It is no secret that I really like Advaliant and everything they are about. I got the chance to interview Mr. Jivan Manhas, who is the President of Advaliant. Here is a little background info taken from Advaliant.com:

“Jivan Manhas is a Founder, and President of Advaliant, Inc., MediaTrust’s performance affiliate network. Both a seasoned executive and experienced entrepreneur, Mr. Manhas possesses diverse business experience, a fundamental understanding of how to leverage cutting-edge technologies within online media, and valuable strategic and operational experience in creating new ventures. Prior to co-founding Advaliant, Mr. Manhas was a co-founder of three Internet consulting companies, ViaCentrix, Digital Bytes and Consultica.“

Thanks again to Mr. Manhas, and my AM Geofferson for helping me get this set up!

Could you explain what initially got you started in the affiliate marketing business?
[Manhas] In late ’98 I was hired as the ecommerce Marketing Manager for a company called MGI Software based in Toronto.  As part of my responsibilities, I was to look into the best affiliate marketing program to partner up with and the two main choices were Commission Junction and Be Free.  As I started doing my research into this relatively young online marketing method it peaked my curiosity and interest in the field.
 
What do you think sets Advaliant apart from the rest of the CPA networks out there?
[Manhas] Besides the usual jargon espoused by most other networks (high payouts, timely payments, etc.) we really pride ourselves on making honesty, integrity and great customer service a part of our company culture.  As one of our team members likes to say, “ask us why we’re the same and you’ll understand why we’re different.”
 
Were you surprised at all by winning Best Affiliate Marketing Campaign of 2007 at ad:Tech San Francisco last year?
[Manhas] We were confident that we had built a strong campaign with Playphone but we were up against a number of brands that had been in the marketplace longer than Advaliant and Playphone so making top three for us was a great achievement.  Winning was amazing and validated the approach we take with our advertisers which is centered around long term relationships built upon honesty, integrity and very much of an agency approach.  Our approach with advertisers is to work with them to make their campaign as successful as possible within the Advaliant affiliate network.  That includes using our experience as well as affiliate feedback and our technology to make their campaign not only successful for the advertiser but for our affiliates and publishers as well.   We worked very closely with Playphone to understand their long term strategic business goals and built a program to help them achieve them.  Winning the Best Affiliate Marketing Campaign of 2007 was a great validation of our core strengths of building relationships based upon honesty and integrity in helping our clients achieve their goals. 
 

I have heard of a new tracking system being released for Advaliant soon, could you explain more about it?
[Manhas] Without giving away too much detail (we need to keep some things a surprise for the launch), we are currently developing out a new Advaliant affiliate marketing technology that will put us in a leadership position amongst performance marketing networks.  We are taking advantage of various different social feature sets, semantic A.I. programming as well as a large amount of feedback from our affiliates and advertisers to build out a cutting edge, industry leading technology that will allow us to evolve into the premier online brand for performance marketing.  I realize that is a bold statement but unfortunately affiliate marketing is seen as the ugly step child of the marketing world by many companies and if we want to survive as an industry we all need to take our industry up a few notches and start attracting the big dollars from the Fortune 100 companies.  This is our intent and as we continue to grow as an organization we’ve been fortunate enough to attract some top industry talent which will allow us grow our network in a direction that is consistent with our core beliefs.
 
From a CEO’s standpoint, where do you see affiliate marketing in 5 years?
[Manhas] As stated earlier, the industry as a whole needs to evolve and grow beyond where it is today.  I believe a handful of performance networks will have positioned themselves as Tier 1 brand networks to attract the Fortune 100 ad budgets, will rule the industry.  These networks will be more than just CPA networks and will have integrated ecosystems that offer various performance services across various different platforms such as web, search video, WAP, as well as offline.  More importantly, these networks will have taken a very professional,  ethical and transparent approach to  the way they do business and will also incorporate a strong “human element” into their business model to ensure their clients get the best service possible.  Those networks that do not have proprietary technology with strong professional and creative services teams will either have gone out of business, or fight over a smaller piece of the CPA pie.  I also believe some of the larger agencies will start acquiring some of the more successful performance networks over the course of the next few years in order to compete in the digital marketplace.  Keep in mind that even though performance or affiliate marketing has been around for quite a few years, it has never been the “hot” buzzword amongst venture capitalists and once it does, it will result in a lot of investment money coming into our space, a wave of consolidation and as stated above, a lift for the entire industry in a positive way.  Those with the bigger vision will build the bigger networks, bigger brands and become the industry leaders.

If you are not with Advaliant yet, get signed up! Click on one of the banners/links here and I will help you get approved ASAP.

