I know some of you are probably disappointed as today was supposed to be the “Ask Karen Enke Anything” post.  Unfortunately my lovely wife has been sick all week with the flu.  I was sick for a day as well, but needless to say I still had to work while she suffered through being couped up in the house with the kids.

So to make a long story short; with all the vacuuming, laundry, dishes, and dusting while sick……..she won’t have time to post in a blog.  Rest assured though next week at some point I will make the post, maybe I won’t even wait until Friday.

So instead, today I am going to share one of my FAVORITE links I have bookmarked.  One of the biggest challenges we as affiliates face is quality link building.  This page below is probably one of the best pages on this topic I have ever come accross.  Give this a good read, bookmark it, and you can thank me later.

The Best Link Building Article On The Interent 

On a lighter note, it wouldn’t be a proper Friday post without a picture of a hot chick.  I was shocked and appalled when I found out Melissa Midwest went hardcore.  Times must be getting tough in the “online nude modeling” industry.

As many of you know, I have been working over the last few months with my partner Brad on launching an SMS / Text messaging affiliate program.

I am happy to say that we are now live for beta testing in the European market.  Over the past few years text messaging has become just as popular as email.  Initially I wanted to launch this service to simply monetize poker freerolls better.  After more research though, I’m confident you can incorporate SMS into almost any marketing campaign.

Here is a quick example of how a poker affiliate would use this service.  Let’s say you are having a freeroll with $100 added.  Obviously you are going to get all the freeroll whores trying to get in.  To be honest, until TextShark, there has never been a way to monetize off these freebie players.  Now instead of just “giving away” the password for your event, you can require all players to send an SMS to get the password.

Once your traffic sends the SMS, they will get a message back directing them to a page with the necessary information.  You will earn a commission on every SMS message that comes through your specified code.  With TextShark, you will also be able to check your stats in real time.

Leveraging SMS for poker freerolls is just one example of how you can use our service.  Being an internet marketer however, I’m sure you can think of other ways to use this service.  This service can be used in both online and offline settings.  The only limitation to TextShark is your imagination.

Obviously we are only launching in beta right now to the European market.  We realize some things may come up that need to be tweaked or changed…… This is the point of beta.  In return for affiliates working with us in this stage, we are going to give a starting rate of 30% revenue share.

We also offer a great 2nd tier sub-affiliate program.  Being a new product, and the only type on the market, there has never been a better time to build your own network and bring in affiliates under you.

Likewise we will set up a limited number of $50 added freerolls at fulltiltpoker.com for our European partners.  During beta testing, we ask that our affiliates post any issues, questions, comments, or suggestions in our TextShark Support Forums. 

Sorry for not updating the blog over the past few days. I have actually been quite sick since Monday night. It’s not just me either, my wife and both my kids have been sick as well.

Winter seriously sucks. I can’t wait to go back to California in a few weeks……there’s a chance I may not come home.

Sore throats, stuffy noses, achy bodies, coughing, chills, weakness, and sleeplessness. The inside of the Enke house this week defines misery! Something must be going around I imagine, my business partner Greg Powell has also been very sick this week as well. My wife hit the nail on the head this morning and said I must REALLY be sick because I haven’t even drank coffee in the mornings.

Oh and to put the icing on the cake, we got hit with over a foot of snow. Luckily I have some kick ass neighbors that snow blowed my drive and sidewalk for me.

Anyhow, nobody comes here to read about how sick I am. Let’s talk about my non-existent hair. Yes I did get my head shaved on Superbowl Sunday. I actually have a video of it on a DVD, but I can’t figure out how to get the current format into a format that can be uploaded to youtube. It was quite comical, the guys decided to do just a little bit each quarter.

For a while I had the Terry Bradshaw look going and had the top shaved but hair left on the sides. Aside from having my head shaved, the game was awesome. I lost around $30 on all sorts of crazy props on Bodog. Each quarter a bunch of us also put in $10 a piece and drew numbers. I won the first three quarters! Seeing the Patriots lose was also quite nice.

Again, sorry for the delay on updates. Here are a few pics from the shaving. At some point I will figure out how to get this DVD to a youtube format.

Although there are many of my baller affiliate friends that read this blog, I also realize there are a large amount of new affiliates that read this as well. The reason I wanted to write this post is because I remember how frustrated I got when I was just getting started with affiliate marketing back in the day.

I felt like I would bust my ass and work mad hours just to make an extra $300 a month, while in reality I was making a very nice income in Corporate America. To be honest, for a while it just didn’t make sense to anyone (including myself) why I worked so hard. You can ask my wife about this next Friday in her (Ask Karen Enke Anything) blog post. <——probably a bad idea, but should be fun.

So if you are in this situation right now, don’t worry, it’s NOT something many big internet marketers haven’t been through before. You always hear people talking about being in the right spot at the right time. I am not going to lie about my situation; this happened for me and many other people. Just like how the founders of PartyPoker or Pokerstars were in the right place at the right time; I was in the right place at the right time when the online poker market started booming.

But here’s the thing, maybe you can’t just land in the right place at the right time; But there is something you can do. You can place yourself in an environment that will give you the opportunity for massive personal and professional growth. Create your own destiny, and position yourself in a spot where great opportunities will present themselves. Personally I want way more in life than working a boring ass job for the 2 week paycheck. Some people may question the decisions I made over the last couple months, and I can sum it all up in one sentence; I think in 7 figures not 6.

The title of this post means a lot to me. Really it doesn’t matter where you start in this industry because nobody really cares. (Heck, I started in the poker affiliate market with trademarked WSOP domains, followed by wearing a pink bunny costume). I like to think I have been moderatly successful since then however if cashed out and just left the industry for good, it wouldn’t really matter. Sure, it would be a shock at first to all my friends, but 12 months from now, the industry would still be cranking along at a strong pace. Where you are at right now, or where you started really doesn’t matter long term.

The point of this is that people think in a post UIGEA world that the best days are behind us. Many people think all the money has already been made in the poker affiliate market. This is wrong! The market is still growing and more more affiliate revenue will be paid out in the coming years than ever before.

For the new people starting out as poker affiliates or just internet marketing in general, I will give you some advice:

This is a great business to be in. Right now you have the opportunity to make a boat load of cash, have a career, and live a lifestyle unlike 99% of the rest of the world. However you have to be willing to work your ass off for it. If you want to tap into the big money, you need to work 60+ hours a week (it sucks I know, but we all do it). You also need to network and connect yourself with the other successful people in your chosen market. Learn SEO, think outside the box, and most importantly never give up.

It’s not impossible to break into the poker affiliate market and become a rising star by any means. If it’s not poker, than pick another niche, there’s a million ways to make a million dollars. Personally I am watching a few guys right now who behind the scenes are quietly rising to the top of our market. Just remember, no matter where you are at today, or where you started as an internet marketer, it doesn’t matter. What matters is where you are at in 5,10, and 20 years.

Now stop reading this and get to work.