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The other day, I got an idea while I was in the shower...
My friend, Servando Silva (@servandosilva), may not like to hear that I was thinking about him while I was in the shower, but I got an idea for the forum. I should "interview" some of the members here. We have plenty of members already who have a ton of experience in the affiliate industry. Servando is one of them
So, I reached out to see if he was interested in doing an interview and he said he was.
Servando has been a friend of mine in the affiliate marketing industry for quite some time now. He's an affiliate on PeerFly and is active in most affiliate forums like ours. He has been doing affiliate marketing for awhile now and has a great blog where he documents his affiliate marketing and making money online: https://servandosilva.com
(Servando Silva and I in 2016 at Affiliate Summit)
Let's start with a fun question and one everyone really wants to know...
How much is the most you have made in a single day with affiliate marketing?
One day we broke over 12k but making over 5 figures per day has only happened a few times and I can count them with my fingers literally. I prefer talking about monthly figures because a lot of times affiliates can make a lot of money one day and make zero 2 weeks later. Our best months we've done 150k-200k per month with affiliate offers.
What is the most you've lost in a single day? I know for my own experience, I try to block out losses pretty quickly, but give me an estimate if you can't remember.
I think the worst day we lost around $1,500 during an afternoon while I was away camping with my friends without 3G signal and WiFi access. This usually happens when you have a problem in your campaign or when you are launching campaigns at 3am in the morning without realizing you added an extra 0 in your budgets.
Honestly I have had a 2-3 errors like this only and learned from them so it's been a while since last time. Here I am knocking wood so it won't happen again.
What is your favorite hobby?
Computers and consumer electronics used to be my favorite hobbies back when I got started 6 years ago. I also play guitar but sometimes I just think I'm so busy that I don't do it for weeks.
Nowadays I still love anything tech related but my main hobbies have shifted and are now learning new business strategies (it's like watching a thriller movie and I won't stop until I went all over the information available online) and traveling around the world with people I love at least 2-3 times per year.
What is 1 skill you've learned since starting affiliate marketing that has helped you the most with getting your campaigns profitable?
Having a cold heart about money and budgets. Being an entrepreneur and not to mention an affiliate can be a stressing ride over the years. Since you're putting your own money on risk every time you launch a campaign feelings can be hard to manage and lead to bad decisions (business wise).
1 skilled I have learned very well is that every time you put money in a campaign you're investing into something to get data and learn from it. Even if you fail, you're still learning from your mistakes and getting closer to success.
Learning how to lose money properly reducing risks and taking decisions based on what your data says is one of the best skills you can learn for any business. Also, the crypto world helped us learn that much faster this year haha. Whenever I see the value of some coins dropping I just laugh and keep focused on my other businesses.
You are a full-time affiliate. How long did it take you to accomplish that?
1 year.
I started as a blogger in 2012 as I already had a lot of experience back from 2006-2010 but I never had to worry about finances, traffic stats and money back then. This time it was different.
Once I started working on it it took me literally 1 year to make the leap and go full time once I started earning a similar amount of money as i was being paid back then in the company I was working for.
I started working just 1-2 hours per day after work (7-9pm or sometimes after dinner between 10pm-midnight) and it took me 3 months to see my first USD in earnings.
I had no fear as the worst thing that could happen was having to get a new job a few months later. I had no compromises, no kids, no forced rent to pay, etc. so all the cards were in my favor and I decided to play them and change my future.
I have never regretted it in the last 6 years
What is 1 thing we can add to affLIFT to make it better? This can be something the community does or something I do personally to make the forum better.
I think Afflift is growing quite well for being in a niche so targeted like affiliate marketing. You're already creating guides, doing competitions, giving away bonuses for traffic networks, etc. Patience and persistence is what Afflift needs and hopefully next year it will grow a lot more.
Maybe adding a moderating team that also works on guides besides yourself could help you ease that bottleneck
What is your least favorite part about affiliate marketing?
The rollercoaster of emotions sometimes can be hard when you lose some good campaigns. Also, the industry itself can be very shady, including affiliates, advertisers, networks, offers, etc.
Finally, when you work as an affiliate only you're helping someone else build their business while taking profits. But the business is never yours until you create your own. A lot of people moved to Shopify stores because of that thought.
What is your favorite part about affiliate marketing?
Freedom. What's more to say here? We're all here because of money AND freedom I suspect
Where do you see the industry in 3-5 years?
The industry evolves quickly so in 3-5 years we could have a couple more new traffic sources (different type of ads) plus a much more regulated space in the big networks, making people shift into white hat offers, ecommerce, courses and building their own (not too shady) businesses. It looks like this cycle is going back to the basics of marketing.
What is one question I should have asked you that I haven't? Please answer it as well.
There are many stories I'd like to share eventually, so why don't we make this post an AMA (Ask Me Anything) and we'll let the people in the forum participate with their own questions
Luke: I think this is a great idea. Feel free to post your questions for Servando in the replies below!
LAST QUESTION: Because PeerFly has such a relaxed culture, we ask this question in every interview for a new hire. It always throws people off, but the answers are always fun:
What is your favorite swear word?
I guess my swear word is "fuck" and a lot of people use it as it works in many situations with an auxiliar word or alone. This only happens in English though as i don't really tend to swear at all in Spanish.
I really appreciate you being a part of our community, Servando. I've learned a lot from you over the years and I am happy to be able to call you a friend.
