Profile
Super affiliate, blogger, opinion leader.
Servando has been an affiliate marketer since 2012. Starting with SEO and FB organic traffic moved to paid ads to scale his business later in 2013.
He’s been running CPA offers in different trends and traffic sources including mobile pops, push ads, Facebook and native in different verticals like mobile apps, sweepstakes, gambling, finance and more.
He also focuses on building digital assets that can provide value and later be sold. He regularly posts in his blog (servandosilva.com) and is very active on Afflift forum helping others to master their affiliate skills.
Interview
Tell us what is your current focus? What are you up to?
My current focus is on building digital assets through paid traffic and affiliate marketing. I’ve been working on this objective for several years already.
Productivity
Without money, you won’t be able to take action. However, even if you have money, with the wrong mindset you won’t achieve anything Click To Tweet
How do you organize your working place for maximum efficiency?
I have a simple but minimalist desk setup. A laptop in a laptop stand and a 4k monitor as my main display. Besides that, there’s a plant and proper lighting but that’s it. I don’t take notes on paper and I don’t have dozens of stuff lying around in my workspace to distract me.
I don’t tend to suffer from burnouts often as I enjoy what I do Click To TweetYour number three DON’TS during a working week?
- DON’T drink during the week and barely drink any weekends lately
- DON’T skip exercise
- DON’T skip my 8 hours sleep.
How do you sustain your energy level during a working day?
If for some reason I have lower energy levels it’s probably got to be the food from that day. In that case, I take 30-60 minutes extra to rest or take a quick power nap and get back to charge. Otherwise, I don’t suffer from energy loss besides when my body feels it’s time to eat again.
If you must accomplish something you don’t want to, how do you go about it?
Great question. There are always processes or stuff you don’t want to and there’s always an excuse to avoid it for the day.
If that’s the case I try to schedule it as the second activity of the day, just after checking and cleaning my email inbox so I can attack that problem with energy and feel the pressure of having to finish it before moving to other things I enjoy more.
However, I’m guilty of procrastinating sometimes when there’s something I must do and I really don’t want to. Adding it to my pending notes works well because I hate not being able to mark something as done (similar to my inbox 0 policy).
Many online courses either paid or “free” have made me what I’m today and helped me define the way I do things Click To TweetSubscribe to our newsletter!
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How many hours do you tend to work on a normal day?
I’ve been measuring my work time for a while and if I only count focused work where I’m really taking action the average is between 5-6 hours per day. Usually half or more before lunchtime.
What do you do to prevent burnouts at work?
Traveling around the world or taking a quick road trip for a week are great ways to get my energy back from burnout. However, I don’t tend to suffer from burnouts often as I enjoy what I do.
What does your task management system look like?
I’m simple and future proof. Everything is managed between a couple of apps on my phone/laptop using tasks management apps and notes. I’ve been doing it for years and it works for me. Before I used to do a similar thing but with a physical drawing board and notebooks.
Learning
Have you taken any online courses?
Of course. Many online courses either paid or “free” have made me what I’m today and helped me define the way I do things. Those are the skills that I’ve gathered in the last 8 years while working full time online and every year I try to invest in at least 1-3 courses to learn more stuff and keep me updated in the latest trends as this is a fast-moving industry.
The only recommendation I can add here is to avoid becoming a theory learner who never takes action. Learning is fun but if you keep learning all the time you’ll never put into practice anything and that sucks.
What are the most golden topics on Afflift anyone should read?
Wow, that’s a hard question to answer. I’d say the most interesting for me are the follow alongs where people are able to turn a test campaign into profits or at least to move the needle to be close to profiting while posting their actions and learning.
Everybody loves a good follow along that is updated regularly until it reaches that point.
what has been happening already for a few years is the trend of moving to build assets and playing by the rules Click To TweetBesides that, there are a few guides that can become handy but those are mostly for new people in the industry. However, you can always log in to AffLift and search the forums by views or comments to see what’s hot 🙂
What are the best posts/articles related to AM everyone would better read carefully?
Arg. Another great question but too difficult to answer. Some of my favorite articles related to AM but not really focused on it are the ones that are more of a personal thought instead of guides or case studies. But that’s just me.
Attila has had a few ones, and also CharlesNGO and sometimes I even re-read some posts from Finchsells and MalanDarras. As I said, the level of interest an article sparks on you depends on your stage and your focus.
What are the things any affiliate marketer must be able to do and need to learn ASAP.
Definitely learn the basics of HTML and CSS. Also, you will need to learn tracking quickly and finally I want to add you need to realize your shared hosting from an EIG provider won’t be good enough for landing pages or trackers.
Affiliate Marketing
Keep an eye on in-page push ads, though, which is the new kid in the block and it acts as a banner/notification. If it gets enough momentum it can be easily profitable until people catch up with it in a year or so. Click To Tweet
What kind of traffic do you work with yourself?
Search (organic), Pops, Push, Redirects and FB.
What are your thoughts on the future of AM?
In the near future, I don’t think there will be any huge changes. However, what has been happening already for a few years is the trend of moving to build assets and playing by the rules. That is going to keep going for a few years until it covers a wide spectrum of the business I’d say.
Keep an eye on in-page push ads, though, which is the new kid in the block and it acts as a banner/notification. If it gets enough momentum it can be easily profitable until people catch up with it in a year or so.
What are the top three most talked topics right now in the world of Affiliate Marketing?
The always coming doom of push notifications, the difficulty of running FB ads without getting banned and how many networks have closed down lately paired with automation.
What is even more important than money to have upon your start in AM?
Mindset. Without money, you won’t be able to take action. However, even if you have money, with the wrong mindset you won’t achieve anything and you’ll just feel like you “lost” your money.
Advise the best 3 verticals/ niches for starting now?
- Sweepstakes
- Building push subscribers
- Dating
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