On hiring employees..

[absentx]

Hi guys,

Long time, no talk. I have been spending too much time fishing, working on Jet Ski's and other things. All of this possible, only because of affiliating. But my three months of "sit and collect" is over, and now it is time to get back at it. Page redesign, plus new sites are all in the works.

And now a question regarding employees and what I would like to get done in the coming months:

BTW, this is not an offer for employment, I am asking questions first, then if I choose to make the offer public, I will post it here when I am ready.

I want a college kid to help me with some of the things I dont have time to do. Or rather, have time for, but would rather spend my time on other bigger things.

I want someone to manage my link exchanges, find new link partners, and keep my stats updated. BUT, I also want someone who has a vested interest in the growth of my site(s) and business. So they would also be responsible for recruitment, retention and other service rolls.

I have a few thoughts, and I would like to know if anyone has tried them:

1. Pay the employee a certain amount for every succesful completed link exchange.
2. Pay the employee a percentage of profit that they have helped generate.

Problem is, I also want to pay a base amount so the employee feels like they actually need to work. I dont want it to be a "work when you want to or if you feel like it" position. On the other hand, they will have great flexibility because they can work from their own computer.

I know these are all tried and trued forms of payment in the corporate world, but what about for people like us doing affiliate work?

Thoughts, advice, discussion.

[Georgia Poker]

I've tried all of the above over the years and here are my thoughts:

1. Hiring them on a contingent basis and pay them upon completion of certain tasks.

The issue you will run into here is that you're most likely to wind up with someone who has to be tasked with every single step to take. They won't be efficient and most likely will not work out for you.

2. Pay them on profit from websites that they work on.

The challenge here is finding someone who will trust you enough to be honest with them. 99% of the people the will apply for such a job will want to see instant results, as they are most likely doing this because they aren't doing well themselves as affiliates. Again, tasking them with important functions of your business will often produce lackluster results.

3. Pay them a base salary plus commission or bonuses.

While this option has the most risk, it has the biggest rewards. You will need to find someone that has the time and desire to learn the business (college kid). Best case you will find someone overseas so that there are no tax implications. Our space will require a tricky dance as you navigate through the tax hoops if that's required. To be honest, I've done similar setups and paid them via their poker accounts to ease the process.

In the end, I recently "hired" my wife to help run the business. I've found that my long term focus has shifted dramatically towards non-gambling revenue streams. The water is too cloudy right now and with the political landscape set to change in a few years, it's not worth the risk in my opinion. I'm certainly not walking away from poker but the lions share of my business capital is now being spent on other verticals outside of poker. I've said before that some of the ugliest websites in the world have converted for me in the poker space. I'm finding to compete in newer areas (VOIP, PSP and Ipod land, etc) you need "snazzy" sites to do well. It's a change for me but the upside is that I'm able to get back into PPC marketing with no restrictions. I've always been a PPC guy, hell just look at my sites and you can tell that SEO, etc has never been a priority

I hope this helps you in your search.

[absentx]

Thanks man, good info.

I too want to do things other than poker, but have yet to dive in..

I might start tonight!

Great point about being able to actually utilize ppc with not gambling sites.