1. What was the best piece of advise you have received as an affiliate?

The best piece of advice was to not expect to “get rich” in the first couple years. I worked the 9-5 grind like everyone else when starting out.

2. Top 3 books / movies that may have contributed to your success?

The Poker MBA by Greg Dinkin

Stephen Covey’s 7 steps

Become a Better You by Joel Olsteen

3. What is the highest affiliate payment you have ever heard from one poker room?

Highest CPA $350 - $400 per player. One monthly payment, probably over $1 million I’m sure for a special promotion. The highest I personally have ever seen is a few hundred thousand deposited into a players account for the month (sick). This was a company I worked with however, not my personal affiliate account unfortunately.

4. What site do you believe makes the most money?

PokerListings.com and all the other brands they own

5. What site that is ran by just one person that is an authority in the affiliate industry?

PlayWinningPoker.com and CardsChat.com. These guys outsource translation and other stuff, but unlike many other big sites, there are not tons of staff.

6. Why the hell do you have a blog anyways, you don’t make any money with it, do you?

No I don’t make any money with this blog and I really do not intend to either. I enjoy writing though and this is the one place I can speak my mind and say whatever I feel like.

7. Whats the best way to double your income in a day? I mean long term income. Oh and what are the lottery numbers for this coming week?

For many affiliates, I would say give up on being a poker player and focus on being a better affiliate. Remember the house always wins. I enjoy being a part of the house. If you don’t play online poker, then I would say build a second site comparable to the one you’re already making money on. Or if you have 5 sites all making money, double that to 10. Most importantly, diversify.

07 14 22 33 11 — 23

8. How many sweat sedos have you sold, and how many of those were bought by you? Pimp Chalice’s also.

Less than 5 of each. Amazingly I only own one sweat sedo and one pimp chalice…..both will be coming to London. I am fairly certain my blog is the wrong demographic for these items. One of these days I will introduce some more products and see if I can sell 10 of any one item in a month from here. <—–I’d say doubtful at best though.

9. What do you hope to accomplish from CAP Euro?

This is actually one of the most important conventions I will attend so far. I have many new projects going on such as PAP, ASOP, Speedpay, and planning a poker conference. All of which I have meetings and negotiations to handle in London. Normally I am not a big fan of “formal meetings”, however my meetings at this conference are extremely important.

Usually at these things I am there for fun and will be the one partying until 4 A.M. At this conference though I do not plan on being hungover or staying up “that” late. I want to be on my A+ game throughout the entire event and never miss a breakfast. Ok, actually I’ll probably still be up late, but I will also be up bright and early. For me, this is an extremely important conference. Spring Break on the other hand, I am bringing my wife and don’t intend on doing any business.

10. If you were a new affiliate just starting out in this industry, what kind of site would you start?

I would choose a niche and try to dominate it. The one thing I would not try to do is start a general poker forum. Instead of focusing on forum members or freerolls, I would focus on building a list and adding massive content to drive traffic via SERPS. Instead of struggling with a forum, have a newsletter sign-up and collect emails. You will get more sign-ups on this than you will in a dead forum anyways.

Then I would also utilize some more general internet marketing tactics to create better calls to action than you see on the average poker information site. It amazes me how people will spend money on having reviews written, but then will not even have the most basic call to action telling people to sign up, download, or whatever. Give your traffic a REASON to click that link or sign-up. Geo-targeting would also be on the top of my list.

11. How much money did you win/lose overall last year gambling?

My wife might read this so I cannot answer truthfully. In poker I was a losing player in 2007, which is fine because I play for entertainment, and not to make a living. (I am one of the 3% of casual poker players that will actually admit losing at the game) However I did win $5K in the Bahamas on a slot machine with Shenaz last year. So I imagine I’m about even. <——Standard answer for gamblers. We’re all “about even”

12. How many different partnerships or strategic partners do you have for different websites or businesses like ASP?

Last year I had a lot more. This year however instead of focusing on several medium size projects, I am focusing only on big projects that each have six figure potential. Besides all the various projects I am working on for CAP/PAP, I do have one other project that I have equity in, and it involves a text messaging SMS affiliate model.

This year is all about FOCUS for me and laying foundations for BIG projects. Unless something amazing came along, I doubt I will personally be investing or forming any new partnerships in 2008.

13. Do you still launch small or large affiliate websites? Or are you mostly looking at being an investor/partner for new affiliate websites?