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Popularity: 54% [?]

I recently got the chance to interview Gyutae Park of WinningTheWeb.com. His blog is great, and he is a really smart marketer. You may remember his last contest which was insane! Tons of prizes were given away and the total of all the stuff given away was almost $15,000. Thanks again to Gyutae for doing this interview!

 What initially got you started in blogging?
[Gyutae] I’ve always enjoyed the concept of blogging and started on the web in the mid 90’s through Geocities and Angelfire pages (remember those?).  I later moved on to things like Xanga and Blogspot, although I never really monetized anything until about 4 years ago.  Winning the Web was started in October of 2007 as a means for me to share some of my experiences in Internet marketing and SEO.  Of course I can’t say that I’m not doing it for the money, but I really do enjoy it and am in it for the long haul.

What got me started?  Some knowledge about a topic that I’m passionate about and a drive to succeed.  That’s really all that’s needed to grow a blog.  Everything else you can learn along the way.
 

How long have you been a professional SEO?
[Gyutae] Technically I’ve been involved in SEO since I started my first real website in 2004, Drum Set Connect.  The main way for me to gain traffic back then was through SEO so I spent countless hours optimizing and building links for the site.  It’s definitely paid off as I’m now ranking pretty well for some competitive keywords.

I later got a job as an SEO for a big collectibles firm and am now an SEO for a top 10 SEO agency in New York City.

So to answer your question, I’ve been involved in SEO for quite some time now but have been consulting “professionally” for the past 2 years.

I read Aaron Wall’s SEO Book back when it was an ebook and that helped me tremendously to get started in the industry.  I recommend everyone sign up.
 

You hold many contests at Winning The Web, how has this last contest helped your blog?
[Gyutae] Contests are great for increasing your readership and attracting people to your blog.  The last contest that I held, labeled as the Craziest Internet Marketing Contest You’ve Ever Seen has seen tremendous success - almost to the point where it was all very overwhelming.  I doubled my RSS subscriber readership to over 850 and gained some new fans and supporters in the process.

One word of advice to everyone thinking of running a blog contest. A contest is only a form of marketing and you still need great content to make people want to stay on for the long haul.
 

Are you into affiliate marketing at all?
[Gyutae] I’ve dabbled in PPC affiliate marketing but haven’t really hit my jackpot yet.  I still test some offers and landing pages now and then but my main focus is really SEO and building lasting online real estate that provides value to the end users.
 

Could you explain more about your company, Teaguy Media?
[Gyutae] Teaguy is simply a anagram for my first name Gyutae.  The company exists only to house all of my web properties.
 

Any big plans for Teaguy Media?
[Gyutae] A lot of new projects on the way that I’m very excited about.  If you’re interested, be sure to subscribe to the Winning the Web RSS feed.  I’ll be announcing future releases on there.
 

In your opinion, what is the best way to jump start a blog? Major advertising, contests, buying reviews?
[Gyutae] In order to jump start a blog, you really have to have your content down first.  Focus on creating quality articles that provide value to readers.  This in itself will attract links and people to the blog organically.  Once you have that foundation down I recommend you invest in blog reviews on the biggest influencer sites in your niche.

Other than that, network with other bloggers and help others.  It’s much easier to be noticed if you have a large network of supporters.

Thanks again Mr. Park for taking the time out to do this interview. If you haven’t heard of Winning The Web yet, run over and subscribe! Very useful information every day!

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Popularity: 58% [?]

I recently got the chance to interview the founder of Tracking202. This is some great software, and in this interview it explains a few questions many people have had about the software!

What was the initial reasoning in creating Tracking202?
[Wes] Although most people might think Tracking202 (T202) was originally created to track keywords, it was actually really designed to help track PPC costs. When I got started doing PPC marketing I had several accounts, multiple Yahoo accounts, multiple MSN accounts, two adwords accounts, an ask.com account, multiple looksmart accounts, and a facebook marketing account. When you have 10+ accounts, how do you expect to login to each individual account to check your costs? You can’t. It is impossible to login to each account to check costs, that alone takes over an hour. So simply put, I needed someone that would automatically track my costs for every PPC account I had in one location. So I created one for my personal use. I was always interested in developing analytics type software by watching my friends success over at getclicky.com, so out of need to simply cost tracking over multiple accounts I created the software for my personal use, and then decided to make it publically accessible. So T202 was originally designed, not to track keywords, which it does, but mainly it was to consolidate all of your PPC accounts into one location. One spot to check your costs for every campaign over multiple PPC accounts in a second. The system is not 100% accurate yet, although we will get closer and closer to 100% accuracy as time progresses. Although even though it may not be exact cost tracking yet, it does give you a very good rough glimpse on how about everything is doing, and it is extremely helpful when you have lots of campaigns, and lots of accounts going.

