At the beginning of 2020, I wanted to test something very specific.

I had already spent the first 5 years of my professional journey (2014–2019) mastering digital marketing and web development. I had also validated these skills by generating revenue through affiliate marketing and display advertising.

I was earning well. But one thing was missing that I had not built a brand yet.

So, I decided to take one step ahead to build a more value-driven brand in the future, where I could:

• Create an impact on others’ lives
• Use my skills to grow other businesses
• Help others make money by working with me
• Grow my brand and my clients’ brands as well

I wanted to figure out whether I could use my existing skills to:

• Sell digital marketing and web development services to international clients
• Generate revenue through freelancing platforms like Upwork

At the same time, I also wanted to validate a bigger idea:

‘Could I sell services globally on my own?’

If this worked, the plan was to eventually:

• Hire, train and build a team
• Build a service-based global marketing technology company

The Major Skill Gaps I Had

Even after years of technical and marketing experience, I had no prior freelancing experience, so there were many challenges for me, such as:

• How to write proposals that clients would respond to
• How to get client attention and initial replies
• How to communicate confidently and convince clients
• How to negotiate effectively
• How to increase pricing
• How to sell high-ticket services
• How to deliver quality work within agreed timelines
• How to earn genuine 5-star reviews by supporting clients properly

Also, I never believed that I could do one-on-one sales or sell high-ticket services to international clients.

So, I started researching and studying how to sell anything to anyone. I studied the consumer mindset, psychology, sales processes, and everything I thought could help me.

How I Started on Upwork

At the end of 2019, I created and set up my first Upwork account. In 2020, I started setting up my profile and testing project bidding.

Skill level at start

I had 5–6 years of proven digital marketing and web development experience.

I had strong technical and in-depth work experience

Early Challenges

However, I had no freelancing experience, so there were many challenges in this journey, like:

• How to write proposals to clients,
• Getting clients’ attention and replies,
• Communicating confidently, and
• Negotiating with clients.

Capital and Tools

Initially, it does not require much capital to invest in but one must have strong skills sets to deliver the project.

So, I relied mainly on my in-depth skills and experience to solve client problems. I only needed:

• A laptop
• Internet
• Electricity
• Purchase approx. $100 worth of Upwork connects to start bidding

Tools I used:

• Upwork platform and Upwork Time Tracker for hourly tracking
• Skype and Google Meet for client communication
• Loom for sharing quick project updates
• Basecamp and Asana for project management
• Slack/Gmail for communication

Strategy I Followed

I did not approach freelancing with a “make money fast” mindset.

Instead, my focus was:

• Learning how to write proposals that get replies (through A/B testing)
• Creating a compelling profile
• Being honest in communication
• Bidding only on projects I was confident I could deliver
• Starting with lower pricing to deliver initial projects perfectly
• Gradually increasing pricing after successful delivery

I started focusing on Indian clients first to understand how Upwork works as I was comfortable dealing with them.

I wanted to fully understand the platform before approaching international clients, so that I could position myself as an expert, not a beginner.

I aimed to get initial projects without focusing on money. My belief was that if it worked once, I could repeat the process consistently.

Here’s What Happened in Execution Phase

First Revenue

I focused on quality over quantity in proposals. So, I preferred to send

• Fewer but quality proposal
• Highly personalized proposal

Within my first 10 proposals, I received a couple of responses from Indian clients. One client from Mumbai agreed to work with me at a negotiated price.

My priority at that stage was not money. It was understanding the platform.

I delivered my first project worth $60 within a week. That gave me clarity on how the system works.

After that, I shifted focus to clients from Tier 1 countries like the US and Canada.

Turning Point

I continued bidding and interacting with US-based clients. I tested different proposal approaches to understand what worked.

After about a month, I got an interview opportunity from a US-based client for a marketing automation project.

The client asked how I would approach the project and I provided a detailed, technical, and confident response aligned with his goals

This resulted in my first hourly contract at $15/hour.

