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I was recently given the opportunity to have an interview with Ryan Eagle of EWA Private Network. Ryan is a great guy and a super hard worker. For this interview I kept things short and sweet and I hope you'll enjoy it.
One thing to note about Ryan is that he has a hard, "gangster" front but actually is a great guy.
Who are your favorite rappers? What are you listening to most these days?
Man o' man - the list goes on and on. Birdman, Do or Die, Max B, Dr. Dre, The Game, Gorilla Zoe, Gucci Mane, Jay-Z, Lil Keke, Lil Wayne, Mobb Deep, Outkast, Rick Ross, Shawty Lo, Snoop Dogg, UGK, Young Jeezy, and Z-Ro.
Jokes aside, tell us a little bit about yourself.
I'm the man, and I know that. Love me or hate me - I'm out here to make you more money as an affiliate. I'm 22 years old, a cocky asshole (that still pops his collar), loves blackjack, and will always keep to my roots: money, hoes, cars and clothes. I've been working full time online since 2004, and I'm the owner of EWA Private Network, the network that takes low margins like Wal-Mart. Bigshotism aside, I'm grateful for everything that I've achieved and I never take it for granted. I have a loving family, beautiful girlfriend, and I attribute my success to my sobriety and God.
Since being in the industry my business has adapted and changed several times. I started off doing full time SEO, diversified into CPA advertising in 2005 then switched completely to full time affiliate marketing in early 2007. Nowadays, most of my revenue still comes from our internal affiliate marketing option focusing on media buying, social traffic and contextual popups. In early 2009 we launched EWA Network to provide a network based on 4 simple things: EWA will pay more, EWA will get more, EWA will pay quicker and most of all - EWA will help more. All our staff are active affiliates that will help you build, scale and optimize campaigns.
What accomplishments so far are you the most proud of?
My sobriety - it's the most important thing in my life now and because of it I've gotten where I'm at now.
What have been your biggest failures and frustrations?
Well, I started a web design company awhile back and it was an epic failure. I was able to get clients pretty easily, but I found out quick that dealing with small business owners that barely turn on computers isn't the easiest task. I was revising and revising websites to suite their needs for little money - not worth my time whatsoever. One night I got sick of it all and simply refunded the last clients I had, shut the site down and started forwarding all the deals to a friend of mine. Horrible business. I hate clients. I hate deadlines.
What is the single toughest problem you've had to face, and how did you get through it?
Being young and having too much damn money was almost the death of me. Earlier in my career, I attributed my creativity to my drug use and got deeper and deeper into drugs. I thought that I was invincible and money could solve every problem. This hedonistic and twisted mindset turned me into a bitter person and I eventually got consumed with the fast life and even put money as a second priority to drug use. I spiraled downward and eventually reached a bottom and decided to get help - the best decision in my life. I'm a recovering addict and I can truly say that I wake up everyday happier than I ever was before. I can now have healthy relationships with family and friends.
Is there anything that you don’t like to do, that you just hate working on?
I hate voicemails. My cell phone is both my business line and personal line, so it's gotten to a point where I can barely answer it anymore. I wake up every morning and the calls periodically come streaming in every 15-20 minutes. Every night I use my voicemail to sort through the important ones then return the calls. I know emails are impersonal, but for someone like me it's the most efficient way of handling business.
What’s the best advice you could give to someone starting out in Internet marketing?
Get off the forums. Close your eBooks. Stop reading the blogs. The best teacher is experience - get your credit card out and get in the trenches. You will learn more from losing money than you will from anything else, I've never read a single guide on anything. I learned it all by myself, and now I'm sharing it with EWA affiliates.
What advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time to when you were starting out?
Listen to the D.A.R.E. teacher.
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 don't recommend niches that I do not currently run, because I'd be talking out of my ass. I prefer to be upfront with my affiliates about what I know and don't know. I've been running dating since 2005 and I still love it - there is a never ending supply of single guys. Lately, I've been running more and more game offers both domestically and internationally. These short little CPL's really convert with the right demographic targeting. If your ballin' outta control with one it's only healthy to grow it - but spend time to try other niches. A super affiliate in my books can run everything from rebills to dating to mobile offers - they're not restrained to one niche.
Do you try to keep current with the latest internet marketing news at all? What or who are your main sources?
