GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 4 - April 2008

GPWA TIMES | GPWA Affiliate Interview Series 18 Current hometown: Sydney, Australia Age: 29 Favorite food: Sushi One book everyone must read: The Little Prince Sites: gambling-gazette.com , casinoyjuegos.com, spielmitdemglueck.com, bestcasinosuk.com thepichi: Better-educated players demand better affiliates How long have you been working in the online gaming industry? Three years. What first drew you to the business? I started as a player and then I re- alized I could earn some money and still have fun. Is working as a gaming affiliate a full-time occupation for you? Or do you have another job? It’s full time. That’s the best way to be successful. Do you run your sites as a solo opera- tion? Or do you work with some oth- ers? And if so,howmany peoplework with you? I have two more partners. I am in charge of the marketing, they do the programming. You are based in Australia, yet your gambling-gazette.com site makes a clear point of distinguishing be- tween casinos that accept U.S. play- ers and those that don’t. Why is this important for your business? The Internet is a global media. It doesn’t matter where you are. You can be ly- ing on Bondi Beach, with a laptop, trading on the New York Stock Ex- change. Gambling Gazette receives about 83% American traffic. We are working on developing smaller niche markets but we all know that the USA is the big- gest competitive market. How much time does it take to keep your site updated? Do you use a con- tent management system to man- age your site? It’s a time-consuming task; it takes me eight hours daily to update all my sites. I use my own content management software. Why did you choose thepichi for your screename at the GPWA? Does it mean anything or hold any special significance? It’s my nickname from childhood. In an ideal world, how would you divide the efforts you put into your sites? What percentage would go to marketing, updating content, man- aging your books and other tasks? Marketing: 30%, Primarily looking for new links, partners and new mar- keting ideas. Updating content: 50%. This is the most important task, and you have to work every day. Managing books: 20%. The infor- mation doesn’t change so often, but anyway it’s really important to keep in touch with them. How long did it take for you to start earning money? Almost a year. How (besides UIGEA) has the indus- try changed from when you first started? I think players are more educated. They won’t click on the first pop up like 10 years ago. They know what affiliates are and they know that ‘better’ affiliates will get them better bonuses and will make sure they get paid. What advice would you offer some- one who has just started in the in- dustry? This is a long race. It can be profitable but you have to be patient. Constant work is the key. If you had to pick 3 keys to success as an affiliate, what would they be and why? • Work hard, and put all your heart and time into it. The effort will be well paid. • Be honest with players and affili- ates. They will return if they trust you. • Choose only good and trustwor- thy affiliate programs. It doesn’t re- ally matter if you don’t advertise too many, but advertise the good ones. What traits do you look for in an af- filiate manager? How about in an af- filiate program? I look for a person- al relationship. Affiliate managers are my support. I’d like my emails answered and having them on MSN contact list. INTERVIEWWITH Diana Sterling | thepichi Continued on page 50