GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 49 - April 2021

really wanted to get into Environmental Science —especially nuclear related—but there weren’t many openings. I looked at doing an Environmental Science Masters, but at the interview read about a PhD that was available and talked my way into getting that offer instead. It wasn’t planned, but the opportunity arose and I took it. What’s your approach to SEO and drawing traffic to your sites? We prob- ably don’t spend enough time on SEO, but then we also don’t spend too much time worrying about SEO. For me that’s a healthy balance! First and foremost, we try and put together a site that is for the user and that works. We are mindful of SEO and do checks on various sites to make sure I would say that compliance has obviously been the biggest change to the industry in recent times and I’m all for the aims it’s trying to achieve. It would have helped us all if the powers that be knew what they wanted from the start. It would help us even more now if operators all had the same approach. But we’ve adjusted, including changing our logo and making it easier for ourselves to update content so that it is uniform across the site. Other changes have been the way opera- tors conduct themselves. How many of us thought that operators would honor their agreements when we first signed on the rev-share dotted line? Sky closing their program to some affiliates left a huge hole financially for us as we’d been with them since Day 1 of their bingo program. We had experienced closures before, but nothing of that scale comparatively. However, we have always been financially savvy in terms of rainy day savings and trying to make sure we’re not totally dependent on one brand for income. It’s not always easy, but my advice to af- filiates is don’t become too close to just one program, or if you do, make sure you have reserves just in case. Always assume nothing is going to last forever and enjoy the experience as you go. How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected you both personally and pro- fessionally? Professionally, we’ve used it to make changes to Loquax, including changing our server hosts for the first time in 20 years. That was quite a long-winded process as we’d accumulated several years of old content, broken code, lost pages. As we all work from home anyway and our business is online we’ve been lucky in the respect that the pandemic hasn’t had too much impact. Personally, I think I’m like everyone else and have good days and bad. I’m fortunate that I live by the sea and can get out for walks with the dogs, but it is strange to think I’ve not travelled anywhere further than 10 miles away in almost a year. I see people say it’s been a wasted year, which is sad. It’s been a different kind of year, but I’ve watched films, walked the dog, taken GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES We try and put together a site that is for the user and that works . We are mindful of SEO and do checks on various sites to make sure there are no glaring errors . . . But, as a small team, we don’t have the time/ resources to focus on SEO , link building , PR , so we just do what we like doing and, by some weirdness, it seems to work . Has it helped in any way? It’d be nice to say “yes,” but I’m not so sure. Actually, that’s not true. It did help because the first couple of years of Loquax were run on the side whilst I was working as a re- searcher. I guess if I’d been allowed to stay in a laboratory environment doing the experiments rather than put in front of a computer churning data others had created then more than likely Loquax wouldn’t exist. I suppose it has helped in terms of problem solving, research, reaching conclusions, etc. Ultimately, doing the PhD also made me unemployable, which may explain why we’re still going as there’s no other op- tion (Laughs). Doing a PhD was great, but finding a suitable job afterwards was impossible. I did stay on for a couple of years as a full-time researcher, but that experience also made me aware of how much I hated working for other people. When I eventually left, my then-boss also said I was unmanageable, so I’m probably in the right place! there are no glaring errors. After the site moved home last year we did find a large number of basic errors, broken links, poor redirects, etc. then we managed to break other things in the process. But as a small team we don’t have the time/ resources to focus on SEO, link building, PR, etc. So we just do what we like doing and, by some weirdness, it seems to work. I’ve spent a lot of time online, at times too many hours, and I’ve reached a point in life where it’s not the be all and end all to be working. What have been some of the biggest changes to the industry since you started and how have you managed to adjust and survive? When we started, Google didn’t exist, no one had an iPhone, social media was unheard of and no one was gambling online. So we’ve pretty much seen everything change. When affiliate marketing started to develop in the U.K. it was mainly bedroom affiliates creating websites. Now it’s companies and folks half my age! G P W A t i m e s . o r g 48