GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 15 - January 2011

All your sites deal with poker in one way or another. Any plans to launch a site that’s not poker-centric? I have played more than 1 million poker hands online, and love the game. I find it very hard to write about things I know little or noth- ing about, including casino games. I only play games where I think I have an edge, which is not the case when playing against the house in casino games. I did buy a domain which is going to be for ca- sinos, but I haven’t actually made the site yet – I don’t really know where to start. So I’m always working on poker-related sites instead. You operate three .com sites and two .net sites.Why do you have both types of sites? Which is better to have – a .com or a .net site? Explain. Hmm, yes! When I bought the .coms I also bought the .net versions, and for a long time .net just redirected to the .com domain. I can’t really explain, I just try different things – free bankrolls, rakeback, bonus, rev share and CPA – to see what works and learn along the way. I actually just bought some new domains and will start working on some niche sites, so if any manager from the rooms I already promote has something special for my players I will dedicate a site and make their poker room the featured room! What did you do before you became an online gambling affiliate? When I was very young I got work in a factory, and stayed there for 11 years. But since I also enjoyed playing online poker a lot and was quite intrigued by affiliating, I simply lost interest in my work. In 2008 I won a RakeTheRake freeroll. First prize was a $5,000 trip to Las Vegas which included hotel and a $2,000 WSOP side event. I was very excited and quickly invited my brother to come with me to Las Vegas. The trip was so cool. We got invited to a party at the Wynn. Karim Wilkins took very good care of us and we had a fan- tastic night. Unfortunately I was elimi- nated from the tournament after 12 hours of play. I went all in with pocket queens against another guy’s ace-queen. An ace came on the board and I was out in about 400th place, about an hour before the money bubble burst. The tournament had more than 2,300 entrants, with a first-place prize of over $700,000! This was the biggest experience of my life and afterwards I was even more hooked on the industry. About six months after the Las Vegas trip I got fired! Since I was in fact spending most of my time on the Internet, launching a career there felt about right to me, and now I am my own boss. Why did you become an online gaming affiliate? How did you get your start in the business? I started playing online poker around late 2004 when I saw one of my friends play. I knew nothing about the game, but it surely looked like some players at the table had too much money to spend! So I started watching my friend play, and soon I opened my own account. Almost right away, I found rakeback while searching for good poker bonuses. I started playing on InterPoker with 30 percent rakeback and a monthly $100 reload bonus. I played low stakes, so the $100 bonus took me nearly all month to clear, but it was very sweet since bonus plus rakeback was 90 percent rakeback in total, plus affiliate promotions. Since then I have been a “Bonus/Rake- back” whore and have accounts on many sites on most poker networks, so I know a lot about how poker rakeback and bo- nuses work. Since my first rakeback deal, I’d always wanted my own site, but never knew what to do. In 2008 I started with some ugly blogs, and signed up with a few of the rooms that I liked myself. Later I found Poker Affiliate Solutions, which was much better than my blogs and was also very easy, and here we are! How long was it before you started mak- ing money? I sent a few friends right away, so I did earn at the very beginning. I can’t remember but I guess it took about a month or so before I got my first signup that was not a friend. What do your friends and family think of your work as an affiliate? My close family thinks it’s cool, but they don’t know ex- actly what it takes on a daily basis. What’s the most difficult thing about op- erating your sites? I guess keeping them up to date is the hardest thing. What advice would you give to someone just starting out in the industry? I am not the best person to be giving advice, but be patient, work hard, be more pa- tient, work harder, be patient again, and read GPWA! What do you think the industry could im- prove? The most important area needing improvement is SUPPORT! As a poker player and affiliate it truly amazes me how bad and incompetent much of the support is in the industry, and this in- cludes player and affiliate support alike. I see it almost every day and I simply don’t get it. Players need fast replies; three days or a week is not good enough. I can’t even remember how many times I have asked a question about X and got a reply about Y, or no answer at all! This will and does cost many players in the long run. I mean, come on! The players are already there; just treat them right! Support people have to know and try the sites, games, rules, terms and everything, or they are pretty worthless in my opinion. RBS Without solid support, you’re nothing AGE: 28 Living in: Europe FAVORITEFOOD: A good steak SITES: RakebackSafe.com PokerStarting.com and others 32 GPWA Affiliate Interview Series