Pepperjam Network “Meet the Affiliates” Interview #6: Introducing Harrison Gevirtz
Welcome to Week #6 of the Pepperjam Network “Meet the Affiliates” Interview Series!
This week I interview Harrison Gevirtz. OK, for all of you out there that think becoming a super affiliate is impossible – Meet Harrison Gevirtz – Harrison is 15 years old and anticipates becoming a millionaire by the end of the year. How did he do it? What are his secrets? Well, you can read the interview below to learn more, but I can tell you having met Harrison in person and reading about his success online and in magazines, this guy is at least 10 years more mature than his age and he ranks as one of the brightest and most impressive affiliate marketers I’ve ever come to know.
Read on.
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 #6
Harrison Gevirtz
CPA Share / blitzlocal.com
Question #1
KRIS: Where are you from? How old are you? Where is the most exotic location you’ve ever been to – tell us about your trip…
HARRISON: I am 15 years old, turning 16 on June 19th. The most exotic location i’ve ever been to that I can remember is Tokyo (which was about 2 weeks ago). I flew to Tokyo for only 5 days but had a blast. The culture of asia was unbelievable and I REALLY enjoyed my time in Tokyo!
Question #2
KRIS: Please share with us the story of how (and why) you first got involved in affiliate marketing…
HARRISON: I started out at 12 years old selling Diamonds and coins on eBay. After successfully doing this on eBay for almost a year I got bored and started to make simple turnkey websites on the side of running my eBay business. Eventually I totally stopped selling Diamonds & Coins and went full fledge on the internet stuff.
I purchased a turnkey myspace website script and made a simple website and was able to turn the $15-20 I spent on a Domain & The script into about a grand. I continued to work on my site, and eventually made my own website that was not turnkey. After months of struggle with various ad networks playing games (Adsense banned me before I even had a chance to make any money… (I REALLY didn’t click my ads..but who cares) I started reading about affiliate marketing with search, etc and tried out some direct linking to affiliate offers on my websites via Banners, Links etc. This was profitable for the few clicks it generated daily and I decided to pursue more of an affiliate revenue lifestyle. I lost money on search for a while and finally got a hang of it. Now affiliate marketing really isn’t my full time gig as I am beginning to focus more on the client side of PPC with small business, and some b2b type clients. I still do affiliate stuff now, just not as much.
Question #3
KRIS: Have you made your first million yet? If not, at what age do you expect to be a millionaire?
HARRISON: My personal goal is by the end of this year to be able to crown myself with the title millionaire. Too bad a millionaire is in any currency, not in euros or pounds!
Question #4
KRIS: Why are you such a successful internet marketer, while others struggle? Are there any tips that you can share to help someone who may be struggling to be as successful as you?
HARRISON: I get asked this question all the time and it’s really hard to answer. I really value analytics and I feel the main issue starter affiliates have is the wrong mindset that if you make a campaign, and it’s profitable at the beginning you don’t have to do anything to keep it profitable. People sometimes make a campaign and don’t tweak everything, If it’s not profitable at the begining they just pause it and try something else. Optimize Optimize Optimize, it really does help!
Question #5
KRIS: Take us through a typical day-in-the-life of Harrison Gevirtz…
HARRISON: Well I Travel quite a bit so my schedule changes day to day BUT when I’m home I typically wake up around 11am-1pm. Work for a few hours, eat some lunch or dinner depending on the time. Sometimes I go out, Hang out with friends, have to go to school etc but my schedule isn’t really set in stone. I get most of my work done during the night hours even though my mom really doesn’t like that, and usually end up getting to bed around 2-4am.
Question #6
KRIS: What is the future of affiliate marketing in 200 words or less?
HARRISON: I believe the future of affiliate marketing industry is going to become far more legitimate and the reputation will improve. I am seeing more and more companies launch affiliate networks like yours without all the scammy offers and I believe that actions like this will improve the views of affiliate marketing to outside consumers who are aware of the industry, In addition to just motivating affiliates to promote the good stuff, not the scams!
Question #7
KRIS: Do you feel that being “only” 15 years old has been an asset or a liability as an affiliate marketer? Why or why not?
HARRISON: Being 15 is a huge liability and every day I wish i were 18, or 21. I have people take me for a complete idiot who believe they can just play me to get info out of me etc. I won’t lie I have trusted people whom I shouldn’t have and that’s why I say I’m still learning. People who have done business with me for a while do realize that I am not the stupid 15 year old they initially thought I was But I do have people not trust me because of my age, and people tend to treat me like a KID not a business acquaintance. It really sucks!
Question #8
KRIS: Tell us about your most profitable day or week (your choice) ever as an affiliate. How did you do it? Please be as specific as possible:
HARRISON: With A question like this, specifics are key. But both you, me, and all readers know the level of specificity I provide may not be all that specific 
! Without being too specific I would like to say that some of my most profitable endeavors have been done outside of the normal search engines but through discovered untouched traffic sources which remain gold mines for a long time. I recommend new affiliates look around to find spots/networks that I have found which are cheap, quick, and awesome in terms of a ROI!
Question #9
KRIS: What do you do when you’re not making money online? Do you have any pets, hobbies, a girlfriend?
HARRISON: Well, even when I’m not working, I’m probably making money online, or somethings probably wrong!
My main hobby right now is to travel. It is something I really love to do for numerous reasons. One reason is that I hate the town I live in now/have grown up in. For being an outgoing 15/16 year old Santa Barbara california is simply boring and uninteresting for me and as I tell family members of mine “I Try and avoid Santa Barbra Like the plague.”
I actually just got an awesome Road Bike in Boulder CO (where a company I am a partner in is located) so I think biking is going to be one of my new hobbies. I also will probably be getting a dog soon, since it’s been almost a year since my dog passed away.
Question #10
KRIS: Pretend it is 10 years from now. Tell us about your life. What will you be doing. What will your title be? What do you think your net worth will be? What will you have accomplished?
HARRISON: In 10 years I expect to still be doing what I do today. Working with clients is a new thing for me and I am really starting to like it. This doesn’t mean I wont be an affiliate because I really enjoy the bossless affiliate lifestyle. A Title?? Probably less than I have now, When I made my first business cards for my LLC I decided to be a CEO. I plan to change my title to something more basic and less ego’y. Since I’m not the turnkey CEO with a big leather chair and a private jet. hehe!
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If you guys can’t get enough of Harrison Gevirtz here is a great interview that was featured in Revenue Magazine.
Next on deck for Meet the Affiliates: Paul Bourque, AKA “Uber Affiliate“
Paul’s exclusive interview will be published here on the Pepperjam Network Blog next Friday, June 20, 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.
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Read Previous “Meet the Affiliates” Interviews:
Week #1 – Sam Harrelson
Week #2 – Scott Hazard
Week #3 – Rosalind Gardner
Week #4 – Colin McDougal
Week #5 – Zac Johnson
September 5th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Bot, did i not enjoy the interview you had with this young man callled Harrison Gevirtz, he has certainly inspired me, inspite of him being younger than my youngest son who is 18 this year. I do admire his honestly and guts and he is inspiration for a realtively newbie as me getting started in my late 40’s. Well done Harrison and thanks for being such a great young guy. Claude-Brisbane
October 16th, 2009 at 4:23 am
This young guys a genius, I wish him nothing but the best hopefully I can follow in his footsteps! An inspiration to beginning affiliates, and intermediates alike.
October 17th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Enjoyed reading this, thanks for the insight.