Attila is a well-recognized name in the world of affiliate marketing. His blog offers on-point advice on how to generate paid traffic and CPA marketing. He adopts a brutally honest and direct approach that you need to grow your business.
Cloudways: You have a rather unique name. Is it inspired by the famous historical figure?
Attila: I was named after, you said it – the historical figure, aka Attila The Hun. The name is very common in Hungary (actually the 3rd most common name according to students of the world)
Luckily, I am the only Attila in the world of affiliates and have earned a bit of recognition.
Cloudways: How did your journey in affiliate marketing start?
Attila: I started in affiliate marketing a long, long time ago, without knowing I was doing affiliate marketing. Back in the 90s, when I was 15 years old and built warez sites for fun and slapped banner ads on them, I got paid per click. Then I took a long break and went back into it full time in 2008. I started with SEO, and when things got hard with Panda/Penguin/Hummingbird, I switched to Paid Ads.
Cloudways: How was your experience of selling web hosting?
Attila: When I was 15 years old, I purchased my first domain name and hosting account through a company named NetNation. I went in person to their downtown office to do this and was given the tour of their data center. I loved the atmosphere so much after finishing high school, at age 17, I decided I want to work there. I had to send my resume for 6 months straight every other day before they called me for an interview, because I didn’t have any work experience, nor the 2 years of university education that they asked for. Selling web hosting was fun because I was a tech guy and sales guy in one; this unique combination of skill allowed me to come up with great solutions super fast that got me a lot of my customers.
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Cloudways: What factors an affiliate should consider before choosing a hosting provider to promote?
Attila: Speed, how fast it loads in the target geolocation, and the support. Actually support and speed go hand in hand, if either is lacking the hosting company sucks and I won’t consider them.
Cloudways: What was the thought behind creating the affiliate specific forum, iAmAffiliate?
Attila: To be able to share things I don’t want to be posted publicly, not even on my blog, and help a select group of people that take action.
Cloudways: How exactly does iAmAffiliate works and benefits affiliates?
Attila: We discuss new methods that work in at the moment, and run case studies and experiments to determine what happens if. One of the biggest values aside from a lot of up to date knowledge in the affiliate marketing space – the biggest benefit to people is being able to get 1 on 1 ‘hand-holding’ help from me and other highly experienced affiliate marketers that know their stuff.
Cloudways: How would you compare affiliate marketing practices of today and say, two years back? What is the one thing you would like to change about the current affiliate industry?
Attila: These days you really need to be a good marketer to succeed; rip n run is dying. You get banned, you can’t run a lot of the offers that converted like fire before. Many great offers died due to banking regulations, or carrier rules and policy changes. Things are getting harder in the rip n run space; you really have to put in way more work and think harder than ever before.
Cloudways: Niche selection has always been a challenge for beginners. What are your three tips for selecting the right niche for affiliate marketing?
Attila: Pick a niche you believe in. For me, ecommerce and lead generation are the top niches I believe in. I think they will be around forever, it’s not something policy can kill or Mark Zuckerberg can ban. Businesses will always need new customers (leads) and products will always need to be sold (ecommerce)
Cloudways: From losing all of your money organizing EDM parties in Serbia to finding success online and building millions of dollars in assets, zero debt, with no mortgages. Was it all just luck? What advice do you have for struggling affiliate marketers?
Attila: It was very hard to lose everything and have to start from zero. If it wasn’t for my wife Dora who suggested I should look into what my friend Konrad from Mechbunny was doing online, this “success” might have never happened. It was luck and destiny, or maybe it was good karma since I always helped people and continue to do so today – I get it back through karma, that’s what I believe.
Of course, I take action, fail lots, and get up and try again too. I work super hard, harder than anyone else I know and continue to learn and evolve and adapt.
Cloudways: What are the top two mistakes affiliate marketers make, and what’s your advice for avoiding them
Attila: There are many mistakes affiliates make. First, they don’t have all the skills needed to make it in the affiliate world. Second, they might test with $20 and give up. Or they might continue testing an unproven offer because they believe it’s an awesome offer – and lose all their money (I’ve been a victim of this myself multiple times)
Cloudways: Highly optimized content OR focus on PPC ads. And why?
Attila: Paid Ads give you faster results. But these days you need highly optimized landing pages to get higher conversions so what is a must for SEO is blending with paid ads.
Cloudways: When you realize your campaign has a below-average conversion rate, how would you optimize it for improved performance?
Attila:
- Test more creatives (ads/landing pages)
- Test headlines
- Block placements
Cloudways: Let’s step away from work. What are your hobbies? What do you do to relax and unwind?
Attila: I like to learn new things, read books; play with tech stuff, BBQ (now playing with texas style offset smoking), watch movies, go on long road trips, listen to Deep House music, go on family vacations. Since I am an introvert, the COVID-19 quarantine was actually quite awesome. I am not a fan of big crowds, they wear me down and I feel super tired.
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Cloudways: Here’s your chance to freestyle: What would you advise the younger Attila?
Attila: Get into paid advertising sooner!
Cloudways: Last question. Who should we interview next in this series on Affiliate Marketing Experts?
Attila: Matuloo, He is the top STM moderator.
