After it failed, I didn’t give up (luckily), but I was broke and demoralized. THAT was when I discovered affiliate marketing, someone told me that I could make money without having my own product. All I needed was a domain name (which I had), some hosting (which I had) and some traffic (which I could learn how to get).

So I set out and within just a few months I was making 6 figures while still in college. I was amazed, working just a few hours a day and making more than most of my college professors. That was it for me, I’ve never had a job since then and hope I never have one again
 
Question #4

KRIS: Your flagship Web site is AffiliateClassroom.com.  Can you share with us why you launched Affiliate Classroom and share with our readers what AC is all about…

ANIK: Sure, well when I got very good at affiliate marketing and was on the forums helping others, people caught on quickly and they started to hire me as a consultant to help coach them and build their websites/do their marketing. At first I LOVED being paid as much as $300 or so an hour.

However, when I started working 10 hour+ days I began to hate the consulting business (no offense Kris   It was just too much work for me, the lazy affiliate.

It was then that someone gave me the idea to just record and document my teachings, put them in a members area and charge a small monthly access fee – hence, the birth of Affiliate Classroom!!

Today, just 3 years later, Affiliate Classroom is the undisputed leading education source for the affiliate marketing industry. We have courses that range from beginner level material to advanced level to teach any range of affiliates on a variety of affiliate marketing related issues.

We also launched the first ever certification program in the industry for affiliate managers at accertified.com. We were proud to award your very own Brock Siegel with an honorary for all his great work in the industry.

Question #5

KRIS: You are the visionary behind the creation of the Performance Marketing Alliance (PMA).  Tell us more about your role with PMA and what is the purpose of the organization.

ANIK: Really, it wasn’t my vision at all!  Many other industry leaders have been talking about this for years before us. The main problem was that no one had the resources to commit to it full time. THAT was where we wanted to help.

As you can see from my experiences while being interviewed by BusinessWeek, we have some reputation building to do in our industry. How can we possibly call ourselves legitimate without an industry organization.

It seemed that the only bottleneck was that the organization needed a FULL TIME dedicated person to manage it and bring it to a point that groups could catch on and run with it.

We found the perfect person, Rebecca Madigan, to lead the effort and so we donated her salary for a few months tobe full time in leading the effort. We are proud of our role and very glad to say that the PMA is moving right along very well now. There are many influential leaders who are now campaiging for it and I’m excited to see it happening.

Our current role is just of support. We have absolutely no day to day involvement, votes or influence over the panel working on the rules / regulations.  As of August we are no longer sponsoring the salary as the project was far enough along and we felt that Affiliate Classroom had done what we set out to do.

We are here to support the organization in any way that the FAB feels fit for us.

I would like to share that many had the misconception that the PMA was some kind of “conspiracy” for me to take over the industry. I’m sorry that we created an environment that made others feel that way, but as everyone can see now, it simple is not the case. Our involvement with the PMA was out of my feeling indebtness for what this industry has done for me. I love the industry and everytime someone slanders it, I take it personally.

I simply stepped up and decided to do something about it.

Question #6

KRIS: I’d like you to share with us what exactly is the Affiliate Manager Certification Program, aka AC Certified?

ANIK: It’s a part of continuing efforts to bring professionalization and credibility to the industry. If you’ve ever tried to hire an affiliate manager or train one, you’ll share the pain in how difficult it is. The demand for this position is rediculous and the supply just isn’t there.

ACCertified is Affiliate Classroom’s answer to that problem.

It’s a full web-based training course with quizzes and tests that gets anyone up to speed and prepares them on exactly how to manage an affiliate program up to industry standards.

We already have many networks and large merchants who are now requiring this of their new and existing affiliate managers. They have all seen a dramatic increase in performance, so we’re proud to have helped bring a much-needed solution to the market.

Question #7

KRIS: What are your top 5 favorite musical groups and top 3 favorite books of all time?

ANIK: Hmm…tough one for me.

I’ll say then when I was younger, I learned to play the drums and I was HOOKED to the following bands:

1. Nirvana
2. Offspring
3. 311

Today, I really just listen to anything that sounds good, but NOT country. I tend to either listen to electronica/dance music (yes, even at 8 AM on my way to work) or I’ll listen to Hip Hop…whatever pleases the ears!

Top 3 Favorite Books?

