Evan Weber

One of the most recognized names and faces in our industry.
We invite you meet Evan Weber, CEO of Experience Advertising, Inc., and get to know him and his passion for the Affiliate Marketing industry.

In online marketing over 10 years, Evan has been Marketing Director for an Internet start-up that became successful and currently owns and operates a successful Digital Agency for the past 5 years focusing   on affiliate program management, social media management, and search engine management. He has expertise in SEO, paid search, conversion rate optimization, social media, and affiliate marketing. Evan works with tremendous effort and time spent social networking and working with affiliates. He stays on the cutting-edge of the Internet marketing world and informs others about what he knows and has learned.

After getting to know Evan better, I’d like to share that behind the success is a man who cares.  What stands out most to me is his “realness” and ability to meet the people he talks with where they are in their business and helps guide them to bigger and better places.  Along with not being “too busy” to chat with me, he was open, sincere and the passion he has for our industry is beyond measure.  Thank you, Evan for taking time to talk, share and be our first guest on Cutting Edge Offers.

Q1. How did you get started in this industry?

Evan: I ran the affiliate program, as well as all the Online Marketing, for a company called Dentaplans.com that I joined in 2001. We grew a large affiliate program in-house and ran on the affiliate networks. I personally worked with thousands of affiliate marketers of all backgrounds and experience levels over a 5 ½ year period. I was able to use my knowledge of website building and traffic generation to help our affiliates become producers and guide their strategies. I would even help them add the banners or link HTML to their websites and FTP it to their server for them. I realized early on that you need do whatever it takes to facilitate your affiliates to promote your company. The more available and helpful you are, the more uptake and production you will get from your affiliates. After I left that company, I decided to launch an affiliate management agency to grow and manage affiliate programs for companies.

Q2. What do you like best about the industry?

E: I really like the diversity of the affiliate marketing industry best. There are so many different affiliate marketing companies and individual website owners that are involved in affiliate marketing and earning revenue with their online projects. I’m glad I can be someone that helps affiliates and publishers get a better, more effective strategy in place to increase their effectiveness as an affiliate marketer as it relates to generating web traffic and monetizing their traffic and subscribers.

Q3. What 3 traits/skills do you find take a Good online marketer to a Great one?

E: Knowing how to drive traffic to their website, knowing how to leverage social media to their advantage, and knowing how to work with advertisers to get the most commissions possible. Also, staying on the cutting-edge of social media will help any affiliate be more effective at what they do.

Q4. Your articles on www.ExperienceAdvertising.com have been a great resource to me, and many other online marketers. For those getting started, what advice would you offer?

E: I would say that you should become somewhat of an online marketing expert of your own by reading good quality articles about topics like: SEO, paid search, social media, newsletter sending, lead generation, and related topics. The more you know about online marketing and social networking the more you will be able to improve your websites and effectiveness with your affiliate endeavors.

Q5. For those that have been in industry for years, what advice would you offer?

E: Stick to what works and what you are successful with, don’t get caught up in Facebook groups or forums that distract you from actually doing business and making money for yourself or your company. Leverage social networks like LinkedIn and Jigsaw.com to increase your business development.

Q6. What motivates you?

E: What motivates me is helping affiliates become better affiliates and actually getting a good strategy in place. When I speak to someone on the phone and they thank me for helping them it gives me a great deal of satisfaction. I like to be able to provide the knowledge and strategy they lack for free without wanting anything from them except to build the relationship. I try to stay on the phone most of the day with affiliate calls, providing website feedback and analyzing their current strategies to provide helpful guidance. When I can help someone build a free website or work their Fan Page better, it makes me feel great!

Q7. Who has been the biggest influence in your career – it continues to grow and build in a positive way.

E: That’s tough to say. I don’t really follow anyone’s lead in the affiliate industry, I try to be a leader and show people how to work hard and be productive. I look up to other types of people like Jimi Hendrix and other really creative, productive people. I try to be like that in my own way.

