Interview with Ruck from CashTactics.net

It’s time for another interview. Cashtactics.net has got to be one of the best blogs out there when it comes to offering actual, useful advice. It also has its own forum. Ruck is the man behind the site, and he is a respectable and very knowledgeable internet marketer. He never tries to upsell his readers on bs ebooks or products, but cuts straight to the hard facts.

Ruck always goes the extra mile for his readers and this spring, despite being busy with a newborn baby and business on the side - he took the time to write up a great educational series on his blog called the CPA Marketing Series. If you’re new to affiliate marketing you should definitely check it out.

He even has his own affiliate network called Convert2Media. They aim to be the first network truly devoted to affiliate marketers - made up of affiliate marketers. They have only been live for a short time, but they have already made a good impression on many people (myself included) and they are here to stay.

So let’s get started. Here is my interview with Ruck…

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Real name: Ralph Ruckman
Known on forums as: Ruck
Age: 27
Location: Kansas
Blog / website: http://CashTactics.net
Year you started in this business: 2005
Has made the majority of online income from:
Pay Per Click, Contextual Advertising, Media Buys, Lead GenerationTell us briefly about your background before Internet marketing
Worked as a Wal Mart Distribution Receiving and Orderfilling Operator for 5 years. Grounding/Electrical Operator for Andrew Corporation, HazMat Chemical RefuelerWhat particular sites, forums, blogs or individuals played a role early on in getting you into in this business?
A lot of bad information from forums. A lot of good information from talking to people over message clients and on the phone. I have met some key people in forums but the majority of my successful experiences have come from people not even involved with forums. I have and currently still read Search Engine Land a lot, as well as many of the corporate blogs for Search Engines and Other Services.

Tell us about some of the failures you had to experience before you finally started seeing some success.
Reading all the ebooks that came online when I first started. Reading other people’s ideas in forums only to find out they were full of shit. Most people think since they didnt do great with something, they consider it a failure. It’s just an experience. When you start thinking about failure, you are at risking of developing a negative mindset. Nobody said it was going to be easy making your living online and the ones that did, lied to you. Probably my largest failure and learning curve came in areas of Blackhat Marketing and burning relationships. Blackhat is something very hard to turn away from, especially if your good at it.

What is the most important lesson you have learned with regards to dealing with Internet marketing as a full-time business?
Experimentation is key. There is a mountain of wealth online bit it’s all for nothing if you dont take the info and apply it. Another thing I have learned is if you want to the lifestyle people portray about working online, then you better come prepared with the work ethic, motivation and realizing that nobody is going to give it to you.

Do you work alone or do you have a virtual team of other people who assist you with things like article writing, landing pages, ad copy, coding, etc. ?
I utilize the services of oDesk ALOT! I’m not your ordinary affiliate marketer/make money blogger. I am a Co-Owner of Convert2Media.com which is an Affiliate CPA Network with 4 other Owners and 1 employee (so far). I am also currently establishing another LLC with my Search Marketing and Advertising Partner Jeff. Yes, in the past I did a lot of marketing on my own but moving forward with the amount of work I am taking on, it just cannot be done like that anymore. I also have an Advertising and Mastermind Group that holds a few weekly Skype Conferences. This consists of 4 other people whom I have experienced good personal relationships with and all 4 are aspiring Entrepreneurs. I share with them what the public never gets to hear or read.

What industry conferences do you usually attend (or not) and why?
I never was into them really and to tell you the truth I think it’s overrated. Overrated in a sense about the partying and other bullshit you hear about online. Being a network owner I have had to change that mindset on account of the other owners wanting me to attend. So I guess I’ll bite. I am scheduled for AdTech Miami, Affiliate Summit Boston, and AdTech New York so far this year. I imagine they’ll con me into an International trip as well. I have already slated over a dozen drops to various companies for AdTech Miami that I would love to speak with and get some clarification on their services.

When friends and family ask what you do - what do you tell them?
I actually blogged about this but my top ten favorite replies consist of:

1. I am a digital drug dealer

2. I am a porn star

3. I am a porn webmaster

4. I run pyramid schemes

5. I am a High Volume Email Deployer

6. I run a digital pharmaceuticals operation

7. I use spyware and adware to infect the world to do my work for me

8. I work on Ebay (Wont always get you off the hook as its very familiar to a lot, it’s 50/50, sometimes they might ask what you sell)

9. I am a hacker

10. I loan my body out thru Craigslist and Ebay

What areas of this industry (if any) do you see yourself expanding into as Internet marketing becomes more competitive?
I am already moving away from being a personal Affiliate Marketer and into the Corporate Affiliate Network side of things. There’s only one thing better than being a successful Affiliate Marketer and that’s having hundreds of others doing it for you. As far as becoming a Network Owner I can comment that there is a strong emphasis on becoming the first CPA Network that actually teaches its affiliates how to market. I have not seen this done before so our goal was to put together a team of marketers within the network to do just that,and to nab a successful network owner already. Both goals have been accomplished and we are setting everything in place. I do know that 1 network is just a start. Without giving too much away here, the US has about 400 something million people whereas the world has about 6 billion. There are also a ton of CPA Networks that mainly cater towards US advertising and at the moment we are just one more. I wont spill the beans but the options of offers in other countries is very low. One of our goals is make International Marketing CPA Offers easier. Seriously, the person who gets an advertiser in China to throw up an email submit for an Xbox is going to make a lot of money. Catch my drift?

