Tamar and I recently touched base in NYC during AdTech. She is one of the best resources on social media and blogger outreach, and in 2009 released The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web; a great book on positioning your business in the social media space. Tamar is also Mashable’s community and marketing manager.

An Interview With Tamar Weinberg

How did you get started in the industry?

Good question.  I’ve been involved in the “social media” space since computers were able to go online.  I was involved in the most niche communities on online services such as AOL and my local library-owned BBS.  On the BBS, I met an environmental activist who I became friendly with and even had him talk to my Earth Club in 10th grade (I loved the intersection between online and offline back then and I still do now).

I knew from the start that I always wanted to be involved in “computers,” and the only computer-related disciplines taught at my college were computer engineering, which I hated, and computer science, which I didn’t like so much but I tolerated. I ended up working at school on side jobs, doing network engineering and website administration.
When I graduated, I didn’t go into programming (I didn’t really learn how to code!), so I continued along the path of system administration.  I ended up finding my way to a search engine marketing shop as a sysadmin, and I realized I found what I had wanted to do all along. During downtime, I learned the nuances of SEO but really stuck to my core roots as a social media enthusiast, and it showed — after my sysadmin duties were complete, I often handled social media initiatives for clients.  Now I’m doing that full time.

What is your favorite social network?

It’s easy to say that I love Twitter for a few reasons:
- Community: there are some really awesome people that I’ve met on Twitter.  I follow a small subset of them directly, but I follow so many more via RSS. There’s always something happening, and you can find out newsworthy material immediately.  I also love learning what other people share as well.
- API: Twitter was smart when they opted to have an API available quickly. That has given people countless opportunities to build applications that really rock.  Twitter is the foundation, but these applications themselves are super powerful.  It’s probably the biggest thing that has ever happened in the way of API development ever.
- Ubiquity: you can get to Twitter from anywhere, as long as you’re connected.  I have 40404 on speed dial.

Is social media your main business, or just an extension of your main online efforts?

Based on my history, you can see that I have some different hats that I wear.  Fortunately, I can still solve web hosting issues every so often.  But yes, I do live in the social media space.  I do consulting for clients and also work for Mashable as its Community Director.  I also dabble in other projects as well.

When did you get started in social media?

Are we talking about the social media that started in the last 10 years or the social media that started in the age of forums and BBSes?  Let’s just say that I was an early adopter of both.  I had dialup and would connect to my local BBS that was offered by my county library in South Florida, and I’d meet people despite being probably 30-40 years younger than most.  I was active on forums when forums were brand new.
When we talk to the social media of today, I was on Facebook when it was open to only 2-3 schools.  I was on Twitter in December 2006.  I was a Digg top user 3 years ago.  I still live and breathe in this world of social media, but I can’t consider a “starting point” because I feel like I was always there.

Why do you think people consider you an expert in the field?

Hopefully it had something to do with my new book, The New Community Rules (http://www.newcommunityrules.com), which talks about social media marketing and how to leverage the current technologies of today to initiate successful marketing campaigns.
But I think that my passion speaks loud enough as well; I love what I do.  I think it is great that companies are interacting with people.  I like being part of the equation: to help them get visibility and exposure, and to help foster genuine relationships that will bring them great success.

Who do you consider a social media expert, and why?

There are a few people who I admire:
- Chris Brogan (chrisbrogan.com), because he really shows that he cares.  He exudes confidence in his talks and understands what it is to be human online.
- Brian Solis (briansolis.com) is one of the most brilliant writers in this area.  He gives true analytical thought to everything he comes across in the space.  His blog posts are insightful collegiate essays.
- Jeremiah Owyang (web-strategist.com) also gives high level insights to social media based on his observations as an analyst.  He has access to some incredible data and can predict the future better than most other social media experts that I’ve known.
- Jason Falls (socialmediaexplorer.com) is also brilliant.  He shares wonderful insights that make you sit down and reflect upon your engagement in the space.
- Samir Balwani (samirbalwani.com) is an up-and-comer who I have to mention here.  He works as a online marketing strategist at Morpheus Media right now, but like me, his work doesn’t end when he leaves the office. His blog posts are choc full of great observations, and he just came out with a social media marketing training program (trainingsocial.com).  He’s also only one year out of college, but I’ll be keeping my eye on him for a long time.

