From Swommer to Steemian, A Journey Paddled to Enrichment

Into the last few days of the ClickTrackProfit Christmas Badge hunt, and I still need to get the Cookie Green badge owned by @russellstockley.

He has given us an interesting challenge. He wants to know what works for you in your affiliate marketing efforts other than CTP, and he has asked if possible for that information to be in a blog of at least 250 words. He wants to know what and why it works, and the consistency you have had with that program.

Wow, for me, so many programs to choose from!

There was a really great site a few years back that delivered results like none other. Sadly, that site Swom.com is no longer active. Someone else has bought the domain name in 2017 to develop into another site, so Swom as we knew her is truly gone.

I joined Swom on August 29, 2010. So what was Swom? Super Word-of-Mouth, touted as a social networking site for home-business owners to give them the tools they need to achieve their financial destiny.

Very little is left of that awesome site. Here is a YouTube video of the prelaunch:

Here are a couple of other YouTube links I came across, if you are interested in learning more about Swom:

Swom Tutorial - How To Get Contacts Fast With Chrome, by Larry Rivera:

Make Money Online with Swom - Swom Social Network, by Kevin Fahey:

So why choose an old site like Swom? Simple, that site delivered results like no other site I was affiliated to at that time. I mean, I was getting 1-2 referrals every week for a while without a lot of external promotion. Also, they paid well. I cannot remember now the commissions I was getting although I vaguely recall that by 2013 my commissions paid for the $24.95 monthly fee to be an upgraded Gold member.

The engagement I was getting on that Swom site was amazing. There were people just like me looking for what I was looking for, how to make money online quickly and with little effort. We were a diverse bunch of internet entrepreneurs, beginners through to experts, exploring the 'net and having so much fun!

The last message I have on file is an email from a fellow swommer dated May 17, 2013. We used to email each other once the friend connection request had been approved, and in that way we shared our links to other sites.

Swom lasted just 3.5 years yet in that time had a major impact on the lives of a lot of the members. I joined ClickTrackProfit on July 29, 2012 and the first few referrals to that site came from swommers.

So what happened to Swom? I am not sure. All I can recall is this: in the chase for money to keep Swom going, other sites were developed and launched. These other sites were less reliable and tended to offer matrices or hyip type services. In time, promoting these other sites became problematic with a lot of traffic exchanges, mailers, and other sites refusing to accept referral links.

I am guessing that the owners of Swom simply ran out of money. Too many free members demanding too much free money, and the bank ran dry.

Yep, Swom really was an early version of Steem. When @jongolson suggested to me to check out the Steem platform, upon early exploration my first thoughts went to Swom. I had finally found a replacement site that would fulfill my passion for social media engagement that also generates income, a new money making venture I could safely call home.

What happened to Swom can happen to any site. After all, someone has to pay for the domain name registration, and the hosting, and the encryption, and the Administrator, and the Moderators, and the soooo many other bits and bytes! I am thankful though, that here on the Steem platform we have so many steemians dedicated to making Steem work for the betterment of all members, and that money is set aside to pay the expenses.

As we celebrate the end of this decade, may we take with us into the next 10 years all of our combined wealth of knowledge and experience, and truly enjoy the affiliate marketing future we will have together.

From swommer to steemian, a journey paddled to enrichment.

Ian Ballantine
Wellington, New Zealand
December 30, 2019.