IT Milk: entry

The following is an interview with Harrison Gevirtz, who was recently mentioned on the Pepperjam Blog. Harrison is the perfect icon to showcase for this topic of making money in high school because he is a high school sophomore and just turned 15. Harrison has been making a nice income for himself with affiliate marketing, and if you are a high school student I suggest that you study his example. Visit Harrison’s blog at CPA Share where he shares his unique insight into internet marketing; coincidentally on time with this interview, he just published a post about how to get into affiliate marketing.

Everyone has a poignant story about how they got into internet marketing. Describe your own enlightening moment.

Since I was 10 years old I wanted to earn money on the internet. I made my first dollar selling diamonds and coins on the internet and slowly went from selling diamonds on ebay to making tunrkey websites to being a full fledge affiliate marketer. I will never forget the day I spent $9 bucks on some terrible turnkey script. I knew there was money to be made when I turned that $9 into $800 in one week.

The main point of this interview is to reveal that being a high school student doesn’t restrict you to working at fast food chains for minimum wage. Internet marketing is something that many high school students can get into and potentially make a lot of money, but they don’t because they are either too clueless or too busy being a kid. Would you recommend this field to other high school students, and what would be the best way of going about doing this?

Well, I don’t recommend getting into internet marketing because that is more competition for me ;). But if you insist you have to be willing to kill your sleeping schedule, get a phone with the internet on it, and just lose all school motivation. I honestly see high school as the biggest waste of time that I have to endure. A few other tips are: Work on the weekends, take on some form of computer class in school (so you can check e-mail and check lead counts etc), and not tell your teachers you have a high paying job (it pisses them off).

One of your aliases is the “15 year old internet marketer.” Do you ever run into any problems with affiliate programs because of your age?

All the time: I have been terminated, not paid, and taken advantage of by numerous networks due to one stupid line in TOS of affiliate networks:

You must be 18 years or older to sign up as an XXX affiliate.

When I face this trouble I honestly just think of it this way: If a network doesn’t want to work with me, its their loss, not mine. When I am 18 and allowed to sign-up for these networks, I will not and I will be sure to let them know why I will not waste my time with them.

What do your parents think about your involvement in internet marketing? You must have had to sell them on the idea in the beginning to secure the initial funding.

No Initial funding was needed. I started selling diamonds and coins by selling another coin sellers inventory; I was slowly able to build a small amount of capital and buy some turnkey scripts. During the first few months of me being an affiliate marketer I had a few lucky investments ($9 Turnkey script into $800 bucks etc etc).

I try to keep my parents out of my business as much as possible. But my dad did travel to San Francisco when i went to AD:TECH and i took him on the floor on the last day and he met some of my affiliate managers. I introduced him to a contact at Neverblueads and he was nice enough to explain exactly how affiliate marketing works etc. Now my dad knows exactly what I do and I can have dinner discussions without completely baffling him!

Lastly, how would you like to see yourself in 2 years when you are graduating from high school in regards to your schemes in affiliate marketing? And do you plan on going to college or concentrating on making a name for yourself as a full-time internet marketer?

I have a personal goal which is going to take a lot but I think its doable. By the time I graduate high school, I want to be pulling in $1m per month. I think with evolving marketing practices, new techniques, more capital to play with, and just more experience, $1m per month is not only doable but will seem easy to me in 2 years.

After high school, I don’t know whether I am going to go to college or not. I have a lot of time to think about it.

In regards to me creating a “name” for myself, I don’t do that full time. Although I do enjoy seeing my name all over the internet I like doing what I do and generating leads and sales more than building a name for myself. It is something I do because 1) it pays off in the long run and 2) networking is a very good thing to do in this industry.