[SYSOP]

It's that time again - when I pick one of you guys that seems to be a natural at this - and pick your brains to exploit them for the new guys Everyone knows we're not going to dig too deep out of respect, and we're not going to give away secret tactics or exact blue prints.. . .... But Jim is a softy so I managed to pull a lot out of him for you guys :P

Enjoy your reading:

Q: Tell us about yourself - age, location, the type of cat you are etc.

I am 32 and live in Manchester, England. I got married this year to my (and understanding) Wife, Kelly. We love to travel, having visited Cuba, Mexico, Paris, Turkey, Rome, Ireland in past few years. Hoping to make enough money through IM to buy my dream Porsche. I am a Lion!

Q: Before you were an internet marketer, what did you do? How many jobs did you have? How did you make money?

I still have a day job! I am a Project Manager in the Construction industry and I am currently managing the design and construction of two Colleges worth about £95M (approx $175M). I have had two other jobs since I graduated in 2000, both in Project Management.

Q: What was the first thing you ever sold online? It's ok if it was adult related, we won't hold it against you...

It's not Adult related, but it could be considered a dirty word! My first venture into making money online was selling EBOOKS, both on eBay and via my website infoebookstore.co.uk. I started this in 2006 and sold over 2000 very low priced ebooks with a total profit of approximately $1000. I stopped doing this as the customer service side of it was a nightmare and just not worth the hassle for such little gain, eBay and paypal were the biggest winners. I do have a eBay account with over 1400 positive feedback so that is pretty cool.

Q: How did you hear of ClickBank - and what was your first ever campaign?

I think I heard of CB through DP, but it was a long time ago and I can't exactly remember. I started promoting a couple of products on my ebook site and never made a sale, but the first site solely set up to promote Clickbank products was promoting things like RichJerk, affiliate project x and a few other MMO titles. The first site that actually made money and kick-started my interest in Internet Marketing was Paid Online Survey Reviews - Paid Survey Systems and Online Survey Companies Reviewed and Rated, through a mixture of good organic traffic and some PPC I made quite a few sales in January 2008. Then CB had one of their infamous "updates" and I lost money on PPC in February 2008!

Q: If you could give newbies five tips on what NOT to do - what would they be?

1) Do NOT start with PPC until you make some organic sales, you need to know that the products will convert before throwing money away.

2) Do NOT expect an easy ride to riches, whatever the Gurus say, making consistent money online takes a lot of time and effort.

3) Do NOT spend too much time reading and not actually taking action. There is a fine line between research and procrastination.

4) Do NOT worry if ezinearticles reject one of your articles and then you don't get Platinum Status!

5) Do NOT buy domains when you are drunk, you will convince yourself it is great and then in the cold light of day when you check out the competition or the keyword searches it might not so good! My best one has to be when I bought accomod8.com about 10 years ago (thought it was great then realised I was missing a "m", doh!)

Q: And now the five most important parts of your 'make money' ventures that newbies should follow.

1) Pick a high paying niche to start with like Forex, the time, effort and PPC costs will be more worth it than busting a gut for $10-$20 commission.

2) Buy your own domains and hosting, more flexibility, more credibility and more control than free sites. I also use squidoo, blogger, wordpress, synthasite as they rank well in Google results. I find it a good combination.

3) Pre-sell, I don't think I have ever made a sale by direct linking to a product page, that is not to say that the sales pages are no good, but if you can give an independant view on something and explain benefits I have found it helps.

4) Focus, this is still something I am struggling with, especially with Norb releasing so many good products at the moment. Try and focus on one campaign or product at a time, even if it is for a day or a week. I find myself all over the place and have to reign myself in.

5) Choose products from Publishers who help you (like Norb) and I mean by providing great quality graphics, landing pages, email campaigns, videos. These help soo much with the pre-sell. I cannot believe how bad some publishers are at assisting their affiliates, especially as most give you less % per sale than Norb. They don't seem to get it, an affiliate sale is one that they probably wouldn't have had otherwise, so give us a better share and more assistance.

