Starting again at nearly 50 - Losing my mind..

[Cerocer]

Hey Everyone

I am going round in circles, help... please..

I am 48, spent 20 years in IT Support because the thought of a deskjob was horricly boring *yawn* but I am still only on £26000 ($31000) a year.

In highsignt I should have sorted that out year's ago.

Anyway -

1. Would you retain at nearly 50 or say it is to late.

2. I saved very little money over the years, chased women and not value in mysef - Again, hindsight is a powerful thing.

3. Would you start with PPC or build a Info based blog. To me , PPC seems like a much more robust career/skill to gain? I have watched so many FB and Google Adwords courses, videos and as an IT and data guy, I can imagine myself being bloody good at it.

I just don't have anything to promote or money to look for products to buy

I know - TOTAL IDIOT!

My parents are now 76 and I would love it if they are proud of my achievements before they leave oneday.

Thankou so much , I can take anything that is said to me on the chin...

 

[Ryuzaki]

Hey, Cerocer. Don't let your age put a damper on your goals and dreams. When we let that happen, then what's the point of anything? Is it too late to start the garden you wanted in your backyard? Or to chew through all the video games you missed? Or whatever, you know. A lot of people retire and just die because they flat out give up on life and meaning and the pursuit of anything. They probably weren't living in the first place, just busy slowly dying. I say all this because time and how much is left and all that is on my mind routinely too. But we aren't done yet by any means.

At 48 you technically have 17 years till retirement anyways (in the US anyways). You can not pursue building a business and retire with whatever a $31k a year job offers you (and you haven't been saving yet either), or you can retire with millions if you play your cards right. Maybe you fail and only retire with a million. Boo hoo, right? "Shoot for the stars and if you fail at least you land on the moon" or whatever the quote is.

3. Would you start with PPC or build a Info based blog. To me , PPC seems like a much more robust career/skill to gain? I have watched so many FB and Google Adwords courses, videos and as an IT and data guy, I can imagine myself being bloody good at it.

If you feel like you have the budget to run large enough PPC campaigns to collect enough data to optimize it before you run out of cash, then sure. Or you're willing to borrow. I have very little PPC experience so I'll stop there.

I just don't have anything to promote or money to look for products to buy

Easily fixed. Something I've always wanted to do is target a tight demographic with a very small Shopify store (small in terms of products offered) and just go to town with PPC. This can be digital products or physical ones.

Despite the nonsense we're pushed about young people getting rich and how that's glamorized, I think most people take a while to hit their stride and strike oil. I'd say it usually happens around your age give or take. Because that's when you've collected enough life experience and wisdom to stop being a dummy, which is what you've expressed in your post. You seem ripe for taking your life by the balls and turning it into what you want.

 

[ToffeeLa]

Despite the nonsense we're pushed about young people getting rich and how that's glamorized, I think most people take a while to hit their stride and strike oil. I'd say it usually happens around your age give or take. Because that's when you've collected enough life experience and wisdom to stop being a dummy, which is what you've expressed in your post. You seem ripe for taking your life by the balls and turning it into what you want.

Just wanted to say that @Ryuzaki is perfectly correct. I did what you are considering a few years earlier than your age because I could not imagine staying in my well-paid job for the rest of my working life. Now I'm not far off official retirement age and have loved every minute of it.

I won't give you any specific advice as everyone's goals and abilities are different.

What I would say is important is to analyse what you want out of the next 20 years. And then make a plan to change your life so that it becomes achievable. Is it financial? Is it lifestyle? Is it security in old age? You have to sit down and seriously re-imagine and re-engineer your life.

Then think about the advantages you possess. The experience in IT support. Where you live. What you have done in your life. What is going to give you an advantage over the other hundreds of thousands of people who are also currently dreaming about starting a website and earning lots of money.

Unless you hate IT support with a passion, then it would seem strange to ignore your hard-won experience (one advantage that you have over the herd). It seems to be a well-paying niche and, after 20 years, I am sure you are familiar with problems that need to be solved and questions that are looking for answers. What frustrates IT support clients about IT support? What frustrates IT support about IT support clients? Where are the bottlenecks and misunderstandings which could be broken down to ease the process? What is the best way to start out in IT support? What are employers likely to be looking for? Etc.

Good luck with your plans and keep us up to date with any progress or questions.

 

[GreenDragon]

Would you retain at nearly 50 or say it is to late.

Never to late. I am around your parents age and started a new website. For me the money is not that important (still nice). The thrill of accomplishing a set of goals still lights me up. I do work a few days a week to keep from becoming a hermit and do enjoy it. Age is not important, attitude is. Plus the luck of being healthy.

 

[Steptoe]

I'm pretty much your age too mate, there's still life out there for us! I wouldn't retrain, but there's always more to learn. I'm primarily a programmer, and it's never been easier to pick up a language and get to a decent level. Look into some online python courses.

 

[wikibum]

Age is not important, attitude is.

