For this week’s interview we are fortunate enough to hear from Warren Jolly.

Warren is 26 and the CEO of Affiliate Media. Warren and Raj Lahoti (check out our Interview with Raj Lahoti) co-founded the business just a few years ago.

Adam: Talk us through the inspiration behind starting your business?

Warren: The inspiration behind starting my own business was very simple – avoid the hardship my father went through and control my own destiny from a young age. My father immigrated from India in 1989 after sailing on cargo ships as Captain for 20 years. He started that career at the age of 17, became Captain in his early 30’s, and then immigrated to the USA at the age of 42 to take a low-paying job at $15,000 doing cargo surveying. It was definitely a humbling move for him, but one he had to take due to the lack of opportunity in India at the time – he knew his kids had no real future there. Finally, in 1997, he got laid off from his job as a cargo surveyor and made the leap of faith towards launching his own cargo consulting business with zero capital. He became very successful within a few years and that’s when I made the decision that I would never work for anyone else. Luckily I’ve never held a job working for “the man” to this date. I owe 100% of my success to my father and his demonstration of hard work and dedication.

Adam: Which part of the business process do you enjoy the most?

Warren: I am a deal maker and negotiator. I enjoy putting together profitable relationships that mutually benefit and grow our company along with our clients. I really enjoy being able to innovate and provide value at the same time to my audience.

Adam: Affiliate Marketing is a very competitive business what are your top 5 tips for aspiring internet marketers?

Warren:
1) The riches are in the niches – Everyone has heard this saying. The internet is indeed a highly competitive space today, but there are still tremendous opportunities to grow an audience by targeting OR creating the niche that everyone else thought was silly or wouldn’t work. A great example of this type of niche targeting is icanhascheezburger.com – I mean who thought you could build a business from LOLcats? Those guys do very well. The internet is the only market in the world that allows you to instantly create your own niche and develop a following around it.

2) Study your analytics – You must build around your web analytics. The smartest marketers let their analytics make their decisions for them on what to build and how to promote it. Don’t make decisions without data – trial and error will only cost you lots of time and money.

3) Master User Experience – Think of the web like a carnival. Why do carnivals attract thousands and thousands of people and keep them there for hours? Because they offer an engaging user experience. If you can create a virtual carnival for the web browser, they will stick around, come back, and continue to buy from you or your brand. Always design your product or website with the user in mind.

4) Leverage the power of social networking – I won’t beat this one to death like everyone else, but social networking truly is critical in being a successful internet market. Leverage tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin to promote your brand to massive audiences for free and develop a following.

5) Build for the search engines – SEO is critical to the success of any website. Nothing is better than free, targeted search traffic to convert your visitor into a sale. SEO is the toughest it’s ever been so be prepared to spend a LOT of time learning the ropes or even more money trying to hire a consultant. Strong SEO will also boost the performance of your PPC campaigns, and this successful mix is the fastest way to grow your online marketing efforts.

Adam: Which tools do you think that no Internet Marketer should be without?

Warren: The tools I absolutely can’t live without are Google Analytics, Google Apps, Basecamp, Skype, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Wordpress. I use these tools on a daily basis and find them instrumental to my business.

Adam: Which of the business models that you follow is the easiest in your experience to set up?

Warren: In terms of ease of setup, I would say PPC arbitrage. If you’re relatively strong at Excel and can build a good, solid website that doesn’t look like a standard affiliate website with a bunch of links, you can be generating a positive ROI from just Google in a matter of weeks by targeting a relatively untapped niche. Another great way to exploit affiliate marketing is doing something similar with Facebook Ads. I’ve met a lot of affiliates making decent incomes from just Facebook advertising.

Adam: There are so many internet marketing guru’s out there, in your opinion which are the ones to watch?

Warren: Wow, there are too many to list. I’ll be offending a lot of people if I only list a few names here!

Adam: There has been a huge explosion of casino and gambling related sites over the last few years, is this your biggest selling niche?

Warren: Not anymore. Online Gambling is a global phenomenon – the beauty of it for affiliate marketers is the customer value. You can earn a good amount of money by just referring a handful of players every month. We act as the intermediary between the online gambling operations and the affiliate marketers who promote them. Our biggest niche today is consumer financial services, specifically targeting the sub-prime consumer market.

Adam: Do you think that the proliferation of gambling sites is going to reach saturation point at any time soon?

Warren: I believe there is still a tremendous amount of opportunity for affiliate marketers to tap into this space. The consolidation is definitely happening on the operator side, but that only leaves more upside for the marketers to fill in the voids that the major conglomerates can’t fill themselves from a marketing and customer acquisition perspective.

Adam: How important is it to build a community for the niches that you are in?

Warren: Very important. Niches are generally less saturated, which leaves a huge opportunity to capture the market through communities. If you can service a niche with a like-minded community, you’re staying power and growth will be much stronger.

Adam: What innovations do you see arising in the affiliate program market over the next year?

Warren: I am seeing a lot of online merchants start to provide marketing mechanisms that will foster a higher level of user engagement such as widgets and tools with the goal to increase conversions and the effectiveness of their affiliate programs. Internet users are becoming savvier and it’s getting tougher to convert customers through traditional marketing methods such as banners or a simple data feed. I also believe affiliate programs will start to provide deeper insight into their customer profile and demands which will help the affiliate maximize the type of traffic being delivered to that specific merchant.

Adam Toren