Interview with Ryan Eagle (EWA Network)

I’ve received good feedback both on and off the blog for my interviews here in the past, so the time has come for another.

Many of my readers will already be familiar with who Ryan Eagle, a.k.a. The Birdman, is. At his relatively young age, he has accomplished more than many older internet marketers twice his age can dream of. Ryan is one of those people with a constant drive to reach for the skies.

Within a fairly short time, he has gone from being a guy some people didn’t take too seriously - to becoming a well-respected player on the field,  as well as owner of an outstanding private affiliate network, EWA Network. If there’s one thing Ryan knows, it’s how to turn hard work and persistence into piles of cold hard cash.

In this interview, he tells me how he keeps it all rolling, where he came from, and where he’s headed.
Now - go on and read it!

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Real name: Ryan Eagle
Known on forums as: tacoX
Age: 22
Location: Chicago, IL USA
Personal or Business website: EwaNetwork.com
Year you started in the industry: 2004

Has made the majority of online income from:
Internal Affiliate Marketing and EWA Network. Most of our affiliate marketing comes from media buys, but we also get substancial traffic from social sources (like MyAds and Facebook Ads) and PPV (using TrafficVance).

How old were you when you got your first taste of making monies online, and what were your sources of inspiration / what got you into this?
I started making websites when I was 14 years old, mainly started forums and gaming related websites. I learned about SEO and built that into the forums that I owned, then started earning passive income from them. When I turned around 16, I built a “network” of sites containing interests that I enjoyed to increase the passive income that I generated.

I just hit a new trend early, the entire MySpace Resource sites phase and several of my sites got ranked in Google and nearly overnight I became successful…. and that’s just the beginning of the Ryan Eagle Empire.

Did you sacrifice school and studies for internet marketing, and if so - how did your family feel about your online pursuits?
I completed highschool and went to college for a little over a year, but decided to drop out due to company profits. My Mother was upset, but my Father was all for it. He saw my statements and was managing my money from the beginning so I made responsible decisions. I moved home and bought a house when I was 19, worked double-full time from home since then.

Many aspiring internet marketers today are young - often teenagers not even 18 years old. Getting started that young could be hard considering it’s hard to get a credit card, hard to get approved to networks, etc. My kids are now 9 and 11 but I have a feeling they’re gonna want to sign up to your network in the next couple of years, lol. What advice would you tell the young guys who are trying to get into this?
Get a credit card or some sort of loan (from a family member, friend, investor) and get in the trenches. The best learning tool is losing money, and actually doing the advertising. I see too many people stick on the “reading” or “learning” phase - the best teacher is hands on experience.

When you first started seeing some stable profits, what obstacles (if any) did you encounter to largely scale your revenue from there?
Stable profits? I wish! Campaigns come and campaigns go, you need to keep innovating to keep your level of income in this game high. Diversification among multiple different niches and traffic sources was my key to the riches. I’m always looking for new traffic sources, trying new landing pages, and optimizing / scaling existing campaigns.

Is there particular forum, person, course, book, whatever that you would give credit to for teaching you or upping your IM game?
I don’t read. I learn by losing money - like I said, experience is the best way to become profitable. I commonly write guides and share them with EWA affiliates.

Every one of us had to start somewhere, and like most guys starting out I’m sure you also had your ups and downs in the beginning. What was the key motivating factor for you to stay determined to succeed?
Truthfully I think my best motivation is rap music. From wakeup to sleep, I have rap music playing - and the songs motivate me to get more of what I like: money, hoes, cars and clothes. I set short term, mid-term, and long-term goals for myself and I work until I reach everything on my list. I usually refresh my list semi-annually.

What industry events do you usually attend, and which is your favorite?
I attend most of the affiliate conferences: AdTech, Affiliate Summit, and PubCon. The next planned conference for the EWA crew is AdTech New York in November.

How did you meet Harrison Gervitz, and what made you guys decide to partner up to create your own network?
I’ve known Harrison for years, right when he started in the internet industry. We both owned MySpace resource sites and while I was doing networking (to build links), I met Harrison and we became friends. Over the years we kept running into eachother doing the same thing. We started doing business together about a year ago (before EWA) and I met him for the first time last AdTech New York. We hit it off and started doing joint ventures together.

Anyone I have talked to who run a network have stated that they work their ass off, but enjoy their work too. Each to their own of course, and for one guy this can be different than the next. For you personally, what do you find the most rewarding - and what do you find most challenging in day to day business?
Time management - really don’t have enough time in my days to do everything. Now I’m working on scaling out our internal team to distribute work so I can ease my days and stay more on the creative / administrative end of things.

And btw - how high are you really stackin’ that paper these days?
Higher than skyscrapers.

Give us the rundown of what a typical day in your life looks like..
Work, sex, work, work, gambling, sex, work, work, work, work.

