iGB Affiliate 14 April/May 09

INFORMATION, INSIGHT AND ANALYSIS FOR iGAMING AFFILIATES

APRIL/MAY 09

THE AFFILIATE GUIDE TO SEO

ALSO: ◆ SEO TOOLS AND TACTICS ◆ GETTING STARTED WITH WORDPRESS ◆ MESSAGE BOARDS – PROS AND CONS

INCLUDES: BINGO SUPPLEMENT 2009 01 igb aff 14 cover.indd 1

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iGaming Business is moving from Barcelona to a new and exciting destination,

Budapest

Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, Hungary’s capital is located on the banks of the Danube, filled with landscaped green parks, inspirational museums and a pulsating nightlife that is on par with its European counterparts Come and take advantage of the event’s trademark activities including: l

A wealth of discussion panels and presentations with insights from expert speakers.

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Discover one of the largest exhibitions in the industry all on one floor, housing the top operators.

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Take part in the biggest Affiliate Series of Poker.

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Enjoy the most exclusive networking parties.

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Specific content on the Central European market which is expected to be one of biggest growing markets in 2010.

So, come to work, network and play!

Budapest Affiliate Conference (BAC) 10th September – 12th September 2009

www.BudapestAffiliateConference.com

AFFILIATES GO FREE

contents

l

05

In the Know

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06

Affiliate Calendar

l 08

Webmaster News

l 12

Integrating your Social Media

l 14

Maintaining your Quality of Service

l 17

SEO Tools and Tactics

l 20

Video Games – Engaging First Time Users

l 22

Content Management Systems – WordPress

l 25

Affiliate Interview

l 26

Affiliate Manager Interview

l 28

The Laws of Attraction

l 29

Bingo Supplement

l 38

The Affiliate guide to SEO

l 42

Masters of the Internet – Martin Herdina, Fatfoogoo

l 46

Interview – Spain’s Biggest Affiliate

l 48

Interview – LeWeb Conference Founder, Loic Le Meur

l 50

Webmaster Woes with Income Access

l 52

Monetising Affiliate Poker Sites

l 54

Affiliate Business Strategies

l 56

Message Boards – Pros and Cons

l 59

SEO Surgery with Bob Rains

l 62

VIP Services as a Retention Tool

Editor’s letter Where do we begin?

Anyone reading this knows about the roaring debates that began in January and continued through March regarding CAP and the Amsterdam Conferences. The fall-out of which has been CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com (CAP) focusing on perfecting the value proposition of its core business, the CAP website and forums, and iGaming Business taking over the magazine and conferences. …So what now?

Let me introduce you to our new iGaming Business Affiliate Magazine. This magazine, formerly known as CAP Magazine, will continue to bring information, insight and analysis to the thousands of iGaming Affiliates and Affiliate Managers that read it. We will continue to bring readers content and contributions from the most senior experts in the industry, and we will do so regardless of their trade organization memberships or alliances. Likewise, all associated events will also operate an association-neutral policy, encouraging attendance from representatives, exhibitors and affiliates from around the globe, regardless of their industry body membership.

Welcome to iGaming Business Affiliate Magazine, I hope you enjoy it!

Michael Caselli, Editor in Chief

Editor in Chief: Michael Caselli michaelc@igamingbusiness.com Editor: James McKeown james@igamingbusiness.com Publisher: Alex Pratt alex.pratt@igamingbusiness.com Production Manager: Craig Young craig@igamingbusiness.com Sales Executive: Ian Larcombe ian@igamingbusiness.com Art Editor: Lorraine Gourlay Designer: Stewart Henson

FREE SUBSCRIPTION email: alex.pratt@igamingbusiness.com Print: Magazine Print Company Published by: iGaming Business, 33-41 Dallington Street, London EC1V 0BB T: +44 (0)20 7954 3515 F: +44 (0)20 7954 3511 www.igamingbusiness.com © iGaming 2009. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without prior written permission, except for permitted fair dealing under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Application for permission for use of copyright material including permission to reproduce extracts in other published works shall be made to the publishers. Full acknowledgement of author, publisher and source must be given. iGaming Business Affiliate Magazine is published by iGaming Business Limited of 33-41Dallington Street, London EC1V 0BB, UK. The views expressed by contributors and correspondents are their own. Editorial opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the Publisher.

The Publisher does not accept responsibility for advertising content.

Cover image: istockphoto.com ISSN: 1756-3348

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in the know

Bridging a GAP to Unify the Industry?

The talk of the industry leading up to the launch of the iGaming Business Affiliate magazine has been surrounding the collaboration of up to 65 of the online gaming industry’s largest operators in the creation of a new affiliate body.

Gambling Affiliate Programs (GAP) comprises some of the biggest names in the online gaming space and will look to oversee the professional and effective future management of the affiliate industry. The initiative openly sets out to provide a tool for all members of the gaming affiliate business in supporting the optimal development and professionalism of the sector.

A representative for the organisation, which went public in February of this year, explained,“The motive behind this collaboration initiative is to simply ensure that operators, gaming affiliate programs and affiliates themselves have a resource in place that best represents our needs and those of our affiliates and business partners.

Accordingly, the goal is to support an entity that is aligned with our interests and will help cultivate our community in a fair and impartial manner including developing business relationships as well as optimizing networking opportunities.”

According to the GAP website, operators decided to form the alliance in the hope of finding the appropriate avenues to create unification within the industry.

“In reaching out to the rest of the community, we are actively seeking a solution that will be in the best interest for all parties involved. We are confident that by working collectively we will find a mutually beneficial solution,” the organisation representative continued.

The programs and operators currently signed up are as follows: 888

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The new program is bound to attract its share of debate, however, given the number of programs and operators signing up to GAP, there is clearly a train of thought that the industry in its current state warrants an operator-led organisation.

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The GAP website also states that the programs who have confirmed their participation are signing up to “take back control and encourage a fair and regulated gambling industry”.

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GAP held its first General Meeting at the recent Casino Affiliate Convention in Amsterdam.

We will look to follow up on the outcome of this meeting in our next issue.

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Mainstreet Affiliates

Betsafe Affiliates

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Paddy Power

Bodog Affiliates

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BrightShare

PartyPartners and AffClub

Buzzluck Affiliate Program

PDC Affiliates

Cake Poker Affiliates

Pitbull Partners

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PlayShare Partners

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Regal Affiliates

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CWC Affiliates (ClubWorldCasinos)

Rome Partners

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Roxy Affiliates

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Slotland Affiliates

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Star Partner

Eurobet Affiliates

Tower Affiliates

Everest Affiliates

TwoLinx Affiliates

Expekt

Uffiliates (888)

Fortune Affiliates

Villento Affiliates

Gamingpromo

Virgin Games

Golden Associate

Wager Profits

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events calendar

Affiliate Events Calendar Due to their popularity and wealth of information, analysis and discussion, conferences have become an integral part of the affiliate industry and a key communications bridge between affiliates and affiliate programs. Whether used for networking, education or just an excuse to meet up with friends, the affiliate conferences listed below provide all the tools you need to improve your business.

A4U Expo

Rai Amsterdam, the Netherlands

28-29 April 2009

Summary: The A4U expo promises to change the way people approach affiliate marketing, providing practical insight, advice and strategies on how to improve your affiliate business. The speaker list draws on a wide scope of experience and includes Gary Beal and Marcus Tandler as well as insight from Will Martin-Gill from eBay, Google’s Web Analytics Specialist Rene Nijhuis, and the Editor in Chief of Internet World Business paper, Dominik Grollman. This is the perfect event for affiliates considering alternative markets. http://www.a4expo.com Amsterdam Affiliate Conference

Amsterdam, the Netherlands

30 April-3 May 2009

Summary: You may as well book a week in Amsterdam because the conferences come thick and fast at the end of April. The Amsterdam Affiliate Conference, formerly known as CAP Euro, is organised by iGaming Business and directly follows the A4U Expo in the Rai Amsterdam (meaning that no-one has to move a muscle). This series of conferences are considered the ‘must attend’ events for all gaming affiliates and have proved vastly popular with affiliates and programs alike. Expect more insight and discussion on the key components of affiliate marketing and the finer points of SEO with some of the most knowledgeable minds in the industry. Also includes the much coveted Affiliate Series of Poker (ASOP) tournament. http://www.amsterdamaffiliateconference.com G2E Asia

The Venetian Macau, People’s Republic of China

2-4 June 2009

Summary: The G2E Asia is the biggest gaming expo and conference in Asia. The continent’s leading manufacturers will be out in force to showcase their latest products at the expo on 3-4 June, whilst industry leaders will be heading up the conference between 2-4 June, providing a valuable learning ground for the latest trends in Asian and global gaming. http://www.g2easia.com/ Budapest Affiliate Conference

Budapest, Hungary

10-13 September 2009

Summary: The next leg of the iGaming Business Affiliate conference circuit takes place in one of Europe’s oldest and most picturesque cities. Budapest welcomes visitors to a ceaseless parade of historical and cultural magnificence, most notably with its neo-Gothic Hungarian Parliament Building on the banks of the Danube and the equally splendid Castle Hill Funicular. Expect the usual feast of insight and discussion in the confines of the most decadent stop on the affiliate calendar. http://www.budapestaffiliateconference.com

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webmaster news

UK MPs Want Google to Reinstate ad Ban A group of UK Politicians are set to challenge Google’s decision to allow gambling advertising and are calling for the company to review its policy.

The challenge, led by MP for Birmingham Perry Barr Khalid Mahmood, also cites the bad timing of the announcement and references the concerns of religious groups at Google’s u-turn, which was first revealed by new media age in October 2008.

It stated: “This house notes with concern the recent decision of Google to reintroduce online gambling advertisements during a period of economic downturn; supports the Church of England’s position that the actions of Google risk normalising gambling in society; and calls on Google to review its policy in line with its own obligations on corporate social responsibility.”

The official line from the search engine behemoth was that the ban on gambling advertising was in line with a global strategy, yet its decision to retract the ban in the UK was part of an attempt to become more relevant in local markets. However, the move is also seen to be a reaction to the decrease in clicks on its search platform.

Hannah Kimuyu, PPC Director at online SEO firm Greenlight commented on the news in stating, “By overturning the policy in the first place, Google was clearly responding directly to the credit crisis.

With advertisers dramatically cutting spend or pulling out completely, Google needed to fill the hole in its revenue fast. So far, the change in strategy has proven effective, with the average cost-per-click increasing from £2.50 to £15-20 three months on.

“We’ve estimated that the annual turnover from the gambling sector could easily reach £300 million, if not more, should the bidding war continue. These estimates seem pretty accurate, especially with the affiliates getting a look in now.”

Kimuyu also distanced Google from what politicians deemed its ‘obligations to social responsibility’.

“I don’t necessarily agree that Google needs to review its policy in line with its own obligations on corporate social responsibility. In fact, I would say that the responsibility lies with the gambling companies themselves. If they are allowed to

advertise through other channels such as television; then why not through Google? Google’s overturn isn’t a free for all; there are regulations in place including an emphasis on gamble aware.

Therefore, shouldn’t the government encourage and assist Google in monitoring the gambling companies, as opposed to calling for a reinstatement of the ban?”

EU Report Delivers Industry Setback Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in Strasbourg have unanimously endorsed the ‘Integrity of Online Gambling’ report which effectively upholds the existing right of member states to control gambling and sportsbetting.

Deputies overwhelmingly voted in favour of an own-initiative report by Danish Socialist member Christel Schaldemose (interviewed in the Jan/Feb issue of iGaming Business) concerning the ‘integrity’ of online gambling.

544 MEPs voted in favour of her report with 36 against and 66 abstentions.

The outcome is seen as a setback to those who are pressing for EU-wide liberalisation of the gambling industry.

Indeed, an alternative report, supported by UK MEP Malcolm Harbour, argued that internal market rules should apply to gambling activities, but this

was heavily defeated.

Schaldemose claimed there had been an ‘explosion’ in online gambling and was among many MEPs who called for action to be taken to protect young and vulnerable people and combat fraud.

According to The Parliament.com website, Schaldemose said, “This is not about restricting the private sector but about commonsense action to protect vulnerable people.”

Speaking to iGaming Business magazine, Schaldemose also reflected on the notion that the example set by the US wasn’t one to follow.

“Everyone I have discussed this with agrees that we should learn from the US by not following their lead and heading towards prohibition.

“If we say that that we do not have European legislation then individual states should be permitted the authority to allow certain companies

to operate in their domain, and exclude others.”

The Parliament website also quoted British Socialist deputy Arlene McCarthy, who chairs parliament’s internal market and consumer protection committee. “EU member states have the right to set their own laws on gambling.

“No member state has the right to set hypocritical laws that discriminate in favour of domestic and government-owned operators. But we cannot ignore genuine concerns to ensure the integrity of gambling services.”

Sigrid Ligné, secretary-general of the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA), weighed into the debate by saying, “The vote shows that we cannot expect EU harmonised legislation to be adopted in the near future.

“This means that case law of the court of justice will prevail for our sector in the years to come.”

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webmaster news

UK Approves Super Fast Broadband According to the BBC, Ofcom (the independent regulator and competition authority for the communication industries in the UK) has delivered its protracted ruling which will give BT more flexibility in the way it delivers fibre networks.

Ofcom regards the move as ‘pivotal’ to the continuing development of broadband which in turn would be of benefit, if not necessity to the economy.

Ofcom CEO, Ed Richards said, “Our message is clear: there are no regulatory barriers in the way of investment in super-fast broadband.

We want to promote investment to

support the widespread adoption of superfast broadband but we want to balance that with the need for competition.”

In addition, Virgin Media has committed to upgrading its cable network to 50Mbps (megabits per second), which will cover approximately half the population of the UK later in the year.

BT has claimed it is on course to complete the installation of fibreoptic cables to some of its streetside cabinets, offering speeds of between 40 and 60Mbps, by 2012.

This will offer higher speeds to around 40% of the country.

In declaring that the

announcement “set expectations for the whole UK industry as the market evolves into a fibre-based world”, BT chief executive Ian Livingston welcomed the much anticipated move.

“Today’s announcement gives us the green light to push ahead with our £1.5bn superfast broadband investment plans to reach at least 40 percent of UK households by 2012,” Mr Livingston said in a statement.

The costs associated with offering fibre to the entire country sits at around £5 billion rising to £29 billion should the technology used be fibre to the home.

Paramount Deals for CryptoLogic Software provider, CryptoLogic has continued a busy start to the year by announcing a raft of new agreements that will bring some of the biggest names in film, comic book legend and video games to the gaming industry.

The latest deal sees CryptoLogic, who recently shed its poker arm to concentrate on its casino vertical, sign a multi-year agreement with Paramount Digital Entertainment.

The partnership will give the software provider exclusive rights

to 20 films from the Paramount archives including Braveheart, Beowulf, Ghost and Beverly Hills Cop. CryptoLogic CEO, Brian Hadfield said, “We are very excited about this new relationship with Paramount Digital Entertainment as it both vindicates and enhances our strategic position. Paramount Pictures boasts an extensive catalogue of classic and new releases, and CryptoLogic makes the world’s best branded Internet

casino games,” Paramount follows hot on the heels of Warner Bros, who signed an agreement with CryptoLogic and DC Comics in February allowing the software supplier to bring comic book heroes such as Superman and Batman to online casinos later in the year.

In addition to the stars of the big screen, CryptoLogic has also enlisted one of the computer games industry’s biggest brands in Call of Duty 4.

Facebook Gives Power to the People According to the BBC, Facebook is to hand control to its users after it was heavily criticised over the way it handles user data.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg has acted to “open up Facebook so that users can participate meaningfully in our policies and our future”, with members of the social network being given voting rights over the firm’s future policies regarding how the site is governed.

The move has been received with welcome arms, particularly by Privacy International’s Simon Davies, who called the move “unprecedented”.

According to the BBC, Davies claimed, “No other company has made such a bold move towards transparency and democratisation.

The devil will be in the detail but, overall, we applaud these positive steps and think they foreshadow the future of web 2.0.”

The cause for concern among users was sparked by recent changes to the site’s terms and conditions, which appeared to imply that Facebook claimed ownership of user data, even for deleted accounts. Speaking to the BBC, Zuckerberg apologised for the concern, adding that Facebook

“does not own user data, they [users] own it. We never intended to give that impression and feel really bad that we did.”

Votes on changes to Facebook’s governance will be triggered when more than 7,000 comments have been made by users on a given topic; a compromise that the site’s founder felt was a fair deal.

“We think that is pretty reasonable.

We have designed the votes so a small minority of users cannot create a binding election.”

Facebook is the largest social network in the world, with more than 175 million users.

Live Mobile Poker Hits Facebook Social gaming company Zynga Incorporated has announced the availability of its free Live Poker platform which comes with support for Facebook Connect.

According to MediaPost, Live Poker, which is available at the Apple App store, gives players the chance to enjoy the social gaming experience of Zynga’s Texas Hold’Em Facebook game on their iPhone or iPod Touch.

Players can now log into their Facebook account through any user-friendly interface and play poker against their friends.

The integration of Facebook Connect will also allow users to see how they rank among their friends on the social networking site.

Eurosport Bet Close to Launch Leading European sports entertainment group Eurosport has announced that it intends to launch an online betting service after being granted an gaming license from the Alderney Gambling Control Commission.

The new service will be a joint development from Eurosport and French investment fund Serendipity Investment and is scheduled to launch later this year under the umbrella name SPS at EurosportBet.co.uk.

“Obtaining the licence to operate in Alderney is the first step in building our new pan-European online sportsbetting platform on solid ground and to offering fans yet another engaging way to enjoy sports,” said Heather Bowler, Global Communications Director for Eurosport.

Olivier Ou Ramdane, Chief Executive Officer for SPS added, “Being granted a full iGaming licence in Alderney represents a significant step to us as we move forward with our project to launch EurosportBet.co.uk in the UK within the first half of 2009.”

Indeed, the news is also a positive step for Alderney as it looks to bolster the list of licensees currently based in the jurisdiction. Sebastien Bougon, Deputy Managing Director for Serendipity had some kind words for the region’s set up.

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webmaster news

UK Ad Codes Open for Review The non-governmental bodies responsible for the UK Advertising Codes have launched a full public consultation on its rules having completed an 18 month ‘root and branch’ review of the codes.

This will be the first time in half a century that the Advertising Codes have been comprehensively reviewed. The online gaming industry were the benefactors of one of the more recent, individual changes to policy when the UK Gambling Act came into effect in September 2007.

Of interest to the gaming industry will be the proposal to introduce a dedicated ‘lottery advertising’ section to cover the National Lottery and lotteries licensed under the Gambling Act, which will subject all lottery ads to the same social responsibility measures, regardless of regulatory status.

The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) and its broadcast arm (BCAP), also propose to maintain the recently revised restrictions for gambling advertising.

Time to Jump into the Pools?

The resurgence of pools betting is starting to infiltrate the headlines in the UK as its popularity, under the stewardship of market monopoliser Sportech, continues its eye catching upward curve.

The Times newspaper reported that despite an initial 7 percent fall in players when switching its Vernons and Littlewoods customers to the new brand – The New Football Pools – Sportech had finally managed to recruit more players than it lost for the first time since the start of the National Lottery. Recent figures suggest that the pools operator has attracted a net 25,000 new players to add to its 600,000 plus player base.

Given the current economic climate, the low stakes nature of the game is seen as one of the catalysts for the recent improvement in player numbers allied to a significant investment from Sportech in overhauling its distribution.

Facebook Vs Email If the findings from the latest figures released by Nielsen are anything to go by, then social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace have now overtaken personal email in the general popularity rankings.

Findings from Nielsen Online research ranks “member communities” as the fourth most popular online category after search, portals and PC software, with 67% of the global online population now visiting social networking sites regularly.

The ‘Global Faces and Networked Places’ report, documented that 30% of Internet users across nine markets

visit Facebook on a monthly basis, rising to 47% when looking at the UK alone.

Some other points of interest include: l Globally, one in every 11 minutes spent online is spent on social network and blogging sites while in the UK, that figure stands at every one in six minutes. l The growth in social networks is not coming from the younger generation, but from the 35-49 year-old age group, who made up the biggest increase in visitors during 2008. l On the mobile side, it is the British who are most mobile-savvy, with

23% visiting social network sites through their mobile handset, an increase of 249% since last year, compared to 19% of Americans, up just 156%.

John Burbank, chief executive of Nielsen Online, said “While twothirds of the global online population already accesses member community sites, their vigorous adoption and the migration of time show no signs of slowing.

“Social networking will continue to alter not just the global online landscape, but the consumer experience at large.”

Sportingbet’s Q2 Books in Good Shape Sportingbet has enjoyed a positive start to 2009 as it released its Q2 financials at the beginning of March. The London Listed company reported an increase in its second quarter pre-tax profit citing favourable movements in currency and a busy European sportsbetting period.

Highlights for the quarter showed operating profit up 35% to £10.1 million with the operating profit margin now at 23%. The adjusted

fully diluted earnings per share (EPS) is up 36% to 1.9p. Other factors included its live sports streaming successfully helping to drive inrunning betting and the launch of its licensed South African sportsbetting operation.

