Welcome to Week #15 of the Pepperjam Network “Meet the Affiliates” Interview Series!

This week I interview David Adams, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of Escalate Media and accomplished affiliate marketer and blogger (CPA-Affiliates.com).

Read on to learn more about David Adams…

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 #15

David Adams
Chief Marketing Officer (CMO),
Escalate Media
http://www.escalatemedia.com/

Blogging at
http://www.cpa-affiliates.com

Question #1

KRIS: Where do you live?  Are you married?  Any children? Animals?

DAVID: Houston Texas, I am happily married to my wife Laura. We currently don’t have any children but have on due on Oct. 1.

Question #2

KRIS: When did you first get involved in affiliate marketing? Tell us the story of how you got started.

DAVID: It was around end 2004. First time I got exposed to affiliate marketing was due to me starting up a website called All Free Magazines (I sold it earlier this year) out of a hobby and was listing free magazines. I was hitting other websites up for link exchanges and got hooked up with guy that runs justfreestuff.com. He informed me I could get paid for some of the magazines I give away. From there I signed up for few affiliate networks and from there it took off. As I setup a page of just paid free magazine subscriptions and paid for traffic to it.

Question #3

KRIS: You are the owner and author of the popular affiliate marketing educational blog - CPA-Affiliates.com. What are some of the strategies you use to build blog readership?

DAVID: The biggest one is being willing to answer questions on popular web mastering/affiliate marketing forums like digital point, v7n, and Webmaster Talk. Also I network with other affiliate marketers and webmasters at conferences & even online via their blog or instant messenger. You also have to be willing to be outside of the box to get some of the bigger bloggers attention and be completely real on your blog.

Question #4

KRIS: One of the challenges that bloggers face is optimally monetizing Web traffic that comes to their blog.  This is an area where you are an expert.  Can you share some tips for how bloggers can monetize their blog? (i.e. CPM ads, CPA ads, etc.)

DAVID: The biggest thing I have done is sell direct ads, yes you can make money referring other affiliates to networks but direct ad sales is where the big bucks are. Fortunately I get a lot of the networks contacting me and I don’t have to do much digging now. But earlier on I just hit up the affiliate networks I used and asked them if they were interested. Also be willing to offer discounts for long term buys, i.e. 3, 6, 12 months.

Question #5

KRIS: You recently launched the Web site - http://www.escalatemedia.com, which combines many of the Web sites in your portfolio.  Can you tell us more about Escalate Media and any other projects that you are currently working on?

DAVID: Escalate Media was put together by me and my partner Lee Dodd in September of 2007. The combining of our businesses just made sense. Since we have joined forces our goal is to grow the company by acquiring online users and we have done this by acquiring other website and communities. We are mainly targeting Family and Technology sites. We have several new projects that are in the works but unfortunately none of them are close enough to launch to announce.

Question #6

KRIS: What do you do when you’re not making money online? Do you have any pets or hobbies?

DAVID: When I am not online making money, lately I have been spending time getting the baby’s room ready. But typically I will kick back spend some time with the wife, also I love playing video games when I have time as I have PS3, Wii, and Xbox360. Also my wife and I enjoy traveling but due to her being pregnant that has been put on hold for a little while.

Question #7

KRIS: Take us through a day-in-the-life of David Adams…

DAVID: I usually get up between 730 and 800 am, try to have a little quiet time and then get ready for the day (shower shave all that jazz). Come down stairs to my office, boot up the computer and start checking my stats from the previous day. Make any needed changes to any of the campaigns we have going. Check my email sometimes this takes an hour or so. Usually will have a few tasks for some of the employees to do that aren’t part of their usual routine. Spend a good bit of the day communicating with my partner about upcoming projects where things stand what’s doing well what isn’t. Take break for lunch. Usually the afternoon I start looking into new campaigns to launch, and if there are any campaigns that were launched the day before I will check them again make sure it moving along smoothly. I am constantly looking for new affiliate offers but new opportunities to promote our existing sites. Usually I will take break for dinner, and spend some time with the wife but usually at some point during the night end up back on the computer.

Question #8

KRIS: Can you share a few “how to” tips for becoming a successful affiliate marketer?

DAVID: First off don’t listen to other affiliate marketers when they say something is over saturated. If you have a unique idea about an offer or way to promote it give it a shot. Don’t give up so many people I know try affiliate marketing and after losing 100.00 give up. I would suggest you set aside a few K to get you going and just realize it is a learning experience. Lastly you don’t have to pay for good affiliate marketing information. Many people are selling Ebooks, forum access etc… to me you should just dig into some of forums, popular blogs, like this one, and mine of course. This will gain you much more knowledge and it is free. Plus you can ask questions and in the forums and on blogs most of the time they will answer back.

Question #9

KRIS: If you weren’t an affiliate marketer and Web site (forum) owner, what do you think you’d be doing with your life?

DAVID: I would probably be an Electrical Engineer as that is what I got my college degree in. I worked as an EE for 5 years I loved it, but I saw soooooo much more opportunity working online so I took the plunge and quit my day job, and my only regret was I wish I had done it sooner.