I use this system on a few offers and can’t believe it is free. Why aren’t you charging people?
[Wes] Tracking202 is free, because Tracking202 is not designed to make money. Even if we charged for hosted PPC analytics software the market isn’t that big so it wouldn’t even generate significant revenue anyways. So the real reason the tracking software is free is because we want Tracking202 to simply start helping us gather a user base of active affiliate marketers who use our software. Then we can develop additional products and services towards our users that will ultimately make more money than Tracking202 ever would be itself.
For those who have to see it to believe it, you will see more Tracking202 products before the end of the year. Think Google, think of all the free applications, they attract a lot of users, and now they have hundreds of free products and a couple that generate all their revenue for them. Tracking202 is a launch pad for future products/services that we will be offering this year, and for time to come. If anyone likes to dive into it further I wrote a really long blog post on my site further explaining my philosophies on why Tracking202 is free here: http://www.wesmahler.com/why-is-tracking202-free-my-mistakes-launching-under-fire/

A large question arose during its launch and that was “aren’t you guys just going to steal my data?”. What is your answer to that?
[Wes] As of right now Tracking202 has been live for over 8 months since its development, our team, and I have personally promised over 700 individuals that we would keep their data secure. We are not interested in individuals keywords data, we ultimately want to build a company that does one million dollars a year in passive residual income from various products and services we offer to the affiliate marketers.
On a personal level, I honestly do not want to have to put up campaigns all day to earn a living, although there is a lot of money in that, it isn’t what I do. I develop applications like Kevin Rose and Max Lechin of PayPal. Web 2.0 entrepreneurs that build massive applications that millions of people can use on a daily basis that simplify their lives. We do not generate money by stealing peoples keywords, we generate wealth by developing highly web 2.0 applications that millions of people can use. If I was in someone else’s shoes I would also look at Tracking202 with the same questions, “why is it free”? So I can understand the hesitation to use the free tracking service, I can understand if I was in their shoes. Sure, absolutely. And we don’t force anyone to use our software, and some won’t and that is all right. Those who do however will benefit ultimately because no one’s data is comprised and to this date not a single persons’ data has been looked at, and I promise everyone, it isn’t going to change. And if you want to take it further, if you were put yourself in our shoes, that you had promised over 700+ people that you would keep their data secure, wouldn’t you also keep your promise? We want users 10 years down the line, and we only do that by fulfilling our client’s needs to the fullest, and being honest with them. The reason we won’t ever look at anyone’s keyword data is simply this, the relationships we have built are more valuable than keyword data. So it becomes very simple, the keyword data isn’t worth that much; the relationships are worth more than keyword data. That is why the keywords don’t matter, the relationships are more important, so that is what gets focused on, building relationships with our users. The relationships we are building, are worth more than any keyword list we could possibly buy.

A few suggestions I have seen are that you should make a version in which the user can buy it and upload it to their own server. Any plans for something like this in the future?
[Wes] We are actually planning on developing some self-hosted applications in the future related towards tracking, although we can’t say when, we are confident that we will be releasing some self-hosted tracking applications in the future now, absolutely.

Does Tracking202 have any big changes or plans in the near future?
[Wes] Yeah absolutely! Although we can’t say everything that is in store, we do have some exciting new products that help affiliate marketers that will be launching within the next couple of months. If anyone wants to keep up to date, they can check out the Tracking202 blog, or the Tracking202 newsletter where we keep everyone up to date on what’s going on.

Thanks again to Wes for taking the time out to do the interview. If you have not checked out Tracking202, you need to! It is some amazing software!

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Popularity: 75% [?]

Jim Kukral has been around the internet marketing industry for a long time. He has worked on countless projects and more recently launched a new project called ScratchBack.

What initially got you started in internet marketing?
[Jim] I started by learning html by hand back in the mid 90’s. My first job at an Internet company… that first day, they handed me a html book and said “learn this”. This was before tables existed mind you. So I did. I was a print designer before that, so I learned how to take my design skills and put them into html form. A few years later, I realized that I was an average designer at best, and found my calling doing online marketing instead.
 
You have been around the internet marketing industry for a long time, do you have a favorite project you worked on?
[Jim] I’ve built websites for Fortune 100 companies, and mom and pop shops. Building websites is boring. Building fun, creative projects and businesses that entertain or help people is fun. My favorite fun project is my www.awesomemillion.com, which never took off as I’d hoped. Still love the concept and it’s a heck of a lot of fun.
 
