Long time lurker... nub poster...
I am excited about speaking at the IRL conference this year. I have been doing internet marketing for over a decade and I see I have been mentioned a bit on there. There is a lot of my "guru" content on here but what a lot of people don't know is when I got started in the early 2000's a lot of my revenue (in addition to the NextPimp Famous Adsense Checks) came from spamming and jamming, churning and burning, it was so much fun back then. My wife is a doctor and I think I know more about pharmacology then her from all the pharmaceutical affiliate stuff I promoted. Those who were around back then know what I am talking about.
If you have read my book you know that I have not been afraid to jump on something when I see it. The book covers a lot of... uh... *borderline* criminal stuff I did when I was a kid but the real thing is that I have never been afraid to blur the lines morally, ethically, or legally throughout my life in making money.
The most exciting thing to me about this conference is I get to focus on sketchy stuff. I do so many white hat / corporate speaking engagements that DON'T allow me to touch on any of the black hat areas.
Like I said there's a lot of posts on here about me but just to set the record. I will highlight the biggest hits to save you from reading a FRAT (f reading all that):
In 2003 I started a site that would become the largest mobile website in the world getting over 100k uniques per day. I ranked #1 for ringtones for years using the digital point co-op network (anyone remember that?). That site made me a multi millionaire overnight profiting thousands a day. The site got burnt down by google but after some creative approach with Google rose from the ashes to rank higher then ever.
In 2007 I launched AuctionAds an advertising network around the eBay API. Within 4 months the company was at 2M/m in gross revenue and on pace to do 50M the first year. I sold the company for an undisclosed amount, but what I can tell you is that it was enough to give each of my hourly employees over a million dollars in bonus money (I gave them enough to cover taxes and still have 1m in the bank). Sounds good but lets move along their was nothing sketchy about this company and other then the creative techniques to rapidly grow the company I doubt many blackhats would care.
In 2009ish I was spending over 90k A DAY on Facebook Ads in one of the most competitive affiliate niches there was. which at that time made me the largest advertiser on all of Facebook. This was awesome until some dickhead hater made a guest post on Techcrunch alleging what I was doing. I will not publicly confirm or deny any sketchy stuff was going on..
2010 I created my own software as a service ShoeMoney Tools. Got upto 60k/mo in gross revenue then started to die off as API's were deprecated etc. Some people still use them but I stopped billing existing users in 2011 and didn't allow any new ones.
I currently have a new SAAS automated marketing platform targeting fortune 5000 companies that through beta is doing very well. But that is pretty much corporate out which you will find very boring.
Oh I was also Fast Company's Most Influential Person on the internet and made the cover of the magazine. Do you think I am the most influential person on the internet? =P
Now during all of this time I have still been doing affiliate stuff. The money is just so good when you hit the right thing its like a hobby that happens to be able to make shittons of money.
I have like a bazillion things I can talk about at the IRL show but I want to hear from you guys planning on going where you want me to focus on. And you keyboard warriors that just want to troll can blow me. Most of you can't rub together 2 nickels let alone afford a ticket to this event. And if you are legit and have some bone to pick with me then show up and lets talk about it.
Items off the top of my head:
I have attended 3 undisclosed "black hat" meetings at Google before they stopped having SES in San Jose. Basically how it works is they invite a lot of black hats that they have trapped in the past but know they are always a step ahead. So I didn't know, and you wouldn't either, most of them there. These round table discussions kicked ass. But here is the fun thing. If we would give up one trick we are doing (and they promised not to take action on it for 6 months), they would answer any one question we had. Now I signed a NDA when I went to these meetings so I can't talk specifics that came out of them but lets say that I have a lot of insight on Google's internal tools and methodology on how they battle black hats. Think "white hats" have ever had this kind of insight? Ironic isn't it?
I discovered a trick way back in 2008 that I definitely do not want to publicly post about but its a way to take sites that are totally nuked out of Google and well do awesome stuff with them. Still works great today.
I was on Facebooks monetary board of advisors. I can talk about what they hate and ways to be perceived in their good graces for things you think they would never allow.
I think something though that might be of the biggest value is what I am currently doing on the side. And by the side I mean I have a team of 4 people that are always working on these "side" projects. Right now we are rocking it on Facebook, Google, and Yahoo using some *interesting* methods. I don't want to talk about that publicly here but happy to talk about it at the conference.
I dunno I could go on forever. Give me some ideas on what you want to know about. I have experimented with so much stuff in the last 10 years and continue to explore new revenue streams.
I could do a Q&A but thats kind of what this post is for. I would love to see a variety of questions to help me make the best talk possible for the audience.
I only have 2 rules.
I ONLY will talk from my own experiences. Please don't ask me about some theory on what X is planning on doing with X or what I think will happen with something. If I don't have personal experience on a topic I will just tell you that. I am not a big theory guy and I think its a waste of time for me and to attendees. I pride myself on NOT telling people what to do but sharing what I do and what I discovered. Obviously people can decide for themselves if they should explore going down that path.
I will not OUT anyone in public. Well there are exceptions if I truly do not like them *cough* Joel Comm *cough*. Don't ask me specifically what [insert name or company here] is doing. This is probably a bar one on one conversation.
Also just a note for those that have ever met me you know I am pretty social and usually found at the conference bar(s) so feel free to literally ask me anything or talk about whatever.
I will just close with this - For me true happiness is helping others succeed. I want to help you succeed. I have a variety of expertise in many areas from arbitrage, lead generation, data monetization, subscription revenue, building your own company, managing teams, selling companies/websites, buying companies/websites, etc etc. Again like I said if I haven't been there and done that I will simply tell you that.
*TIP* buy me Skinny Pirates (captain & diet coke) to get me to really open up.
Please respond below on what you would like to hear me talk about. Thanks and looking forward to seeing you at the event!