Interview: Erin Cigich (Clickbooth.com)

We're very excited to present our 39th interview with Erin Cigich of Clickbooth. Erin Cigich is Vice President of Marketing at Clickbooth.com, the world renowned performance-based online marketing company that provides cutting-edge technologies alongside a commitment to creating powerful partnerships for Publishers and Advertisers in the industry. Erin provides insight and direction to members of the Publishing, Advertising, and Market Research teams to ensure that clients receive the highest-quality support while growing their business. In addition, Erin strategizes with her team to continuously improve processes and procedures in order to provide increased ROI for Clickbooth's clients.

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

I’m from Florida and have lived in Florida all my life aside from one summer in college I studied abroad and lived in Italy. In my free time, I like to play softball and go to the beach (Sarasota has amazing beaches!). And, as a University of Florida grad, I am a loyal Gator fan!

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

I’ve been in the industry 4+ years. I started out handling SEO for a property management company, then joined Clickbooth as an Affiliate Strategist in 2007. Since then, I’ve worked my way up within the company to my current role as VP of Marketing.

3. What has been your biggest success to date?

This is tough because we've seen so much success among our exclusive partners, but if I had to pick one, it would be growing one of our exclusive Clickbooth publisher’s business from $500-$1k/day to 6 figures/month, within 2 months. The partner is extremely passionate about affiliate marketing and dedicated to putting in the hours to compete in the space.

4. Tell us a little bit about Clickbooth and what you do over there?

Clickbooth is the #1 ranked affiliate network in the world. As Vice President of Marketing, I oversee our Advertising Consultant, Affiliate Strategist and Market Research teams. I also work closely with our Exclusive partnerships on both the advertiser and publisher sides.

5. There are already so many CPA affiliate networks out there. What makes Clickbooth different?

Aside from the fact that we’ve been in the biz longer than most, our key differentiator is our strategic involvement with our clients. Our reps are trained to understand the industry inside and out so they can help with marketing strategy, creative strategy, increasing ROI, advice on running a better business, etc. We truly view our clients as partners.

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

Yes – just contact your Affiliate Strategist to discuss qualifying.

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

We have over 400 true exclusive offers. Clickbooth is the Exclusive Marketing Partner (EMP) for the industry’s top performing offers. Odds are if you aren’t working directly with Clickbooth yet, you’re still probably running one of our offers and don’t even realize it.

8. Which offers are performing well on your network?

We have thousands of offers, so we’ve got something for everyone. Some of our strongest verticals are Penny Auctions, Health and Beauty, Business Opportunity, Education and Insurance. Your Affiliate Strategist can always get you statistics on offers specific to your traffic type.

9. Which traffic sources prove to be the most effective for your top earning affiliates - E-mail, PPC, PPV, Facebook, Media Buying or any others?

This is something else that makes Clickbooth unique in the industry. We’re the only large network that isn’t pigeon-holed into just one traffic type. This allows us to have a large mix of offers. We also have Affiliate Strategists who are experts in each traffic type.

10. Do you offer online training for new affiliates?

Yes – Not only do we have a ton of FAQ’s on our site (www.clickbooth.com/cb101), but you can also find a lot of great new information every week on our blog (blog.clickbooth.com/), and in-depth training videos on our YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/user/clickbooth).

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

Clickbooth is extremely selective with our approvals process. The best thing to do is to be honest and thorough on your application. It also doesn’t hurt to reach out and talk to one of our Affiliate Strategists ahead of time, they can help fast track the 72 hour approval process if they think you are a fit for the network.

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

I’m available 24/7 on the contact info below and can set affiliates up with an Affiliate Strategist who specializes in their business model: Erin Cigich Vice President of Marketing Clickbooth.com LLC, an IntegraClick, LLC managed company. Tel: (941) 584-0341 Fax: (954) 208-0681 AIM: ErinClickbooth Skype: ErinClickbooth Email: Erin@Clickbooth.com

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

Use your Affiliate Strategist! They have tons of knowledge and access to the statistics that will help your business. Build a strong relationship, focused on trust. Once you've done this, you've essentially increased your staff 10-fold – our network’s advertising team is your advertising team; the accounting team is your accounting team; research team is your research team, etc. Leverage that!

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

1) Get the details on the offer from your rep (from/subjects, promo codes, etc.) 2) Test 3) Optimize and retest.

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

At Clickbooth, our Super Affiliates are our exclusive partners who are doing 6 to 7 figures monthly. Every affiliate has the opportunity to become a Super Affiliate – you just have to be willing to work for it!

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

It would be amazing if we could snap our fingers and rid the industry of networks doing things the wrong way – shorting publishers on payments, ripping publishers pages and stealing their media buy placements, running offers that could get everyone involved in trouble, etc. There are so many companies in the industry that operate with integrity; they deserve better than to be lumped in with the “bad apples”.

Many thanks to Erin for sharing your time with us and for sharing some great insight tips here! If you have any experience with Clickbooth.com, please write a review for them on the Clickbooth 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.