So true. Henry ford was 45 when he created the revolutionary Model T car in 1908, Rodney Dangerfield is remembered as a legendary comedian, but he didn't catch a break until he made a hit appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" at age 46, Donald Fisher was 40 and had no experience in retail when he and his wife, Doris, opened the first Gap store in San Francisco in 1969, Vera Wang was a figure skater and journalist before entering the fashion industry at age 40...

https://www.businessinsider.com/24-...-one-of-the-worlds-premier-womens-designers-3

3. Would you start with PPC or build a Info based blog. To me , PPC seems like a much more robust career/skill to gain? I have watched so many FB and Google Adwords courses, videos and as an IT and data guy, I can imagine myself being bloody good at it.

I have experience in both SEO and PPC. PPC is easier for me because you control everything and as long as you have conversions, goals, funnels and analytics setup to the wazoo - you are good to go! Only thing with it is, as @Ryuzaki said - you need money to test.

Easiest way to start with PPC is start a drop shipping Shopify store. Do all your research and math before you start though. I started a Shopify drop shipping store a few years back but ended up closing it because I didn't want to deal with the customers + got a few shipments stolen which wrecked my cash flow.

In hindsight, I could have recovered from the theft and hired a customer support rep to handle the customers, but I found something easier and started to go with that.

Drop shipping is a good start to get some money, but if you want to be really successful and retire early - then you need to create a brand and make your own products (or at least label products that you buy with your brand name).

Quick tips if you are going to do the drop shipping route:

- Don't buy huge quantities at first. Once you know what your most popular product is, then buy for 3 months in advance - no more!
- Don't drop ship heavy or bulky items. It can get expensive especially if someone decides to return things.
- Make sure you collect reviews from customers. Reviews will make you more money and are the best tool to spread the word about your products.
- Set a monthly budget and plan to spend that money for at least 3 months. Don't adjust budgets every month otherwise you will shoot yourself in the foot. UNLESS - you start making money in the first month, then you can increase your spend, but make sure you look at ALL the data before making that decision.
- A huge issue I see on PPC accounts is OVER OPTIMIZATION. I always note down the date of optimization + time period I used to look at the data I used for my optimization decisions + exactly what I did (turned off keywords, increased bids, paused campaign, etc..) This helps me look back and figure out what I need to optimize and what I need to wait on.

All that being said, I think the most important aspect of running PPC is UNDERSTANDING THE DATA. If you don't know what the metrics mean and how to compare the data and test. Then it will be really difficult to make money from PPC.

Recently Google has been trying to automate everything in Google Ads. For example, look at their new pMAX campaigns. They seem great at first, but actually they suck. Google makes so much money from them testing "for users" its ridiculous.

For example. pMAX campaigns run on all their networks. YouTube, Search, Maps, Display, etc.. I know for a fact (from years of experience) that if you are running an online Shopify store - you don't need to show ads on Google Maps. It's just dumb. You don't have a storefront so why would you want to give users directions to your non-existent online store.

Another example of why they suck is that they give them priority. So for example, if you are running same keywords in a different campaign, they will run pMAX first, once the budget for that campaign runs out, they start showing the other campaign that has the same keywords. I don't want to go into too much details, but that is horrible in many situations.

For me (maybe because I know a lot about PPC), I see through the bullshit. Why would I want Google to "test" things that I already know won't work? Why should I let them take my money and run their own tests? I like to control my tests and then make informed decisions based on the data.

At the end of the day, Google Ads makes Google money. Their end goal is to make more money from it. They are not in it for YOUR satisfaction. It's their business so they will do what is good for them. Making more money is good for them ;-)

 

[OlliK]

Hi Cerocer,
don't let age be a factor. Antony Fauci (the US infectious disease expert) just announced retirement at age 81, in order to PURSUE OTHER CAREER GOALS!!!

For any career change I'd look for transferable skills. What is it that internet marketers know, that you already learned at your current career. You already hinted at things like statistics and measuring performance.

Furthermore, could you give a couple of weeks of your vacations into this? Then I'd look for internships in the field. You might have to hustle a bit, because you are not the typical intern, but you can find people that are willing to let you work on the inside to learn things. may be they offer you a side gig afterwards for a few hours a week to continue learning.

Good luck!!!

 

[freshpeppermint]

Hey Everyone

I am going round in circles, help... please..

I am 48, spent 20 years in IT Support because the thought of a deskjob was horricly boring *yawn* but I am still only on £26000 ($31000) a year.

In highsignt I should have sorted that out year's ago.

Anyway -

1. Would you retain at nearly 50 or say it is to late.

2. I saved very little money over the years, chased women and not value in mysef - Again, hindsight is a powerful thing.

3. Would you start with PPC or build a Info based blog. To me , PPC seems like a much more robust career/skill to gain? I have watched so many FB and Google Adwords courses, videos and as an IT and data guy, I can imagine myself being bloody good at it.

I just don't have anything to promote or money to look for products to buy

I know - TOTAL IDIOT!

My parents are now 76 and I would love it if they are proud of my achievements before they leave oneday.

Thankou so much , I can take anything that is said to me on the chin...

I don't think I can help but I am just curious. Did you live with your parents? Or you were able to live alone off 31k per year?? You said you saved very little money over the years, did you enjoy your time??

 

[Sweely]

Don't let your age stop you.
Don't start with PPC.
Start with SEO.

It's essentially free and a very low risk you're taking in comparison to PPC and provided you're willing to put out content you will see organic traffic to your website with time.

You'll learn a lot in the process. Good luck!