Think IM
Maggie like so many “newbie” Internet Marketers had a goal to make money in IM. She was going to supplement her social security income by selling products with her blogs. First, she was focusing on internet marketing but eventually had decided to add a few more niches. Going green was one of her favorite new topics.
Let me tell you how I met Maggie. She, Randy, and Wizzer were regulars in a forum at Marketing Beginners, Randy’s membership site. What a trio! It is the kind of matchup you often find in IM. Randy the Guru lives in the Virgin Islands; Wizzer a British financial consultant, and Maggie the IM newbie ex-social worker. When I discovered the forum, I started posting and got acquainted with them. The four of us became regulars. Soon Maggie and I started telephoning. Maggie had a folksy self-deprecating way about her that really made everyone laugh. She had been dabbling in IM for almost 10 years and was still lost more than half of the time. It was because she kept starting and stopping and she was always starting over. Her life kept getting in the way!
Maggie had a remarkable life story. I do not want to say anything that would embarass her or would make her thump me for saying. Maggie was legally blind since birth. She had managed to graduate from college and had worked very hard all of her life. Even though I never met Maggie personally, I believe she had been a very attractive lady in her youth–tall and slender. Of course, she had to wear thick glasses. She said her vision was like looking through a straw. Maggie blew me a way the day that she told me she had been married 7 times. In her folksy fun way, she laughed and said that she was amazed at how easy it was to get men to marry you. In fact she said, they would rather marry than date. What a hoot!
Maggie said she was the reason for the divorces because she was too hard with whom to get along. She liked everything her way. Well, to get back to my story, Maggie worked on her blogs diligently and we shared every achievement. She ended up in Dayton, Ohio where her son Casey lived because she wanted to be with him. Maggie–here is another fact I left out–was always called Peggy by everyone else. On the Internet, she used Maggie. She had two children, a son and a daughter.
Maggie lived at the end in a building overlooking the tree tops. She had an efficiency apartment in low cost housing. It was cozy and it was her den where she worked on her computer. For company, she and I would visit on the phone. Maggie was the person with whom I could discuss my journey into internet marketing because my family was tired of hearing about it. Maggie was always encouraging and we shared so many hopes and dreams. Occasionally, we would have a bag on Google session when Google would make a change that affected internet marketers.
At the end, Maggie wanted her legacy to her son Casey to be money making blogs. She tried to get Casey interested but he was too busy with his own life. Maggie had had problems with her heart before and dreaded the upcoming surgery on her legs to unclog the arteries. She was really afraid of the upcoming surgery, but knew she had to do it to be able to walk as her legs just weren’t working the way they should.
While waiting for the surgery date, she still worked at her computer to keep her mind active and we planned what she would do with her blogs. Randy and Wizzer had started a membership site on blogging and was providing Maggie with information to help her.
When she went into the hospital, she had a horrible time. She sprang a leak and spent days in intensive care. When she finally came home, she was so happy to be there. Maggie called me and she sounded like good old Maggie again. She could not wait to get back to work when she regained her strength. We talked a couple of days in a row and she said she was getting stronger. We made plans. She would not let me come to visit her until she was feeling better and was her old self again.
Thursday we chatted about plans for the future and about building blogs for Casey. That night Maggie went to sleep. Maggie was an internet marketer to the very end. Now she is looking over my shoulder encouraging me to continue my pursuit. She knew I would always be the one to make it. I hope she is right. Love you, Maggie.
P. S. Maggie was 70 years old.
