About Me...

The first picture is from New Years Eve 2018. The second is from 6 months later after I'd lost 74 pounds!  

Hi, my name is Martin Avis and I am an Internet marketer and a writer.

After a 25 year career in advertising agencies I was laid off in 2001. Being too old (at 45) to get another job in the advertising industry - and frankly not wanting to even try - I set about reinventing myself.

The new-fangled 'Internet' seems a good place to start as making money online seemed to combine my two skills - marketing and writing. I soon learned that most of what I though I knew about marketing didn't really apply online, and my writing skill were more suited to dry business reports than communicating with real people!

It was a steep learning curve.

Gradually, though, I learned what works online, and more importantly, what I was able to do effectively.

Mostly, I found, the way to success was by learning all I could and then helping other people get to grip with this all-too-confusing world of online marketing.

I started an online newsletter in 2001, called Biz-ezine. Looking back, it was horribly dry and dusty, but gradually it found a few subscribers and I started to make a bit of money.

The first big jump in subscriber numbers came after a few months when I posted on a forum asking for 'real people who are making a few dollars online' to be interviewed. Several dozen came forward and I sent them all a simple questionnaire with ten questions. After they had replied I sent them ten more questions, based on their previous answers. In all, 12 people completed all 20 questions and I wrote their answers up and turned it into my very first ebook: Success Stories - 12 Doers Share Their Secrets.

From the initial forum post to the finished ebook took just 6 days.

Back on the forum I offered a free copy to anyone in return for them subscribing to my ezine - which I had just renamed to Kickstart.

Within two weeks I had over 2,500 subscribers.

As you can see from the testimonials on the Kickstart Newsletter signup page, some of those early subscribers from 2001/2 are still regular readers!

It took a few years to build my online business up to where it provided a full-time income, but by 2004 I achieved that and have never looked back.

Since then I have tried all kinds of ways to make money online - product creation, niche websites, Amazon affiliate, general affiliate marketing, video creation, software writing to name but a few. Some have been spectacular successes, and some - usually because they didn't suit my personality - didn't work so well for me.

Probably the best things, for me, that I've done are writing my newsletter, creating products that help people make sense of the often confusing world of Internet marketing, and recommending some of the better products I come across (affiliate marketing).

It has been a lovely life. I don't really consider that I have 'worked' since the day I was told to leave my advertising agency life back in 2001. 

I can't promise that subscribing to Kickstart Newsletter will make you a top online earner, but I will certainly promise to share with you the best of what I have learned - and continue to learn - to help you make sense of the confusion.

Copyright 2022 Martin Avis

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