Interview: Eric Smith (Click Rover)

We're very excited to present our 36th interview with Eric Smith of Click Rover. Eric Smith is a life long internet marketing expert and entrepreneur. His efforts quickly grew into an all inclusive agency featuring some of the greatest minds in the industry. This agency is known to the public as Click Rover, LLC. Each day Click Rover strives to extend success to its partners via any means necessary.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you?

I was born in Norman, Oklahoma and after traveling the country a bit I ended up in Las Vegas, NV. I am 31 years old in February and have dedicated the majority of my adult life to developing successful methods in internet marketing.

2. How long have you been in affiliate marketing and how did you get involved?

I have been in affiliate marketing in some way, shape, or form since early 1996. I became involved in the industry sending out email newsletters for local pc workshops offering ram and harddrive upgrades in the Killeen, TX area.

3. How long was it before you realized you could live off your affiliate income?

It was almost instantly, I was receiving 25% of service costs when I started, I built lists placing ads in grocery stores and similar places. Though I did maintain a full time job I certainly was making more with my sudo affiliate marketing methods within 6 months than my day job was paying at the time.

4. What has been your biggest success to date?

Building and maintaining a thriving affiliate network and advertising agency. Click Rover has become a way of life for many of us that are involved and we love every moment of every day here.

5. What was the biggest mistake you made when you first started doing Affiliate Marketing?

I would have to say not thinking for myself. I started quite young, I was taken advantage of in some ways by people and their greed. My biggest mistakes have led to the most positive changes in my life. I believe that this is the case with everyone.

6. Tell us a little bit about Click Rover and what you do over there?

Click Rover is set to change the way publishers and advertisers view the affiliate marketing industry. We have poised ourself in a position in which we cater and maintain to all of our clients directly. We are not a network swapping offers with other networks, we are a hard working force in the industry and we are developing some of the best client relationships possible.

7. There are already so many CPA affiliate networks out there. What makes Click Rover different?

Service... PERIOD. When a network goes the extra mile for you the benefits are tenfold. Our publishers see this every single day, as do our advertising partners. We aren't 'cool guys' in the industry like most, we are a legitimate and professional ad agency who guarantees that we will surpass any and all competitors in every aspect of business and most certainly by way of customer service.

8. Do you offer biweekly or weekly payment? If so, how much does one have to make to qualify?

We offer many different payment terms. Many affiliates are thrown off by our initial net 30 payment terms. This is certainly necessary in regard to determining quality partners. Generally speaking an affiliate that has been with Click Rover for 60 days has a host of options available to them regarding payment terms. We maintain no minimum payment balance.

9. Do you have any exclusive offers that other networks don't have?

We work closely with a few companies at this time which are exclusive to Click Rover and very niche. TRCBVideos.com is one company that we host and is offering a service unlike any other online marketing product available today. We are also leveraging several partnerships with loan and education partners to develop in house exclusive offers as well.

10. Do you offer online training for new affiliates?

We offer realtime coaching to all of our affiliates. Our account managers are responsive and available, something that you don't see much in this industry anymore. We aren't off in Cabo sipping drinks, we are hard at work on a daily basis to make sure that our publishers are able to perform at the highest level.

11. What are the criteria for a marketer to be accepted at Click Rover? How does Click Rover prevent and handle fraud?

A publisher must pass through our affiliate application process. A written application is followed up by contact verification, a telephone interview, and an investigatory process by our integrity team to ensure that we are dealing with an honest and legitimate person or company. Our tracking platform has integrated fraud prevention tools which monitor and alert us of red flags within the network and our integration team watches patterns and conversions daily to make sure that we are delivering the highest level of traffic possible to our advertising partners.

12. For those who are interested in working with you and your affiliate network? What's the best way/time to reach you?

Just sign up at http://network.clickrover.com - Approval takes less than 48 hours and often times we start that process the very same day that an application is received.

13. In your opinion, what are the best places for a new affiliate to learn affiliate marketing? What advice would you give for them?

Find a good partner, share your success and let them share theirs. There are blogs and ebooks all over the web, but nothing stacks up to having an experience partner or group of people by your side helping you achieve your goals.

14. In your experience, what are the three most critical elements of run a successful campaign.

Targeting - target your audience and make the most out of your efforts by delivering a product or service that your consumer wants an/or needs.

Delivery - Ensure that your delivery process is successful.

Intrigue - Generate excitement and want from your consumers. Images and text as well as landing pages make all of the difference when running a successful ad campaign.

15. What's the difference between a Super Affiliate and an Average Affiliate?

Every affiliate is a "Super Affiliate" here at Click Rover, we treat a single website owner generating $500.00 a month the same as we do a double opt-in mass email marketing firm pulling in $100,000+ a month. Customer service levels should not be determined on a clients monetary worth, they should remain superb across the board.

16. What are the keys to building successful relationships between Affiliates and Affiliate Networks? What are some of the challenges of being an Affiliate Manager/Owner?

Contact, swift resolution, and proactivity. Your clients need to know that you are working for them even when you aren't talking to them at that moment. They need to see the benefits of being a member of your program. While no challenge is to big, I would say that fraudulent affiliates are quite a pain.

17. If you could change one thing about the affiliate industry, what would it be?

I would say the level of professionalism in regard to account managers. We all work with professional partners in this industry, we should reflect the same amount of professionalism in the things that we do.

18. What do you think about where the industry is going? Where Click Rover may be going? What advice would you give to affiliates to keep up the pace.

I believe that the industry is headed in a wonderful direction. This industry will grow and grow for decades to come. You still have valid business owners with valuable products and services who haven't set foot into affiliate marketing yet. We are working with about 20 different companies like this right now developing test campaigns so that they are able to see the benefits of performance based marketing. Click Rover is expanding each and every day. I often get told "you're going into another meeting?" because we meet at least once a day and brainstorm new and fresh ideas to help our clients succeed in this industry. I would have to tell any affiliate to make sure that they evaluate their partnerships and strengthen those partnerships over time.

19. What are your goals in 2011?

To enable our partners the ability to increase their productivity and profitability on a weekly if not daily basis by delivering services and perks that only an agency like Click Rover can provide.

20. What are your hobbies/interests/passions? What's your favorite movie and why?

My hobby is my son, since his birth I devote my personal "hobby" time to enjoying him and my family. My interests are music, outdoors, business growth, and technology. My passions are my family, and learning.

21. Give us a little glimpse into what a typical day in your life looks like.

I wake up around 5:30am, in the office by 6:00am at which time I prepare an agenda for the day and have some coffee. My account managers show up around 7:30 - 8:00am and we have a 10 minute team meeting on what we will achieve for the day. Once that is done, it's all out work until 4:30 - 5:00pm when I journey back home to wind down.

Many thanks to Eric for sharing your time with us and for sharing some great insight tips here! If you have any experience with Click Rover, please write a review for them on the Click Rover review page. Ps. If you are an affiliate marketer, AM or Network owner and are interested in answering a few questions about you, your network and affiliate marketing, please drop us a message.