Onward and upward
My friend, Servando Silva (@servandosilva), may not like to hear that I was thinking about him while I was in the shower, but I got an idea for the forum. I should "interview" some of the members here. We have plenty of members already who have a ton of experience in the affiliate industry. Servando is one of them
So, I reached out to see if he was interested in doing an interview and he said he was.
Servando has been a friend of mine in the affiliate marketing industry for quite some time now. He's an affiliate on PeerFly and is active in most affiliate forums like ours. He has been doing affiliate marketing for awhile now and has a great blog where he documents his affiliate marketing and making money online: https://servandosilva.com
Servando Silva Interview
(Servando Silva and I in 2016 at Affiliate Summit)
Let's start with a fun question and one everyone really wants to know...
How much is the most you have made in a single day with affiliate marketing?One day we broke over 12k but making over 5 figures per day has only happened a few times and I can count them with my fingers literally. I prefer talking about monthly figures because a lot of times affiliates can make a lot of money one day and make zero 2 weeks later. Our best months we've done 150k-200k per month with affiliate offers.
What is the most you've lost in a single day? I know for my own experience, I try to block out losses pretty quickly, but give me an estimate if you can't remember.I think the worst day we lost around $1,500 during an afternoon while I was away camping with my friends without 3G signal and WiFi access. This usually happens when you have a problem in your campaign or when you are launching campaigns at 3am in the morning without realizing you added an extra 0 in your budgets.
Honestly I have had a 2-3 errors like this only and learned from them so it's been a while since last time. Here I am knocking wood so it won't happen again.
What is your favorite hobby?Computers and consumer electronics used to be my favorite hobbies back when I got started 6 years ago. I also play guitar but sometimes I just think I'm so busy that I don't do it for weeks.
Nowadays I still love anything tech related but my main hobbies have shifted and are now learning new business strategies (it's like watching a thriller movie and I won't stop until I went all over the information available online) and traveling around the world with people I love at least 2-3 times per year.
What is 1 skill you've learned since starting affiliate marketing that has helped you the most with getting your campaigns profitable?Having a cold heart about money and budgets. Being an entrepreneur and not to mention an affiliate can be a stressing ride over the years. Since you're putting your own money on risk every time you launch a campaign feelings can be hard to manage and lead to bad decisions (business wise).
1 skilled I have learned very well is that every time you put money in a campaign you're investing into something to get data and learn from it. Even if you fail, you're still learning from your mistakes and getting closer to success.
Learning how to lose money properly reducing risks and taking decisions based on what your data says is one of the best skills you can learn for any business. Also, the crypto world helped us learn that much faster this year haha. Whenever I see the value of some coins dropping I just laugh and keep focused on my other businesses.
You are a full-time affiliate. How long did it take you to accomplish that?1 year.
I started as a blogger in 2012 as I already had a lot of experience back from 2006-2010 but I never had to worry about finances, traffic stats and money back then. This time it was different.
Once I started working on it it took me literally 1 year to make the leap and go full time once I started earning a similar amount of money as i was being paid back then in the company I was working for.
I started working just 1-2 hours per day after work (7-9pm or sometimes after dinner between 10pm-midnight) and it took me 3 months to see my first USD in earnings.
I had no fear as the worst thing that could happen was having to get a new job a few months later. I had no compromises, no kids, no forced rent to pay, etc. so all the cards were in my favor and I decided to play them and change my future.
I have never regretted it in the last 6 years
What is 1 thing we can add to affLIFT to make it better? This can be something the community does or something I do personally to make the forum better.I think Afflift is growing quite well for being in a niche so targeted like affiliate marketing. You're already creating guides, doing competitions, giving away bonuses for traffic networks, etc. Patience and persistence is what Afflift needs and hopefully next year it will grow a lot more.
Maybe adding a moderating team that also works on guides besides yourself could help you ease that bottleneck
What is your least favorite part about affiliate marketing?The rollercoaster of emotions sometimes can be hard when you lose some good campaigns. Also, the industry itself can be very shady, including affiliates, advertisers, networks, offers, etc.
Finally, when you work as an affiliate only you're helping someone else build their business while taking profits. But the business is never yours until you create your own. A lot of people moved to Shopify stores because of that thought.
What is your favorite part about affiliate marketing?Freedom. What's more to say here? We're all here because of money AND freedom I suspect
Where do you see the industry in 3-5 years?The industry evolves quickly so in 3-5 years we could have a couple more new traffic sources (different type of ads) plus a much more regulated space in the big networks, making people shift into white hat offers, ecommerce, courses and building their own (not too shady) businesses. It looks like this cycle is going back to the basics of marketing.
What is one question I should have asked you that I haven't? Please answer it as well.There are many stories I'd like to share eventually, so why don't we make this post an AMA (Ask Me Anything) and we'll let the people in the forum participate with their own questions
Luke: I think this is a great idea. Feel free to post your questions for Servando in the replies below! LAST QUESTION: Because PeerFly has such a relaxed culture, we ask this question in every interview for a new hire. It always throws people off, but the answers are always fun:What is your favorite swear word?
I guess my swear word is "fuck" and a lot of people use it as it works in many situations with an auxiliar word or alone. This only happens in English though as i don't really tend to swear at all in Spanish.
I really appreciate you being a part of our community, Servando. I've learned a lot from you over the years and I am happy to be able to call you a friend.
Onward and upward
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