Q8. Future of Online Marketing – thoughts?

E: I think it will continue to keep moving more and more towards social media and social networking. I think search is still a huge opportunity to generate traffic and shouldn’t be neglected. Video also still has huge potential for affiliates and companies. I really love the retargeting options that have arisen in the last couple of years. I’d like to see referral programs, sweepstakes, and contests be leveraged more so by companies and affiliates to generate buzz and excitement. I see it as hugely under-utilized in the industry.

Q9. What do you find most useful at events?

E: I like speed networking and the other coordinated networking sessions. I just like networking and meeting people in general at conferences. I like going to presentations and giving presentations. Events are great places to do business but they can be a huge waste of productivity if you don’t approach it right. You have to really try to get a lot out of a conference and then make sure to follow-up with everyone you met there.

Q10. What are you most proud of?

E: I’m most proud of the fact that I can reach-out and actually help so many individual affiliates, regardless of their knowledge level or development. I consider it a huge privilege to be able to message over 100,000 affiliates and publishers. I take the support side of affiliate management very seriously and try to deliver 24/7 support to the affiliates we work with. I’m also a big believer that affiliate management should extend through the evenings and weekends when affiliates are working on their websites and projects. If you’re an affiliate manager that isn’t going the extra mile then I don’t think that gets it done for that position.

Q11. We recognize you as an innovator and visionary, what do you do to continuously stay ahead of the curve and outside the box?

E: Thank you and great question. I’m a fan of a bunch of online marketing industry digital newsletters and websites like Mashable.com that keep me on the cutting edge of the industry. I read a lot of articles from a lot of different sources and try to share the ones that I think are helpful to people. I try to incorporate what I learn in the articles and resources we provide to affiliates and our clients as well, which helps their online marketing strategies.

Q12. What is a typical day/week for you?

E: Oh wow, I’m glad you asked! I typically work a longer day than most people I think, usually in the neighborhood of 12 hours in a day. I always work 5-6 hours on a Saturday to move projects forward and get back to people. I give out my phone number in all of our affiliate newsletters and encourage people to call me with questions, so I regularly get calls after business hours and on the weekends, because a lot of affiliates are working then so they reach out to me at all hours. I also do something that other affiliate managers and agencies don’t do, which is to ask the affiliates for a phone call to discuss the program in the newsletter subject line. It may seem simple, but to be able to provide good interactions you have to have someone with a great deal of knowledge in online marketing and website-related issues and solutions. Otherwise, no real feedback or help can be provided, so the relationship isn’t built as well as with an interaction with someone with a great deal of experience. I insist on taking all the affiliate calls personally that come in from our newsletters. Every call I receive is another opportunity to build the relationship and promote the affiliate program.

Q13. What is in the future for you?

E: How will Evan continue to evolve? I will continue to grow my digital agency to work with more clients and handle more of their online marketing strategy and management services. I want to be the biggest outsourced affiliate management agency and dominate the space because I feel that I can build affiliate programs bigger and better than anyone else can. We have worked extremely hard on our processes and procedures for recruiting affiliates and managing affiliates. I believe strongly that our procedures are far superior to any other agency or in-house affiliate managers. I’m always trying to improve our procedures as well based on feedback and collaborations with affiliates and our clients.

Q14. What 1 thing would you like the online community to know about you?

E: I’d like everyone to know that working with affiliates and publishers is the most important thing anyone can do to grow the industry and make it better. I go about what I do with the intention of helping affiliates, and our clients ,market better online through numerous strategies. Managing affiliates is never good enough and your procedures are never good enough, so my goal is to keep providing tools and resources for affiliates without a cost and speak to as many of them on the phone as possible to provide answers and strategies to earn money through websites, social networking, and affiliate marketing in general. I’d like everyone to know how approachable and friendly I am. I’m always referring people to people, as well as explaining how things work to people, so you can feel free to reach out to me about anything you may want to know about online marketing or affiliate marketing. Thanks!