Do you think sponsored conversations have their place in the industry (Paid posts, SponsoredTweets)?

I think that yes, they do.  Adam Singer had a great blog post (http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009/11/30/sponsored-conversations/) that attacks those who spread marketing messaging, claiming that those are for the uninspired marketer but also attacking those partaking in it as shills.  He’s right about the lack of inspiration.  However, I don’t think it’s fair to say that these bloggers are shills.  Some are very careful about what they choose and will only blog about that which is relevant to their readership, because targeted messaging is incredibly important to them.  I’ve learned about new products I’d actually want to try through the sponsored posts venue, which is great for both the advertiser and for me as someone who might be a potential new subscriber/buyer.  If the advertiser cherry picks you because you’re a suitable candidate to spread that messaging, they should be able to without fear of attack.  It just so happens to be paid.  If I discovered these products after the fact, I might tweet about them organically.  I just found them sooner since they discovered me first.

Do you make money directly from your social media efforts?

If client work counts, then yes, I do.

What services do you use to manage the social media stream?

I use a number of tools, and it depends on the work I’m doing and for who.  I’ve used Radian6 and Socialradar but both are quite costly and are not for the sole consultant.  But I use a number of tools that are free too, including BackType, YackTrack (which is new and awesome and should definitely be considered), and Google Alerts.

How do you balance personal v. professional?

For me, my Twitter account is a mix of both, but I keep personal out of it as much as I can (though I just had a baby so I’ll occasionally share some baby-related tweets). I put a much heavier emphasis on community and social media in my Twitter stream.
I do use my accounts differently, though. I wrote a blog post about this in 2007 (http://www.techipedia.com/2007/networking-on-different-social-sites/) which predates Twitter since it just wasn’t so big then.   I mostly still use Facebook as a personal account (I have nearly 700 pending friend requests, but I’d like to meet people before I actually accept!) and I use LinkedIn for professional purposes.  My other accounts online are usually a mix.

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, who would you like to see play the lead role as you?

Can I play myself?

OK, now who would really play you?

Would you?

Is where you are now where you thought you’d be…10 years ago? A month ago? Why/ Why not?

I just missed my 10-year high school reunion over Thanksgiving weekend.  Ten years ago, I had no idea what I was going to do.  I knew, though, back then, that I loved this kind of thing.  And I’m glad I’m doing it.

One month ago, I figured I’d be growing and learning more, but I knew that we wouldn’t be doing a huge amount of new work since 2009 is waning and people are slacking for the holidays.

Is it about quality or quantity? Do I want more followers or more RTs? Lots of connections on LinkedIn or a few excellent recommendations?

Definitely quality.  I’d prefer to have people who actually have an interest in what I do over people who are following me to stroke my ego.  I think it’s best to find people who will engage with you than people who don’t do anything at all.  And yes, less connections on LinkedIn with excellent recommendations looks much better than having 500+ connections and no recommendations.

If you reached a certain level of success, would you ever have someone manage your social media accounts for you? Why/why not (ie: Barack Obama)?

Even if I become the queen of the world, I’d want to be connected to the people who helped me get there.  So no,  I wouldn’t want to have someone manage my accounts.  I may not be tuned in then as much as I am now, but I wouldn’t disappear from my social streams.

Explain social media so a child would understand it. *Note- Please don’t just say ‘I make friends who make money online. Assume the follow up would be ‘how?’

Social media or social media marketing?  Hopefully the child knows it already; those kids today are smarter than we are.
I try to explain social media marketing like this: social media is about leveraging the “social” (the community) through its “media” (the actual communities and destinations on the ‘net that where you can find them) to “market” your products.

Do you think celebrities belong on Twitter?

I think everyone belongs on Twitter.  And I think that celebrity presence on Twitter merely means that there are famous people who want to be like US.

Provide the best social media tip you can think of in 40 characters or less.

