Interview: Jack S. from OffWhiteHat.com

This week’s Friday Affiliate Interview is with Jack S. (aka kingofsp), a full-time affiliate marketer from Los Angeles, CA. You can find more of his ramblings (which in some cases can actually be quite useful) on his blog at OffWhiteHat.com.

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 from a blue collar town in the county of Los Angeles called San Pedro. I’m in my late twenties, but I still get carded for everything so I like to think I’m aging quite nicely. I’ve been mixed up in this crazy business for about two years now.

When did you first realize the full potential in affiliate marketing? When did you first “hit the big time?”
I didn’t have a lot of capital starting out, so initially I got into the game as a content writer. As mundane as it was (especially since you’re usually writing about the same generic crap), it was an excellent way to get a candid look inside the world of successful affiliate marketers and check out their business. It wasn’t long before I saw what was working and decided I could do something similar for myself.

What have been your biggest failures and frustrations?
Well, I’ve had a few pretty successful PPC campaigns. Having said that, I’ve had way more failures. PPC is obviously a tough game and requires a lot of patience (read: money) to get it profitable. As far as frustrations…I think everyone can sympathize with the constant coming and going of CPA offers. Especially rebill offers. I have one anti-aging review site, and its a nightmare constantly swapping out affiliate links and hunting down offers for the specific review pages. Sometimes I just give up on it completely, but then I check traffic stats and see hits coming from keywords like “buy xxxxxx”, and am once again motivated to go set things straight.

What is the single toughest problem you’ve had to face, and how did you get through it?
When it comes to technical crap, I’m pretty much useless. It’s hard to pinpoint one problem because they are so frequent. Don’t get me wrong, I can edit the pants off a WordPress theme, but when it comes to anything more complicated than that, I move like a turtle and am constantly running into problems and stuck watching tutorials and all that. Luckily I have friends like Matt Gibson and Joshua Ziering who are constantly helping my incompetent ass out with php/css problems and stuff like that. I think I am living, breathing proof that you don’t need to be some sort of computer scientist to build an affiliate business.

Is there anything that you don’t like to do, that you just hate working on?
Cron Jobs. I’ve never in my life set one up without something going wrong. Did I mention that I suck at technical stuff?

What’s the best advice you could give to someone starting out in Internet marketing? Any pro tips you feel like disclosing?
I’m a big fan of disclosure. Of course, there are tips and tactics that simply shouldn’t be published online because it would undermine their effectiveness. Still, I like to give away little things that I pick up from time to time on my blog: Off-White Hat. It’s not quite in Alexa’s top 10 just yet, so I think it’s alright for me to drop some helpful info every now and then. I also review stuff I find useful from time to time.

As far as advice for newbies, that’s simple: Patience. Also, be realistic. The problem is, a lot of people that get into this business (or try to) are people that are looking for an easy way to make a quick buck. That mentality will get you nowhere in affiliate marketing. Especially if you don’t have a lot of $ to invest upfront and are planning to get into SEO. From someone who has based the majority of their business around organic search results, I can tell you that if you’re looking for immediate results, you’re in for a disappointment. If your goal is to make a living from the websites you own and operate and you’re just starting out, be prepared to dedicate a minimum of six months to it without any dependable source of income.

One more pro-tip: Sign up on Wickedfire, read the stickies, and don’t ask any dumbass questions.

What is the future of marketing?
No one really knows. All that matters is that we understand the nature and the volatility of marketing in general and are prepared to evolve with it, especially those of us playing in the Internet league.

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?
I’ve got my thumbs in all sorts of pies. I don’t really mind disclosing niche-specific stuff too much, but it sucks for other affiliates who are trying to advance in that same niche to read some dude on a blog telling everyone they should get into it. I don’t wanna be that guy. If anyone is really that out of ideas, feel free to contact me via the contact form on my blog and I’ll see if I can inspire you.

