Who is AZ?

My name is Andrew Zarick, but to many I am AZ!

I first logged on the internet via CompuServe in the mid ’90s. However, my professional career in digital media started in 2003 with the founding of Dreamix, my first startup. Dreamix was originally started as a project to enable digital video recording on the Microsoft Xbox. The project transitioned into a standalone box powered by the Dreamix OS which enabled digital video recording, network media streaming, and featured an app store. In essence, we were doing what Boxee is doing today in 2003 – we were also Slashdotted! Through the launch of Dreamix and the publicity we were able to obtain, I learned of my passion for product management, business development and marketing.

Fast forward to 2007. Six months prior to graduating college I was tight on cash and  needed a job that would be flexible with my busy schedule as a student. I decided to explore the concept of “how to make money online” – which is always a dangerous Google search. At first I discovered the typical get rich quick ebooks and blogs. As I dug deeper I started understanding the concept of being an “affiliate” and the affiliate marketing industry – the very industry that drove the sale of these get rich quick ebooks.

Affiliate Marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts.

CDNow and Amazon.com are credited with the founding of the original affiliate marketing programs. Amazon to this day still has its “Associates Program.”  This concept opened my eyes to the more legitimate side of affiliate marketing. Driving visitors to well-known brands and being credited with a sale and receiving a commission while not having to keep any physical inventory sounded like a win win situation to me!

Problem – how would I get traffic, and not just traffic but traffic that would convert to sales for whatever I decided I was going to market? My search continued and eventually I was learning about SEO, SEM (paid search), email marketing, spamming, black hat, white hat, gray hat, and every other trick in the book to drive traffic.

I started experimenting with only one goal – don’t lose money! I first began with the concept of pay-per-click (PPC) arbitrage rather than immediately competing in the affiliate marketing space. I discovered that placing certain keywords within text on a page that had Google AdSense ads would force higher payout ads to display. For example, a page about mortgages will display ads that pay out a higher cost per click to web publishers than a page about Pokemon – a mortgage lead is more valuable than a Pokemon lead so advertisers are willing to spend more on advertising to reach potential mortgage leads. I began researching high payout verticals and writing content that triggered high payout ads. I built pages with no navigation and nowhere else to click except on Google AdSense ads stacked 3 ad blocks high. The only way off the page was the back button. I bought traffic for 10 cents a click on LookSmart and 7Search which paid out upwards of 70cents – $1.00 a click on my AdSense ad blocks. In essence I was turning 10cents into 70cents at a decent conversion rate. The first day I was net positive and scaled from there.

12 months in I was banned from AdSense – fail!

Over the course of 12 months I ended up net positive but in the last month I lost about $2,000 because Google didn’t pay out after the ban. I tasted success but I also learned the value of diversification. Never depend on one source of traffic, one source of revenue, one marketing tactic. I continued to experiment, taking measured risks, and learning along the way. I tried my hand at building content websites and optimizing them for certain keywords, spamming social websites, affiliate arbitrage, podcasting, and more. I succeeded, failed, succeeded again, and then failed. It was all experimentation. I didn’t lose money (overall)!

Over the course of 6 months I learned enough to talk my way into a job with The JAR Group – what at the time was a 5 person search marketing boutique based in DUMBO Brooklyn. It was very much a flat environment, which meant I got to touch every piece of the business – market research, keyword research, proposal creation, pay-per-click management, account management and on and on and on. Today I have grown into the position of Digital Strategist and The JAR Group has grown into a full-service interactive marketing agency with 16 employees. I’ve continued to experiment outside of my work at The JAR Group with the goal of benefiting my clients and never putting my clients at risk – stretching the limits and learning along the way!

The digital industry in general is moving so quickly that you have to constantly be experimenting and talking to smart people as to not fall behind. This was the primary motivation for wanting to start Digital DUMBO. Let’s collaborate, learn and work together to innovate!