Ivan Telnykh recently conducted a fascinating video interview with Mikhail Solovyov, the mastermind behind the Profit Family affiliate marketing team. In the interview, Mikhail discussed his journey as an entrepreneur and affiliate marketer providing insights into the workings of his team.
Mikhail talked about his team's creation, the traffic sources they work with, the verticals they specialize in, their organizational structure, their business turnover, and more. We have compiled the most interesting and valuable parts of the interview into this article.
How Did You Get into Affiliate Marketing?
Mikhail shared that he has been in CPA for over 15 years. He began his career at the age of fourteen, focusing on popular topics of the time such as doorways, spam mailings in ICQ for dating, and selling consumables for site developers. However, things didn't go well with his sites, and he eventually joined an Internet agency where he promoted the websites of various enterprises and organizations through contextual advertising and SEO.
Mikhail noted that doing SEO in 2011-2012 was relatively easy due to the lack of competition. He earned $380 - $650 a month from creating and promoting sites, which was a considerable sum in Perm where he lived, with the average salary being only $125.
Joining Profit Family?
Mikhail joined Nikolai's team as a marketer when one of the Internet agency's clients, Nikolai, the owner of the P1sms website, became interested in his work. His role was to promote the company's new chip, the Zvonobot, and rock the P1sms website. He and his assistant created ten different sites to promote the same service, ensuring the top spots in search queries.
After some time, Mikhail assembled his marketing department into Nikolai's team, became the marketing director, and was responsible for the company's strategy in this direction. The P1SMS service provided various services to affiliate marketers, including parsing phone numbers from bulletin boards to carry out spam mailings.
As the company grew, the team switched to other ways of earning, and one of the first affiliate marketing options was running financial offers from Facebook. They ran ad campaigns for users who filled out lead forms with financial offers, and the use of a clocker helped to increase profitability.
About Profit Family
Mikhail's team currently employs twenty people, including three developers, two product managers, and two teams of buyers comprising eight and seven people each. The team operates in Kazakhstan and Russia.
The company's turnover is at a 6-figures level, and Mikhail reinvests most of his earnings back into the business, keeping around $2 500 for himself. He notes that this amount is enough for him to live comfortably in Perm.
Why an Office in Perm?
When asked why he didn't move his profitable business to Moscow, Mikhail gave several reasons, including the high cost of office rent and the need to pay higher wages to employees. His Perm programmers receive a salary of around $900, while their Moscow counterparts would require a much higher price tag.
The Benefits of Working Within a Company Structure
When asked about being a sole owner of his team, Mikhail Solovyov of the Profit Family affiliate marketing team explained that working within a company structure was more convenient, allowing for easier resolution of legal, accounting, and HR issues, as well as greater access to capital.
The Scandinavian Business Management Model
Solovyov believes in the Scandinavian model of business management, where each employee is given the power to make independent decisions while being accountable for their results. He values maintaining friendly relationships with employees both in and outside of work, seeing it as essential to building a warm atmosphere in the office.
The Working Day of an Affiliate Marketing CEO
Solovyov says that his workday begins at noon, with a focus on maintaining relationships within the affiliate team and managing finances. He spends time discussing new offers and potential income streams with team managers and finishes work at around 7 pm.
The Future of Affiliate Marketing
Ivan Telnykh and his team have interviewed advertisers to determine the most significant traffic generators in the industry. They found that many top MFIs believe that marketplaces, rather than affiliate networks, are now responsible for generating the majority of traffic.
Solovyov believes that while marketplaces are currently unprofitable, they will eventually displace affiliate programs from the financial niche due to the owners' access to more advanced technologies and greater financial resources.
Solovyov predicts that affiliates who invest in technology and innovation will eventually create their e-commerce sites and compete with global marketplaces, resulting in the disappearance of current financial affiliate programs.
Best Affiliate Networks in the Finance Niche
Solovyov identifies LeadGid and GuruLeads as the leading financial affiliate programs currently on the market.
This review is based solely on his relationships with the owners of these CPA networks. The first affiliate program on the list offers Mikhail the best business conditions and is the only network that Profit Family works with. Most of the offers that the team works with come directly from advertisers.
In contrast, Ivan finds it more convenient to work with affiliate networks than direct advertising. The convenience lies in the fact that when the postback is rejected, the money can be immediately allocated into the advertising account without waiting for payment from the advertiser.
For example, when working with a direct advertiser, one needs to spend about $13 000 in advertising and wait until a certain date in the following month to withdraw $17 000. However, in the case of an affiliate program, Telnykh manages to turn over the same $13 000 three times over the same period and, accordingly, withdraw profits three times.
Mikhail Solovyov's top four direct advertisers in the financial vertical are: "Zimer," "ECabbage," "Money Man," and "Before the Paycheck."
Conclusion
To conclude, we have included some short answers from the interviewee to some interesting questions posed by the author.
Q: What do you think is the ceiling turnover in the financial vertical that is impossible for the affiliate marketing team to jump?
Probably, this bar is $1 000 000. In my experience, the most challenging thing was to overcome the $10 000. When you have not yet developed connections with advertising and affiliate programs, there are no normal rates, and in general, you still do not fully understand the market. Overcoming the $50 000 bar was much more manageable, and from $50 to $100 000 it turned out to be even easier.
Q: What offers or verticals related to MFIs do you recommend promoting?
If you see in your database that you can't convert anywhere else for a user, then you can focus on "bankruptcy."
Q: What promising Geos could you highlight?
Asian markets, but currently, they can only be promoted through Google UAC. In Latin America, I would only highlight Mexico, but there are no direct advertisers there; it is only possible to work through brokers. In this regard, the same user cannot be sold to different MFIs.
Q: What are your hobbies?
Motocross, electronic music, and affiliate marketing.
