GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 22 - October 2012

GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES When did you launch your site? August 2011. You started in online gambling about six years ago. How did you become involved in the industry? My father used to play at online casinos and he introduced me to the online gambling world for the first time. In 2006 I moved to live and study in the U.K. and then I met some friends who were already quite experi- enced in the industry. Basically they showed me how they make extra money by promoting online gambling sites. I was studying Construction Management and looking for jobs related to that. Later when I graduated I decided to spend one more year studying in the U.K. for a master’s degree with IT subjects. At this time my girlfriend and I were playing at online casinos regularly. After I graduated I moved to live with my girl- friend in Brussels and that is how it all started. I decided to make a casino-related website and possibly earn extra money from that and have fun in my spare time. How long did it take for you to start earning money? It took me about seven months to start seeing some profits, but it could have been earlier if I’d had better knowledge of SEO. Your site is committed to providing players with safe, secure brands. What steps do you take to deliver on this commit- ment? Our site is committed to providing honest information about reputable, safe and secure online gambling brands. I can say that there is no way to be 100 percent accurate if you don’t test the casinos yourself. There are so many trusted and safe on- line gambling sites and at the same time there are so many black- listed for various reasons. The first step I take is looking at the gambling site’s reputation, license jurisdiction and year of establishment. Other important factors are the customer service, software provider, type of games, payout reports and withdrawal time. If a gambling site measures up in all these categories, then players can feel safe playing for real money, depositing and withdrawing their winnings. In your GPWA profile, you state that you “know how frustrat- ing it is for players to be ripped off by online gaming opera- tors.” Can you share any of your experiences? Some online casinos and gambling sites misrepresent their terms and condi- tions intentionally to attract more players. Unfortunately, play- ers can fall into this trap and get frustrated with online gambling. As a player I’ve had several issues with online casinos and most often the problems are delayed withdrawals, unclear terms and conditions and very poor customer service. Also, I’ve seen many forum posts online where players regularly complain about on- line casinos and gambling sites. I’ve heard horrible stories in- volving players and online gambling sites. Last year you mentioned that you were working on a free games section (with social media buttons) for your site. How has that been working out? Yes, it was a lot of work but it was worth it. Free casino games, particularly free slot machines, are a great way to get extra traffic to your website. We’ve included more than 100 free slots and made a special section for slots play- ers. This is a great way to get more “Likes” on our Facebook page. I definitely recommend free casino games to all webmasters who are targeting the online casino niche. The free casino games are easy to embed on your website and many affiliate programs are now offering them. The combination of free casino games and social media can quickly bring positive results in a short time. Your site has pages devoted to providing information about mobile casinos and live dealer casinos. What percentage of your referrals go to mobile casinos? What about live dealer casinos? We are now working on and testing a new made-for- mobile section on our website. Even though we have limited con- tent for mobile casinos for now, I’ve noticed that about 15 percent of our referred players go to mobile casinos. With the availability of so many mobile devices today I believe that the mobile casino industry will continue to grow and attract more players. There are so many great casino games available for mobile devices and the fact that most mobile casino players rarely cash out makes mobile an attractive niche. We’ve not been able to achieve much success with live dealer casinos, but we have plans to further de- velop this section on our website. You also have a high roller section on your site. Have you had any success referring high rollers? We decided to have a high roller section in order to present our website visitors with what we believe are the best VIP online casino programs on the Internet. High rollers are not always regular players. They may deposit only once and disappear. It is very difficult to keep a high roller playing for a long time. So far we have referred only two high rollers, and they’re not as regular as our other referred players. My favorite high roller online casinos are GoWild and InterCasino. What traits do you look for in an affiliate manager? How about in an affiliate program? Most important are the support and advice given to affiliates by affiliate managers. If you see that a particular program is not doing well the problem might be the working relationship with the affiliate manager. When you work closely together, not only can good commission deals be negoti- ated, but also very good player conversion results. We pick affiliate programs based on many factors such as reputa- tion, brands, player retention values, commission structure and the availability of marketing materials. MIKE mike65 To make more money, SEO is the way to go GPWA Affiliate Interview Series