Major Breakthrough

While working on that project for a couple of months, I continued bidding on other projects

I secured another project from a US client at an increased rate of $25/hour.

At this stage, I started understanding:

• How to win high-ticket projects
• How to communicate effectively
• How to sell services

Thus, these learnings became the most valuable and rewarding skill sets in my journey.

I continued getting more valuable projects, and my hourly rate increased step by step within a year.

Started from $15 → $25 → $35 → $45 → $65 → up to $75/hour within a year.

Overall, I earned more than $12K within a year from Upwork by selling services as a freelancer. That’s a decent income by Indian standards.

Also, I received 5-star ratings (with positive reviews) from most of my clients after project completion, along with a 100% Job Success Score on Upwork.

Challenges I Faced in Freelancing Journey

My freelancing experiment was rewarding for not easy at all. There were following challenges as well:

1). Time Zone Impact: I had to stay awake at night for meetings and work. This affected my sleep cycle and health.

2). Pipeline Instability: While working on projects, I had less time to bid. This created uncertainty in income.

3). Constant Client Pressure: After completing a project, I had to find new clients again. This caused mental pressure.

4). Platform Costs: Upwork charged around 20% commission at that time. This reduced actual earnings. Although the platform fee is now reduced to 10%.

5). Competition: There is a strong global competition in most common niche. So, picking a service niche is crucial for every freelancer.

Conclusion: Why This Matters

This experience helped me validate something important:

• Technical skills alone are not enough
• Sales, communication, and positioning directly impact outcomes
• Freelancing is not just about doing work, it is about consistently acquiring work

It also helped me test whether I could sell services globally on my own.

This was not just a successful experiment, but the learnings from the journey also became the foundation for a bigger challenge for me: setting up my own marketing technology company with a larger vision and operating with a team instead of working individually as a freelancer.

By July 2017, I decided to diversify my income streams by building digital assets instead of relying only on affiliate and CPA offers.

Why I Tested Display Advertising

This time, I planned to test one of my websites using display advertising.

It is one of the most common monetization methods used by website owners.

Display ad networks act as a bridge between advertisers and website owners. Advertisers bid for placements, and website owners earn based on impressions and clicks.

I chose Google AdSense as my starting point because of its strong market presence and wide adoption.

Google provides multiple ad formats for both desktop and mobile devices. It also offers strong earning potential in competitive niches where advertisers are willing to bid higher.

However, while researching, I found mixed results.

Some website owners were generating decent revenue through display ads, while others were not.

My Testing Plan

To test this properly, I created a structured execution plan.

Research Phase

• Niche research and selection
• Competitor analysis
• Keyword research

Website Setup Phase

• New website setup
• Content creation
• On-page and off-page SEO implementation

AdSense Approval Process

After setting up the website and ensuring it complied with Google AdSense policies, I submitted it for approval.

Once approved, I moved to the next phase.

Traffic Generation Strategy

To generate traffic, I focused on multiple channels:

• SEO
• Social media
• YouTube
• Forums

The goal was to build consistent traffic from different sources.

Ad Optimization and Testing

Once traffic started coming in, I began testing ad placements.

I manually experimented with different ad positions to understand:

• Which placements generated higher CTR
• Which placements resulted in better CPC

Based on the data, I continuously optimized placements to improve performance.

Revenue Growth

Gradually, the website started generating revenue.

The earnings improved over time as traffic increased and ad placements were optimized.

You can see the month-by-month earnings breakdown below.

July 2017 Earnings: $24.89

August 2017 Earnings: $178.11

September 2017 Earnings: $190.31

October 2017 Earnings: $350.92

November 2017 Earnings: $681.88

December 2017 Earning: $1,004.22

January 2018 Earning: $1,805.89

February 2018 Earning: $1,807.29

March 2018 Earning: $1,891.52

April 2018 Earning: $1,349.63

May 2018 Earning: $1,191.22

June 2018 Earning: $1,387.83

July 2018 Earning: $747.62

Overall Revenue Summary:

So, this is my month-by-month revenue breakdown from my website through Google AdSense.

