GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 34 - February 2016

GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES I’m always with people in the industry; to be honest, a lot of my friends work in the industry. Although I don’t attend confer- ences, I’ve always kept up to date with the news coming out of them. What traits do you look for in an affili- ate manager? How about in an affiliate program? Contact, contact, contact! The most important thing is how quickly the affiliate manager contacts you when you request support. All affiliates, new or old, should have this as their No. 1 most important thing to look for in an affiliate manager. In a program, look for the biggest sites with the best revenue share deal. That is how I have always worked. I’m sure oth- ers prefer hybrid or CPA, but I’ve always been rev share. What’s your preferred method of com- munication with affiliate managers? Skype — easy and free. What prompted you to join the GPWA? How has it helped you? The man that taught me about the industry advised that I join. He has been a member since the beginning, I believe, and he is an ac- tive affiliate today. Without the GPWA I would have missed out on so much in- side information, and it would have cost me big time. For example, I was promot- ing a blacklisted affiliate program and the GPWA listed them in the forum so I quickly stopped promoting them. That program still owes me $43 — I’m just glad it wasn’t $4,300. If you’re reading this and you’re an affili- ate without a GPWA account then . . . What do you like about the industry? Poker. I’m a passionate player, and it made sense to mix work with pleasure as an affiliate. When I’m building a poker site I enjoy it and yes, I know it’s sad, but it’s way better than building a forex site or an e-commerce store. If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be and why? RNGs or random number generators — one of the tinfoil hat brigade’s biggest problems, and something I think is a problem also. The RNGs are never tested by multiple third parties; the only testing is in-house, and online poker just doesn’t play out like live poker regardless of the clear differences. I’m not claiming that RNGs are rigged, but they do need regulating and test- ing from multiple third-party regulators. Even better would be to revive Real Deal Poker’s method. What do your family and friends think of your work as an affiliate? They all love it. I like what I do, and if it makes money then everyone is happy. Do you gamble online? If so, what do you play? I only bet on sports, although I used to play poker online. How do you manage your to-do lists? Do you use any special software to help you out? Who said I had to-do lists? Only kid- ding; I use calendars and Post-It Notes, both virtual and real. Cortana comes in quite handy too since upgrading to Windows 10, although she always seems to think I missed my deadline. What’s the most difficult thing about running your sites? Writing good con- tent. Let me tell you, a good writer is worth their weight in gold. If you can find yourself a good writer, then you have in- stantly solved 33.3% of the equation. What’s the best thing about running your sites? Getting paid to do something I am passionate about. What do you do to stay in shape – both physically and mentally? I have a Springer Spaniel boy, and I don’t do the gym as I’m naturally fit and have always been in good shape. Mentally, I have Countdown the TV program. What do you do with your spare time? I like to get out with friends whenever I can, going to football matches, the pub or the casino. I’m also a newbie golfer — yes, golf. It’s good to play but boring to watch. I’ve got a 62 record on par 56, so I’m get- ting there. What did you dream of doing, both pro- fessionally and personally, when you were a kid? Like every kid, I wanted to get paid £250,000 a week to play football, having a wag and being successful. Then I grew up and realized Father Christmas wasn’t real and settled for becoming a website designer and SEO. I actually love my job now, so it’s not too bad. When you need to get as far away from work as possible, where do you go? The golf course. We do £5 per hole, so it’s not too far away from work but it’s a great way of escaping the office. What’s your all-time favorite movie? I’m a bit of a movie freak to be honest, so all- time would have to be more specific to a genre. However, one movie that is abso- lutely brilliant is Interstellar . It’s accurate with science, and the co-author of Stephen Hawking’s latest book was the chief sci- entist on the movie. If you are going to watch it then I suggest you Google the 5th dimension as it’ll probably not make any sense otherwise. I do think everyone should watch it, though; brilliant movie! If you could invite any five people, living or dead, to dinner, who would they be? I think I would want to make it interest- ing so it would be Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Kazuo Hirai and then Mila Kunis and Milla Jovovich to please the eyes. Name three things that people reading this magazine don’t know about you. 1. I once ranked a site on the first page of Google for the keywords “online poker” and “poker.” 2. I lost a poker tournament heads-up with four-of-a-kind aces. 3. I have written over 700,000 lines of CSS this year alone. GPWA Affiliate Interview Series