This year, no I will not be launching and small affiliate websites on my own. There really is no reason too as I have a few other things on my plate with enormous potential. Instead of launching a new affiliate site, I think I’ll just work with Warren and build upon the business model we already have.

14. What advice can you give about getting the most bang out of your site without having to spend all of your spare time on it.

The more you can automate things the better. For example if you have repeat or loyal visitors, incorporate RSS feeds so you are not always having to update the homepage content. Likewise another idea would be to forget about making a profit for the next 6 months.

During this time, instead re-invest all the money your site makes into outsourcing content, translations, or whatever. This will free up your spare time and give you a great deal of long term value. It’s just a matter of how bad you need the existing monthly income.

15. Can you share strategies that work well for you in terms of improving conversion. What’s the best approach to organize content to make conversions (reviews, ranking rooms, alphabetical, list, promoting them one by one via featured articles, etc)

Content is key, however your content also needs to be viewed as a sales tool. You need strong calls to action. Although as an industry we can dominate SEO, the general affiliate marketers of the world destroy us with calls to action and conversion techniques. You need to give your visitors a powerful reason to sign up through your link. Or your review needs to be compelling and lead them down a path that will result in them saying “Wow, I should check this site out and trying playing there.”

16. What internet venture (or offline) have you done that you thought was going to be a homerun but ended up going nowhere? Also, the other way around, what internet venture did you do that you weren’t sure it would succeed and it ended up blowing away your expectations?

Like any entrepreneur, I have had my share of failure. I thought DonkeyLotto would be a big success, but in the end we didn’t do enough to drive the heaps of traffic to it. Likewise we lost focus and essentially let it go. In terms of success, if you would have told me when I wrote PartyRiches and started selling it on Ebay that this is what it would result in, I would have never believed it. Another success was how easy it was to make money in real estate by generating leads from simply ranking for my local real estate terms, which was quite simple. Too bad that market took a nose dive.

17. How do you see the gambling affiliate industry developing over the next 12 months? Do you forsee any changes for the better/worse? On the same not how do you see the poker and casino industry developing over the next 12 months? With search engine competition so high is there now a barrier to entry to new affiliates?and finally ….. Will Nick bring his Bentley to CAP Euro?

I think the industry as a whole will continue maturing over the next 12 months. With CAP and PAP being controlled by the same company, I am confident we will be able to drive some very positive changes and be even more of an advocate for affiliates in the industry. The only barrier to entering this market now in terms of SEO is how hard your willing to work. To compete you will need to bust your ass and think outside the box. No comment on Nick’s Bentley.

18. How long do you anticipate it will take you to recoup the money (your share of PAW’s earnings) that you traded for the forums?

Less than a year.

19. You said in the letter/post about the switch that you thought PAW would be better moving forward. Do you really believe this? PAW lost two of their most important assets (if not the 2 most important)- the forums and you. I just don’t see anything they gained that even comes remotely close to offsetting this.

I think PAW will be just fine. You must remember that their profit center is the PAW Network. The forums never directly made PAW any money. I will still support the PAW network and we have actually entered a marketing agreement with them. Overall I do think this was a win/win for both PAP and PAW. had I left PAW and not bought the forums back, I think PAW would have struggled anyways.

20. Why is PPP on PAP strike?

I honestly have no idea.

21. What long tail (3 or more words) is the most profitable in the poker industry?

A few people would have my head if I let this info out, and it would literally cost them thousands. But I will say that there are a few keyword combinations that are out performing every other combination in the industry right now.

22. Why do we not have any pics of Greg Powell shining your shoes yet?

I will probably need to lose a prop bet to him in order to make this really happen. I can’t say how excited I am though to finally be working with one of my long time friends in the industry.

23. Do you think it is worth making the jump to Poker Affiliate Manager?

In this industry it is funny. Affiliates always want to become AM’s and AM’s want to become affiliates. I’ll never quite understand it. Personally being an AM is not for me. However I do think for some people it is a GREAT decision. If you think you can become an affiliate manager though and work less, you’re wrong. Most of these guys bust their asses and work more hours than affiliates. Overall though, I think it really depends on the individual and what’s right for them or their family.

24. It’s true, everything happens for a reason and many of your jobs have lead you to this point…but are there any jobs you truly regret working at?

