Performance Marketing Expo Podcast Series: Zac Johnson, Super-Affiliate & CEO of MoneyReign

Here’s the 2nd installment of our PME Podcast Series. This time we
had a brief conversation with Zac Johnson, Super-Affiliate extraordinaire and CEO of MoneyReign. Make sure to listen to the podcast as Zac shares insider secrets of some common mistakes that many affiliates make.

Zac Johnson Podcast

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Download the transcription or read the full version below

Would you please tell our listeners a little bit about yourself, your background and what people mean when they refer to you as a “super affiliate?”

Zac Johnson: I’ve been doing Internet marketing, affiliate marketing, for nearly 15 years now. I started off when I was in early high school and now I’ve done pretty much everything – working with Amazon’s affiliate program when they first started out in the beginning to creating my own websites, running newsletters, PPC, pretty much everything in the affiliate field. So, today I’m running ZacJohnson.com where I share my stories of the past, what has worked and hopefully inspire other people to make money online.

The term “super affiliate”, that’s an old term that was really used for affiliates that would drive the majority of traffic to networks or affiliate programs. It’s a little over-used today and not as appreciated so much as what it used to be known for, but it is seen as somebody who can drive lots of traffic and volume to companies.

What, by today’s standards, would constitute a lot of traffic?

Zac Johnson: Well, “super affiliate” was targeting towards anyone who referred the majority of traffic to an affiliate network. But, anyone who is pushing five figures a month, I would consider that to be a decent amount of volume.

How many “super affiliates” are there in the affiliate world?

Zac Johnson: I would say that there are thousands. For as many as you see in the public, I would say that there are a hundred or few hundred that just want to be left in the dark and not known about. There are people who are kind of “in your face” and they are sharing information and stuff like that. But, there are a lot of people like me who, for probably 10 years before I came out with the blog, I was another affiliate that nobody knew about. So, there’s all the people you know about and then for every one of those, there are so many that you don’t even know about.

What are some of your biggest frustrations with affiliate networks? For those affiliate networks who might be listening, what should they think about in order to provide the highest possible value both to affiliates like yourself, as well as to the retailers?

Zac Johnson: It’s funny because in the beginning, there were only a handful of affiliate networks and now there’s hundreds of them. So, it has become a very saturated market. The biggest concern for all these networks is to be able to bring the affiliates in who can drive the traffic because there is so much saturation and competition. So, a lot of them share the same offers and a lot of their slogans are: “We have the top payouts and the best offers.” So, they all say the same thing, but when you log in to the system, they all have the same offers, but they’ll vary in different pricing. So, something a little frustrating is going into different networks and seeing that you are getting maybe 10 cents at one or maybe a dollar more at the other one. It was a little game of having to find which one is the best network. But, if you can drive traffic with these guys, you can just ask them: “Can you please increase the rate?” They are always going to give you a higher payout if they know you have the volume. So, it’s a little frustrating with some networks because if they are slow to respond — because affiliates are working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week non-stop for the whole year and if you want to talk to these guys or send them an email or something and you don’t get something for a few days or even over the weekend because they don’t have anybody there, that’s a pretty bad issue. But, once again, if you are a bigger affiliate, you usually have a contact there that you can always talk to.

How important is it to affiliate with the right retailers and merchants? Do you have any tips for making sure you are getting the best possible people affiliating with your site?

Zac Johnson: It’s really going to come down to business you are working with these guys and how well you know them. It’s more about building a long term relationship because if you are a new affiliate, you are probably not going to be to any affiliate networks. You are not going to have a good understanding of what the payouts should be on certain offers. So, you are going to want to build a relationship with these guys. They are going to get more personal with you. It’s going to be like a friendship, so they are not going to want to screw you over or anything. It’s an understanding between two companies or people. So, as that progresses, so will your business with these guys.

Can you give me three key tips for improving results quickly as an affiliate? How do they get the train on the track fast?

Zac Johnson: A lot of times I find myself spread way too thin. I’ll be starting new projects when other projects aren’t finished yet. All the affiliate marketers, their brands are just always going crazy with new ideas. But at that same time, we are actually hurting ourselves by not completing other things that we know are going to do well, but we are excited to move on. So, you have to sit back and look at your scenario and what you want to achieve and then focus on those areas that you really have to finish. You don’t want to start new projects while other ones are unfinished. That also applies to ad campaigns, too. You are going to be spending money each day and you want to make sure those are profitable before you have another 10 going (and then six or eight of them are losing you money every day). So, it’s important to know when to quit and when to move on to something new. That’s not exactly three, but it’s a whole break down of different scenarios that would really help someone exceed.

What are the three biggest mistakes that people tend to make when they decide to monetize, for example, a blog or another web-based publishing property as an affiliate?

Zac Johnson: Usually one of the first ways that people are building their business plan is looking at the money first. There has to be a platform there and a reason for people to visit the website. If you start a blog and you just start a ton of advertising from the website, there is really no reason for people to visit that website. So, when I created ZacJohnson.com, I was pushing just sheer content on there for the first nine to ten months. I didn’t have any advertising on it at all. So, you have to focus on having interesting content for your users before throwing any advertisers on there.

Another one is Adsense. Once again, with making a website that is not really going to make you any profits because it is better to focus on your own brand or products to sell rather than click on your website and then lose them forever.

Is it fair to say, then, that content is extremely important, you have to have a valid concept that will differentiate you from the other web properties that are out there and you really need to put a lot of time into this?

Zac Johnson: Definitely. You’ll see the difference between those who are dedicated. They’ll just be blowing past all the other people in that niche market vs. those who are just sitting around hoping for money.

What do you believe will be the next big trend in affiliate marketing? As an affiliate, what should people be watching and thinking about?

Zac Johnson: What I’ve seen over the past year is, a lot of my affiliate friends who are creating their own blogs, they are creating a brand for themselves and then, ultimately, when they have that following they are building themselves into their own brand, but also selling products or building their own net forms. So, affiliates are absolutely becoming the new teachers of the new wave of affiliates.

Another thing, new companies are making money with social networks, Facebook and MySpace. There is a lot of new advertising from that you can zoom right in on these people’s demographics.

For those of you listening, if you’d like to learn more, Zac will be featured on a panel at the Performance Marketing Expo by the Institute for International Research taking place on September 27 through the 29th in Miami Beach, Florida. You can always visit Zac at www.ZacJohnson.com Zac has also recently authored a free guide. It is quite exhaustive. It’s a terrific piece of work for affiliates and people who want to get into affiliate marketing from a publisher’s standpoint. It’s called: “Six Figure Affiliate Blogging”. That is available as a free download on Zac’s site.