Interview with Jasper
Posted on : 07-03-2009 | By : RohailR | In : Affiliate Marketing
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Jasper, from NerdyAffiliate.com, is first of all a really cool guy and one of the rare guys in affiliate marketing who is cool with sharing and kicking around ideas and tips to succeed. He’s a fellow PPC-Coach.com member and has had some recent success in affiliate marketing. I definitely think he’s one of the top guys to look out for this year, because he has shear dedication to his work as you’ll see below in the interview he was gracious enough to do.
1. How and when did you get into affiliate marketing?
I learned about Affiliate Marketing back in March 2007. I was selling stuff on Craigslist and eBay at the time and I remember reading about promoting my products with pay per click traffic. So as I researched it a bit more, I stumbled upon affiliate marketing through blogs and other stuff. I joined Wealthy Affiliate at the time and started reading more and more about affiliate marketing. I didn’t actually take any action until about August 2007 when I participated in Ed Dale’s 30 Day Challenge. From there, I kept reading and learning, putting up lots of failed campaigns and having minor successes.
2. What makes a super affiliate? When does it finally click? At what moment or point in time, did you realize the key to doing lots of volume/revenue?
I think what makes a super affiliate is not about how much you make. I think a super affiliate is someone that can take any offer and be able to find the right marketing avenues to make it profitable. I wouldn’t say that a super affiliate is someone that makes $100,000 per month or $1,000,000 per month, but someone that knows the marketing game inside and out. I’ve learned that most of the successful marketers that I know and talk to are willing to try different things that are not even written about in blogs, forums or books. I think after a year of playing this game, I have a better feel of how to setup campaigns and the type of metrics to expect when launching a campaign.
I’m not sure if it actually did click, but I think I have a more realistic expectation of how a campaign is going to perform. I expect from the start that you may not be profitable from the launch, but after tweaking and testing its definitely more realistic to reach a more comfortable ROI. I guess after doing lots of volume, I have a better understanding of how to drive traffic to affiliate offers.
3. How do you pick your campaigns? Do you go with what’s hot or with what is relatively unexplored?
I like to go with what’s hot. Basically, the big 3 channels I stick to are Health, Wealth and Relationships. I like the competitive niches because they usually have higher EPCs and/or higher conversion rates. The problem is the saturation of traffic methods out there since CPCs will be a bit higher, but if you can find a way to stick your foot into a competitive niche, you can get a piece of the pie. So with niches that are hot, there tends to be more demand, but more competition, but with niches that are relatively unexplored the competition is low, but the demand is low.
4. What advice would you give to guys that are putting tons of hours into trying to make affiliate marketing, but not seeing a lot of results?
For most people starting out, you can’t expect to have great results right away. This is a game of gathering data and then acting on it. With pay per click, you have to test keywords/text ads/landing pages that may or may not convert for you, so that means you’re going to spend money on things that just won’t convert and you’ll need to find out by gathering that data. So unless you hear a little birdie that says, “here are some convert keywords/text ads/landing pages”, you’re pretty much going to have to cut the fat until until all you have is lean meat.
Also, I realize that when you first start out, you have to learn lots of different skills to make it work. You basically have to be the copywriter, web designer, web programmer, market researcher, data analyst all-in-one. That means you have to learn about how to design web pages, write effective copy, research and setup campaigns, analyze data, etc. This is probably the most overwhelming part since you have to learn things that were never taught to you in school or whatever. I would suggest to anyone to give it 1 full year of effort and see where stand after that. I’ve seen some people quit after a couple months and that’s not enough time to learn all you need to know.
Keep learning, take action, test and tweak.
5. Was there ever a time where you had a dip in your performance? How did you get to be as good as you are now?
Oh man. I’ve had so many failures and successes throughout the past couple years that I’m kind of amazed I’ve gone this far. There was a point where I went through like 2-3 months of straight failures. It basically sucked because all I did was lose money in that time period. You just have to have faith in what you’re doing and to keep working at it. I know what it’s like to be totally frustrated and unsure about what to do, but you just got to keep pushing and working on your business.
I think as a marketer and entrepreneur, you have to get used to the trial and error aspects of business. There’s lots of things that I’ve tried in the past that just doesn’t work and probably wasted my time, but in retrospect it was knowledge gained in return for those failures.
6. How many hours a week would you say you spend on affiliate marketing? Do you sleep? Lol
When I’m working on setting up a project or campaign, I’ll easily work 8-12 hours per day. I have this mentality to just get it done and then once it’s set up I can take a few hours to kind of chill for a little bit. Sleep is very important, I’ve found that lately I’ve had problems sleeping because of the fact that I’m constantly thinking of new ideas for my business. I’m still trying to figure out how to sleep better… suggestions are welcomed! lol
7. Any other advice to becoming a super affiliate?
I think the best advice I can give someone starting out is to really get involved in the industry and start networking with people. Find a buddy that you can grow with so you can talk about what’s working and what’s not. I’ve said this repeatedly to people and I can’t tell you how many opportunities will open up just by knowing the right people. If you’re near one, go to the local meetup202 groups and start networking there. I wrote about a post about the importance of networking at http://nerdyaffiliate.com/networking/networking-is-the-key-to-success.
Another tip is STOP READING and START DOING. Nowadays, I find myself reading less and less and just doing stuff. After awhile, all the Internet Marketing books start to all sound the same. I’m working on a project that I’ve been reading about for months, but never actually started doing it. After I set up the first campaign, I learned so much more than all the months of reading before that.
If you want to learn more about affiliate marketing and follow Jasper’s journey, check out his blog at www.NerdyAffililate.com.
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Nice interview. Your font is pretty small though
You should space it out too so it’s easier to read.
Thanks Paul.
Yeah I apologize for the small font and spacing. I tried doing everything to edit the HTML to make it look better, but my theme keeps taking out the spacing.
An upgrade to the theme coming very soon.