Could you explain more on what your consulting company does?
[Jim] I help online businesses find success online. By either consulting with them on how they should do it, or actually partnering with them to get it done. Anyone can build a website. Not everyone can market it and use it the right way to drive sales or leads or publicity or traffic, etc… That’s what I do for people.
 
One of your more recent projects, ScratchBack, has made its way to many blogs and it is only in beta. What are some future plans for the project?
[Jim] When we roll out of beta we’ll launch with smaller widget sizes, as well as personalized buy pages. A new directory is coming soon, plus some more exciting features that our users should enjoy.
 
Google is penalizing websites and blogs that are selling links. Was this a big influence in the concept behind ScratchBack?
[Jim] Actually, no. The decision to make SB nofollow was made 9 months before the Google penalties “went down”. I always knew that selling links was not something Google would like, and frankly, the whole purpose of ScratchBack isn’t about passing page rank, it’s about allowing a reader to be able to give back to a blogger in the form of a tip, and get some recognition in return. A win/win for everyone.
 
Do you think blogging is having a good affect on internet marketing?
[Jim] Absolutely. I’ve been blogging since 2001, and I’ve seen it grow from a handful of grass roots bloggers, to millions of people using it. Blogs have become a must strategy when discussing a successful internet marketing campaign. Frankly, if you don’t have a blog now, people are going to wonder why not. It wasn’t that way a few years ago.

 Thanks again to Jim for taking the time out to do the interview. He has a great blog JimKukral.com that everyone should check out!

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Popularity: 52% [?]

Shawn Collins has been a great contributer to the internet marketing world. He co-founded affiliate summit, and runs a very helpful blog, blog.affiliatetip.com. Thanks to Mr. Collins for taking the time out to do the interview!

You currently have many projects going online, do you have a favorite?
[Shawn Collins] As long as I can remember, I wanted to be a writer. So I see blogging as something of a passion project. I enjoy writing every day on affiliate marketing and other subjects.
 
Why did you decided to start Affiliate Summit?
[Shawn Collins] There was an existing conference called Affiliate Force, but I thought there were a lot of aspects that could be improved. I offered my suggestions to the guy running Affiliate Force, and he wasn’t interested in what I had to say. Soon after, I approached my current partner, Missy Ward, and we began devising Affiliate Summit.
 
Affiliate Summit has seen great success. Any big plans for the future?
[Shawn Collins] In addition to the big east and west Affiliate Summit shows, we are going to start putting on single day niche events around the U.S. (i.e. social media and affiliate marketing or video and affiliate marketing).
 
Why type of internet marketing got you started in the industry?
[Shawn Collins] I didn’t have any marketing background when I got started. In early 1997, I started up as an affiliate for Amazon, and later that year I managed to get a job as an affiliate manager for an online medical bookstore. It was on the job training and I’ve learned every day since then.
 
What effect do you think blogging has had on affiliate marketing?
[Shawn Collins] Blogs has been a blessing and a curse for affiliate marketing. The blog as a publishing platform has made it easier for aspiring affiliates to get into the business and make money without any technical skills. However, the automation enabled by blogs has led to extensive content theft, spam blogs, comment spam, etc.
 
Do you have any blogs you read on a daily basis?
[Shawn Collins] Off the top of my head, I regularly read 45n5.com, calacanis.com, CostPerNews.com, JimKukral.com, ReveNews.com, Search Engine Land, and Seth Godin’s Blog.
 
Any personal plans/goals you have coming into the new year?
[Shawn Collins] I actually just blogged about that a couple days ago: http://blog.affiliatetip.com/archives/new-years-resolutions-from-affiliate-summit/

 Thanks to Shawn Collins again for doing the interview! Everyone go and check out blog.affiliatetip.com, tons of useful information there! 

Affiliate Summit West is coming up and I wish I could go, however I am only 18 so going to Vegas would not be much fun for me. I will however be attending Affiliate Summit East in Boston this August! Is anyone else going?

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Popularity: 43% [?]

If you haven’t read NickyCakes.com yet, you need to! It is quickly becoming my favorite blog. The way NickyCakes writes his posts makes them extremely funny. The best part is, he actually gives great valuable information. Who cares what anyone had for lunch? I personally consider it the Facebook ads bible. If you are looking for a blog that after you read it, you are better off, then NickyCakes.com is for you. Thanks again to NickyCakes for doing the interview!

