Interview With Jake Kauffman – President Of Express Revenue
Posted on 16. Oct, 2008 by $haz in Express Revenue, General, payments
Jake Kauffman, the President of Express Revenue, was also kind enough to grant Best Incentive Affiliates an interview about his new and already popular network. I always like to have an interview with the “top dawgs” of the affiliate networks, it gives us great insight on how they think and what the goals of their networks are. Check it out!
Me: How long have you been apart of the affiliate industry?
Jake Kauffman: My story is actually pretty unique. My first year of college I became pretty involved in the freebie scene by actively participating in all of the major freebie forums, and eventually I was earning free gifts as a personal hobby. After about a year and a half of playing the part of user, I felt like I understood the system enough to start my own freebie site (www.YourGiftsFree.com, which is currently undergoing major construction and is set for relaunch within the next few weeks) and this business has been up and running since March of 2006. In the back of my mind I always had a plan to start my own affiliate network, and once I had accumulated the necessary start up capital as well as the more specific knowledge needed to operate my own affiliate network, I put things in motion. Express Revenue, Inc. was launched in June of 2008 and has continued to grow ever since.
Me: Since you are fairly new how will you build trust with your publishers?
Jake Kauffman: Besides running an always available and friendly user support system, the best way to gain trust from our clients is by coming through on the promises which we have pledged to them. For example, we guarantee rate matches on any offer, and thus far we have honored almost all rate requests we received. By not deceiving our users and delivering exactly as we promise, there really is no better way to gain our publishers’ trust.
Me: What sets you apart from your competition?
Jake Kauffman: This can be answered simply: direct traffic. We get some of our most popular offers direct from the advertisers themselves, not through many intermediate affiliate network, and this translates into Express Revenue being able to give our users what are some of the highest network rates in the industry. The offers that we don’t receive direct we get from industry-leading networks at prime rates.
Me: How do you get the exclusive campaigns that the other networks can’t?
Jake Kauffman: We have contacts with a lot of the big advertisers, some of the older ones, and some of the newer ones. We pride ourselves on the quality traffic we send, which gets us exclusive campaigns.
Me: Tell us a little about yourself and your staff.
Jake Kauffman: I’m currently 24 years old and operate Express Revenue and YourGiftsFree full time. Other staff members include Margot, who is our YourGiftsFree manager, Jordan, Express Revenue’s accounting, compliance, and PR specialist, David and Yurajav, our two IT technicians, and the newest member of the Express Revenue team, Mike J, who is an affiliate manager and support representative for Express Revenue.
Me: What kind of perks do you offer to your publishers?
Jake Kauffman: Every month we make available six or seven unique promotional contests, monetarily rewarding our users for achieving goals such as generating more than 25 leads on offer X or earning more than $9,500 in revenue during the month. Also, we have a progressive rate scale that allows publishers to earn higher CPAs based off of the amount of leads that they are generating.
Me: What is your payment schedule?
Jake Kauffman: Every publisher starts out on a net-30 compensation schedule. Those users who are bringing in a good amount of quality traffic can request to be moved to net-15, and if they are in fact generating a high number of leads, we would be more than happy to accommodate them.
Me: What are your business hours?
Jake Kauffman: As I mentioned earlier, managing Express Revenue is a full-time job, so I personally really have no set office hours. I would say that I commit at least 50-60 hours per week to Express Revenue. As for the hours that users can reach one of our support representatives, we have live phone support (1-877-943-4968) available Monday to Friday from 10 AM – 7 PM EST.
Me: How are you able to accept credit requests?
Jake Kauffman: Because of the fact that we receive many of our offers directly from the advertisers or from an industry-leading affiliate marketing network, and drive quality traffic, it’s much easier for our network to not only accept MCRs, but to actually have them granted. I’m personally always communicating with our advertisers, and discussing the MCRs that get sent in to our network is routine.
Me: How do you handle mass revokes of a campaign(s)?
Jake Kauffman: As soon as we get word from a higher source that charge backs may occur, we either alert our publishers running the campaign and/or pull the offer altogether. A few times we have actually had to essentially “eat” and write-off as a loss revokes that came in from our advertisers so as to not inconvenience our publishers.
Me: What you would like all the publishers to know about you or your network?
Jake Kauffman: Basically, what it all boils down to is that you get what you see. We don’t advertise guaranteed rate matches, access to both direct and exclusive campaigns, easily reachable customer support, etc. for no reason. These are the tenets that Express Revenue has been built on, and the tenets that we hope to expand on.
Me: Just for fun, and also because I love sports, who do you predict winning the SuperBowl?