Andrew McIver, Group Chief Executive, commented, “Quarter two concluded a robust first half of the financial year, with operating profit in the six months growing 39% to £16.2m. The Group’s balance sheet

remains strong with net cash of £27.3m. Demand for our market leading sports betting product continues to grow. Whilst there are some signs of the economic downturn impacting upon some areas of our operations, such as Australian higher staking telephone business, our overall performance remains encouraging. The third quarter has started strongly and the Board remains cautiously optimistic for the full year outcome.”

Internet Searchers Tricked by Scareware Internet research has suggested that search engines are being exploited by creators of bogus antivirus software into driving its users to ‘scareware’ sites.

The BBC uncovered evidence that cyber criminals were targeting people using pop-ups claiming that the user’s computer is infected with spyware and diverting them to sites seeded with false warnings concerning virus infections.

According to research carried out by computer security firm Finjan,

these cyber criminals are making as much as $10,000 a day from fake security software.

Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer at Finjan, explained, “They are misleading people with evidence that their machine is infected with viruses and they are encouraging them to download and buy software that basically does nothing.”

A report by the Anti-Phishing Working Group, released in March 2009, found 9,287 bogus antimalware programmes in circulation in December 2008 – an increase of

225% since January 2008.

“The reason they are making so much money is the new techniques they are using, namely search engine optimisation,” he continued.

The cost of eradicating the bogus infection, through download of the bogus anti-virus software is said to be around $50 (£34).

A Google spokesman commented, “In cases in which we feel that sites are attempting to manipulate rankings, we make adjustments to counterbalance and also discourage those efforts”.

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traffic

Getting your Social Media Marketing Integrated Currently, businesses of all sizes are finding themselves in the position where it’s “social media, coming ready or not”, and while it may seem like a scary proposition to engage with this new marketing area, you can be certain that it’s going to be even scarier not to!

For many, the scary part is a sense of walking into the unknown. The idea of handing even part of the control of our marketing to the very people we are looking to appeal to and attract is uncomfortable. But don’t worry; you’ve actually been doing it for years. It is exactly the situation we are in when it comes to “word of mouth”, with people sharing their opinions on you and your products with friends and colleagues. Social media is merely opening that up online.

What it does do, though, is give us the chance to participate as well, thereby influencing and directing what’s being said rather than leaving it to its own devices. That’s the issue nowadays – there is little we can do but embrace the changes that have been taking place and participate.

Plan and get them working together However, in spite of the opportunities that social media offers, this is not the time to abandon the other marketing methods we use – it is much better to look at how all these tools can be used in conjunction. Certainly,

there are likely to be some casualties, but these will tend to be those methods that are ignored or rejected by our target audience – a kind of “natural selection”.

Ideally, coordinating the various strands of a campaign should happen at the planning stage so that they can be designed to work in parallel.

This works best no matter what size or form the “campaign” takes. Looking at the elements in isolation will lead to a fragmented approach and at worst, can actually be negative if conflicting messages are sent out through the different media. Together, however, you can greatly increase their effectiveness with each channel building on the message of the others.

The planning process follows a similar tact to the one used for other marketing methods identifying the audience you want to attract and the message you want to convey based on your business requirements and the market conditions. Ideally, it then gets tested, measured and redesigned to come up with the final version.

In terms of social media tools that you should

consider including in this planning process, these would include: l Blogs: by integrating a blog using a system such as Wordpress, you gain from an SEO perspective, create push and community. l Video Sharing sites: ones such as YouTube and Metacafe are particularly effective because of the visitor levels they command. l Podcasts: offering people your content in a different format is good and iTunes also offers great distribution. l Twitter: microblogging sites like this help push your content out to a new audience via web and mobile. l Social/business networking: start with specific forums and smaller networking sites before turning your attention to Facebook and similar sites. l Social bookmarking: Digg, deli.cio.us and a host of other similar sites helping people to recommend and share your information. l Slideshare/Flickr/eBook.com: sites covering their own specific information format such as presentations, photos, ebooks etc.

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traffic

Taking this approach helps identify the potential synergies which exist and will give results which go far beyond those you could achieve using any of the activities on their own, boosting the overall campaign and its reach.

Use your Blog as a central online resource Every campaign, no matter what size, benefits from having a central element to coordinate activities and also needs to have a place to direct people through your calls to action. Phone and email addresses are traditional options, but an online point of contact is now considered to be just as essential, particularly for online campaigns.

Since websites generally offer little possibility to interact with those showing interest, blogs have stepped up to become the preferred solution and, by sitting at the centre of your online activity, they also provide the perfect focal point for all marketing activity.

The options that blogs offer are two-fold: i) Being interactive, they give the chance to immediately engage people showing an interest – something that most other online marketing media don’t provide. Think of any campaign type and the likelihood is that you would like to have immediate contact and interaction with those that have been attracted by it. ii) At the same time, blogs provide the ideal tool to create specific reference points or “landing pages” for campaigns, helping to enhance their potential. Linked in with the other activities you are using, it can be a hub to gather and channel the responses the campaigns generate.

Given the fact that blogs are fast and easy to update, it’s easy to create tailored landing pages for campaigns, both online and offline.

Providing specific landing pages for follow ups to conferences, exhibitions, magazine placement or advertising helps ensure that you deliver your audience to a page containing the exact information you want them to receive. Likewise, email Marketing and Pay Per Click conversion rates are greatly increased when backed up with specific information on a page. Added to this, creating posts and pages focusing on specific keywords will also provide a key service for your search engine optimisation and helps make them much more effective.

Use Your Content Wisely… and Widely The core concepts behind social media are collaboration, recommendation and sharing, and this is a powerful way to spread your content as widely as possible. Let’s take an example of a presentation that you are giving to a group of people – it might be a network event, conference, trade show or a prospect meeting. You spend a lot of time creating it, getting the message and the nuances right, and finally you get to present it to the individuals who attend. Then what?

Ideally, it would be good to use that content more effectively – after all, most likely it contains your

sales and marketing message, so sharing the information more widely is going to be beneficial.

What social media options are available? Well, by taking your PowerPoint presentation and adding audio to it with something like Camtasia, you can create it in a video format ideal for video sharing sites such as YouTube. Split into sections, your presentation can offer a series of focused instructional videos and a potential traffic generation tool for your site. You can also embed it on your blog or website giving you additional content and pulling power.

Likewise, the SlideShare site lets you share the presentation slides as well as allowing you to offer a PDF version for people to download.

Building your logo into each slide and including your contact details in the presentation ensures that you have branding and visibility as people read, refer to and share your presentation. And don’t forget that you can create an audio file as well, essentially a podcast which will hit a new potential audience.

From a single presentation, using social media, you have the ability to help people to recommend and share it, making sure that you have the widest possible distribution for your products and services. If you plan out where you will be making the content available, then letting your “face to face” audience know that they can find it will start the process rolling.

Where to start?

If we are looking at the so called low hanging fruit, then there are two key areas to start with.

Firstly, get an idea of where your effort is going to be best spent by checking where people are discussing your industry, your competitors and perhaps even you. As a start point, create a series of Google Alerts covering keywords relating to your industry – this will let you know, not only what people are saying, but where they are saying it. The result is that when you decide to focus your own efforts, you already now where to concentrate – “fish where the fish are”, if you like.

Secondly, set up a blog as the central platform of all your online activity. It can be part of your website or even replace it entirely but it will give a major boost to your campaigns by providing flexibility to follow up and engage with the people that you have attracted through your presentations, campaigns, networking or referrals.

Make these visible too and add your blog address, your Twitter address and your preferred networking sites to your business card and to your email footer.

With these in place, you have given yourself the tools, through your general marketing and social media, to replicate the activity that you are generating from your offline word of mouth, but with much greater reach and effect. l

“Since websites generally offer little possibility to interact with those showing interest, blogs have stepped up to become the preferred solution and, by sitting at the centre of your online activity, they also provide the perfect focal point for all marketing activity”

Mark White is an e-marketing consultant and business blog specialist who works with companies to help them set up and develop business through online marketing.

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NOT KNOWING YOUR PLAYERS MAY MEAN MONEY LEFT ON THE TABLE Paul Brennan, CEO at Zeus Technology, explains why maintaining your quality of service levels is crucial if online gaming and gambling sites are to prosper this year.

The failing economy, widespread Internet access and even the smoking ban all mean that online gaming will continue to pick up speed while many other businesses falter. Experts estimate that there are currently 40 million online gamblers across the world with the number expected to quadruple by 2020. But if gaming companies are to make the most of this boom then online performance and maintaining customer loyalty need to become top priorities.

Challenges Ahead Gamers cite ‘slow online service’ as the number one reason for abandoning one site for another, making it clear that operators and affiliates who prioritise customer service and bandwidth are sure to win when it comes to attracting players.

The key lies in understanding who the punters are and what makes them different from one another, and an awareness of other threats to speed and service levels. Armed with this knowledge, operators and affiliates can work together to ensure their sites offer customers exactly what they are looking for.

Who’s Online?

Online gamers can be classified into a number of categories. When operators and their affiliates can measure, classify and prioritise these profiles then they can devise the right marketing strategies.

Watching for Threats Unfortunately, legitimate player traffic is not the only thing slowing down gaming sites. Services can easily be compromised by bandwidth-hungry

advertising, competitors and cybercriminals.

It’s important that operators work closely with marketing affiliates and IT to create and deliver advertising that doesn’t hog bandwidth but is still eye catching. This content should be delivered intelligently to those players whom it is most relevant to.

Stop Streaming Operators need to watch out for competitors streaming content such as betting statistics from your site to theirs, slowing service. To prevent this, IT should create policies that inspect and classify site requests by looking at information in URLs, cookies and form data to measure, sort and prioritise web traffic. This will limit the number of competitor streams so they only consume a small proportion of bandwidth and therefore, will limit the affect on the quality of service experienced by your most valuable customers.

Security is Vital Some web traffic will undoubtedly come from hackers who want confidential player information such as credit card details. An attack could knock a site out for days and damage brand reputation unless precautions are taken. A four layer shield including a firewall, strong anti-virus abilities, encryption and advanced solutions that ‘cloak’ the identity of back end servers to mask sensitive data is always a winning bet.

Allocate Speed Players choose a site for consistent availability, reliability, speed, convenience and service quality.

This means gaming and gambling operators are under greater scrutiny to create more and better services, deliver them faster and ensure they are ‘always available’ across multiple platforms.

While all customers are important, it is wise to pay special attention to your most valuable users.

Funnelling extra speed and bandwidth to high value players will mean that these customers always receive a fast, seamless service. Intelligent technology plays a vital role in tracking spending patterns so that applications can make allowances such as routing transactions to another server at peak times to ensure good quality of service.

Maintain Loyalty To ensure customers are playing for the long term, speed is of the essence. So its important punters are getting fast, exceptional online service with enough bandwidth. The good news is that high traffic generating times such as major sporting events can be planned for, so operators should allocate extra capacity during peaks to avoid their site crashing or slowing down. But other bandwidth hogs such as competitor sites, advertising and certain player profiles can be trickier to identify without the right solutions in place.

Like at the gaming table, being successful in the business of online gaming is not just down to luck – you need skill and a good strategy to do really well. By understanding who’s sitting around the table before you play and addressing what could slow your site or even bring your online business down, you can deliver fantastic online service and make success a dead cert. ●

“Operators and affiliates who prioritise customer service and bandwidth are sure to win when it comes to attracting players.”

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SEO TOOLS AND TACTICS Many people discuss SEO as a three stage process: ● Attract – to attract visitors to your website. ● Convert – to convert them in to paying customers. ● Retain and Grow – to keep their interest, keep them buying and maximise their lifetime value.

To most of you, this is probably self evident but in the context of this article, it is useful to refresh on this because it reminds us of the key stages in any marketing campaign, and because it is the framework that is being used in this article to look at the various tools.

And no, before you ask, there are no URLs listed in this article. All you need to do is ask Uncle Google very nicely he will tell you all you need to know.

Okay so without further ado, let’s start looking at these tools.

Attract Key Phrase Analysis You have to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and try to think how they would search for things. ● Trellian keyword discovery – An old tool, but generates a good selection of key phrases. ● Wordtracker – Costs some money but there is a free trial offer. A good source of well searched “real life data” based key phrases. ● Google AdWords Keyword Tool – It’s more

useful than you might think at pulling suggestions. ● Good Trends – Well, you want to be trendy right? So see what’s hot and driving traffic today and include it in your campaigns.

Link Building The key to SEO is link building – simple. This said, it is one of the most involved and crucial areas of SEO that would, in itself, demand a full article’s worth of information. ● Data Centre Watch Tools – These are included to tell you if you are using them – you are wasting your time! Don’t sit there all day looking at data centres, spend your time getting more links or programming an Open Social app, or making a cup of tea for that matter.

Anything, just not this – it’s pointless. ● Link Vault – Link CO-Ops. This is a bit of a contentious one, but if it works then why not, right? A word of warning: Test on a random host with low value websites before directing “the beast” to your pride and joy. ● Yahoo Site Explorer – What better place to find links than by stealing your competitors’. ● Review Me – Contentious, but it works... for now! Be careful. ● Link Scape – SEO MoZ’s press worthy replication of the Google Algorithm. It is terrific,

An SEO relies on tools like a diver relies on oxygen. Having the best tools can make the difference between a good campaign and an awesome one. In this article, we will take a stark look at some of the best tools currently available on the market, we will look at some old favourites which you might have forgotten about and where possible, I will try and give you some power-tips on how to get the most out of your SEO tool kit. really worth the investment and gives you a great overview of the link scape in your industry.

URLs and Re-Directs Why have real directories and files when you can have virtual ones? ● Mod-Rewrite and ISAPI Rewrite – You need to be using this to create large scale, SEO friendly URL and information structured websites. ● HTTP Headers, Rex Swain and FireflySEO HTTP Header Viewer – Very useful tools for analysing how your redirects are working, or not, as the case may be.

Cloaking Of course, nobody in the affiliate business does any cloaking. That said, if you fancy going ‘black hat’, then one word strikes fear in to the heart of Matt Cutts more than any other... fantomaster.

Convert Conversion is all about making a web page look nice, easy to use and above all else, giving clear and concise calls to action. What is a call to action?

Simply put, it is a button; a “click here”,“buy this” or a shopping cart. This will depend on the website in question but essentially, it is the thing that users need to click on to buy the product or service that you are offering.

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traffic Key Phrase Analysis Trellian keyword discovery http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/ Wordtracker http://www.wordtracker.com/ Google AdWords Keyword Tool https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternal Google Trends http://www.google.com/trends Link Building Link Vault http://www.link-vault.com/ Yahoo Site Explorer http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/ Review Me http://www.reviewme.com/ Link Scape http://www.seomoz.org/linkscape/ URLs and Redirects Rex Swain HTTP Header Viewer http://www.rexswain.com/httpview.html

“Email marketing is cheap, quick and easy and can be one of the best and most cost effective methods of retaining and growing sales from your existing customer base.”

Here’s the lowdown on three of the best tools on the market from free, to mid range to expensive (for most). ● Google Website Optimiser – Well it is free and it is very good. Google claims to have seen a 30% (approx) uplift in sign-ups to its Pay Per Click Adwords service by just “fiddle faffing” about with the layout of its Adwords sign-up page (move a button here, change a picture there, adapt a title, amend some text?. In a nutshell, you give Google different elements to place on your web page, you push it some traffic and it tells you which version got you the most conversions. This type of testing is called multivariate testing. An even simpler form of this is known as ‘Split A B testing’, where you give Website Optimiser two versions of a page, give it traffic and it tells you which is the most successful. ● Maxymiser – Maxymiser has been in online marketing for some time now. The product is fantastic, as is the company’s level of service.

Similar (but better) in many ways to Google Website Optimiser, the major difference is that you can set up an unlimited number of tests to run at the same time. In addition to this, it also has interaction optimisation, merchandising optimisation, lead acquisition analysis and form structure optimisation. Some of this is more relevant to some affiliates than others but all tools allow you to focus in on and drive uplift with your existing traffic base, which is ideal. ● Omniture Test&Target – Probably the Rolls Royce of conversion software! As well as doing everything previously mentioned, the major step in innovation is that it can carry out user profiling. Last time I checked, Barclays Bank was using this technology to drive uplift in the retail-

banking sector. It’s a fantastic and highly sophisticated piece of kit delivering customised content to users based on their user behaviour. Truly one for the elite, but if you have got the money, why not get smart with your marketing?

Firefly SEO HTTP Header Viewer http://www.fireflyseo.com/tools/http-viewer Conversion Google Website Optimiser http://www.Google.com/WebsiteOptimizer Maxymiser http://www.maxymiser.com/ Omniture Test and Target http://www.omniture.com/en/products/conversion/testandtarget

Retain and Grow Retention of customers is all about keeping them interested, giving them what they want, when they want it.

Email marketing is always one of the best starting points. A good email marketing campaign sent out to recipients using careful segmentation and targeting can be one of the best and most cost effective methods of retaining and growing sales from your existing customer base. Email marketing is relatively cheap, quick and easy. In terms of actual packages, you will usually want a hosted solution, otherwise known as an ASP. Some good examples are VerticleResponse, which is free (as in money, not speech my nod to Richard Stallman), eCircle EC Messenger and Cheetah Mail.

User generated content (UGC) such as blogs and forums continue to be popular. There are all sorts of statistics about how UGC keeps visitors returning to your site, but more than this, it keeps

Allan Stewart is an Online Marking Manager by day and a freelance contractor (currently for hire) by night. Allan is director of Comparison Angel affiliate network, and was previously CEO of FireflySEO. Allan has nearly 10 years experience in SEM and yes, this is an old picture.

users engaged and empowers them to have a voice within a community that you can nurture to fit your requirements as a business. As an affiliate, one of the keys to ongoing success is to keep customers coming back for more, referring their friends and keeping your website popular. For blogs, you will likely want Blogger or WordPress.

For forums, you will either want phpBB or more likely, vBSEO. Take UGC one-step further and you are in to the realms of Viral. More and more users are moving from the PC to the laptop, to the iPhone.

Not only do iPhone and G1 phones have great connectivity but they also have integrated and open API app repositories. As a business, these types of apps keep you connected with your audience at times when they are not at a PC, they have a distinctly viral nature about them. Look, for example, at the iPint which had tens of thousands of people install and distribute it all through word of mouth, viral referral marketing. You want to retain and grow your existing customer base, just look around at all the social, viral and mobile APIs there are sitting around just waiting for you to capitalise on them. If you are not doing it now, then you are missing a great opportunity which is still quite new to the market.

Well that’s about all we have space for folks. Of course, it’s not possible to fit every hint, tip and tool recommendation in, but I very much hope that this has been of use to you the reader and that some of the information herein helps you on your road to affiliate success. ●

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Are you looking for new ways to engage your users?

We Are ...

Marketing Toolbox

Meet us at AAC on stand D2/D4 to discuss what expekt.com can offer you in 2009

traffic

Video Games More and more gaming websites are using videos to engage with first time visitors and help to educate players.

A recent study by US-based research firm Kelsey Group claimed that adding video to a site can drive 36 percent more clicks and 20 percent more inbound calls to your business, and keep players on your website for more than double the time usually spent.

Not surprisingly, marketing people have been quick to react and interact with this trend.

In a recent survey, when asked where businesses planned to focus their online marketing budgets for 2009, online video was chosen by almost 69 percent of respondents, ahead of social networking (42 percent) and search engine optimization (34 percent).

But different gaming videos affect players in a number of ways, and there are several variables to consider. What do first time visitors view; how long can we keep their attention and what constitutes a “good” video?

There are a number of complimentary applications that can work with videos to increase engagement, such as an interactive player which allows online visitors to choose the language of the audio, enables sharing videos with friends and provides real time feedback.

One thing to remember is that fast streaming is key. The quality and speed of sites like YouTube is no longer adequate – and players definitely don’t want to wait for their video to download. Net users want instant video and good quality. It has to be like watching TV. The effectiveness of videos as an online communication tool has created a whole ecosystem of production companies and technology providers who try and help websites utilize the power of video. The type of video used by gaming operators can be split into three categories: branding and introductions, game demonstrations, and “how to” tutorials. Based on experience and due to the fact that these videos meet customers in different phases of the “online life cycle” and have different goals, each type is very different than the other.

Introduction The first is branding and introduction; these are targeted at first time visitors and look to create interest in the site and ultimately, increase conversions from hits to downloads or registrations.

This is the place to start with your central offering and your points of advantage. Don’t waste the visitors’ time with too many welcome scenes and cheap glimmer – visitors want to know what they can get from your site – not a complete

corporate history. An introduction video should only cover the most important details about who you are and what you can offer – don’t try to give every detail, keep it simple with uncomplicated visuals. If you grab the visitor’s attention with this video, they will stay and view the rest. You want to build a relationship, and this is the handshake.

Once they feel comfortable, they will take the time to understand your full offering.

The branding and introduction video should be short – one or two minutes. Data shows that visitors lose their interest in long videos. Make sure the video and the player you use to stream it doesn’t look like an advert. Visitors don’t like to be sold to.

