Who are you and what are you currently working on?
I’m the Director of Marketing at Tuck.com, a digital sleep health and product review publication. We test and review everything from mattresses to snoring devices, while writing at-length content about sleep for our 1m monthly readers.
Right now, I’m working between our content and development teams to enliven our in-article experience for our audience. It’s something we always have an eye towards, so that we’re providing the best possible platform for our users. Simultaneously, I am always involved in testing products and giving expertise in the review process.
How did you get started in affiliate marketing? What keeps you excited about it?
Working at Tuck.com has been my first foray in affiliate. Having been involved in the Tuck project for three years, I’ve certainly gotten my feet wet. Before Tuck, I was adjacent to affiliate marketing working in home finance lead generation, so it wasn’t such a wild deviation for me.
Affiliate and digital marketing keeps you on your toes all the time. Everything you do is an iterative improvement, always elevating. You can’t rest on your laurels and that keeps you laser focused.
What is one piece of advice you would give a newbie affiliate marketer? What is one piece of advice they should ignore?
Much of what you’ll do is blocking and tackling, grunt work so to speak. Make sure you stay motivated and keep your eyes on the prize. Stay hungry.
Don’t accept every partnership that lands on your plate. Be selective, finding and nurturing the relationships that help define your niche and have long-term potential.
What has been your favorite mistake? A mistake in retrospect led to a great lesson and progress in your affiliate marketing?
Learning to not get attached to the projects has helped me be able to pivot. Affiliate marketing can be boom or bust, so you have to know when to turn on a dime in a different direction. That only comes with experience and making mistakes.
What is one piece of software or web service (besides Geniuslink) that allows you to be more effective as an affiliate marketer?
I don’t think you can be an effective affiliate marketer of any sort without understanding search trends. Knowing what people are looking for and providing a gateway to that is what it all boils down to. SEMrush is the best toolset you can find for that.
How do you continue to educate yourself as an affiliate marketer? What are some of your favorite resources for learning?
I’m a big fan of an email newsletter and to that point, the Stacked Marketer daily thread is highly relevant and contains good snippets of information. As an SEO, a lot of my educational reading is related to changes in the industry and case studies.
If people wanted to connect with you, where should we point them to?
Point them to Tuck.com!