Affiliate-Interview: Istiak Rayhan von Road To Blogging und WPLeaders

Every now and then we come across an exceptional affiliate marketing story — some are so impressive that we just have to reach out and interview them!

Today’s interview is from someone you might not have heard of in the headlines. But he's well known in his space and is making his mark all the same.

Er ist seit 2012 als Blogger tätig und betreibt eine Reihe interessanter Websites, die meist mit Affiliate-Marketing finanziert werden.

I’m really happy to have Istiak Rayhan on the blog today to tell us about his story and to answer a few questions about what’s been working for him over the years.

When I saw he’d recently taken over a familiar site called WPLeaders.com, I was really interested to hear about the acquisition and what else he’s been up to.

So without further ado, here’s our interview with Istiak.

1. You’ve been blogging for a number of years now across various sites. But for those who don’t know you, can you tell us about yourself and what you do?

Hi, I'm Istiak Rayhan. I'm a full-time blogger and an internet marketer from Bangladesh. I’ve been blogging since 2012. I run a few blogs, including RoadToBlogging.com, WPLeaders.com, HostLater.deund SetYourOffice.com.

After completing my BBA and MBA, I decided to be a full-time blogger rather than go to a regular job. So far it’s been an incredible journey. Apart from blogging, I'm working with some local startups as an angel investor.

2. Sie haben kürzlich die Website WPLeaders.com von Hesham Zebida übernommen. Welchen Herausforderungen sind Sie bisher bei der Übernahme und dem Aufbau dieses Unternehmens begegnet?

WPLeaders.com war nicht meine erste Akquisition. Davor erwarb ich HostLater.com über Flippa von Pradeep Kumar von HellBoundBloggers.

Now let’s talk about why and how I took over WPLeaders from Hesham Zebida.

While running RoadToBlogging, I get many blog post ideas related to WordPress. But I can't cover all those ideas on RTB, as it’s not a dedicated blog for WordPress topics. That’s why I realized that I should start a blog about WordPress.

I didn’t want to start a blog from scratch. I was looking for an inactive blog with good potentiality. I found that Hesham was not updating WPLeaders.com regularly, so I approached him, and he quickly responded. We settled on a high four-figure price.

As we didn’t use any platforms like Flippa, trust was an issue. But we'd known each other for a while. I was a regular reader of Hesham’s Famous Bloggers. So I trusted him and sent the money before getting the domain name ownership. It was a smooth deal. Hesham was very helpful. However, I don’t recommend this method to everyone. Only make this sort of transaction if you've known someone for a while.

Nachdem ich die volle Kontrolle über den Blog erlangt hatte, begann ich, die Partnerlinks zu ändern. Da Hesham die ThirstyAffiliateswar es für mich überhaupt keine schwierige Arbeit. Ich habe schnell alle Glieder ersetzt.

Dann begann ich, alte Beiträge zu aktualisieren, die bereits organischen Traffic und Verkäufe erzielten. In den meisten Fällen änderte ich den gesamten Inhalt des Beitrags und aktualisierte ihn mit Thrive Architect, um ihn attraktiver und ansprechender zu gestalten. Dies hat mir geholfen, ein höheres Ranking bei Google zu erhalten und mehr Affiliate-Verkäufe zu generieren.

Jetzt veröffentliche ich jede Woche zwei bis drei neue Beiträge und aktualisiere auch regelmäßig alte Beiträge. Der Blog generiert jeden Monat eine anständige vierstellige Summe.

3. What has been your biggest win when it comes to affiliate marketing? Be it on the WPLeaders site you’re concentrating on or elsewhere? For example, maybe share with us a strategy that has paid off well or something you’re proud of.

It’s tough to name one as the biggest win. But I will always remember my first biggest earning from a single affiliate program, which was $1800. So far, I’ve made over $100,000 from that program.

4. If you had to start again tomorrow, what would be the first thing you’d do to rebuild your affiliate marketing empire?

I would monetize the blog from day one. I used to wait for traffic to come before monetizing the blog. But that was the wrong strategy. Affiliate Marketing doesn’t require a lot of traffic. You can make money even from a few visitors. I've applied this technique at SetYourOffice.com. And I got my first Amazon sale with very low traffic (zero to three visitors per day).

Außerdem verschlüssele ich alle Produkt-/Dienstleistungslinks über ThirstyAffiliates, auch wenn es sich nicht um Affiliate-Links handelt. Auf diese Weise kann ich meinen Blog besser monetarisieren. Zum Beispiel, Ahrefs (SEO tool) doesn’t currently have an affiliate program, but there is a possibility it will launch an affiliate program soon. So what I've been doing is cloaking the link before inserting it into blog posts. When Ahrefs starts the program, all I'll have to do is change the link to an affiliate link, and it will be applied to every link.

5. Was ist Ihr wichtigster Tipp für neue Affiliate-Vermarkter?

Try to understand the buyer's intent. It’s not about understanding the difference between commercial and informational content. You need to know how and when visitors convert into customers. Not all your visitors will buy in the first place. You need to offer them a free trial or an affordable solution or just a free solution.

6. What’s in store for the rest of 2018? What do you hope to do more of?

One thing is sure: This year, I'm not going to launch any new blogs. I’ll be focusing more on team building. Currently, I have three members on my team, and I'm planning to expand it.

Affiliate Marketing helps me to make money even when I'm not working. Last year, I was in Hajj (Muslim Pilgrimage). I was inactive for two months. But it didn’t hamper my earnings. I want to apply the same technique to working so that I can get things done even when I'm not working. A good team can help me to do that. So this year my primary focus is to build a team.

7. Where can people find you and follow what you’re doing?

Sie können mich finden auf Facebook, Twitter, LinkedInund Google+.

Abschließend möchte ich mich bei Ihnen und dem ThirstyAffiliates-Team für das großartige Plugin und das Interview bedanken.

Offenlegung von Partnerlinks