GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 47 - July 2020

an iGaming operator or an affiliate who is dependant on the brands and will say whatever he is told to. Please tell us about the VIP program that PokCas offers? This is a great pri- vate program for active players who play me- dium-high stakes poker and casino games. We award cash and special gifts for players who sign up through us (for some brands we can simply transfer your old account) as a thank you for being loyal. Also, our players get VIP promotions for being a part of a PokCas gang. Please tell us about your back- ground with video games and your trackerfortnite.com site? I always loved video games, especially those that have a split-screen multiplayer mode. Too bad that the times are changing now. Tracker Fortnite platform was acquired by me since I noticed that it was for sale in my local community. I saw a lot of potential in it and it did not even take long for me to make my money back since the price wasn’t high. Together with our tech guy, (which I found once I started working on it) I introduced new trackers, guides and databases which are loved by the Fortnite Players. We plan to keep on adding more guides and trackers, so there will be a lot of new trackers and content. It brings additional revenue and it is one of the most popular Fortnite Trackers in the world (U.S. is our main market). So far, not planning to launch any other sites, but I am always looking forward for new opportunities. What’s your approach to SEO and drawing traffic to your sites? How much time do you spend on SEO specifically? That is something I had to learn from scratch. SEO is like art, you can be good at it, but you can never fully master it, even if you are close, some changes can make a huge impact. Most of our traffic is from SEO and we pay a lot of attention to it. I personally think about our SEO changes almost daily. I write a to-do list all the time and implement the changes later. We have made a lot of progress recently and during (the later part of 2020), we expect a massive growth. You are very active in forums. Please tell us why and do you have any spe- cific examples of how the forums have benefitted you and your business? I started in my local online forums. It was a good way to do a test run without having your own website. If administrators allow you to write reviews or if you come upwith some sort of an agreement, this can be a good starting income. Since then I became and adminis- trator of the largest IT and business forum in the country and also another online platform, which is the largest and oldest local poker forum. So due tomy persistence, activity and helpfulness, I was able tomove up the ladder and get promoted. Do you gamble online? I used to play online poker tournaments, then switched to Spin & Gos, where I was doing great. But now I decided to focus on my main sources of income. However, I do still play special tournaments in rare occasions. What traits do you look for in an affil- iate manager and affiliate program? If they are willing to take that extra step, that is always a good sign. If they send merchandise, offer extra in- come for emergencies (yes, some do that), motivate you with private gifts/promotions for you/your players, that is always a good sign. A tip for inexperienced affiliate man- agers, don’t be like: ’’We won’t offer any- thing, send us traffic for three months and then we will see’’ . Check who you are talking to, if needed – ask your management to treat some affiliates with extra incentives. If you could change one thing about the industry these days, what would it be and why? Legislations and player tracking need improvement. These are some of the biggest obstacles for the affil- iates nowadays. Global brands should be allowed to operate in most countries around the world, players shouldn’t be checking every casino’s restricted country list and see if their country is among other 50 which are not allowed. And tracking, we need more options to ensure that players are tracked correctly. Operators, be innovative, offer your affiliates something like special freebies/invitation cards which they could give out and invite players offline. GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES about A little bit more Ernest P. He is 29 years old His sites are PokCas.com TrackerFortnite.com Lithuania photo by MNStudio/Shutterstock; Malta phot o by Cristian Balate/Shutterstock; pizza photo by Seba Tataru/Shutterstock; chicken soup photo by Plateresca/Shutterstock He is living in Malta His is from Lithuania His favorite food is Quite a few Lithuanian dishes, English breakfast without mushrooms and black pudding, Italian pizza, protein pancakes, chicken soup, ham omelette and scrambled eggs G P W A t i m e s . o r g 54