Your blog, NickyCakes.com is an extremely fun blog to read, what made you start it?
Mostly because Nickycakes was tired of seeing so many garbage blogs and forums out there with tons of readers, packed with affiliate links, but providing no real information on getting started in internet marketing, and presenting no real innovative ideas.  The guys making a lot of money tend to keep their secrets to themselves, to make sure they profit for
as long as possible.  But let’s face it, working alone and keeping everything to yourself is for basement dwelling losers.  Plus it’s boring.
 

Is NickyCakes.com something you are looking to profit from in the future, or just a hobby?
The primary purpose of the site is to help the newbie and non-newbie alike with new ideas.  However, a brotha’s gotta eat, so you will see affiliate links from time to time.  What you won’t see are affiliate links for bullshit products that Nickycakes has not checked out himself and found useful.  The site has already made a small profit, but that’s just icing on the cake.  The Cakes, in real life and online, likes to meet new people and make (non idiotic) friends, and so far that has been
the site’s greatest success.
 

Would you be interested in sharing some of the things you were doing when you were wearing the blackhat?
Nickycakes doesn’t have to call his lawyer to know that he’d advise against it.  You can be sure it wasn’t the “blackhat” that’s thrown around on webmaster forums referring to guys running autoblogs and trackback spamming.  The wikipedia article on blackhat has a decent overview of what blackhat is.
 

You talk about internet marketing and affiliate marketing alot, what  aspects of internet marketing are you currently doing?
Right now, trying everything and seeing what sticks.  The stickiest so far has been facebook flyers which are both incredibly simple to understand and incredibly easy to “game”.  The Cakes is also starting a series of local niche business directories with multiple monetization methods, such as contextual advertising (adsense), affiliate offers (dating, software installs, whatever), and subscription services for the local businesses if they’d like sponsored listings.  It will be an
ongoing, documented process on the blog and hopefully will make a little cash.  Other than that, the only other internet business Nickycakes is currently doing are small coding projects upon request.  Mostly things like content scrapers.
 

What affiliate networks would you recommend to the new affiliate marketer?
New affiliate marketers should, no matter what, sign up for these two networks:

NeverblueAds -
For a newbie, this network is perfect.  They have great affiliate
managers to help you get started, the interface is really clean and easy
to understand, they provide you with detailed information on what each
offer requires to get a conversion, and they pay on time.

CPAEmpire -
While CPAEmpire’s interface leaves something to be desired compared to
Neverblue, they make up for it with customer service.  They’re super
competitive and willing to bend over backwards for their affiliates.
When was the last time you got a call from the CEO of an affiliate
network 2 weeks after signing up asking how he could help you make more
money.  They also do weekly payouts which is rare in the affiliate
marketing industry.

One of your more recent posts, “The top 10 worst sites for making money online”, was hilarious and I agree with you on most of the top 10. Why do you think some of these websites like JohnChow.com are so popular?
It’s really a great example of how many gullible retards there are out there.  Does John Chow make a lot of money with his blog?  Yes, presumably.  The guy is obviously good at marketing, but at the end of the day, he got most of his subscribers by gaming digg for frontpage stories 3 days in a row.  The truth is, the way many people think they can get ahead in life is by copying the lifestyle of someone who is already successful.  They see someone like Chow and think that if they don’t subscribe and read his blog every day, they’ll miss the day when he drops some mad knowledge bomb that will make them millions, but that day never comes.  And why would it come?  The day John Chow gives people enough information to get rich is the day that they don’t need to read his blog anymore looking for ideas to make money, and they certainly have no reason to check out his e-book or click any of his get rich quick affiliate links.
 

What blog or website does NickyCakes hate the most and why?
Honestly, Nickycakes finds it hard to hate anyone.  All those crappy make money online blogs are just other dudes tryin’ to make a buck or whatever, so no real hate toward them.  If the Cakes had to pick a website he hates looking at it would have to be his dad’s website.  His dad is a famous artist, but his website is written in notepad with code from like 1998 and he refuses to change it.  The art is beautiful but the site looks so damn ghetto you could cry.
 

You talk about facebook ads alot. Do you think that advertising on facebook is still profitable?
Think?  More like KNOW.  Go read Gaming Facebook Ads Part 1, and Part 2.  Pretty much everything in those articles still holds true and will make you money if you aren’t a complete retard.  Let’s put it this way, with just the tools in those two articles, Cakes is gettin more Cash than the “Walk the Line” sound track.
 

Any blogs you read on a regular basis and would recommend to others?
Eli’s Bluehat SEO, while not updated on a very frequent basis, is an incredible resource for anyone starting out.  You are doing yourself a disservice if you have not read every post on thatsite. Uberaffiliatehas some good articles and was my original inspiration to get into facebook ads. Smaxor is pretty much a genius with “creative” SEO. Maddox is always good for a laugh.

