GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 31 - February 2015

Pursue your passion; you will not feel tired doing things you enjoy How did you become involved in the in- dustry? I have been playing football and watching the matches on TV since my childhood days. How long did it take for you to start earning money? Success does not happen overnight. Patience and hard work are key ingredients to success. Are you a one-person shop or are you part of a larger organization? It is im- possible to do everything by myself. I am happy to delegate the tasks to various de- partments of web development, design- ing and accounts. Describe your work environment. Do you work from home or in an office? If you work from home, how often do you get to see and interact with other people in the industry? As long as you are dis- ciplined and focused, you can work from anywhere, be it your home or a café. To what do you attribute the site’s popu- larity? Why do punters prefer your site? SoccerPunter is fully committed to pro- viding up-to-date football content for the best interest of our users. We provide soc- cer predictions, head-to-head statistics, live score results, past results, upcoming match fixtures, a tipsters competition and odds comparison. How do most of your visitors land at your site? Do they arrive through search or advertising? Do you have a lot of di- rect traffic? And do your visitors tend to return to your site? SoccerPunter invests in SEO, and many users know us through popular search engines such as Google. According to Google Analytics statistics, returning visitors account for about 65 percent of our daily traffic. This goes to show that they appreciate our content and find it useful in their soccer analysis. How popular is your tipsters competi- tion? How difficult is it to maintain the systems to keep it up and running? In terms of the amount of work you have to do on it, is it worth the return you be- lieve you get? The primary objective of the SoccerPunter tipsters competition is to allow everyone to bet and predict football matches without losing any money. it is a virtual betting platform with popular bet types such as 1X2, Asian handicap, over/ under goals, half-time/full-time, odd/ even, correct score, first team to score and last team to score. The registration is free and the competition provides an excellent training ground for beginners to master the art of soccer betting. Therefore, the re- sponse has been overwhelming. Recently we added live in-play to the SoccerPunter Tipsters Competition. Players can now predict matches as they watch football live on TV. The return on investment is not an im- portant consideration. It is heartening to know that many soccer tipsters have expressed their delight and appreciation in this tournament. We have received testimonials that the tournament has helped them to become better players and it is a simple and easy-to-use plat- form to showcase their ability to predict football matches. You posted recently that you’re a fan of Google Analytics, especially because you can use it to convince advertisers to work with you. Could you give us a full rundown on the different ways you be- lieve Google Analytics makes your life easier? Google Analytics is well known for its accuracy in web statistics reporting. It provides real-time information on the number of active users on SoccerPunter as well as their geographic locations. On top of that, we can find out which pages the users are currently surfing. The presenta- tion of Google Analytics statistics helps to convince advertisers to trust SoccerPunter to deliver the results. Have you ever hired an outside web de- veloper? How do you feel about using an outside developer vs. doing the work yourself? Yes, it is important to hire the right person for the right task. I used to code the website in the early stages of the business, but it is a time-consuming and hectic process. I prefer to focus on busi- ness development and leave the program- ming and design work to the experts. What traits do you look for in an affili- ate manager? How about in an affiliate program? Managers must be responsible and hardworking, taking prompt action and executing follow-up requests. Trust is crucial in every relationship, be it person- al or commercial. If there is no trust, there will be no success. We receive numerous invitations to join affiliate programs every week, but usually there is no compelling reason to sign up. What’s your preferred method of com- munication with affiliate managers? Do you like to talk on the phone, by e-mail or via Skype? E-mail is an easy and effective mode of communication if the recipient is overseas. I can check my mailbox on the move using a smart- phone. Calling overseas can be expen- sive, and the poor call quality can affect the conversation adversely. What prompted you to join the GPWA? How has it helped you? It was a pleasure to join the GPWA and interact with people in the industry. I get to learn from the pos- itive and negative experiences that other GPWA members have had. GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES ANDY C. soccerpunter GPWA Affiliate Interview Series