Publisher Spotlight – Jitendra Vaswani

I'm the founder of the internet marketing blog BloggersIdeas.com and a few other blogs like CrazyThemes.com & WpCrew.co. I have now achieved some success as an online marketer and now an award winning digital marketing consultant.

As part of that journey, I have been featured on HuffingtonPost, BusinessWorld, YourStory, Payoneer, Lifehacker and other leading publications. I am also a frequent speaker on the digital circuit, having 8+ yrs experience of in the digital marketing field.

I operate many other websites in difference niches, like health, dating, travel, MMO, crypto, forex, lifestyle, digital marketing tools, hosting, VPN’s, ecommerce, and course creation tools.

You work in multiple geos and verticals; what is different about the Indian market?

The Indian market is very different from other international markets such as the US, UK , EU and AU. India is a much more price sensitive market and it is more difficult when it comes to selling into the Indian market.

My own websites are more focused on international markets, as products I am selling on my websites are tailored more towards a global audience.

It’s been a tough 12 months for many advertisers and publishers; how have you adapted how you work to deal with it?

When I started my blog I never dreamed that I would make it big, but I was posting unique content daily - and started doing expert interviews on my blog. I focused on the main social channels when I began my journey - Facebook, Linkedin & Twitter, which are still the primary channels for marketing my business.

But in the past 12 months due to Covid19 things are much different. I cannot open up my office for my employees and I need to manage my business virtually. Handling work via zoom meetings sometimes does get difficult and some employees can get lazy and take work less seriously. This happened in 2020 and I fired 3 of my employees because they were not performing.

I made some new hires and things have started picking up again in 2021 and my business is growing at 10x.  There had also been a revenue drop off from the advertisers; some of the companies have reduced their affiliate commissions due to the pandemic.

But I understand it’s all a part of business, and I have added new affiliate programs to my niche websites and started making money from other advertisers.

What bloggers or podcasts do you recommend for affiliate managers?

As you can read in my own blog, I have interviewed a lot of digital marketing experts like Zac Johnson, Neil Patel, Ann Smarty, Rand Fishkin & many more. I shared their interviews on social platforms to get attention from my target audience.

My own podcast is: Inside A Hustler’s Brain :

Some of my own biggest influences in this industry are Neil Patel, Rand Fishkin, Ann Smarty, Zac Johnson and Gary Vaynerchuk. These podcasts/bloggers are very good for bringing positivity and new ideas to your business.

I always try to listen to these podcasts whenever I am going to the gym, running or driving the car and highly recommend affiliate managers to follow these amazing bloggers.

What are the most important marketing software products that you have used?

I use lot of software & tools for my company and I regularly read websites like searchenginejournal, searchenginewatch, quicksprout and shoutmeloud.

Without updating you cannot grow in business so make sure you read and bookmark these blogs for updating yourself.

Current software I use includes:

• Google analytics - (Do I need to introduce this one?)
• W3 Counter -(Shows analytics on from your visitors come from, what they do and what they love about your website)
• Clicky - (Monitor real-time traffic with a lot of features. A lot different from others)
• Panguin - (Analyze how your site is getting affected with Google’s updated algorithms)
• Agency analytics - (Tool that integrates with Google Analytics, YouTube, Twitter and more)
• Ahrefs & SEMRush are the most important SEO tools for spying on competitors' search activity

I also use quite a few browser extensions: Check My Links, ShareMetric, MozBar and others. There's also a lot of content creation and optimization tools we use to make sure the blog copy is set up right.

What are your top nuggets of advice for anyone new to managing an affiliate program?

Always negotiate well with the top affiliate marketers in the industry and offer them the best deal. Find the most relevant affiliate marketers who can be part of your business and bring valuable leads. Make clear and transparent communication so both parties can get benefit.