Jake Kauffman: Well, I am originally from Philadelphia (which means I bleed Eagles green), so it’d almost be a sin to pick any other team than the Eagles. Realistically, with all the parity in the league this year, I feel the Eagles DO have a good shot at making it to Tampa. If I HAD to make an unbiased selection, I’d put my money on the Giants right now. Even though they just had an embarrassing loss, they’re the most complete team in the league.
A special thanks to Jake for letting us interview him about Express Revenue. I have rated his network pretty well even though he is fairly new. I might have to change that considering I am a Cowboys fan (the same cowboys that beat the Eagles =p). Check out the recent payment I have received from Express Revenue and the review I gave them! If you enjoyed this, don’t forget to leave comments and/or any other questions you have, I’ll see to it that Jake gets them! Stay tuned for more interviews with other affiliate networks!
Popularity: 13% [?]
Express Revenue Inc
16. Oct, 2008
Thanks Shaz, always a pleasure.
easydolla
16. Oct, 2008
I must add that Express Revenue has great support, my AM really helped me out and was talking to me for quite a while. I look forward to working with express rev as soon as my website, if it ever, is finished.
YoungMoney06
16. Oct, 2008
LOL, You can’t be serious, did this guy say “embarassing loss.” More like ridiculous, how th hell do you lose to the Browns and call it “embarassing” lol – they are a 1-3 team and they beat a 4-0 team. In either case, Giants just made it easier for Dallas to come up in the rankings.
Baltimore Ravens all day (although we’ve done bad the past 3 weeks with a 2-3 record) **sighs**
Express Revenue Inc
16. Oct, 2008
Hey! lol. I was so excited that the Giant lost last week. Along with the Cowboys (please don’t ban me Shaz!), and Redskins.
Its all about the Eagles! I would love to see the Giants lose like that every week.
$haz
17. Oct, 2008
Roy Williams. Terrell Owens. Enough said =p
easydolla
17. Oct, 2008
Screw the Eagles, screw the Ravens and screw the Cowboys Steelers do work all day everyday
djdfan520
17. Oct, 2008
Hey,your posts are always useful for me.
I check your blog everyday for any new-updated posts:)
And I have a question is:I’m planning to open my own incentive freebie site,but the biggest problem is I’m not an American resident(actually I’m from China).Please give me some tips on how to deal with this kind of things.
Many networks only approve limited area’s affiliates.Few chances are given to us here.
Many thanks.
ummm
17. Oct, 2008
last time i checked, cpaempire isnt direct…
Express Revenue Inc
17. Oct, 2008
Can you please elaborate?
Thanks
-Jake
ummm
18. Oct, 2008
Dudeeeeeeee All your offers are from CPAEmpire.com and ValueClickMedia.com
$haz
18. Oct, 2008
I’m guessing you had a bad experience with Express Revenue? Care to share more in detail?
Express Revenue Inc
18. Oct, 2008
Hey Ummm,
Can you please email me and let me know if you have any problems. Those are some of our advertisers yes. Please let me know if you need anything.
Thanks!
Gabriel3
26. Oct, 2008
Great Interview, I checked out the Express Revenue network and it seems really credible.
And the review on this site doesn’t hurt either.
Scam hater
20. Apr, 2009
So Jake you got your start as a user, then owner of an incentive site and now your an affiliate owner. So whats your way of dealing with fraud? I am very curious about this since you are one of the biggest offer frauders in history. You completed BlockBuster what 11 times in your career as a incentive site user.
How can you with a straight face revoke leads from users and owners when your one of the biggest crooks around?
Also Express Revenue has some of the worst conversions in history. Also some of the highest revoke %’s because they use non-incent offers as incent.
The reason they use cpaempire so much is because Scott from CPAE will allow cheating, and fraud until its caught. Well guess who is going to pay for it in the end? It wont be Scott or Jake, all losses will be passed on to the owners.
This guy is a joke and if you seriously want to give informative information I suggest you do a little more research.
Jake- Banned from Anything4free for several years due to massive fraud. Banned from most freebie sites including trainn for massive fraud. Etc etc…….
$haz
20. Apr, 2009
I understand your frustration because I’ve been through it with him also. Note the date of this article. Things have changed since then, I suggest you read the updated reviews and this link: http://bestincentiveaffiliates.com/2009/04/03/medical-billing-and-freedom-from-alcohol-revokes-anyone/
I know my research and I’m on your side bud.
Scam hater
21. Apr, 2009
Well considering this entry hasnt been edited, its very misleading. Your guest might see this thread way before anything else.
Also if you did your research (bud, lol) you would have know what a crook Jake is. The fact he ran 95% of all his “Exclusive” offers from cpaempire should have told you something. Especially since you have cpaempire blacklisted for the nasty little things they do.
$haz
21. Apr, 2009
I’m not going to edit my entries, I don’t see any particular reason to edit it. Guests should look at the updated reviews since I do have a date on there since they were last edited. I’m pretty sure any sensible person will be able to look at the dates and see that this entry is much older.
