Interview: Ian Fernando

The Friday Affiliate Interview for this week is with Ian Fernando. Ian Fernando is an influential blogger and affiliate marketer. His views and insights have been seen all over the Internet as he provides useful tools and tips on online marketing, affiliate marketing, blogging, and related topics. His blog, IanFernando.com, is geared to providing substantive advice to the up and coming online entrepreneur.

Tell us a little background info about yourself. Where are you from? How long have you been working in this industry?
I am from New Jersey. I have been in Jersey my whole life and definitely love it here, except the cold, other than that I enjoy it here. I have been in the affiliate industry for about 3 years. Which I think is fairly young.

What accomplishments so far are you the most proud of?
Having the ability to speak to other marketers at Affiliate Summit. I think that is one of the biggests milestone in my life. I wouldn’t even see myself as a speaker, but it def was a great experience and want to thank Shawn Collins for giving me the opportunity to speak.

When did you first realize the full potential in affiliate marketing? When did you first “hit the big time?”
First I started with ebay, making and selling old stuff I could find around my house or going to flea markets and buy things in bulk for cheap to sell. The problem I had most and did not like was dealing with customer support and talking deals. I was young and all I needed and wanted was to earn a profit.
Then I found affiliate marketing…
I first started making niche related websites with eBay, Linkshare, and Share a Sale. I was building multiple sites and just pushing traffic to them however I can. When I first received my first 100$ check I was super excited about affiliate marketing. The fact that I didn’t have to deal with customer support was the best.
One of the biggest accomplishments was working with Azoogle, which they helped me get to where I am today. I worked on one offer which they recommended, I pushed my first Google adwords campaign and then it just was a big roller coaster from there.
I then met up with them in NY, it was when I first met you Jon. My AM Erin, definitely gave me some great advice and tools to my advantage to further grow my business.

What have been your biggest failures and frustrations?
Starting something and not able to finish it. It definitely frustrates me. I can start a project put my time and effort in it and later find it in the ‘do later’ pile. I started a pretty unique way to display affiliate offers in an adsense style box for webmasters.
But the issues rise with affiliate networks not wanting to release their public api in full to me and my programmer. It is a roadblock that I got into and have no clue how to get around it. So that was put on the side. I do want to get back into it, but it is sitting in the ‘do later’ pile.

What is the single toughest problem you’ve had to face, and how did you get through it?
Sitting in my house in front of my computer and then my mind wanders. This is by far the toughest thing I have to cater to. I still have this problem, because I live by myself and I spend 97% of the time in my office.
So what I try to do is go to the other room and try to do something else, like clean my house, do the laundry, something to get me off my computer. Then after I feel relaxed I go back and I seem to get focused.
But a shot of Red Bull or a cup of coffee usually get me back in focus too.

Is there anything that you don’t like to do, that you just hate working on?
I hate doing repetitive research. For example if an advertiser decides to change their landing page design. Conversions decrease and then I have to figure out why. This happened to me when I was doing dating on mobile traffic. I cried…
Even though research is important, it does annoy me most of the time especially if I have something that is already working.

What’s the best advice you could give to someone starting out in Internet marketing? Any pro tips you feel like disclosing?
Read and Fail. The best part is to take advice, try it, and fail at it. I don’t look at mistake or money lost as ‘damn this sucks’ more like ‘cool I got more data.’
It kinda flips the mindset a little bit. So when I get data I try to analyze it and think forward. The problem with a lot of marketers is they get excited and try to repeat exactly what they did and then they lose money. Sometimes it doesn’t always work like that.
The best thing to do is get into it. There is a lot of info products out there that will show you how to do it, but they can’t hold your hand – even if they say they do.
Just see the failures as more data to analyze.

What is the future of marketing?
In our industry, affiliate marketing, I think more and more affiliates will be more cautious. With everything happening with Google and the FTC, more affiliates will either die out or look for different traffic sources and conquer it.
I also see that Tier 1 search traffic will not be used as much, with so much more traffic networks coming up it is easy to leave Google’s fancy algorithm and utilize other traffic sources.

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 all depends on my traffic sources, I use to be a ringtone guy back in the day. I use to cater a lot during the holidays and different seasons as well. It all really depends. Some I am more focused on, others while I am just throwing traffic because I need to.
What I do is I ask or mass blast the networks I want to work with on what the best offer is best to promote on Facebook, Google, etc.
I usually analyze the data from all the networks and then choose a niche or offer. I then start my research and go from there. I don’t have a set vertical really. But when I am focus on a vertical that is what I only want to focus on.

How has your education prepared you for your career?
Absolutely none, I am a college drop out. I took up Management Information Systems back in college. I went to school for about 2.5 years and decided to stop. The reason is because I was not able to pass 2 classes to advance myself to take the necessary classes to continue. So I decided to stop.
Funny thing is I still use my college business books to help me with some marketing or business decisions.

What are your greatest strengths?
Ideas and executing them. I have crazy ideas and I try to get it done as fast as possible. I will spend my time and money to get it done and get it where it needs to be. If I have an idea for a landing page, I jump on it and push it out to test.
I try not to wait on my idea, especially if it is an offer I am currently working on.