Overall, I made more than $12K in a one-year period from July 2017 to July 2018.

You can also refer to this attached screenshot from Google AdSense to verify this statement from the Google Payment Center.

Key Takeaways from This Display Advertising Experiment

Following are some insights that I learned from this monetization experiment using display advertising:

• Display advertising depends heavily on traffic quality and volume
• Ad placement has a direct impact on CTR and overall earnings
• Not all niches perform equally in display advertising
• Continuous testing is required to improve performance
• Revenue growth is gradual, not immediate

Conclusion:

If you are planning to monetize a website using display advertising, then yes, this can be a good option if executed correctly.

However, the results depend on niche selection, traffic quality, and ongoing optimization strategies.

This model works differently compared to affiliate marketing, where revenue is tied to conversions rather than impressions and clicks.

But combining both affiliate marketing and display advertising can be a much more rewarding setup for monetizing a website.

I wanted to understand how online traffic could actually turn into real income.

Between 2013 and 2014, I spent nearly a year deeply researching digital marketing. During that time, I studied different strategies such as SEO, content marketing, website monetization, and online traffic generation.

However, everything I had learned was still theoretical.

I needed a real environment where I could test these strategies.

Why did I choose CPA & Affiliate Marketing in the beginning?

At that stage, I had no revenue and limited resources.

Building a product or launching a service would have required significant time, investment, and operational effort. I wanted a model where I could focus purely on learning and executing digital marketing strategies.

CPA and affiliate marketing seemed like the most practical way to start because I could focus on generating traffic and conversions without needing to create my own product.

So I decided to build a niche-based website and use it as a testing ground.

My Initial Belief

I strongly believed that digital marketing had massive potential to generate income online.

But I also understood one important thing.

Digital marketing cannot be mastered through theory alone. It requires real experimentation.

To learn it properly, I needed a real website, real traffic, and real monetization methods. Only then could I simulate real business conditions and apply the strategies I had studied the hard way.

The Experiment Setup

The experiment started in 2014 with a niche-based website project.

My Skill Level at the Start

By the time I started the project, I had already learned several foundational digital marketing skills, including:

• Website development
• Basic server management
• Identifying low-competition and high-potential niches
• Keyword research and search intent analysis
• Content creation
• On-page and off-page SEO implementation
• Social media promotion strategies

Although I had learned these concepts, I had not yet tested them extensively in a real project.

Capital Invested

The initial investment was minimal and mainly covered basic infrastructure such as:

• Domain purchase
• Web hosting server
• Internet and basic operational expenses

The focus was not on heavy spending but on execution and learning.

Tools Used

To execute this project effectively, I relied on several digital marketing tools.

For research and strategy planning:

• Google Keyword Planner
• Ahrefs
• SEMrush

These tools helped identify potential niches, analyze keyword difficulty, study competitors, and plan an SEO strategy.

For performance tracking and analytics:

• Google Analytics
• Google Tag Manager
• Google Search Console
• Keyword ranking tracking tools

These platforms helped monitor traffic growth, search performance, and conversion activity.

For on-page SEO analysis:

• Screaming Frog

This tool helped analyze on-site SEO issues and create an execution plan to improve website performance and optimization.

My Initial Strategy

The strategy was relatively straightforward.

First, identify a niche that had strong monetization potential. Then focus on long-tail keywords with lower competition to gain initial visibility.

Once the website started gaining traction, the plan was to target larger search-volume keywords and expand the traffic sources.

Traffic generation efforts included:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• Social media promotion
• YouTube content
• Online forums and communities

The goal was to gradually increase targeted traffic and improve conversion opportunities.

Expected Outcome

The primary objective of this experiment was simple.

First, validate whether the niche and monetization model could generate conversions.

Once the initial conversions were achieved, the plan was to scale the traffic using multiple marketing channels and expand the revenue potential.