How has your education prepared you for your career?
My initial reaction was to say “none”. But now that I think about it, that isn’t entirely true. I never went to college (although I lied about it to get content writing gigs), and my high school experience was nothing terribly exciting…but I guess it exposed me to the way the public is sort of cultivated. I mean, you have all these kids who are told they have to do things a certain way, dress a certain way, work their asses off in school to go work for someone else, etc. The fact that people in general are so inclined to conform and assimilate might seem kind of lame in a social sense but if you think about it, it is what makes capitalism flourish. Putting your finger on the pulse of those trends and understanding what motivates people to act is the key to any successful marketing campaign, in my opinion.

What are your greatest strengths?
I’ve always been fascinated with the internet. I used to push kids out of the way to get to the good computers at the computer lab in middle school just so I could check my email groups (before forums were popular). I think that genuine interest in the way we’re all connected electronically keeps me rooted in my business. I might get distracted from time to time, but I always end up back here in front of this glowing rectangle…contantly building and testing.

What are your greatest weaknesses?
I drink too much. Also I have always had a bad habit of spreading myself too thin over several projects. I’ve gotten better with it, but it’s still something I struggle with. I learned over time that even though its fun to buy new domains and build new sites and campaigns, its more profitable and efficient to optimize the stuff you already have going on that is making you cash.

Do you have any role models or people that you look up to?
I have a lot of respect for the people in this business that have achieved extraordinary levels of success and still manage to be decent people. I’m not going to name names or anything, but we all know that modesty is a quality that many folks tend to abandon after making a few bucks.

Do you try to keep current with the latest Internet marketing news at all? What or who are your main sources?
I don’t subscribe to any RSS feeds. Like, seriously none. But I am pretty active on Twitter (follow me!), so whenever I see an interesting article linked or whatever, I definitely check it out.

What kinds of people do you have difficulties working with? Any good stories?
I think we’ve all had our share of problems doing business with folks over the internet. Because of my background as a content writer, I’ve had experiences on both sides of the fence, so I don’t really have any strong feelings about it either way. You hit a bump in the road, you keep going.

What are some of your long-term goals? How much is enough? If money was no object, what would you be doing?
Long-term goals are something I don’t give nearly enough thought. Then again, it’s all over in 2012, right? If money was of zero concern to me, I would probably float around in a toga giving everyone incredibly insightful advice. And people would be quoting me and stuff.

What are your typical hours like? When do you just chill back? Do you have a usual day off?
I spend a ton of time in front of the computer, but it’s hard to say how much of that time is actually spent doing work. Working for yourself obviously comes with a ton of advantages. The primary one being you don’t have to be someone else’s bitch. Also, you have time. That’s what makes me such a threat to all of you with girlfriends. I mean, you might have to go to work or school at a certain time…but I can be anywhere, any time.

I kid, I kid!

How do you like to spend your free time? What doe work-life balance mean to you?
I enjoy hanging out with my friends. That’s sort of a boring answer, but it’s true. One problem I encounter is that when your friends know you work for yourself, they are less understanding when you decline an invite because there is work you want to get done. Some people have that 9-5 mentality where the only legitimate excuse to not commit to something is that you have to do something else that someone else is making you do (like work). Just because I don’t have a boss doesn’t mean I don’t have to boss myself around every now and again.

If you could go back to being 18, what different career choices would you make?
I would register an assload of domains that were still available in 2000. Then I would build for like a year straight. Then I would go toga shopping.

What would you like to change about yourself?
I should probably stop smoking. Maybe exercise every now and then. The drinking, however, is non-negotiable.

What is your greatest achievement outside of work? What are some of your unfulfilled dreams?
I do volunteer work with a couple different local community organizations that work with youth. It’s actually a ton of fun and really rewarding, as cheesebally as that sounds. Don’t get me wrong, turning your computer into an ATM is an incredible achievement in itself and super fun, but knowing that kids look up to you and appreciate the difference you make in their life is on a whole different level.

As far as unfulfilled dreams, I would like to own (or at least live in) an underwater hotel.