Hmmm….not really. Every job I have ever had has been a stepping stone for me to get to the “next level”. I once sold Hospice care for a few months just for the health insurance. It was low paying and miserable. The service is a great service, but selling death care was not for me. And in the end I would have never needed the health insurance anyways as I had a private plan and my wife didn’t get pregnant at the time.

This was fun, thank-you all for the questions.

Wow, I never thought that post would turn out to be so popular. Let’s get right into it. I will answer the second half of the questions tommorow.

1. This is pretty bold. Whats the best place you know of to go and get completely drunk in Rockford?

Without question, a place called Tiger Tail which is 5 minutes from my house…… You’ll need to be drunk.

2. This may be blunt. But you call yourself a super affiliate. I am curious what makes one so, it appears your definition is money. So how much money did you earn in 2007 from Poker Affiliate activities, pre tax earnings?

I think that “Super Affiliate” can be defined in many different ways and not necessarily just $$. I haven’t done my taxes yet, and for all the +’s on the spreadsheet, there will be a fair share of -’s. My guess is it that for 2007 it will fall somewhere between $18,952.27 and $2.5 million.

3. What affiliate website do you own that receives the most traffic and which website do you own makes you the most money?

That’s a tough question. The websites I make the most money on I do not own outright, I have an equity % or investment in them. Also since I started in the “affiliate niche”, I learned that if I have 1000+ subs, I can leverage their 5000+ websites to make $. Until recently the largest trafficked website I owned was with Kyle and it was smoke420.com. 20k - 30K uniques a day. This was non poker related though and we sold it late in 2007.

4. Who is the infamous poster who goes under screen name PPP?

Not sure, but rumor has it that he is a phenomenal Omaha Poker player.

5. What is the highest traffic search phrase poker related or not that you have ranked/ still rank for?

Easily highest trafficked were myspace layout terms with kyle. Most valuable non poker related was real estate terms though. I have ranked high for several phrases that received a lot of traffic. Sometimes though, it is better to get 20 hits for targetted keywords than 100 hits for non converting keywords, if that makes sense. At one point a few years ago I outranked Nick for fulltilt bonus codes with a shitty blogger site. The most valuable term to me however has always been “poker affiliate programs” and “poker affiliate forum”.

6. Do you like rakeback?

If I were a big player, yes. As an affiliate on MGR though I am not a big fan, only because I lose almost EVERY big player at fulltilt to rakeback eventually. It can’t be fixed now though and it is usually not the rakeback providers faults. But having 3rd parties paying rakeback seems stupid when the rooms could easily manage it themselves.

Likewise I have been a loyal FT player since 2004 and probably raked thousands to their coffers. However I can technically never get rakeback because I unknowingly signed up 4 years ago……even if I muti-tabled 200-400 NL, I am just screwed. Yet the brand new micro-limit player can sign up and get 27% rakeback for life. Just from this example, you can see why rakeback has so many issues. Rakeback in general is not fair to both affiliates and players on many levels. **Disclaimer - Many of my friends are rakeback guys. It’s not their faults, it’s the rooms for not coming up with a fair solution.

7. I know you tried to run your own online casino. What happened, How did it fail?

I partnered up with a shitty operator. (An offshoot of FutureBet). I was doing very well, and then my players stopped getting paid, and so did I. I cut my losses and walked away. Had it worked out though I’d probably have multi-millions right now, but not be able to live in the U.S. and never started PartyRiches. Everything happens for a reason.

8. Does your wife ever think you should do some other type of work? Has she?

She has always been very supportive. In the past, yes she has wanted me to look at different fields (post UIGEA). Right now though, she has realized I will be in this business until I retire.

9. If you were going to start out as a poker affiliate today trying to become a big affiliate, would you start by making 10 average sites or 1 mammoth one? Or put more simply, would you aim to make lots of small sites or a small number of big sites?

I would have 1 flagship site, maybe not mammoth, but then 10 smaller sites that could feed into the flagship. Starting 1 BIG site right now would be very hard unless you have a ton of staff.

10. If you could change one thing (except the concept) to improve my site (www.pokerforfree.org), what would that be?

I would geo-target your banners so that US players see US rooms on your right sidebar and in the header.

11. If you were starting fresh,who would your #1 choice as a mentor be? Why?

I would look for 3 things. 1. Someone who knows SEO 2. Someone who has a similar work ethic 3. Someone who knows how to properly outsource. Right now for me, this would be Warren Jolly the CEO of CAP. There’s a reason I partnered with him, I want to learn from the best. That is just MY personal choice for a mentor though and makes sense for my business goals.