Turning Point: My First Revenue

After implementing SEO strategies, a few pages on the website started getting impressions and clicks from search engines like Google and Bing.

However, for the first three months, there were no conversions.

Then one day something unexpected happened.

I received a notification from an affiliate network confirming that a conversion had been recorded.

That single conversion felt incredibly rewarding.

It validated my idea and confirmed that my years of research and experimentation were moving in the right direction.

Once the first conversion validated the model, my confidence increased significantly.

I started focusing more aggressively on scaling traffic and improving the website’s reach.

As traffic grew, conversions also started increasing.

Within a short time, the revenue became meaningful enough to justify the time and effort I had invested.

Major Breakthrough

The real breakthrough came when I began expanding beyond a single affiliate network.

I joined multiple affiliate platforms and started experimenting with different offers.

At the same time, I invested more time in learning additional digital marketing channels, especially paid media strategies.

This included studying and testing:

• Pop advertising networks
• Mobile marketing channels
• Native advertising platforms
• Search engine marketing (SEM)
• Social media advertising

Through this process, my understanding of online marketing expanded significantly and helped me develop deeper expertise in digital traffic generation and monetization.

Earnings Proofs

Below is some screenshots from my CPA and affiliate network dashboard showing actual payouts I received during this experiment.

Earning Report from CPA & Affiliate Network 1

Earning Report from CPA & Affiliate Network 2

Earning Report from CPA & Affiliate Network 3

This experience proved that CPA and affiliate marketing can work, but only when backed by the right strategy, experimentation, and persistence.

It was not just about earning money, but about learning how real digital marketing works.

That curiosity pushed me to start learning and experimenting on my own.

From Tech Curiosity to Web Development

In 2014, I began learning web development. Coming from a tech background, it felt easier to start there.

I built a few initial websites for practice.

But I quickly hit a wall.

Questions kept coming up:

• How will people reach these sites?
• How can I earn from them?

Building something was not the real challenge.

Getting the right audience and turning that attention into revenue was the real problem to solve.

That was my first important realization.

Why Building a Website Was Not Enough

I understood that building a product or service does not automatically lead to income.

A business makes money only when:

• The right audience finds it
• Their problem is addressed
• There is a clear conversion path

This shifted my focus from development to distribution.

I needed to learn digital marketing. But to practice marketing, I needed something to promote.

Why I Started with CPA and Affiliate Marketing

To avoid spending time creating products from scratch, I chose CPA and affiliate marketing.

This decision was practical.

• No product development required
• Ready-to-promote offers
• Immediate opportunity to test marketing strategies

I applied to several US-based CPA and affiliate networks. After getting approved, I had access to multiple offers.

I selected a few, built niche websites around them, and started experimenting. This became my testing ground.

Mastering Organic Marketing Over 3 to 4 Years

From an investment perspective, I started with organic channels.

I focused on:

• SEO
• Social media promotion
• YouTube organic marketing

Over the next 3 to 4 years, I kept implementing and refining these strategies.

I generated significant traffic across channels and earned strong revenue through organic inbound marketing.

That revenue was enough to validate my learning process.

This phase gave me depth. Not just theory, but execution-level understanding.

Learning Without Mentors

I did not have a mentor.
No structured training.
No direct guidance.

I learned by:

• Researching blogs from digital marketing experts
• Watching videos
• Reading books
• Testing everything myself

Then adjusting.

Over time, I developed intuition about what to try next. That came only from repeated execution.

Expanding into Paid Performance Marketing

Once I built confidence with organic channels, I moved into paid marketing.

I experimented with:

• Google Ads
• Facebook Ads
• YouTube Ads
• Native Ads
• POP Ads
• Mobile traffic channels

This was the next level.

Organic channels gave me foundation. Paid channels forced precision.

Between 2014 and 2019, I spent five years moving from web development basics to full performance marketing capability.

That was a significant time investment.