JonathanVolk.com, of course =D. I gotta' give props out to PPC.BZ too - affiliate drama is just so much fun to partake in.
What are your typical hours like? When do you just chill back? Do you have a usual day off?
I've been working insane hours ever since I can remember. Back when I was 16 years old I was working at Walgreens corporate office full time over the summer, and then putting in another 6-8 hours every night after work to build up my own business. When I started making that nice paper I continued working the crazy hours because I knew the potential out there. Nowadays, I work on expanding the Birdman empire about 18 hours a day, 6 days a week. I'm constantly trying to expand my
team to distribute work but it just keeps piling up and I'm a control freak. Sundays are usually the day that I take partially off - to spend time with the girlfriend or family.
What kinds of people do you have difficulties working with? Any good stories?
Advertisers that don't pay. Owning a network isn't all glitz and glamor - we run on super-slim margins relaying on paying advertisers. When they don't pay, it hurts the business and this in-turn affects affiliates. I ask myself sometimes, was it really worth it? When it does happen - nothing makes my day more than harassing them on the phone, threatening their business or leveraging my connections to ruin any future businesses they have. I do take it personally, every time. I still have the SEO touch and I'm not shy to use it to ruin their name. Call it cut throat - but I'm out for blood when I don't get paid.
“…dealing with small business owners that barely turn on computers isn’t the easiest task. I was revising and revising websites to suite their needs for little money – not worth my time whatsoever… I hate clients. I hate deadlines.”
Agreed, agreed, agreed!
Great interview. I have respect for Eagle.
Me 2 – for sure.
The guy is a complete douche bag.
Rude.
Affbuzz <3's Ryan Eagle
Thanks for the interview Jon!
Yea! Thanks – I appreciate it!
It was brutally honest, but my experience has led me to pretty much the same conclusions…..Good on you for beating drugs, being man enought o talk about it, and carrying on regardless!
I once went shopping at WalMart, but before i walked in the door i saw Ryan Eagle in the parking lot. I was able to buy all my shit even cheaper than WalMart because as you know, EWA got margins slimmer than WalMarts.
LOL – Lots of colon cleanse I hope?
Oi, the colon cleanse comment makes me a tad nervous. What exactly is this detox all about?
Cool Interview. It was great getting to know Ryan a little bit better. Look forward to seeing both of you at ASW
Affbuzz <3's Eagle
You will learn more from losing money than you will from anything else, I’ve never read a single guide on anything. I learned it all by myself
^^^
Troof! Best advice ever.
Great interview. It sounds like you worked hard to get where you are. Good advice about the sobriety. Lots of young people with money get carried away with living the high life. It can really ruin their business.
Seems like an interesting guy. Thanks for posting this interview
Good for him that he’s sober and has successful business, seriously, but he shouldn’t brag so much. Makes him look kinda foolish.
BTW, he’s HOT! Haaaaaaay!
Good Stuff,
He should look into that service that Shoemoney has mentioned. Something about a service that takes voicemails and generates it into an email so you don’t have to check email and voice, only check one.
Great interview, especially the list of the hottest rappers. But seriously, good stuff and somewhat motivating to keep you straight and focused.
Great interview…You are an empire in the making
Awesome interview, seems to be a great guy. About the sobriety, I wonder if that includes caffeine as well. If I quit caffeine it doesn’t take long before I barely get any work done during the days, very annoying. Caffeine then affects my sleep so I get less work done over time, catch 22 for me.
Cool interview! EWA has some great offers for running PPV traffic on, definitley check them out.
“Get off the forums. Close your eBooks. Stop reading the blogs. The best teacher is experience – get your credit card out and get in the trenches. You will learn more from losing money than you will from anything else, I’ve never read a single guide on anything. I learned it all by myself, and now I’m sharing it with EWA affiliates.”
Well put. Nothing teaches you like using your own money. You can read every forum, blog or eBook out there but it all comes down to putting a financial interest in something and working to see a return. Great to see you thank God as well. Good interview!
Shouts out to the Birdman!
The Donald takes everything personally too. If you’re that vested in your business, it’s hard to imagine any other outcome.
Nice interview.
Loved the interview! You can learn a lot from these.
Jon, thank you for taking the time to get an interview with Eagle. He is definitely one of the hardest working guys in this biz and it shows by what his affiliates say or don’t say for that matter. =) Keep up the good work and I will see you both at ASW. And you too, AdHustler!