12. What happened to the hot chick in the corner, and when are you going to get a new one?

Hi Karl, you’re wife made me take her picture down as the strip club said I was infringing on their intellectual property. Yes I might replace her in the next few weeks.

13. If you were planning a fairly large site and obv you want to hit top 5. What would be two things you would do to get there that go beyond the basics of links and proper tags?

Branding, Branding, Branding. I would try to build a brand that has the ability to become known in the poker industry, and one that will bring repeat visitors. I would also try to find a way to build loyalty amongst my visitors.

14. Who was the biggest influence for you in the industry?

There have been several. Initially it was Randy Ray who showed me the ropes though. Right now it’s hard to say, there are so many good friends I have made that I constantly learn from.

15. If you shoot a mime, is it necessary to use a silencer?

Depends on your location and the type of weapon. Better safe than sorry though, so I will answer yes.

16. How can I get your to spend 30 minutes a week teaching me to become a better affiliate? (Other than paying you the 2k your 30 minutes would be worth)

Catch me on skype if you ever want to chat, read my blog, read the PAP forums. I would never take money for helping other affiliates.

17. What happened to the affiliate eBook?? will the project be resurrected?

It got sidetracked when the PAW / PAP deal went down. To be honest I would rather write a real hard cover book about success or motivation versus another poker affiliate ebook. Most of anything I would write on this topic can be found in the forums anyways.

18. How much did it cost you to buy the PAW forums back?

Somewhere between $18,952.27 and $2.5 million.

19. Who is better…Griese? Grossman? Orton?

Jim McMahon

20. Which affiliate program do you think is the shadiest?

I think the small fly by night ones are. I ranked and to this day still rank great for GreenTiePoker (if you can remember these ass clowns) Yet I have never seen a penny.

21. What is the highest CPA you have ever seen / heard of?

In poker, probably $350 - $400. I head casino and sports can be a bit higher though.

This morning I was sitting here drinking my coffee and contemplating what to write about.  I started thinking about who some of my biggest motivators have been over the years, and also about those I have learned from.

Many people in our business want to be lone rangers and try to master everything on their own.  Although in theory it would be great to know everything there is to know about our business, it just isn’t practical.  One of the most important principals in any business is to “surround yourself with successful people”.  I have written about this before, but I cannot stress the importance of it.

If it weren’t for the people I have surrounded myself with in life, I would not have achieved the success I have to this point.

And you don’t necessarily have to befriend several successful people.  You can learn from others successes by reading blogs, books, or just doing simple research on the internet. Since this blog topic is that of motivation, I want to share one of the blogs I regularly read that motivates me.  This would be Mark Cubans personal blog.  Sure, the guy is a billionaire which is great.  But he was not born into it.  He started out in computers and IT busting his ass just like many of us.

Below is a link to his success and motivation posts over the past few years.  Contained in these posts are some real gems.  This is kind of a lengthy read, but well worth it.  There is no better way to start a week than by reading Mark Cubans story.  If these posts don’t motivate you, I don’t know what will.

Lately I have noticed the comment count and traffic growing in this blog. This is exciting to me, as I always try to write content that fellow poker affiliates will appreciate.

Likewise 2008 is set to be an extremely exciting year for me, and I can’t think of anyone else I would rather share my thoughts with than the people reading this.

I know many webmasters have personal blogs and attempt to, or actually do make money with them. I suppose I could make decent beer money with this site if I wanted to. But quite frankly, the reason I love having a personal blog is because it is the one damn place I can say almost anything I want, and I don’t have to be politically correct.

In the forums I really have to be careful what I say. Believe me, there are times I want to jump into threads and be not so politically correct.

Anyhow let’s have some fun with this post. This will be the “Official Ask Jeremy Anything” thread. Out of the blue sitting in my office, I just exclaimed, “Fu** man, I’m probably going to regret doing this.” But I’m always up for an adventure and some fun. So post any possible question you can think of in the comments. Whether it be a business question, a personal question, or just something off the wall and funny…..ask away.

I will publish the answers to all most of the questions on Tuesday. I’d like to keep Monday reserved for the motivational message. Anyways have a great weekend. It should be a fun Saturday and Sunday watching playoff games.