What are your greatest weaknesses?
Too many ideas. With ideas being one of my strengths I tend to have too many. Again most will go to my ‘do later’ pile. I want to do these projects but time never seems to be there for me to do it. So while it is one of my biggest strengths it is also my weakness.

What is the best advice you’ve been given and try to apply to your life?
Stick to one thing and reach the end goal. This is true. You need to just focus on one thing and make it work and if it works, start duplicating it.
For me I try to implement this but I get to 75% and then I get to another idea or another campaign. After 75% of that being completed I get to another offer. I just have ADD I think. In 2010 I think I am going to focus on just one or 2 things and reach the end goal in its full.

Do you have any role models or people that you look up to?
Wes from Tracking202 just because his attitude is so focused. He wants to reach his goals and he definitely is reaching them. I wish I could be as focused as he is. He definitely has some great insights and ideas. He is also a powerful influencer, I mean just the attitude he brings can def change a person on how they do their business.

Who has impacted you most in your career, and how?
I have a mastermind group and these guys keep me on track. We are not just a monthly mastermind meetup, they are great friends and I definitely consider my family.
If I am down I can tell them my issues and they can suggests something and get my back. Even though it’s just 3 of us, they keep me focused on what to do. If I haven’t met these guys, I don’t know what I would be up to. Definitely great to have these guys in my circle.

Do you try to keep current with the latest Internet marketing news at all? What or who are your main sources?
Of course, AFFBuzz is the site that I read all the time. I also have some RSS feeds within my Google Reader, but Affbuzz is my main source. I def want to keep up with our industry because it changes so much. Traffic sources to new popular offers. These things change on a daily basis.

What kinds of people do you have difficulties working with? Any good stories?
Unreliable people. I don’t like talking to someone then we work together. The progress works well in the beginning and then slacking starts to kick in. It kinda sucks that there is a good synergy in the beginning and then it dies out.
The reason I think is because they see a couple dollars and then they get excited and tend to mess things up from their excitement. Even though I tell them they need to control that energy.
It is hard to find users who are as focused as I am.

What are some of your long-term goals? How much is enough? If money was no object, what would you be doing?
One of my long term goals is to have something more reoccurring. I do promote a lot of affiliate programs with reoccurring income because I can guarantee a set amount. The problem is that most are net45.
So with that in mind, I want to get several membership sites up with just a couple members each. This way it becomes fixed and it is all maintenance from there.
If money wasn’t an issue, I would just travel the world in its entirety. Be a nomad just go from country to country exploring.

What are your typical hours like? When do you just chill back? Do you have a usual day off?
I wake up, make my coffee, have breakfast, check my emails, download my stats and then I work. I usually start to chill after I have lunch. Lunch can be at 12pm or 1pm or even at 8pm, depends on what I am doing or how focused I am.
My day off is usually Sunday. I just relax, check my stats, and that is about it.

How do you like to spend your free time? What doe work-life balance mean to you?
When I am in Jersey I just stay home and relax and have friends over. Or if I am with a group of friends, clubbing, bars, or group activities. Recently I went white water rafting for the first time. Definitely a great experience.
Work and Life, hmmmm…
Well I do not look at what I do as a job. I like what I do. I like the challenges it brings to me. But I def need to enjoy life more because I do sit in front of my PC most of my day. I know that isn’t healthy but it really doesn’t bother me too much.
I always try to hang out with friends that are focused or that do not hate me for growing up form where I came from. Once I started getting to where I am, I lost a lot of friends but gained a lot of respect that decided to give me the respect.

If you could go back to being 18, what different career choices would you make?
I would definitely got into affiliate marketing sooner. Just the fact it is fairly easy to start making your first dollar. If I wasn’t so young but more focused on money then I would have def taken a chance with affiliate marketing at an early age.
When I first got into the Internet space, I did a bunch of everything. So at 18 I would have just done affiliate marketing and gained more knowledge.
Because at the age of 18 I was in school and on the road to get a job. If I am as focused as I am now I might have been a 9-5 guy.

If your kindergarten teacher saw you now, what would surprise him/her about how you turned out?
A lot of my teachers growing up said that I would be famous one day. I do not know if they had to say that to make me feel better. But I think they would be proud.
But one teacher I had in middle school would be surprised at where I am because I made her cry back in the day in class, where they had to get the hall guard to pull me out.
That is another story…

What would you like to change about yourself?
I don’t know. If I change myself I wouldn’t be where I am now. If I had to, I think the only thing I would change about myself is being more focused and following through. Again, I tend to digress form what I am doing.
I need to just focus on the end goal and get to it and see that I get to it properly. I also want to be able to read faster. That is another thing I want to change about myself. It does take me a while to read a book because, my eyes tend to fall asleep on me.

What is your greatest achievement outside of work? What are some of your unfulfilled dreams?
Traveling most definitely. My dad traveled the world and I see his pictures in Egypt, Spain, etc. Ever since I was young I always wanted to go to places he wasn’t able to go. I was able to travel to Japan, Panama, Morocco and numerous places within the US.
I enjoy traveling because it keeps me sane.
I know there is a bunch of things that I need to do before I die. I definitely want to skydive, its one of the things I’ve been wanting to do.