Thanks once more to NickyCakes for the interview. You def. need to visit his blog and subscribe right away!

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Popularity: 86% [?]

Nate Whitehill has owned and operated online based businesses for years. His most recent company, Unique Blog Designs has really taken off, and has become one of the premier blog design companies out there. Unique Blog Designs have designed blogs for some big time bloggers. Most notably, Shoemoney.com, JohnChow.com, and ZacJohnson.com. I’d like to thank Nate Whitehill for taking the time out to do this interview.

What got you started in the online blogging business?
I got started in the online blogging business from my personal blog, Nate Whitehill dot Com. I was amazed at how many new people were starting blogs everyday, and also how well bloggers connected together to form mini communities. There are 120,000 new blogs started everyday - clearly blogging is growing exponentially. I think it is also a great community of like-minded people - I have met many people who I am now friends with in real life thanks to blogging.
 

Why did you start Unique Blog Designs?
I started Unique Blog Designs because I wanted to help share the knowledge of blog design and development which I have learned over the past year. It has almost been a year since I have been blogging on my own blog, and I have learned a tremendous amount of useful information about blog design, layout, copywriting, setup, and marketing. To date, Unique Blog Designs has helped over 80 clients get setup with their own unique blog designs and the right skills and knowledge to successfully begin their blogging careers. We have also helped many seasoned bloggers relaunch their blogs through redesigns. Many of our clients have doubled their traffic since relaunching their blogs.
 

Unique Blog Designs is an amazing blog design company, why do you think it has been so successful?
Unique Blog Designs prides itself on excellent customer services and giving the customers exactly what they want. We also ensure that we will go the extra mile to surpass our client expectations. I can only thank its success to the tremendous amount of support we received from our clients and from the blogosphere in general. Of course, I work with an awesome team of several other highly dedicated individuals (Matt, Josh, Dave, Chris and Corry) who are also committed to helping bloggers be more successful online.
 

Any big future plans in the works for Unique Blog Designs?
Unique Blog Designs is less than days away from relaunching our new website AND a special affiliate program. We are also rolling out several other products and services over the next few months which we believe will be of tremendous use to both newbie and seasoned bloggers. Stay tuned for some exciting stuff from us here at Unique Blog Designs.
 

Why did you decide to start NateWhitehill.com?
I started Nate Whitehill dot com because I became fascinated with the blogosphere after discovering John Chow’s blog in late 2006. Only a month prior to starting my blog, I deleted my Myspace account, so I think I was looking for a new online professional outlet to share my thoughts, ideas, and hopefully help other people with the knowledge I have learned. Starting my personal blog was hands down, the best decision I have ever made.

Your blog is growing rapidly. Is blogging just a hobby for you, or for profit?
I never started blogging with the intention of making money, although “making money online” was the fad at the time (and still is). I started my blog to network with like-minded individuals. I guess you could say blogging is a hobby for me, because it is something I truly enjoy, but as of late, thanks to UBD, I have not had very much time even for my hobbies. Blogging is something which has brought my tremendous benefit which I strongly encourage everyone to try at some point in their lives. It just may change your life.

Many blogs fail, what tips would you give to the up and coming blogger looking to be as successful as you?
To the up and coming blogger looking to become successful, I would recommend a few things:
1) Understand that like any task at hand, blogging is hard work. Nothing worth having in life comes easy. That same principle in life applies to blogging - to develop any kind of credibility - one must blog consistently and with high effort for at least 3-4 months. After that, it’s even more important to give back to readers as much as possible. I found that after 3 consistent months of blogging, I KNEW a lot about blogging. I then used this knowledge to help other people become successful at their blogs.
2) Blogging for money will never make you rich. A blog is an excellent tool to network with other individuals, either for personal or professional reasons. Blogging is also a great resources to share knowledge you have learned in other areas of online business and then receive comments and feedback from the people reading your articles. Sometimes they may just thank you for your knowledge, other times they may tell you that you are wrong and correct you! You gotta love the blogosphere.
3) To be a blogger, you must have some passion for writing. I have always liked writing my ideas and thoughts down. Some people find it very difficult to write a 300-400 word article everyday. Blogging is not for everyone, but it is something everyone should try.

 Thanks again to Mr. Whitehill for the interview. If your looking for a nice fresh blog design, you have to check out Unique!

Popularity: 100% [?]

