GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 12 - April 2010

Morgan Freeman, TimRobbins andOther TiesThatBind Politically,philosophicallyand geographically,ourfiveaffiliate intervieweesareall over themap. They traveledwildlydifferent roads– sometimes circuitous, sometimesmoredirect –on their way intoonlinegaming.Tovisit them,you’dhave tomake stops in theU.K.,Sweden,Romania, Croatiaand theU.S.A. Yes, they’redefinitelyadiverse group,amotleycrew,but at the same time theyalsohavea lot incommon.For example,would youbelieve thatwebmasters in Gustafs,SwedenandConway, SouthCarolinacouldbothhave the sameall-time favoritemovie? It’samazing,but true! So,what additional affinitiesdo thesefiveaffiliates share?You’ll have to read their stories tofind out. *Due tospaceconstraints,wecouldnotprint the interviews in theirentirety.Thecomplete textwillbe postedatgpwa.org. GPWAAFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES Håkan Karlsson | hakank “We’reall family intheGPWA!” BonusStart.com helps players sort out thedifferent terms and conditions that accompanyall thesign-upbonusoffers. Whendid you launch the site, andhow have players responded towhat you’re trying to do for them? I launched Bo- nusStart.com inMarch 2009 and I can see that visitors tend to read about the different bonuses and open an account to try them out. The sad part for me is that I don’t get thebigplayers. BonusStart.com is available in Ger- man, Swedish and English. We know you speakEnglishandSwedish.Doyou speak German as well? If so, when did you learn tospeak it? I don’t speakGer- manbut I dounderstandawordor two. Do youwork full-time as awebmaster? When I started in thisbusiness Iworked as a truck driver and had BonusStart. com as a hobby. Now I’m currently be- tween two jobsand try to raisemoney in whateverway I can. So, I’m a semi-full- timewebmaster . . . lol You’re based in Sweden. Howmuch of your business is focused on Sweden? How much is focused elsewhere? Bo- nusStart.com is a worldwide site, but Spela-Kasino.se is completely focused onSwedishplayers. You are a relatively new affiliate.What problems have you encountered start- ingupyourbusiness,andhowhaveyou solved them? The main problem has been to find casinos that attract players. Ibelieve Ihaven’t found thebest yet but the search will go on. Now I guess that I’ll bemailbombedbymanagers! What is theone thingyouwishyouhad knownbeforebecominganonlinegam- ingaffiliate? That itwould requiremost of my time just to update and promote the sites. Tell us a little bit about Free Online GamblingDirectory, which you started recently.Whydidyoustart thissite?Are youhappywiththesuccess it’sachieved so far?Whatelsedoyouwant toaccom- plishwith this site? I started the direc- tory with the intention to help others build links. I know by experience that a directory is a good way to list your site and gain backlinks. This is away for all to have a link without the need to buy an expensive one. And I’m focusing on gambling-related sites because Google likesnicheddirectoriesandvaluesa link from the same niche higher than a link from an ordinary directory. The site is just in its infancynowandhopefullywill growbigger in time. Howdid youfind theGPWA?How long haveyoubeenamember?Hasmember- shiphelpedyou inanyway? I found the GPWAbypureaccidentwhen searching for affiliate programs. I started to read the open sections and decided to be- come a member, waited three months tobe aprivatemember and later on got mySeal ofApproval. RecentlyJudy (ca- sinobonusguy) and Dave (AussieDave) helpedmewhen I was in trouble – you can read all about it at the forum. So we’reall family in theGPWA! How much time does it take to keep yoursiteupdated?Doyouuseacontent management system to manage your site? It takes between 10 and 15 hours