Profile
Chief Marketing Officer at AdPlexity: biggest spy-tool for affiliates in the world. He collaborates with STM Forum and Affiliate World Conferences and runs traffic himself.
Alex has been in the industry for many years and if you visit affiliate conferences yourself, you have most likely have met him in person at one of those crazy parties.
Alex is a super friendly – always smiling person. I met him in Berlin in 2017 and since that time I feel great connection between us.
Page Contents
Tell us what is your current focus? What are you up to?
Right now I’m a CMO at the AdPlexity, a legendary spy service. I do lots of various tasks like lead generation, direct sales, partnerships, marketing automation, hold webinars, PR and SMM for all AdPlexity branches.Except for all of these, I also collaborate with STM Forum and Affiliate World Conferences.
Also, I run some affiliate campaigns, so I keep myself updated on new trends.
Productivity
I equipped my office in the garage of my house, as a true Silicon Valley startupper. A real man cave where great things are done. Click To Tweet
I know you work remotely. Is that still correct?
Yes, I’ve been working remotely for over two years. Before that, I worked in the office for 12 years. But both of them have their advantages.
What’s your favorite part about working remotely?
It’s the ability to manage my time freely. Remote work does not mean that I work less or less efficiently. But, definitely, it affected positively the work and family life balance.
For many years working irregularly in the office I did not see how my daughter was growing; I missed many important moments.
And another important point is the ability to work anytime from anywhere. Now it’s not a problem to travel spontaneously to another country, without wasting time on approves and other bureaucracy.
What’s most challenging for you in your daily work routine?
To focus on big creative tasks. My life is very full, and every day is the swirl of various tasks and directions, chats and calls, mixed with family affairs. It is hard to concentrate only on one task. Now I’ve started bringing together a team, and currently, I feel that it’s getting easier.
Of course, like many others in this world, I struggle with procrastination. Again, the problem is in the number of diverse tasks. At some point, my mind just turns on a protective mechanism, refusing to focus on work.
How does your average working day look like?
I get up at 6:30 a.m., and first I check the statistics, working chats and emails. If I succeed, I answer clients and colleagues from Asia. I may not catch them later for the time difference.
Subscribe to our newsletter!
Start getting insights from leading affiliate marketing experts
Then I take my child to school, and I return home. After that, I have breakfast, sort emails and messengers. Also, several times a week in the mornings, I go in for sports with a trainer. Then I try to complete the high-priority tasks. During the day I can go out for lunch with colleagues or on other matters. I usually work in the evenings. And I go to bed at about midnight.
The best things from real affiliates you can find on forums Click To TweetWhat does your home office look like?
I equipped my office in the garage of my house, as a true Silicon Valley startupper. A real man cave where great things are done.
There is nothing superfluous – an office desk, a notebook with tasks, a cup of tea, MacBook Pro, and speakers that always play music.
And there is the guitar, although this is really a distraction.
How do you manage distractions during the day? Is it a challenge for you?
I have a list of tasks for a month, week, and day. I try to follow the list and finish as many tasks as possible. I know I will always get distracted, but I take this calmly.
I try not to clutch at several top tasks in a day, although the days can be different.
What software do you use for remote work?
- Slack for communications with the team
- Trello for task management within the team
- Pipedrive for lead management
- Sendinblue for marketing automation
- Standard MacOS Notes for some ideas and follow-ups
- Google Docs and Google Drive for sharing some documents and files
- Clickmeeting for webinars
- And all kinds of messengers!
Learning
I am cautious about various affiliate marketing courses. As far as I heard, there are very few great ones Click To Tweet
What are the best books on marketing everyone should read?
Beckwith Harry – Selling the Invisible: A Field Guide to Modern Marketing
I sell services, so I find this book really useful.
I like reading biographies of famous businessmen like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Phil Knight, Jack Welch, etc. I am interested in strategy and logic of thinking when making complex life-changing decisions for a company and career.
Name any blogs that you like to read?
iAmAttila, old articles by Charles Ngo, quite a lot of interesting ones on partnerkin.com
Also, and I follow some local businessmen.
What is the best way to learn affiliate marketing today?
Thank God there is plenty of information today. The best things from real affiliates you can find on forums. The top one is stmforum.com. I have to mention afflift.com and iamaffiliate.com as well. There are lots of videos on YouTube. You can also read different bloggers and attend free educational webinars that are organized by many networks and services, including AdPlexity.
But I am cautious about various affiliate marketing courses. As far as I heard, there are very few great ones.
Another option is to get a job in some kind of CPA network. There you will be definitely taught the basics. And then it will be possible to start on your own 🙂
If you could visit only one conference a year which one would it be?
Affiliate World Europe in Barcelona is a must-have. The largest and most productive event in the affiliate marketing industry. Everyone comes there.
Affiliate Marketing
Most of the talks about affiliate marketing death are started by those who jump from one hot vertical to another, looking for easy money without making efforts. Click To Tweet
What are the hottest verticals right now as you see them?
I can’t single out only one vertical. You can still earn money on dating, gambling, sweepstakes, Nutra, eCommerce, and mobile content.
I have friends who are literally successful in each of these verticals.
In my opinion, you can’t do too many things at the same time. If you are a pro in a particular niche, then you can earn on it forever.
Most of the talks about affiliate marketing death are started by those who jump from one hot vertical to another, looking for easy money without making efforts.
Facebook groups dedicated to AM worth reading?
Also, I’m subscribed to groups of various networks and services.
If you had to start running campaigns today, what traffic source would you choose?
Probably I would start with some really known ones:
PropellerAds, Taboola, MGID, Zeropark, TrafficJunky, and Exoclick for Adult traffic.
There are a lot of user cases and step-by-step guides on how to run traffic from these sources. Also, their account managers are good.
When you have more experience, you’ll be able to try some more exclusive networks.
Any advice for non-obvious spying?
For daily market monitoring, there is nothing better than spy services like AdPlexity.
But the most effective way to get information is through personal connections made at various conferences. Thanks to personal communication, you can get really valuable and unique insights.
It’s also a good idea to follow discussions in Telegram chats.
Thank you for reading
If you enjoy reading our interviews and find them useful, check also our reddit thread and social media pages.
There we post editorial picks, anounses, news and more.
Stay updated!