Many of you know that we have had the time and money to travel because our income has been location independent.
Wherever we have had an Internet connection, we’ve been able to work.
It wasn’t always this way.
In 2001, I went to Germany as an exchange student. Not only was I not earning income there, but I had gotten $10,000 in debt (primarily on credit cards), a debt which my parents helped me with (until I paid them back completely in 2007).
While I was in Germany, I put up a web page to show people how to make cheap phone calls to Germany from America.
After putting it online, people started sending emails and asking me how to make cheap phone calls to France, how to make cheap calls to Spain, etc. etc. So I started building a few pages, and run some banners on those web pages.
I earned $5/month from the banners on the websites.
A year and a half later, in the fall of 2002, I was a full-time teacher during the day, a massage therapist in the afternoons (3-4 appointments/week), and had purchased my own website hosting (for Strive4impact.com). I decided that Strive4impact.com was going to host a page of instructions for how to call every country in the world.
At the time, there were 205 countries to build pages for. So I built 205 individual pages (one page at a time) which included instructions for how to make an international call to every country in the world.
It took me three months to build the content for 205 pages. There wasn’t a Wikipedia or a lot of information online to use (Google was still relatively new), so I scrapped together what I knew, researched what I didn’t know at the library, and put together one of the web’s first directories of country codes and calling instructions.
On those pages, I would post a calling card search box from a company called Nobelcom, and a company called SpeedyPin. Both companies would pay me an affiliate commission if I someone clicked from my website, went to their website, and purchased a calling card.
How much would I earn? 10%. On a $20 calling card, I would earn $2.
By January 2003, I was selling 1 calling card a day, making about $60/month passively. I was SO excited.
Carrie and I went out and had a $70 dinner to celebrate. We knew we were going places.
There is much more to the story, which I will share if you would like to hear (let me know in the comments).
I share all of that story to share why today’s giveaway is for a $100 calling card, COMPLETELY FREE. This is $100 worth of phone calls, to anywhere in the world (rates vary).
If you would like to get free calling to any International destination from your land-line or cell phone, go ahead and follow the instructions below to win this Giveaway Friday.
This is $100 worth of free calling.
We are giving it away for free to 1 lucky winner.
Step 1: “Like” this post on Facebook, Tweet it, or +1 it on Google+.
Step 2: Post a comment below. Your comment say where would you love to travel, or who you will call with this calling card, and why?
I am very curious to hear the whole story…keep talking!
I watched you build a bunch of those first pages, complete with national colors and a flag. You’ve made a bunch of changes and kept it all updated over the years, providing a really great service to lots of people and the start of your online income too. I think your give away is very generous and hope somebody who really needs the calling cards will win!!
I want to know thw whole story too.
great story you have, this is very inspirational!
yes Speedypin have affiliate program which you could join and earn commission
more of this stories please 🙂
-Angel Baluyut