They like to feel they are there through choice – anything misconstrued as an advert may lose you a customer before you’ve even got to know them. It’s more important to make sure you have clear call for action buttons at the end of the video, so the user can decide what to do next.

subject matter or the gender of the visitor you are addressing. Game demo videos also need to be as simple as possible; you are teaching someone, not showing off a plethora of special effects.

How to The third type of videos, “how to” tutorials, are essentially an extension of a game demo; teaching basic site functions like depositing, retrieving money, and changing personal details, or how the security of the site works. For all the different functions a video serves, however, there are a few constant considerations. Subtitles and languages need to be relevant to the jurisdictions the site operates in. By missing a language, you

“You want to build a relationship, and this is the handshake.”

Game demo The second type of video is the fairly selfexplanatory game demonstrations; teaching players how to play the games and making them feel comfortable that what they get on this site is something they can understand, use easily and even be good at. These videos can be longer because at this stage, the visitor is looking to learn something. They have more patience and are willing to give you their full attention.

Demonstration videos should use real in-game footage, so that once the video has finished, the user has an easy time navigating to the game and is already partly familiar with it. There’s nothing worse than being sold one thing and getting another.

Placement of the game demo video is key – you need to place the video near the application, somewhere the visitor can find it easily. The video footage has to be consistent with the look of the website or application. If the website changes, so should the video. Don’t confuse the visitors – maintain consistency within your brand identity.

The pace of speech in the video should be slower than that of the of the introduction videos. The tone of the voiceover can make a real difference on the reaction of the visitor too. As discussed in the last issue of this magazine, female voices may be better than a male voice, depending on the Tal Riesenfeld is the co-founder and VP of Marketing and Business Development of EyeView.

could be shutting the door on an entire market, but try to be realistic about the markets you don’t serve and don’t just include languages for the sake of it.

Each video needs to fully explain a specific point. Break the videos into chapters to make sure you explain only the relevant points. Explain it and then show it again, using both audio and visual.

The pace of explanation should be slow – your audience may be older and less Internet savvy than you think – Internet gamers range from 1845 with almost all three of the age demographics within that range accounting for the same percentage of activity.

Always use the simplest cleanest examples.

Avoid fancy visuals and guide users through the process step-by-step. We offer two solutions that keep website visitors engaged and provide a significant increase in conversion rates.

Video Engagement Solutions (VES) is suited to customers interested in educating and engaging their online visitors. Our creative team can produce compelling video content and deliver it through our own platform.

Video Conversion Solutions (VCS), for customers looking to increase online conversion, harnesses the ability of our optimisation experts to use the platform’s powerful tools in testing and analysing the video’s impact as well as optimise conversion rates. Videos worth using are those that work – not those that have the most creative use of special effects, but those that understand what the site offers and how to manage user expectation. l

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Getting Started With

WordPress

WordPress is the number one choice for self-publishing bloggers, and is used daily by millions of people around the globe. While not, strictly speaking, a full Content Management System, it can, nevertheless, be put to use as one and can be used to manage everything from a single blog to an entire site.

WordPress’ philosophy is to be the best system of its kind, with the latest, most cuttingedge features available to everyone. It aims to be highly robust and exceptionally easy to use so that users from novice to advanced level can implement the features they want quickly and easily, and as we’ll see over the course of this article, it meets these requirements.

As with all great community projects such as this; WordPress is completely open-source.

What this means is that not only is this incredible platform completely free, but its use is also completely unrestricted; so we can use it in any way that we want.

As well as being free, open source also means that the code that makes it up is worked on by hundreds of developers across the world in a concerted effort to eliminate bugs, improve the core code and drive forward change and improvement.

It also means that the system is highly extensible with thousands of free plugins which add extra functionally and additional features.

These plugins can be made easily by anyone so if there’s a feature that you would like added, you’re free to write the plugin for it yourself.

Blogging is at the heart of WordPress, but this is by no means all it’s restricted to. If you want to add an easy to maintain blog page to your site, as many e-commerce sites are doing these days, then WordPress is the system for you. Many companies use blogs to bring information about their latest products, new shops, company news

or any aspect of their service to the public’s attention.

Installing WordPress WordPress is renowned for being easy to install and setup; let’s see just how easy it is to install to an existing site in its own subfolder. There are only two (well, two and a half ) requirements that must be met in order to run WordPress – your hosting provider must have PHP and MySQL installed (and should optimally have the mod_rewrite Apache module installed). The chances are that your host will have these installed as these are both very common web application platforms and many free hosting plans even include them.

The first thing we need to do is download the source code for WordPress, which can be found at http://wordpress.org/download. Don’t worry, at just 1.8MB in size, it’ll only take a moment to both download and upload to your site. Along with the current stable release (2.7.1, which was released in early 2009 amidst a storm of hype and excitement), the download centre features everything that as developers we’ve come to expect; the latest beta releases, SVN and access to nightly builds, and an archive of all previous versions.

To prepare a site for WordPress, all that we need to do is create a new MySQL database and a new user that can access and modify it. Once this has been done we need to find the wp-configsample.php file and rename it to just wp-config. php, and edit it so that it contains the information

necessary to manipulate the database. It’s very obvious where to put the information in the file, and there’s an online tool on the WordPress site for generating secure secret keys.

Once the file has been edited, we can then upload the unpacked WordPress directory structure to our site. I’ve chosen to have WordPress as a separate section of my site, so I’ve uploaded the root folder extracted from the archive. The upload should take a few minutes (the longest part of the setup process) and once finished, we simply open a browser and navigate to the setup file, which for me is located at http:// www.danwellman.co.uk/wordpress/wp-admin/ install.php.

Just add the required information to the page and click the install button. Once setup is complete, we’re given a username and password which we’ll need to make a note of so that we can update and publish to our blog. That’s it, WordPress is installed, and the whole process took just a few minutes, and if we already maintained a separate blog somewhere else, we could automatically import a lot of information from it using tools that WordPress provides for a variety of other popular blogging systems, including RSS feeds from any other source.

Using WordPress After installation, we can start publishing content straight away; the blog is created using a default theme and is completely useable immediately.

To setup the appearance and features of the

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traffic an Wellman is a freelance writer D and IT professional that lives and works in a thriving city on the south coast of England. He insists that he has other interests besides computers, and vows one day to prove this somehow.

blog and to publish new content to it, we use the dashboard; this is a simple administration page that we can use to add new posts, new pages, sidebar widgets and much more. This is also where we approve or delete visitor comments.

Everything is laid out in a very intuitive manner and we have all the usual Web 2.0 features such as minimizing unused/unwanted boxes and ‘drag and drop’ to reorder them.

Let’s see how easy it is to add a new post to the blog. We’ve several options for doing this; the dashboard home page shows the Quick Press tool which allows us to easily add a simple post with basic formatting and minimal publishing options. For a more advanced configuration of the post we can use the Add New Post tool in the left navigation module. This will open the Post page which allows us to add the text for the post, media in the form of images or video, tags describing the post and much more.

The layout and format is easy to use and we can switch between using a simple WYSIWYG text editor to a full code editor for adding raw HTML. We can also add posts to specific categories that we define and can also review, preview or delete posts from this screen. It takes just moments to add a new post, and once added will appear on the front page by default.

Styling a WordPress Blog The look and feel of a blog is obviously very important in terms of its usability and how it is perceived by visitors. The default WordPress themes are functional and neat but are a little bland and generic, so one of the first things we’ll want to do is personalise it.

This is simple to do using one of several methods; there are many user-generated themes

available for WordPress which can be downloaded from the WordPress site and then uploaded to our own site quickly and easily.

The dashboard also contains tools for editing the stylesheet used to control the blog’s appearance and it is quick and easy to modify an existing theme; for example, we can add images to the header and change the layout and

files (written in PHP) when each page is loaded as opposed to having static pages. This makes it easy to add or remove particular elements.

By editing the header.php file in the editor and adding some new style rules, we can add some new links to the header for example.

As well as manually editing the template files, we can also extend our blog using plugins, which

“Not only is this incredible platform completely free, but its use is also completely unrestricted; so we can use it in any way that we want.” appearance of the text simply by changing a couple of lines of code in the Editor.

The best way to style the blog uniquely is to start with a theme that resembles the overall look that we’re trying to achieve and then modify it using the editor and supply any new images by uploading them to the correct location. For the more experienced developer, another option is to create a new theme manually.

Changing the Elements on the Page The default page arrangement is like the default theme, functional and robust. But like with the theme there will probably be elements that we like to remove or add. WordPress pages/sites are built by combining a variety of different template

like themes are easy to upload to the blog and customize. We can add new features to the page and new widgets to the sidebar in this way to further customize the appearance of our blog.

Summary We’ve literally only scratched the surface in this introduction to WordPress, but I hope that I been able to show you how simple it is to setup and use to quickly and effortlessly publish information of any kind. With intuitive text-based editors, we can quickly customize the look and feel of the blog, and a range of built-in tools also provides other essential services to make our lives easier.

It’s easy to see why WordPress is the most popular blogging platform available. l

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get a piece of the action

interview

Featured Community Member – Spearmaster How long have you been an affiliate and what attracted you to the gaming industry?

I became an affiliate in 2000 when I launched my portal Got2Bet – at the time there were very few affiliates out there and I had only really intended to run the site as a hobby – being a player myself, I had never dreamed of making money this way.

Little did I know that my hobby would soon grow into a full-time business – first I created the jackpot tickers/pull-downs that are now commonly seen on many sites – and which spawned the creation of Microgaming’s Jackpot Madness site, quickly followed by Jackpot Mania, featuring CryptoLogic’s slots.

Then I started going to conferences – there were no affiliate conferences then, so I went to the International Casino Exhibition in ICE in 2001, where I met the Casinomeister – beginning a long friendship that lasts to this day. Most operators were so shocked to see affiliates in attendance that Casinomeister and I eventually found a little coffee table in a break area, and people lined up to talk to us!

I sold Got2Bet to London-listed Gaming Corp in 2005, barely a month before they acquired Gambling.com. Since then I’ve done a few things before going to work for Playtech for two years.

But now I’m coming back – so watch out!

What takes up the majority of an affiliate’s day?

Besides checking stats and doing online research, the majority of my day used to be spent creating content – SEO and Adwords weren’t a big deal at the time I started, but increasingly played an important role over the following few years – I never did much in those areas, I just kept creating content and writing newsletters – and Google was not really my friend until the infamous Florida update, which took me straight to page 1, a reward for all of that great content.

For affiliates today, content and regular newsletters are still key – but optimizing pages, getting good inbound links and talking to affiliate managers are much more important than they were in the past.

What gaming verticals do you operate in and which are proving the most lucrative at the moment?

I used to operate primarily in online casino marketing. Despite having the chance to start at ground level with the launch of Party Poker, I didn’t have as much interest in poker and subsequently missed the boat – something I will always regret.

Today, I think casino, poker, bingo, live dealer and sportsbetting verticals are all potentially

lucrative, depending on the target market. I’d say that casino and sportsbetting are still the most lucrative verticals, but I know extremely successful affiliates (that means significant monthly incomes) in each of these verticals.

Is there still a market share for affiliates looking to come into the industry?

There will always be room for more affiliates in the industry, provided they don’t take the cookiecutter approach of putting up a few banners, copying a few reviews from affiliate programs (or sometimes other sites!) and then thinking they’ll get rich by spamming the heck out of their site.

to be easy to overcome deep-rooted cultural and religious beliefs in some countries with the simple claim that gaming should be treated as entertainment.

The industry isn’t recession-proof, is it?

No, it’s not really Recession-proof. It’s certainly insulated from the ongoing financial troubles, in that some people will gamble less, but many people who rarely gamble may start to gamble

“Provided they make a serious effort of it, anyone that can create a unique, high quality site will be successful.”

Anyone that can create a unique, high quality site will be successful provided they make a serious effort of it. And of course, there are certain languages which are still underrepresented online, so affiliates can also take this approach, but it is very important that you work with a local partner and don’t try to do it all yourself or pay a translation agency to translate your site – you will fail miserably.

more in hopes of a lucky win to lighten their own personal financial situation.

Basically, people don’t turn to “luck” until they need it – as long as they can do fine without luck, they won’t “use it up”.

Is it a highly competitive business, or are you all friends and comrades pulling together for the greater good?

Although I know and have met many affiliates, I still spend the majority of my time with a very few friends – amongst this group I can assure you that we are only interested in the greater good.

Some affiliates think that they’re in competition with others – and some are good at competing – but in the end, most of the affiliates I know are still happy to be friends and aren’t too worried about competing with each other because they’re all successful to some degree.

As 2009 surges on, is the wider gaming affiliate market in good shape or are there causes for concern (particularly in the current financial climate)?

I think the gaming affiliate market needs to diversify into newer markets such as Asia and South America, rather than depending on opportunities within Europe, Canada and Australia. If they rest on their laurels, though, there is definitely cause for concern.

A good marketer should understand that they need to increase their marketing spend and activity in a downward economy, rather than decrease their activity. Sadly, most people immediately cut corners where it’s easiest – often not realizing that this is likely to signal the beginning of a death spiral.

Do you think that gaming is considered a legitimate and prosperous industry by the wider business community?

Depends on which community in which location.

Certainly in the UK, online gaming should be considered legitimate and prosperous. But in China, perhaps, online gaming is considered illegal yet prosperous.

Certainly I would like to see gaming considered legitimate in most countries – but it’s never going

What would your advice be to any would-be gaming affiliate, particularly those who may be seeing the dollar signs before they’ve properly considered the ins and outs of the role?

Treat your efforts in this industry as you would any job – work hard, be unique, get out and meet people and the dollar signs will follow. Obviously it helps when gambling is also a favourite pastime – it’s always good to make your play your work! l April/May 2009 l iGB Affiliate l 25

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Finding Your Comfort Zone Martyn Beacon, Affiliate Manager at CWC Affiliates talks to iGaming Affiliate Magazine about settling into the comfortable surroundings of the iGaming affiliate market.

What is your professional background and what was your route into the gaming industry?

Being a young(ish) ‘whippersnapper’, my professional background has pretty much always been related to the Internet in some way. After leaving University with a degree in Business Management, I fell into a job as a trainee web designer – I was pretty much the tea boy there but I picked up some basic web design skills which helped me in future roles.

Realising it wasn’t my thing; I bagged myself a job with a marketing agency which was my introduction to the crazy world of affiliate marketing, but in the loans and finance sector (not so rock ’n’ roll). After nearly 3 years I was made redundant from this position but had a

a fan of poker I thought it was great and didn’t see what all the fuss was about. I was excited to get into an industry which I thought could ride out most storms, which so far has proved true.

Obviously, there has been the odd hiccup along the way but so far, so good.

I think all the hype (mostly negative) about online gaming is generated from those that know the least about it. People only really hear the horror stories – I tend to form my own opinions and go from there than listen to what is in the press.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I find helping people to earn a damn sight more money than I do is very rewarding!

“An old boss of mine used to think that you can throw your site up there and the traffic will come; it’s simply not the case.” good grasp on what this type of marketing was about and how best to work with people. I think everyone has their own style of working and I believe I found mine early on which helped me when I got into online gaming.

I have now been working in online gaming for nearly 4 years and think I have found my comfort zone. In this time, I have worked with three of the biggest iGaming software providers and have gained good knowledge as a result. There is still much to learn as I take on a new role with RTG’s ClubWorldCasinos, but it’s the kind of challenge I relish.

Which of these backgrounds can you relate closest to gaming?

This is a tricky one. I use all aspects of my previous roles in my current position, so I would have to say all of them. My introduction into affiliate marketing (6 years ago) was a huge eye opener as I never realised some people earned annual salaries in single months, other than footballers of course!

The principles I learned then, I still use today and I feel that the skills I gained helped me become a better affiliate manager.

Gaming’s outward reputation is a topic of the moment – what were your impressions of the industry before you joined?

I thought you were all sinners! Seriously, being

I like dealing with the same people day in day out and also new ones that crop up from time to time. Being in this industry, you get to meet a wide variety of people and you get to make some great friends. Obviously, the conferences are great as this is where I feel you really cement new and existing relationships.

I also like to see how my work helps generate profits for the company. It does make me feel proud when I can say that as a result of my work and the affiliates I work with, I helped to generate revenue for the company.

Naturally, one factor affecting working conditions is the economic climate. What sort of impact has this had on the affiliate segment of the industry?

To be honest, I think that we are pretty fortunate to be in this industry especially in times such as these. Gambling is a hobby, a passion, a pastime; I think people will always find ways and means to do what they enjoy doing. Even if the players can’t afford to gamble like they could 6 months ago, they will still do it but more likely on a reduced basis.

Seeing the stats as I do from this side of the fence, I can say that I haven’t seen much of a difference, or at least nothing that correlates with the state of the external economy. Gaming seems to have its own little microclimate and only really feels the burn from negative factors within.

Those with the means to gamble hard tend to do just that, and also tend to be the people who are least affected by recessions and tricky times.

As a direct result of this, affiliates and gaming companies continue to earn and grow in strength.

Whilst being sheltered from the worst of a bad economic climate, it’s unrealistic to believe that the industry is recession-proof. What’s the strategy in the affiliate segment of the market in times like these?

A few things can be done to help reduce the damaged caused by poor economic climates.

Make sure you are getting the most out of your current sites; are they delivering the right message, targeting the right keywords, is the right information available and easily accessible for your users? You as the affiliate know (or should know) how people find your sites, what keywords are being used and what words you are targeting.

Doing your research and keeping up to date with current affairs and developments in the industry can only help you for the better.

Secondly, diversify. I think it would be too much to put all your eggs in one basket and live from gambling alone. I know affiliates do this and some are very comfortable but not everyone can live this way. Once you get some cash rolling from the online gaming sector then I think they must also look at other avenues for revenue. Everything online relies on the strength of the economy so choices must be made carefully. Find a balance so that you can continue updating your sites and developing them while looking at other means of income.

Thirdly, look at other ways of promoting gambling properties. Look at what the big guys are doing and try to find your own unique way of strengthening your hold in the rankings. Look at it from a player point of view; what do they want, what do they need and how is it best to deliver this information? Try and spot the next big thing early!

Away from the doom and gloom, how much of a role has the affiliate side of the business had in the phenomenal growth of the industry, and how much of a role does it have in its continued development?

I think affiliates have played a huge role in opening up avenues of traffic that may never have been available previously. An old boss of mine used to think that you can throw your site up there and the traffic will come; it’s simply not the case. A lot of work and research goes in to

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interview

“Gambling is a hobby, a passion, a pastime; I think people will always find ways and means to do what they enjoy doing.”

getting sites to the top of search engines and keeping them there while offering what the player wants to see.

Going forward, I think affiliates will still play a big role in generating more traffic for gaming properties such as ClubWorldCasinos. Affiliates are always looking for new ways of reaching new levels of traffic and are always on the hunt for the illusive whales. Therefore, I think as long as the company sees the value and the affiliate wants to work with the company as a team, then there is no reason why it will not continue to grow and develop.

Are you seeing any shifts in the way affiliates are going about their business, for better or worse?

If I am honest I see both, shifts for the better and shifts for the worse.

In my role as Affiliate Manager we do get contacted on a very regular basis from people wanting massive CPA or flat rate deals, selling lists that have been “acquired”. There was a recent thread on CAP about one such person who seemed to be running through certified programs on affiliate forums. Another shift to the dark side is those guys in it for the quick buck; again a post on CAP and other affiliate forums highlight the case of a media buyer who promised deals he couldn’t deliver and not refunding the campaign money and seemingly disappearing.

On the flipside, I believe that affiliates on the whole are working harder than ever. In order to make a living, it means that everyone needs to step up their game and look for traffic from further geographic areas, including the casinos themselves. Without developments and

advancements from the casino side then it gets more difficult for affiliates to promote them successfully and encourage positive activity.

What’s the cornerstone of any relationship between affiliate and affiliate manager?

The million dollar question! People have their own views on this and I think that the majority will all say that to have a successful and profitable relationship between affiliate and affiliate manager, trust is the overriding factor. If the affiliate does not trust you as an affiliate manager it would prove too difficult to encourage growth and performance. There are a bunch of other factors which contribute also such as honesty, integrity and making yourself available for contact which all help in developing a long term relationship.

From a personal perspective, I have known and dealt with some of the same affiliates since joining the industry and have been able to continue to work with them through various roles I have been in. To me this is very flattering and totally appreciated as we keep in touch regularly and achieve decent coverage of our brands as a result. Sometimes, work feels more like working with your friends which is great as it gives you that extra incentive to get out of bed in the morning and do what you love doing.

At the end of the day, you do what you find works for you.

Finally, we’re already four months into 2009 so what are your thoughts on the year so far in business terms, and how much progress can be engineered before we hit 2010?

4 months already, this year is flying by!

The main emphasis so far this year for me has been the concern for the state of the economy and how it will affect our industry (although realising that it’s not hit us anywhere near as hard as I first thought it may do). However, the doubt will always be there until the consumer’s spending power levels out. I think that this also shows the strength, and now trust, in online spending as a whole.

