LinkTrust President Bret Grow an interview

Tell me about LinkTrust.
LinkTrust is a sophisticated, yet intuitive hosted software platform for affiliate tracking, ad network management and lead management. We’re recognized as an industry leader with outstanding customer support and platform reliability.  Our clients are some of the most successful ad networks in the industry.
 
What are the advantages of LinkTrust over DirectTrack?
LinkTrust offers superior tracking accuracy, a more intuitive interface, and greater system stability.  LinkTrust also has the only robust lead management system fully incorporated into the affiliate management platform.  In addition to superior performance, LinkTrust is renowned for the people behind the scenes who offer a personal touch and fantastic training and support.

How did you get into affiliate marketing software?
Cofounder, Frank Ouimette and I were employed by an online advertising company where tracking and lead management was done manually.  We were determined that through our skill sets, we could make an easier, automated way to manage leads and track conversions instead of using traditional text files and spreadsheets.  Through our experiences with this advertising company and several others later, we learned more about the industry which allowed us to improve the platform over the years.  We even managed our own affiliate network using LinkTrust before finishing the software to allow for private labeling.  Once this was complete, we used our industry contacts to spread the word that a new tracking system was finally available to compete with the only other system available to the industry at the time.

What is the biggest challenge in affiliate marketing that you solve?
First of all, we provide healthy competition in the online tracking software industry previously ruled by a single competitor.  Second, we lower the price barrier that prevents many small and medium sized companies from starting and succeeding in the industry.  Third, we incorporate the only fully integrated lead management system into our platform which allows many companies to capture and broker leads.

Where do you see growth in the affiliate field?  
I see potential for growth in almost all areas, but especially media avenues such as search, mobile and offline content.  The industry is still relatively young so the potential for growth in areas not yet discovered is very possible and keeping an eye on what’s new becomes imperative.

What do you do to improve the world?
I try to run an ethical company that builds relationships to help our clients succeed while providing a fulfilling environment for LinkTrust employees.  I place a high importance on finding a balance between work and family. 

What do you do that is green?
We migrated our traditional accounting practices to electronic invoicing.  We have also moved to using real plants and flowers as part of our tradeshow presence.

What is one thing about you that not many people know?
I used to be a volunteer firefighter and missionary.

What are your contact details (email, company, blog, facebook, myspace, forums etc)?

Email: bret@(nospam>linktrust.com take out the (nospam>
Blog: blog.linktrust.com
Web site: www.linktrust.com
AIM: Linktrustbret
Twitter: @linktrustbret, @linktrust

What events do you go to?
 We exhibited at Affiliate Summit East this year with nine of our partners and we are planning to have an even larger booth with even more partners at Affiliate Summit West in January. I will be at Ad:Tech New York in November and we are exhibiting at Ad:Tech San Francisco in April.  As a general rule, we attend most Affiliate Summit, Ad:Tech, and LeadsCon conferences.

Who would recommend you and why?
Here is a brief list of LinkTrust clients who strongly recommend working with us.  They love what the platform has done for their businesses and appreciate our top notch support and training.

1.            GetAds (http://getads.com/ )
2.            RevStars Media (http://revstarsmedia.com/ )
3.            BlinkAds (http://blinkads.com/)
4.            RateSpecial (www.ratespecial.com)
5.            Niche Marketers (http://www.nichemarketersnetwork.com/ )
6.            CX Digital Media (http://www.cxdigitalmedia.com/ )
7.            Partner Fusion (http://www.partnerfusion.com/ )
8.            AKMG (http://akmg.com/ )
9.            Plasmid Media (formerly Ethos Interative) (http://plasmidmedia.com/ )
10.          The Leadstream (http://theleadstream.com/ )
11.          Legacy Media (http://legacymedia.com/flash.html )
12.          Tranzact Media (http://tranzact.net/ )
13.          Revenue Gateway (http://www.revenuegateway.com/ )
14.          CanadianSponsors.com  (http://www.canadiansponsors.com/ )
15.          BlueStar Media (http://www.bluestarmedia.com/ )
16.          Redfly Media (http://redflymedia.net/ )
17.          Direct Power Media (http://www.dpowermedia.com/ )
18.          ILeadPay (www.ileadpay.com )
19.          MobiKlix (www.mobliklix.com )
20.          OfferWeb (http://www.offerweb.net/ )
 
What one thing can people do to help you?
We are always looking for suggestions to improve the LinkTrust platform.  Get in touch with us with ideas for features or other ways we can work on making LinkTrust more effective.