And I’m not going to make claims about things I have no hard evidence on. If you have it go ahead and present it to me and I’ll take a look, but other than that even if I do believe you all you have right now are just claims, and an obvious vendetta against Jake.
I know some of the companies he ran his exclusives from and they weren’t 95% CPAEmpire, which is just another claim. I’m sure some of his exclusives were from them though, so yeah at the point of revokes it was telling me something.
It’s great that you have things to say, just back up what you say more than words and an anonymous name. It’s more believable when you aren’t hiding your identity.
ExpressRevenue
21. Apr, 2009
Hi Zollie/Anonymous,
For starters, I would like to ask how you can come to the conclusion that I am “one of the biggest frauders in history.” Simple logic tells us if anyone was the biggest frauder in history then one would be behind bars. Once you become the owner of a network and see the day-to-day operations of the affiliate industry, you really begin to understand what fraudulent activity really is. For the record, I never completed an offer more than once when I was trading as a user for a short period of time. However, what you seem to not realize is that fraud is MUCH different from multiple completions. If you ask an advertiser, this would appear lower on their list of restricted activity. Signing up with intentionally misrepresented information, and using fake/lost/stolen credit cards constitutes fraud.
And also we kindly ask that you please validate your claims that “ExpressRevenue has some of the worst conversions in history.” Where do you find this information, as I would like to utilize it for my own performance evaluation. Are you an affiliate of ours? Looking forward to your response on this.
Regarding the Med Billing and FFAO being ran incent when they shouldn’t have been, that is simply not true and is a completely erroneous, unfounded claim. This one folly of yours on its own should stand to show that everyone should take what you are saying with a grain of salt. I feel there’s no reason to provide you insight on our internal workings and advertising relationships, but YES, w do have a contract signed stating incentive traffic is allowed on these offers, and they are still being ran as such. As for any other campaign, it again defeats logic as to why I would push incentive traffic on it when it’s not allowed. Besides the fact this makes susceptible to chargeback’s, my job is to work with affiliates ON BEHALF of advertisers. These are certainly actions contrary to our way of thinking and conducting business. I would actually be curious to see how you would handle the same type of situation ER just encountered. When you’re told, BY THE ADVERTISER, to incent their campaign and that they usually have low chargeback’s, then are hit with an enormous amount of unexpected revokes on some of your largest publishers accounts, what would you do?
Regarding Affiliate.com (formerly CPAEmpire as of a few months ago), I believe we have 0 active offers with them and have for the past few months. They are a great company who we have a great relationship with but at the current time we do not have any active offers with them, nor have we in the past few months. Please validate your claims by showing me some live ER campaigns that would validate your claim of us “using them so much.” I will also ask Scott if he “allows cheating” on your behalf and let you know how he feels about this allegation.
And again (at this point we are definitely not surprised at all), you seem to have been caught in another unfounded claim that lacks any substantial background. If you had done your research, you would be letting users of this community know that we do in fact have an account on Anything4Free, and enjoy our relationship with the forum. Users can find our profile here: http://www.anything4free.com/forums/index.php?showuser=58322
And finally, if you could tell us which freebie sites I personally am banned from (during my time as a trader three years ago), that’d be news to me. I’m actually extremely interested in how you acquired such protected proprietary information.
In short, no network ever wants to have to deal with the recent situations that were thrown on our plate. Since our inception, Express Revenue has done nothing but try to appease our affiliates while running the smoothest business operation as possible. Sometimes unfortunate situations arise in this industry, as I’m sure we’re all very well aware of, and as a network owner we must take these things in stride and deal with them the best that we can. Sure, we’ve had a few instances of chargeback’s in the past, but have always done whatever we can to minimize the losses felt by our clients, and will continue to do so in these cases and in the future. Adjustments have already been made network-wide, and we hope to avoid any future similar situations.
And Shaz, you know we love this community and have done what we can to further its reach since day one, but it’s very disheartening to see blatant slander allowed to be posted. I know anyone can have a voice, but there’s a stark difference between voicing one’s frustrations, and making false, unbacked claims meant to damage someone’s reputation. I hope everyone who has read this reconsiders Zollie Ferrell’s (no, this is not an unfounded or unbacked claim as readers of this may be used to hearing; I know the way you type very well, and have heard you use the word “crook” multuple times, while never hearing it from any other individual I’ve dealt with in this industry) presented information when compared to hearing things directly from the source.
Thank you,
Jake
$haz
21. Apr, 2009
Thanks for replying Jake, so this anon is Zollie aka Zman aka Zbestfreebies aka NIS aka took most of PPD’s traffic for all to himself and his websites?