Although not directly related, in 2009 we have already seen house prices fall, many big high street stores and companies fail, unemployment levels hitting all time highs and as an industry, it seems we are riding this turbulent patch pretty well. On a positive note, the longer we ride this challenging period the closer we are to the end of the recession where we will see spending increase once again, which will also mean...bigger commissions.

From a ClubWorldCasinos perspective, we are looking at some very exciting times with new developments to our casino, new additions to our affiliate program and many new changes from within. We will continue to grow and get stronger and provide the kind of service that both affiliates and players come to expect from us.

There is much more to be done before we hit 2010 and a lot more to be earned. ClubWorld is about to launch a raft of new brands in the coming months and with a redesign of the affiliate site in progress, it represents exciting times. We are always looking for new business and new affiliates to work with, so if you haven’t signed up yet then this would be a perfect time to do so. www.cwcaffiliates.com l April/May 2009 l iGB Affiliate l 27

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THE LAWS OF ATTRACTION Attracting, Compelling and Converting for Success Over the past few months, there has been an ongoing debate across many of the popular affiliate forums regarding the methods affiliates are using to attract new casino players. Much of what is now done by affiliates is a trickle down effect of what operators themselves are doing in a promotional capacity. For instance, when an online casino decides to run a new deposit bonus scheme, affiliates are presented with several new banners highlighting the details. The casino has developed new pages or modified its home page to accommodate this new promotion and convert traffic into depositing players. For most affiliates, this is how marketing is done; someone else chooses how and what you offer to your site’s visitors.

It is no secret that some of the savvier, more successful affiliates have grasped the idea that diversity and branding plays a major part in creating revenue. Just as affiliates have become accustomed to ignoring banners and tracking links, so too have players become wary of deposit bonus offers (that never clear) and the same static promotions they see daily. Over the past three years, the affiliates who have risen ahead of the pack are those who either outranked others for the best keywords or found the most efficient way to convert visitors into depositing players.

As there are plenty of quality SEO experts out there (quite possibly in this very issue), we’ll leave this article to focus on the previous method – marketing and conversions.

In the poker industry, we often see a wide spectrum of offers and incentives. Whether it is giving a player rakeback or free gifts, there are numerous ways a poker player can get the maximum return for his contributed rake. The poker market is now a very competitive one, due primarily to the fact that players have become well educated and well connected and know how valuable their business is. Plenty of controversy surrounds this topic and many operators feel that it’s destroying the entire industry. The truth is that neither rakeback nor incentivized marketing is going anywhere. Realistically, it started long before we had coined any of these terms with casinos giving away trips, cash and rewards via VIP Programs. This has now evolved and online casinos are using deposit bonuses and reloads as a way to be more competitive and attract new players to their site. These are great ways of recruiting players, but are they the most efficient and profitable? It really depends on who you ask.

Regardless, giving players perks for depositing is a viable method and one that is being refined each year.

Although time consuming and very personal, forums and blogs remain excellent ways for affiliates to connect with their players and direct them in various directions. There is simply no better way to brand yourself as a webmaster than to run a thriving community of players

who trust and support you on a personal level.

However, this does require a lot of time and more importantly, the right kind of person. Not everyone is cut out to write compelling content.

Everyone is in love with the idea of writing their own blog and engaging an audience; however, some of us just aren’t good writers. The same is true with forums. It takes a lot of personality to keep conversations happening. More importantly, it takes an expert and an authority on a subject to build loyalty. If you can establish yourself and build an audience of players who believe in you and take your advice then you are going to be a very successful affiliate. Once you have built that personal brand, and created an open forum where players can come for guidance then you’re poised for greatness. See: CasinoMeister.

your visitors are clicking? Install the free Google Analytics or try an application like Crazy Egg (CrazyEgg.com).

There are dozens, if not hundreds of ways that you as a webmaster can find new casino players. Offline marketing, forum advertising, link exchanges, and search placement are all viable ways to recruit new players. As our market becomes more consolidated and players become savvier, we are faced with the challenge of stepping up our efforts as well. The wonderful thing about online marketing is that it is virtually limitless in channels to customers. Another great thing we can take advantage of is the ability to track and measure our success. As you are building new sites, opening new forums and improving existing sites, you’ll have the

“There is an art to recruiting new players and then there is a science to converting them.”

While traffic is important (and there is not much you can do without it), there is a fine line between mediocrity and excellence. I can not say enough about how many people have mastered the art of SEO and failed at making money. On numerous occasions, the two components of a successful portal (traffic and conversions) never merge the right way. This is why there are so many webmasters and no so many super affiliates.

There is an art to recruiting new players and then there is a science to converting them. One word that always comes to my mind is ‘compelling’.

There has to be an urgent message that you are sharing with your players which makes them want to make a deposit immediately. It cannot come across too much like a sales pitch, but rather as an amazing offer they need to take advantage of before it expires. Whether it is a progressive jackpot that is going to hit, a limited time deposit bonus or the chance for a WSOP seat, your site must broadcast the offers. As an affiliate, find the right offers, the best offers, and present them daily to your visitors. It is so important to work with an affiliate program that has the marketing capacity to keep promotions interesting and can assist you in offering a hot item. This is not asking for a freeroll; this is working with your members to see what they are most interested in and then sourcing that kind of promotion from your affiliate manager.

Want to see where

opportunity to gauge what is working and what players are excited about. In return, you can custom tailor marketing plans that coincide with those demands and start to capture new players at a faster rate. Stay tuned to the major places where players voice their opinions. Stay in touch with what is hot and relevant and do your best to express a need for your visitors to take advantage of the ‘exclusive’ opportunities you present to them as members of your site.

Best of luck and hope to speak with you soon! ●

Greg Powell, Casino Program Manager, TowerGaming.com.

Greg can be contacted at greg@toweraffiliates. com. You can also read Greg’s new blog now at CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com

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The Forgotten Player Base In the 1990s, governmental and healthcare agencies throughout the Northern and Western parts of Europe started computerizing their records not only retrospectively, but also in “real time”. This had already started happening in the private sector and resulted in employees, many reluctantly and most of whom had never used a computer before, being sent to courses to become computer literate.

By 1996, the “Christmas present of the year” was a 33.3kbps modem – people started getting Internet access at home. As Internet access has moved from modems to broadband, mobile and satellite access, many users have lost some of their initial reluctance and started using the Internet as a tool.

During this process, Internet gaming blossomed – poker and casino games were gaining ground fast with their (mostly) young and computer literate, male player base. Then someone thought “but what about the women?” and of course, they were right – what ABOUT the women?

Bingo targetting female players first flourished in Scandinavia, where the climate actually seems to have helped public computer literacy to grow faster than elsewhere. The harsh winters and few hours of daylight perhaps makes people more open to “other means of entertainment” and suddenly it was possible to interact with others over the Internet.

Add to this that the recently made computer literate public sector is predominantly female and that kids grow up... mothers who had “lived for their children” found themselves with more spare time; their kids became teenagers and needed less maternal guidance, moved to live on their own or got a new computer, and mum suddenly had an “extra” computer at home... Whatever the reason, there was a whole new group of Internet users who were brave enough to take advantage of it – no experts, but women with spare time on their hands and in need of socializing and chatting – women speak nearly three times as many words in a day as men do!

The stereotypical online player before this was

male and around 18-35 years of age. Through thinking outside the box, a forgotten or previously unexposed group of players was targeted: adult females, aged 35-55 who wanted to chat (though the age-group has widened since, amongst other criteria).

If we crudely divide players into three main groups, we have a starting point (my personal categorization):

don’t actually expect to win – they just want to “win enough to keep going” because they want to continue to socialize. Bingo players are predominantly social players but you will find that some bingo players are also dabbling at casino games. In general, you will find them playing low level stakes and “to pass time” rather than to win.

Bingo players also tend to be more loyal than other players because of the social feature. If

“The exception with bingo players is that they don’t actually expect to win – they just want to ‘win enough to keep going’ because they want to continue to socialize” Poker Players Young guys who like to outsmart each other and improve their skills. I call poker players prestige players. I estimate that around 20% of poker players are also (part time) “real gamblers”. Poker players mostly congratulate each other on good hands but the 20% “real gamblers” don’t like losing and tend to show it. Poker players won’t convert to Bingo Players.

Casino Players/Gamblers (sportsbook & betting) Most “real gamblers” will play casino games. They often believe that “it is my turn next” and begrudge others winning. They often have lucky numbers, mascots, habits and physical items. They can be converted to play quick or multi layered bingo.

Bingo Players The exception with bingo players is that they

Anneli Nilsson has worked with Maria Bingo since before the launch in 2006, and is currently a project manager focusing on affiliate management.

they like their chat moderators, they will not “abandon” them – or the friends they have made in the chat facility – but they will bring their friends and family to join. As long as you treat your bingo players with respect and appreciation, they will stick to your site like glue! They normally TRY other sites out of curiosity but they will come back and tell “their” site about news or faults occurring on competitor sites. What we as operators would actually pay for to find out for our poker, sportsbook and casino sites, we get for free from our bingo players – if we take that little extra time to be personal with them.

With the rapid development of the tools and services available via the Internet, demands and expectations have changed from both customers and operators. Sites such as Facebook, Hi5 and MySpace have already reached a tipping point, and forward thinking bingo sites are now competing with these to be the players’ choice of social network site. While you can end up feeling you have given too much personal information to a social networking site, the bingo site will allow players to adopt a made up persona and to disclose only information of their choice – with the chance to get lucky. A real winwin situation! l

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NOW IN SPANISH MORE LANGUAGES COMING SOON

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bingo supplement roundtable

Show me the Money Affiliates know all about the revenue potential of the traditionally lucrative markets such as casino and poker, but what about bingo? Can affiliates earn big money marketing this vertical?

Jonathan Mann, Affiliate Marketing Manager, Market Ace Big Market, Large Choice The bingo industry has grown to unprecedented proportions in recent years, and is now generally considered bigger than the lottery market. Nielsen recently reported that online bingo operators spent £7 million last year in TV advertising alone in their efforts to benefit from an almost boundless medium. The size of this budget attests to the fact that the bingo marketplace is already crowded.

This works well for potential bingo players, since they can pick and choose between a range of fun and value offers from trusted, regulated operators.

As a bingo affiliate, you too can choose between a range of products, knowing that the bigger brands are going to deliver good conversions and be trustworthy enough to actually pay you for the hard work you do.

However, choosing the right operators to promote is just the start.

Find Your Niche You are not going to earn any money as an affiliate if you just put banners onto your webpage and leave it alone. Ask yourself: what are my visitors looking for? The answers are not surprising. Players are consumers, and so want value for money, good prizes, good bonuses and a good reputation. It’s fair to say that a number of operators have these already, so just delivering a list of “good sites” isn’t going to work.

Your site visitors are looking for a particular

angle to your promotions. If you deliver a suitably distinctive, suitably useful experience, then you will make money on the back of it. There are many bingo affiliate sites out there, and you need to stand out in the crowd to claw in your share of the profit. Whether your site focuses on the best chat rooms, the highest jackpots, the widest ranges of games or the biggest bonuses is entirely up to you, but make a decision early on, and stick to it.

You will see the profit this returns.

Love Thy Competitor Type “bingo sites UK” into Google, and you will get something like 620,000 results; type in “bingo” and you get 40 million! A lot of people are clearly devoting a lot of web space to bingo promotions, especially since Google helpfully relaxed its gambling PPC policies. This not only tells you that certain people are making a lot of money from bingo; it also helps you immediately research what they’re doing. Competitors will always be there. You should learn from them, not be disheartened by their efficiency!

Be sure you know exactly what your competitors are doing so that you can identify precisely what they’re NOT doing. They’ll all have forums, email lists, blogs and all the usual armoury of community stuff, so don’t worry about this too much. Instead, think about how their promotions are oriented. What’s their product focus? Who are they trying to attract? Sooner or later, you will identify opportunities that you can make use of.

Feed visitors with this “missing” information and you suddenly have a profitable niche. It’s still a new market, full of as-yet-untried opportunities.

And once you’re there – don’t stop! You may have packed in your day job and be planning a well-deserved holiday, but the online bingo community doesn’t rest. There are new promotions, new jackpots and new products released every day. Market-ace provides affiliates with new creative materials every week!

Your visitors want to know about what’s new, and rely on you to tell them. Give them what they want, and they’ll earn you a profit. Who knows?

Perhaps Google might increase your ranking too...

Mary Griffin, Head of Customer Acquisition, BingoJoy Online bingo is one of the fastest growing sectors on the Internet. Analysts are predicting the area to grow by as much as 400% or higher in the coming years which means there is some good revenue to be made for the smart bingo affiliate.

For the affiliate, it is an opportunity to appeal to a whole new demographic of players such as women and ‘silver surfers’ in the saturated market of online gambling. Although the bingo players tend to be low depositing (average £60£90 monthly spend), they are frequent visitors.

Bingo players are loyal to a bingo room with the community provided by the operator being as important to the player as the game itself. Players will often play on a daily basis to chat with their friends. Of course, this means repeat commissions making bingo a good revenue source for affiliates with the average lifetime value of a customer ranging from 6-9 months.

The opportunity created by the use of TV ads run by the operators really helps to stimulate April/May 2009 l iGB Affiliate l 33

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new business and during any TV campaign, the increase in customer activity will spike and increase commissions. Affiliates starting to promote a bingo product should take a closer look at which rooms will bring in the best business.

Bingo also tends to be less seasonal than casino and poker and so the commission revenues will tend to remain steady even in the summer months. The low depositing nature of the game and its entertainment value will probably see it less impacted by the ‘credit crunch’ than a high staking gaming product. The increase in people staying at home in the evenings could also prove to be a driving force for online bingo, rather like how the credit crunch has increased the sales of Domino’s pizza!

For the affiliate, there is a mix of commission structures available covering CPA and net revenue, however, the repeat visits of the bingo player makes net revenue a better choice for any affiliate serious about making money out of bingo. Some operators also manage cross sell programs through which the affiliate can benefit from other products, such as a casino player who may cross over to bingo. Interestingly, 45% of revenues from bingo come from side games, making this a good choice for all affiliates to promote.

We see 2009 as a good opportunity for affiliates to take advantage of the popularity of online bingo and start making money now!

Malci, Affiliates and Marketing Director, Revenue Giants There is plenty of money to be made as a bingo affiliate. However, bingo traffic is different to that of casinos, so there are a few things that you need to keep in mind when promoting bingo sites if you want to increase your commission.

The lifetime of a bingo player is longer than any other online gamer, they are loyal and steady because they are part of a social community; the income they generate is safe and accumulates rapidly and the player value is competitive if compared to a casino player’s value.

Bingo is a community game. When promoting online bingo sites, building your own strong community is a must. You need to work hard to get your visitors to interact with one another, with you and the bingo site. Get their feedback, collect their email addresses and keep them informed of what’s going on. At BingoHall.com for example, we have created a symbiotic relationship with the bingo players to the point that they are indeed part of our family.

Bingo players are very loyal because they get to interact with other bingo players around the world. The $25 USD minimum deposit and the $0.05 cent a game minimum may seem small amounts, however, these figures really add up in the long run – a steady stream of income from a loyal player in a solid period of time; just like a casino player value.

On the other hand, it is true that more payouts come from bingo sites than any other site in terms of numbers, since it is very likely that a

player deposits only a few hundred and then wins a jackpot of few thousand. Nevertheless, these payouts have a short-term effect on your commission as research has shown. This concludes that payouts will result in an increased sense of loyalty towards a site, and undoubtedly, we’ve seen players come back time and time again.

Online bingo players are safer players because there are fewer problems with cheating and abusing the system. This situation may, of course, affect a bingo operator and consequently, affiliate program revenue, which will directly affect the affiliate’s income. The safer the player the less likely the affiliate will have to deal with charge backs or refunds while the operator is blocking a few of his players.

Another advantage of promoting bingo sites is that many people view bingo as a socially acceptable game, even though it’s technically a game of luck, a situation that allows bingo affiliates to broaden their horizons as they are able to advertise in non-gaming related sites.

Now, you may be wondering whether or not to give bingo a try in your existing casino or poker site. The general consensus is that if you already have a successful gambling clientele then why not maximize it?

Certainly, you will require persistence to be a successful bingo affiliate but the results can be very rewarding. It may not be the easiest of target markets to obtain new real players but with strong player loyalty, you will see revenues grow steadily over time. Good Luck.

that online gaming offers. Following the popularity of Web 2.0 and the social networks, the general search for entertainment and socialising online has made bingo an obvious success. It’s fun, fast and easy to learn and play, with the main attraction being its social aspect in the form of chat rooms instead of just focusing on traditional gambling. The MariaBingo target group is women between the ages of 25 and 55 with money to spend as well as time to spare, who are looking for ways to entertain themselves. Looking for this diversion online has become obvious in countries where

“If you deliver a suitably distinctive, suitably useful experience, then you will make money on the back of it.”

Linda Niskanen, Marketing Manager MariaBingo – Western Europe Bingo is seeing a revival through the possibilities

Jonathan Mann, Affiliate Account Manager, Market Ace: affiliates@market-ace.com – www.market-ace.com Malci, Affiliates and Marketing Director, Revenue Giants, www.RevenueGiants.com, malci@revenuegiants.com Mary Griffin, Head of Customer Acquisition, BingoJoy Mary.Griffin@gamingmediagroup.co.uk www.heavenaffiliates.com

Linda Niskanen, Marketing Manager MariaBingo – Western Europe The Maria brand is available for affiliates at www.UnibetAffiliates.com linda.niskanen@unibet.com

Internet penetration has already reached extremely high levels.

The heightened level of player involvement in a bingo site adds a personal touch to the gaming experience which builds up brand loyalty and site stickiness. This is not traditional gambling, its social gaming at its most advanced level, with players sharing the excitement of winning. From profile creation, photo sharing to blogs and forums, the bingo community is a place you can go where everybody knows your name.

Currently, the market for bingo in Scandinavia and the UK is already quite mature, having seen the boom a few years ago. MariaBingo is expecting to see the same type of boom across Europe, with The Netherlands and Estonia already showing strong trends in this direction.

The Maria brand is attracting affiliates who are looking to benefit from strong player loyalty to the site as well as large turnover per player. The high loyalty offers affiliates the opportunity to earn money over a longer, sustained period of time on a revenue share deal, while CPA, even if lucrative in the beginning, can mean the affiliate loses out on the long term earnings.

The general bingo player is usually someone who wants to socialise; they set their bingo budget and stick to it month after month, year after year.

Bingo players are comparatively lower maintenance than players of other products – as they are being entertained not only by the game, but also by their peers in a community thriving on user generated content supported by a network of friendly chat masters. At the end of the day, with bingo you are attracting a different market with a different clientele. So instead of purely focusing on poker and sports, it’s all about diversifying your portfolio. l

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With the emphasis on bingo this issue, we spoke to Virtue Fusion CEO, Bob McCulloch who has much to celebrate following the launch the Virtue Affiliates network.

Let’s start with an overview of Virtue Affiliates and what sort of commission structures affiliates can expect from your providers.

Virtue Affiliates is a network of Virtue Fusion Bingo clients, and these merchants all offer a varied revenue share. They go up to 35% commission, dependent on how much revenue the Affiliate generates. Some merchants offer various degrees of commission, i.e. the more revenue you generate for the merchant, the greater the percentage commission you earn.

How will joining this network provide affiliates with a competitive edge?

Virtue Fusion is Bingo-centric and we offer affiliates data feeds that they would not be able to get elsewhere. We currently have data we send them regarding jackpots won, and free bingo schedules, but we will be developing a web service that they will be able to put onto their site for ‘real-time’ data for players to see, which will give affiliates an advantage over most of the other programs.

They also get a one stop shop for all their Bingo needs with one account sign on and access to multiple programmes.

The reporting software we use (Income Access) was developed from scratch specifically for gaming affiliates and is world class. Affiliates get access to the best reporting software available in the market.

Finally, the service affiliates get is high quality.

We recognise communication is key and we make regular and timely payments to our affiliates.

How significant is the partnership with Income Access and what strengths do they provide the Virtue Affiliates offering?

The partnership provides us with a trusted software provider, that many affiliates know well. They understand the software, having used it on other gaming platforms, and Income Access is trusted by affiliates as they have close relationships with many gaming affiliates worldwide. This allows the our network to be introduced by Income Access to some affiliates we may not have previous relationships with, or add further weight and credibility to our network, as we are endorsed by Income Access.

What’s the significance of the timing of the release? Do you envisage more affiliates looking at the bingo vertical as a revenue opportunity, or is it more a vehicle to stimulate/ encourage players to your bingo sites?

We believe that bingo is an ‘untapped market’ in the affiliate space. Most gaming affiliates have not

really tried to generate revenue from an area they have considered to be less lucrative. However, with the larger brands such as William Hill, JackpotCity and Buckingham actively promoting bingo both online, on TV and in other media spaces, the opportunity to generate significant revenue has increased and is now a very attractive option.

Looking at the bingo vertical in terms of the consumer demographic – are you noticing a shift or a difference in the types of people who are now playing online bingo, and is this shift favourable or of benefit to the bingo affiliate?

