Affmeter is a really useful tool that I know a lot of affiliates use, so here’s an interview with the founder and face of Affmeter, Firuze Gokce. I first encountered Firuze when we integrated Affmeter at DGM and I’m really pleased to see that it’s continuing to grow and they seem to have great plans for it. Firuze is Turkish and I hope she won’t mind me admitting that I helped her a little bit with her English in the interview!!
Affmeter is an automatic revenue consolidation tool for affiliate marketers to grab revenue and statistics data from multiple affiliate network accounts. Plus affiliates can also fetch Google Adwords PPC costs and make a net revenue analysis in terms of merchants and networks.
What is your background?
I studied Economics and started my professional life as a dealer who was responsible from money market operations in one of the biggest banks in Turkey. Unfortunately, or maybe luckily, I could not see my future in finance so in 1997 my husband Fethi Gokce and I established our first company, Utopya Visual Communications.
Our first project was the first English search engine for Turkey, financed by our own resources . Alongside this, we also created 6 different online guides in order to promote Turkey. The project was called “ Asiaminor – Expedition of the Grand Anatolia” and it includes a city guide, Turkish music guide, cultural guide, travel guide, book store and a business guide.
In the year 2000 it was leased by the Turkish Ministry of Tourism for Expo 2000 Hannover as an online information provider for Turkey. We have achieved many sucessful projects for the Turkish government , European funds and private companies in Turkey. But the economic conditions are very hectic with lots of ups and downs.
How did Affmeter come about?
We started affiliate marketing operations in UK and US markets since 2003. As the number of the number of affiliate networks grew, we found ourselves in difficulty accurately following our revenue statistics. We checked a few products in the market but nothing felt good. So we decided to create it by ourselves in 2005. Therefore, we collaborated with Ersin Celik and Serhan Pocan who are software developers and very good at their field. Affmeter, LLC was established and registered in Delaware, USA.
The first version of Affmeter was released at the end of 2005 and it was free. Thanks to the many loyal users we had, they trusted us, used Affmeter Free and liked it very much. Affiliates4u users were the first ones who discovered Affmeter Free and they have helped Affmeter Free to be spread by word of mouth. I always appreciate Affiliates4u members, Affiliates4u Team and Matthew Wood.
Affmeter used to be free but now you charge for it, what impact did that have on the business?
We found that Affmeter Free was liked by so many people and they needed more networks and more features. We had to take a strategic decision to terminate the Free version. We have to completely focus on improving Affmeter Pro and the improvement and development are a full time commitment for Affmeter Pro.
I could not pass without telling one thing: Our user base is very dynamic, loyal and supportive. Affmeter is a product of their relentless contributions. We are so happy to stay in constant touch with our user base and try our best to fulfil their expectations.
What are your future plans for Affmet
