Samith Pich on Being a Successful 6 Figure Digital Affiliate Marketer
In 2008, Samith Pich created an online business from his bedroom. Through the School of Hard Knocks he now makes 6 figures online. His story is below in our exclusive interview.
Wow! You have a powerful story, Samith. I am excited to learn more about your journey into a profitable online business. So, let’s get started with this interview!
What was childhood like and what did your parents do for a living?
More than 30 years ago my family and I fled a terrible civil war in my birth country of Cambodia. We arrived on the shores of Western Australia as refugees facing an uncertain future.
Scarred by loss and personal tragedy like so many before them my parents came with nothing but the shirts on their backs. The heaviest things they carried were their dreams of a better life and their dreams for us.
Growing up, compared to others my family and I were poor but I never felt we lacked anything. My mother was a cook and my father did many laboring jobs to make ends meet.
Though my mother and father worked hard and scrimped and saved there was always a feeling in our home of immense quiet gratitude. Our home could have been a fragile, beaten down rental and yet we believed they were castles. And they were.
With such good fortune to be alive, to have the opportunities of living in a safe, prosperous country with jobs and education our parents focus became tempered with how could we make the most of this opportunity?
How can one who has been given so much give back? Giving back became a duty, a service of love. It is a service we continue today.
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Was there any Entrepreneurship in the family?
There wasn’t any official entrepreneurship in our family. No one ran a business. But I always remember my mum and dad as being resourceful and being open to opportunities. Especially my dad who was always thinking up hair brained schemes which sounded promising but usually made no money.
When I was around 15 I was a budding artists and I would draw pictures which I usually sold to people. One day I figured to go to the library and make photocopies of the drawing and sell the ‘prints’ rather than the original.
Later I started drawing and cartoon workshops and it gave me the confidence to teach my skills.
This taught me about business models.
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What were your plans for when you “grew up?”
My plans were the usual plans for a young Asian man. Get a good education and get a good job as a teacher or doctor, Getting a good education was the gateway to a better life. It was the key to prosperity.
Get good grades to go to a good university and get a good job. Make good money from the job and lead a good life.
It seemed like a recipe for success. And I followed it.
Until one day I woke up depressed, and bankrupt, with someone in uniform repossessing my car. One day I came home with food that I begged to get from the Salvation army. And as I made the vegetarian spaghetti Bolognese for dinner I cried at the dinner table.
It wasn’t until later that I came to realize that I knew absolutely nothing about money, life or business.
While the key to success started with education, education wasn’t enough. I became fascinated by success and wealth (mainly out of my desperation to get out of my present).
I learned the innate immutable laws of money and prosperity. That it all started with mindset and one’s own personal philosophy.
Another key distinction I uncovered was that no one got truly wealthy from working a 9-5. Essentially 97% of truly wealthy people all had businesses!
So then I became passionate about business. And after looking at hundreds of business models I finally settled on an online business.
When did you begin internet marketing, and how were the first two years, and what kind of struggles did you experience?
I began my journey in 2010. And I struggled for almost 3 years before I made my first 6 figures online.
There are two things that move people into action. Inspiration and desperation. Mine was totally the latter.
When I came back home after my separation and bankruptcy I settled back into contract teaching to pay the bills. But as the bills grew I came to realize that doing what I had always done would only lead me to get what I had always got.
I realized I needed a way out of the 9-5, I no longer wanted my income to be chained to my time and I didn’t want to be told what to do and when to do it and who to say please to.
So it wasn’t long before I found internet marketing and making money online. I started to dream again that I could finally provide a good life for my family and be able to spend more time with them.
It looked simple enough. I saw lots of pictures of fast cars, laptop lifestyles and big cheques and people promising push button riches.
Reality however was nothing like the commercials. For the next four years I struggled online.
I spent thousands of dollars in different programs and buying course after course and lots of push button software.
I suffered long periods of shiny object-itis, information overload and procrastination. To overcome my feelings of overwhelm I spent money like a drunken soldier digging my family into further credit card debt…
If there was some hair brained scheme on the internet guaranteed to lose me money I made sure I had my name on it!
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How did you earn your first $1,000 on the internet from your bedroom?
The first $1,000 I ever made form internet marketing was transferring my skills in learning about SEO and websites to getting my first client who was willing to give me $1k to do both those things. I had no idea if I could do the things I was saying I could do but I knuckled down and got great results. It was a terrifying first experience!