Bingo has traditionally been promoted to an older female demographic. However, with the increase of the online world, the more technologically ‘savvy’ younger demographic have embraced it as a fun way to have a cheap night with friends online, and enjoy the opportunity to chat to friends and family online whilst playing.

The demographic is shifting to a younger group, and men are beginning to enjoy the game as well as the opportunity to play some slots online at times. This increases revenue opportunity, as more people go online and explore the gaming environment.

Looking ahead to the rest of the year and beyond – how much growth is Virtue Fusion anticipating in the next couple of years? Will bingo become a key market driver?

We anticipate plenty of growth in Bingo. We are forecasting 40% growth year on year for the next 3 years. It’s big in UK and has plenty of growth opportunity both here and overseas. Bingo is a key market driver. It is a gaming destination in its own right and has value in cross promotional terms to brands with casino or sportsbook arms.

And what role can bingo affiliates play in that growth?

Bingo affiliates are essential to any online venture.

Affiliates that specialise in bingo make a point of understanding the business of bingo, as well as the players that are attracted to it. This means they attract quality customers instead of bonus hunters. These types of affiliates can grow your market share based on the type of reviews

“The more technologically ‘savvy’ younger demographic have embraced online bingo as a fun way to have a cheap night with friends.”

I suppose one thing affiliates may look at, particularly those who haven’t ventured in to bingo just yet, is if they can cross market to their casino and poker players.

Are you seeing any trends in poker/casino players acquiring an interest in bingo?

Virtue Affiliates Bingo Programs also have slots inside the bingo rooms, and this allows for greater revenue generation, as well as a great opportunity to cross sell to players who enjoy slots more than bingo. However, the beauty about the product is that the player does not need to leave the bingo merchant to be able to play slots as well. Hence, any casino players can be easily cross sold to bingo, and the casino/slots experience is still provided to them.

What about the gender orientation of online bingo players? Are we ever going to see a stronger male representation online (or even offline)?

In some online bingo rooms we have seen as much as a 40/60 male/female split but most have a mix of 30/70. Recently, there have been new bingo rooms opening up specifically tailored to the male demographic, and that may well help encourage a more even representation.

they write, and the type of players they attract.

Affiliates are essentially an online sales force that are also, in some ways, important business partners. They understand that your service and support is essential to their revenue growth, and will work with you to improve areas of your business that will also improve their income.

Finally, some affiliates are asking the question “is there any money in bingo?” So, what’s the key message that Virtue Affiliates is getting across here?

Virtue Affiliates would like to let them know that there definitely is money in promoting online Bingo. We aim to make our merchants the most successful bingo operators in the affiliate arena, and we aim to work with all our affiliates to help them increase their opportunity to earn income month on month. The bingo player is a loyal player as they enjoy the community aspect as well as the games, and enjoy the variety of games our merchants offer. Most bingo players play bingo longer than casino players, but because our merchants offer slots games and chat games, the opportunity for the player to have a fun time online is increased. l

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feature

The Affiliate Guide to SEO Gary Beal provides iGaming Business Affiliate Magazine the first of a three-part insight into SEO in 2009.

Your website is looking good and has all the things you’ve been told it needed; great titles, H1-H3 tags, meta tags, good unique content and easy navigation.

So why aren’t you getting the traffic you deserve?

These tips are for beginner to advanced SEOs. I have many other good tips in my 2007 and 2008 versions, and I have struggled to come up with 12 more unique tips that are also worthy of being included in anything called “Top Tips”, but I think I have found them.

I’ve laid these tips out in a different way than in the past. Rather than spit out 12 random tips, I have arranged these tips into a step-bystep strategy that almost anyone with a bit of knowledge can implement. The first part covers getting your website in shape, and the latter half will give you strategies to take advantage of the work you have done.

1. Make Sure Your Website is Ready for SEO Most website owners have succumbed to the realisation that one way or another, they are going to have to start injecting content into their website to have any chance of a top 10 ranking. So many site owners set about creating or buying content to add to various sections of their website in an attempt to pacify the search engines. In most cases, it lasted for a few weeks and was abandoned because it is a huge commitment to create good content on a daily basis. Unfortunately the road to Google Hell (not ranking) is paved with good intentions. Unless you were smart and integrated Wordpress, Joomla or some type of content generating application early on, you may have pages all over the place and this means you may also have internal navigation issues causing problems with the robots when they try to crawl your website. If the bots cannot find your pages or if they get stuck in a loop as a result of poor navigation, then any work could potentially be a waste of your time and money.

Run Xenu (a free tool) on your website to be sure this isn’t the case. This will give you a detailed overview of your website’s navigation and if you have any problems with your internal linking structure. It will also notify you of any redirects or errors in linking, particularly any 302 redirects or 404 pages that are being returned throughout your entire website. You want to identify any adverse navigation problems that it finds. For instance, 302 redirects are frowned upon by Google but are often left in place whilst working on a site. If you are getting 404s you’ll be able to identify and fix these.

Since we are getting our site healthy to maximise the effects of the other 11 steps, let’s go to Webmaster Tools and check out your

overview. This also performs the same tasks as Xenu, but it shows you what Google in particular is seeing. Imageone is an overview in Webmaster Central Tools from Google. The various errors are problems and need to be fixed.

Not found errors could be pages that have been moved or replaced, or even renamed. You may have internal, or even worse, external links pointing to these pages and these linking pages could have a significant impact on your rankings.

URLs timing out could be attributable to many issues, but whatever they are they need to be resolved. If the Googlebot can’t get to the page then any pages beyond this page and anything on the page itself, may not be indexed. If this is the case then Google will rely on cached versions or whatever they were able to see the last time they were able to crawl the page. This could potentially

page has to the primary page. Internal navigation needs to be checked to be sure all links go to the correct version as well. Bad navigation is common, especially with websites constantly being populated or worked on by many individuals.

Pick one and use it throughout.

3. Re-structure Your Site Navigation Using the Silo Method Unless you planned your website correctly from the start, or you went through the process I mention above and have been adding pages here and there, you probably have segmented your site into broad sections. The problem is that there is no real hierarchy and you are diluting valuable link juice.

An example of this is a Bingo website trying to rank for 75-ball, 80-ball and 90-ball bingo games.

“Unfortunately the road to Google Hell (not ranking) is paved with good intentions – if the bots cannot find your pages or if they get stuck in a loop as a result of poor navigation, then any work could potentially be a waste of your time and money.” cause ranking problems because it is stale content, or content that cannot be verified as being relevant to the backlinks pointing at the page.

Unreachable URLs are internal and external links pointing at a page within your website that cannot be reached. These are internal and external links that someone was nice enough to put up for you, but you moved the page or they may have misspelled the URL. You could; contact the site owner and have it fixed or; create the page relevant to the anchor text used or; do a permanent 301 redirect and any Page Rank or authority it has will be passed onto the new destination page. I have seen websites with thousands of these errors caused after relaunching their website or whilst rewriting URLs. This could be huge for some of you.

Once you have fixed these issues create a new xml sitemap and manually submit it through Webmaster Central.

2. Check your Internal Canonicalization Websites can have more than one URL (e.g. http://www.bluewidgets.com and http://www. bluewidgets.co.uk). If you have been around for a while and people are linking to you they could be linking to either URL. By designating a primary it gets 100% of the above benefits.

Go to the tools section of Google’s Webmaster Central and designate one as your primary. Do a 301 redirect on the non-primary page to pass on any backlink juice, PR and authority that the

The goal is to be recognised as an authority on each of these games so that you will rank high when you are searched individually. You run the risk of Google clustering the pages together and only ranking well for that game.

The silo method of segmenting your website is by-far the best way to fix this common problem.

It will maximise the functionality and end-user experience and also go a long way to improving your ranking in the search results. A silo is a vertical page linking design. You have your landing page, or your main page, at the top of the silo and underneath you have pages which support your main landing page theme. (If you are building a new site I recommend using Drupal as it has built-in functionality to accomplish this.)

Image two is a generic example of a silo. This example shows a clear path that either the enduser or a robot can follow.

There are several ways to create silos: 1) Tagging 2) Create categories 3) Create directories 4 Install a related pages plug-in 5) ONLY link to landing pages using your target keyword/phrase 6) Create a mini-sitemap on each page Expected Results: 1) Higher rankings 2) Increase in overall traffic

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IMAGE ONE

campaign or any history for Google to go on, it will give you a higher quality score, which means your ad will be higher in the PPC SERPs at a lower cost. (*note – I have tested Google’s automated grading of new campaigns in Adwords and have found that if you revive an old account, or even add to an existing one and the grade scoring was bad previously, any new campaign will inherit the poor grades. If this is the case you need to start an entirely new account with a new credit card and begin from scratch.)

Next, create adgroups by the top level keywords like casino, slots, poker, bingo, etc. Sort all of the related niche and longtail terms that you have collected from your logfiles or Hittail into each of these because you will be adding more and more each day/week/month depending on the amount of traffic that you are getting.

When you are selecting the landing page, be sure to follow the same rules that you do when acquiring backlinks to the website; be sure the terms are relative to the landing page.

Set up Google Analytics. It will give you a better insight into your stats and identify the converting terms.

Once a week, go into your logfiles or Hittail data and add the terms into the relative account. This technique will not just give you a lot of data; it may even prove to be a worthwhile investment if the conversion rate is under your commission rate.

You can go after the low-hanging fruit because it’s so cheap, and you can gather valuable data that can be used for building additional content.

IMAGE two

3) More unique visitors 4) More traffic from longtail keywords Now that you have finished the housecleaning on your site in steps 1 and 2, you are now ready to start building some unique content and implementing SEO techniques.

4. Start Identifying and Targeting Longer Keyword Phrases with PPC There are reports that say up to 60% of the quality/converting traffic comes from niche or longtail search terms. Search queries from three to over six words long are increasing as end-users learn more about targeted searches. Start a PPC campaign to identify longtail terms that you should be targeting. It’s very cheap at .01-.05p a visitor. Do this on all 3 search engines because the landscape differs from one to the other, as well as the techniques used to optimise for each. You can spend as little as €100 and get a ton of valuable information.

Here are a few tricks to maximise your return using PPC: Get your logfiles from your ISP or get an

analysis tool or software like Hittail. These tools allow you to see what term(s) and which search engine directed the searcher to your website (Hittail does it live), and more importantly, what page was identified by the search engine as being relevant enough to show up in the results.

When you do this you need to be sure to set it up correctly. Firstly, be sure that you use existing pages. Google uses a portion of the organic algorithm to rate or “grade” each keyword.

Because of this, the same optimisation techniques should be used in your PPC campaign. Use existing pages that are already ranking and have a few backlinks, and one that is aged as well. If you need to, add a visible CTA (call to action) into an existing page that is showing PR. Secondly, when you set up the account all the settings should be put at their maximum (CPC and daily budget). Keep the campaign turned off so it doesn’t cost you anything and usually over the next 48hrs, the campaign, adgroup, keyword and targeted landing page will (9 times out of 10) be evaluated automatically, and provided you do not already have a poorly constructed

5. Build New Pages Using Latent Semantic Analysis Once you have identified the converting terms in your PPC campaigns, start to build unique pages for them with at least 300-350 words. The data that you get from your PPC campaigns, logfiles and/or Hittail is great for creating new content.

Hittail is especially good to use for content because you are able to see exactly what the searcher entered. I’ve seen strings of queries 6, 7, 8 and even 9 terms long. (If you target foreign languages this can be especially helpful.)

The important element here is that each page needs to have unique content. This can be difficult when building pages for niche and longtail terms that are aligned with other primary or secondary terms. Let’s say you are building individual pages for these terms; 1) Casino 2) Online casino 3) Free online casinos 4) Online casino with no download 5) Free online casino with no download 6) UK casino with no download And so on. How many different pages can you create good content for, whilst keeping the pages individual?

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IMAGE three

I can’t help much with the actual writing process but I can tell you how to be sure the pages are uniquely individual and how to keep them from possibly being clustered. (Google has admitted that when it detects duplicate content, such as through variations caused by URL parameters, it groups the duplicate URLs into clusters. It selects what it believes to be “the best” URL to represent the cluster in its search results, then consolidates properties of the URLs into the cluster, such as link popularity, to the representative URL.) There are a few simple elements that you need on-page that will keep the pages separate, and ranking for their own individual longtail terms.

Use the phrase/keyword set; 1) For the page title 2) In the first or second paragraph of the text, and in bold 3) Elsewhere in the content underlined or italicized 4) In the meta description 5) In an internal link’s anchor text 6) In an external link from another website, press release or Social Bookmark *Important! When you are building a page that targets a specific term, be sure your internal and external links that point back to the page are keyword specific. If the keyword that you are targeting has multiple variations that you wish to target (bingo>online bingo>free online bingo, etc.), or if you already have targeted pages that are in place, it is crucial that you do not dilute the link popularity. Internal links to internal pages are just as important as external links to internal pages. Build individual pages for each converting keyword phrase.

6. Use Nofollows to Link Sculpt PR (Page Rank) Page Rank is basically the level of trust and authority that Google has assigned to a website and each individual page within the site. PR is based on historical information, sometimes months old, so check to see if the linking page has

any links showing in Google for a better insight.

There are many tools that have this functionality, but I use the Firefox browser with the SEO Quake plugin because it also shows Yahoo and MSN backlinks, social bookmarks, cache date and many other details that are important.

If you are linking from a page (whether internally or from an external website) PR becomes very important. This PR, from a rating of 0/10 up to 9/10, is the amount of available “link juice” that you have to play with in your website, or that is being divided up amongst the links on an external website that is linking back to you.

Trust and authority are determined by the number of backlinks from other websites, the relevancy of content on your page, who else they are linking to, who else you are linking to and many other attributes. The little Page Rank bar (see image 3 above– if you have the Google toolbar installed) shows Page Rank and is something of an indicator as to a sites level of trust and authority as determined by Google, including your own website and pages within your website. Links from internal pages with Page Rank can be sculpted in a way that boosts the amount of PR, and therefore, the rankings for the term or terms that the page is targeting within Google’s search results.

There are two factors Google looks at; the PR being passed from external sources and the PR being passed internally through links.

What we are now going to use it for is sculpting your internal Link Juice to help boost your

Gary R. Beal is Director of Search and Training at Stickyeyes. He has been in the Search Engine Optimization field for 10 years. Gary was a speaker at the most recent Search Engine Strategies (SES) conference in London, and specializes in Search, Pay Per Click, Affiliate Management and Email Marketing. Gary@stickyeyes.com.

rankings for these pages.

According to Wikipedia, the nofollow was intended to reduce the effectiveness of certain types of search engine spam, thereby improving the quality of search engine results and preventing spamdexing from occurring in the first place. Matt Cutts of Google and Jason Shellen from Blogger created it around 2005.

It tells the search engines that you do not endorse the page you have linked to. It looks like this; Normal link; <a href=’http://www.blogger.com‘>Your Link</a> Changed to a nofollowed link; <a href=’http://www.blogger.com‘ rel=’nofollow’>Your Link</a> This has created a useful tool for search engine optimisation. We can nofollow the links in our website to preserve the PR and pass it on to the pages that we want to rank well. The ‘About Us’, ‘Contact Us’ and ‘Login Here’ pages/links are obviously not pages that we care to rank for. So by adding nofollows to these internal links, we can funnel more PR to the important pages.

Without nofollows With nofollows Another great way to use this tip is when you are creating new pages for niche phrases that you identified through your logfiles or Hittail.

Build a doorway page off your homepage. I use this as a ‘holding’ area for newly identified hotlist terms that I want to rank quickly. Put nofollows on all of the template/navigational links. Add relative content on the doorway page using your newly found keyword and anchor the keyword or keyword phrase (turn it into a link) to the new page that you created.

This will funnel all of the available link juice to the new page, targeting the new term, and you will see your page rise through the rankings. l Part two of this three part SEO insight will appear in the June/July issue of iGaming Business Affiliate Magazine.

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interview

Masters of the Internet With the demand for in-game monetisation solutions for free-to-play Internet models growing at increasing levels, we spoke to Martin Herdina, co-founder of Fatfoogoo, a company that specialises in delivering trading platforms and commercial ecosystems.

For those people who might not be aware of Fatfoogoo’s business and the service it provides to online games and virtual worlds, could you give us a brief introduction?

We founded the company in December 2006 and are based in Vienna, Austria, with offices in London and Silicon Valley. Our key focus lies in micro transaction solutions. This incorporates everything around buying virtual goods and additional content, selling and enabling the monetisation of digital assets. And yes, our primary focus lies in virtual worlds, online games but also social networks and other payment services.

In a historical context, we started off as a B2C company so our key pitch, or our key goal, has been to become the eBay for virtual goods – operating a secondary marketplace with the extension to virtual worlds and massive multiplayer online games (MMO). What we soon discovered was that the customers loved our service and we had a great average reaction value. However, the real proposition is where these types of services are tied to and embedded in the game, where customers can actually purchase and trade goods within the game or virtual world rather than having to leave the platform to go to a third-party service. This made us open lines of communication with a host of

gaming publishers and game operators who all liked our technology, but pretty much gave us the same feedback saying, “hey, we love what you guys do; this is exactly where the market is moving towards and we need the virtual asset market for our free-to-play models, and we definitely need somebody who can help us solve these problems. However, we don’t want to go with a third-party service; we want to invest your technology in our game via a white-label operation.” And this is what we have been doing since spring last year and our rates of success continue to improve.

What was the impetus behind starting the company when you did in 2006?

In essence, there are two drivers. One of the drivers has been a personal interest in gaming.

I played games and figured out the value of certain virtual assets in the game and found there was no real solution out there to empower players. People still go to eBay and buy the World Of Warcraft gear because there isn’t anything in the game. So this was a private angle of sorts.

From a professional perspective, the majority of our team used to work for a company called QTech and are experienced in operating B2C portals as well as delivering carrier-grade B2B solutions for major international clients such as AT&T Wireless, Skype, T-Mobile International and

Yahoo!. So, this means we have the expertise technology-wise.

We have been involved in a major pitch with a very large gaming operator who is looking for a virtual solution. It had figured out, “we can’t develop these solutions in-house because we are a gaming company. We know how to run a game, how to design a game, how to build the graphics and the 3D engine, but we have no idea how to deal with high volume or high quality micro transactions and an in-game economy.” These things have been the drivers behind the growth of the company.

Some people might not be aware of the relevance of micro-transactions in terms of monetising gaming. Do you think the current (real-world) economy is almost highlighting their potential benefit?

It sounds brutal, but the current downturn in the economy almost plays into our hands because despite the fact gaming companies are laying people off, they still need the technology, so they need to adapt and this is where we come in. The second aspect is that people are a lot more cost sensitive. So, rather than spending money on a subscription service, they go to a free-to-play model which is being monetised either through advertisement or from micro transactions.

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interview

All the advertising margins have become lower and lower so now, we are seeing accelerated interest coming from people in ex-finance games and ex-finance services who want to move into the free-to-play and micro transaction model. For now, times are good for us, which is very positive considering the overall economic situation.

Do you envisage this progress continuing over the next couple of years and through the barren economic period?

Looking at it objectively, there are so many games out there at the moment. This year alone there will be something in the region of a hundred MMOs being released, although many of those will fail. Yet, particularly in these tough times where it is hard to get the funding, it means many of those games just wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t generate enough revenue to sustain themselves. Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re more of a multi-revenue share-based service provider which will help generate continual business. However, having said that, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s why it is important for us to go live with many partners in different segments and different genres. The successful companies will stick around and, if we have enough ties to those successful partners, the next year should be solid for us and for the whole space.

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interview

For many, the in-game economy was first brought to the common attention through Second Life. But, from your perspective, where did this really begin and how is its importance and prevalence grown to where we are today?

I think Second Life is the perfect example for the in-game economy, but believe me; pretty much every online game has some sort of in-game economy. Every World Of Warcraft game (or game of that type) has an in-game economy where there are virtual currencies and digital assets, and where there is a virtual currency; there is also a rate of inflation.

At the end of the day, we are dealing with an in-game economy and we need to provide the tools to make the in-game economy something which is not expressed in the game, but rather something really exciting and interesting for the customer.

It is in-game trading and collecting assets, and we’re doing the eBay thing. It’s not a matter of generating revenue but it is a matter of fun. So, therefore, the in-game economy can be a really substantial component of the whole game and the whole in-game experience.

I suppose that it’s creating an immersive world for the end user where everything is in one universe – you don’t have to go outside it to come back to progress your avatar or your life in that circumstance.

Basically, from an in-game economy perspective, one of the often key areas for discussion is the cash out question. Second Life does allow users to cash out and, therefore, allows you to use their virtual world as a kind of revenue generating tool. Other games, such as World of Warcraft, basically try to prohibit that, mainly because they think it harms the gameplay. This is a question every game and every virtual world operator needs to answer by himself. If he sees the in-game economy as some kind of gaming or game challenging component, he should control whether he really wants to allow cash out and whether he wants to attract a different group of users onto that game who gamble on the in-game economy to generate revenues and increase their pot of money, or make it a commercial service.

A couple of your partners, such as paysafecard and MoneyBookers have a growing visibility in the online gaming industry. How closely are these partners involved in the deliverance of your service?

