Hey!
I’m Tom De Spiegelaere
I’m a digital marketer based in Brisbane, Australia (web designer turned full-time affiliate marketer – a decision that tripled my income in 7 months and reduced required work hours by about 80%).
You can find out more about how/why I made the switch to affiliate marketing in this interview from 2017, and this updated interview from 2019.
If you’re interested in starting an affiliate project yourself, head over to my recommended tools/courses page to check out what tools I’m using in my business.
I realllly like building these types of projects, and collaboration is my secret weapon, working with people that have complementary skills is incredibly powerful!
Sometimes you find you work so well with a specific partner, that a single JV can grow into multiple projects across different industries, introducing the need for a parent entity to house all the projects… which is how Search District was born (a collaboration between Adam Morris and me).
I have a constant urge to make a difference on the web, and my many projects are my attempts at doing just that… some actually succeed!
TIMELINE
This is a rough timeline and doesn’t include every single failure or success (there are more failures than successes, but the monetary value of the successes far outweigh that of the combined failures… guess this is called “failing forward”?)
08/2011
Moved from Belgium to Australia
2012
SEO learning time
Started creating sites with the sole purpose of ranking them in Google, got smashed down… a lot. Dabbled in affiliate marketing, failed… a lot.
01/2013
Started a web agency
Created so many sites throughout 2012 I actually started becoming pretty good at building WordPress sites… and ranking them (if the competition wasn’t too hard). Maybe I can offer this as a service… become a web designer!
03/2013
Domination + way too many leads
Started dominating Brisbane for web design and seo related keywords. I was more on the phone with potential clients than actually building sites, so I contacted another agency to help me take the excess leads.
10/2013
Google penalty #1
Ouch, restart!
11/2013
Dominating again, yay!
Yes, back in 2013, it was that easy…
12/2013
Penalty #2
On Christmas day, this was a hard one!
01/2014
New, more expensive, but safer strategies pay off!
Dominating again!
03/2015
My PPL site phase
Built 5 PPL sites (pay-per-lead) at the end of 2014, 2/5 are ranking well, one is making $1k+/mo.
11/2015
Doubled my income!
A combination of finally raising my prices, and going into a co-working space (it’s hard to work with kids in the house).
06/2016
Want something different (Part 1)
Started a new affiliate project.
10/2016
Want something different (Part 2)
Working part-time as an SEO manager in another agency.
11/2016
Chiang Mai SEO Conference – The one that changed my life
The info gained in Thailand boosted my affiliate income from $500/mo to $3k+/mo… and I was only there for 4 days.
06/2017
Affiliate income is exploding!
Affiliate $$$ overtakes the income from my job + web agency clients combined… so I quit my job and start letting agency clients go. Any new leads coming in go to the agency I worked at, for a nice commission if they close the sale.
07/2017
Empire Retreat 3.0 in Phuket
A mastermind retreat organized by Empire Flippers, it was pretty epic :).
11/2017
Chiang Mai Conference 2017
Damn I love this place!
09/2018
Empire Retreat 4.0 in Phuket
11/2018
Chiang Mai Conference 2018
The tradition continues…
12/2018
AWA Conference in Bangkok
06/2019
Project Aries & Pyxis both take off!
10/2019
Visiting Singapore (popped into Ahrefs HQ)
11/2019
Chiang Mai Conference 2019
Networking, masterminds, conference, chilling, working…