Interview: Gary Hamer

The Friday Affiliate Interview for this week is with Gary Hamer. Gary Hamer is a Partner at Qwik Media Inc. He manages Qwik Media's internal advertising which includes PPC Search engine marketing, Email marketing & PPV marketing. He has been working in the online marketing industry for 5 years.

Tell us a little background info about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you? How long have you been working in this industry?
I am 26 years old, from Victoria, B.C., Canada, located on Vancouver Island. I have been in the affiliate marketing industry for the last 5 years. I got my first start working for an affiliate network running their internal SEM division.

What accomplishments so far are you the most proud of?
To name a couple I am most proud of starting our affiliate network, Qwik Media, and building it into a successful business. Although I had great success with the company I previously worked with, everyone who works for themselves knows its that much better when you are truly reaping what you sow.

When did you first realize the full potential in affiliate marketing? When did you first “hit the big time?”
I knew the potential of affiliate marketing as soon as I started in the industry. Hitting the big time for the first time was bittersweet because at the time I was working for a company so I was proud to have reached some very high goals but at the same time I wasn't content making someone else rich. Hitting it big on my own was January of 2008, that is the first month we broke 6 figures.

What have been your biggest failures and frustrations?
To be honest I fail more than I would like, rarely huge failures but in this industry if you aren't failing you aren't trying enough new things. I have always learned more from failure than from success. Starting out alone was the most frustrating part because doing everything yourself and assuming all control and accountability is stressful. Although if you don't take risks you will never truly have success without some failures.

What is the single toughest problem you've had to face, and how did you get through it?
The toughest problem would be going from 6 figure months to a lot of your traffic being slapped, big thanks to Google for this, /sarcasm! Really thought it was our fault at the time we had put a lot of eggs in that basket and while it was great for a long time it just wasn't permanent, although not much will be. Since then we have branched out to a lot more traffic sources. It's nice to work with companies who appreciate your business and will actually work with you.

Is there anything that you don’t like to do, that you just hate working on?
Expense reports and month end. I always wait til the last minute to gather all my receipts and file my expense reports, so I am always catching shit from our bookkeeper/accountant. Other than that I really enjoy all aspects of campaign setup and optimization. I have always loved looking through data and tweaking campaigns to get them profitable.

What’s the best advice you could give to someone starting out in Internet marketing? Any pro tips you feel like disclosing?
The best advice I can give is to just take action, come up with a budget that you can afford to spend on testing and be prepared to lose it. Also set aside a certain amount of time you are will to dedicate to it and work hard in that time. Set a goal for yourself and work hard to achieve it. The second most important thing is to ensure you are tracking everything you can, I don't think enough people split test landing pages & offers. I have seen night and day differences in landing page conversion data, it can be the difference between earning $$ and losing it. Dropping bid prices usually results in lower traffic, so don't just take the easy route and drop price, optimize your landing page and you won't sacrifice volume.

What is the future of marketing?
I think we will see a lot more self serve advertising platforms from larger sites like POF at least that is what I hope. There will also be a lot more CPV networks that come around and affiliates will hit it harder than they already have. Google always has and still is hating affiliates and I have read all kinds of ideas about what they plan on doing in the future, having seen the product listings that have popped up alludes to what is the come from them. Performance based marketing will continue to grow as more companies realize the benefit of paying only for results and that will mean more opportunities for affiliates and networks.

If it’s possible for you to share, are there any particular niches that you currently favor? Or that you aren’t necessarily in right now but that you would recommend?
It's about having a system that you can make work. We mostly focus on dating, downloads & we have also started promoting a lot of financial offers through email. All I can recommend is that you test enough before you move on. It all comes down to putting in enough time to find out if something will work for you or not, at the same time some niches are more expensive to test. There are a ton of opportunities on the web and it’s difficult to focus on just one at a time, so staying focused on a handful or niches, verticals and offers is important.

How has your education prepared you for your career?
One of my favorite quotes is “Education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” Before working in the affiliate industry I worked for my father's construction industry where I learned a lot about business, especially that in that industry it's more important who you know that what you know. Even though the 2 industries are worlds apart there are things I learned that I can draw from into online marketing. When I first started in affiliate marketing I was just thrown into it and had to learn a lot for myself. Luckily I worked hard at it and learned the things that make you successful quickly, and I have never thought it was very complicated. It's all about gathering data and optimizing from there.

What are your greatest strengths?
Being Canadian I am naturally modest, but I like to think of myself as pretty creative when it comes to trying out new ideas and implementing them in our projects. Thinking outside the box will ensure you get a lot of crazy idea's that will most likely fail but if you hit the nail on the head occasionally it can be really worthwhile. I do read a lot, so I’m full of information and I’m pretty good with numbers. Also, I’m a pretty quick learner and I pick up and understand things faster than most.

What are your greatest weaknesses?
I like turtles.

What is the best advice you’ve been given and try to apply to your life?
If you're going to do something you might as well do it as best you can! I don't believe you should half ass anything!

Do you have any role models or people that you look up to?
Definitely my father, working with him taught me a lot about how to run a successful business.

Who has impacted you most in your career, and how?
A previous manager, taught me how to do business and also how NOT to do business/treat people.

Do you try to keep current with the latest Internet marketing news at all? What or who are your main sources?
I check out Affbuzz.com and Wickedfire.com a couple times a week and read a few different blogs out there. I just try to take what I can out of the posts and see if it can spark any new idea's to help what we are working on. Too many people expect everything spoon fed to them and don't want to assume any risks, they should use what they can from info they read and actually apply it somewhere!

What kinds of people do you have difficulties working with? Any good stories?
The only type of person I wouldn't be able to work with is if someone takes themselves too seriously, life is too short to not be able to occasionally stop and laugh at yourself. No stories I want to share!

What are some of your long-term goals? How much is enough? If money was no object, what would you be doing?
Life is about balance, if you work too much then you don't get anytime to enjoy life. I make an effort to stop and smell the roses when I get the chance, and that will always be a goal for me. I think Bill Gates had it right, make as much money as you possibly can right now, then when you have enough for yourself give most of it away and make the biggest possible impact for change for a number of different charities and people in need. That’s would I’d probably do if I didn’t have to work.

What are your typical hours like? When do you just chill back? Do you have a usual day off?
I am at the office at 7 and usually out before 5, there is always time in between checking on campaigns and making sure everything is going smoothly. I usually work a few hours on Saturdays and take Sundays to hangout with the people I care about. Although as any affiliate marketer knows when you are starting something new you are constantly thinking about it in the back of your mind and need to keep your finger to the pulse.

How do you like to spend your free time? What does work-life balance mean to you?
I spend a lot of time with family and friends, and I love reading. What better way can you learn than from other people’s experiences? Work-Life balance is important, as I mentioned before you need to create a balance that works for you. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but all play and no work can create worse problems than being dull.

If you could go back to being 18, what different career choices would you make?
I do truly enjoy affiliate marketing even with the ups and downs that come with it. I try not to regret things that I do in life so if I had to choose one thing to do differently it would be to have learned about online marketing earlier.