Tell us a little background info about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you? How long have you been working in this industry?
I am 24 years old and I am from a city at the south of the Netherlands, Breda. It’s in the middle of Amsterdam and Brussels (Belgium). During my study of Media & Entertainment management I started creating websites for some small businesses. 4 years ago I had to find a good internship and I joined Yonego. Back in those days we had around 4-5 people. 4 years later we have 35 enthusiastic hardworking specialists.
What accomplishments so far are you the most proud of?
That we are able to grow so rapidly and still be able to deliver quality and good support. Our people are given time to spend learning in order to keep up with all recent developments. Knowledge and data driven decision-making is the key to our success.
How did you come to learn about this industry? Why did you choose this career? When did you first realize the full potential in affiliate marketing? When did you first “hit the big time?”
I was 12 when I created my first website (1998). Nobody ever told me about affiliate marketing unfortunately. The founder of Yonego started the company 7 years ago when he was 15. He became one of the biggest super affiliates in Europe! When I heard that story I felt I had to catch up. I got extremely motivated to become a successful affiliate. Yonego gave me the knowledge, experience and time to become one.
What do you think it takes to be successful as an affiliate?
First of all hard work, dedication and a passion for the job. But the competition is rising and some frustrating developments are going on. CPC’s are rising, Google slaps affiliates, The European council wants cookies to disappear and advertisers want to start working on a conversion attribution model. However so, if you are able to find good solutions and have good resources you can make this an advantage. You have to be creative and prioritize the best deal or concept to work on.
What have been your biggest failures and frustrations?
Number 1: Technical failures you can’t totally control. I am having a team with web developers but I am not a developer myself. It’s very frustrating if something doesn’t work you want to and you are not able to fix it yourself. That’s why I have been working on my technical knowledge so I can at least understand the problems and can think with them to find solutions. They appreciate that as well.
What is the single toughest problem you've had to face, and how did you get through it?
Getting my girlfriend used to me working every single evening when I am back from work. I have to buy DVD boxes to keep her satisfied. 
Is there anything that you don’t like to do, that you just hate working on?
Sometimes my total week has been filled with meetings, discussions and helping others. That’s a great part of my job, but it gets frustrating when your own work is delayed.
What is the future of marketing?
Market the marketing and you get a rapidly growing market. One of our success factors of Yonego is that all marketers in our company are active as bloggers.
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 could not think of one good niche, but I can give you some advice. Most (small) affiliates tend to build quick (wordpress) sites and focus on relatively low competitive markets/keywords. That’s fun for some good pocket money but if you want to be really successful you should act like a big boy and take the step to compete with your rivals.
What niche has worked best for you?
All niches. If your marketing is great, every niche could work!
Which methods of promotion do you favor?
I’m doing a lot with e-mail marketing right now and I’m a huge fan of FB advertising. Jonathan will send you an article by me when you buy his Facebook Ads Guide.
How have you made those promotion methods successful?
If you want to be really successful you have to focus on massive target groups. For instance, when Facebook Ads started in the Netherlands they had around 1 million members on Facebook. It was very hard to segment and getting a good and specific target group. If you tried to segment on interests you would get groups with +/- 50 people. While there was almost no competition and you could do a lot with the images we decided to target on the whole Netherlands. Make it easy when you can.
What have you been up to recently? What projects are you working on?
I’m working on some large e-mail marketing concepts and some regional lead generation websites.
What problems have you had with those new projects?
Technical issues. We have a very massive e-mail database and we want to send our mailings ourselves and not use tools like Aweber and Mailchimp in order to achieve a better ROI. ISP’s like Hotmail and Gmail getting harder and harder so you have to complete a very large (technical) checklist to do this well.
Do you think anything particular in your past prepared you for this industry? Your education? Jobs you’ve held before?
I have learned some basics during my education, but most of the things I learned when doing the job.
What are your greatest strengths?
Devotion, focused, creative and great at planning.
What are your greatest weaknesses?
Prioritizing and pulling the plug out of unsuccessful concept can be difficult.
What motivates you?
My motivation is success. Getting respected and known as a guy which is very good at online marketing. And yes, money motivates as well. Not because you have more to spend, but it tells you how good you are.
What is the best advice you’ve been given and try to apply to your life?
I am a huge fan of the football club NAC Breda. NAC was founded when the two clubs NOAD and ADVENDO merged to one club. NOAD is a Dutch abbreviation for Nooit Ophouden, Altijd Doorgaan (English: never give up, always persevere) and ADVENDO is a Dutch abbreviation for Aangenaam Door Vermaak En Nuttig Door Ontspanning (English: Pleasant for its entertainment and useful for its relaxation), while the C stands for Combinatie (combination). I made this sentences my way of life. NOAD at work, ADVENDO during my free time.
Who has impacted you most in your career, and how?
My dad did. He is not a marketer but a financial controller. He showed me hard work will pay off.
What kinds of people do you have difficulties working with? Any good stories?
People which can’t fulfill promises and are bad at communicating. If somebody wants to cooperate with me I expect the best of them.
What are some of your long-term goals? How much is enough? If money was no object, what would you be doing?
At a personal level I am very long-term focused. Family is very important. My long term goals is a big house, enough money for the education of possible children and a very happy girlfriend.
How do you like to spend your free time? What doe work-life balance mean to you?
I convinced myself I was too busy for doing sports. After a 4 year break I started to play soccer with friends again. I forgot how important good health and condition is for doing a good job at the office.
If you could go back to being 18, what different career choices would you make?
I would make a start with affiliate marketing!
What is your greatest achievement outside of work? What are some of your unfulfilled dreams?
Achievements? I’m 24! But I have great plans for the future. If I’m proud of what I achieved I would start making a journey around the world. After that I properly going to do some voluntary work in the open air. I have a disabled brother who lives at a farm with fellow sufferers. When working with them they are extremely thankful. But whatever happens I will never stop with online marketing.
Do you have a Twitter account or Facebook “Like” page?
You can follow me at twitter.com/jaapjacobs.
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