40 now? I thought Twitter had a 140 character limitation.  Is this a new mobile standard that I’m not yet privy to?
I think I’d say the following:
be yourself, have fun, and be committed
Social media marketing should not be a chore.  If you’re not being real, you’re not having fun, and you’re not committed to the task, you won’t be successful.

Thanks for doing the interview with eMonetized, Tamar! Looking forward to reading your next social media resource! You can visit Tamar’s blog at www.Techipedia.com and also follow Tamar on Twitter.

I met Lewis at BlogWorld this year and was impressed with his social media and online marketing background. Lewis frequently holds webinars on the benefits of tools such as LinkedIn, and combines his passion for marketing with his extensive sports knowledge on sportsnetworker.com.

You can check out his blog at lewishowes.com, or find him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

An Interview With Lewis Howes

How did you get started in the industry?

I broke my wrist while playing Arena Football and had to be in a full arm cast for six months, then rehab for another six months.  During that time I got really bored watching T.V., and I turned to the Internet for a change of pace.  I got hooked into online marketing/blogging/social media and that was all she wrote.

What is your favorite social network?

LinkedIn

Why do you think it has more value than the others?

Many reasons.  It has the highest average house hold income per user over any other social networking site, 45 % of users are decision makers (more than any other of the top sites), and for other reasons I talk about on www.lewishowes.com.

Why do you think people consider you an expert in the field?

I guess because I actually practice what I preach.  I use LinkedIn daily to help me achieve my professional goals, and it works.  I have trained thousands of people and had many success stories with my clients.  I also wrote two books on the power of using LinkedIn.  I spent about 6 hours a day on LinkedIn during that 6 month period when I was in my cast.  When you spend that much time with one thing, you start to figure it out

Do you think sponsored conversations have their place in the industry (Paid posts, SponsoredTweets)?

Yes I think think they are necessary in their own right, but it all depends on what your personal/company goals are.

How do you balance professional v. personal?

In a strategic way.  Probably doesn’t make any sense huh, but I think being more personal with people breaks down walls and helps you do more professional business with others.  Wouldn’t you agree?

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?

Vince Vaughn, because he is money baby!

OK, now who would really play you?

Vince Vaughn… really!

Is where you are now where you thought you’d be…10 years ago? A month ago? Why/ Why not?

10 years ago I thought I would be playing in the NFL or training for the Olympics.  A month ago, yes, I thought I would be exactly where I am now, living the dream.

Is it about quality or quantity? Do I want more followers or more RTs? Lots of connections on LinkedIn or a few excellent recommendations?

I go for both.  I try to build large communities on the various social networking sites, but I also spend a lot of time connecting with individuals one by one to ensure the quality in my networks.

If you reached a certain level of success, would you ever have someone manage your social media accounts for you? Why/why not (ie: Barack Obama)?

I have Virtual Assistants manage certain things already, but not things that deal with connecting with people, more “push button” tasks that don’t need me doing them.

Provide the best social media tip you can think of in 40 characters or less.

Add value and care for everyone.

Is social media your main business, or just an extension of your main online efforts?

It’s a path that gets me where I need to be in my business.

When did you get started in social media? Who do you consider a social media expert, and why?

Got started on Facebook when it was just for college students, but really got into social media at the end of 2007 when I had surgery on my wrist.  Chris Brogan is the man on social media and someone I look to for guidance because he always makes great points.

Do you make money directly from your social media efforts?

Yes

Do you think celebrities belong on Twitter?

Yes, they are people just like “the rest of us”.

Explain social media so a child would understand it. *Note- Please don’t just say ‘I make friends who make money online. Assume the follow up would be ‘how?’

I create content, connect people, refer good content, and try to add as much value to my personal friends and network of friends as much as possible.  By doing so, my friends also help me achieve my goals.

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Lewis, thanks for doing the interview with eMonetized! Keep up the great work on the webinars! You can visit Lewis’s blog at LewisHowes.com and also follow Lewis on Twitter.

At the beginning of last year one of my goals was to hit 1 million in affiliate revenue. I set the bar high and thought it was probably long shot but ended the year at somewhere around 1.3 million in revenue.

