About Director of HELPing

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About Director of HELPing

Co-founder, Affiliate Marketer, Helper

About Director of HELPing: I specialize in affiliate marketing for ecommerce businesses. Since the early 2000s I have worked with lifestyle retailers and direct to consumer brands as an affiliate, and on their affiliate programs.

Need help getting set-up? Guidance with affiliate program management?

Whether it’s for retail or direct-to-consumer ecommerce, I can help launch and grow sales from affiliate marketing.

Ask me about the affiliate management mentor program, or the free affiliate program set-up (Impact) for Shopify stores at GravityFed™!

Let’s Chat

Years of Experience

Clients & Partnerships

Total Retail Sales

Process & Approach

Listen & Discover

I am a pro listener. It’s the most important part of the process. To provide quality affiliate marketing services I will first understand your needs, then make recommendations, and propose a course of action.

Plan & Communicate

With affiliate marketing it’s key to begin optimizing months in advance. Plan early in the year for the largest possible Q4 impact. I can help design and execute with a strategy for the long game.

Deliver & Refine

Scope, deadlines, and deliverables will be defined early in the engagement so expectations are clear. I will not be satisfied until you are, so I welcome and expect feedback and refinements.

Clients / Testimonials

Alex Deckard

Freelance Designer / Collaborator

“I’ve worked with Gary in a few different capacities which all have been very enjoyable experiences. He’s in-tune with all the latest marketing strategies especially as they relate to affiliate and influencer marketing. Gary navigates relationships, both new and old, with ease and is always thinking of new ways to reach customers.”

Andy Nichols

Marketing Manager / Black Diamond Equipment

“GravityFed helped us discover partners to execute a review campaign to drive awareness for a new product. The results includes a reach of 145,081 consumers, with an engagement rate of 5.56%. Added bonus? We brought these influencers on to our affiliate program! We will definitely be doing more influencer campaigns.”

Durk Price

Founder / eAccountable

“Gary and I have worked on a number of affiliate marketing transactions together since 2005. I recommend Gary to everyone I know who is serious about affiliate marketing and getting involved with the best technology in the industry. The technology services he offers are sophisticated but he has a way to make it understandable at all levels.”

Two Decades of Experience

I can help your ecommerce business grow. As a long-time content creator, publisher, affiliate manager, and network co-founder I have a deep understanding of affiliate marketing for retailers and direct-to-consumer brands.

20 Years of GravityFed™

GravityFed Logo The original tagline from 2000 was “Eccentric Athletes & Mountain Culture”. We started the website from an employee housing unit at Goldminer’s Daughter in Alta, where it took a little creativity to get a dial-up Internet connection to the room (not even available to guests at the time). Watch GravityFed’s Story on Park City TV.

We were publishing ski bum editorials and writing outdoor product reviews before the rise of social media or blogging.

We created and sponsored local events and figured out how to make money on with affiliate programs. GravityFed became one of Backcountry’s top affiliates back when they were still known as “Backcountry Store”. This led to a position there, then the start-up of AvantLink.

In 2019 GravityFed rebranded and launched a platform that has since grown to include thousands of social influencers, bloggers, ambassadors, sponsored athletes, and of course brands.

In addition to the free platform tools, GravityFed offers partnership marketing services for outdoor and adventure lifestyle brands.

1996: Intro to HTML

Started building web pages after taking an elective course on HTML and the Internet in graduate school. My background was not computers or tech. I did however enjoy the course, and with my attention to detail, I picked up web page building quickly.

1998: COS Web Services (Agency v1)

Co-founded an early web site building company based in Ithaca, NY. We were able to secure and maintain a respectable list of clients in the early days of the web, while continuously learning more about website publishing and development.

2000: GravityFed.com, Inc.

After selling my share of agency v1 moved to Utah to ski powder. I thought it would be prudent to start documenting the ski bum lifestyle so I registered the domain name GravityFed.com and enlisted a fellow powder skier to help out. Within a year we had a three websites built including the first outdoor sports directory at GravityDex.

2002: Discovered Affiliate Marketing

Through a friend I learned the basics of affiliate marketing and began to monetize the traffic we had at GravityFed’s small network of mountain lifestyle and gear websites. Back then it was mostly 468×60 banners and text ads. My first experiences with affiliate programs were with Backcountry.com and Amazon.

2003-2005: Backcountry.com

As one of Backcountry.com’s top early affiliates, I was offered the role of affiliate marketing manager as the 49th employee. I built my own desk, then generated 6% of company revenue over two years with 60% new-to-file customer acquisitions through enterprise affiliate partnerships.

2004: More Web, More Affiliate

GravityFed.com, Inc. launched several more affiliate websites, and acquired AltaCam.com, a site that became popular featuring Alta’s early camera feeds. AltaCam would eventually evolve into TheDailyPow.com, a popular ski video blog in Utah.

2005: Avantlink

Leaving Backcountry in October of 2005, I became a co-founder and the first employee of AvantLink, an affiliate network for web retailers that set-out to compete with large, established networks. Innovative marketing leadership established the company firmly in the affiliate space within a few years.

2015: Director of HELPing (Agency v2)

After a decade I sold my ownership in AvantLink to shift gears, change the pace, and get fresh perspective. I have always considered myself a helper, and as an affiliate marketing consultant and trusted advisor, it was a natural fit to offer my service and knowledge to clients with enthusiasm.

2019: GravityFed™ (rebrand)

After being hired by an affiliate agency to help launch engagement outreach and influencer marketing services I began intensive market research, and joined several influencer marketing and brand ambassador platforms. It occurred to me that we had the perfect foundation with GravityFed™ to build a platform that facilitates influencer marketing for outdoor brands.

Director of HELPing

Consultation and management services for affiliate marketing, SEO, and social media.