GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 33 - October 2015

$250 before they start earning. Traders do take rests after big losses, so I believe a trader “lives” for around two to three months. What type of online gamblers, in your opinion, are most likely to cross over to become binary market traders? I think people who love sports and betting are more likely to switch to binary options. People should understand that binary op- tions are not equal to casinos. The online casino always wins, whereas a trader can earn good money from binary options. Betting and binary options trading are similar in a way that you make a two-way bet (up or down) and if you make a good prediction, you win. How is running a binary options affili- ate site similar to running a casino or sportsbook affiliate site, in your opin- ion? How do these types of sites differ? As I said previously , I’ve worked with all types of affiliate stuff. I believe that running a site is pretty similar — people look for no - deposit bonuses and that kind of stuff. Binary options traders are more like poker players who come to actually earn some money. Every month you have tens and hundreds of new casinos, poker rooms and brokers entering the market. Most of them don’t have any idea how to get a good conversion rate, don’t under- stand that you need a license to operate legally in most of the countries . . . so just choose your partners really carefully. What are some of your sites’ unique sell- ing points? How do you stand out from the crowd? I have a unique design and my own branding. I love my Mr. Binary guy. Most of the websites use old web- site themes without any brand or name. I want people to remember my brand, not just a domain name like the others. I always give only truthful information about brokers. When a binary options trading site gives you only 30% positive deals and in 70% of the trades you lose, I am not going to promote that material. I try to provide unique content for my visi- tors. When I say unique, I mean an article written from scratch, not just a rewritten article from another website. Tell us about your hometown, Tallinn, and your new home of Leeds. I lived for 18 years in Tallinn, the lovely city on the coast of Baltic Sea. I have been a Leeds res- ident for five years now. I love the quiet- ness of Leeds as it is similar to my home- town. I hate London with its busy way of life, so I love living in Leeds. Your site targets the U.K., but binary markets are available all over the world. Have you considered expanding into other markets? When I was only plan- ning to launch a website, I had already thought about into which languages I was going to translate it. The list is: English, Russian, French, Dutch, Spanish and German. At the moment I have only trans- lated my website into Russian; I didn’t have time to deal with the others. You’ve stated in the GPWA forums that you’re a part-time affiliate, working from eight to 15 hours a week on your site. What do you do in your day job? Are you hoping to one day run your site full time? Yes, that’s right. I do spend some time looking after my websites and im- proving site traffic with good content and SEO work. My other part-time job is in the Internet marketing field. I work for a pret- ty big agency called ICS-Digital; it is most- ly SEO work and provision of Russian content. The idea behind the affiliate stuff for me is to get some extra money on the side, so it is more like a hobby for me. How important is social media to the success of your sites? Currently it has a very small influence on my success. I have tested Instagram for promoting bi- nary options trading, but so far it doesn’t work as well as I wanted it to. I created a template to create unique quotes, and I do get likes and a bit of traffic, but no real registrations yet. Are you a one-man shop, or do you have other people working on your site? How often do you get to see and interact with other people in the industry? As I have several websites, I have colleagues who are responsible for some specific areas. We all work distantly and communicate via Skype. My colleagues live in Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia and South Africa. What traits do you look for in an affili- ate manager? How about in an affiliate program? Personal approach. I hate when managers just e-mail you with a template without even checking your website. Some managers just want you to feature them on your website, and they don’t Taras (far right) helped build a race car to enter in the Formula Student event as part of his automotive engineering studies. 59 GPWA Affiliate Interview Series