To be honest this year is starting off pretty darn slow but I still have some high goals although they really are not monetary goals. These are not really in order of priority.

1. Become An Advertiser

I’ve thought about progressing from a publisher to an advertiser a lot in 2009. This year I hope to finally make that switch. I’ll probably always do the publisher thing but it’s time to see what I can also do in the advertiser space. I’ve been in contact with another high-profile affiliate who I trust and we have been talking about some possible joint ventures on some new advertising projects.

2. Work More On My Content Sites

I hired a virtual assistant last year from a company called Virtual Hires whom I highly recommend. Hi Rosemary! I was able to get a lot of nice content for my review sites but got side-tracked and let them get stale. A few examples are my VoIP Services website, Dieting Reviews website and Dating Reviews websites. These are the types of sites that have huge potential and can make you a lot of money without paying for traffic. They are long term projects but I really need to start updating them again and get the ball rolling.

3. Have Better Time Management

I get side-tracked way to often. Twitter, Facebook, Forums are all great but they can really suck up your time. Same with eMail.

4. Keep In Better Touch With My Buddies

I’ve made a lot of great new contacts and friends by going to many affiliate conferences last year. But being in different states or even countries, it’s easy to lose touch.

5. Build More Lists

I’ve sent a ton of sales this year but the vast majority of them were “once and done” sales.

6. Get More Serious About This Blog

I have to admit that it’s hard for me to stay motivated with blogging. Making profits from a blog like this is more of a long term project. Short term profits are a lot easier but I know that eMonetized.com has a lot of long term potential. I hope to finally get eMonetized.com redesigned in the next few weeks also brainstorm new ideas for the blog to make it different and more useful for the reader.

So those are a few of the goals I have for 2010. What’s yours?

Normally you might consider email like this junkmail. But as an affiliate some of these emails can be really helpful!

Thinking like an affiliate the first thing I thought was “If they are the top 3 games then they probably get the most traffic right!”

While you could try and profit off these games by trying to selling them directly through affiliate links, I think about it a different way.

I consider top games lists and all “top …” 10 lists as great sources/keywords for traffic!

For example with the Google content network, you could setup an separate Adgroups targeting those top games and then use nice image ads for gaming email submit offers. You could also go the “poll” route and setup and landing page listing the top 3 games and let them vote on their favorite. After they submit the answer, they might “win a prize” (to an email submit) or something like that. The poll method has been around awhile.

Just an example but just think outside the box a little.

I’ve been pretty busy the past week due to the holidays and trying to get some landing pages ready for the new year.

January is the start of the “new years resolutions” and you should know what does well during that time! Weight Loss/Fitness, stop smoking etc…

In early 2010 I hope to finally get an eMonetized.com site redesign complete. I also have several more good interviews to post.

Take care and again, have a safe happy holiday!

You can check out Logan’s blog at LRThompson.com and follow also follow Logan Thompson on Twitter.

An Interview With Logan Thompson

How did you get started in the industry?

Back in 1996 I taught myself how to design websites. The first site I ever created was about all of the inconsistencies in the show Saved By The Bell, and was more of a personal type of site that had very little traffic. I never really looked to monetize it or any of the other sites I was messing with at the time; until I heard about Linkshare. It wasn’t until 2001 when I made my fist commission check for 72 cents. Since then I’ve been hooked on affiliate marketing (although that was probably my last check using Linkshare). After spending time at a few jobs as a web designer with companies like GiftTree.com and Dotster.com, I realized affiliate marketing was much more satisfying than working for someone else.

What was your biggest learning experience to date?

Earlier this year I launched a Facebook campaign that went against what most people said would be successful on Facebook. Basically it was a cost per sale campaign on a product that was around $100. While most people would say that probably wouldn’t work, that 1 campaign earned me more in 3 months than I made in an entire year at my previous job. I learned that you have to try things out for yourself instead of just copying what other people are doing. What works for one person might not work for me. What works for me, might not work for you, etc.

What was your biggest success to date?

