Interview with Jack Schafer

1) How and when did your online business get started?

I got started online in October of 2003. I joined SFI and MPAM and found out about traffic exchanges through there. I purchased Hitpirate off of Ebay in December 2003 (on an old ASP Walker script) and started developing my own business at that point. I branched out and learned how to do design work to create my own splash pages and then branched out from there. I have no schooling in computers, so everything I know I have learned on my own.

2) Which exchange(s) do you own or co-own?

I own Hitpirate and Genie Traffic. I also own Pirate List Building (List building tutorial site) ClickOrRead (New Mail Less safelist) and Hitpirate Marketing (My blog)

3) Do you currently work exclusively online?

No I do not, I work full time as a restaurant manager. I do have aspirations to be online full time, but haven’t reached that goal yet. Everything I make, I re-invest in my business to help it grow and provide a better environment for my members.

4) How many hours per day do you spend on your exchange(s)?

I spend about 3-4 hours a day working on the exchanges.

5) Do you do support yourself, or do you outsource support?

I do my own support :)

6) How fluent are you with HTML, JavaScript, and PHP?

I have pretty solid HTML skills.
Don’t know much about JavaScript.
Don’t know enough PHP.
I will be diving into PHP over the next year, I think it is important to know enough to fix any bugs that may come up. Sometimes it’s hard to get a programmer on your project quickly. So I want to learn it to fix them bugs quicker :)

7) Approximately how many members join your exchange a month?

These days, about 200-300 a month have been joining HP.

8) Does most of your advertising come from members referring, or you?

I would have to say it’s pretty even, I do spend quite a bit of money advertising. I also have some weeks where I really surf my butt off on the exchanges. But I do have a great bunch of members at HP that help bring in new people :)

9) Are you subscribed to any blogs? Which is your favorite?

Hit Exchange News (my favorite) TE Scoop and a few others.

10) What would be the biggest tip you could give to readers?

Avoid the HYPE online. Do your due dilligence and study things before you go spending alot of money. If it sounds too good to be true, it IS!

Working online is hard work, It takes a lot of effort and there is alot to learn to do it properly.
Find yourself a great mentor that is truly willing to help people. Then surround yourself with like minded people that are successful. Duplicate their efforts.

Be prepared to spend money when the time comes. No business in this world is free. As they say “It takes money to make money”