I recently interviewed Adii from adii.co.za. He is a master at designing wordpress themes, and has done work for Unique Blog Designs. If you need a blog design, you MUST at the least consider him to do the work. By looking at his portfolio, I don’t know how you couldn’t! So, here is the interview:

When did you start your blog adii.co.za? Is it hobby or something you hope to monetize?
I started the blog in January this year and it really started out as a hobby / experiment in experiencing the whole blogging phenomenon and even though monetizing the blog has never been my first priority, I’d be lying if I said, that I didn’t even consider it!
 
Your work designing wordpress themes is amazing! What got you started in blog design?
Thanks for the kind words! I guess I’ve always felt that I’m more creative than I got credit for and blog design was an outlet for my creative energy / ideas. Fact is, that I needed to pay my own studies this past year and I had identified blog design as a viable source of income - and the business opportunities involved probably inspired me to work as hard as I have.
 
Do you do any online marketing?
Yes, I do. A big part of my online marketing campaign depends on social networking (connecting with some personalities more well-known than I am) and word of mouth - but lately, I’ve also started looking at establishing some advertising relationships around the web, whilst also sponsoring a few theme competitions with copies of my Premium News Theme.
 
Why do you think blogging has become so common?
People love to blow their own horns and have their say… Blogging allows you to do just that!
 
For someone interested in getting a premium theme designed by you, could you explain the process?
I assume that by “premium theme” you mean a custom design, right? My roots are in business strategy and a client’s goals and outcomes for the design project is thus of the utmost importance when establishing their requirements for the design. I normally combine these goals & outcomes with some kind of “visual guidance” on their part in terms of pointing me to design examples they like. And once I come up with a mockup, I generally go through a few rounds of revisions and fine-tuning the mockup.
 
Why do you think a custom unique theme is so necessary for a blog to become successful?
Simply because there is so many blogs online and you need to separate yourself from the crowd / noise!

Thanks to Adii for doing the interview! Check out his blog, and his wordpress work!
 

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A few weeks ago I did some interviews with some of my favorite bloggers. Well here is the last one I am going to do. It is with Paul from UberAffiliate.com. His blog has a wealth of knowledge on PPC marketing,(I am sure I have blogged about it before)  and is definitely worth subscribing to. I have personally known of Paul since his “ClickConsultants” days, and he helped me with some PPC campaigns about 6-7 months ago through ClickConsultants.

You are obviously a successful Internet marketer. What got you started in this business and how long have you been doing it?
I actually got started due to my own laziness.  I was tired of having to wake up at 6am on weekends to go to work, so I thought of ways to generate income while being able to do what I want.  I was first introduced into the internet back in October of ‘07, and then was introduced into the wonderful world of affiliate marketing in February of ‘07.

For me, it is hard to explain to my friends and family what I do for money, as they all think it is a scam or illegal, does this happen to you and if so how to you handle the negativity?
Actually my family and friends have been pretty supportive about it.  My friends accuse me of selling drugs or running a porno chain, but that’s all just kidding around.  My family doesn’t really understand the internet, so they can’t accuse me of something they have no idea about.  I try to keep quiet about exactly how much I do make though, because as much as my friends and family like me, I could see them getting jealous.  For the most part they’re cool with it all.

What affiliate networks do you personally recommend for the up and coming affiliate?
I’d actually recommend to sign up with every major network, each one has something different to offer.  Find what offer you want to promote, then go shopping around to find the best deal.  A few of my top networks are AzoogleAds, Neverblue, CX Digital, and HydraMedia.

At what point did you say “I am going to be a full time affiliate marketer” in your career? Was there a certain amount of earnings that sparked this?
Once I could make enough to cover my part time job, I quit that (was going to school at the time).  Then once I started making around $20,000/month, I decided to take a year off of school.  My goal to completely retire myself out of college was $100,000/month, and I’m way past that marker already and still have until this coming July to “hit it”.

What are your future goals as an affiliate marketer or entrepreneur in general?
To bank enough money in a few years to leave me set for the rest of my life, no matter what happens to the industry.  I have some other business opportunities on the internet that I’m going to be investing a lot of my time into pretty soon.

Now lets talk about your blog, UberAffiliate.com. It seems to be doing very well, and there is a multitude of information for people to learn about affiliate marketing. What inspired you to create UberAffiliate.com and why do you think it has been so successful?
I always wanted a blog, I don’t know why.  Not for the money, just to have one where I was able to connect with a lot of people.  Blogs are also great networking tools, and I’ve met some great people from mine.  I think it’s been moderately successful because I do my best to post useful information, instead of posting just for the sake of posting.

Have you set any goals for UberAffiliate.com, or is blogging for you more of a hobby?
Yeah blogging is just a hobby for now.  As far as monetary goals, I haven’t set any.  But one goal that I’d like to accomplish is to have 1,000 readers in the next few months.