[SYSOP]

Part 2

Q: If all goes well - when do you plan on retiring? Where do you plan on retiring, and which hollywood celebrity are you going to woo as your new honey?

I can't see myself retiring completely for a long time, even if I made a million on the net. Whilst I enjoy the day job, I would love to be able to quit and focus on making money just for me, not my bosses.

I have always said that I would retire to the Turks and Caicos Islands where I was very lucky to visit when I was younger. Absolute paradise - well it was about 20 years ago!

I have a Wife, but she knows my favourite Hollywood Honey is Keira Knightley.

Q: Random but what was one of lifes biggest lessons for you that you carried into your IM career?

This is a tough question. The only thing I can think of is Risk Management. This is a pretty big subject, but I am generally reluctant to take big risks. In my real life I try to avoid putting me or my family at risk whether that be physically or financially. I try to be quite calculated about the risks I will take in my IM life, for example I am very careful with my PPC campaigns so as not to expose myself to big losses.

Q: Where do you see yourself a few years from now? What kinds of goals have you set for yourself?

In a few years I still expect to have a good day job, but have been promoted. I hope to have at least one child and have moved into a bigger house.

From an IM point of view I would like to make a steady income online, the reality is $100 per day would be the same as my Wife's current salary so I would love for her not to have to work and be able to look after our future kids.

My goals are to make an average of $100 per day for the rest of 2008, I would then like to increase that to $200 per day by the middle of 2009. The main thing for me a the moment is diversification, both in Clickbank Niches and also with other affiliate networks, as CB is not as reliable as it should be.

Q: If you could change one thing in this world no matter how big or small - what would it be?

I would improve my Wife's health. I won't go into details, but she has suffered much more than most and is always worried about the future. Sorry, that's a bit deep but it's the first thing that I thought of.

Q: Are you a slave to google?

No, Google works for me! I do prefer organic traffic as it is effectively 100% profit, but I think we should all worry a bit less about our SERPS positions, especially for the product names (thinking about Forex Brotherhood for example). It always amazes me where and how some of my sites rank for random long tails that you weren't even aiming for!

I would not consider myself to be an SEOer but I think I understand the basics and then once they are covered, build the good links and don't worry about it too much.

Q: Is it true that you enjoy eating your dinners and working on your PC in your boxers most days?

Yes, have you been watching me?

Q: How has NicheChoppers helped you if at all in your quest?

Well, I wouldn't have been in a position to be asked these questions if I hadn't found you, your products, this forum and your affiliate materials.

I first found my way over to Nichechoppers when you advertised the LetsDanceLouis product on DP, I was blown away by the graphics, the product, the potential and your offer to help complete newbies.

It is the Forex products that really work for me though as I understand the products, the market and the potential customers. The affiliate materials are like nothing else available, I have noticed some publishers trying to up their game to meet your high standards, but most are just crap!

Q: Do you consider yourself a fair earner or do you just hawk what you can in whatever ways you can? Meaning do you let morals and ethics stand in the way of your money and business?

I think I am fair, I try not lie, but I don't mind suggesting things that could be interpreted in a different way by the customer. As an example, my review sites primarily contain "reviews" or "testimonials" taken from product pages rather than people leaving reviews on the site. Don't get me wrong, if someone submitted a review I would consider putting it up, but mostly I just get spam!

Q: Finally, is there anyone in your life you'd like to thank for helping you get to where you are at?

This is going to sound cheesy, but my Wife has been pretty supportive and understanding throughout my internet ventures, from the early days of messing about with Ebooks on eBay, to me spending hours on Forex related things. I keep reminding her that when I am a dot com millionaire she will understand!

Thanks Norb, if you think it is rubbish I don't mind you telling me, I can take another look at it.
-------------------------

There you have it - what Jimz considers potential rubbish, I would hate to touch - because there is no motive or pitch here - Mr. J. is spilling from his head/heart/and being real - perhaps one of the reasons he is a great earner...

I'm looking forward to interviewing more of you in the upcoming weeks/months, and always expect me to throw a few curve balls at you when I interview you...

