Offline versus Online Marketing

     Alright I figured it was time I wrote an article about online versus offline marketing.  I get questions about this on a daily basis from both veteran affiliates and new affiliates.  The simple answer would be, whatever makes you money is the way you should promote internet poker rooms.  However I realize there is a huge difference between the two.

     When I first started out in this business I did nothing but offline promotions.  I didn't just lay a few fliers or business cards on the weekends though, I was hardcore.  Every day for 6-8 hours I was doing something to promote online poker.  Most people are not willing too or don't have the time to do this kind of offline marketing however.  As someone who has done it successfully I'm telling you, offline marketing works if you put the time into it and pick a few good niches.  You cannot just take a few generic Party Poker business cards with a bonus code and leave it on 20 urinals and then expect to be making $200 a month.  It's not that simple, you have to work every day promoting if you want to make hundreds or even thousands promoting offline.

     Now lets talk about online promoting.  Promoting offline can make you thousands of dollars a month.................however the top ONLINE promoters are making hundreds of thousands every month.  It all depends what level you want to be operating on.  Personally I want to be operating on a level where I am buying a brand new Mercedes SL500 with cash.  Show me $20K a month and I am going to be plotting on how I can make $22K next month.  You will see all the veteran members at Party Riches like Randy, Dave, and PPP telling you to build a site and add content every day.  They will tell you that having rich content and being picked up by search engines will make you successful.  Well, they are absolutely right.  If you can get a #1 - #3 rank in google for a few keywords you will see some very nice rewards.  Driving results through search engines is very difficult however once you master it you will essentially be on cruise control.  Let your website work for you 24 hours a day 365 days a year.  There is so much to SEO that I am not even qualified to write about.  But that is why I have mentors that help me with this aspect of my business.  At this point in my online poker affiliate career I have realized how important the search engines really are.

     So there ya go, Jeremy's thoughts on offline versus online poker promotion.  Here are a few suggestions.  If your strictly an offline promoter, ask yourself "How hard am I working in my spare time to promote my business?"  Do you carry marketing materials in your car or make drops almost everywhere you go?  Now for you online guys, take a look at your website and ask yourself "If I visited this site and it wasn't mine would I bookmark it?"  If your running a banner farm with no content or SEO you are probably wasting your time.  If your thinking of starting a website do yourself a favor and pay to have a quality website built for you and spend a month researching SEO.  I am not an SEO expert but I know many of these guys and they are making thousands of dollars every month just by being in the top of the major search engines.

     In closing I think offline marketing is critical when starting out as an affiliate.  This is what will dangle the carrot in front of you and show you how easy it is to make money as an affiliate.  However as you progress and watch your business and revenue grow you will be forced to look at online marketing and explore how you can capitalize on a good website with SEO.  Having a quality website is critical to becoming a top producing affiliate.

     I would also urge any top producing affiliate to do offline marketing by attending conventions and trade shows.  Just because your a big player today does not mean you will be a big player tomorrow in the online poker market.  The sites that continue to be major players do it because they reinvest their profits and are visible throughout the poker community at every major tradeshow or convention.

Jeremy