GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 8 - April 2009

50 GPWA Times | Sometimes it’s “a chicken (Marsala) and egg (throwing)” thing. Why did you become an online gaming affiliate? I decided to become an online gaming affiliate for a couple of reasons. First, my love of poker means that I am always online playing and had lots of friends that I could sign up for rakeback deals, giving me a good running start. I am also always posting on a couple of poker forums and find that there are al- ways people asking about rakeback, which gives me further business for doing things that I enjoy. Secondly I have been self-employed now for many years and decided that it was time to find a way to earn the figures that I was used to whilst being able to work from home. This industry offers both the figures and opportunity to work from home, although the hours are probably longer. We noticed that you banded together with other rakeback sites so you could negotiate better deals for your players. How has this worked out? This was a simple process that is available to anyone. I joined forces with Poker Affiliate Solu- tions and GPWA members who supply a complete turnkey solution free of charge. This allows anyone with or without their own Web site to offer some of the highest rakeback rates available, along with being able to give all the statistics that a player could want. I chose to have my own Web sites using PAS simply for the tracking and player management facilities and have found that this works well for me. Because of the fact that PAS has such a large volume of players the deals on offer for rakeback are second to none, meaning that so long as I can get the players to my Web site there is no reason for them not to use me for their rakeback needs. Nowadays, trying to get the same deals as an individual affiliate is nigh on impossi- ble initially and to get to the stage where you would have the volume of players to acquire the best deals is equally impos- sible because you would not have the correct deals in place to do so! A bit of a chicken and egg scenario, really. There are downsides to this solution, such as always being asked by affiliate managers why I am not sending them any players! What bird species is your avatar, and what’s the significance, if any? Also, does your screen name have anything to do with thewhite cliffs of Dover? My avatar is a throstle (song thrush) sitting on a thros- tle branch, which is the emblem of West Bromwich Albion Football Club, who play at The Hawthorns. This came about be- cause the public house next to the ground had a caged throstle on the bar who only ever sang when the team was winning. Eventually the club actually had their own throstle, which was placed in his cage on the touchline during the match. Nowadays the club just has a 20-foot effigy of the throstle on the scoreboard and the throstle on the club badge. West Brom, as of course you will all know, are the best team in the Premiership and I am surprised that you had no idea what it was! Chalkie was actually my nickname during my army days, an old-fashioned nickname for anyone with the surname White. Nice to think that they named the white cliffs after me, though! What’s the most rewarding thing about operating your sites? The most reward- ing thing for me as a rakeback provider has to be the knowledge that my clients actually get a financial reward as opposed to just entertainment, the fact that they are not just a tool for me to make money out of. Also as a guy of nearly 50 and a self-taught web designer, to have Web sites that I have built become popular and busy gives me a great feeling of achieve- ment. I have always worked with the badge rather than the money as my goal for success – but get the badge and you will surely earn the money! Howdo your family and friends feel about how you make your living? My family is fine with this, although I am sure that they think I just get lucky playing poker! It is hard work explaining to my 80-year- old father how I can earn a living from sit- ting in front of a “TV,” as he puts it. Have you been able to take advantage of Google’s change in advertising policy in the U.K. in terms of launching pay-per- click campaigns? I was offered the chance by Google to advertise many months before they changed their policy after months of arguing with them and threat- ening to use my local MP to take up my case with them! I had it in writing from the U.K. Gambling Commission stat- ing that I did not need a license and that Google had no reason to stop me from ad- vertising. I had threatened to use the laws against restriction of trade against them and eventually they allowed me to adver- tise providing I showed a copy of the op- erator’s license. Perhaps I was the reason they changed their rules; who knows? I am not so sure that the proposed ban has any mileage in it; however, I think that the British government will maybe try to find a way of getting an income from it. Although I fought hard with Google to get the right to advertise, I never actually took them up on their offer and have not really advertised since they made it pub- licly available, either. I feel that the CPA using AdWords is far too high and sim- ply not worth the effort. I do, however, of a weekend place some low bids on a few keywords in a normal non-gambling AdWords account and let it run until they stop it, which allows a little advertis- ing for not a lot of money. The era of my spending £1000 + a day is long gone. Tell us the truth: Did you actually flatten the tires on Labor MP Khalid Mahmood’s ride? My bark is much worse than my bite and I would not really let Khalid’s tyres down. I might throw an egg at him if he succeeds in getting the ban, though. You’re a fairly new GPWA member. How has your membership helped you? Since joining the GPWA my earnings have doubled, purely down to having access to the private sections of the GPWA. I have made many contacts, friends, picked up some excellent ideas and absolutely loads of information. My membership has allowed me to sell a handful of links INTERVIEW WITH Paul White | Chalkie GPWA Affiliate Interview Series

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