Why did you change your philosophy concerning the volume of sites you manage? We made a decision in 2020 to scale down how many websites we manage and it’s led to a greater focus on a couple of core projects. Looking back, it was a mistake to attempt to run dozens of websites with a small team – our content quality suffered, it was tough to build links, and we found that we were essentially competing with ourselves and cannibalizing our own work. In the gambling affiliate business, you have to be willing to change and adapt. Like many affiliates, I was set in my ways – assuming what worked 10 years ago would still work today. This is just not the case anymore. SEO is changing fast, and you have to constantly adapt and improve. You also told us in 2013 that, “My biggest weakness is I start too many sites and buy too many domains.” Over a decade later, do you still consider this a “weakness”? It’s eye opening to see that I had that level of self-recognition in 2013, but it took me seven more years to change my ways. I’m happy to report that while I still buy too many domains, I no longer start too many websites. When you started out in 2008, if someone told you that you would still be doing this full-time in the year 2023, what would your reaction have been? In 2008, I set a goal to make $2,000 a month, which I did. In 2010, I set a goal to make $10,000 a month – and the rest is history. Early on, we had to sacrifice to succeed, now we are pretty comfortable. I have sold our biggest projects and started over at least five times since 2008. At first, it was fairly easy to recreate our past success, but now it’s getting a lot harder. I’m constantly looking at our processes, auditing our work, and trying to learn from others. Networking with the smartest people in the industry has helped me stay relevant, and not being reliant on any single market has helped me absorb the variance associated with being an affiliate. I’ve always felt it is important to have dozens of income streams, big and small, in order to be comfortable. If a country closes, or a program stops working with affiliates – it can hurt, but it is never fatal for us. Being a U.S.-based iGaming affiliate, please tell us how your company and business strategy has changed over the last five years, especially with PASPA being abolished in 2018. It’s been an incredible ride being a part of the post PASPA wave of states legalizing sports betting and online gambling. I’ve learned a lot about myself – including what I’m good at, and what I am not. For the first time in 15 years as an affiliate we’ve had to stay on top of constant changes, follow fast-breaking news, and compete with publicly traded companies that employ not just dozens, but hundreds of people. The stress of going through the licensing process inmultiple states, and ensuring comG P W A t i m e s . o r g Yearsago,whenpeopleaskedme what Ididfor a living, often theanswerwas “buildwebsites” or “onlinemarketing.” Half ofmyneighborhood thought Iwas a professional gambler, theother half thought Iwas a bookie.Neitherwas accurate. 45
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDIzMTA=