The Forums At Poker Affiliate Listings - Blogs - Jeremy

The Gold & Silver Affiliate Market

Jeremy — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 06:20:42 GMT

I know a lot of people have been asking me what I've been up to lately since I've been a bit quiet on PAL this summer. Typically I don't like to share a lot of my outside ventures in public, but this has been a fun ride, so what the hell. PAL is my home, and I consider this community like family.

I started buying silver/gold a couple years ago as many of you know. I won't go into why and ruin this post though.....lol

Long story short however, naturally when I got into precious metals personally, I started looking for an affiliate program in this market. There wasn't a legitimate one, and it sucked.

So I contacted a company that I buy from www.apmex.com with the idea. Now mind you, this is the largest online retailer of precious metals in the world, they do around $600M a year in sales and are one of only 13 companies that can buy directly from the US Mint.

Fast forward 12 months, and my consulting company has helped them to launch a proper affiliate program on Commission Junction. We did our initial launch at Affiliate Summit East in the third week of August. Since then we have brought on over 800 affiliates and had well into six figures in sales through the affiliate program....in 2 weeks. :)

It's a completely different market however though than gaming, and I will never mix the two. But it's been a fun ride so far and I figured I'd share. Getting outside of gaming once in a while can be refreshing, as I'm sure many of you equally know. The precious metals market is on fire right now, so it's fun to be a pioneer on the affiliate side of it.

I am not going to go into all the details of the program or try to recruit affiliates from gaming. But here is a video we made up that gives an overview of what my head is buried in now days. Good times indeed, it's a whole new world and very challenging to say the least.

If there's one thing I've learned over the years as an affiliate; it's that when you have a passion for what you promote, it makes it so much more enjoyable.

Here's the overview video we came up with.

Creating Multiple Streams Of Income

Jeremy — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 06:35:21 GMT

I know I have been pretty silent lately, aside from getting mixed up in the various hot threads or debates on PAL. But I figured I should make a blog post about what has been on my mind lately...and actually always.

The topic is creating multiple streams of income. This is such an important concept for every affiliate or entrepreneur to understand. Throughout your career, money will come and go. Some deals will be good for a while and then disappear. Sadly, I have had plenty of those experiences in life. The key however is having multiple sources of income to draw off of.

As affiliates and internet marketers, we are in a unique position where we are given this opportunity. I know it's tough when you're busting your ass on one website and seeing dismal results. Of course you have to keep working that project. But always be thinking about the next thing, or what comes next.
Over my career as an entrepreneur I have been very blessed. But I can honestly say that I have had more failures than I have had successes. Luckily the successes have always covered the failures. (Welcome to the life of an entrepreneur with no regards for money :p).

However I have always had my hands in in many different pots, if you will. The older I get, the more I am realizing that this is the key to being ultra successful. I often read back over some of my old posts, and I ran across this today. It is traits of millionaires I know. I thought it would be a good thing to share since I am slacking and haven't been blogging lately.

Enjoy! (Some of you may remember this original post)

1. It�s better to have small equity in several things than big equity in one thing - This really comes down to diversification. You should never put all your eggs in one basket. The key to building wealth is being able to absorb the losses or failures with the big successes. If you�re diversified, one failure should never hurt your overall business.

2. Never spend your own money when there is venture capital or investors waiting in the wings - All the true millionaires I know have at one point leveraged other peoples money or utilized venture capital at some point to build their wealth. Think about it for a second, it makes sense. And it makes even more sense as an investor or VC when you can simply leverage your money on a great idea to give you a nice return for doing no work.

3. Surround yourself with, or hire other brilliant people who can make money for you - Very few of the multi-millionaires I know have done it as a one man show. Most have hired other successful people and simply pay them a salary or a % to make more money for themselves. If you�re �working for the man�, and generating a ton of revenue, then you may understand what I am talking about unfortunately. Most millionaires also are literally making money while they sleep courtesy of someone else�s work.

4. Leverage your existing money to make you more money - There is a truth to the saying that your first million is the hardest. Once you have millions of dollars you can diversify and spread it out to make you even more money. Hence you become one of the people in #2 making money while doing nothing, and growing your wealth just because you have the money to invest.

5. More Money, More Problems (sometimes) - Having multiple streams of income and businesses really creates a lot of chaos in your life. Although it may sound like fun to have your hands in multiple things, every day is a new day of dealing with �issues�. Although the money is great, living this type of lifestyle will never be a 9-5 job. If you want to be a millionaire you have to be willing to put in the hours and deal with all the daily annoyances that comes along with running multiple businesses.

Speed Up Firefox Page Loading

Jeremy — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 02:04:04 GMT

Hey guys,

I came across this page and followed all the steps, it took me less than 10 minutes and undoubtedly has sped my firefox loading times up.

I figured it would be a nice thing to share with fellow internet marketing geeks who are glued to their computers all day.

Enjoy!

Speed Up Firefox

My Most Recent PPC Experiment

Jeremy — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:01:47 GMT

Today I just got a new PPC campaign up, so I figured I'd share some details and report back my results.