While my Search Company is being set up I will comment on a few ideas that 1) Jeff and I are leaning a lot more towards being the Advertiser for data collection and marketing on the backends rather than Affiliate Lead Generation, and 2) We are working on some large web development projects designed for massive Email Optins.

Do you re-invest some of your earnings into things like stocks or mutual funds?
I do yes. I started day trading about 8 months ago. I got REALLY lucky on one of the projects at the start but have not done so hot since then. I’ve taken losses and just in the last two months have started to really get the hang of it and meet some great people that have shown me a wealth of information. I would say meeting these people is responsible for about 90% of my smaller consistent gains now. That one successful week was enough for me to get addicted. I do all my Financial Investing thru the services of Waddell and Reed. I have a friend who works for Primerica under CitiGroup who has done well for himself and keeps nagging me about investing more aggressively. The thing a lot of people dont realize is that I have 3 kids. Making sure finances are in place currently and in the future for them is my #1 priority. I can live in a cardboard box, but I refuse to let them.

What is your long term financial goal? Or to put it differently; where do you see yourself 5 or 10 years from now?
My #1 longterm financial goal really does not apply to myself. As long as my kids grow up comfortably and not like me, I will feel accomplished. In 5 to 10 years I see myself teaching them everything that I know. :). Money is just an object. I buy whatever I want but I seriously could care less. As long as I am living and my family is doing fine, then there is no reason why to set my sights on something I would have to strain to achieve.

In your opinion, what is the most overrated tool/website/service out there?
Ebooks sold to marketers and Entrepreneurs.

In your opinion, what is the most underrated tool/website/service out there?
Contextual Advertising. Not Adsense, I’m talking about Adware. People in the millions compete against each other on Google. I compete against hundreds in Adware networks. If your smart enough to realize all the misconceptions of what Adware is opposed to what you have read, then not many people would be asking how to make money online. It’s the easiest thing I have ever done. Sadly only 5 Marketers in the world get to hear my experiences and suggestions on how to advertise with it.

Most underrated affiliate network?
Market Leverage. Kyle from Market Leverage and the whole team. Nuff Said. I wish I could have worked with them more on an Affiliate Basis but even owning a network now, they are quite incredible.

Name up to three quality books or ebooks that you would recommend to newbies starting out in this business

• Reposition Yourself by T.D. Jakes
• Think Big & Kick Ass by Donal Trump
• The Road To Wealth by Suze Orman

What is one of the biggest mistakes a newbie can make as an aspiring Internet marketer?
Becoming a member of the Warrior Forum…or Digital Point.

If you were starting over from scratch with internet marking today, and had $1000 to spend, how would you invest that money?
Finding a network owner or Affiliate Manager as giving as myself and asking about the hottest offer and where I should promote it at. Sadly not very many will do this, but you have to take your chances. A lot of that will trim the margin you spend on advertising costs and help improve your Return on Investment considerably. I would definitely get myself a hosting account and buy domains accordingly if I was required to promote with a site. If all else failed I would simply spend $197 on Admaster, another $50 a month for an aircard and post ads in the jobs section of Craigslist. Easy as that. People say that’s not a long term strategy but I’ve paid people for almost two years now to do this for me and pay them a wage. Go figure.

What are your hobbies / interests? What’s “your thing” outside the online world?
Playing with my kids and making sure they are happy. I know starting out online that I probably neglected them a lot when I was under the gun trying to make money. Now I try to play catch up by spending every second of free time I can with them. That doesn’t sound like the Super Star mindset right? It is for me.

Shameless plug. Do you have a product/service/ebook/course/webinar/whatever that you would like to tell readers about?
Why hell yes. Convert2media.com. Check us out. If your making money with an offer right now let me know and I will be straight on how I can beat it. If the lead quality is good and I cant beat the offer, I’ll simply create one myself and pay you out of my pocket. Pretty easy huh.

Lastly, anything else you would like to say? Shout outs to anyone? Hi mom?
If you’re a serious minded person and really want to make money online know that you have to work your ass off and put in the time, I encourage you to visit Cashtactics.net. It’s not your ordinary make money blog. I have taken my time over the last 9 months in sharing a lot of tips and ideas on the blog, and then built a discussion forum for everyone to swap ideas everyday. On top of all that, I was able to team with a great group of people and build an affiliate network that will teach you where and how to advertise our offers. If that’s not making a true effort in helping others make money online, then I dont know what is.

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Thanks to Ruck for doing this interview for Profitapolis!