Having worked with you for some time myself, I know how you guys personally strive to give your pubs the best service and help you can. This is obviously one benefit of EWA being a private network with a limited number of affiliates you can dedicate time to. Will you ever go public with your network in order to gain more volume of publishers, and if so - do you think you would be able to maintain the level of one-on-one dedication you provide today?
We will never go public, but we will allow more people in. We are a referral-only network (to maintain quality traffic and affiliates) - but the word keeps spreading. When we can accept more affiliates, we ask our existing team to refer people that they are friends with and we get a flow of new people. Our affiliates really enjoy their experience with EWA.

EWA now has you, Harrison, and Jared working as affiliate managers for your pubs. I’m sure each guy has his own strengths when it comes to experience in traffic sources, methods, etc. Could you briefly tell us who’s the “go-to-guy” in their various fields of expertise?
We share our team - but Harrison mainly handles business development, I oversee affiliate operations, and Jared helps me with all affiliate operations. We are all affiliates still so we know what works where and how to promote it.

Even though you guys stay in close touch with your affiliates to help them succeed, what mistakes do you commonly see them making - hindering their success?
Reading too much - too many forums, too many blogs, too many eBooks. The best lesson is experience.

Choice of traffic sources can sometimes be the biggest hurdle for new affiliates. N00bs are often told to start out on MSN/Bing or Facebook to get their feet wet. But is there also other traffic sources you would recommend that new guys check out other than the obvious?
I almost always suggest new affiliates to start off, and I provide them with guides and personalized help to start them off, build profits, turn to a CPM model, then branch out into more traffic sources. If you follow our guides and help - you WILL make money as an affiliate.

Where do you see EWA going in the next 12 months? We’re all aware that this industry changes quickly, but perhaps you have a set vision or goal you want to take your network to?
I won’t settle for anything less than 1st place - and I will work day and night until I achieve it. I see more employees, more affiliates, new trends, and more money all around for everyone. The affiliate marketing business model works - and we are here to make affiliates and advertisers the most money possible.

Acai, bizopps, and other rebills are still going strong at the moment - but some question the future of shady rebills, and chances are they could come to an end soon (at least in their current incarnation), thanks to the FTC/Google/Oprah crackdown. What is your thought on the longevity of these offers? Do you think we will see a shift in how merchant/advertisers promote these products, and maybe even a whole new type of CPA offers coming out of the woodwork?
I don’t concern myself with all the hype. Scared affiliates don’t make money - and if they are scared there are several other niches they can switch into that have been around and still are making immense amounts of money. A good affiliate can work in several totally different niches - not just rebills.

Do you think we will be seeing more adult and gambling related offers on regular CPA networks? These two markets have traditionally remained on their own dedicated networks, but is there a reason why they couldn’t have offers available for more mainstream networks as well? Porn is obviously an always massive market, and there is talk that online gambling in the US could be seeing a reneissance soon.
You’ll see a lot more on EWA, that’s for sure. We’re trying to consolidate everything from international mobile to gambling to adult to pharmaceutical on one network - with the best payouts and the quickest pay terms.

International affiliate marketing is growing by the day and more US affiliates are starting to run campaigns in non-English speaking countries. Tell us a bit about the growth you’re seeing internally here. Perhaps you have some tips to the guys who are skeptical of running anything non-English.
I’ve been running internationally (in both English speaking and non-English speaking countries) for about 3 years now and I will never go back. You should immediately scale campaigns that work in the US to all the English speaking countries, even if an offer is not out yet for them. An advertiser will react and you will be the first in that market while others are reacting. As a network owner, I’ve seen huge growth in our international offers and I almost always push affiliates to use them.

You’re known for your love of cigars and the good life in general. But what hobbies or interest’s do you pursue in your spare time? What makes you tick?
I love cars. I love driving. I love gambling. I love spending time with my girl. I love traveling. But above all - I love business. Most of my “free” time is spend developing my business, as lame as that sounds. It’s my passion in life.

Do you invest (or save) your earnings in stocks, funds, gold, real estate, etc?
Yes, the vast majority of my money is saved into a diversified portfolio developed by my father, Tom Eagle, and my financial planner. The goal is for the long term riches.

If the internet was not around, what would you be doing for a living?
Selling drugs, probably.

Ten years from now - what does Ryan Eagle do, where does he live, and what car(s) sit in his garage?
I’d be flying my private jet to my private island in the Caribbean. Cars? I’ve already reached every goal besides getting my Rolls Royce. That would be the dream baby.

Time for shameless promotion… Feel free to blatantly plug anything you want.
Being modest, EWA Network is the best out there - and it’s private for a reason. We will beat any payout any network offers you, pay you weekly from day one, provide dedicated one on one coaching and support. Our staff will not only suggest to you the top campaigns, but we will help you optimize your campaigns, give you traffic sources, and scale existing campaigns.

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My thanks to Ryan for taking the time out of his very busy schedule for this. As always, please leave your comments or questions to this post below. AND - if you haven’t done so already, you need to subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed!

I hope to have the next posts on campaign research up and ready soon, so stay tuned!