Self-Proclaimed “World’s #1 Super Affiliate”
So, I use the Google News alerts tool to keep myself up-to-date on what’s going on in the affiliate marketing, search and online media space. You know how it works - you give Google a list of keywords associated with news that you would be interested in (i.e., affiliate marketing, search, PPC management, etc.) and everytime that word is mentioned in a news article Google e-mail’s you notification with a link to the news story. The Google news alert feature is pretty awesome - in talking with other industry insiders we find they all use Google news alert or some variation of it. If you don’t use it sign-up HERE.
Anyway - I got a Google News alert today that I want to share - by the way - you do get quite a bit of junk news that you’ll need to sort through. I was somewhat taken back by the title of the news release - “The Internet’s #1 Super Affiliate Reveals His Secrets of Success.” Here’s a link to the release. The person who put out the release, Ewen Chia (whoever the heck that is), self-proclaims himself as the World’s #1 Super Affiliate.
Well, I guess I’ll get to the point. I’ve been pretty active in the affiliate space since the late 90’s and never heard of Ewen Chia. In addition, pepperjamMANAGEMENT, the affiliate program management division of Pepperjam, has actively managed thousands of affiliates, hundreds of top-performing affiliates, and a couple Super Affiliates (you can count them on five hands since they are so rare) since we began managing programs in early 2000. Who is this self-proclaimed Super Affiliate Ewen Chia? Quite honestly - I don’t know - I’ve never heard of him and neither has anyone I know. If you’ve heard of Ewen Chia please post your comments to this blog.
My guess is this guy is just trying to sell his e-book “Secret Affiliate Weapon.” I would never want to discourage someone from purchasing an e-book, especially if you’re new to affiliate marketing. However, Buyer should Beware when it comes to the author making self-proclaimations about being something they are not. If a 600-pound individual was trying to sell you his secret sauce weight loss formula would you buy it?
October 2nd, 2006 at 12:41 pm
Hey Kris, you make a good point about so-called super affiliates and the e-books that they sell mostly being lies meant to sell the book. The same can be said about most “secrets of adsense” or “secrets of seo” type e-books as well. Most of them seem to be rewritten versions of a few quality resources.
Honestly, I think that if someone is really a #1 Super Affiliate or AdSense publisher or whatever, it wouldn’t be smart to give out your best secrets. The big eBay dropshippers put out tons of books and manuals on how to do exactly what they do and now the eBay dropshipping space is so crowded that even the big dropshippers are going bankrupt. In fact, one of the top 10 eBay sellers was from Lincoln, NE and they went bankrupt in the last year. Of course, the owner did put out his own book that basically explained how he did what he did, so in effect he created his own competition and in some way, his own downfall. Was the $100 charge for his e-book worth it? Obviously not.
Also, what exactly qualifies someone as a “super affiliate”? What is the criteria? Total sales? Monthly sales? Super powers? Vulnerability to kryptonite? I hear “super affiliate” thrown around sometimes, but I’ve never heard an explanation of what makes a super affiliate so super.
A final question: If Pepperjam is a super affiliate, are they a super hero affiliate or super villian? Are you the Lex Luthor or the Superman of the affiliate world Kris?
October 2nd, 2006 at 2:50 pm
Superman….with a team of people a lot smarter than I am.
By the way - thanks for your comments - you’re extremely well written and quite articulate about the industry. Hey - if you’d like to do a guest blog we would love to hear your thoughts.
Kris
October 2nd, 2006 at 5:54 pm
Kris, I’d love to. Shoot me an email and I’ll get going on it. blackbeardseo at gmail dot com. Also, I’ve got a few ideas on some things you can do with wordpress to make this blog a bit better.
October 3rd, 2006 at 8:56 am
Hi Kris,
I’ve definitely heard of Ewen Chia.
Remeber the ‘Chia Pet’? Well thats how he made his first million.
Ok, I’m kidding…
Seriously though, this guy is actually quite big in certain circles, and undoubtedy makes large amounts of money. I can’t really say for sure how good his products are however. He is among the MANY web marketers out there who are a tad too hypey (nice word, eh?) for my liking.
In getting pretty serious about web marketing myself I’ve signed up for a LOT of email newsletters put out by various web marketers, which is probably why I tend to hear more about these guys than some.
The reason you probably have not heard of him is because he sells how-to-make-money-online products, and probably sells a lot of them to people just learning the ropes online.
Have you heard of Rosalind Gardner, Allan Gardyne, Mike Filsaime and Joel Comm? These folks would all be in the same general group as Ewen Chia (although perhaps even more successful).
Peace out
B.
P.S. Thanks for the awesome tip about Google News!! I had NO idea you could get alerts!
October 3rd, 2006 at 11:56 am
B - thanks for your comments. I’ve definitely heard of Rosalind and Joel - the other two folks ring a bell as well. Rosalind speaks at Affiliate Summit and I believe she gets solid attendance - I know she put out a book called the Super Affiliate Handbook that chronicals her making about a half-million bucks in one year - not bad, but the book is probably outdated at this point - I wonder if that money she made was profit or revenue…If it’s revenue I’m not too impressed, if it’s profit - great job Rosalind!
Joel Comm is a really active guy in numerous circles and I’m quite impressed by him. Even if Ewen is a powerful affiliate I’m just a little taken by the fact that he is referring to himself as the largest in the world. I have an industry friend who is building a $15 million compound and makes about $3 million a month in affiliate marketing profit using only Commission Junction - that is big and I don’t expect him to write an e-book anytime soon self-proclaiming that he is the largest affiliate in the world, although he is surely one of the largest. Also - I’ve found that most of the largest Super Affiliates have successfully stayed off the radar screen of public scrutiny - many of these folks have become my friends and I’m more than happy to keep their identity on the DL. Again - thanks for your comments.
October 3rd, 2006 at 3:33 pm
ABSOLUTELY!
In the last year or so (since going full-time with the aff marketing gig) I’ve come to realize that the people making the truly massive amounts of money are the ones you don’t hear too much from!
Luckily there are some exceptions, such as Shoemoney, Markus Frind (Plenty of Fish) etc. Whats really interesting (and bloody ironic) is the fact that all of you serious money makers tend to be very down to earth and cool! Whereas the self-proclaimed gurus are so busy stroking their own (and eachother’s via JV) egos they don’t have much time to mingle with us peasants (unless it involves us pulling out our wallets!).
What’s that saying again…”Those who can’t, teach”? I think the same applies to the web marketing world! LoL
B.
October 7th, 2006 at 1:48 pm
Hi Kris,
This is my first time to come across your blog and I am impressed by the quality of the articles written here.
Well, I too had read about the big claim of Ewen Chia as world’s #1 Super Affiliate few days ago. I did some research in that to verify his claim and found out that his claim to be the world’s #1 super affiliate comes from the results of the affiliate contests held by similar internet marketers - like Mike Filsaime. Most of these internet marketers go for joint ventures to capitalize on other marketers’ lists and hold affiliate contests when they launch a new product . They sell products mainly to other internet marketers or wannabe affiliate marketers - mostly in the domain of digital products - ebooks and software.
However, they are not aware that there are other product domains too where affiliate marketing plays an important role. Hence such claims are valid only for a specific product domain. SO I feel that they can boast their claims only for the contests they participated in order not mislead people.