IT Milk: entry

Here’s another interview with a young and successful internet marketer Joshua Kopac. Joshua is just 16 years old and is a junior in high school. I decided to post this because my previous interview with Harrison Gevirtz has been wildly popular and offered inspiration for other young entrepreneurs in high school or college. Let Joshua Kopac be another example of drive and passion.

Joshua first started off drop-shipping items on Ebay. The business didn’t have much ROI but he continued forward expanding his knowledge on how to make money online. Joshua started up his business with $556 which he earned from a get paid to do offers site. Joshua now operates a full blown affiliate network generating over 2,500 leads daily.

I noticed that you are the Chief Marketing Officer of Elite Commission and the other execs seem young like you. What’s the story behind the company and what are the other founders like?

That’s a great question. First of all let me introduce the staff here. There is myself, Joshua Kopac age 16 from Shelton, Connecticut. Rishab Verma Chief Strategic Officer, age 17 who is from Houston Texas. Joe Helewa Senior Account Manager, age 16 from Cresskill New Jersey. Also Dustin Cucciarre, age 23 from Starke Florida.

I used to own a warez forum at the age of 13. I met Rishab through the forum and we had a vision of creating a successful get paid site just like the popular ones. We were both members on Treasure Trooper and Swat Cash, earning a little over $100 a month. Rishab and I actively talked to each other each day, and couldn’t help to think that we were getting ripped off by these sites. Both of us used our earnings from these sites and bought a script. I worked on getting the technical aspect up, while Rishab helped code and design the layout.

We launched in early June of 2007 under the name of RippedWallet and advertised all over the internet. We were a hit! A couple hundred dollars would pour in a day in completed offers which about 20% was pure profit. The two of us couldn’t help to think that this was awesome and we would be rich in no time! We soon reached the 15,000 member mark with profits increasing every day. Once summer was over we both didn’t have as much time for the site and profits declined. We listed RippedWallet for auction and received a winning bid of $35,000 from SwatCash! We knew that the marketing field was hot and had to stay in this business. This further led to even more though supporting our idea that again companies were profiting from our lead generation.

The idea was clear in both of our heads that we had to go directly and grab advertisers offering a better margin to publishers than other networks were giving. So in September of 2007 we also purchased the Direct Track script expanding our reach within the industry.

We started up the company called EliteCommission after brainstorming ideas and keywords for hours. The startup costs between the script and design work was over $12,000! We were both hesitant and thought we would never make that money back. Within 3 months of launching the revenue came streamlining in and payed for the start up. We have stuck with it since and are still expanding our reach daily.

How do you manage to balance high school with your business? Do you have a word of advice for other fellow high school students on making money online?

Sometimes I cannot help but to conclude that high school is holding me back.

I have been managing with just Ok grades the past two years. It’s not easy working 30-40 hours per week on top of the 7 hour daily dose of school. To tell you the truth it’s tough.

It is all about time management, planning ahead, and working efficiently. I have strengthened those skills the past year or so and wish I could have had them for a while. There were days that I would fall asleep with my laptop next to me, due to that I just couldn’t handle anymore. Now I have a company structure planned, where everyone is involved in a different aspect so everything is done efficiently.

High School is one of the founding steps of all of our futures and you cannot afford to miss it. It teaches you social skills, and also some knowledge you will and will not carry on for the rest of your time being. These next 2 years I really have to move forward and push it if I plan on getting into a prestigious business college.

One of the main ways I balance high school is scheduling. Set time periods really help you to perform to your maximum potential and don’t hold you back.

For all the fellow High Schoolers out there. DO NOT QUIT. You may think that money making is more important than school, but you know anytime the business can go downhill and not rebound. A simple piece of paper gets your further these days than even 20 years ago. Stay in school and do your best. I cannot stress this enough. You do not want to look back in life at the past, and say to yourself “Why didn’t I accomplish this?”, you want to look forward and say “How can I accomplish this?”‘

Where do you see yourself after you graduate high school? Is college part of your future plans or are you going to dive straight into full-time entrepreneurship?

After I graduate high school I am planning on pursuing my education further at Hofstra University or St. Johns University. These are both highly accredited business schools. I plan on double majoring in Business Administration and Marketing. Diving into full-time entrepreneurship would be unwise in my viewpoint.

Like I stressed before, ANYTHING can pop up ruining your online business. With the way the economy is today, you have to be especially attentive to everything. If anything ever went downhill I would have this degree, previous knowledge, and hands on experiences on my side.

My parents have always stressed a further pursuance in education and my dad is currently receiving his 3rd masters degree from Quinnipeac College. Both of my older siblings have both graduated from college also. My sister Kim from the Universisty of Tampa, and my brother Chris from Lasalle University. This puts a heavy weight on my shoulder to continue this.

Who is your role model in internet marketing and why?

My role model for internet marketing would have to be Harrison Gevirtz. He started earlier than me, and I am still getting my feet wet compared to the traffic he’s driving and success he’s had. Harrison has tried many things both successful and unsuccessful and still keeps on going. I also have a relationship with him. We chat occasionally and I really appreciate what he’s done for himself especially since he’s the same age as myself. It is much easier to relate and we have more in common than I would with an older marketer. For him to do 6 figures profit each month is just breathtaking and mind blowing. He is the most widely known teen at Ad-tech’s and Affiliate Summits and I give him one hell of congratulations for sticking with this.

You’re 16 years old. How does your age impact your day-to-day business in affiliate marketing, if at all?

In my personal opinion age is just a senseless number. I have had quite a few encounters with age deterring companies from working with me. For legal reasons many companies cannot engage business with me so they say. I have had companies not care about age but just the numbers and traffic quality I put up. There have even been companies that held payments because of my age.

From now on I never tell my age up front. I have a deeper voice, which helps me sound older, plus I show a sense of maturity and strong vocabulary. These all account for helping me seem older than I really am. Usually after a few months of working with a company, and have become friends on a personal level, I will tell them about my age. 90% of the time they don’t mind. That other 10% can come into factor any time and screw me over.

Would you recommend other high school students to attend industry events like Ad:tech? And what should one expect to experience and gain at a conference like that?

Ad-Tech was one of the greatest experiences of my life. It made me understand that people are responsible for so much content on the web and come up with revolutionary ideas that change the industry. I had the chance to meet representatives of companies in high up positions. I received many stares, glares, and attitudes from individuals at the conference. This just made me want to better myself even more. For the whole conference I went from booth to booth exchanging business cards and briefly chatting with employees.

To all of the High School Students out there, DO NOT HOLD YOURSELF BACK! Opportunities like this only come a few times a year. You will meet many new contacts that will help to expand your current business.