Enjoy your day/night and thank you for the interview Jimz (I think your wife is going to give you some brownie points should she read this - and know that you're a marketer so you'll pitch anything to get your conversion :P)

N.

[Vadym]

Congratz on the interview J!

$250 a day by the end of 2009 or bust!

[lucidflux]

Just keep building those colleges, keep those kids away from our niches. Very expensive buildings, hopefully very large to brain wash a bunch of young chavs. Higher education kidz: the only way to make $$$. LOLZZ

Good luck on gettin your Porsche and retiring your lady.

[Athma.M]

Those are some wonderful aspirations, wishing you all the best for you, your wife and the porsche that'll send newbies scurrying over when you tell 'em you made it with IM sales xD.

[inzpiration]

Great interview N! and congratulations to Jimz! well done my friend!

[JIMZ]

Thanks everyone, I really thought it would need some editing as it pretty much just spilled out, I had drunk a few Rum and Cokes!

P.S. I am not a Softy, I am a Double Hard Bastard so don't mess with me!

Jim

[bl4ckmaN^]

Wow, great interview, as usual

It's nice to get to know better the members around here.

MORE INTERVIEWS, MORE!

[JIMZ]

What a surprise, more people are interested in Swerd than little old me!

Not that I'm jealous.... hehe

[SYSOP]

That's because you drop cookies

[JIMZ]

do i? if you saw the size of me you would know I have never dropped a cookie, unless it's down my neck!

[SYSOP]

lol - I had fun making your avatar - I guess I should have put 'cookie server' to be less slang "I drop more cookies than chips ahoy"

[antantnz]

hehe ...

I think it's good to read an interview on Jimz ... I think a lot of new-ish affiliates can relate ... we dream of being Norbs and Swerds in the future ... but we would be happy if we could be Jimz for now

[guptishika]

congratz Jimz,relay an inspiration,hope we recah ur level sme day and be picked up for interview by Norb,wow now dis has bcme my bigest dream to achieve.

[Smitty]

A lot of people dream to get where swerd and NCmedia are. I have advice for you, the best on the internet.

Why are they so successful?

One thing that separates them from other marketers is their creativity and innovative thinking. The second thing that limits most people but they have mastered is actually clocking in the hours. Most people sit on forums ALL day and look for new ebooks and crappy posts, but what they don't know is the real success is usually sitting behind dreamweaver for like 100 hours, typing on microsoft word, and fooling around with graphics in photoshop.

Seriously if you understand that then you will be successful, but only 98.4% of people can actually sit down and do it (focus). Most people that refer to themselves as IM'ers are just people living in a fantasy trying to chase the next big secret.

[SYSOP]

Originally Posted by Smitty

A lot of people dream to get where swerd and NCmedia are. I have advice for you, the best on the internet.

Why are they so successful?

One thing that separates them from other marketers is their creativity and innovative thinking. The second thing that limits most people but they have mastered is actually clocking in the hours. Most people sit on forums ALL day and look for new ebooks and crappy posts, but what they don't know is the real success is usually sitting behind dreamweaver for like 100 hours, typing on microsoft word, and fooling around with graphics in photoshop.

Seriously if you understand that then you will be successful, but only 98.4% of people can actually sit down and do it (focus). Most people that refer to themselves as IM'ers are just people living in a fantasy trying to chase the next big secret.

Very interesting view mate - I must concur with your assessment If it was THAT easy I'd be launching sites and programs ever day while flipping 44 ppc campaigns and reading 16 new ebooks from the 'gurus'... The truth is that I'm in the trenches 99% of the time. Ignorance is never bliss in this world and the only shortcuts you're given are already there - your brain and creative innovations/thinking when deploying your campaigns.

I think affiliates are no different - even by the family here I can tell who puts in the hours and who thinks this will be a piece of cake and fall off quick.

[Smitty]

Oooopps my bad, lol!

I mistyped...

but only 98.4% of people can actually sit down and do it (focus).

I mean't the opposite...

...only 1.6% of people can actually...