GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 7 - January 2009

62 GPWA Times | RAKESH KARAN | Lion Slots Affiliates “Affiliates know their traffic better than anyone else. All we expect is exposure…. Once the players come in, leave it to us to convert them.” Affiliate Manager Interview Series You’ve had an interesting journey through life.You were born in Fiji, before migrating to Australia. And now you live in Singapore. Please walk us through this journey. I left Fiji when I was 10 years old. The coup worried my folks, and I think they wanted a more certain future for their kids. Leaving Australia for Singapore was purely motivated by work reasons. I travel back home every two months to see the girl, the dog, the family, and the friends. What’s the best thing about liv- inginSingapore? What about the worst? The best thing? Oh, that’s easy, the food. They really do have it all here. Your taste buds get a good work- out! The worst thing about living in Singapore is the insane rent; other than that I am pretty adaptable! The name of your brand, Lion Slots Casino, indicates that slots players make up the ma- jority of your customers. Is that true? Yes, it’s a touch over 97%. What are the demographics of your current players? And what are the demographics of the players you’re trying to at- tract? Demographics: slots play- ers, plain and simple. Men and women who enjoy slots are going to enjoy Lion Slots. We tailor our promotions around slots-play as well. I think you’ll find more and more online casinos come out tar- geting slots players over a general attract-all brand. In addition to traditional slots, Lion Slots Casino features a special category of games called I-Slots. Can you explain how they are different from regular slots? I-Slots are fan- tastic story-based slots games. They have mini movie clips and mini games. Players can choose the path in which they want the story to go. I-Slots has been a part of the Rival Software lineup since Day 1, and it still continues to be one of the most popular slots on Lion Slots. How did you get started in the online gambling business? Back in the day when Party Poker first started out, I worked with a couple of guys running a Party Gaming casino skin. I’m not sure how serious they were about it, but I saw the revenue potential, and became an affiliate. Three to four years later, a friend of mine mentioned that Adriches was looking for an affiliate manager. I applied on the closing day, and got the job the next day. The jump to the operator side was an eye opener and exposed me to anoth- er side of business logic. I haven’t looked back since. You’ve done some SEO work before. What are three com- mon mistakes that all affiliates should avoid? Who have you been talking to? Haha. Webmasters are a lot more savvy these days, but I’d say three commonmistakes to avoid are: 1. Don’t overextend yourself by try- ing tobuild5+sites at one time. Start off with one, work on it, develop it, grow it, push it, and then start on the next site. Once you’re comfort- able enough to handle developing a couple of sites at once, go crazy. 2. Don’t just focus on your content, get links to your Web sites. You’ll hear this consistently from the big affiliates. 3. Keep your ears open, read, and in- teract with other webmasters. Read, persist, learn, and implement. En- gines are forever changing, and there are always new techniques, ideas, and concepts to learn. Trust is often cited as one of the critical components of successful relationships be- tween affiliates and affiliate programs. How do you go about establishing trust with your affiliates? And what do you expect out of your affili- ates in return? Just like meeting someone in the real world, intro- duce yourself, make yourself eas- ily accessible, and keep in touch with your advertisers. Be upfront on what you can and can’t offer; it is business, but it doesn’t have to get in the way of what could possibly be a great friendship in a tight-knit industry. Affiliates know their traffic better than any- one else. All we expect is exposure to Lion Slots. Once the players come in, leave it to us to convert them. When everyone is making money, everyone is happy! What are some unique things that you’ve seen work for some affiliates that you would like others to try? Increase the professionalism of your Web sites. Homepage-style Web sites used to work well, but nowa- days you see a new breed of sites where the graphics are slick, with web2.0 layouts and newsletter systems. The owners of these sites have great conversions, and make themselves accessible to their traffic. A great way to build trust, and get return traffic. What are three things that no one knows about you? I am an open book; everyone knows something about me! But what people might not know about me is that: 1. I love peace and quiet. 2. I am a Trekkie. 3. I met Mr. T when I was a kid!