Simon the Hard Working Affiliate Marketer

Why did you choose to work in online marketing and being an affiliate?

Well, I studied economics in college and I was raised by my parents to get a job at a multinational company.
I successfully got an internship at the biggest life insurance company of Europe (it’s was really hard to get in, internships here are 6 months long) and that turned into a job offer. That happened to be a content manager/content marketing job. It’s a mix between a blogger, social media guy, SEO, front end developer. This is how I started my journey into the world of online marketing.

As for getting into affiliate marketing:

It happened much-much later.
It was during my time as a startup owner (small online marketing agency, 3 full-time employees only, focusing on difficult niches). But I’ve burnt out. I couldn’t handle 60 hours of work per week and ridiculously low quality clients. And I’ve poured all my money into my startup, so starting an e-commerce store – or anything, which required initial investment -, was out of the question. And what do you have barely any money and you don’t want to deal with clients?

Performance-based affiliate marketing. I never regretted this choice, although at that time it was only because of necessity. Now I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

What was your most successful time in your life so far?

Right now! I wanted to make a living from my websites before I turn 30. And now I do, and I’m only 27 –at the time of this interview. For me this is a dream come true. Not to mention I make more money than I ever did as an employee and work much less. That’s good too.

What type of products/services do you promote as an affiliate for and why?

I focus on difficult niches. My mission statement summarizes it pretty well: “I create and manage successful blogs in difficult niches. I do not use spammy marketing techniques. All of my blogs are dedicated to responsibility, safety and I’m committed to providing genuinely useful information to my visitors.” My visitors really appreciate this, because there is a lot of unethical marketing going on in difficult niches. Difficult niches are e.g.: gambling, viagra, alcohol, tobacco, online trading, legal highs etc…

Where do you see your career and lifestyle going in the next 12-24 months?

I don’t have plans beyond 2014 right now. My biggest plan right now is to reach 100 K unique visitors per month before the end of the year. Right now it’s 70 – 80 K unique visitors per month. I hope I can do it. I still have two months. We will see.

If you could leave our readers with one piece of business advice, what would it be?

FUC*ING. HARD. WORK! There are no substitutes for it. You have a really great idea/product/service? Great! But not enough. Are you from a very rich family with lots of money to spend? Great! But not enough. Nothing substitutes putting in 50-60 hours – per week – of really hard work during the first 1-2 years of the business.

If you would like to read the complete story of Simon’s life check out his bio on his website. You can also follow him on twitter.