in my life. I finished my tertiary education as a computer engineering graduate at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike in Abia State Nigeria.
I got privileged to serve as a corp member in August 2019 for one year in my country’s National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) program. I served my fatherland in Abuja the capital city of Nigeria with a consulting firm. I got hired full-time after my service year at my place of work. I continued performing my required duty as a staff of the company.
Working a 9 – 5 job was not part of my goal and vision in life because living in a third-world country like Nigeria the chance of getting a job after youth services was very slim. During my service year, God’s favor landed me my first job. I have always had an eye to starting my own business but due to financial constraints, I had to join the conventional 9 – 5 system. I must tell you it didn’t work in my goal to grow the required capital to start my business.
I had a ridiculous saving plan in my first job. I planned to raise N300,000 – 500,000 in my first year from an earning of N50,000 a month. Earning this low will take about 5 years to fulfill my saving plans if I committed at least N5,000 every month. Considering the running cost for transportation, upkeep for my family, and my personal need my saving plan was a failed mission.
I was already spending 40% of my salary running transportation costs. At the time I was the first graduate in my family. I had a responsibility to reduce the financial burden on my mom. N50,000 a month as a salary was a long way off reaching that mark.
In 2019 before I got a job I already had a plan to get my family out of the rat race. The challenge I had was a lack of finance to bring my ideas into reality. My job at the time wasn’t helping me solve major financial problems.
At the eight-month of my service year, I was already burnout because of the stress in my job and the non-fulfillment of my goals. I was already committing 55 hours of my time from 9 am – 5 pm Monday to Friday and 10 am – 3 pm on Saturday every week.
I got soaked up with stress and burnout because my goals and vision were not coming to light, and my passion was fading away. I hated my job so much that when I woke up every morning I wished I had resigned.
I always wanted to leave my job to seek better opportunities so I can have the financial freedom I desired. In reality, I was more privileged than most to have a job. Having a job as a Nigerian was an optimal goal for the cycle of unemployed Nigerian youths.
Most people wouldn’t consider resigning from my job because it wasn’t a natural thing to do. Many Nigerians would rather remain in a job they hate because getting another job is a very big challenge in the country.
Eventually, I made up my mind to resign from my place of work in November 2020 because I wasn’t benefiting from the company. I was being overused and underpaid and the best option was to resign. I applied for a couple of jobs but I never got called for any interviews.
I remember many good cover letters I wrote to these companies that ghosted me. I struggled without a job living with my mother for months which was a very sad experience.
The most painful day of my life as a youth was realizing I had no tangible accomplishment to my name at the age of 25. I had all my dreams crashing fast to the ground in my very eye.
2021 the Year I Made a U-turn to all the craziness
The year 2021 was a very frustrating year for me because I had zero income to my name. Also, it was the most challenging time in my life with lots of struggles and setbacks. 2021 was also a very defining moment in my life, I grew tremendously career-wise and in spiritual engagement. I found my true purpose on the earth in midst of very painful circumstances.
I was so broke that the only thing I had going was a virtual assistant gig on Fiverr. I made a couple of sales with my Fiverr gig that year. I considered that gig a reasonable accomplishment for the year 2021 because of the financial challenges around me.
The traffic I was pulling on my Fiverr gigs was very poor so I made fewer sales. I had very few resources to advertise my Fiverr and Upwork portfolios for max sales.
My income was only able to fund minor needs like my internet subscription and house upkeep. My world wasn’t moving in the pace and direction I planned. I was still focusing on my career path to become an ethical hacker with a humongous learning curve.
Initially, my journey to become an ethical hacker began with my study of computer networks and programming. My career part took a U-turn when I figured out that small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) in the Nigerian tech space were looking for experts that could handle a bunch of roles under the position of network security analyst/penetration tester. These SMEs had very poor remuneration packages which reminded me a lot of my previous job experience. I determined in my heart never to settle for less anymore if I were to work a 9-5 job.
Getting a job in a top government parastatal was like looking for a pin in an ocean in my country. Because of this challenge, I started searching for lucrative businesses I could run from home that has the potential to give me the financial freedom I deserve. The perfect business I was looking for was a business that required little to no financial investment to implement. Because of my pursuit, I was able to target my research and I came across a couple of businesses.
Eventually, I found the digital marketing space that was fitting the kind of business model I desired. The affiliate marketing business has the potential to generate a ton of income for an individual to become financially stable. When I found the digital marketing space I began learning a lot of resources. My goal was to build a successful affiliate marketing blogging business. I spent hours of my time studying how I could grow organic traffic for my affiliate marketing website.
After I got all the information I required to start a digital marketing business I launched my blog. Digital marketing came with a fast learning curve for me and also presented lots of opportunities for my goals.
Now you know who make Digital Network Savvy breathe, let take a deep dive into how I intend to scale my Digital Agency and Blogging business into a profitable $10k a month venture.
Goals and vision for my blog
Ultimately my goal is to make this blog very successful. I have conducted a great deal of research on how to grow my blog as a business.
My aim is to take actionable steps to achieve my goals.
So, instead of writing, marketing, and sharing my content, as usual, I redirected my entire focus to scaling my blog for long-term success.
These processes have three basic objectives:
- Acquire backlinks to increase my Domain Authority.
- Boost my organic traffic growth.
- Monetize my website within three to six months.
My first aim is to obtain as many backlinks as possible that will increase my domain authority.
I’m on a mission to generate 200 blog content that will individual drag 1,000 monthly visitors per blog post.
I have divided this mission into achievable goals in the next 6 months.
- To generate 20+ content ideas for my affiliate marketing blog every week
- Keyword research per content to drag traffic for 3,000 monthly visitors
- Generate at most 10 pillar blog posts in a month
- Monetize my blog in 2-3 months with affiliate links
- Writing guest posts to grow backlines for my website
- 500 backlinks in 3-6 month
No matter what challenge you’re battling in life, you can still do it.
The goal of my blog is to capture my journey from the beginning so that we can all learn together.
Because most of us are earning a side income while working full-time. My goal is to provide you with methods and tools to help you develop faster.
Many podcasts, influencers, and successful blogs began at least 10 years ago. This successful blogger deployed strategies that may no more be applicable in 2024. I’m here to provide you with the most recent strategies and tools to help you start a successful blog.
Nobody ever gave me actionable, step-by-step advice on how to grow my blog from day one. I used the trial by error method to get things done. Many of my agendas failed but I kept putting more effort. That is something I intend to fix with my readers and newbie bloggers.
My mission is to provide practical guides to help beginners all over the world build successful blogs online.
My greatest delights in life do not come from generating money online. My delight comes from meeting new people and teaching them something that may improve their lives.
Starting a blog and earning a side income can provide you with more freedom and change your life in a variety of ways.
It may be starting a side company to help support your family or earning hundreds of dollars every month from your articles. It could be as simple as earning passive money through affiliate marketing or sharing your unique experience with the world and being compensated for it.
Whatever your goals are, my dream is to help you get there faster. Life is too short to not give it a try.
I Really Want to take a moment to thank you for Being Here
If you’ve gotten this far, I appreciate the time you spent reading my story. I totally value every relationship I form as a result of this blog.
I’m here to help you as a blogger and as a friend. I try to react to every email and am interested in hearing your experience, both good and bad.
I want to create a secure space for new bloggers to collaborate, be encouraged, and work smarter. We need to work together, pick each other up, and rally together to win because we’re all beginning bloggers.
Thank you for your time.
I hope your life narrative offers you peace, freedom, and happiness.
Theophilus Okah (CEO – Digital Network Savvy)
