Interview: Jasper Pangilinan

This week’s Friday Affiliate Interview is with Jasper from NerdyAffiliate.com. He is a 29 year old full-time affiliate marketer from Los Angeles, CA. He has had many failures and some successes working in this industry.

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?
My name is Jasper Pangilinan, I’m 29 years old, and currently in Los Angeles, CA. I’ve been working in this marketing industry for about 2.5 years. I’d say I’m a friendly guy that likes challenges. Building a business from scratch and generating my own revenue is one of the hardest challenges I’ve faced so far.

What accomplishments so far are you the most proud of?
I’m proud of being able to tell my boss to “suck it” and become a full-time marketer. I’ve started failed businesses in the past and it feels great to actually have something that works. This is my 3rd business venture and I’m glad to be in this industry!

When did you first realize the full potential in affiliate marketing? When did you first “hit the big time?”
I saw the potential when I saw others finding success. I initially joined a forum called WealthyAffiliate and it was inspiring to see others finding success. I thought they might’ve been fake stories, but it seems too big of a conspiracy for that to happen. I hit it big (at least I thought it was big at the time) at a $1000+/day revenue with a clickbank product about a couple years ago. Only lasted for a few months though.

What have been your biggest failures and frustrations?
My biggest lessons are the fluctuations in campaign performance. I used to think that once you get a campaign profitable that it would be smooth sailing after that. Having to maintain different campaigns and making sure they perform was something that I learned. I remember getting lazy and not tracking and my earnings would eventually dwindle down.

What is the single toughest problem you’ve had to face, and how did you get through it?
I’d say learning to be more of a “marketer”. I come from a computer background and so I used a lot of logic in my copywriting. I never really understood the importance of “features vs benefits”. So I’d write more features of the product rather than how it benefitted the person. When I started understanding about the psychology of words and how it makes people react to them, I became more in-tune with how text and other creative elements affect emotional decisions.

Is there anything that you don’t like to do, that you just hate working on?
I hate working on the accounting, finance, taxes, and payroll side of business. All that stuff frustrates me. This an area that I’ve been working on trying to organize. I have a bookkeeper and accountant that have helped out a lot with sorting everything out.

What’s the best advice you could give to someone starting out in Internet marketing? Any pro tips you feel like disclosing?
First of all, “JUST DO IT!”, Secondly, I think the best advice I can give to someone is to find a buddy that is as passionate as you are. Two heads are better than one and when one succeeds, the other wants to as well. I’ve found that sharing with like-minded individuals helps enormously.

What is the future of marketing?
Hmmm… there’s always new types of media and technology coming out every year. Mobile and SMS marketing seems to be the new ones as well as new technology in the display advertising space. I would imagine that the FTC could be intervening a bit more too.

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?
Health, wealth, and relationships. =)

How has your education prepared you for your career?
I took Computer Science and Business in college, so I’m definitely using the computer science for some of the PHP and HTML code that I work on. I could’ve probably used more marketing classes though.

What are your greatest strengths?
I’m Nerdy, which means I can logically figure out stuff.

What are your greatest weaknesses?
I can be introverted at times. Although sometimes I can appear to be a bit “crazy”.

What is the best advice you’ve been given and try to apply to your life?
“Fail As Fast As You Can.” Basically means to get over that learning curve. Whenever you learn something new, there’s always going to be some sore of failure or obstacle in the process.

Do you have any role models or people that you look up to?
I look up to Jon Volk. The nice, rich guy next door with the hot wife. lol

Do you try to keep current with the latest Internet marketing news at all? What or who are your main sources?
I pretty much check out my Google Reader from most of the sources at affbuzz.com. Notably, jonvolk.com, bryn.me, cashtactics.net, adhustler.com, ianfernando.com, justindupre.com, nickycakes,com, ppc.bz, richardbonner.net.

What kinds of people do you have difficulties working with? Any good stories?
Aggressive Affiliate Managers. “No” means “No” dammit!

What are some of your long-term goals? How much is enough? If money was no object, what would you be doing?
I’d like to be able to have stable channels of revenue. I’d like to be able to have at least 3 mutually exclusive channels that consistently generate revenue for my business. As a long-term goal, I’d like to be able to do 7-figures a month consistently. If money wasn’t an object, I’d be doing one of my many hobbies or maybe try to get on more game shows. haha

What are your typical hours like? When do you just chill back? Do you have a usual day off?
It depends on what I’m working on. If I’m creating a new campaign, I’ll probably spend more hours. If I’m optimizing a campaign, then maybe less. Sometimes I’ll work 12 hours, sometimes I’ll work just 4. I guess on Saturday/Sunday, I’ve been taking breaks. I don’t expect phone calls during the weekends, so they’re kind of like day offs.

How do you like to spend your free time? What doe work-life balance mean to you?
Maybe surf the web, workout, play basketball, table tennis, snowboarding, logic games. I just got into RC planes so it’s kind of my new hobby. The purpose of my business was to allow me to own my free-time. I wanted to be able to snowboard when I felt like it without asking to take a day off from my boss.

If you could go back to being 18, what different career choices would you make?
Back when I was 14, I was programming simple games and creating web sites on geocities and tripod. I wish I pursued it back then. I might’ve been a gazillionaire today. haha

If your Kindergarten teacher saw you now, what would surprise him/her about how you turned out?
Hmmm.. I think they would say something about my beard. That seems to be the trend for people who haven’t seen me in a long time.

What would you like to change about yourself?
I wish I wasn’t so damn “AWESOME”. It gets in the way of work. lol

What is your greatest achievement outside of work? What are some of your unfulfilled dreams?
I used to be able to dunk a basketball like 6-7 years ago (I’m only 5’10″). I thought it was really cool. I also really wanted to try to play basketball overseas in Asia or something, but it never happened.