What I gained:

• Deep execution-level understanding
• Cross-channel experience
• Ability to adjust strategies independently

What it cost:

• Five years of trial and error
• Slow progress in early stages
• Learning everything the hard way

There were no shortcuts in this phase.

Lessons from Learning the Hard Way

1. Building a product is not enough. Distribution matters more.
2. Marketing skill requires execution, not just reading.
3. Organic channels build patience and depth.
4. Paid channels demand clarity and precision.
5. Self-learning works, but it is time intensive.

I kept pushing myself to go beyond my current limits. That internal pressure helped me grow faster over time.

Why This Matters

If you are starting in digital marketing, it is easy to underestimate the execution gap.

Understanding theory is one layer. Generating traffic and revenue consistently is another.

My journey from 2013 to 2019 was not linear, but it gave me a complete foundation across organic and paid performance marketing.

That foundation still defines how I approach digital marketing today, both in scaling my own ventures and in driving measurable growth for clients.

I did not have any problem with that idea, but I used to think – why my young fellows were limiting their potential. Though I knew there was a financial challenge, they had the required potential and time to do something innovative.

The reason was that they had job insecurities. The mindset of the parents and society also impacted the way of their thought about their future careers. People in society used to appreciate someone with a government job title.

Empower Yourself with My Financial Education

So, in my opinion, job insecurities among students are one of the main reasons that stop them to do something innovative.

I also had such a kind of environment in my family and in society, so I knew it very well. But I was planning something different. I wanted to explore and understand my future career possibilities on my own terms.

I have seen that most people in society are not financially educated. When I say financially educated – it means understanding the nature of money, wealth, assets, liabilities, active income, passive income, business, investments, etc.

“Financial education is the key that unlocks a world of financial empowerment and opens doors to a brighter future”

In our academic education system, there is no such subject that helps us to understand the nature of money and how it should be treated in our life. People have no understanding of where to invest their money the right way.

So, I decided to explore things that were beyond the scope of our education. For this, I studied many books to get some clarity on financial education. Some of my favorite books are the following which provided me with life learnings that I was completely unaware of:

• Rich Dad Poor Dad
• How Rich People Think
• Born Rich
• Stay Hungry Stay Foolish
• The Rules of Life
• The 10X Rule
• The 80-20 Principle
• Think and Grow Rich

The learnings of these books are life-changing. I learned so many things from these books that impacted my life. But you know what – implementing these learnings in my life was a great challenge for me.

This was just a beginning of an adventurous journey where I did not know what the future outcome would be. 🙂

Know more with Adarsh Awasthi

Some of my fellows started preparing for government exams and some decided to study further for master’s programs.

Literally, I was not interested to be part of any kind of rat race. My main objective was to understand myself.

At that time, I had numerous questions like knowing about my life goals, career preferences, what kind of person I want to be in the future, etc.

I did not want to take any premature decisions. So I decided to give myself some more time to explore new things.

As I was from an engineering background, I knew the logical process of solving problems.

So I did some part-time jobs to get some idea about what kind of market situation was at that time, and which kind of challenges were there in the market related to marketing & technologies.

Why I Chose Digital Marketing for My Career

I observed that internet technology and marketing were something that captured my attention. I found that by using internet technology and marketing, we can solve many problems for businesses as well as for the public.

This was the first time, I ever realized how powerful internet marketing technology could be.

But I did not know much in detail so that I could choose digital marketing for my career.

So, I planned for dedicating the whole year from 2014 to 2015, to researching Internet marketing & technology to make any final decision on whether I could choose digital marketing for my career or not.

This was the first time when I took digital marketing very seriously. Actually, I was planning to build a career for myself on my own terms. For example, a career having

• No Boss
• No 9-5 Regular Job
• Financial Freedom, etc.

These goals are ideal for anybody who dreams to make a career in digital marketing. But let me tell you very clearly, this is not as easy to achieve as it is advertised.

Initially, I thought that it would be easy, similar to others – soon I realized that this was just the beginning of the journey.

But I promised myself that I would stick to the plan until I achieve these goals. 🙂