To me, my biggest success is just the fact that I am able to work for myself, choose my own hours, and support my family. I love that I don’t have to work for someone else and that is success to me.

How did you learn the business? (eBooks? Webinars? Membership sites? Freebies? Paid services?)

Most of what I have learned is through my own trial and error. Although I spend some time reading blogs and a few forums, I generally like to learn by testing things on my own. Aside from that, I learn a lot just through networking with other affiliate marketers and by trying to learn something from everyone I come in contact with.

What do you think is the true value to consumers in affiliate marketing?

If done correctly, affiliate marketing adds value to consumers by helping them find the information they are looking for in the buying process faster.

Do you think sponsored conversations have their place in the industry?

I’m torn on this. As a marketer I like it. As a consumer it annoys the crap out of me.

Besides yourself, who do you think is the most valuable resource to the affiliate community?

There are a ton of great people in the industry it would be hard to select who is the most valuable. I like to check out AffBuzz.com on a regular basis to keep track of whats going on in the industry.

How do you balance professional v. personal?

I make sure that I set working hours so that when I “come home,” I am out of work mode. I still spend time working late at night, but I make sure to spend plenty of time with my wife in the evenings, and spend time volunteering with middle school kids every week to get me out of the house.

How often did you check your stats….1 month in? 1 year in? Today?

I check my stats way to much. In the beginning it was like every 5-10 minutes. Now I probably check them every hour during the day and set my alarm every 2 hours to wake up in the middle of the night to check them (just kidding about that last part).

If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?

Maybe Justin Timberlake. I can’t sing, but maybe he would make my life seem more interesting.

OK, now who would REALLY play you?

Doh, probably Clay Aiken

What are some of the key differences between a ’super affiliate’ and the veteran, less successful affiliates?

I’m not a huge fan of the term super affiliate. As far as the difference between a successful and unsuccessful affiliate is that successful affiliates work their butts off until they are successful and learn how to test things for themselves. They also don’t rely on others to be successful.

Is where you are now where you thought you’d be…10 years ago? 5 years ago? A month ago? Why/ why not?

Pretty much. Ever since I was in high school I always knew I wanted to work for myself. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do, but I knew that being an employee of someone else wasn’t my style. I’m in love with what I’m doing now and wouldn’t trade it for pretty much anything else (other than a contract with an NBA team).

Explain affiliate marketing so a child would understand it.

*Note- Please don’t just say I make money online. Assume the follow up to that would be ‘How?’

Affiliate marketing is basically when a business compensates an affiliate (me) for each customer or lead that is brought about by the affiliate marketers efforts. You probably have heard of Amazon.com, but you might not be aware that they were one of the first companies to offer an affiliate program. Since Amazon has so many products, what I would do is create a website based around a certain product or similar products. Lets say I create a site about computer speakers that has all kinds of information on the newest products available. I’d than create links to Amazon.com through special links they give me so when people click on them, they will track that the customer came from my speaker site. Now if that customer makes a purchase from Amazon, I get paid a commission.

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Logan, thanks for doing the interview with eMonetized! Keep up the great work on the blog! You can visit Logan’s blog at LRThompson.com and follow also follow Logan Thompson on Twitter.

1. There ARE no experts.

While there are, of course, some people more qualified to speak on the subject then others, not one of them is an expert. Why? Platforms change daily. Twitter works fantastic for some brands, LinkedIn is best for others. Every expert pitches what’s worked for them; if you’re not following the same business plan with the same goals, it’s probably not going to work for you.

2. Tools to get you thousands of followers don’t pay the bills.

Think really hard about this one. If you sign up for a follower application that automatically gets you 5,000 followers, all you’re getting, is 5,000 people who most likely, are uninterested in what you’re pitching. They’re jumping on the bandwagon because it looks good. Would you rather sell to 500 qualified followers who are genuinely interested in what you have to say, or 5,000 followers who have 4,999 other tweets to read and will likely miss what you have to say.

3. If you want to be SOCIAL, you have to talk…and LISTEN.

There is still a stereotype around social networks that they’re just noise, but look at where you get the vast majority of news and information these days. Are you: Watching tv? Listening to FM radio? Reading CNN stories online?