1. The Art of The Start – Guy Kawasaki, I keep this in my bag with me at all times and reference it multiple times, especially before any major meetings/presentations – HIGHLY recommend it!

2. The Ultimate Question – Fred Reichheld
Probably the most genius book ever written. I think this book highlights and emphasizes everything I want Affiliate Classroom to become. It also completely simplifies how you can easily tell whether you’re doing a good job or not.

3. 7 Habits of Highly Successful People – Stephen R. Covey
A classic and one that I re-read many times to refresh myself…
 
Question #8

KRIS: Take us through a day-in-the-life of Anik Singal…

ANIK: Well, I work late, so by default I get up late. I usually get into the office around 10:30 or 11 AM. I immediately go through e-mail and order lunch. After lunch, I typically have meetings with my staff and conference calls to take care of. By the time I’m done, it’s typically 4 or 5 PM and I swear I feel like nothing has been done!

I will then go home around 6 PM, eat, watch some tv (relax) and then hit the gym for an hour. After the gym, I will eat again, relax for an hour and NOW I really begin my work.

10:30 PM to 3 AM are my ULTRA focused high powered work hours. I do anything and everything during this time and I tend to be much more efficient. While I’m working at night, I take multiple breaks. During those breaks, I usually work on my affiliate sites.

But, I’d definitely say that with the incredibly growth Affiliate Classroom is experiencing, 95% of my day as of recent has been dedicated to Affiliate Classroom (Oh, how I miss the affiliate lifestyle sometimes).

Question #9

KRIS: I you could trade shoes with anyone in the world for an entire year who would it be and why?

ANIK: This is another very tough question, but I’d say Sir Richard Branson (that’s why I was so excited to  hear that he was one of the people that voted me into BusinessWeek!)

Here is why:

1. The guy is crazy and he loves adventure, I envy that.
2. He built an empire from nothing.
3. He owns an island
4. He believes in doing many businesses, I think I’ll get bored if I work on the same thing always.
5. HUGE philantropist – I envy this the most about him. I really hope to retire from “money making” soon one day and
dedicate the rest of my life to providing educational support structures for underpriveledged childen.
6. The hair – haha…

Question #10

KRIS: What is the future of affiliate marketing?

ANIK: 2 words: Rediculously Amazing…

I’m not just saying this because of our role in PMA, but I think the future has a lot of uniting in it. I think the industry is just starting to understand that if we don’t we’re all going to lose. The days of the useless petty competition and “No, I’m the best” arguments are over.

Let’s face it, it’s a fast growing industry and there will ONLY be more players – so we might as well accept that and learn how to work together.

I also see affiliate marketing growing more main stream and more and more companies pouring larger budgets into it over a few years. Most of the companies that are not right are scared because of the reputation. But as we start to get these “bad apples” out of the business, I see things really cleaning up big time.

Search? Move over…here’s comes Performance…

Why else do you think Google is getting into our business…

Question #11

KRIS: Why should every affiliate who reads this interview vote for you as one of America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs?  Please once again provide the link so everyone can vote!

ANIK: Well for one because I want to win  

Ok, all jokes aside, I think that all of us stand to gain from this. The more positive publicity we can get here, the more we can get companies to pour larger budgets into affiliate marketing. Larger budgets means more money for all of us.

It’s time affiliate marketing started getting some POSITIVE press and this is a perfect vehicle to start that…

The link are:

Please vote for Anik by CLICKING HERE!

To read Anik’s profile on Business Week CLICK HERE!

Thanks Kris for this opportunity, it was a blast, the best of luck to Pepperjam, keep on rocking!

Anik

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Next on deck for Meet the Affiliates: 

Week #1 – Sam Harrelson
Week #2 – Scott Hazard
Week #3 – Rosalind Gardner
Week #4 – Colin McDougal
Week #5 – Zac Johnson
Week #6 – Harrison Gevirtz
Week #7 – “Uber Affiliate” Paul Bourque
Week #8 – John Chow
Week #9 – Scott Jangro
Week #10 – Darren Rowse
Week #11 – Carsten Combrowski
Week #12 – Thor Schrock
Week #13 – Garry Conn
Week #14  – Ron Passfield
Week #15 – David Adams
Week #16 – Marcus Tandler
Week #17 – Bob Jones