GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 12 - April 2010

Disadvantage of Social Media Marketing: Creating content that will excite people to come back for more can be time consuming. And really, the job is never done. Delving into social media marketing isadaily responsibility.Old, ir- relevant contentwon’tget you far, sostay- ing on top of fresh content anddelivering it in a thought-provoking way are an ab- solutemust. 10 DesktopWidgets Desktopwidgetsarevirtual tools thatpro- vide users with useful information and provide applications that are available for download. Benefit of DesktopWidgets: The great thing about desktop widgets is that they (a) engage players even when they are not on your site; (b) attract new play- ers; and (c) provide real-time updates on playerpromotions and the like. Disadvantage of Desktop Wid- gets: Many people just don’t like these widgets, and consider them intrusive. Evenamong thosewhodon’t finddesktop widgets to be intrusive,manymay simply forget touse them! 11 E-mailMarketing An electronic newsletter is one of the old- est andmost provenways to reach out to your users, and remains an effective me- dium for reminding users that you still exist. Like the blog or the forum, content still remains key. As such, targeting your newsletter to specificmarkets (poker, ca- sino, etc.) is important because you can fill yournewsletterwith relevant informa- tion, special promotions — and basically stuff that tells your userswhy they should take the time to readyournewsletter. Benefit of E-mail Marketing: A big benefit of sending out a newsletter, one that is well targeted of course, is that you can (a) give your readers the sense that they are part of a special communi- ty, and (b) eventually gain your readers’ trust. Both of these elements should help you increaseyourbottom line. Disadvantage of E-mail Mar- keting: There are two disadvantages to consider about an e-newsletter: (a) You have to get users to actually sign up for the newsletter, or provide you with their e-mail address, which they may not be willing to do, and (b) even if you do get their e-mail address, your newslettermay notmake it through theirspam filters, and your effortsmaybe lost. 12 Incentivized Traffic Onewaygamingaffiliates, especiallypok- er affiliates, try to increase player loyalty, andhence theirbottom line, isbyoffering playersnotonlycashback(as inrakeback) but also other incentives such as prizes, exclusive interactive content and player tourneys. Like rakeback, it’s pretty con- troversialandremainsprohibited inmany affiliateprograms. Benefit of Incentivized Traffic: The perception is that offering something to players translates into (a) repeat play; (b)highercommissions; (c)player loyalty; (d)community loyalty;and (e)helping the player feel likeheor shehas theprivileges of amembers-only club. Disadvantageof IncentivizedTraf- fic: Theexistenceof incentivized sites can actually decrease player loyalty, as they may only attract bonus hunters. As such, players may abandon their accounts and look for abetterdeal. One of the best approaches to finding out which revenue stream works for you is givingsome, ifnotallof them, a try. Italso dependsonwhatkindofpersonyouare. If youhave a flare forwriting, andapassion foronlinegaming, then the forum, blogor newsletter avenue might be a rewarding option, both monetarily and personally. SEO is really amust-have, andworks as a base to which you can add other revenue streams, unless, aswementioned, youare ina trulyoversaturated field. EricaAnderson EricaAnderson isanaffiliatemanager at IncomeAccess.An integral partof their affiliatemanagement team,Erica recruitsnewaffiliates,workswith current affiliates tomaximize results andwithmerchants todevelop the marketing tools that affiliatesneed to successfullyconvertplayers. In terms of rakeback or incentivized traf- fic, youwoulddowellby first checkingout which affiliate programs allow this, and thendetermining if this is something you want toventure into. In the end, what works for one gaming affiliate may not work for another. De- pendingonhowsavvyandexperiencedan affiliate you are, youmay want to opt for certain revenue streams and leave others by thewayside. 27 Top 12Ways iGaming Affiliates Can EarnMoney