Face it, if the media thinks there’s a future online, there IS a future ONLINE. You can make fun of what your friends who use Facebook or Twitter to post what they ate for breakfast all day, but to build a business, you have to network. Whether you do that online or off is your call, though both is best. Are you really going to tell me there’s no value to social media platforms when one of the newest has 350 million+ users, or are you just afraid if you take the plunge, no one will want to engage with you?

4. You don’t have to do it all. Just do it.

You shouldn’t sign up for every social network. If you did, there is 100% chance they won’t all work for you (there are social networks dedicated to singles, married individuals, married couples, gay, straight, bi, undecided- are you all of those at once?).

Decide what your goal is. Do you simply want to increase your brand exposure? Do you want to make money directly from your efforts? Do you want to connect with an international audience? Each platform has its own specific purpose(s)- pick the ones that will get you to your goal effectively. Most importantly, just pick one!

5. If you give away freebies, you’ll get more subscribers.

Almost every blog or brand has tried it at some point- hosting a contest with prizes ranging from a toilet wand to a Macbook Pro. Don’t do it unless you’re going to do it right. Pick a sponsor that’s going to fit your audience and their needs, and promote effectively from there.

Also, don’t make the entry barrier too difficult- people are lazy! If you’re asking for an entire blog dedicated to the wonders of clown makeup, you’ll be lucky if you get one reader. Make it as easy as possible for your readers to enter, and plan your ‘sticky’ factor in advance. While most subscribers you get will stick around after the contest is over (lazy, remember?), they’ll eventually drop off if the only thing you post all year is that one contest.

6. Begging.

This is one of my biggest frustrations when it comes to utilizing social networks, and we’ve all witnessed it at some point. You get a DM on twitter, on InMail on LinkedIn, or a comment on your blog: ‘Please RT, share, post, Digg, Stumble, love’

I’m happy to do favors for friends, but if I’ve never encountered you before in real life or the online world, your first interaction shouldn’t be to ask for favors. Unless you’re curing cancer or saving cute animals, don’t bother. Part of the genius of social platforms, which YouTube does a great job of promoting and more people should take advantage of, is the viral factor. If your content is quality and relevant, people will naturally want to share it. If you’re begging for eyeballs, you don’t deserve them.

7. Me, me, me syndrome.

If all your messages consist of ‘I did this, I want that, I love this post, this idea worked great for me…’ you might as well cancel your accounts now. We’ve all had this friend before- they call to ‘check up on you’ and you don’t even finish saying the word hello before they launch into three hours of their soap opera drama. That exists online too, believe it or not.

Remember the SOCIAL in social media. Heck, remember the SOCIAL in conversations and real life engagement, too.

8. You have to give some to get some.

This can also be relevant to the tip above, but let’s face it- if you want to make real money, you have to spend real money. Monopoly dollars don’t work for Facebook ads, and while the IZEA team loves chocolate, gold coin candies aren’t official Sponsored Tweets currency.

If you want to be the next big thing, you have to take some risks. Test some ads for your eBook, bid on some keywords in a new PPC campaign, or promote yourself through a sponsored platform. They won’t all be winners, but no one I’ve met personally has been able to turn water into wine. Think the same way about your product or service.

I’ve used Adbuyer off and on this past year and have seen some nice success with some campaigns. It all comes down to testing and tweaking.

My best campaign with Adbuyer this year earned $62,910 off a $51,094 spend. It’s not a huge profit or return on investment but it averaged about an extra $1,000 profit each month and it all adds up. I also use the American Express Plum card which pays me 2% cash back on spend. With more tweaking I could increase those margins.

I met the owners Jessica and her husband in person at Adtech 2009 and they are a great team. If you have any questions about Adbuyer just ask them here or email accounts@adbuyer.com

What Is AdBuyer.com?

AdBuyer.com is a platform that allows marketers to create and optimize campaigns in the major ad exchanges. We connect to the largest ad exchanges to provide access to inventory from Right Media, DoubleClick, AppNexus and OpenX.