Question #10

KRIS: Who is the most important person in your life and why?

DAVID: It is my wife. She is such a blessing to me every day. She inspires me but most importantly she supports me in whatever I am trying to do whole heartedly. I think of the risks we have taken since we have been married (6 years) and every time she hasn’t doubt me but given me the support I need to have confidence to move forward. I love her and look forward to the many years ahead.

_____________________________________

Next on deck for Meet the Affiliates: Marcus Tandler, CEO, Mediadonis.net

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

I thought you may enjoy this picture of Roxy and Kris Jones, Jr.

Robyn and I were worried that Roxy would be jealous of all the attention we’d be giving to Kris Jr., but instead she is extremely protective (in a good way) and has absolutely fallen in love with our new baby.

BTW - we’ve updated Flickr with some new pics of Kris Jr. and family - http://www.flickr.com/photos/pepperjam/

The 2008 Inc. 500 list was officially released today and we are proud to announce that Pepperjam ranks as one of the top 100 fastest growing privately-held companies in the United States of America!

Pepperjam’s 2008 Inc. 500 ranking is #70 with three-year revenue growth of 2,447.5%.

An interesting note is that this is Pepperjam’s third consecutive year on Inc. Magazine’s list of fastest growing companies. Also noteworthy is that since these rankings only include revenue growth through 2007, the ranking does not include revenue from Pepperjam Network, which was launched in January 2008 and has been by far our most significant source of revenue growth to date.

If you take a closer look at the Inc. 500 rankings you’ll see that Pepperjam is….

- the #1 full-service internet marketing agency on the list
- the #1 fastest growing interactive marketing agency on the list
- the #1 fastest growing affiliate marketing network on the list
- the #1 fastest growing search-engine marketing firm on the list
- the #1 fastest growing “advertising / marketing” company within the State of Pennsylvania (#5 in the United States)
- one of the top 100 fastest growing companies in the United States
- the #2 fastest growing company within the State of Pennsylvania

Here is what Inc. Magazine had to say about Pepperjam’s ranking:

Commentary from Pepperjam’s CEO:

It’s a funny thing about life. Sometimes you end up with a great idea, hire a bunch of smart people and get out of their way, and persist while others say you shouldn’t or can’t.

Pepperjam has been an incredible journey and I sincerely believe we have only gotten started.

The launch of Pepperjam Network makes us a very diversified company (marketing services / technology) with a ton of experience and fire power to assist businesses take full advantage of each of the major channels of online marketing.

It is always nice to be recognized for standing out and contributing to the overall growth of an industry.

The truth is that Pepperjam would have never made the Inc. Magazine list of fastest growing companies today or three years ago (2006) when we were first honored without the tireless hardwork and dedication of the Pepperjam Team.

The Pepperjam Team, from Katharine Dempsey over in online media buying to Matt Bradley and Krista Golanoski over in Publisher Services to the other 100+ Pepperjam executives and team members, represents the best this industry has to offer.

I am extremely proud of my company as a whole and even more proud of the individual accomplishments of each of our valued employees.

Finally, all of our growth wouldn’t have been possible without the continued support from our more than 500 clients.

Whether it was eBay shocking the world just a few months back after launching an affiliate program on Pepperjam Network to long-time Pepperjam clients such as Guthy Renker Corporation (thanks Dave!) and 1-800-PetMeds (thanks Alex!) that have been with Pepperjam for almost 4 years, the committment and support we continue to receive from our client base is outstanding!

Thank you to everyone for your continued support.

We are proud to announce the launch of the AccuQuote Affiliate Program on Pepperjam Network - www.pepperjamnetwork.com

HIGHLIGHTS: One of the highest paying life insurance affiliate payouts in the industry. Recognizable and trusted brand - AccuQuote. 45-day long cookie duration.

About the AccuQuote Affiliate Program:

“AccuQuote is a leader in providing term life insurance policies to people across the United States. The company is headquartered outside Chicago in Wheeling, Illinois and has a satellite branch office in Golden, Colorado. Our experienced professionals consistently deliver the most affordable term life insurance rates by comparing thousands of life insurance policies from dozens of top-rated carriers.

AccuQuote makes it possible to quickly compare the cost, features, and financial strength of hundreds of life insurance products! As a result, our clients typically save up to 70%. US Resident Only”

Commission: $60.00
Cookie Duration: 45 days

We are proud to announce the launch of the Coral Palms Affiliate Program on Pepperjam Network - www.pepperjamnetwork.com

About the Coral Palms Affiliate Program:

“CoralPalms.com is the #1 online software company. Their main objective is to provide affordable software and scripts to web site owners on the Internet that include resale rights.

Just some of the many software tools Coral Palms provides for website owners include Ad Software, Affiliate Software, Development Software, HTML Software, Marketing Software, SEO Software, Image Editing Software and so many more!”

Commission: $9.00
Cookie Duration: 45 days