Tell us a little background info about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you? How long have you been making money online?
I grew up in St. Louis and went to the University of Missouri. I’m 27, and got into internet marketing with Show-Me Tickets in 2002.
Do you have any experience with affiliate marketing? If so, to what extent?
Most of my projects are ones where we own the backend company or service provider. I have done affiliate marketing in the edu space, as well as some real estate, moving, and other financial services. Lead-gen type plays, using regular old SEO and some Adwords. Usually we are the guys with the affiliate program though.
What accomplishments so far are you the most proud of?
I am most proud of the places I’ve traveled, and the people I’ve met. I love the internet because it allows me to travel wherever I want, whenever I want. And it gives me an excuse to go meet cool people from around the country and world, who share a common interest of making money online.
How did you become successful? Why did you choose this career? When did you first realize the full potential in the Internet? When did you first “hit the big time?”
I became successful by showing up every day, taking action, and learning from mistakes. Shortly after I started working for Brant Bukowsky and Show-Me, I saw how powerful SEO could be. We had a growing company, were making money, and it was a blast. I knew I wanted that as my future and not the crap I was getting in college (I was in accounting).
What do you think it takes to be successful?
Talent, timing, luck, and a long-term outlook. Combine that with a “I don’t give a shit, I’m going to do this” attitude and that helps in my experience. I mean that in a way that you take the risk, go talk to the guy across the room, put your money on the line, and the like. Never pass up a networking event. Never give up on an idea too quickly.
What have been your biggest failures and frustrations?
Two companies I’ve been involved with either as a founder or investor had a lot of growth in terms of traffic and revenue, but they fizzled out. It can be frustrating as an investor or entrepreneur when you get a few things going at once, and you lose focus on one of them. I’ve also seen a well-positioned business that had it all in terms of marketing and sales falter because the ownership group had bad seeds. That’s no fun.
Is there anything that you don’t like to do, that you just hate working on?
I hate emailing site owners cold. Too many days trying to build links the manual way, back in the day. Oh, a recent one – filling out expense reports. I never want to do that again.
What have you been up to recently? What projects are you working on?
WhitePixel.com is a new one, it’s a retargeting extension network. At least that’s what we call it. If you run retargeting ads, it lets you plug into our network and start pixeling people based on specific URLs that match your demographics. You can show retargeting ads to people who haven’t been to your site yet, but have been to a site that fits your customer profile.
I’m also working on getting more interested investors involved with Growth Partner. Either through a formal fund we start, a holding company, or just people who want to see our deals and might invest, creating a “bullpen” of those guys.
What problems have you had with those new projects?
It’s been a long road to try and sign up a lot of publishers for WhitePixel. Most people are into it if you can explain it – get additional revenue each month, display nothing, sell nothing. But the concept is a little different than they are used to with Adsense or lead gen or affiliate or display.
What motivates you?
The “game” of it all motivates me. Competing for traffic, sales, and whatever else. Taking something that doesn’t exist and making it worth a lot money.
What is the best advice you’ve been given and try to apply to your life?
I pulled most of my life advice from watching the Mighty Ducks films. Underrated in that regard.
What are some of your long-term goals? How much is enough? If money was no object, what would you be doing?
For me it’s all about: Live in California, own my own company, travel, and some day take my wife and kids to the beach on a Tuesday whenever I feel like it. As for the bankroll, I think $30 million would be enough. I’d be doing exactly what I do now if I had that $30 million, I’d just invest a lot more money and a lot more often.
Where do you want to be ten years from now?
Standing up at a desk sending emails.
How do you like to spend your free time? What doe work-life balance mean to you?
I like to blend the two together as much as possible so I don’t notice if I’m doing one or the other. Make work social, and do some work at random times. It’s easy to do with the tech that is out there. If you want to go chill at 2 pm go do it. If you want to work on something at the airport, do it.
If you could go back to being 18, what different career choices would you make?
I actually wish I could’ve done more in the affiliate space back in the day. I didn’t realize a lot of what I was doing in marketing our companies would’ve worked really well for generating money via affiliate marketing.
Do you have a Twitter account or Facebook “Like” page?
http://twitter.com/natebro
Thanks for having me on.
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