Why Should You Work With Adbuyer.com?

We make ad exchange buying easier and more effective. We offer a single platform for campaign creation, results tracking, and reporting, as well as sophisticated analytical tools that help improve your campaign results over time.

What Forms Of Advertising Does Adbuyer.com Accept (CPM + banner sizes), CPC etc)?

We offer CPM advertising across all placements in the 5 major sizes (300×250, 728×90, 160×600, 120×600 and 468×60). We also offer CPC across most placements and CPA to a few clients who are able to demonstrate an effective conversion path after a test of a few thousand dollars.

What Makes Adbuyer Unique?

The ad exchanges are a better way to buy display advertising, used successfully by many of the largest advertisers. We’re trying to make it easier for every marketer to take advantage of the benefits offered by an auction-based environment with a huge amount of liquidity. To do that, we offer two tools that are unique and compelling: Audience Scores and impression-level bidding.

Audience Scores help to find your target audience faster by restricting your campaign to only targeting settings that have worked for marketers like you in the past. For example, targeting a minimum Audience Score of 70 for Education advertisers means that you’re targeting only the top 30% of impressions that we know about. This can include site-targeting, contextual-targeting, and behavioral targeting.

Our impression level bidding makes sure we put the right price on every impression. We measure your campaign to see how well it clicks and converts across a wide variety of placements and targeting options, building a predictive history as we gather data. This lets us vary the price that we pay for each impression, ensuring that we’re always paying the minimum possible for your campaigns. The more we gather data, the richer these models become, encompassing geo-targeting, site-targeting, demographic and behavioral data, time of day, day of week, etc.

What Verticals Would You Suggest Affiliates Getting Started with?

The biggest verticals for us tend to be education, insurance, health & beauty, financial services, and a bit of mobile. But the mix is changing constantly as we have access to so much inventory.

Methods of contact?

You can reach us at accounts@adbuyer.com. We will find the appropriate person to help you get started.

Anything Else You Want To Share?

We’re a startup, and always looking to improve the service, so we’d love feedback from past, present, and future advertisers. We’ve recently launched better creative tools, will be launching better reporting and click-fraud protection shortly, and have more in the works thanks to suggestions from advertisers. Keep them coming!

Click Here To Visit Adbuyer.com Now

Have you used Adbuyer?

If you are not reading his blog yet then you should be. There is a wealth of good information and quality posts so be sure to browse the archives.

You can also follow CDFnetworks of Twitter here.

An Interview With Chad Frederiksen of CDFnetworks.com

1. How did you get started in the industry?

I got started building adsense sites in my spare time while working at my day job back in 2004.  I quickly switched to affiliate marketing with pay per click and things really took off from there.

2. What was your biggest learning experience to date?

Basically, every time I try a go in a new direction with the business it’s a learning experience.  I’ve lost tons of money trying different things but those lessons have contributed to my successes in other areas.

3. What was your biggest success to date?

I had a lot of success very early on.  But I’d say my biggest success has been keeping that momentum going year after year.  As different things stopped working, I have been able to rotate in new profitable areas while continuing to expand.

4. How did you learn the business? (eBooks? Webinars? Membership sites? Freebies? Paid services?)

I’m self-taught.  I’ve never read an eBook or used any paid learning sites.  Everything has been 100% trial and error or just searching for information on the Internet.

5. What do you think is the true value to consumers in affiliate marketing?

I guess the value to consumers is increased visibility of an offer that they might have been interested in.  Also some affiliates add value before the sale by providing more information about the product or service.

6. Do you think sponsored conversations have their place in the industry?

If done in a non-intrusive way, yes.  I don’t have a problem seeing an occasional sponsored tweet from a personal account.  When, it becomes the primary focus, it’s not good.

7. Besides yourself, who do you think is the most valuable resource to the affiliate community?

Honestly, I don’t think any one person is.  I would say Google is the most valuable resource for finding anything you need to know.

8. How do you balance professional v. personal?

Personal time is very important to me.  I like to get outside and exercise every day and spend time with family and friends.  Luckily the nature of my business is that I can work at various times throughout the day and still do what I want, when I want.

