About Ryan Eagle
Ryan Eagle’s Beginnings
I’ve been on computers since Microsoft Windows 3.2 but the true addiction started when we got our first Compaq computer. I had recently moved from Texas, where I had spent the majority of my time outside, to Illinois. The weather wasn’t so friendly so I had a lot of time inside. I spent that time on the computer and I wanted more than anything to run an internet business. In the fifth grade, I made my first website from HTML and it all went up from there.
The first money I made online was from selling virtual game items for the game Diablo II. I used those funds to pay for people to write my school papers and do my homework (I wasn’t much of a school-oriented guy) and buy my first car – a shiny BMW 325i. I also ran various online forums. I ran everything from a Photoshop community, to a video game hacking community. I added Google AdSense onto my websites and I got my first check, framed to this day, for a whopping $4.81. My father was absolutely astounded that money could be made online. To me, it was just a beginning and I wanted more.
For an ego boost, I decided to make a “network” of sites based on topics that I enjoyed. I had no real money motive, I just wanted to seem bigger than I was. I made websites about upcoming game consoles, MySpace, everything and anything that was interesting to me. My ad revenues started increasing and I made a very simple decision: quit my job, smoke pot all day, work on my online business and lose about $1,500 a month from my day job. Being the pothead I was, I decided to make the jump.
One average day I awoke and checked my AdSense account and was absolutely astounded. The daily balance was over $1,000 and I still had a full day ahead. I looked through my network of sites and noticed that one of them was getting thousands of hits a day and I checked it on Google and I had managed to rank myself #1 using the SEO I had been researching. This was the start of my life into the online world of business, I saw the gold and I knew I had to capitalize.
Growth Into a Business
Over time, I made a network of 450+ websites and managed to get the majority of them ranked top 3 for whatever keyword I wanted. It was the heyday of easy SEO and I was doubling my money every month, earning tens of thousands a day from ad revenue. I continued growing the network until I heard about something called affiliate marketing. I knew that my model wouldn’t last forever and I set goals for myself to learn this new medium. I mean it only made sense, it was the affiliates that were advertising on my sites via AdSense anyways – might as well cut out the middlemen, right?
I forced myself into the affiliate marketing industry in 2005 and used the capital I had generated from my websites to buy media. With everything new, there was a lot of failure – but every failure comes with a lesson. As I continued to grow, affiliate marketing profits far overcame the money I generated from websites and I put my complete focus into it. For several years I focused on running campaigns on various traffic platforms and was highly successful at it.
The more money I made, the more problems developed in my personal life. I now had near-unlimited funds, anything I wanted and I lived life in a very hedonistic way. I associated my success and creativity to the drugs that I was doing and I almost felt like they were part of me or part of my businesses success. The more money I made, the more I used. The occasional use became a crippling daily addiction. I ended up doing things that I said I’d never do and I ended up almost losing my freedom because of my addiction. I tried everything to stop but I couldn’t. Any problems I ran into, I bought myself out of. If I crashed a car, I’d buy a new one. If I got arrested, I’d pay a lawyer and get out of it. The money I had prioritized so much in my life was crippling me, enabling me to continue killing myself with drugs and alcohol.
Anyways, back to business – it was always my goal to eventually start an affiliate network and I partnered with a long-time friend of mine to start EWA Network and it hit almost instant success. It was a fun journey but unfortunately and humbly it was the first time in my life a business failed. It was one of the biggest blows to my ego that I’ve ever endured – but I persisted through it and moved forward. I learned more in the last year of EWA Network running that I did in eight years of business before that.
I learned my lesson and nowadays I try to keep a lower profile. It was fun being “the man” because it generated me a lot of money by attracting affiliates – but when shit hits the fan, people looked for someone to blame. I don’t blame them, I’d do the same. I take that responsibility and it’s something that bothers me to this day.
After the closing of EWA, my brother Kyle Eagle passed away in his sleep from a medication side effect. It was by far the most devastating event in my life and completely debilitated me for months. I was extremely close to Kyle – we spent a lot of time together and he also worked with me at several of my businesses so I spoke to him multiple times a day. Losing someone that close so unexpected was life changing to me. I miss him more than anything. It’s funny when I was having all my success and my ego was out the roof I asked God to help me become humble – and he sure works in mysterious ways. Be careful what you wish for!
It’s always been of interest for me to get into a tangible business after years of running online businesses. One of the biggest problems with running an online business is getting credit lines from banks and investors. With no real inventory, real estate, or any tangible assets investors usually shy away because they have no collateral. A close friend of mine was doing import / export and he turned me onto the game in 2013. I experimented a little, lost some money, gained some money and decided it was a field I wanted to get into. I formed my newest company, Response Commodities and my day to day has been focused around running that.
Response Commodities is a wholesale import / export trading company. Services include procurement of products from direct manufacturers, logistics, distribution, delivery and sale. Response Commodities specializes in electronics & accessories, nutraceutical products, nutritional supplements, tobacco products and clothing. Response Commodities purchases products throughout Asia and sells in Australia, United States, Brazil, United Kingdom and New Zealand.
Well, thats enough about my business life – pretty boring, right? My business is simply an aspect of my life but I’m truly blessed to have an amazing girlfriend whom I’ve been with for several years now, a loving family and a great support system. I have friends in my life that actually care about me and with all the pain that’s gone on after my main company closed I weeded out the people that were not true friends. My friends now support me and call me on my bullshit, which is exactly what I need because I’m a good bullshitter.
I’m eternally grateful for having such a supportive girlfriend to stand by my side. She’s stuck with me even after I hurt her, through losing EWA, the passing of my brother and through my period of depression after my recent losses. I’m so grateful for having her in my life I can’t express it enough. I love you, My Princess. I love living with you and I love every moment we spend together. I’m undeserving of having such an amazing women by my side. Like they say, behind every successful man is a woman rolling her eyes. You can bet that she keeps me in check.
At the end of the day, I’m a nerd – but not your average nerd. My fresh shoes always match my fresh polos. I have over 75 pairs of shoes and had to hire a carpenter to make a special shoe storage closet for me to fit my collection. I like fast cars, expensive watches, big diamonds and designer clothes. These materialistic things give me motivation to work harder but don’t define me. Half my body is covered in tattoos, which is funny because I’m a girl when it comes to the slightest bit of pain. One of the nerdier things about me is that I’m addicted to collecting retro video games. I’ve been into video games since I was started on Nintendo NES and I’ve loved it. I have hundreds of games in my collecting ranging from Atari 2600 to Sega Saturn to Super Nintendo. In addition to collecting, I’m a gamer myself and to relax I play classic RPG’s. I’m also an avid reader of everything from business to fantasy books – pretty funny considering I used to pay people to write book reports for me in school. Oh yea and I only listen to rap music. Call me what you want, I love and embrace my nerdy side. I’m a living contrast and I love it.