ExpressRevenue
21. Apr, 2009
Hmm, all of the reply is not being posted. Read the whole thing here:
https://expressrevenue.com/reply.html
$haz
21. Apr, 2009
I edited it for you to include all your reply. As for the slander, I understand where your coming from but it’s the same reason I’m not editing any of your material.
Although my review has changed of you, I’m not going to go back and edit the good things I said about you because I did mean them and still respect you. I’m very big on free speech and honestly if I did that I’m no better than the staff at FLR.
You responding to his claims helps a lot in your case so I’m very happy you did that.
Scam hater
21. Apr, 2009
Not sure why my posts arent being posted?
Scam hater
21. Apr, 2009
I hate retyping but guess might as well.
A4F topic #111640
Banned on A4f, though after what 3 years see they let you back on.
freeipodguide topic 44284-0-asc-0.html
Where you admit to fraud! Seems your honesty days are over Jake.
freeipodguide topic 48966
freeipodguide topic 47793-0-asc-0.html
More threads.
You can also go to owners section on A4f $shaz for more proof.
Ask Leo on freelunchroom.
Get in hidden section on freeipodguide for more topics
Ask Alan from trainn
They have lots more I just dont have time to find them all.
As to Scott he never allowed myspace spam either but we all know how that turned out.
Your conversions suck and any owner who visits an owners section or speaks to other owners will tell you same thing.
I am not nor have I ever been Zollie, not even sure who that is.
Scam hater
21. Apr, 2009
Wont allow posting of links so did best I could, now run Jake and try to get them deleted, lol.
$haz
23. Apr, 2009
Valid points, wondering if Jake will respond or not. Are you still going to hide out or reveal your identity?
Scam hater
23. Apr, 2009
I dont consider it hiding out if I didnt post my name, address and picture.
No more then your hiding the name of the affiliate network from this post
http://bestincentiveaffiliates.com/2009/04…revokes-anyone/
The only thing you said was they went through expressrevenue and got revoked, go figure.
Or the fact you never state which incentive site you own on this blog
Public comment have a way of biting you later, lol. I might get denied by an affiliate or Jake might move to DT and add me to the DT blacklist
$haz
23. Apr, 2009
You really need to start reading updates.
The affiliate network personally asked me to not include their name because they aren’t ready to go public yet.
Try reading the “About” section if you want to know which site I own.
I don’t think Jake would do that, but if you say so.
Scam hater
24. Apr, 2009
You have my IP, so sure if you wanted could figure out who I am, lol. Not sure why its important though, just a random poster who knows bad networks when he sees them.
I’m not here to argue with you about your site, just thought people should know ExpressRevenue is run by a person who thinks offer fraud is ok, as long as it doesnt cost him money. A person with no moral bearing to make him honest or truthful. (Still not slander, lol)
peace
Scam hater
24. Apr, 2009
One last note.
With the number of affiliates for new owners to choose from owners should be just as demanding as your customers are.
Customers want great CS, fast payments, no hassles, and honest owners. Most affiliates need your traffic so if like “ER” they suck they don’t use them and let them dry up and blow away.
$haz
04. May, 2009
I’m beginning to think you’re correct. I would like for you to contact me so we ca discuss. Don’t worry, I’m not looking to screw you over. Thanks.
AdscendJeremy
26. Apr, 2009
“Ask Leo on freelunchroom.”
lol, well, anything he says is the pot calling the kettle black. he’s a huge frauder himself and anything he might say about affiliate networks is not credible. he’d tell you about how great CPAU is haha.
Barbara
08. Jul, 2009
Oh what a load – I had 2 offers reversed Girl Club offers you know the ones you can get the little kits sent to you – I asked him why – He tells me because the users canceled
Low and behold I go back to my users and what did they say not only did they not cancel they continued to recieve the new kits each month
Now get this it was only 2 leads worth $13 each so only $26 for me seriously I went back and forth with him on this back and forth including forwarding him letters and screenshots of the girls credit card showing the multiple charges for her orders – First he tried to claim he didnt get it which I knew was a bunch of BS – So you know what i did I forwarded it 10 times in a row – Yup u guessed it by the 5th or 6th one he was emailing me back ok ok i got it – Yah I bet you did
More back and forth a bunch of crapola if you ask me and still nothing – Rather then just crediting my account $26 and dealing with it himself with the advertiser he wants to be a putz and play games with me – Needless to say he lost all my business and on top of that I of course had to tell some other sites about him silly stupidicity practices and they immediatly pulled their offers – And I know one of the owners who pulled out was a big one for him so because he wanted to play games and not be so straight as he claims he lost tons of business when he coulda just paid me my $26
And his he gets it straight thru the advertisers is a load also half his links I was able to lead back to another affiliate