Today I'm interviewing Gene Miller with GMB Direct. A very nice fellow who sends us Vodka and who I had the pleasure of spending lots of time with at AD Tech. Actually that in itself is quite an interesting story.

Out of the millions of New Yorkers running around Manhattan and the thousands of marketers
at AD Tech NY 2006 I'm always on the listen for Russian accents and recognized Gene's voice
through the hustling bustling crowds. If you've been to AD Tech you know the DB level is
ridiculous. So the odds of this occurring were quite low.

This is one of my obsessive-compulsive disorders I guess. About a year or so ago I decided that I wanted to learn to speak, read, and write Russian and for what reason, no one really knows.

I'm happy to report that while I'm not fluent I have mastered the basics of it and continue to learn
at a steady pace.

Anyway, back to Gene.

Have you noticed that there are a lot of Russian people in our industry?  

Hi Russ . It is great to finally get together with you and speak about this . I would not say a lot but a few good ones are definitely in the business and I am glad to be a part of that group .

Gene, everyone knows GMB Direct. You're in NY and you have a great reputation amongst
friends. What made you decide to get into the business?  

Russ flattery will get you everywhere . I am sure not everyone knows us but I like to believe that those who do appreciate how we do things. I like to think that the relationships we have in place are solid ones and that reputation in this business is extremely important. I actually got into this business backward . I had a network of sites that I developed and then was buying media for . I started calling marketers and the more I spoke to people the more I understood how the business worked. I hooked up with a few really great techs and went to work on building a software , finding data and mailing . Now we have evolved but I do not forget how I got here .

What aspect of the business do you want to really dig into in 2006?  

I really want to focus more in 2006 in building and managing of few of our internal offers. We are very fortunate to have some really solid partners for who we generate Network Marketing Leads and our primary focus is going to be in 2006 to drive traffic to those sites and make sure it is a Win win for Publishers and Advertisers . One of our offers UltraLister has been extremely successful with publishers , earning over $2 eCPM . We have 3 more now and a few more in works .

Tell us about your exclusive offers.  

The offers that we are focusing on are the Business Opportunity lead generation . We have quite a few different ones from 3 fields to 15 fields with different landing pages and really nice creatives . UltraLister has really been a strong performer for us in 2005 and we are looking to do a lot more in 2006. We also have an ephedra based Diet Product but that's on hold for now. We should be back up in the next few weeks.

What can you do on the publishing side?  

We mostly use our database to text our offers , but from time to time we do some mailing for other clients . We really do best with biz opp offers , diet products and lead generation for insurance , car quotes and things like that . We do not do any Zip code or Email only offers . From time to time we find a really good unique offer that does well like that Verseo Laser Brush.

What other services and products does your company offer?  

Funny you should ask . We just released out own version of affiliate management software . We were not looking to get into that space but after looking for a solution to use internally for our offers we decided to build our own . As I mentioned that to a few people they were interested and now we already have 3 clients. I am looking for more small to medium size publishers to test the system and use it at a much more reasonable price .  

Will you be going to AD Tech San Francisco?  

Absolutely . I can not wait . I wanted to go to affiliate summit but my schedule is not allowing me to get that done .

Do you have any projects that haven't been announced yet, that you are working on?  

I am looking at a few opportunities right now but it is too early to speak about that .

What do you think 2006 will be like?

 I think 2006 with be an awesome year for everyone . I think there will be a lot of new opportunities opening up and I think a lot of companies are going to be acquired . I am looking forward to building some more great relationships and really solidifying the ones we have . 

I want to thank you Russ for the opportunity . I really value our friendship and the way you conduct business

Happy Holidays to everyone and I wish everyone a lot of success in 2006 .