Lifestyle

Why I Turned My Back On Fame And Instead Made Millions in Affiliate Marketing

Published

5 years ago

July 4, 2021

Affiliate marketing is the money-spinning upside to the internet economy, and those who master the techniques of selling online have the potential to fast-track their fortunes. Jono Armstrong’s Ministry of Freedom – built together with his wife Cice – offers a course that has helped hundreds realize their dreams of financial freedom by following the same steps that helped the former musician change his life and his fortune.

Forced to rebuild after an exhilarating rise and dramatic fall as a celebrity in conservative Indonesia, Jono has learned the pitfalls of fame. He changed his mindset, and his life, to create a new path to support his family with his popular courses in The Ministry of Freedom, an online business school that teaches students how to build their own fortunes with affiliate marketing.

“I’m a little more grounded now and a lot more careful about money and success,” he says. “Fame made me an addict, I couldn’t feed my kids, and I ended up being the focus for so much hate,” he says.

Starting from nothing

“2006-2007 was one of the hardest years of my life,” says Jono. “I’d lost it all. I was 26 years old, had no university degree, and no work experience. I had 2 young kids and a wife to support. We ended up back in the UK where we crashed at my parents’ house for 6 months before I went back to the rat race, washing dishes in a small restaurant.

In 2007 Jono taught himself basic HTML and discovered the power of the internet. He started buying products from China and selling them on e-bay, eventually saving enough money to make the move back to Indonesia.

Romance came his way again with an old friend from the music industry, Cice, and together they set up their e-commerce business and raised the family with help from both of their parents.

“We worked from home, selling physical products. It was pretty difficult but we were learning and making ends meet,” he says. Then Jono bought his first digital product, a course, and did a review on YouTube. Within days he saw his bank balance rise significantly and he knew this was the way to go.

Succeeding in affiliate marketing

Jono started to sell more digital products and he and Cice saw a future that looked a lot brighter. He then invested in a course with one of the world’s leading social media marketing gurus in LA.

“The course cost seemed a massive investment at the time but it has paid off a hundred times over,” he says.

Once he had the formula down, Jono became the man to watch in the affiliate space with digital producers sending him sample products to review online. He reviewed the products, showed people how to use them, pointed out their shortcomings, and created hacks to work around them. He and Cice watched their income grow beyond anything they had imagined.

“It was a big learning curve at first. It would take me hours to go through each new product, find out what was missing, or what was required to use the products successfully, and I gave the information out for free to my followers through a series of YouTube videos. The early ones were very rough as we didn’t have the money to buy fancy equipment or the experience to create a slick website,” he says.

The couple stuck at it, and this is one of the key teachings he passes on to his members in The Ministry of Freedom. “You have to keep at it, then it gets easier.” He’s also able to guide his members through the process he spent so long learning himself, helping them to fast-track their own success.

From zero to $2 million a month

In just under four years Jono built a business that is today making $2 million a month, having started from nothing. This is what he now teaches others to do in his course that has attracted positive reviews across the internet.

“The profit margins on digital products are a lot better than on physical products. Once I had the knowledge to pick the products that would sell I was able to start creating my own, and the profits on those were my ticket to financial freedom,” he says.

As his profile in the online space grew, he created Ministry of Freedom and began to teach others what he had learned through years of trial and error. With a string of successful students following in his footsteps, some already making over a million dollars a year, Jono and Cice have realized another of their dreams; to move to Bali.

Having had his taste of fame and all that goes with it, Jono has no interest in a flashy lifestyle, he’s been there and he’s seen the downside. You won’t find any luxury cars parked in the driveway of their mansion, instead, Jono and Cice are happy they can be together with their kids and never have to think about where their next rent payment is coming from.

“I’ve learned all I need to know about the high life. I invest my money now so that my kids will never have to worry the way I did. We’ve bought a nice house, we go on holidays, I have time to spend with my family and that’s everything to me now,” he says.

He’s also proud of the community that has grown around the Ministry Of Freedom and he’s very generous with his tips and advice for newcomers. “We all support each other, we share information on the best new products, we help each other out with the reviews. Not everyone is camera-ready when they sign up but we support them and some of the shyest have turned out to be brilliant with a bit of coaching,” he explains.

“Doing it for yourself and your family is a great feeling, being able to help others do it too is amazing,” says a very happy and content Jono Armstrong.

Lifestyle

Fozia Rashid’s Vision for a Future Where Every Woman Is Heard and Respected

Published

1 hour ago

May 18, 2026

Michelle Langton

Progress often starts with someone who refuses to accept silence as the only option. Many women experience unfair treatment at work, yet feel they have nowhere safe to turn. That gap, the distance between speaking up and being supported, is where real change is still needed, and it remains one of the biggest barriers to true equality today.

Fozia Rashid knows this firsthand. After raising concerns about serious misconduct in her own workplace and losing her job as a result, she saw how isolating it can be for women who try to do the right thing. That experience pushed her to create She Speaks Out, a platform designed to give women clarity, tools, and a voice during some of the most challenging moments in their careers.

From the beginning, her aim was not to build another information site. She wanted a space where women could feel understood, where complicated processes were broken down into simple steps, and where no one felt that reporting misconduct meant stepping into a dark tunnel alone. Her HR training helped shape this approach, turning what is often overwhelming into something practical, direct, and genuinely supportive, especially for women who feel lost navigating workplace policies.

Her long-term vision stretches far beyond offering resources. Fozia wants She Speaks Out to help shift the culture around how women are treated at work. She believes that when women share their real experiences, discrimination, dismissal of their concerns, or subtle daily biases, it exposes patterns that organisations can no longer ignore. This focus on storytelling is not about sympathy; it is about awareness. Stories make the invisible visible, and visibility forces change in a way that statistics alone rarely can.

A key part of her mission is amplifying those voices so they reach people who can influence policy and workplace culture. She hopes the platform will push employers to rethink how they respond to reports, how they support employees, and how they build environments where women don’t fear retaliation for raising concerns. She wants leaders to understand that equality is not a slogan, it is a responsibility that requires honest action and genuine accountability.

Fozia also envisions She Speaks Out playing a role in larger societal change. She wants the platform to encourage companies to review their internal practices, improve reporting structures, and train managers to recognise and address problems rather than avoid them. She hopes the platform will support the push for stronger workplace protections and help challenge outdated beliefs about women’s roles, abilities, and credibility. The goal is simple: fair treatment should not depend on who you are, but on the basic respect every employee deserves.

As the platform grows, she aims to build a strong community where women can connect, support one another, and encourage those who feel unsure or unheard. A community where experiences are shared openly, not whispered privately. She believes that building solidarity among women is one of the most powerful steps toward lasting equality. When one woman speaks up, it can be dismissed. When many do, it becomes a movement that organisations cannot afford to overlook.

For Fozia, the future is not just about better policies or clearer reporting tools, though those matter. It’s about creating workplaces where women don’t have to prepare themselves for resistance every time they raise a concern. A future where safety and respect are not exceptional, but expected.

And through She Speaks Out, she is steadily pushing that future forward, giving women what she once needed most: a place to be heard, believed, and supported without hesitation, and a reminder that they never have to face these challenges alone.