GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 37 - February 2017

I found out that I wasn’t satisfied with the results, so nowadays I’m pretty much by myself again. In the good days, I was busy counting money – but I’m not that busy now! Do you gamble yourself? Online or in brick-and-mortar casinos? When I was living in Las Vegas from 2009 until 2014 I played the machines and video poker in the bars for a little money. I used to play online poker when it first came up. I don’t gamble any more. Not online, and not in real casinos. I was never a gambler, really – I played the games to learn them so as to to know what I’m talking about. How often do you get to see and inter- act with other people in the industry? Have you attended any conferences? If so, which ones? I haven’t been to a conference in maybe two or three years. I’ve been to G2E in Las Vegas and to iGB in London, Barcelona and Amsterdam. Conferences are great places to get to know people in the industry and to see cities you haven’t been to before. What traits do you look for in an affili- ate manager? How about in an affiliate program? An affiliate manager needs to be responsive to e-mails. Even if the question sounds easy, I think I have the right to receive a response. That shows that somebody cares. I don’t like it when a manager keeps you guessing on your questions and concerns. A program should have a generous rev- enue share and possibly no negative car- ryover. Graphics and banners are good to have, but I don’t need a lot. Free games are a good idea. What’s your preferred method of com- munication with affiliate managers? I like e-mail, and most managers respond on the same day, or at least within three business days. With the time differences, they are all over the place, so it’s good to write an e-mail and check on it the next day to see if there’s a response. What prompted you to join the GPWA? How has it helped you? I was looking for other webmasters to link exchange and for people to share experiences with and to learn from each other, and to possibly meet. It helps improve your websites; it’s a great place to learn fromeach other. That’s where I found out that there are conferences where you canmeet other webmasters and affiliatemanagers from the online casinos. What do you like about the industry? Being an affiliate gives me the chance to work for who I want to work for. I like the freedom of making a website so it looks how I want it, and where I can use my own creativity and designs. If I create a website for other people, they ask, “Can you make me No. 1 for this keyword, or that keyword?” and how much would it cost, and that’s very difficult to answer. You cannot make guarantees on the po- sition of a webpage on Google. If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be and why? Link buying, although I think this happens all over the Internet, not only the gaming in- dustry. What I don’t like is this link buying by bigger companies, though I used to sell links when this practice came up. The websites of casinos and affiliates appear in the top rankings for the most competitive keywords. When Google finds out, they disappear again. Google once said that everybody has a chance to appear in the GPWA Affiliate Interview Series Conferences are great places to get to know people in the industry and to see cities you haven't been to before. 48 w w w . g p w a t i m e s . o r g