GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 2 - October 2007

2. Translator There are two critical things you will need from a translator to do a good translation that will allow you to present a professional page in one of these emerging markets. For starters you will need a translator who is fluent in both languages. If he or she is only fluent in one and half-assed in the other, your content will look like the sentence above. Second and equally important, you have to have a translator who understands poker! There are so many terms that are going to get garbage translations if you don’t have a translator who understands all the various poker terms we throw out there -- and believe me, there are too many to count. 3. Understanding of the Culture and Market Maybe not as important as the prior points, but nonetheless it is important. Entering an emerging market is no different than choosing a niche. How can you promote within a niche for example if you have no idea what the niche is even about? Foreign markets are the same way. But the beauty is, once you have a firm understanding of that foreign market, you can make a killing by catering to them. But keep in mind that the cultures in some markets are much more difficult than others to learn. I am so sick of hearing about going to Asia, because this is THE toughest market to crack. The fraud level is incredibly high and the real gamblers are more apt to gamble at true Asian sites, and not a translated dot-com. Furthermore poker is not their game of choice right now. It’s games like Baccarat and other obscure card games. Although there are several challenges for poker and casino affiliates when entering global markets, the ones mentioned above are probably the top three. Other little nuances that shouldn’t be overlooked can include having to get banners made in various languages, or sending players to rooms that accept players from that country but have no translation of their own on the site. Most affiliate programs and even sites only have a couple languages. Now I will share with you some “inside advice” on the easiest way to get past these obstacles and launch into a foreign market properly. Although I am not a huge fan of keeping everything on a dot-com, it has worked wonders for us at PokerNews.com with subdomains. Nonetheless, pick up a domain with that country’s TLD extension if you can. Next, instead of simply hiring a translator to translate all the important pages on your site, partner with a poker player or webmaster from that country to be responsible for ALL the current and future content for that language. Two things: pay themwell, and give them a simple CMS (Content Management System) to take care of all the content. This is very important as then partners are not limited to X amount of dollars for X amount of pages translated. Instead it encourages them to make the kind of money they see other big webmasters making. Don’t be greedy and give up an extra 10% for lesser value partners. You will make your money back 100 times over if you bring on the right partners, pay them well, and provide them the resources they need to be successful. Another quick piece of advice — poker players in Germany don’t care about how Mike Matusow finishes at Foxwoods in Connecticut. Having pages with news like this translated is almost a waste, to be honest. Poker players in Germany want news and articles on the poker scene in their area or country. Of course you want site reviews and strategy articles in the native language, but including U.S.-focused content is going to be poor ROI. This is where having a poker-savvy writer in Germany, with the freedom to create his or her own content, comes in handy. Once again, pay them well (based on performance) and give them a simple way to add content so all they have to do is pump it out, and not worry about technical stuff. There are some great opportunities that lie ahead for poker and casino webmasters within new emerging markets. However, if you want to enter into these markets and build your brand as a professional one that will attract repeat visitors, you must do it properly. Furthermore I think it is always important to be moderately successful in your native market before venturing into others. The purpose of this article was to point out a few of the important things that must be taken into consideration when thinking of taking the plunge into the foreign and emerging markets. It can be lucrative, but just make sure to cover all your bases. Happy Promoting!