Our key goal is to provide an additional value to our clients by partnering with the right payment providers in the different segments and spaces. For our new deal with Rebel Monkey, it was important to partner with paysafecard to offer pay by cash in the US as pre-pay cards are important in that region. We also partner with credit card companies as well as dealing with

“At the end of the day, we are dealing with an in-game economy and we provide the tools to make the in-game economy exciting and interesting for the customer.

We’re doing the eBay thing.”

mobile payment companies for specific regions and target segments. This is our key goal and, on one hand, can maximise the reach from a payment perspective whilst, on the other hand, can minimise costs for our clients by having a risk/fraud system in place where we can minimise the fees for certain transactions in certain regions and also minimise the risk of financial revenue leakage and fraud issues.

How exposed to fraud risk are virtual in-game economies?

It comes back to whether you allow cash out or not, and you can relate that to gambling in a way. With Rebel Monkey, for example, the fraud problem is limited and the worst thing that can happen is the false charge back, which despite being both time consuming and a hassle, isn’t really a huge revenue leakage. Basically, customers can really cause huge damage. If we are working on a project that allows cash out then that creates new elements of risk, such as money laundering – areas of motivation for people to trick the fraud system and cash out the money – and when it’s cashed out, you have lost it.

You’ve mentioned the deal with Rebel Monkey but what is its significance for Fatfoogoo?

Rebel Monkey is a company based in New York and is a start-up with a great management team.

The founders are the creators of Diner Dash,

which is the most successful ever stand-alone casual game in the US. It’s an MMO with a virtual world aspect where people can meet, have a chat, flirt and do some dating stuff in there.

However, the key motivation to bring people into the world is the collection of multi-player mini games. This is like market player mini games, where up to four different people can play games together with each other, and this makes the whole thing really attractive and really unique. The first statistics we’ve seen are incredible from a user’s perspective, specifically how many users are already registered and also how active they are in terms of time they spend in the world and play games, which is very promising. Having said that, there are some issues that arise for Rebel monkey with the free-to-play component. This is a very different situation where Rebel Monkey really wants to focus on its area of expertise, which is the games and graphics side of things. Its concerns lie with the in-house monetisation of its offering.

So, when it comes to managing the store, the merchandise, couponing and then going further down to the wallet where there are marketable virtual currencies – all these components were far too complex for it to build in-house. That is why it wanted to partner with us and this is great for both parties because we have now accelerated both markets due to the big chunk we have taken off Rebel Monkey’s plate. We are just focussing on this area of monetisation so we can grow the platform, roll out the features, make sure the service runs well and even do some marketing to help Rebel Monkey maximise its revenue. It’s basically just giving both parties the opportunity to focus on what they do best.

Rebel Monkey is the first major client of ours that has gone live. We also announced a deal with Sun Microsystems last year through which Sun has developed a games server and undertaken some very deep technical due diligence on who should be the integrated commerce partner for that project. There are also a few really interesting customers that I cannot disclose just yet as they go live in May and June and who haven’t even disclosed their games. At present, Rebel Monkey is the customer who has actually gone live, and we’re very excited by this opportunity.

Is the online gaming space an area that you would consider moving into or is that a long way from where you want to be in the future?

We see a lot of disparate segments that carry the same kind of problems and require the same kind of solutions and gambling is definitely one of those. From a focus perspective, we are focussing on virtual roles, gaming and social networking.

For instance, we are now working with a client in the media-on-demand space, because they have the same type of special problems to solve and, therefore, gambling is definitely a space that is, to me an extremely attractive proposition for the future. l

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31/3/09 11:29:23

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interview l-r: Maximiliano de Muro, Christian Khoury, Jaki Becker

Jaki Becker, Business Development Director of Bravo Media, who market Gaming VC´s soft Gaming brand Winzingo.com into Spain, interviews 2 key affiliates on the current state and future growth of gaming in Spain and Latin America (LatAm).

The Game in Spain What affiliate marketing experience do you have in the Hispanic markets?

Maximiliano De Muro (MM), 29, entrepreneur from the age of 22.

“I founded MediaGambling which I have just sold to CMedia. Currently, I am a business angel and am mentoring entrepreneurs. I am a board advisor with the Uruguayan government on technology related and innovative Internet businesses. I consider myself one of the pioneers of affiliate marketing, in both Latin American and Spain, as I started when gambling websites were virtually nonexistent. In 2002, I created MediaGambling to focus on English speaking markets, but then replicated the model with the same success in the French, German, Italian and Spanish markets.

In 2004, I quickly expanded the network in Spain and Latin American after seeing the potential and dedicated the following 5 years to working in the Hispanic gaming sector. I have witnessed practically all the operators entering the Hispanic market; I know their habits well as the majority joined the MediaGambling network. At the same time, I had a strong relationship with all the affiliate managers and have literally worked with every affiliate program in the world, as they were all keen to be on the MediaGambling network.”

acquired Maxis Empire MediaGambling and intends to lead the market with an evolutionary vision in the sector. Yet, our vision is not only based on the expansion of our network, but also working to give each and every one of our sites life, with new ways of interacting with the player and operators which allows us to increase retention and improve traffic conversions.”

Christian Khoury (CK), CEO and founder of CMedia.

“I started to position websites organically in 2001, working as a limited contractor and as an affiliate in various sectors of e-commerce. In 2006, I started the CMedia Project, just after the .es domains were introduced in 2005. I bought some domains in the gambling sector and decided to embark on what was an ambitious project. Having worked in various international markets in the online gaming sector, I realised what a craze gaming was in the US (before the change in the law). I foresaw that the gaming fever would also extend into Europe. I have always been challenged to position myself in a competitive and changing sector, such as gambling online. When I started the project, the sector was completely dominated

by MediaGambling. However, CMedia has recently

CK: “The growth of the gambling market over last few years has been phenomenal – the boom in sportsbetting 2 years ago, along with the popularity gained by poker which, I believe, is the reason for this growth. I think the poker frenzy has yet to arrive, although it will. The profitability of bingo has come as quite a surprise too.”

How do you see the current market and what growth do you expect from bingo, poker, casino and sportsbetting in Spain and LatAm? MM: “I think that over the next five years, bingo and poker will most definitely be the most successful products in Spain and LatAm due to the fact that Latinos have a very strong social gaming culture. However, the growth of any gaming product in LatAm is somewhat dependant on improving the existing payment methods. That’s where the online payment operators should focus their efforts, making depositing and withdrawing cash easier for the player. The regulation of gaming in Spain will help in two ways: 1) Gaming will expand more quickly, and 2) Latin America will follow the regulations implemented by Spanish legislation.”

What are the biggest mistakes made by affiliates entering the Spanish market?

CK: “I think that the most common errors include not knowing the local gaming sector, not doing your homework and not exploiting the traffic generated. Perseverance is key; don’t expect too much too soon. Many affiliates believe they are going to be earning a fortune in month 1. It can happen, but it requires many hours of work (content, design, positioning, projection,

analysis...) and dedication to get the big results.

The important thing is to get live, and constantly update your site with quality and imaginative content that adds value.”

MM: “I have seen various foreign affiliates who enter the Spanish market with unknown brands which are not localised, which is the first strategic error. To enter the Spanish or Latin American market, you have to localise your brand so it’s relevant to your target market. At the same time, affiliates must focus on content; on many occasions I have seen “Spanglish” or content in a variation of Spanish which is not relevant to the country in question.”

What do you see as being the biggest challenges in the next 12 months?

MM: “Affiliates should completely focus on content. Be innovative and creative with content and always have a news section which is updated quickly and easily. Never forget your target market, use local vocabulary and think about which country your content is aimed at. Don’t get obsessed with link exchanges and guerrilla marketing campaigns on 2.0 – have a professional and ordered approach. Try and attend all the affiliate conferences to keep up-to-date and network at all levels.”

CK: “Our personal challenge is a very ambitious international plan to open up in other countries.

In Spain, our objective is to obtain maximum profitability from our current offering, improve our retention and conversion of visitors to our network. To do that, we must try and maintain a good relationship with your users and get as close as humanly possible to the end user. That’s the best way to get the big results. Even though the affiliate market in Spain is less competitive it’s still not easy to maintain a site in the Google top 10, obviously dependant on the competition for the target keyword. There is no secret formula; specialisation, adaptation and continual improvement are the challenges that we need to address.”

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Entrevista

España: Una Buena Jugada Jacqueline Becker, Directora de Ventas de Bravo Media, quien maneja el Marketing de la marca “Soft Gaming” de Gaming VC, Winzingo.com en España entrevista a dos de sus afiliados claves.

Qué experiencia tienes en el mundo de afiliados en el mercado hispánico?

Maximiliano De Muro (MDM), 29, “Soy emprendedor desde los 22 años.

“Fundé la empresa MediaGambling que vendí hace poco a Cmedia”. Creó en el 2.003 la empresa SX Networks que también vendió, y actualmente se dedica a apoyar a otros emprendedores como mentor y business angel. Cooperó con el gobierno Uruguayo en el análisis de negocios relacionados a la tecnología, es board advisor de diversas empresas de internet. “Soy uno de los pioneros en el mercado de afiliación tanto en Latinoamérica como en España. Empecé en un momento donde nadie hacía sitios web de apuestas”. En el 2.002 creó la red MediaGambling e hizo foco en el mercado anglosajón. “Luego mi visión me hizo replicar el mismo éxito en el mercado francés, alemán, italiano y español. En el 2.004 vi la oportunidad de expandir con más fuerza la red en España y Latinoamérica y durante 5 años me he dedicado a la venta de medios de gaming. He visto entrar en el mercado hispano a prácticamente todos los operadores y conocer sus hábitos, ya que la mayoría pautaban en MediaGambling. A su vez, mantenía una fuerte relación con todos los affiliate managers de la mayoría de los affiliate programs del mundo, todos querían estar en MediaGambling”.

Christian Khoury (CK), CEO y Fundador de CMEDIA. “Empecé en el sector del posicionamiento web orgánico en el 2.001, trabajando de forma autónoma como afiliado de varios sectores del comercio electrónico. En el 2.006, inicié el proyecto Cmedia y cuando se liberaban los dominios de extensión .es, en el 2.005, compré algunos del sector de gambling y embarque en un proyecto ambicioso. Tras haber trabajado en varios mercados internacionales del mundo del juego en internet, conocía muy de cerca la locura que era el gambling en EE.UU., antes de la ley seca. Y tuve muy claro que ésta fiebre del juego iba a extenderse también por Europa. Siempre he considerado un gran reto posicionarse en un sector tan competitivo y cambiante como el del gambling online. Al empezar, el sector estaba completamente dominado por la red de sitios de MediaGambling. Ahora Cmedia recoge el legado dejado por MediaGambling y lidera el mercado con una visión “evolucionada” del sector, por la que queremos apostar. Y ésta nueva visión no sólo está basada en la expansión de la red, sino en el trabajo en profundidad, dando vida, en cada uno de

nuestros sitios, a nuevas formas de interacción con el usuario y trabajando de cerca con los operadores proactivos que nos permitan multiplicar la retención y la conversión de nuestro tráfico.”

Cómo ves el estado/crecimiento de Bingo, Casino, Poker y Apuestas deportivas en España y Latinoamérica?

MDM: “Pienso que el Bingo y el Póker serán en los próximos 5 años los productos con mayor éxito en España y Latinoamérica debido a que los latinos tenemos una cultura de juego social muy fuerte. Sin embargo, el crecimiento de todos estos productos en Latinoamérica depende en parte de la mejora en los métodos de pago que existen actualmente, donde los payment processors deben hacer foco en facilitar los métodos de depósito y cash-out de los jugadores.

La regulación del mercado del juego en España puede ayudar en dos cosas: 1.Que él juego se expanda más rápidamente y 2.Que Latinoamérica pueda seguir modelos de regulación basados en la legislación española.”

MDM: “He visto que varios afiliados extranjeros quieren entrar al mercado español con marcas que no son locales, lo cual es el primer error estratégico. Para entrar en el mercado de España o Latinoamérica lo primero es contar con una marca que sea significativa para los latinos. Del mismo modo, los afiliados deben hacer foco en contenidos, y he notado que a veces los contenidos están en “Spanglish” o en un español que no se adapta al país en cuestión.”

Cuáles son los retos que ves en los siguientes 12 meses en España y Latinoamérica para afiliados?

MDM: “Los afiliados deben hacer un foco total y absoluto en los contenidos. Ser innovadores en la forma de crear esos contenidos y tener siempre un apartado de noticias que sea actualizado

“Para entrar en el mercado de Españao Latinoamérica lo primero es contar con una marca que sea significativa para los latinos.”

CK: “El crecimiento en éstos últimos años del gambling en España en general ha sido espectacular. El boom de las apuestas deportivas de hace dos años, junto con la popularidad que está adquiriendo el póker, han sido, yo creo, el caldo de cultivo para éste gran crecimiento. Considero que el auge del póker en España está por llegar, y será muy pronto. La rentabilidad del mercado virgen del Bingo también me ha sorprendido mucho.”

Cuáles son los errores más grandes que han cometido los afiliados al entrar en el mercado español?

CK: “Creo que algunos de los errores más comunes han sido el desconocimiento del sector, la poca información y el escaso seguimiento del tráfico propio, la falta de perseverancia en el trabajo, como en muchos otros campos. Muchos afiliados creen que el primer mes ya estarán ganando mucho dinero. Se puede lograr, pero hay muchas horas de trabajo (contenido, diseño, posicionamiento, proyección, análisis...) detrás de unos grandes resultados. No se desanimen si en el primer mes de trabajo no han obtenido los resultados esperados, lo importante es que el sitio esté vivo, que se actualice constantemente, con contenidos de calidad e imaginativos que aporten valor.”

de manera fácil y rápida. Nunca olvidarse del mercado al cual se dirigen, utilizar un vocabulario diferente si el contenido va dirigido a Latinoamérica o a España. No obsesionarse con el intercambio de links, realizar campañas de marketing guerrilla 2.0 de manera ordenada y profesional. Intentar ir a todas las Casino Affiliate Conventions para mantenerse up-to-date y realizar networking en todos los niveles.”

CK: “Nuestro reto personal es comenzar a abrirnos a mercados de otros países. En España, nuestro objetivo es afianzar los pilares de nuestra participación actual en el mercado e ir aumentando día a día la retención y la conversión de los visitantes en nuestra red. El reto para nosotros es en todo momento mantener una buena relación con nuestros usuarios, una relación lo más próxima y humana posible. Incluir tu sitio en el top 10 de google no es nada fácil, depende del grado de competitividad de la keyword target. No hay ninguna fórmula secreta.

Nosotros lo hemos logrado después de varios años de especialización, adaptación y mejora continua. Para comenzar, creo que es la mejor manera de asegurarse grandes resultados.” l April/May 2009 l iGB Affiliate l 47

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interview

Showcasing the

Technology of

the Future LeWeb is Europe’s largest Internet conference, and for the 2008 event we sent our European correspondent Rene Colin Magri to speak to conference founder and Internet entrepreneur, Loic Le Meur.

Let’s start with your professional background.

I am a French entrepreneur living in San Francisco. I have started a few Internet businesses and am now host and producer of the largest web event in Europe, LeWeb, as well as the founder of the social software application, Seesmic.

What was the inspiration behind LeWeb? When I started LeWeb 5 years ago, there wasn’t an international web event, certainly in Europe that brought together the Internet ecosystem, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, business angels, bloggers and some corporates. I frustrated that I always had to travel to the US so I decided to start my own – and so LeWeb was born. It started as a bloggers gathering consisting of a few hundred people, but in 2008 it attracted 2,000 people from 40 countries.

Love was the overarching theme of this year’s LeWeb. Do you think Europe lags behind in the ‘love’ of entrepreneurship compared to the US? Or is it a different kind of love?

I think it’s clear that European entrepreneurs don’t have as much love from the public and the media compared to the US. Taking risks is less recognized as a value than security or comfort. In the US, entrepreneurs such as Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the Google founders, are heroes. The younger generation wants to succeed like them. LeWeb helps European entrepreneurs get recognition for what they create and the risks they take. It is great exposure for them with thousands of blog posts and press articles.

Many of the entrepreneurs shortlisted for the Start-up competition were focusing on Online Media – Social Media to be precise. Where do you think the web is going? Have we already exhausted Web 2.0 and going to 3.0?

Numbering the web with Web 2.0 or 3.0 is irrelevant; there is only one web, with different stages. There was the static web then the social web and now another growing phase with the instant web with Twitter. We have not exhausted innovation on the web, it is only the beginning.

The current huge real-time trend is fascinating and changing the way we interact – we want everything, now! The past used to be “a few months ago”, now it is “a few minutes ago”.

You are a serial entrepreneur, having founded many companies; right now you are working on the social software application, Seesmic.

What is happening in the space?

We are aiming to help people and brands understand their communities in a very unique, very human way. Video engenders feeling, gestures and provides a unique knowledge of someone in ways that perhaps other forms of media cannot. Communities and word of mouth are becoming the most important growth factor, way ahead of marketing. Gaming operators could use Seesmic to “meet” their players and their communities to help them know each other better; they could also use it as a live, permanent focus group.

Social Networking – what’s in there for operators? From your experience – does it offer good ROI for ad dollars?

Have a look at how popular Facebook and iPhone

application games are! Android will also be a huge platform and monetization is now growing, so yes, there is a great opportunity in social networking for operators.

Companies like Kickapps are offering white label social network solutions for brands to have their social network. What are the benefits for brands to have their own social network rather than having a ‘space’ within Facebook, bebo, MySpace or others?

I think the challenge is more to interact with your community where it is rather than trying to have it join your own tools. Ning (www. ning.com) is huge so I guess there is room for extremely targeted social networks. I think brands need both. We launched Twhirl, the social software desktop client for the very popular Twitter, to monitor and interact constantly with your community where it is. Many brands are using it.

Being based in San Francisco, what do you consider the main differences between Europe and the US? An entrepreneur can totally succeed in Europe, but I decided that starting Seesmic in the heart of the Internet ecosystem engine (San Francisco) would maximize its chances of success. So far, I am very happy in San Francisco, everyone you want to work with is around the corner and the concentration of smart people is insane.

At LeWeb there was a panel about an ‘OpenWeb’. Are we close?

The web is open – just look at the growth of open source initiatives and the way Firefox has taken

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interview

“Numbering the web with Web 2.0 or 3.0 is irrelevant; there is only one web, with different stages. We have not exhausted innovation, it is only the beginning.”

market share from Microsoft. Yes, we are close.

On an individual level, blogging and sharing on social software is like “open sourcing” yourself, it is not only the web which is more open, we are all becoming open. For a business, I think there is more value in sharing than protecting information nowadays, as long as you can execute quickly. We use a service called uservoice to publically gather our users’ feedback – any competitor can read it too.

At the competition lounge we saw some exponents of the new Micro-blogging and Mobile Social Networks craze, with white label solutions for players to create Mobile social networks. Why is it important?

It is important because word of mouth and communities have never been as fast. It is a new web which is growing – the real-time web. Just use twitter search with your brand in it and see what the world is thinking about it, live. If nobody talks about it, it is a very bad sign and you should work on it.

I guess it is about love – love your users and give them control. From your experience, why is openness and user-generated business good for your brand?

It is the same as open source. Users will prefer brands and sites where they feel they are heard and can have an influence in where the product is going. Users have passion with the products, games and sites they use. It is all about listening to them. Brands that won’t do this properly won’t grow as fast as those who do and will end up losing out to their competitors.

I know you are a big lover of virtual goods but where is the future heading in that?

Virtual goods will become a large source of revenue on the web. It has already been in the online games industry for a very long time. The form that I am the most fascinated about these days is the user generated advertising. Instead of trying to sell your space to a brand, you sell it to the users of the site itself for low amounts but in high volumes. Facebook has been great at this.

These are very interesting revenue opportunities.

Finally, during the conference you mentioned the difference between America and Europe, both in terms of VC access, markets and other factors. Where do you think Europe is going – is it a case of catching up with the US or is the future is more optimistic than that?

I am very optimistic for Europe. The fact that LeWeb exists and gathers together over 2,000 entrepreneurs is the proof that the European Internet ecosystem is alive and growing. Indeed, European start-ups even buy American ones now: Marc Simoncini, speaker at LeWeb08 and founder of the largest European dating site Meetic, has just acquired the European business of the American leader Match.com. It is clearly tougher for entrepreneurs to find business angels and world class VCs, but things are changing. Europe also has its successful entrepreneurs: Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis Rene Colin Magri is a Media Analyst, PR and Business Development professional working on assignments within the Technology, IGaming and Mobile sectors. He helps companies to expand internationally, beef-up their teams, acquire and/ or manage customer accounts. He is easily reached here: rene@clearlead.eu

(Skype), Marc Simoncini (Meetic), Jacques-Antoine Granjon (Vente-Privee) or Martin Varsavsky (FON) are all successful icons, and 100% European.

The LeWeb event doesn’t currently have much exposure in the iGaming industry, hence the minimal representation at the 2008 event. Do you think a ‘divide’ exists between the iGaming and online games industries and the rest of the web?

