Hey there,
I am Dilip aka. DK!
This is my story of how I went from being a well-paid corporate employee to an online business owner all while working my full time job.
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Why should YOU read this story and how can this help YOU!
Stories inspire all of us. Maybe that is why we all love movies and get inspired by those on-screen Heroes!
But then, will my story inspire you?
I am not really sure about it though I am hoping that it does.
I am just like any of you out there - who started off with very little and went on to achieve a lot. All thanks to my dreams that I relentlessly pursued because I was desperate to achieve those.
So why should you read this story of mine?
My attempt with this story is to inspire you to get started with your Podcast. You don't need to be somebody who knows everything about everything. You can be as ignorant as I was when I started and yet, achieve whatever it is that you have dreamt of achieving in life.
So go ahead and read the story and if anything down there inspires you, I will feel that my job is done!
My Story
The first podcast that I listened to was in 2009. It was a show hosted by Yaro Starak who was a blogger that I was following. In fact, my first blog was the result of the tips and advices I learnt from him.
At first, I didn't even know that it was called a "Podcast". But I really liked the idea of recording an audio and hosting it somewhere.
But then, the problem was with adding the audio onto your website or, blog. And I couldn't find any real solution for that.
Since, I was working on a ton of other things, I didn't want to spend a lot of time on figuring out something that I didn't even know would be profitable in the long run.
Hence, I parked that idea for then.
My First Podcast:
I started my first podcast in 2015. Podcasting wasn't that familiar in India back then. And probably, that is why there weren't a lot of service providers who could help with podcast hosting etc.
The only ones that were available were all international service providers and they charged anywhere between $10 - $12 per month.
I had a decent income source from my primary business of affiliate marketing. But, I wasn't really ready to invest in something that I didn't know would work or, not.
So, with all of the technical knowledge I had and with the help of a friend who used to develop Wordpress plugins, I got a simple plugin that could generate an RSS feed out of an audio file that was hosted on an Amazon S3 server.
The hosting didn't cost me anything because I was still in my free tier and the plugin development too did not cost me anything because we used a service bartering system between the two of us.
It was a struggle, putting up that podcast and then submitting it to all of those podcast directories.
That's how I started.
I was getting listeners to the show but I didn't see a real ROI from the efforts that I was putting in. So after about 50 episodes, I called it off and decided that I will pick it up after some time.
Though the end of the story could be that "I failed", but "if failures can teach you a lesson or, two and help you do better, then that is not a failure".
I considered it as a decision to rest and focus on things that were more important at that point.
I learnt a lot of things in this entire experience which I then used in my second podcast which I launched along with my wife - The Tastes of India Podcast, which today has more than 20 lac downloads.
The Moral of the Story
Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” - Napoleon Hill
My Background
I am a niche affiliate marketer who got into the "online business" world for the freedom that the internet gave - freedom of time and money.
As a niche affiliate marketer, I build niche websites that make money solely from "affiliate marketing".
I started off building websites that made me money from Google Adsense.
At this point it is important that I tell you that until 2002, I hadn't touched a computer. In fact, I didn't even know how to boot up a computer.
So how did I learn to build websites?
When your dream is big enough to drive you to go to any extent to achieve it, the possibility of you achieving the dream increases manifold.
I was desperate for success and my first search on the internet showed me that you could "make money on the internet".
And, it made absolute sense for me to the learn everything I could about computers, about how the internet and the www worked.
Because I desperately needed money.
So, that's what I did.
I learnt every one of those things.
But then, did I make any money?
Absolutely! The first dollar that I made was in 2003-2004 and that was when I got a check from Google for the adsense earnings. It was for $200.
It was huge for me. More than what I was earning from my full time job then!
And... I was on my way!
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Where I stand today?
Somewhere in 2007-2008 Google cracked the whip on lean websites that were built with the purpose of making money using Adsense.
And overnight, all of my websites that were ranking on the first pages of Google lost their rankings. My income fell flat and I felt that I would never be able to get up again.
I was getting thousands of visitors to my website on a daily basis and generating me adsense clicks. But when I was basking in the glory of all the cheques I was getting from Google, I never realized that one day I could be looking at a stats that read 10 visitors in a day.
I was terribly disappointed but I didn't give up.
At this point, I realized a big mistake that I had done. I had read a quote, "the money is in the list", from a lot of internet marketers then, who advised on building email lists.
But I never did that. In fact, I never thought that a day will come when there will be no traffic to my websites.
Only if I had a built a list, I would have had an email list with lakhs of subscribers in it and I could still have been making money in spite of ZERO traffic to my websites.
But then. Mistakes do happen and it is important that you learn from it.
I switched to affiliate marketing soon and started all over again.
In 2011, my internet marketing business was fully formed and I was making more money that I was making in my full time corporate job and more than what I was making with my earlier websites.
I had built a huge email list that was making me affiliate income at will.
I had more than 30 niche affiliate websites that were all generating affiliate income on auto-pilot. It was at this point that I started thinking about Podcasting.
Learnings:
Today I and my wife, we together run our online business and manage all of the work between the two of us. We also have outsourced a few of the things that doesn't need our interference.
My wife is a full time blogger and runs a food blog along with her food podcast which has around 20 lac downloads until now.
We enjoy what we are doing and hence never feel stressed out, which is very important when you are running an online business.
There are a ton of things that we have planned for the future. Some of those projects are planned for this year and you should see them being released soon.
I hope this small story of mine was able to inspire you to make your voice heard by the world. Start your Podcast right now and if you need any help, don't hesitate to hit me up.
You can use the "contact" button and I will respond to you!
Praise and Testimonials
Being interviewed by Dilip for his show is one of my finest experiences as a guest speaker. He made it super comfortable to share my insights and gave me space to speak my mind. As a host, he made sure that he goes deep into a topic without being pushy, ultimately making it a valuable conversation for the listener. The Podcasting University is a very well-curated show
Roshni Baronia ● Podcaster and Author
Thoroughly enjoyed being interviewed by Dilip and Indian Noir fans wrote in to tell me how much they loved listening to it. Dilip is a wonderful host who can tease out great discussions and ask thoughtful questions that capture wholesome pictures of his interview subjects.
Nikesh Murali ● Podcaster and Speaker
It was a great privilege for us to be on Podcasting University. Dilip Sir is someone we look up to when it comes to podcasting and blogging. Apart from creating a successful career for himself online and a go-to guide for podcasters through Podcasting University, he’s an amazing host! He is a great interviewer and knows how to extract the best out of everyone he interviews. In our case, it was honestly one of the best conversations we have ever had!
Shankar and Vishnu ● Podcasters
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