GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 9 - June 2009

56 Rewards Affiliates represents a lot of brands. How different are the variousbrands froma target audi- ence standpoint? I think if anyone hasa lookatthedifferentbrandswe represent, theywill see an obvious difference inthe lookofeachbrand. Asweallknow,allMGSbrandsrun the same framework. For example, they are the same on the backend. From a marketing point of view, the graphics and the theme of the casino aremostly what attract the player to thebrand. For example, an af- filiate may like to use Blackjack Ballroom to target blackjack play- ers, while an affiliate who wants to target women may like to market Zodiac Casino since it’s probably a fact that more women are into astrology and star signs thanmen. Wehave just launched a brand new casino targeted at European high rollers called Ca- sino Action. This was designedbased on a look and feel of somewell-knownvenues inEu- ropeandwehave receiveda lot of feedback that this new casino is very prestigious and is overall a very beautifully designed brand. It has proven to be quite success- ful so far. Rewards Affiliates represents a mix of casino and poker brands. Whatare thedifferencesbetween poker and casinoplayers? Casino andpokerplayers tend todiffer in the sorts of things they are look- ing for. It is true that some ca- sino players like to also have the odd poker game and vice versa, however, when promoting casino and/or poker it is important to remember that targeted traffic is always better converting than general traffic. If a potential player hits an af- filiate site through a search for ‘online casino’ – chances are they want to play casino-specific games. If you give the site ‘user’ what they are looking for, when they click through that banner they aremore likely to convert to a real player and that’s what this game is all about. I would suggest target your traf- fic– evenbring it down toagame level. For example, if you write content about blackjack, ask me aboutourblackjack targeted land- ingpages. The other point to make here is don’tassume thatpoker trafficwill convert to casino traffic and vice versa.This isnot always true. Mostof theaffiliatemanagerswe talktosaybuildingtrustwiththeir affiliates iscritical tosuccess.How do you go about building trust withyour affiliates? I tell it like it isand Idon’t sugar coat anything. Affiliatesarehumanand soareus affiliatemanagers, so I think just beingmyself isabig step inbuild- ing trust. I think another thing that builds trust is actually carrying through MEET THE AFFILIATE MANAGERS There was a time when affiliate marketing was an un- knownworld toRenée fromRewardsAffiliates andPaul from Superior Share. In fact, neither had any ideawhat theywere getting intowhen theywere introduced to the industry. Read on and find out how they found online gaming and why their personalities have enabled them toflourishas affiliatemanagers. Due to space constraints,we couldnot print the interviews in their entirety.Thecomplete text ispostedatgpwa.org. Renée | RewardsAffiliates “I thinkat theend of thedayyou shouldbeable to havea laughwith yourbusiness partnersaswell as b eprofessionalwith them.Allworkand noplaymakesan affiliatemanagera verycranky lady!” GPWA Times | AffiliateManager Interview Series The tattooonRenée’s left foothasa significantmeaning toher.