What's Changed in 2009

So being a relatively new affiliate, 2 years, I have seen the changes happening in the affiliate world and it made me think about what the next 12 months will look like. I have learned so much about the business and how it works from everyone here that it’s been really amazing the things I’ve been able to accomplish since January. I started with a small site based on mobile gaming from reading an article on the PAP blog about niches. I’d read the forums every day and try to develop my site into one that ranks amongst the best. Working with several awesome affiliate managers who took the time to work with me also played an impact on my site! Thank you Mark, Brandon, Krista, Ellen, Stephen and more!

So as I said I started posting here around January last year. I was a regular on the other forums but everyone left and two close Affiliate Manager Friends of mine suggested I ask questions here and at the GPWA. It was great advice for me and I was able to reconnect with some of the members I had been working with before. I never got an invitation thanks Jeremy lol! After asking I did get one from Poker Nations and then everyone was allowed. This made it better for me anyways. I was originally scheduled to go to CAP London for my first show but didn’t. Is it still CAP London now? I saw the name changed lol http://www.affiliatemedia.com/cap-euro.html – Inside joke from Amsterdam with Debbee, Bryan, Mauricio and myself, too many drinks!! Anyway I am pretty glad now I waited until Amsterdam to go! The most major change for me as an affiliate was CAP shutting down and the show going so wild. I think there were a lot of problems there from reading everyone’s comments. All the ‘secret meetings’ and new forums was a little absurd. I think we’re back to a good place now for everyone to make deals and collect information like 2 years ago when I started. Again, thank you guys for all the help! Alex is another guy to say thank you too. Two shows now and they have been excellent. Top Work! I WILL be going to London this year and am sure it will be fine.

So after we all calmed back down I really started reading about social media and particularly some of the application marketing people were doing with games. We got an application developed for less than $4,000USD and went to work trying to build a network of players. It didn’t work nearly as well as I’d hoped, but we did recoup the money in 5 months and learned a LOT! One great thing that came about was getting our first real Whale player to a casino. I am convinced now to stay on rev share after this October! Anyway that’s the reason we all love this business. Those guys come along and it’s a great quarter in 1 month! I’m doing some more research but from what I can tell social media + mobile is a winning pair!

Now I’m hearing more and more about large companies consolidating. Here was a story just last month about Party Poker joining forces with bwin. http://www.recentpoker.com/news/partygaming-5468.html Can you imagine what a player could be worth betting on their book and also playing at Party? Could be a massive win or loss depending on who is running it all. Let’s hope it Party! Can we expect more of this now. From what I’ve been reading here we can all expect to see more small companies get bought up and some others like these two joining together. As always, no one quite knows what to make of the US so for now that remains unclear. Good news is we still have 5 more months to go for it!

Full Tilt is in the spotlight again with new allegations of player fraud. http://www.4flush.com/online-poker-n...cusations/4178/

Another thing I can’t stand to see happen is another Absolute Poker mess! We all remember the unease that cause and I really don’t think we need another black eye in our industry like this one. I hope Nell and her team do a good job keeping us informed on what really happened. Reminds me some of the mess with Eurolinx, Pitbull Poker, Microgaming (best video of the year) and others. Thanks APCW for keeping us in the know on what’s happening behind the scenes!

So it’s been a wild year. I’ve learned a lot and wanted to say thank you again for helping me out everyone!! I hope I can contribute more now and start to move towards being a Super Affiliate in 2010!