It’s a very good point. I think there are different communities, even though many games industry entrepreneurs attended last year. Online games such as WOW (World of Warcraft) or the growth of the iPhone as a gaming platform are getting them closer though. Idea-spreading on the web is becoming key for the games industry, while gaming is also huge online now. I will work on the convergence, thank you for making me think more about it!

Would you invest or start a business within either industry?

I play WOW with my kids, that must be the only way I really follow what’s happening in the games industry. So no, not enough, and I should work on that. I would love to start a business in the games industry but I am too busy with Seesmic and LeWeb! I stopped investing years ago, I prefer building than investing – it’s a question of taste.

Do you have any ideas for the theme of LeWeb 2009?

We are considering the “youth generation” as a theme this year, so there will be much more of a games presence. We will be working on a few keynotes and, of course, we hope your readers will join us on December 9-10 2009 in Paris! l

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webmaster world

Ask Income Access Have affiliate marketing questions? Turn to the experts! Income Access has a team of experienced affiliate managers who partner with thousands of affiliates to help them maximize their conversions. Working across dozens of affiliate programs, the Income Access team supports affiliates in every online gaming vertical.

ChooSing ReputAble AffiliAte pRogRAMS Q. I’ve been working with the same affiliate program for about a year, and am now interested in branching out into other programs. What should I look for when choosing my next affiliate program?

Silvio A. When you join an affiliate program, you enter into a business partnership with the operators.

Consequently, you should research potential affiliate programs the same way you would a human business partner.

First and foremost, look into the program’s reputation. If other affiliates have had good or bad experiences, chances are there will be a digital paper trail on forums and blogs. So Google the program and look into it on industry forums, blogs and other research-worthy sites.

You might also want to look into the support they offer to both affiliates and players. Are affiliate managers responsive? Do they provide

fresh creatives and timely promotions for affiliates? These are questions you will want to try and answer by (1) researching them, (2) asking them directly, and (3) reading through their affiliate pages.

Similarly, you may want to register as a player and test response times for client support, withdrawal times, etc. Joining an affiliate program is not just about testing their affiliate program but reviewing the casino. The better customer support they offer players, the better reputation they’ll have in the marketplace, and the easier it will be to convert referrals into players.

Finally, you should consider the features of their software – namely, its tracking reports and marketing tools. Affiliate marketing is all about tracking referrals from one party to another, so you want to ensure their affiliate software can provide tracking reports that meet your business needs.

You should also ensure that their software features the marketing tools that will help you both save time and optimise your campaigns.

For instance, if you use PPC advertising, it will be important that their software is capable of tracking players referred, deposits, revenues generated by each Adwords ad, and which types of players are coming through on which keywords.

Similarly, you should look into whether their software features tools to help you easily manage creatives. For example, banner management tools will save you time in managing campaigns across multiple sites.

Joining an affiliate program is pretty much the same as going into business with someone.

Consequently, you want to determine that they (1) have a healthy reputation, (2) will fulfil their side of the partnership, and (3) have software that’s capable of brokering your relationship.

Jamie, Affiliate Manager

blogS build CoMMunity And tRAffiC Q: I’ve developed an interest in reading blogs and am thinking of adding my own to my affiliate site. Is it worth the effort, or just a distraction from my other promotional efforts? lewis A. Provided that you manage your blog in the right way, blogs can be a great addition to your site, or even constitute a separate site. In addition to being a valuable community building tool, blogs also offer a number of SEO benefits.

However, maintaining a blog requires both commitment and proper etiquette. blogging for Community Much like forums, the comments area on blogs gives players a place to express themselves and interact with each another. By publishing game reviews and reporting on various player promotions, you can attract players looking for a reliable source of up-to-date information.

As these players discuss the content, they build relationships with one another, and that interaction will keep them coming back. blogging for Seo A good part of SEO is making sure that your site

features structured content that is frequently indexed by search engines. Because of the way blogs publish content, adding a blog to your current site represents an opportunity to gain a higher ranking in the search engine result pages (SERPs).

First, blogs offer you structured content. Blog software breaks content down into categories that help search engines more easily index that content. This will help you rank higher on the SERPs for those topics.

Second, blogs feature crawlable URLs. Blogging platforms allow you to easily structure the URLs of your posts to include keyword-rich title information. Provided that the titles of your posts describe the content of the posts, these structured URLs will help let search engines know what your content is all about.

Third, blogs provide your site with frequently updated content, and when sites are regularly updated with new information, search engines index them more often. Search engines regard frequently updated content as indication of an authority site because they have more recent information. So by blogging on a regular basis, you can help ensure that your site is indexed more often

and is regarded as a more authoritative source of information. best blogging practices Of course, to enjoy the benefits of blogging, you should respect the medium for what it is. First, it is a social medium. Its potential lies in its ability to help you build relationships with your readers. If you neglect that relationship aspect and simply use your blog to broadcast content as often as possible, it will likely fail. That said, it’s important to participate in the conversations in your comment section.

Second, you should take care to produce content properly. For starters, you should make sure to categorize your content in a useful way, and write keyword-relevant headlines for your posts. Furthermore, if you don’t produce new content at least three times a week (although five is preferable) you’ll miss out being indexed frequently by search engines.

If you do follow these guidelines, you should start seeing SEO returns within a couple weeks.

And if you don’t let up, but continue to build relationships with your readers, in time you will have a veritable community.

Ct Moore, Communications Strategist

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Attending ConfeRenCeS to build youR buSineSS Q. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m considering investing in attending a conference. Are conferences really worth the expense, and if so, how can I get the most out of them?

Rachel A. Conferences can definitely be a worthwhile investment, especially if you plan your activities in advance. In fact, the Income Access affiliate marketing survey found that attending top level events, such as conferences, have a clear and direct effect on increased earnings.

When heading off to a conference, however, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important that you set goals for your participation and make preparations to meet those goals.

Before leaving, contact the network reps you would like to meet with while there, set up specific appointment times if possible, and then prepare by finding out as much as possible about their programs through forums and the conference website. Going into a conversation

informed will allow you to discuss topics that relate back to what you can offer the operator as an affiliate, and will help you get answers to grow your business.

Subjects you may want to touch on with your reps include upcoming affiliate promotions, how their stats work, improving your conversion rates, new promotional methods and which marketing tools convert best for the program. You can then follow up on your conversation via phone or email after the conference is over, knowing youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be remembered.

The Income Access affiliate survey found that super-affiliates tended to get involved at industry events more often than other affiliates, and their tendency to do so did not seem to be the results of them having more financial resources to cover the costs of doing so. Rather, attending such events seemed to lead to greater earning potential.

In many ways, the link between getting involved at conferences and increased affiliate

earnings does not come as a surprise. Networking with operators, for example, affords affiliates the opportunity to build strategic relationships and possibly secure special commissions structures in the future.

Affiliates should consider the cost of attending such conferences as a business investment, rather than a luxury reserved for big earners. Essentially, these events are an opportunity for affiliates to mingle with colleagues, discuss business, and form relationships that can evolve into partnerships in the future. Sometimes, if you have a strong relationship with an affiliate program, it is even possible to get that program to sponsor the cost of your conference pass.

That being said, like any other business activity, you should approach conferences with a clear plan of action. Make sure to set goals in advance, take steps to ensure that you meet those goals, and then follow-up on your efforts once the conference is over.

Julia, Affiliate Manager

A leading provider of affiliate marketing solutions, since 2002, Income Access offers four types of services: (1) an affiliate network of over 17,000 gaming affiliates, (2) affiliate management services, (3) white label affiliate marketing software, and (4) an SEM agency specifically for the igaming industry. Having partnered with over 60 operators across all gaming verticals, Income Access works with some of the most trusted names in online gaming.

More Questions? Send them to info@incomeaccess.com

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MONETISING CONTENT If you focus on other gaming activities like casino or sportsbetting or you are just starting out in affiliate marketing within the industry, this article will not be relevant in its entirety, but you might find useful insight.

If you are at the top end of the earning spectrum, you already know what I’m about to say.

Mid-earnings level poker affiliates with one or a variety of sites are the readers that will benefit the most from what follows.

The following guidelines and methods have been used by Neopoker, the first affiliate to join GamRep, our new affiliate monetization service.

Neopoker is a poker guide, ranked first on “poker en ligne” (online poker) on Google France.

Using most of these tips, he doubled his affiliate revenues the first month GamRep optimised the profitability of his advertising spaces.

Rakeback Pure rakeback players are the among the world’s biggest affiliates of poker operators. They may also be considered as a threat to “real” content affiliates, especially those working on a revenue share basis as your biggest poker players are very likely to turn to rakeback solutions sooner or later.

A rakeback section on your site avoids losing those valuable players: they play poker through your affiliate links. There are a few easy-toimplement white-label rakeback solutions available, but many major poker rooms don’t allow affiliate sites to provide rakeback, at least publically. The drawback of this loyalty tool is that you share a large part of your commission with players, many of whom wouldn’t have asked for it.

This means less commission for you.

Newsletter A large portion of visitors pass by your site and never come back. For instance, a visitor found a poker room through your links thanks to your poker guide, but he has no reason to come back and doesn’t remember your affiliate site. To increase your average revenue per visitor, one option is to make your audience subscribe to your newsletter and set-up a player database from which you can generate incremental advertising revenues.

This should be done in a non-obtrusive way, without hurting the conversion rates on your site.

A great line of attack to boost your subscription rate is to emphasise the benefits of the newsletter: “Receive extra-bonuses, exclusive access to freerolls, $200 of free money from partners and invitations to great poker tournaments”.

List Top Poker Rooms and Banner Ads A very clear ranking of poker sites, often limited to ten operators, seems to be the winning formula of the top affiliates in the poker industry. For instance, AprenderPoker.net (Spanish site, first on “poker” on google.es) and Neopoker (mentioned earlier) both use rankings, as shown in figure 1 and 2.

Most of the top poker affiliates also display banner advertisements. Although they may represent a low percentage of new cash players sent, the value of branding the poker room benefits you significantly. Some advertisers will appreciate this when coming to the negotiation table.

The organisation of your advertising spaces on your site is key: the easier it is for the ad buyer to identify your spaces and assess their potential,

Figure 1

the more attention you will get. Avoid dilution of your advertiser sources of traffic and make sure your advertising promotional areas (list of poker rooms, banners) are as consistent as possible on each page of your site.

Number of Poker Rooms Advertised Many affiliates focus on big brands and don’t bother with underdogs, unless they match the revenues generated by their counterparts. That is understandable as there is a lot of work involved with each room present on your site: creating new affiliate accounts, asking for bonus codes, updating the information about the room (bonus offer, payment solutions etc.), checking the stats and payments of commissions, not to mention the management (and sometimes the training) of the account manager.

That said, don’t underestimate the potential of the less known poker rooms. They have the potential to drive traffic to your site (from the content created about them) and generate significant amounts of cash players in the long run. You may also benefit from the sudden success and notoriety of one of them. Note that affiliate networks (e.g. PAW, Adnwin, TradeDoubler UK) may ease your workload with individual rooms as everything is centralized with one interface, one payment per month and a single account manager.

What is certain is that your identifiable advertising space should not allow too many rooms to be advertised at the same time. Most top poker affiliates restrict their list of top poker rooms to ten or less, and the banner rotation doesn’t exceed five operators.

CPA Allows Better Profitability Measurement The profitability of a poker room depends on many factors: the advertising space you allocate to it, the period during which you promote it, the promotional offer, the level of traffic, the attractiveness offer etc... In this context, each advertiser’s profitability is quite a burden to evaluate. Affiliates often resign themselves to a judgement based on the poker room’s brand equity, the promotional offer and the commission level.

Quickly measuring the revenues generated from a specific position allows you to compare the profitability of each advertiser. Unfortunately, revenue share deals do not allow it, whereas, CPA deals do. This argument in favour of the CPA model is often forgotten in the “CPA Vs revenue share” debate. In addition, CPA commissions are very easy to combine with minimum monthly fees. Instead, it would be quite complicated to define a monthly minimum fee on a revenue share deal.

Fixed Fee Deals You may have already have encountered some

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Figure 2

Graph 1 February Position 1 2 3 4 5 TOTAL

Advertiser A B C E D

Revenues $2800 $2000 $1500 $600 $500 $7400

March Position 1 2 3 4 5 TOTAL

Advertiser A B C D E

Revenues $3000 $1900 $1400 $1000 $400 $7700

Graph 2 Next Months Position 1 2 3 4 5 TOTAL guaranteed

Advertiser ? ? ? ? ?

Minimum Monthly Fee $2700 $1800 $1300 $800 $400 $7000

Graph 3 One Month Deal Position Advertiser 1 ?

2 ?

3 ?

4 ?

5 ?

TOTAL guaranteed

affiliate managers proposing, a fixed fee deal for specific visibility on your site within a defined timeframe. Fixed fee deals may be a way to simplify the relationship and guarantee revenues for the affiliate (and budget spends for the operator). But compared to revenue share or CPA deals, one of the parties is always disadvantaged. Minimum fee deals are a better alternative.

Minimum Fee Deals As you have made a limited number of advertising spaces available, poker rooms will compete with each other to be part of your selection. If you are a top affiliate with at least one content site ranking well on popular search terms, such as “play poker”, “Hold’em poker” or “how to play poker”, the CPA or revenue share debate no longer applies to you.

When your traffic and volumes of cash players reach a certain level, you have the potential to negotiate not only higher CPAs or revenue share rates, but also minimum commission deals for specific positions on your site.

Let’s take a simplified case of advertising revenue optimisation. Say you have only five top poker rooms listed on your site: A, B, C, D, and E. Now assume the profitability of the last two months for each room (see graph 1). As you may have noticed, the affiliate swapped two poker rooms, D and E, in order to optimise its overall profitability. It paid off with a $300 increase in revenues.

Except for A, all the affiliate managers

would like to get a better position on your site.

Moreover, other advertisers, F, G and H, are willing to be included in the top five as well.

Do you test them and try to improve your overall profitability? Do you jeopardise your revenues whilst testing? Do you change the content of your top list, replace links and bind a new business relationship? Do you also follow the stats and make sure you are paid by the new partner? And do you try to figure out who’s the most profitable in each position? Not really...

The alternative is to leave the (guess) work to the affiliate managers by defining a minimum revenue level you would expect according to past performances (see graph 2): Although it requires some transparency, by using the minimum fee pricing system the affiliate ensures he gets a decent level of commissions, very close to his past revenues. He won’t have to gauge new advertisers before accepting them: if the poker room is confident enough to generate a similar level of commissions as its competitors in place, he is likely to accept the minimum commission deal.

Long Term Deals Long term deals should be a combination of long term guaranteed revenue for the affiliate and John Samson is founder of Snoopy Agency Ltd, an online advertising agency specialized in the gaming industry. He has been advising operators on their media buy across Europe for more than four years.

Minimum fee $2700 $1800 $1300 $800 $400 $7000

Six Month Deal (monthly rate) Position Advertiser 1 ?

2 ?

3 ?

4 ?

5 ?

TOTAL guaranteed

Minimum fee $2300 $1500 $1100 $700 $350 $6000

lower rates for the advertiser. If we carry on with the previous example, we may, for instance, apply a rough 15% discount rate on a 6 month deal: (see graph 3) In this case, the long term deals are a wise compromise for both parties: ● Assuming that he sells everything on a long term basis, the affiliate may sacrifice $1,000 of next month’s commissions, but has a six month certainty of how much he will earn: 6 x $6,000 = $36,000 guaranteed. Even if his search engine rankings along with his traffic drops, his advertising revenues won’t change. ● The affiliate manager commits his company to a long term deal involving a risk, in exchange for a cheaper rate. As long as the site traffic doesn’t drop, he’s almost sure to have a profitable deal.

Use a Monetisation Specialist This is a new activity which my company has jumped into by creating GamRep. Consider a monetisation specialist as your sales representative: he works out the figures for you, defines the sales offer, designs the presentation, makes sure you are paid (in advance preferably), negotiates and sells your advertising spaces and reports to you deals and income generated by your site(s).

This service allows you to focus on your content and SEO. Your sales rep will also ensure that your advertising spaces are valued by the maximum possible number of poker rooms ●

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Affiliate Business Strategies When you join an affiliate program, you enter into a business relationship with an operator. By referring players, and receiving compensation based on the value of those players, you become a supplier to the operator. To that extent, you become a one-person business.

Where super-affiliates are separated from regular affiliates is in their day-to-day business practices.

Performing higher volumes of business requires different business practices. More often than not, the right business practices come first, followed by a higher volume of business – not vice versa.

Essentially, taking your affiliate marketing activities from the hobby level to a professional one is a transition that nearly any affiliate can

make. What it requires is that you: lc ommit to a particular lifestyle and way of thinking ls et clear goals lk now how to measure your goals lm onitor your progress toward those goals lo ptimize your efforts based on what is and isn’t working Striving toward super-affiliate status is simply a question of lifestyle, and as with any lifestyle change, all it requires is that you determine the steps needed to make the transition, and then take measures to meet those goals one step at a time.

Change of Lifestyle As with any other business endeavour, committing to growing your affiliate business is a lifestyle commitment. Even if you don’t intend to focus on your affiliate business for a full 40 hours per week, it has to be more than a hobby if it’s going to grow. It has to become a passion.

One of the strongest correlations we’ve documented in the Income Access affiliate survey was between hours worked and earnings. While 67.9% of respondents reported working less than 30 hours per week (with 30% working 10 hours or fewer), 67.6% reported earning less than 3,000 GBP per month. So it seems that a 30 hour work week is the threshold for super-affiliate earning.

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However, hours worked doesn’t make up the entire picture. Rather, super-affiliates don’t just work harder; they also work smarter. After all, the revenues are just the outcome of doing other things differently. Identifying things you should be doing (or doing differently) can mean the difference between having a hobby or a business.

Setting Goals If your affiliate business is going to be a success, you have to set clear goals. With clear goals in place, you can develop an idea of what your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will be.

Of course, your KPIs depend largely on your business model. For instance, first you will have to consider the product you’re promoting, the profit margins entailed and the volume required to achieve your desired growth rates. Then you’ll have to conduct a gap analysis by comparing your current business with where you want it to go.

From there, you can set clear objectives based on your experience. For example, if you want to increase your business by 100%, and you’ve noticed that putting in an extra four hours a week increases your margins by 10%, then you know that by investing that extra time, you should be able to reach your goal in ten months.

As the scale and scope of your business changes, however, so will its KPIs. That is, while some activities begin to yield greater returns, others will suffer from lower returns.

Consequently, you’ll have to monitor the returns you receive on your efforts. Doing so will allow you to focus your energy on where you get the greatest return.

Measuring Progress As your business grows, you will expand into new areas of promotion. As you do so, you will need to determine what strategy works best for each new area. Provided that your affiliate marketing software has the right functions and features, it can be an excellent way to test what is working for you and what is not.

Essentially, the performance-based model of affiliate marketing helps keep the risks associated with any new campaign at a minimum. First, your

affiliate software can help you test campaigns in a controlled environment. Yet, more importantly, the right affiliate software can provide reports on how those strategies perform.

Monitoring Progress As your goals will be specific to your own business model, so will be your data needs. Once you have an idea of what works where, you can drill down and collect intelligence on the KPIs of those specific goals.

Monitoring new campaigns and new products across other channels is an important part of a healthy business. We’ve identified two main factors that make this monitoring effective: creatives and players. This is why the Income Access Affiliate software enables you to generate reports by (1) creative, (2) player, and (3) time period. All of these reports provide invaluable metrics on two key components of the conversion process: acquisition and ROI. The creative report offers you insight into what actually resonates with your target marketing – i.e. what banners users actually click. By comparing banners that convert to those that don’t, not only do you gain intelligence on what banners to drop and keep respectively, but what design elements to incorporate into future creatives.

To better track the quality of a player, the Income Access software also offers player reports.

The player report analyses how well a player converts, from their first click through to deposit and then over their entire life cycle. After all, you want to focus on players that will fuel your growth.

In this respect, the player report provides you with two valuable pieces of intelligence.

First, it shows you the quality of players that different creatives attract, such as whether their deposits are small and/or one-time-wonders –

Nicky Senyard is the CEO of Income Access, overseeing their independent iGaming affiliate network, market-leading affiliate software, and expert affiliate management services.

e.g. bonus hunters. Secondly, it gives you an idea of what kinds of players are attracted by which promotions. From there you can determine what products you can viably promote through what channels in order to reach your business goals.

As your business matures, it’s imperative that you keep tabs on how that change is affecting your KPIs. Having reports on creatives and players will help you determine what products to promote and in what ways. At the same time, comparing campaign performance over the course of your growth will help you determine what factors contribute to what changes. This kind of intelligence offers you the insight you need to adapt your business practices to your growing business, which is essential for achieving sustainable growth.

Optimizing Your Growth The more intelligence you have on your target market and the best ways to engage it, the fewer risks you take. If you’re seriously interested in growing your affiliate activities from a hobby to a business, avoiding needless risk will save you time, energy and resources in reaching your business goals.

Taking your affiliate activities to a full-time level is a lifestyle decision. Of course, it’s too risky to abandon a day job and dive right in head first.

