Hello,

My name is Donovan Baldwin (Don), and I am a real person who makes money online.

I am retired from the U. S. Army after 21 years of service and I am a University of West Florida alumnus (BA Accounting 1973).  After graduating from college, I worked for about five years in governmental/non-profit accounting, specializing in budget development and analysis.

I had been in the army for four years (1966 - 1970) after a disastrous year at Florida State University where I was enrolled in Finance & Accounting, but spent most of my time majoring in pool...the kind with felt-covered tables.  

After my stint in the army, which included a tour at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, where I learned German, and three years in beautiful Bad Aibling, West Germany, I went back to the University of West Florida and got my degree.  I worked for the Florida State Department of Education in Tallahassee and Sarasota as a program accountant and fiscal consultant, and for the Santa Rosa County Mental Health Facility as their business manager.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I have an itchy foot, and hate being stuck inside for hours on end, following the same schedule day-after-day, and looking at a laid-out career future that, at least to me, looks bleak and boring.

That's why I went back in the army and made it my career.  I got to work as an assistant operations NCO (Noncommissioned Officer, i.e. Sergeant), at the 24th Infantry Division NCO Academy at Fort Stewart, Georgia.  Then I went to Germany where I was a training NCO with a special weapons (the army's way of saying "nuclear") unit charged with supporting several German and Dutch special weapons sites in their respective countries.  However, my MOS (military occupational specialty) was at a standstill for promotion, so I transferred back to Military Intelligence.

After another year at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey in 1983-84, learning Polish, I received orders to Fort Hood, Texas.  My family was beginning to have problems with the military lifestyle, and my teenage children began acting out.  My military obligations took me away from home for long periods, and my wife began cheating on me.

In an attempt to bring the situation under control, I left the army in 1986 after 13 years of active duty, but remained in the Texas Army National Guard until I had completed eight years of service with them and was able to retire in 1995. 

However, when I left active duty, I found that people were not very interested in hiring an ex-GI with a dysfunctional family and a 13-year-old degree from a not-very-well-known college in a field that he had not worked in for years!

I managed to make ends meet by learning to become an optician and optical lab technician.  Later, after three years as a federal purchasing agent, I returned to the optical field and became the optical lab manger for Dr. John McCormick, owner of McCormick's Vision Centers (free plug, Dr. John) in Austin, Texas.

For years, I had been convinced that working for a paycheck wasn't really all that rewarding, so I kept looking for a way to start my own home based business.  I tried mail-order for a while, falling prey to all the get-rich-quick scams in the process, but eventually learning how to make a little money.

In the late 90's, I began to feel my way around the Internet.  It was a wide-open crapshoot at the time, and I was able to begin making money right away, but once more I paid a lot of "unintentional tuition" as I learned about what worked and what did NOT work online!

In 1998, my wife and I decided to become over-the-road truck drivers for Schneider National Carriers, based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and eventually became instructors in their training facility in Dallas, Texas.

All the while, I was learning more about the Internet and Internet marketing.  As I drove for Schneider and began to train their drivers, and some of their instructors, my Internet income was growing.  One day, I realized that the money I was making online was equal to the money my wife (also a driver and instructor) AND I were making!

It was about that time that I signed up for Corey Rudl's "Secrets of Marketing Your Business on the Internet" course. 

Back then, the course was not available as an online course, as it is today, but actually arrived in a box delivered to your doorstep by FedEx.  I was intially impressed just by the sheer amount of the material, but, as I began to read the materials, I began to regret my purchase.

I was making nearly $100,000.00 a year online, and the course I had just paid over $200 for just seemed to be telling me what I had spent years, and a lot of dollars, learning on my own!  However, as I read more, I began to see things that I DID NOT KNOW AND COULD USE! 

As I continued to read, I realized that if I could have had Corey Rudl's Internet marketing course sooner, I could have made a lot more money online a whole lot faster!!!

Fortunately for aspiring Internet marketers, after Corey Rudl's death, his business partner, Derek Gehl, and the team at the Internet Marketing Center have continued to update the course year by year as the Internet and the Internet marketing playing field has continued to shift and change.

Now, the truth is that not everybody will be successful at making money online, and, like so many things, a portion of my own success was due in part to luck.  I was doing the right things at the right time...but I could have done so much more if I had only known.

Anyway, I have never looked back.  Oh, I have had my ups and downs online, but I am now a regular contributor to several forums and have written and published many articles...and a few of my poems...at various websites.  I have gotten to know many people from around the world, and every month, money is deposited directly into my bank accoount, or arrives in my mailbox, because of my various Internet businesses. 

Some of my best friends are at the AdlandPro Community, by the way.

I cannot recommend that everybody run out and start an Internet business, because so many people do fail.  Also, there are a lot of Internet business scams out there, and even if you find an honest Internet business, it might not be right for you.  I had to try several different home based business opportunities before I found the one that I was most effective with.  After the first company I was successful with decided not to continue with independent distributors any more, I had to try a few more before I found a company that I really liked, respected, and was a good fit for my personal interests.   

If you would like to know about my current online business, please click here.

If you are thinking of starting an online business or have been dabbling with an Internet business opportunity, I DO recommend that you at least think about checking out the most current version of "The Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet", especially since the Internet Marketing Center is currently offering a $2.95 trial...but that may end at any time.