GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 42 - October 2018

Tell us about more about your site. I started Casinozoekmachine.com on 30 January 2017, a day before the birth of my son. I was super motivated, only fatherhood took up all of my time, which was not bad at all, of course. It’s great being a father, but it’s very time-consuming. Gradually I started filling the website with content, and I started to register with var- ious affiliate websites. Believe it or not, I received my first payout in November 2017. It was not much, €11.20 to be exact, but I was hooked on being an affiliate again. From that point on, the payments have come in regularly. Your site is focused on the casi- no vertical. What’s one thing you think an affiliate new to the online casino market should know about it? First of all, you must have a passion for the industry, otherwise you should not start in it. In addition, someone who is completely new to the casino market must first think carefully if he wants to go into this world at all. Because the affiliate industry is so huge and saturated already, you should bear in mind that it is not easy to get your website established. The competition is tough, and Google makes it harder each time by adjust- ing their algorithms. The money is not there for the taking. You have to work hard, invest a lot of time and have a well- thought-out strategy to be better than your competition. How has the online casino market changed since you started your site? Since I just started again, I’m really not sure. What I do know from the past is that it was much easier back then to really make a living from iGaming. And, of course, the market is hugely saturat- ed and fast paced. All the casinos are innovating. In the early days, you only had to download the casino. Nowadays there are mobile apps, instant play, and I heard that VR is going to be the next new thing. You really have to be on top of things. Your site targets Dutch-speaking players. What kind of games do Dutch players like? What’s the regulatory situation in the Neth- erlands like, and how does it im- pact how you target players? What I am experiencing is that the majority of Dutch players enjoy video slots the most, but there’s also a huge interest in sports betting. The regulatory situation at the moment cannot really be explained in a nutshell. In short, it is still illegal for Dutch residents to participate in gambling online. But the Dutch state is currently still turning a blind eye. But there is hope for the Dutch. The Senate of the State’s General has made a bill that modernizes the Law on Games of Chance and the Betting and Gaming Tax Act by making online gambling possible under strict conditions. So after years of dragging and tugging, hopefully there will be clarity within the foreseeable future — I think early or mid-2019. It does impact my strategy in targeting players. Some affiliate programs don’t accept me because of my traffic. But when I explain that I do not only have Dutch traffic and that my website also has an English version and I target players from all over the world, they mostly accept my website. But to be honest, I would really like to focus only on the Dutch market. But that comes as soon as the market opens. Do you have plans for additional sites? In short, not in the near future. There’s a simple reason. In the past I had several projects, and every time, as many affiliates might agree on, once you have multiple projects you can never put in all the time you would like to put in. You have to make choices. As a result, every project is only half baked. So that’s why I do only one project and laser focus on it. That said, I also think that is the main key to success in this market. What makes your site unique? How do you help it stand out from the competition? I am not the only one doing this, obviously. But I try to distinguish myself in the way I organize things on my website. I am an organized person, so I naturally want to reflect that. The principle 55 is fairly straightforward. Clean and simple design, organized, but with lots of info. If you think about gambling, everything is so colorful everywhere. Many websites reflect that. I think it can be toomuch sometimes. So I tried to do the opposite. I try to get the people who also findmy principles import- ant and get them involved in iGaming. I have a whole philosophy behind that, but that’s part of my secret strategy and is what I think ultimately makes my project successful. And besides that, I write all the content myself. That’s what makes my casino re- views and information about online ca- sinos very extensive. To give an example, The competition is tough and Google makes it harder . . . The money is not there for the taking. You have to work hard , invest a lot of time , and have a well-thought-out strategy to be better than your competition . G P W A t i m e s . o r g