Interview with a Shakes.pro Representative

Today we have an interview with Ilya Tkachenko, a representative of the Shakes.pro affiliate program. It turned out to be a pretty interesting and useful conversation — Ilya talked about traffic sources, directions to focus on, and shared advice for beginner affiliates.

Hey. Tell us about yourself and how you got into affiliate marketing.
Hey, it was a long time ago — it all started with subscriptions, then evolved into physical products and affiliate programs, Facebook and teaser networks. And honestly, things haven’t changed all that much 🙂 A shame WAP-click is dead.

When was Shakes.pro founded?
About 5.5 years ago.

Is Shakes.pro purely a product affiliate network right now? Are you planning to launch new verticals — finance, gambling, dating?
Shakes will stay a product network. For other verticals, we have Leadbit — feel free to come run dating and gambling offers there!

As far as I know, you have quite a few projects: Shakes.pro, Shakes.mobi, Leadbit.com, Mostpartner.com, DatsPush.com, MAC, MediaVenus — is that the full list? Are you planning to launch anything new soon?
That’s everything for now. As for new ones — you’ll be the first to know, as always. We don’t keep secrets for long 🙂

Are you running traffic yourself these days?
No, but there are teams I’m constantly helping get into the green.

In Shakes.pro, what traffic source are most people using? Facebook? How are push notifications performing?
For Russia and CIS it’s mostly teaser networks. For international it’s Facebook and a bit of Google. Push actually works well internationally — which is less true for CIS markets.

What traffic source do you think is underrated?
None of them, really 🙂 Every source gets the recognition it deserves based on what it can deliver.

Which GEOs does Shakes.pro work with most? Where do you see the most leads coming in?
Mainly Russia and Europe.

You have a “Guaranteed Prizes for Leads” promo where you can even win a Porsche Cayenne. Has anyone actually claimed one? If not, what’s the biggest prize someone has taken home? And how profitable is it for the network to run promotions like this?

If you add it all up, there were teams that essentially got those cars in the form of MacBooks and other gadgets 🙂 Their choice.
Long-term partnerships with our affiliates are what matter most to us — the guaranteed prizes are a bonus for the work done together, and bonuses are always nice. And yes, it’s a way of ensuring stable, ongoing collaboration. By the way, if you don’t find what you want in the prize store, just let us know and we’ll add it 🙂 Reach out to your personal manager or to Anton Shakes. We’ll make it happen!

You’ve been in the industry for a while — what do you think happens next? Will product offers survive? Which verticals will disappear?
Product offers will evolve, but selling weight loss products and similar things isn’t going away. It’s a timeless problem — everyone wants to be slim and believes in a magic pill that’ll fix everything instantly. That said, the trend is clearly toward cleaner, more regulation-compliant product offers.
WAP-click is probably the only thing that’s on its last legs — I think that’s about it.

What would you recommend to beginners? Which GEOs and traffic sources should they start with?
Right now Facebook is the trend and there are tons of case studies on it — the barrier to entry is lower than teaser networks. If you have budget to spare, go with teasers. If you’re on a tight budget, Facebook is the better call.

Share a useful tip or life hack that’s super relevant right now.
Test! Don’t spend too much time reading guides — and definitely don’t pay for coaching from people you’ve never heard of.

Give us a combo: traffic source, offer, and GEO.
Russia — prostatitis. Write to your manager and they’ll share the current pre-lander and landing page 🙂

Thanks for the interview — it was really interesting! Wishing you and your team all the best!