Interview: Kushagra Srivastava (SparxEssence)

We're very excited to present our 47th interview with Kushagra Srivastava of SparxEssence. Born and raised in India, and currently residing in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Kushagra Srivastava is an aspiring internet marketer and entrepreneur who co-founded Sparxessence. He started affiliate marketing at the age of 14 and now at the age of 18 he has his own company and much time to live off the affiliate income he is making. He finished school at St. Aloysius High School in Kanpur and is now looking to study computer engineering. He is also working as system administrator in Citadel Systems. His goal is to make Sparxessence one of the best affiliate networks out there, and with his hard work and persistence; he's bound to reach his goal soon.

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

I had a dream to be successful in an early age and had a passion for Computers and Internet at the age of 10 never thought this would work out this well for me, especially when you are an Indian. I started affiliate marketing at the age of 14 and learned a lot from co-workers, friends and others and now at the age of 18, I have a successful company running under me and I plan to take it to greater heights. I am currently living in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh in India.

2. How long have you been working in this industry and how did you get involved?What/Who inspired you to enter it?

I am having an experience of 4 years in affiliate marketing and I got involved into it just by my passion to flourish internet marketing in India so that it can become a recognizable profession. People who inspired me were owner of Citadel Systems and presently my partner in Sparxessence Suresh Jacob.

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

I could live of my affiliate income in a month or two after starting Sparxessence. But I want to become financially independent and live my dreams! That is why I am working real hard behind Sparxessence.

4. What has been your biggest success to date?What was the biggest mistake you made when you first started doing Affiliate Marketing?

My biggest success to date was to convince my parents not to poke me again for studying real hard to live a common man life. My biggest mistake was to drop the plan of working in affiliate marketing after a failure of one of my campaign.

5. Tell us a bit more about SparxEssence and what you do over there?

Affiliate Network Sparxessence is a leading performance-based online advertising network that delivers amazing results for its Advertisers and Publishers. In the Sparxessence network, Advertisers can count on a consistent volume of Leads/Sales while Publishers can be rest assured that they are monetizing their ad inventory to the fullest extent with the highest payouts on the net. I am one of the Affiliate Manager and marketing and support head in Sparxessence.

6. There are quite a few other CPA affiliate networks around - why did you start another one? What makes SparxEssence different? Why should affiliates consider joining SparxEssence?

There are a few other networks out there but there was a need to start another one that can help affiliates if they ask for in their campaigns. If an affiliate is doing good then awarding them with higher payout without him even asking for it also suggesting them new methods to kick start any campaign. And besides all this we have a whole range of offers to choose from which is around 2500+.

7. Does SparxEssence have any exclusive offers that other networks don't have?

I never been to many networks so I cant comment on this one but I will make sure that we have more than 2500+ offers unlike many other networks.

8. What kinds of offers are doing well right now on your network?

Dating, email submits, insurance offers are doing really well for us right now.

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

PPC, Social and Media Buying.

10. I see you are using HasOffers as your affiliate network platform. What made you pick them instead of choosing LinkTrust, DirectTrack, Cake Marketing or HitPath etc.? Do you have a plan to create your own network platform?

There wasn’t any specific reason why we picked HasOffers. As it was our first time we thought of to go with the one that is working out for others,we are very happy with our decision as of now and we don’t plan to change our tracking platform any sooner.

11. Does SparxEssence accept affiliates outside the US/Canada?

Yes we do, and we accept affiliates around the whole world but only quality affiliates and we keep a check on them by our fraud management team.

12. What are the criteria for an affiliate to be accepted at SparxEssence? How does SparxEssence prevent and handle fraud?

We have a team for it that takes care of that and we have 0% fraud tolerance for shady techniques used by affiliates.

13. Does SparxEssence offer free training for newbie affiliates?

Yes we do! Affiliate Manager assigned for every affiliate will help affiliates with their campaigns or suggest them how to start a new campaign.

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

I am sort of an insomniac and most of the time I am available via mobile I take care of anything during the night time and my partners during the day time we are online more than 20 hours a day to help our affiliates.

15. In your opinion, what are the best places for a newbie affiliate to learn affiliate marketing? What tips/tricks would you give them to lift their performance?

I would suggest newbie affiliates not to read stuff and all, just start off with any technique they heard about that makes money from the start, just start over with it and experience all the problem it will have in the start, sort them out and you will start making money but invest time on the technique and if you have 0$ output from it in a month then change your plan. The only trick is read things only when you don’t have any idea of what you want or you are stuck at a problem you need a solution

16. In your experience, what are the three most critical elements of running a profitable campaign?

(1) Have a plan ready (2) Don’t procrastinate (3) If you fail accept it, don’t keep on continuing the same failure to prove that you were right when you started it

17. What are the differences between a Super Affiliate and an Average Affiliate?

Super Affiliate is an affiliate that has executed everything well and is following a whitehat plan making a killing. Same goes for the average except he is not making a killing but good enough.

18. What has been your biggest success so far as an Affiliate Manager / Owner?

My biggest success so far as an AM is that, I never left any of ours affiliate disappointed whenever they had a chat with me regarding any problem they are facing and hope that it continues for as long as we continue.

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

As always the affiliate industry is going up and up, With more people getting involved due to one of the best factor of this field, and that is work at home that is what everyone wants. Sparxessence is also going up in terms of traffic, affiliates, advertisers, profits and everything.

20. What are SparxEssence's goals in 2011?

To become India’s Number 1 Affiliate Network and as well as one of the renowned network worldwide!

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

My hobbies include playing billiards, listening to songs, watch movies, enjoy with friends my favorite movie in the latest flicks is fast five and my all-time favorite is Girl next door, I loved it because it teach me what moral fiber exactly is.

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

Sleeping at 6 Am LOL! Waking up at 1 PM have breakfast or lunch whatever after getting fresh… Have a look at stats of how well the network Is doing… do work for around 2-3 hours then start up my car pick up some friend go to play billiards and then have some food at a restaurant then come back home listen to songs and then start working on my network till the morning!

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