On the way we passed a roulette table so I took 50 Deutschmarks in chips that I hadn’t cashed out and stuck them all on 17. You should have seen the look on the poor guy’s face when 17 came in and he had to take me back to the cash desk to cash out one more time. I also had a fair amount of success as a poker player. I never played in a World Series or anything but in my own little sphere I did OK. Obviously, working around the world as a casino manager left little time for taking part in global poker tournaments. I wasn’t always working in a country where poker was a thing either. What I used to do was take a month off and travel around playing in provincial poker tournaments. I was never concerned with winning the tournament, the most important thing was to cash out. I reckon that I used to cash (make a profit) at least one time in three. That may not sound like much but those are seriously good stats. I either won or cashed out as one of the top eight players in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Nottingham, Isle of Man, Ireland, Bulgaria, India, Russia, Brighton and many other places. I played cash games too, also successfully. As I was more focused on making a profit as opposed to making friends, sometimes the atmosphere in cash games could get a little too tense for me. What are your hobbies? What takes up your time when you are not working? While I was a brand ambassador for an events management company I enjoyed attending sports events with my wife. I still like to go and watch cricket but she hates it so I go alone. In the winter months, snooker is my passion. I used to be an OK player. I was recently practicing against a local Brighton guy who is attempting to get through Q school to become a professional. I made a 72 break against him which I was pleased with but in the next frame, he made a 140 break which quickly brought me back down to earth. I do not run a mailing list (yet) or offer a forum, so free slot games are a reason for people to revisit the site. As a plug-in it is also maintenance and hassle free which I like. How do you decide what affiliate programs to work with? What are the keys to a successful relationship with affiliate managers? I admit to being quite profligate when it comes to choosing affiliate programs. I tend to want to join them all. I’m a sucker for a cool looking website, so if a casino affiliate has a pretty landing page and some bright and shiny new brands, I sign up immediately. This year has seen me change my approach though. I am going to be focusing more on using affiliate networks such as Confido and Gambling Affiliation. At the end of the day the deals are better, easier to acquire, and there is a good choice of top casino brands all in one place. It makes sense for me as time is of a premium. The key to a successful relationship with an AM is communication. Although I have been anything but communicative just lately as I do have other pressing issues to attend to. I do tend to be a bit of a people pleaser, so find it hard to give every brand the No. 1 slot on my main page. To counter this I never promote more than 12 brands on any of my main pages and I keep them on a rotation basis so that brands change every time the page refreshes. When it comes to blog posts, I generally promote only three brands at a time. Honestly, I don’t know if this is a good system, but it cuts the work down considerably. If a 23-year-old friend of yours told you he or she wanted to start an iGaming affiliate website tomorrow, what advice would you give to them? Don’t do it! If you don’t have a team of designers, copywriters and SEO experts and a good chunk of change to start you off, then you are wasting your time. As an individual, it is way too hard unless you have time, capital and a long-term strategy. Of course, there are other options. You could become an affiliate in a less competitive field such as, I don’t know, theatre tickets or something. The returns may not be as great but at least you will see a return. I was advised to target a narrower niche aspect of online gambling. This is a better strategy. Targeting a niche like blackjack casinos in New Zealand, PayPal casinos in Canada or Australian vdeo poker casinos. My problem was that I had the content before the idea, as opposed to the other way around. My sites began as vehicles for written content and not specifically affiliate sites. This made it way harder for me than it needed to be. If I could rewind the clock I would do things differently, but sadly, this option isn’t available. If I was going to start over again, I would simply focus on the U.S. market. Do you gamble? I used to gamble, but not anymore. No real reason for this, I just don’t see the need. When I did gamble, I used to be a blackjack player. I was pretty good, too. I was winning several thousand Deutschmarks in a casino in Berlin when the casino manager asked me to leave. He escorted me to the cash desk to cash my chips and proceeded to walk me to the exit. GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES There are certainly elements of PR, especially digital PR, that are of massive benefit to a casino affiliate. The most obvious of these is copywriting, but SEO and building backlinks also play a part. GPWAtimes.org 54
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