GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 15

which made it worthwhile continuing my efforts. It wasn’t big money by any means, but it gave me a couple hundred dollars a month to play poker with for “free.” It seemed to never increase for quite some time but I’m happy to say that now it’s be- ginning to take off. What do you know now that you wish you had known when you were starting out as an affiliate? Really just basic SEO and Web development skills. I literally knew nothing. I thought I could just put up a few banners and make some money. Had I done a little research I would have savedmyself somuch time by doing things at least somewhat right the first or second time around. What do your friends and family think of your work as an affiliate? They don’t understand it. I simplify it mostly by just saying I do online advertising. Some friends even heckle me a little about getting a “real” job but they have no idea what the potential is and they don’t realize you can make a living do- ing this. Where do you position yourself in the ongoing debate about the usefulness of direct links versus three-way links? There are several different debates out there and I used to waste so much time and energy reading about links. Three- ways may very well be the most benefi- cial, I don’t know. In my personal expe- rience it seemed three-ways just took too much time to monitor and research. For a lot of the sites that wanted to link via three-way, the linking site was junk. I still do a few three-ways but mostly now just with GPWA members, and they work out fine. As far as direct links go, I guess the debate is that they cancel each other out so they are meaningless or at least worth a lot less. Sometimes just common sense has to be applied. If I link to a news article on CNN and then CNN links to me for some reason, some- thing just tells me Google will still give me credit for that link. What’s the most difficult aspect of oper- ating your sites? The technical side of it. There are so many things that I still do not know. The GPWA has helped dramatically with this, though. By reading the posts I learn new things all the time, and if I have a problem the folks there are very helpful and will try their best to answer any ques- tions I may have. What advice would you give to someone just starting out in the industry? Learn some SEO. I wasted countless hours do- ing things the wrong way because I just didn’t know better. Recently you’ve been testing the sports- book scene by adding a few sportsbooks to your Ultimate Poker Bonus site. How has that been working out for you? It’s still pretty new and I do not promote the sportsbooks heavily. I like to wager on the NFL so it just seemed reasonable to add a few sportsbooks that I use or have used. If I get a player or two it’s just an added bonus. What prompted you to join the GPWA? Has being a member helped you in your work? I saw a GPWA banner on another site and just clicked it to see what it was about. At first I read a few posts but re- ally didn’t contribute. I came back to the GPWA probably about a year later, and I’m so happy I did. The GPWA has helped tremendously! From coding questions to members giving site re- views and suggestions, the information is invaluable. If you had to pick five keys to success as an affiliate, what would they be? Research best practices – I wasted so much time building my first site not knowing anything about Web site devel- opment. Things I spent hours on became useless and I had to redo them anyway. Learn SEO – you don’t have to be a master but you need to understand basic principles. Play at the sites you review – a personal twist can go a long way and make your review believable. Ask questions – if you don’t understand something just ask. Be patient – you can put hours of work in but not reap the benefits of it for months. Don’t give up on a strategy if you think it has merit – it takes time. I was too quick in the beginning to think I wasn’t doing something correctly, only to see it take shape down the road and then have to play catch-up. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. AGE: 35 HOMETOWN: Pennsylvania FAVORITEFOOD: Hibachi SITES: ultimatepokerbonus.com onlinepokerbonus.info usa-internet-poker.com usainternetbingo.com Travis and his friend Shelby take his nephew to his first Jimmy Buffett concert. nw~hêhêpêz

GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 15 - January 2011