GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 42 - October 2018

management systems functioned. I had no intention to make money from this, but as time passed, the tips had some huge success and the traffic exploded out of nowhere. The first money came in two years af- ter the launch date. As a casual daily punter, I had no idea about affiliate programs and things like that. Online sports betting was at the very early stages at this time. So, I was accepting only some prepaid advertising. For the next two years, the site was like a second job for me. Actually, just some extra income after my main job. Anyway, things start- ed getting good, traffic was increasing, so I quit my main job to concentrate on the website. What’s one thing you think an affil- iate new to the sportsbook market should know about it? How has the online sportsbook market changed since you started your site? That you need to have a lot of patience. The good results will come late — if you can’t wait, this isn’t for you. Things have changed rapidly. Only a few brands existed before. But as new names started appearing, there was total chaos in all aspects. No rules, no restrictions, unhealthy competition, no regulating authorities. Maybe this situa- tion was almost ideal for the affiliate side, as there were a lot of opportunities to make money, but we all knew that someday rules would be in place. Things now are not better for the affili- ates. Conversion became a very difficult task. But from the players’ point of view, sportsbooks are more advanced. They give players more features and opportunities to win. Generally, more for the players, less for the affiliates. Sports betting can be a tough sec- tor, especially when players are doing well. How volatile are your revenues from month to month? Not much, but surely more volatile in comparison to the past. As I said before, the market has changed a lot; there are sharper players nowadays. I have to be prepared for negative months anytime, so I always keep the site’s spending budget stable, even in the very positive months. Your site features a blog with a ton of content that is updated regularly. How important is that to your site’s success? I think that the blog is the best way to gain new traffic and loyal users, so it is important. Many well-done posts brought us some quality traffic we were seeking. What’s your approach to SEO and drawing traffic to your site? How much time do you spend on SEO specifically? I spend a lot of time on SEO, depending on the period and the circumstances. Sometimes half my day is dedicated to that. About my approach, I go 100% white hat. Even if I get only a small piece of the pie, I am OK with this. I have experienced many problems so far — negative SEO attacks, doorway spamming, plagiarism, and many more things like these. Our niche is full of these guys. Do you have plans for additional sites? Yes. I am thinking of bringing back Bettingbasket.com soon. It was a successful basketball betting site I shut down before due to lack of time. I also had the Lithuanian and Serbian versions of Betshoot live before — some friends in the scene helped for these versions, but all were consuming too much of our time. What makes your site unique? How do you help it stand out from the competition? Probably the simplicity it has all over it. The content is direct with no catches. We don’t promise things we can’t do and we display our big losings, nothing is hidden. But, I don’t think that nowadays is that unique. Maybe in the past, it was more unique with all these Many of my friends don’t really understand what an affiliate is and how itworks . Most of them, includingmy family, think that I operate a sportsbook . Either way, I have their sympathy and full support . 59 G P W A t i m e s . o r g