Part 1 : The road to success

Allan, there must have been a time when you decided to kick in the day job and devote yourself fully to your net business. What prompted that decision - was there a defining moment when you knew the Internet was your future?
There certainly was. I'll never forget that day. Late in 1998 the Fraser Coast Chronicle, where I was working part-time by choice, was short-staffed and persuaded me to work full-time for six weeks. By then, I was frantically busy with AssociatePrograms.com and really ought to have refused, but I didn't. So I ended up with two full-time jobs, working from dawn to midnight - and sometimes later - struggling to cope with the e-mails and submissions to the directory.

One day when I went to work at the Chronicle I was so dog-tired that instead of going to my desk I walked straight into the editor's office and quit. I think she was as surprised as I was. Then I went back to my desk and told the people near me that I was leaving so that I could concentrate on my REAL job. Boy, that felt so good! I think my wife, Joanna, was the fourth person I told. My excuse for that lapse is that I was so tired I wasn't thinking straight.

So you swapped the rat race for the idyll of rural Queensland. But it sounds like you're pretty busy these days - no regrets about joining the "mouse" race?
No regrets whatsoever. For 10 years before I "quit my day job" I'd been working only part-time, leaving me lots of time to learn such hobbies as designing our pole house, taking a landscape design course, and writing a book of gluten-free recipes. (I sold my first electronic "book" in May, 1996.)

I'm a firm believer in quality of life and, for me, quality of life includes being my own boss. I like making my own decisions. The worst day working for myself - when yet another thief copies part of my site or when I have horrendous technical problems with the database - is still better than working for someone else.

What does a typical day involve?
For the past year, I've spent nearly all my time simply answering e-mail and wading through the ton of newsletters and mailing lists to which I subscribe. All sorts of important things, such as improving the site and promoting it, weren't being done. I've finally dug myself out of that rut by hiring my third full-time employee, Nick Jones (I also have four part-timers). Right now I'm in the middle of training Lou Salt to take over much of my workload. After more than four years without a holiday, I'm feeling in desperate need of a break; time to recharge the batteries and rethink a few strategies. Getting that break is my major goal for this year.

Looking back, are you surprised at the success of AssociatePrograms.com and what do you think were the key drivers of this success?
I expected it to be successful faster.

Right from the start I believed that revenue-sharing programs would be HUGE, and I was getting in early and riding what I thought would be a tidal wave. However, I grossly under-estimated how long it would take for the good word to spread. I assumed that everyone would instantly recognize how brilliant this form of marketing is. After starting the directory in January 1998, instead of promoting the directory, I should have been extolling the virtues of affiliate marketing.

A lot of experts say that to be successful, copy someone who is. I prefer to think for myself. I launched AssociatePrograms.com after looking for a directory of affiliate programs and being unable to find one (apparently there was one, but I couldn't find it in any search engine).

Being a prime mover helps enormously. As Al Ries and Jack Trout say in "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing", the first law of marketing is the law of leadership: Create a category you can be first in. That's what I set out to do with AssociatePrograms.com and it's what we're doing with PayPerClickSearchEngines.com.

Hugely important in my success are all the friends I've made. It's strange. I'm introspective, shy, living by choice in a little backwater far from the bustling crowds. Before I got on the Internet my one true friend was my wife. Now I have dozens of people I regard as my friends, and such friendships can be an amazingly powerful thing. They've recommended AssociatePrograms.com on their websites, in their newsletters, and in e-mail discussion lists. I'm very grateful for their faith in me.

Just to give you one example, I did a little favor for Jim Reardon of FreeCenter.com and HumorPlanet.com  because he's a good guy. In response he gave me a little publicity. So I gave him a bit more publicity . . . and so on. Last month Jim sent more than 5,000 visitors to AssociatePrograms.com. I'm not tracking how many people I send him, but I do what I can.

Continued...