I saw a recent post on your blog saying that you attended AdTech this year, and really like going to conferences. What is your favorite conference to attend and why?
Well I’ve only been to ad:tech and Affiliate Summit East, and out of the two my favorite was ASE.  It seemed more relaxed to me - not as corporate.  I was able to wear shorts and a tee shirt and just hang out with other affiliates.  Ad:tech was a good time to, I’ll be going to both of them again.

If you could say one thing to someone who is new to affiliate marketing, and is struggling, what would it be?
Don’t give up, and don’t be afraid to lose some money.  Even if it means going back to a part time job for a month to save up some cash, don’t be afraid to spend it testing and lose.  If you want to make monumental gains, you have to take some losses to find out what works.

 Well thank you Paul for doing the interview. Everyone needs to go to his blog and subscribe! He recently posted his monthly earnings that totaled almost $200,000.00!

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Popularity: 37% [?]

The interviews continue, and another favorite blog of mine to read is Ms.Danielle.com. Visit her site and you will find tons of information about PPC marketing.

I see you recently attended the Blog World Expo, what were your opinions on the conference being its first year?
Since it was the first year, many of us weren’t very sure what to expect. Overall I think the turn-out was good, although many speakers who were expected to show up weren’t there. Some were announced but unconfirmed, some forgot, and some were sick. There is room for growth and improvement, but I’m sure next year will be very successful. The most valuable thing I got out of it was the networking. The connections I made over the course of those few days is priceless.

Personally I have been reading your blog for some time, along with
many other people. Is blogging a hobby for you, or a money maker?
Well I have a few blogs that I manage, MsDanielle being only one of them. MsDanielle is not a money-making blog…yet. The social networking that has come from it is what helped me form the relationships that I solidified at BlogWorld. That’s more valuable to me now than trying to monetize it. But if anyone is looking to sponsor me, please fill out my contact form :).

Why did you decide to start MsDanielle.com?
John Chow’s February 2007 earnings. I wanted to see how far I could take an experiment like blogging. I quickly realized there’s only one John Chow, and that I don’t want to try to compete with him. I think I made a wise choice.

You have a great deal of experience in PPC marketing. What initially got you started advertising on search engines?
Gary Lee is a college friend of mine, who recruited me as a PPC Manager at the company he was working for in 2006. When he initially approached me about it, I turned it down. With some patience and prodding he eventually got me on board. I’ve been seeking as much search engine knowledge as I can possibly soak up ever since then. I mean, who doesn’t want to learn how to take $5 and turn it into $50, or $100?

Was there a day that you made “x” amount of dollars, and said “I am going to be a full time internet marketer”?
Working for a firm doing PPC made me realize I needed to do my own thing. In October I earned $800 in three days through my site pinkdeals.net. That made me feel like I was on the right path :).

Are you into any other aspects of marketing online?
Well I’m a PPC Manager for a company in LA and a consultant for a company in Orange County, CA. Basic online marketing tactics and such. And right now I’m trying to learn more about affiliate marketing so I can really get pinkdeals off the ground. I’m just a Zac Johnson wannabe :D.

What affiliate networks would you recommend and why?
Well right now I use Commission Junction, LinkShare, and Performics. I’ve tried CardOffers and NCS. I’m also looking into starting accounts with Copeac and Azoogle for pinkdeals. There really isn’t any large system I won’t use unless I’ve heard bad things about it, or see poor results. But I’m still a noob so maybe you should ask the big affiliate marketers who they might recommend as well.

Do you have any favorite blogs you read on a daily basis? If so what are they?
Since I work 40 hours a week consulting and spend most of my off time working at home after hours, I don’t spend as much time reading as I like. Blogs I would read everyday consistently if I had time would include ShoeMoney, ZacJohnson, SEO-Theory, AdWords.blogspot, YSMblog, and SEOmoz.

What advice would you give to a struggling affiliate marketer who is failing at PPC marketing?
Figure out which metrics are failing and improve them. If you are managing more than one project and they are both under-performing, evaluate which one has the more potential and focus your efforts on that one. Read message boards — I’m always surfing DigitalPoint forums and WebmasterWorld. Reach out to other affiliate marketers and see who you can bring into your network. Of course, you must have some valuable knowledge to provide to them as well, as we all should
be resources for each other. Attend conferences and really find out what it takes to think like an affiliate marketer. That’s what I plan to do.

Thanks so much for your time Ms. Danielle. Everyone needs to start reading her blog! It has great informational tips on PPC marketing and blogging. So go to MsDanielle.com and subscribe to it!

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Popularity: 32% [?]