GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 18 - October 2011

1 Get back to the basics – As successful poker affiliates, it’s easy to forget some of the basic things you once did, or what gru- eling steps you had to embark on to gain your initial poker affiliate successes. Take a week and go back to writing press releas- es, contacting fellow webmasters for link exchanges, article submissions or writing guest blog posts for others. Often we forget about the simple things we once did that helped us gain our ini- tial success. With the recent changes that have taken place in the industry, there has never been a better time to change up our daily routines and try new things. 2 Expand your global reach – If you have an existing portal that for years has converted your U.S. traffic, it may be easier than you think to begin attracting a more global audience. The good news is that your site is probably aged and rank- ing quite well in the search engines. The bad news, however, is that the majority of your traffic may still be U.S. based or tar- geting keywords around poker sites that no longer accept U.S. players. What many poker affiliates have suc- cessfully been doing since Black Friday is taking their highest-ranking and best- converting pages, and then having them translated into various different languag- es. When having pages translated there are three key factors to take into account: Translator – It is critical when having pages translated to hire a professional translator who is fluent in both languag- es being translated. If possible, it also important to hire a translator who un- derstands poker and the various poker terms that are used when writing about poker. Take your time and research dif- ferent translators before choosing one. It’s best to get a sample of the transla- tor’s work or testimonials from other poker affiliates. Culture & market – Understanding the culture and overall poker market when attempting to globalize your busi- ness into countries outside the U.S. is very important. For example, if you are attempting to enter the French or Italian market, you should know which poker sites are newly licensed in these jurisdictions. Pursuant to this you should research what the most popular poker variations or games being played in these markets are. Choose the right sites to promote – Promoting within the European mar- kets is completely different from pro- moting within the U.S. poker market. Take the time to learn which operators do best in which markets. Likewise try to promote operators whose main sites and even gaming platforms are trans- lated into the native language you are promoting. If you have a page written in German that generates a great deal of German traffic, it is imperative that you’re sending this traffic to a German landing page on any sites you are pro- moting. To find out which sites are best in which markets, talk to affiliate man- agers and network with other affiliates in the various affiliate forums. Expanding your global reach within the on- line poker market is a great way for poker affiliates to recapture some of the revenues they may have lost post Black Friday. While there is still revenue to be made within the U.S. poker market, that market is much smaller than it once was. Even if the U.S. market does pick back up, which everyone expects it will at some point, you will be thankful that you took the proper steps to globalize your business andhedge against the kinds of uncertainties we are seeing today. • • • 3 Diversify outside of online gaming –With poker affiliate marketing being one of the most competitive affiliate niches in the world, it has allowed thousands of poker affiliates the opportunity to develop the skills they need to be successful in any affiliate market. By parlaying the skills that have made you successful in the poker affiliate market, you can easily gain traction and success in other markets. The key, however, is choosing emerg- ing niches or products that are not yet oversaturated and have similar charac- teristics to gaming. For example, if an affiliate is going to try to break into the weight-loss or debt niche, he or she is going to have a much harder time than breaking into newer niches. For poker affiliates, some of the emerging niches I would suggest, and ones which will actu- ally cross over to gaming quite nicely, are: Sports picks & handicapping services Penny auction sites Binary options trading Precious metals affiliate programs Certainly there are thousands of dif- ferent options out there for affiliates to explore when looking to diversify out- side of gaming. However, the ones listed above are emerging niches and ones that involve both risk and skill, similar to on- line poker. The best piece of advice I have been giv- en by other superaffiliates is to continue rebuilding and growing inside the poker affiliate market while at the same time trying some new affiliate projects outside of gaming. • • • • 23 Five diversification strategies for poker affiliates post Black Friday