GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 22 - October 2012

then I’m answering via my iPhone. If it’s not worthy of a reply or my time, I delete it. While the people sending might think it needs my full attention, I often disagree. You have to be ruth- less with e-mail; I get around 150 a day, and if I answered and read them all I’d never get anything else done. Thank god for Thunderbirds spam filters or it would be double that. How do you manage your “to-do” lists? Do you use any spe- cial software to help you out? Basically, my e-mail inbox is my to-do list. I try to keep it down to less than 10 e-mails. I either ac- tion stuff instantly or delete. I’m ruthless about that, if my inbox gets up to 30 or 40 e-mails, I feel like I’m failing at my work and do a purge. How much time does it take to keep your sites updated? I have two staff working full time at keeping the sites up to date. However, they also work on developing other stuff and in other affiliate arenas. I would say that 75 percent of their time is updating, the rest developing new stuff. Do players really care about the grammar and spelling of a site’s content?You’ve posted that seeing lots of mistakes in the copy of a site is a real turnoff. Absolutely. Once again I’m going on personal experience, but typos and gaffes are a turnoff and show a lack of professionalism – so much so that I’ve em- ployed a proofreader to double-check my sites. You’ve also posted that you’ll gladly pay a writer 2.5 to 5 times more than the going rate for good content. Why so generous? Hell yeah. I’m a great believer that if you pay pea- nuts, you get monkeys. The most expensive pieces of content on my sites have cost close to £1,000. There’s a reason why, and you won’t find anything else like them on any other site on the Internet. You can pay £5 a post from some content hack and frankly, it shows. If you want Google to love you, you have to be giving something unique and something of value – 99 percent of gaming affiliates completely miss this point. It might sound high- brow, but seriously, how many gaming sites are actually worth reading? Not many, yes? You once wrote that you altered images when you find that someone is pirating them from your site with a direct link. What are some of the more creative things that you’ve done in that regard? Ha ha, yes. One site was grabbing images from me for their review of a bingo site. I swapped the image out for a 1000 x 1000 px image that basically said, “This site is shit, if you want an unbiased review of this site visit URL.” Webmasters need to be professional about how they build and run their sites. Hotlinking and content theft show a complete lack of it. I’ve also made 10000 x 10000 px transparent gifs for sites that are using image hrefs without size attributes, as it plays havoc with the lay- out of the target site. I’ve never gone as far as using donkey porn, though, but I know plenty of others have. How much time do you devote to SEO and/or social network- ing in order to drive more traffic to your sites? In truth it’s really very little. For my money, if you provide content that no one else is providing, it will find its way to the top of the SERPs as others link to it. I’ve got great links from the likes of the BBC and other authoritative sites that see the value of our content. I do believe content is king, but sadly too many affiliates are happy to perpetuate sloppy content and ideas on their site. We’re grow- ing our social side more these days, but for me the search traffic is still the most useful and convertible. If someone were visiting you, what’s the one place you’d definitely take them to see? I’m lucky to live in one of the most picturesque parts of Wales, so I’m spoiled for choice. If I had to decide on one spot, I’d choose a boat, mackerel fishing off Saundersfoot Beach, around Monkstone Point. Beautiful. What’s your favorite vacation spot? St David’s, in the far west of Wales. It’s just magical; you feel a real affinity to the land and the past when you’re there. I love it. If you could have one “superpower,” what would it be? It would be an ability to destroy intolerance and lack of reason in people. The world is too full of people who’d rather segregate by some idiotic belief in magical beings than enjoy life and accept others for what they are. What’s your all-time favorite movie? Oh, that’s too difficult for me. I love film and it’s impossible for me to pick just one. I can give you a top five, any one of which I would happily be represented by and sit and watch time and time again. They are Blade Runner , Wings of Desire , Local Hero , Day of the Dead and Martin . You’re also in the movie business. How’s that going? Yes, I used my affiliate earnings to move into a field I’ve always been passionate about. I worked in TV production before becoming an affiliate, so film production was not too big a step up. A major international distributor picked up our first feature film, Devil’s Bridge . It had a U.K. cinema release and is currently available on DVD from all major retailers. We’re currently in the position where a major international distributor wants our next project, but we need to raise the money to develop it and get the script completed for them. If any affiliates out there want to put their affiliate earnings to an alternative use and diversify their business interests, then we’d love to hear from them. Feel free to contact us via GPWA if you’d like to become an investor and step in to the world of cinema. If you could invite any five people, living or dead, to dinner, who would they be? I’m all about music and film; that’s the stuff that gets me excited. If I had to choose five, well, I think they would be George Romero as I love his cynical worldview and films. Representing the world of music would be Iggy Pop and John Cale as both are a real inspiration for me. The painter Edward Hopper would be there as I love his work and composi- tion. And my gramp would be there to look funny at them all and take the Michael. What are three things that nobody knows about you? 1. I have a degree in Fine Art as a painter and qualified as an art teacher. 2. I worked for the BBC for many years. 3. I’m a published photographer, illustrator and writer. 41 GPWA Affiliate Interview Series