Since starting in the affiliate business 10 years ago, Dmitrii Nikolaev has become a successful affiliate marketer who caught our attention with his outstanding performance during our six-month contest, Heroes of Digital Marketing. He was named one of our Disneyland trip winners and was happy to answer our questions about his affiliate marketing career and recent projects, including Softocoupon and CouponCodes.
- How did you start in the affiliate business? Tell us what kept you on this path.
I started as an affiliate about 10 years ago. At first, it was more of a hobby than a serious business for me. My first website was devoted to backup and recovery software reviews and software comparisons with competitors and coupon codes; it was made with a simple CMS. I noticed that providing a detailed product review with screenshots and your own opinion attracted good attention, and different software promotions brought even more page views. During holidays such as Black Friday, New Year, Independence Day and many others, my sales always doubled or more. So when I saw good results in traffic and sales as well as growth in conversion rate, I started to pay more and more attention to my “hobby.”
- Why did you pick the software and digital goods vertical?
When you start as an affiliate, you should be familiar with the products and services you offer, so this was the deciding factor for me. I knew what I was writing about and what would grab visitors’ attention, so I decided on my niche rather quickly. I could install the trial versions of software and test it myself. For example, if it was antivirus software, it would be a good idea to use a virtual environment to test it live with a real virus. People always like to see real results from real testing. If you’re honest with your visitors, I think at least 30% of them can become your customers.
- Name the most successful affiliate project you’ve worked on. What do you think made it successful?
The most successful affiliate program was my first one, related to backup and recovery software. In the mid-2000s, affiliate marketing wasn’t as popular as it is today, so the competition for the product I chose to promote was not high. So the first factor in my success was to choose the right software, with minimal competition but a high conversion rate. With the release of new versions, I always wrote new reviews, so I believe that fresh content was the second factor in my success. Personal recommendations, honest and detailed reviews, guides, comparisons and providing discount codes, coupons and promotions were also very important for me to achieve success.
- Can you name three digital marketing trends a European marketer should look at over the next two years?
1) Content Marketing. Fresh and unique content is your key to success with the main search engines.
2) Mobile Marketing. From year to year the number of mobile users is growing steadily. Some research shows that the number of mobile searches exceeds desktop searches. It means only one thing: your website must be mobile friendly nowadays.
3) Social Media Marketing. In the last few years, Facebook and Twitter have increased their value in Google. This means that if you have good social accounts with many likes and followers, your website will receive additional traffic from search.
- How did Avangate help you gain success as a partner?
Avangate is a great affiliate program to work with for several reasons. If you just start as an affiliate, you may be sure that almost all merchants will accept you into their programs as a partner. There are more than 1000 merchants with good earnings per click (EPC).
As a professional affiliate, you will find some exclusive features other platforms don’t support. For example, you can generate coupon codes to reduce the price and attract even more potential customers. Avangate customer support, which is very responsive and eager to solve your issues, also deserves special mention.
I really enjoy working with Avangate and can say for sure that this is one of the best affiliate platforms out there.
