Pepperjam Network “Meet the Affiliates” Interview #4: Introducing Colin McDougall
Welcome to Week #4 of the Pepperjam Network “Meet the Affiliates” Interview Series!
This week I interview Colin McDougall. Colin is one of the most passionate, motivated, and talented affiliate marketers in the industry. If you have ever had the opportunity to meet Colin you will remember him - not only because he is a pretty large guy, but because his enthusiasm for affiliate marketing and more importantly - life - is infectious!
I am confident that you will find Colin to be a remarkable affiliate marketer, person, and businessman…just like we do here at Pepperjam!
Here are the rules…
The Pepperjam Network “Meet the Affiliates” Interview Series will feature an original up-close interview with an affiliate marketer every Friday. Priority will be given to Pepperjam Network affiliates, but that is not a requirement to share your story. If you’d be interested in being interviewed please submit your request here - please make sure to tell us why you think your story is especially entertaining or educational and worth sharing with our readers.
As the series progresses we will do our best to ask questions that both entertain and educate! We encourage you to comment on each of the interviews, as well as ask follow-up questions of the interviewee.
Lastly, if you are a blogger or just someone with a network of likeminded affiliate marketing friends, we encourage you to share our interviews series with anyone who you think may benefit. Also, since you won’t want to miss an interview once it’s published I encourage you to join the Feedburner Pepperjam Network RSS Feed, which is located at the top of this page or by clicking here.
Well…let’s get on to the interview!
Meet the Affiliates: Interview #4
Colin McDougall
ConstantConversation.com/
Question #1
KRIS: When did you first get involved in affiliate marketing? Tell us the story of how you got started…
COLIN: I first got started when my hockey buddy, Chuck Anderson who was partnered with James Martell, asked me to work for them to create a content management system. In exchange for coding for free they taught my some aspects of making money online.
That was in 2001 and within about 6 months of starting my affiliate income had exceeded my techie job income by 3 fold. I knew the “real job” wouldn’t around much longer!
Question #2
KRIS: Where do you live? Are you married? Any children? Animals?
COLIN: I am married to my lovely wife Wendy and live in the Vancouver suburb of Langley with my 2 daughters (ages 5 & 7) and our cat Stanley named after the holy grail of hockey, the Stanley Cup.
Question #3
KRIS: When and how did you get started in the affiliate marketing industry? Tell us the story…
COLIN: Before I talk about getting started, I would like to share my past career path with you.
I graduated from BCIT (British Columbia Institute of Technology) in 1993 from their Electronics Engineering specializing in Telecommunications.
Thanks to nepotism (my father was in senior management) I got my first “real job” as a UNIX and Database systems analyst. After working like a slave (18 hour days) at a thankless job that required me to drop what I was doing on a moments notice to respond to systems calls at all hours of the night I had enough and applied at the power company here in British Columbia (BC Hydro).
At the time I thought it was fantastic working at the new job because I received a whopping $10,000 / year increase in salary. With the increased salary I thought I could afford to finally purchase a house, so I did.
At the same time, my first daughter was born and I had not fully realized the cost of baby stuff such as diapers so I always seemed to be $50 shy of paying the bills every month. Working at a real job was too much of a slippery slope, I simply could not afford to make ends meet. I had recognized that “this new internet thing” had huge potential for making some extra cash to pay the bills so I was actively researching how the internet could make money when, while at work, I received an email from my buddy Chuck asking for help in his internet business.
I responded to Chuck’s email within seconds after he sent it out to his friends and family email list. Chuck was working with James Martell teaching a system of making money online and boy did I nail it. Within only a few months my income from affiliate programs was at $15,000 / month and quickly shot up to $60,000 / month. I couldn’t stay at the “real job” any longer…
With that kind of money pouring in every month, I fired my boss!
Question #4
KRIS: I know that you are an avid writer, speaker, and Super Affiliate. One of your most successful projects is “the VEO Report: A Comprehensive Guide to Building Stable Search Engine Results.” Can you tell us more about this project?
COLIN: The onslaught of requests to speak at industry events such as Affiliate Summit and The System Seminar (which I will be presenting at this week-end) has been overwhelming and flattering!
The VEO Report was created shortly after I attended a Search Engine Strategies conference in New York City.
As I previously mentioned, I was following James Martell’s system and my sites got completely obliterated from the search engines. My massive amounts of income were literally wiped out over night. It was a Google update dubbed “Florida” that destroyed my entire traffic flow.
I was faced with a choice, either go back to a real job or persevere and find out what Google actually really wanted. Since I am now un-employable, the real job was not an option so it was off to SES with the goal of meeting a Google engineer to hear from the horse’s mouth what Google really wanted for websites to rank.
I happened to be in the right place at the right time and got lots of one to one time with an incredibly nice Google engineer, Matt Cutts.