The first proper $1,000 came in late 2012 when I sold a high ticket online course via a blog post and I woke up to a $1,000 check. It was amazing!
What were some of the biggest mistakes you made in the School of Hard Knocks?
The School of Hard Knocks was actually pretty kind to me since I was more than capable of knocking myself out!
The biggest mistakes I made was chasing after shiny objects and being a perfectionist which was a code word for not willing to actually get anything done. Oh I was a serial procrastinator as well. Not a great combination!
Another big mistake was not simply getting a coach or mentor to help smooth the path for me and helping me stay focused.
Everything changed when I got a coach and mentor that cared for my success as much as I did.
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I’m very interested about your blog(s). How many blogs do you have, how many articles are on them, and what is your daily traffic like?
I’ve had quite a few blogs! Most of them are dormant now apart from the main ones on my site. I’m sure I have a few hundred articles though I haven’t checked in a while.
Combined traffic is a few thousand clicks daily.
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What are the 3 most important SEO hacks you can do on a blog?
Basic SEO hacks:
- I use the Yoast SEO plugin (it is free) to make sure my onsite articles are optimized. And it makes it very simple to do so.
- I make my articles valuable and enjoyable to read for humans.
- I share my posts on social media and ask for likes and shares for some social love.
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How many blog posts do you need, roughly, to make a full-time income from home?
As many as it takes.
No seriously. If I gave you the answer 1,000 blog posts everyone could simply pay someone to create or spin 1000 shit posts. But guess how much you make from that? Zilch. And then you would blame me because I said write 1000 posts.
Making money via blogging isn’t about ‘how many blog posts you need’. It’s about having a passion, providing value and having the RIGHT sales funnel and business around it.
A blog doesn’t make you money. The business system does.
You’re now a successful digital marketer and business coach. What are some of the ways you save your clients from making the same mistakes you did, and ideally saving them time and money?
There are 3 main ways I help my clients save money and minimize their mistakes:
- I encourage them to invest in the best tools and business products they can afford and also point then to excellent resources. As an example they might want to start by getting free web hosting. But I would encourage to pay $10 per month for decent hosting that has security features, a decent speed and isn’t riddled with spam and spyware.
- It’s not so much about what you know but more importantly who you know. So I would introduce them to reputable service providers which would help them make more money and save them potentially thousands in scams or poor service providers.
- I help them stay focused, and accountable. The biggest amount of money you lose is spending time on the wrong things in the wrong order. The biggest potential money you lose is not following through on your dreams. I help with both.
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How important is ROI to you and your clients?
In the end ROI is all that matters. How much did I spend versus how much did I make?
Not clicks. Not click through rates. Not SEO. Not landing pages. Just making more money than you spent.
That is why I focus so much on choosing the right business models. On choosing the right offers. On getting quality traffic.
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You are a PPC and Sales Funnel Expert. If someone wanted to hire you and they already had a online business, but it wasn’t doing well, what would you start with first in helping them?
I would start by assessing what they’ve done in the past and where they are now. The mistakes are usually glaringly obvious.
For most people the biggest mistake is not have a clear enough avatar and not have a compelling enough offer. Most people are ‘me too’ marketers and business people. They do the same thing as everyone else and then wonder why they get the same results as everyone else. Aka not much.
So I get laser targeted on who they are trying to reach. And then help them craft a compelling irresistible offer.
The rest is just traffic and mechanics.
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What is your favorite book right now and why?
I read constantly. I usually have 2-3 books on the go at anyone time.
My current favorite business book is Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. It is an inspiring but also laser focused book that furthers the discourse on Pareto’s 80/20 rule, minimalism, purpose, and stoic philosophy.
“The Way of the Essentialist isn’t about getting more done in less time. It is about getting only the right things done. It is not a time management strategy, or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution towards the things that really matter.”
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What are your goals for 2023?
- Create a digital agency and digital school start up
- Publish 2 non-fiction and one fiction book
- Get six pack abs (I have only got 5 more to go).
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What is your favorite quote and why?
“You can have anything in the world you want if you just help enough people get what they want” – Zig Ziglar
“Just be yourself because everyone else is already taken” – Oscar Wilde
Thank you so much for this interview, Samith!