GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 34 - February 2016

This psychologist takes a seat on our couch and tells us about her life as an affiliate When did you launch your first site? How long did it take before you received your first payment from an affiliate program? I launched my first website three years ago, in August. The first payment was in December the same year. Are you a full-time affiliate? If not, what else do you do for work? I am a full-time affiliate. I have a degree in psychology and a master’s in psychotherapy, so I see clients as a self-employed psychothera- pist, but my main sources of income are my websites and it’s been this way for al- most three years. Talk a little bit about your professional background. How did you get into the business of running an online gambling portal? I live in Malta and, as you know, there are a lot of iGaming companies and affiliates here. I became friends with some of them and got interested in what they do and in their cool lifestyle, and one day I just gave it a try and it worked. You promote online casinos, sports- books and poker on your site. What gaming vertical is responsible for the biggest percentage of your revenue? Definitely online casinos. I have been working harder to promote them, but I plan to dedicate a website specifically to online sportsbooks in the future. What search terms does your site rank highest for? How much time do you spend on SEO? My website has very high rankings for “best online casinos,” “online casino rating,” “online casino,” “best Internet casino,” “European online casino,” etc. I spend most of my time on SEO since it is the only way I promote my website. OnlineCasinoWorld is a Russian-language site. Do you have any plans to branch out to new jurisdictions or to launch sites in other languages? A few weeks ago I launched an English-language site so I am currently working on it a lot. I would like to have more websites in different lan- guages in the future, but I will have to hire people for that. How concerned are you by the recent news that Russia may block citizens from accessing online gambling sites? I am concerned. It is happening already, so on- line casinos have to change their domains from time to time. This is one of the reasons I started working on an English-language site recently. When did you move to Malta? What do you miss most about Russia? I moved to Malta nine years ago. I am quite settled and love living here. I miss my family and friends who are in Russia the most. What are some of your sites’ unique sell- ing points? How do you stand out from the crowd? I don’t think my websites re- ally stand out from the crowd, but I try to think about players first — about what they want to see on my website, what will help them to make the right choice, and I provide that content. What do you think is a better strategy for affiliates? To launch numerous sites, or to be laser-focused on creating great content for a small number of sites? I definitely go for good content. It seems unrealistic to me to have 20 or 30 websites and keep good standards for all of them. But I admire those affiliates who can do it. At the same time, you have to have more than one site because you can face prob- lems with your site, and it is good to have other ones so your business does not stop working. So you should not “put all your eggs in one basket.” Are you a one-person operation? I do ev- erything myself. How often do you get to see and inter- act with other people in the industry? Do you attend any industry conferences? As I said, I have friends who work in the industry. The first conference I attended was SIGMA last November. I had a great time there and made some good contacts, so I intend to attend as many conferences as I can in the future. What traits do you look for in an affili- ate manager? How about in an affiliate program? I appreciate a unique approach to every affiliate, when a manager tries to build good and trusting relationships with affiliates, making special deals and offers and informing affiliates about up- dates personally. From an affiliate pro- gram, I just like to get paid on time. What’s your preferred method of com- munication with affiliate managers? Skype messages. What prompted you to join the GPWA? How has it helped you? I joined be- cause I wanted to get a GPWA Seal. The GPWA helps me stay updated with im- portant industry news, plus I like reading the interviews. You’ve been a member of the GPWA for almost three years, but are one of our many “lurkers.” What might prompt you to join a discussion on our message boards? This is just my per- sonality. I never participate in any fo- rums; I simply don’t like to do it. But I like to read them every now and then. GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES lkxzpowq Olga GPWA Affiliate Interview Series