Welcome to the interviews with super affiliates series where we post our chats with affiliates that are doing really well and making a good living using affiliate marketing. These interviews are part inspirational, part educational and totally interesting! Enjoy today's interview…
I'm really excited to introduce today's interviewee. Zac Johnson is someone I've looked up to and followed personally for a number of years.
He's been around making money online for nearly 20 years which is eons in Internet time.
In that time he has pretty much done it all, from going viral running a website that boasted peak days of 100k uniques, to referring over $5 million in sales through affiliate marketing in the last couple of years from a blog.
Zac is definitely one to learn from: queue the interview…
1. For those that don't know, can you tell us about yourself and what you do?
My name is Zac Johnson and I'm approaching 20 years of making money online, which I first accomplished while in high school. Over the years I've done everything from affiliate marketing, email marketing, site building, consulting, coaching, blogging and now even podcasting! I love helping others make money online and that is what the focus of my personal brand and business has been on for the past seven years since launching my blog at ZacJohnson.com.
2. How do you use affiliate marketing in your business and on your sites?
Affiliate marketing is a great way for any individual or business to make money online because it's legitimate, works and can scale heavily. When setup and monitored correctly, advertisers receive quality leads on a performance basis and affiliates are paid for their marketing efforts and time.
I've been using affiliate marketing as a revenue source for many years now in nearly all facets. Through my blog at ZacJohnson.com I've been able to refer over $5 million in new revenue to affiliate networks by teaching people how to make money online through their own ad campaigns and web sites. I also have various web sites and articles of my own in which I recommend different products and services which may result in a commission on referred leads. This is just a small example of how I use affiliate marketing on a daily basis.
3. What is one thing you can point to that you've done in the past that really had a really positive and lasting effect on your affiliate marketing and made your income take off?
A few years back I was able to really focus in on the myspace social market before it started to take off. I took the time to really study the market and build out a resource site with over 10,000 pages of HTML (i don't program). Long story short… the site and the content went viral and had peak days of over 100,000 unique visitors. Through the use of affiliate marketing and on-site advertising the site would generate seven figures in less than a years time.
4. How much time do you invest in your affiliate marketing strategy now compared to when you first started?
I don't focus on affiliate marketing now as much as I used to. Back in the day it was all that I did, since then I've transitioned away and now focus on a handful of web sites of my own while continuing to build out my own brand. Affiliate marketing is still a big part of what I do, but now it's more about teaching others how to use it to make money online.
5. Whats your number 1 tip to new affiliate marketers?
It's not easy to make money online, so don't expect to get rich over night. For every success story you hear, there are 100 failures you don't hear about. Treat online marketing just like a real business. Only those with the dedication, passion and work ethic will succeed.
6. If you had to start again tomorrow, what would be the first thing you'd do to rebuild your affiliate marketing empire?
It's easy to look back and say what you would have changed and done to make easy money, but it just wouldn't be the same. If I was to start over I would make sure that I stick with one niche or source of traffic and just completely dominate it. Too much time is wasted on spreading yourself too thin. I started making money online back in 1995, but I didn't start building my own brand til 2007. Imagine what it could be if I started much earlier.
7. Where can people find out more about you? Plug your site 🙂
ZacJohnson.com is the best place to find me. You can also join my private community at Blogging.org and listen to my weekly podcast “Rise of the Entrepreneur” on itunes.
This is my fav phrase:
“For every success story you hear, there are 100 failures you don’t hear about. ”
I found most people stop blogging simply because they didn’t get what they expect (from what they read from other bloggers that making money online is easy).
Hey Rudd,
You’re dead right. Making money online is far from easy but dedication and execution as Zac has shown over the last two decades really can pay off big.
Thanks for the comment!