I have heard a lot about Ryan and hope to start working more with EWA soon. As far as my own affiliate marketing goes, I am currently in the lose all your money stage
LOL! Ya, me too…
Great interview. I just got accepted to their network and I’m proud to say so after reading that interview.
@Lance ECM is also a great place!
Good stuff! Ryan is a standup guy and I love working with EWA
Ryan’s a great guy with great advice. He also has a great taste in music. ; )
Great interview and well said. We can’t conquer the world if we can’t face and overcome our own weaknesses.
I am feeling great sending leads to EWA and need not to worry about not getting paid.
Ryan my hero!! Congratulations on your sobriety brother !! Great Interview Jon.
This one time, I received my weekly EWA payment via a FedEX packet of cash. I took the cash out and found that there was an extra $5000 in there. When I spoke to the birdman about it, this is what he had to say
“Keep the change you filthy animal”
….Ah, how i love Ryan Eagle.
Hahaha, that’s hilarious. I’m going to have to start requesting cash. A piece of paper sometimes just doesn’t do justice in figuring out how much your hard work paid off…
Hey Jonathan
This takes me back to when I was 22! Yep this guy is full on and to be honest I kind of respect his attitude… he’s only 22 and been able to take the wrong path… and make money, then take the right path and… make money… so the guys got talent. Hats off to him for sorting out the drugs thing also… Yes there’s a place for (non destructive) ruthlessness in business – but let’s not make it our focus… Enjoyed the interview…
Thanks
Can anyone verify if the rumors I hear on forums, and chats about his aff network really just ignoring affiliates, paying late, being unprofessional, not returning emails, etc even ones that bank hardcore when they try to call?
We value all our affiliates – large and small. We’re undergoing a period of massive internal growth and we’re hiring a stronger team to help accomidate anyones needs. If anyone ever has a problem with our services, payments, account managers, etc. – please email: ryan@eaglewebassets.com
it is true that the guys are often hard to reach and emails sometimes take them more than a day to get back to, but I don’t blame em for it, and they are already stocking up on manpower. They have killer offers and killer payouts and regularly write killer guides for their affiiates. Hands down the best network I have ever worked with.
I am just concerned that they will grow too much, because the last thing EWA needs is to become another corporate affilliate vaccuum.
I can’t lie, I never did like dude, simply because I thought he was just talk and a “tryin-to-be” gangster. I don’t claim to have been the worse cause I’ve seen people out there doing worse then me, but I’ve been in the same shoes Ryan has.
So to see him overcome the obstacles that I’ve been going through as well in 2009 gives a little insight on how success isn’t that hard to reach. Although I haven’t done drugs, I’ve been involved in the game.
None the less, I got respect for this dude now after reading this post. Keep hustling hard my dude!
Great interview. From what I hear EWA is a good network that takes care of its affiliates.
Great interview. It sounds like he really knows his stuff and I am sure EWA is a great network to work with. It’s always great to highlight paying aff. especially if they pay on time!
In reply to Don above: EWA has paid me on time every time. Wires every Thursday like clock work ever since I joined 5 months ago.
My AM Jared always goes out of his way for me. I cannot recall a single unreturned email or call.
He’s often even available weekends and nights.
I have heard zero complaints from affiliate friends about EWA.
Great interview. I have respect for Eagle.
Ryan is superb guy. I like his attitude. His actions speak louder than words. I learn a lot from him being EWA affiliate.
Met Ryan @ ASW this past winter – he’s the real deal & a nice guy to boot.
Thanks for the interview Jon!
See now Ryan, if I didn’t read blogs occasionally, I’d never find out who you are dude. Cool interview, I can relate to this guy. Now I gotta go check out EWA. Thanks Jonathan!
It looks a great inrterview and it does seem a good personality of Ryan Eagle from his speech to his ideas.
He seems like a very interesting guy with a pretty cool comeback story. Thanks for sharing.
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Great Interview,Im glad to hear that you recovered from your drug addiction.
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Very interesting article, Ryan seems like a alright guy, was very interesting to hear what Ryan thought about newbies to internet marketing and also the cell phone issue! Ha.
I have to admit, I was really enjoying this. Any more interviews/audios with this dude out there?
One things forsure. We all love the eagle.