Growing a business and getting a return takes time and strategic effort. Reflect on your business model (product, industry, etc.), identify your KPIs, and determine the gap between where you are and where you want to be. Then set measurable business goals for yourself, and monitor your progress towards those goals.

Affiliate software can be an invaluable source of business intelligence because it can be used to produce results-based intelligence in a controlled environment, help organize it according to your goals, and then help you refine that intelligence at a reduced risk. Once you are confident that a particular campaign or promotion is optimized to meet your own business goals, you can make it part of your lifestyle. Since you are already sure that it appeals to your target demographic, the risks associated with making such a commitment will have been minimized. l

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ge a s s Me s d r a Bo s o r P – s n o C an d

As the birth of blogs and social sites dawned upon us, many people thought it was the end of message boards.

It wasn’t, and I doubt message boards will ever be outdated, says CAP Senior Moderator, Dominique.

In the very early days of the Internet, message boards were the first phenomenon to appear. They were called Bulletin Boards, and only one person could be logged in at a time.

Of course, the connection was painstakingly slow, and you had to pay your phone bill for the call. Your home phone rested in a cradle that connected to your computer, and the long distance bills were huge. I had a bulletin board dealing with pets in those days, and it was busy – 24 hours a day, every day. But, with only one person having access at a time, the bigger it got, the slower it moved, because everyone lingered longer to read and reply. It was not a good model, but it was exciting enough to carry on to this day.

Of course, today’s message boards have no such problems.

The latest software versions also incorporate many aspects of social sites, such as friends, blogs, picture galleries, groups and more. So it stands to reason that message boards will be a part of the online landscape for years to come.

You can find message boards on almost any topic you can think of. For example, a search for “Gambling Forum” yields 3,170,000 results.

So is message board ownership in your future?

There are lots of things to consider. Firstly, you need to manage the message board technically.

Technical Management You will need to choose your software, and today it looks like VB is the best around. If you start your message board on a free server with free software, you will run into all sorts of problems eventually, and moving your database will be a pain if not impossible. So try to at least rent server space and purchase good software to start.

Of course, spammers notice the potential of such enormous exposure and they flock to message boards in droves. They have developed all kinds of software designed to make automated posts on message boards, and software providers are always scrambling to find fixes that block these bots. Human spammers

make their rounds also. If you own a message board, you will have to monitor it all the time to catch spam. Always updating to the most current software version also helps. Make sure you also install a good SEO mod.

The admin back end is pretty straightforward and you’ll learn to use it quickly. The software providers have – yes – message boards for their software. If you run into problems, a quick search of their board will usually yield the answer.

So now you have the forum up and running, you will need posters (contributors). We won’t go into SEO here and will assume you are starting to get some traffic. But why is no one posting? Well, people don’t post in empty forums. Bring some friends in to have conversations, assume multiple personalities and hire some inexpensive posters.

You do need to give the place a kick start.

Managing the Membership People are starting to post and all is going well.

Are you still posting and answering posts?

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Message boards do best if they have one dominant personality; someone who knows the topic really well and can post information, answer questions and guide threads in the right direction. Without that, you will have lots of posts with unanswered questions, and soon your posters will leave.

Unfortunately, people behave in ways on message boards they would never do in real life.

There is something about posting as a different personality with a name no one knows and in a place where none of your family and friends go. People are more aggressive and get into squabbles. So you need a clearly defined posting etiquette. How you do this depends entirely on your own attitude and what you consider acceptable or not. Here is where your personality will also influence the feel of the message board in a big way.

Just like websites, message boards have a look and feel that will attract certain types of people. Think about the demographic you want to address, and shape the board to please them.

Some boards thrive on confrontation; some are a comfy peaceful home. Some are primarily a source of information, some are a place for friendships and some are places where you can vent. Most message boards need the occasional controversy to infuse excitement. Make sure you don’t stifle your board or soon it will be a dead board.

Never forget that the board is there for the users, and not for you. Make sure they get the correct advice, and they feel welcome and free to speak up. Sometimes you see message boards do quite well for some time, and then suddenly they go downhill. This is usually due, in some capacity, to improper treatment of posters. Posters are real people with real feelings and they come to your message board to satisfy a need. Make sure you pay attention to their needs and satisfy them. Not everyone is going to agree with your opinions, but don’t let that stand in the way of establishing positive relationships. Don’t squash all disagreements; a little controversy is good for message boards. At the same time, don’t let posters drive off other posters. It can be a fine line to walk.

Finally, it goes without saying that you want to earn some money for all of your time and effort.

This too can be tricky. Naturally, you are going to pick advertisers that will do well by your forum members. Bad experiences with your sponsors are a real fast way to lose your posters. So go and find the places with the best player reputation. See if they will give you specials to promote to your members. Give your members as much info about the place as you can. Encourage them to post their experiences. Perhaps you can run contests, give rewards for reviews or otherwise encourage participation. Make sure any type of incentive is approved by your sponsor.

Now what if a number of your members really hate one of the sponsors? Now you get lots of threads slamming the advertiser, and you get upset phone calls from your sponsor demanding you delete these threads. What to do? Investigate. See if you cannot fix the issues.

Both parties will be happy if an agreement can be reached. In most cases there will be one point of disagreement, and your mediation can be very useful to both parties.

However, be aware that there are fraudulent players out there, as well as unethical sponsors.

In these cases, you still need to get to the bottom of things and resolve the matter by

they are someone you either like or respect and where business is concerned, whether they are perhaps someone you could work with.

It’s easy to criticise, we all do it, but without making criticism constructive (or even if you do sometimes), you are probably putting someone, somewhere, in the firing line for which they may not be appreciative. You may not care at that

“Think about the demographic you want to address, and shape the board to please them. Some boards thrive on confrontation; some are a comfy peaceful home” removing the guilty party. If you are willing to take good care of both your membership and your sponsors, you will have a win-win-win situation and your message board will flourish and you will reap the rewards.

So, is a message board the thing for you? It will require more initial financial commitment than a website. It will require more time. It will require continued attention. It requires a certain type of personality to successfully run a forum.

The competition is stiff, and there are lots of well established boards already out there.

If you run a popular message board, you will find yourself in the line of fire, sooner or later.

How you handle this determines the future of your forum. You need to be able to deal with criticism, constructive or otherwise. It can originate from unhappy players or unhappy operators. You will need diplomacy and you will need to mediate.

Ready to jump in?

Here are some Forum owners talking about their experiences: “I have been running an online message board for close to 6 years and I have to say it is one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. I have met so many special people while at the same time, I have guided them to safe online gaming environments. It has always been the main focus with Streak Gaming to make sure the members are treated fair and paid out on wins by iGaming establishments. The downside of running such a large forum is not being able to give that individual treatment that would make every member happy. You have to be willing to spend many hours online as well as sacrifice family time when it comes to running a successful message board. I can sleep at night knowing that I have saved another person from spending their hard earned money in a shady online casino; that is my reward.”

Christine AKA -Bonustreak www.streakgaming.com" “When you wander around all the popular forums in our industry, you get to know posters, their styles and get a pretty good picture as to what their approach to life is. Also, you subconsciously make a decision as to whether

moment, but somewhere down the line you may wish you’d been a little more “balanced” with your post.

“To this end, I think there are 3 Golden Rules when posting on a forum where the people who read it are prospective partners, customers or both: 1) It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it 2) T reat others how you want to be treated yourself 3) Never post on a topic based on an emotional reaction” Simmo! http://www.oggs.com/ A comment from the operator perspective: “Forums are an integral part of the success of any online industry and gaming is no different. A substantial percentage of the players and affiliates regularly scout for information in the forums to enable them to make or reinforce their decisions.

This is a hardcore word of mouth opportunity and is an important part of the marketing mix that every company wants to take advantage of.

In this scenario it becomes very important for the operators to be a part of this process.

An online forum should be impartial, well managed, have the services of effective and knowledgeable moderators, active participation of the affiliates, opinion leaders and affiliate managers. Conflicts are a part of any community but it would be nice if the conflict management process involves mature and constructive resolution. From an operator’s point of view, every issue is important and is minutely reviewed as the operators need the affiliates as much as the affiliates need the operators. A balance has to be maintained between both at all times and online forums act as a medium.”

Satya Mahapatra, Business Product Owner, www.gamesys.co.uk" I hope this gives you some perspective with regards to running a message board. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but for those who enjoy it, it can be very rewarding.

Dominique www.gamesandcasino.com l

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SEO Surgery Direct Mail and Offline Marketing Question: Where does offline marketing, especially direct mail, fit into the marketing strategy of online businesses?

Bob Rains: For some channels, high-impact strategic campaigns still combine elements of offline marketing, like direct mail with online marketing to yield impressive results – with the caveat that your direct mail has to be well targeted, well conceived, well written, well designed and, most importantly, compelling.

In fact, direct mail can have a much higher likelihood of being read over the sometimes hundreds of irrelevant electronic messages your audience receives each week.

To create direct mail that has a chance of making it past the recycling bin, remember the following critical success factors: The List Make sure you are mailing to the right segment and that your list has been scrubbed recently. No campaign is able to generate positive results if it fails to reach your target audience.

The Offer The question “What’s in it for me?” is crucial to your success. Offer your audience something meaningful. Drive them to action.

The Creative Wrap your offer in a smart, professional bow.

Direct mail is another branding opportunity, a chance to communicate who you are. Take advantage of this chance to speak directly with your audience, and make the message memorable.

Question: What response channel do you enlist if you use Direct Marketing (DM)?

Bob Rains: I am a big fan of Branded Software Experiences, otherwise known as Widgets, as a modern method of direct marketing.

Online marketers whose cash flows come from advertising often look for some method of standardization or scale to grow their target numbers. The problem is that traditional direct marketing built on standardization and scale will eventually lead to homogeneity and a total lack of authenticity.

The similarity between traditional direct marketing and widget marketing may seem like a stretch, but in principle, the two have a lot in common. In the old days of direct marketing, marketers bought mailing lists and sent out cheap printed ideas to try to engage customers and drive purchases. In the early days of the Internet, we did the same thing with email and today, we need to think of new, cheap ways to

Online marketing guru Bob Rains provides you with the answers to some of your SEO and online marketing questions. Over the course of the next few issues, we will eavesdrop on some of the advice Bob has been giving out to affiliates. engage our customers to convert. It happens with any new medium – after the initial buzz, creators start to understand the medium better. The Internet, after all, is essentially a huge chunk of open, networked, software, and it has more than its fair share of intricacies.

Just like the old days of direct mail, email, and now branded software experiences, there are some simple, basic principles to remember that lend themselves to success: l Creation is cheap, and open to all l Distribution is cheap, and open to all l Interactivity is the default The Value of Lists and Online Marketing ROI Question: Lists – Is it worth investigating buying and using lists?

Bob Rains: My gut response is no. I have always hated sig lists, and personally, I think it is a slack-jawed response to dullness to use them.

The conversions attained are seldom worthy of the time and cost needed to fully exploit the data received.

In saying that, a good friend of mine, a marketer in the online gaming space working for a wellknown brand, has been singing the praises of the level of reactivation and response from some purchased lists combined with a great email marketing company. However, the reality I see is April/May 2009 l iGB Affiliate l 59

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that the Internet is clogged with dishonest “get rich quick” stories based on marketing to lists.

Here’s a perfect example of what I hate about lists and the people who market them: “I Made $41,000 in November 07' Using Your Lists!” – John True Story! John is working a Travel Deal, so he bought our combo email offer of Double-Opt Ins and PopUp Responders. He called in December to re-order and to give us feedback on his previous purchase from us – WOW! That is some feedback.

WOW, that is some serious ‘BS’. Some fool dropped his business card in a fishbowl, or filled out some crap at a job fair, and we’re expected to believe that our mystery hero “John” nailed 41k in extra income marketing to that person?

I do not recommend buying lists, unless you are working on a niche marketing campaign where you can get very clean, very targeted lists – and if you also have great converting programs or products. If any readers have different examples, I would love to hear your stories.

Question: ROI in social media – should it be the aim or is it mainly brand building?

Bob Rains: Great question. I have always felt that all marketing efforts should be measured by how much they increase awareness of your brand, product or service. Obviously, there must always be some component for accurately gauging how effective any media is in engaging and driving people into your conversion funnel – or at the least to your site, and on to your advertisers.

Social media should, however, be measured not only by how well it drives conversions, and in what time frame, but also the impact in helping increase awareness of your brand or partner product or service.

That being said, Andy McAfee, who is an Associate Professor at Harvard business School, was quoted recently as saying, “There is not enough ROI for figuring out ROI. It is an intellectually bankrupt exercise.”

In other words, no marketing program has an ideal inherent value that can be measured separately or independently. The value of marketing is in its ability to help you implement a strategy. In the real world, as much as we may hate to admit it, marketing programs seldom have a direct impact on financial outcomes. Marketing relies on financial outcomes through chains of cause-and-effect relationships. Social media lends itself to successful cause and effect, and has some potential positive SEO effects as well.

Therefore, I think that marketers need to spend more time answering the basic questions in the development of marketing, and a little less time proving ROI. Not that I expect you to ignore ROI altogether – I know my boss wouldn’t allow me to do so.

Here are some great questions you can ask yourself when looking at social media for developing marketing ideas, which (hopefully) will help you to greater success (to the extent that you won’t have to totally sweat the ROI): 1. With whom are you trying to connect?

2. What factors are important to your success?

3. H ow can you better use technology to make your prospect’s life easier and express that you have a shared value?

4. A re you doing anything to make sure you are actually aiding your user’s advocates, as opposed to just helping them waste time or entertaining them?

5. How can you keep them coming back for more?

If you can get social media to accomplish these objectives, that’s a healthy ROI in and of itself.

Duplicate Content in SEO Question: Does Duplicate Content Hurt SEO? Bob Rains. Duplicate content – you’ve got to love it. Google keeps writing about it, and SEO professionals keep asking about it.

In particular, many people worry about whether they may be subjected to a “duplicate

“Duplicate content on a website is not usually enough for Google punishment, unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results.

“Google strives for variety; they want to show you ten different results on a search results page, not ten different URLs that all have the same content. To this end, Google tries to filter out duplicate documents so that users experience less redundancy.”

Google Webmaster Central Blog states: “1.When we detect duplicate content, such as through variations caused by URL parameters, we group the duplicate URLs into one cluster.

“2. W e select what we think is the ‘best’ URL to represent the cluster in search results.

“3. W e then consolidate properties of the URLs in the cluster, such as link popularity, to the representative URL.”

“I do not recommend buying lists, unless you are working on a niche marketing campaign where you can get very clean, very targeted lists” content penalty”. I’ve heard weak SEO guys blabber on about this on panels I’ve been involved with in the past, and it just drives me crazy. However, don’t take my word for it; this is what Google has to say: “There’s no such thing as a ‘duplicate content penalty’. At least, not in the way most people mean when they say that,” Google Webmaster Central Blog.

Yes, it’s true that penalties exist that are related to having the same content as another site – for example, if you steal content from other sites and republish it, or if you republish tons of content without adding any additional value. These tactics are clearly outlined (and discouraged) in the Google Webmaster Guidelines: Therefore… l Don’t create multiple pages, sub domains, or domains with substantially duplicate content. l Avoid “cookie cutter” approaches with little or no original content. l If you are an affiliate program, work hard to make sure your site adds value.

It’s important to consider the effect that duplication can have on your site’s bandwidth.

Duplicated content can lead to inefficient crawling. The more time and resources that Googlebot spends crawling duplicate content across multiple URLs, the less time it has to get to the rest of your content.

In Summary…

Having duplicate content can affect your site in a variety of ways; but unless you’ve been duplicating deliberately, it’s unlikely that one of those ways will incur a penalty.

You can ask Bob Rains your online marketing questions at expert@casinoaffiliateprograms.com.

In addition, this is bigger than just search; it’s also about engagement, utility, and most importantly, conversion. With all of these, unique and relevant content is why users visit your site in the first place.

Most webmasters who worry about duplicate content are not talking about scraping or domain farms; they’re talking about things like having multiple URLs on the same domain that point to the same content. Having this type of duplicate content on your site can potentially affect your site’s performance, but it doesn’t cause penalties.

From our article on duplicate content:

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VIP Services Can Help Retain Your Best Players Do the casinos you represent do enough to hang on to the high rollers you send them?

Online casino operators seem to put varying emphasis on courting and retaining high maintenance high rollers. Extra bonuses and special banking privileges are common VIP benefits, but some casinos go way beyond these basic measures and have retention stats to show for it.

Lucky18Casino.com is relatively new to the game but its mandate from the beginning has been to provide the ultimate VIP service. Its VIP hosts and hostesses, who provide personal care comparable to Vegas resorts, are raising the bar for online casinos. Bodog takes a different approach, focusing on hosting VIPs at events, but it too has learnt that there’s good ROI on VIP benefits.

hosts and hostesses provide very personal care to the casino’s very best customers. This service goes way beyond merely sending emails about a special deposit bonus offer or helping them with a password reminder.

It means extravagant personal gifts and specially planned trips.

“We found that players who are receiving this personalized attention and a host to relate with consistently deposit more frequently and in greater amounts,” said Mike Hochman, Lucky18 Affiliate Manager. “Our program keeps our best customers coming into the casino practically every day.”

“We only launched last fall so we haven’t broken any player lifespan records yet,” said Hochman. “Yet, we have lots of high rolling players that have been with us

High Rollers What does it generally take to be considered a VIP entitled to all the perks of the label?

We’re not talking about casual players that deposit $20 once in awhile. We’re talking about players that play high stakes games regularly and frequently. These are the people that customer service and cashier staff know by name. These are players that are welcomed with open arms anywhere they choose to spend their money.

They’re also players that are very loyal once they find a casino that will pay them the attention they know they deserve.

These are players whose activities can have a massive effect on a referring affiliate’s monthly revenue. Commissions on a handful of very active players can be substantial. These are not customers you want to lose!

Bluff Europe magazine recently dubbed Lucky18 the “Break Out Casino” of the year for the way it challenges many traditional approaches. Its emphasis on VIP service is a good example. It gives extra bonuses to its VIP players – a weekly refund of 5% of the week’s deposits plus various deposit bonus coupons, some even without any play-through requirements. It also increases the weekly cash out by 50% for VIP players. But its USP, and the reason its customer service is appreciated by so many high rolling players, is the personal care and special gifts bestowed upon them by the VIP hosts and hostesses.

Just like in land-based casinos, Lucky18’s VIP

“The VIPs contribute 85% of the revenue for any casino so most take care of their VIP players well” since day one. Let’s face it, they can play cards anywhere – it’s the personal care our hosts and hostesses give our VIP players that makes them comfortable here.”

Kimberly Astor is one of Lucky18’s most popular VIP hostesses. Over the phone, by email, on Facebook and through her daily blog (http://vipcasinohostess.wordpress.com), Kimberly is in almost daily contact with a special group of VIP players.

“I personally oversee their care,” said Astor, who has become the face of the casino’s VIP treatment.

“So if they are having a login problem, a technical issue, or want higher table limits, I personally oversee that their needs are met quickly. My players share their lives with me. For many of my VIPs I have become a friend and not just a casino hostess.

“The favourite part of my job is getting creative with the gifts. I love discovering the right gift to give to someone. Sometimes they’re pretty extravagant but the most important thing is that they’re personal.

“One player I’ve gotten to know really enjoys Bob Dylan music. I was able through my network

to obtain a signed and autographed CD collection for him. He appreciated it so much – it was such a thrill to be able to give it to him!”

Special Treatment Bodog Casino likes to say they treat every player like a VIP but they too have discovered that giving your best players extra special treatment pays off. Bodog doesn’t have VIP hosts and hostesses but its customer service staff is well aware of which customers deserve pampering.

“Customer service is important at every level, of course,” said Alwyn Morris, CEO of Morris Mohawk Gaming Group (MMGG), the exclusive licensee of the Bodog online gaming brand in North America. “But we obviously have a group of very active players that we give extra special treatment. We’ve found that one thing these guys really like is to be taken to party at a big sporting event. That’s been the main focus of our VIP rewards.”

Last year, Bodog rounded up a group of VIP players and their guests and flew them all to Kentucky for the Derby.

“We pulled out all the stops,” said Morris.

“Top-notch hotel accommodation, club-house seating for the big events, tons of great swag, limo service... Everyone loved the celebrity treatment and they loved getting together with other players like that.”

Bodog picked up a huge tab. Was it worth it?

“It’s the cost of doing business,” said Morris.

“It’s what these players expect. Since they’re important to our business, we invest what it takes to keep them happy.”

“The VIPs contribute 85% of the revenue for any casino so most take care of their VIP players well,” observed one affiliate that responded to a question we posted in the CAP forum. “Most of the service is personalized and hence not public information. The casinos try their best to retain these players for as long as possible and I have seen high rollers playing with the same casino for over 5 years.”

Commissions for the life of the player really mean nothing to an affiliate if the casino lets a good player slip through its fingers. Investigating an operator’s VIP service should be part of every online casino affiliates due diligence as they choose which casinos to send their players to. l

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