9. How often did you check your stats….1 month in? 1 year in? Today?

Usually twice a day, morning and night.

10. If Hollywood made a movie about your life, whom would you like to see play the lead role as you?

I’m not sure, the only famous person I have been told I resemble is Wayne Gretzky but he’s not an actor!

11. What are some of the key differences between a ’super affiliate’ and the veteran, less successful affiliates?

I still have no idea what super affiliate means.  I’d say if you can support yourself with the lifestyle you want (whatever that may be) then you are a success.

12. Is where you are now where you thought you’d be…10 years ago? 5 years ago? A month ago? Why/ why not?

No!  10 years ago, I expected I would be doing research in biology, publishing papers, making big breakthroughs.  That was my goal for after college.

5 years ago I had the new goal to run my own Internet marketing business and that has gone as I hoped, and even better than I expected.

13. Explain affiliate marketing so a child would understand it. *Note- Please don’t just say I make money online. Assume the follow up to that would be ‘How?’

I usually just say it’s getting paid a commission to bring new online customers to a company.

——————–

Chad, Thanks for doing the interview with eMonetized.com You can follow Chad Frederiksen on his blog CDFNetworks and on Twitter.

Yes, the post title shouldn’t have included the word “HOW” and it was short on substance but Jonathan was simply trying to make a point that you don’t need to be a design expert or programming guru to make a ton of money online.

Really the actual sites visual design plays a very small part in how much you can earn. It’s more about what you say than any type of flashy design. But that’s not what this post is really about. It’s about some of the comments left on the post.

Here are a few snippets from some anonymous repliers:

The only way he could get anyone to read his blog or have any level of credibility is to constantly flash those gross numbers. If anyone knew what the real profits were I doubt he would have much of a reader base. As his main campaigns are now defunct he is leveraging his blog by doing paid reviews, guests posts, etc.

and

You are a joke. Everyone who matters knows this. When you post shit like this it just makes you look worse. For those who are interested, his profit margins were close to 5-10% and all his numbers are gross.

Notice how volk always speaks of his PAST numbers. This is because he currently makes close to zero and has been for many months now.

He is a person who got lucky with one method, did not once change or adapt his strategies, and as a result is now a complete loser and a total washout.

and

Anybody can show off a few numbers.

My question to these people would be if THEY have Made 1 Million+ Dollars Lately? EVER?

If so, then congrats! Six figures in a year? Still, Congrats! The measly 3 figures a month you probably make a month?

Here is what the haters say (and there is a LOT of them):

1. He is only posting Gross numbers!

Gross or Net, who cares! Even at 10% net that’s still a nice $150,000 profit which is far more than most affiliates make gross revenue in a year. His actual net was a lot higher than 10% so I suspect his profits were $300,000+

How much did you make lately? If a whole lot more than that then that’s great but don’t be jealous because he gets attention for it and you don’t. Otherwise start a blog.

2. Anybody can show off a few numbers.

That’s far from true. Let’s see your revenue numbers? A lot of big affiliates choose not to share their revenue numbers but a lot of affiliates have nothing real to show if they wanted.

3. He got lucky or He Made a bunch of money once but doesn’t make shit now.

I love luck. And regardless of if Jonathan is still making 7-figures or 6-figures he has still reached a ton of revenue goals many affiliates can only dream of. Affiliate Marketing is a roller coaster. I’ve gone from $350,000+ revenue in one month to like $30,000 the next and everywhere in between in other months. Today things suck for me. Tomorrow could be huge. You define what your own success is anyway.

4. All he does is post paid reviews or push affiliate links.

The answer to this is simple. Unsubscribe and don’t read the blog if you don’t like it. They won’t miss you and while you bash them, you are probably still a subscriber. There is a difference if you are blogging to just express your thoughts or blogging as a source of income for your business. Examples: John Chow and Zac Johnson. You might not like what they post half the time but what they are doing works and it makes them a nice amount of money. It’s business. If you don’t like it then just don’t read it.

Quit all the hating and jealousy. It doesn’t make you look cool. Get to work and make some money.