I went through the Martell system with Matt, every step of the way Matt cringed and shook his head. During the course of the conference I made notes about the conversations I had with Matt.
By the end of the conference I had a huge stack of notes which I transcribed into a Word document and mailed it to my friends that had been using the Martell system and saw their income vanish at the same time I suffered my downturn. One of my friends called with immense enthusiasm about the notes I sent her.
My friend said, “Oh my Colin! Do you realize you have an information product here.”
Since then I have had the joy of helping others succeed. Helping others is my core mission in everything I pursue whether it is in business or in personal life.
Please take a moment to grab a copy of my complimentary internet marketing report right now.
Get Constant Conversation here - http://www.constantconversation.com
Question #5
KRIS: Can you share with us what a day-in-the-life of Colin McDougall is like?
COLIN: My days go something like this:
(1) Wake up
(2) Put coffee on
(3) Look at my “action board” listing my current project
(4) Put a task list together of stuff I need done today and then “just do it” (or outsource it)
(5) Stop work after about 2 hours and play with my kids.
Question #6
KRIS: If you could trade shoes with anyone in the world who would it be and why?
COLIN: There is nobody I would trade places with in this world because I like my life way too much!
Question #7
KRIS: Share with us your most embarrassing moment…
COLIN: Hmmm, embarrassing moments….There’s lots of those but I would say that it was at the first conference I presented at. I saw hundreds of eyes looking at me and lots of cameras pointing at me. My mind went blank from the stage and I said “Sorry folks I am incredibly nervous and don’t have a clue as to where I am at in my presentation.”
I managed to save myself by saying “Hey, you guys spent tons of money to come to this conference and you don’t need me talking at you. Do you want to do question and answer time?”
That is exactly what they wanted and I performed really well after that. I could see people’s eyes light up as they experience “ah ha” moments.
Question #8
KRIS: You’ve been in affiliate marketing for many years now. Can you share with us one or three secrets that have been shared with you (or discovered by you) that may help our readers take their affiliate marketing business to the next level?
COLIN: The biggest secret to creating a successful online business is begin by removing the search engines from your thoughts.
Begin by establishing a USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Use your personal experiences and creativity to establish a USP.
Once you have created your unique angle into an industry register a domain that can be branded. If you are confused about what that means, there is a simple rule I have for this:
If your domain name can be placed on a hat for marketing purposes, then it is “brandable.”
When it comes to creating content for your website, again, proceed as though the search engines don’t exist. Write your copy first, then refine and edit for search engines. This is a key element for creating a VEO website. Visitor’s first and search engines second, really focus on what you can do to build a relationship with your visitors.
A good way to think about establishing a relationship with your visitors is to take a lesson from the music industry. You want to create a base of enthusiastic fans that will devour whatever you put out there.
An example of this is my admiration for the legendary rock band Rush. After attending the System Seminar in Chicago, I am flying to Denver to meet with my Mastermind group and I spent MAJOR cash on row 2 center stage tickets.
Why did I drop so much cash?
Because Rush has built a relationship with me. I know that when they put out an album or go on tour they are going to deliver to my expectations. I am a loyal follower and always will be.
Think about how you can create your fan base in your industry.
I reveal all my secrets in my business mentorship club to help people create the foundation that will serve to build your fan base.
Question #9
KRIS: Tell us why Canada is the most beautiful place in the world to live and work…
COLIN: I love British Columbia in particular because of the amazing natural beauty. I purchase a 27 foot travel trailer a few years ago so I could enjoy the mountains, lakes and rivers of BC.
Run a search at Google for British Columbia stuff and check out some of the pictures you see and you will realize why I love it here!
Question #10
KRIS: Name one person in the affiliate industry you admire and tell us why?
COLIN: There are lots of people that have helped me and I admire in this business. There are 2 people that I must publicly thank though.
The 2 people I admire most in this industry are:
(1) Rosalind Gardner
(2) Michael Campbell
Why?
Both Rosalind Gardner (click here to check out Rosalind’s “Meet the Affiliates” Interview here on PJN) and Michael Campbell returned my phone calls after my earnings plummeted to help me understand the right way to run an online business.
Ros and Michael have become very good friends of mine and I am eternally grateful to both. Both of these amazing people are down-to-earth people that are willing to take the time to help folks that need it.
Thanks Ros and Michael!
Next on deck for Meet the Affiliates: Super Affiliate and Blogger Zac Johnson
Zac’s interview will be published here on the Pepperjam Network Blog next Friday, June 6, 2008.
Make sure you don’t miss it! Click Here to subscribe to the PJN Blog and have each interview delivered to your e-mail box.
___________________________________
Read Previous “Meet the Affiliates” Interviews:
Week #1 - Sam Harrelson
Week #2 - Scott Hazard
Week #3 - Rosalind Gardner
