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Another Interview with Jeremy Enke - State of the Industry I often get asked to give interviews from our members who are also students. I have to say that this is one aspect of owning this site that I really enjoy. Not only do I enjoy making a living as a poker affiliate, I also enjoy helping others.
1. In your opinion, where would the online poker industry be without poker affiliates? What have they done for the industry?
Without online poker affiliates the industry would not be nearly as big as it is today. If you look at the industry leader PartyPoker.com, they are the largest poker site in the world largely because of their huge affiliate program. The advent of large scale affiliate programs really began with Amazon.com and PartyPoker saw how effective this was and incorporated it into their site from the very beginning. This is what I feel catapulted PartyPoker to be the industry leader that it is today.
Without affiliates the online poker industry as a whole would not be nearly as large as it is today. In fact I have spoken with many of the executives at PartyPoker.com and it is a fact that over 25% of their total revenue is generated from independent affiliates.
What poker affiliates have done for the industry is to give each poker website literally thousands of marketing agents that all work on a "pay for performance" basis. Being 100% commissioned there is essentially no risk to the poker sites and it has become a win/win for both poker affiliates and the poker websites.
2. In such a competitive market, what are your general tactics for getting all the players that you do? (specific niches, SEO etc,...)
One of the things that has come increasingly important in being a successful poker affiliate is to choose specific niche's or to go after specific poker terms via search engine optimization. When I first started in the industry I built my business through pay per click advertising and redirect traffic of premium domain names. In 2002 when promoting online poker with pay per click advertising there was virtually no competition amongst affiliates. The online poker market was just starting boom, and even better Google still allowed online poker advertising. I literally spent over $2000 every month in pay per click advertising, but the return were three times that.
In current times however ppc advertising has become much more difficult due to regulation. Likewise optimizing a new poker site to rank high in the search engines for popular poker terms is almost impossible. Now days you need to pick a market segment or niche and go after it. For example one niche I have done very well with is daytraders. I designed a website targeted just at daytraders who liked to play poker and then I advertised in those online ecommunities. i set up private tournaments at poker sites just for this specific market segment.
My tactics however to be successful in a competitive market is to always be ahead of the ball and to "think outside the box" when it come to promotions. If you do the same thing that the other 10,000 poker affiliates are doing there is no doubt you will have an uphill struggle growing your market share.
3. How many sites do you currently promote?
Currently I promote around 25 websites. However I still do a great deal of pay per click advertising that goes directly through my affiliate url's. My most important website right now however is PokerAffiliateWorld.com. In 12 months I have grown this website to be the largest community of online poker affiliates in the world. More importantly though it is a great feeling to give something back to the industry that gave me so much throughout the last 5 years.
4. How have you seen the history of the affiliate industry progress? I assume you were around for just about the beginning of all this, how has the affiliate industry changed? What was your progression into becoming a successful affiliate?
This industry has changed dramatically in the last 3 years. In my opinion this has happened for a few reasons, but primarily because poker has become much more mainstream and the fact that more people are becoming internet savvy. Every day people are getting over the fear of conducting monetary transactions on the internet.
I would also say that as an affiliate it has gotten much harder to produce the revenues that I was producing in the early days. Not only are there several more poker websites emerging in the market, there are thousands of more poker affiliates competing for the same "piece of the pie"
My progression for becoming a successful affiliate really comes down to dedication, work ethic, and believing in myself. Many people try this industry, experience one failure and then give up. BBelieve me I have had several failures, but my successes far outweigh my failures. I think it is also critical to think different and promote different than everyone else. Don't be afraid to push the envelop and get outside your comfort zone at times. This is what will develop you into a successful affiliate.
5. Poker affiliating doesnt seem very main streem, people dont really know about us... Do you see this eventually becoming more main streem, where more and more people will be looking to join an affiliate program and try to "get rich quick"?
I don't ever think promoting online poker will become main stream simply because it is still a gray area in terms of legality. All gambling affiliate programs are somewhat of a gray area though. Many general affiliates stay away from gambling affiliate programs due to this nature.
During the dot com boom of the late 90's and early 2000 being an affiliate was definately a "get rich quick" scheme. I think any new affiliate expecting to get rich quick, or even get rich for that matter solely on poker affiliate programs is in for a surprise. There is still a great deal of money to be made but new affiliates have to treat being a poker affiliate very serious and learn the ropes just lik ethe rest of us have.
6. Where is the poker affiliate market at right now? What type of money is the average affiliate bringing in? Roughly how much money are the most successful affiliates making?
The poker affiliate market is still very much thriving. I am still doing extremely well and luckily have a very nice passive income from this career. The average affiliate after one year should expect to bring in over $1000 a month if they have studied and learned the inside outs of the industry. A top affiliate who has been around since the inception can be making anywhere from $150K+ every month. In my opinion the different income levels can all be attributed to who has worked harder and continues to stay ahead of the curve in such a changing industry.
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Jun 17, 2008