Typically I am not into any type of MLM or crap like that with my PPC campaigns. However I picked a pretty good domain name up off expiration www.FreeSilverEagle.com that fits the type of sales scheme perfectly. Plus the reality is that there are still tons of people in the country that sign up for stuff like this. To be honest though I really hate the landing page.

So anyhow, I figured I'd throw some money at a campaign and see how it goes. I want the clicks to be pretty targeted versus just the random people searching for silver coins. etc. So my daily clicks may not be that high, but should be pretty targeted. I am targeting terms related to free silver eagle, free silver eagle coins, silversnowball, and similar terms.

Because my target is so narrow, I am only paying around .20 a click on Adwords and around .50 on facebook. For every 2 conversions I get, I earn a free silver eagle myself, which is essentially $20 or so, depending on the spot price of silver. For me this is great because I like turning my cash into metals anyways!

So basically to break even, through Google I need to get 1 conversion for every 50 clicks and 1 for every 20 on facebook <----This may be trickier.

We'll see how it goes but I figured I may as well share the results here, so stay tuned.

I Declare Domain Maintenance Month!

Jeremy — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:07:00 GMT

I hereby am declaring the rest of this month Domain Maintenance month. I was going through my Godaddy account this morning and realized how much useless crap I own that is on auto-renew.

I'd rather spend the $8x100+ every year on something I actually enjoy. For example lapdances and cheap whiskey in Oklahoma City with GP.

Unfortunately I also realized how many great domains I have that are just sitting there getting stale.

Seriously, nobody said that domain addiction was going to be easy to shake, but I am going to try my best.

Have no fears though, I am holding onto CertifiedBaller.com and GreasyPickle.com. You never know, someday I may actually develop these.

Anyone else suffer from the same addiction. If so, please join me in celebrating the rest of this month by turning off your auto-renew on some of this stuff.

Domain addiction can be worse than crack, I'm finally letting some go.

:gg me

Casino Affiliate Programs Survey

Jeremy — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:35:17 GMT

Hey guys,

My buddy who runs a bunch of different affiliate sites did a survey last month amongst affiliates to find out who the affiliates would rank as the best casino affiliate programs. Have a look and feel free to discuss. I feel disconnected lately myself with the casino affiliate market, so it was good to see the results of the survey based on other affiliates responses.

http://www.casinoaffiliateprogram.com/survey.html

A Day In The Life Of An Affiliate Manager

Jeremy — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:00:35 GMT

Hey guys,

I had a good laugh this morning when I read the Income Access blog and saw Louis's post. Although I know this is just for comedy because Louis actually works a lot of hours.

On the flip side, this very well may describe a lot of affiliates days that I know! Enjoy

http://blog.incomeaccess.com/2009/12...liate-manager/

Promoting Smaller Poker Sites

Jeremy — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:53:57 GMT

........Blowing the dust off my blog.

I know I need to get jeremyenke.com back up and running. You'd think just having to remove a 301 wouldn't be that hard! Nonetheless this is on the agenda in the next week or so. I just need to get some content up so it's not 1 new post followed by five 12 month old posts.

Anywho, I was having a conversation with MJ this morning who promotes almost all the smaller rooms with great success and it really got me thinking about a few things. Especially because I have fallen into an amazing local opportunity lately.

Long story short, there is a local charity poker group that has been around for years in Chicago. They host 250 events per year with and average of 400 players at each event. (All real money players) Until now, their online strategy has been pretty much non existent. So we are going to come in and begin monetizing their database of 40K+ real money players. Hell, I'll probably get a trade show booth and set up shop at the events signing players up for rakeback, free poker cash, and even better, online winter leagues, etc.

With that we have to look at what rooms to work with. Sure, the easy ones come to mind that take U.S., FT, Stars, etc. But when dealing with real money players at live events, you really do run into the issue of 50%+ of these players already playing at these rooms. For rakeback that's fine. But for a league with hundreds of players where we are adding big money, it is disheartening to see half the field already signed up.

With that I have been speaking with a few different operators, and I can say that working with the smaller operators or "skins" has been a pleasure. Here are 3 reasons:

Flexibility: When dealing with a smaller rooms, they genuinely want to earn your business and instead of saying, "we don't do that", they say, "yea we can find a way to do that".

Conversions: In a league situation like I am organizing, people are going to play regardless where it is hosted. It's nice to know that my conversion rate is going to be 95% for the players I refer.

Service: Similar to number 1, the service you get can often be much better since the A.M.'s know you can send players and know that you have lots of other choices. It's nice being treated as a valuable customer versus an expensive liability of the overall marketing department

In the end I am moving forward with Riyaz at OnlyPoker for the first league event because he is easy to get a hold of and flexible in our needs. But I'm sure I'll be working with more smaller sites as the online strategy gets going.

One thing I would suggest is that if you're not currently working with at least one newer room, expand your horizons and pick one to work close with. As frustrating as it is now days with some of these top 5 rooms, it has been a pleasant experience working with some of the smaller operators who genuinly value affiliates.

If you need some suggestions of new rooms to work with, shoot me a PM or skype and I'll get you an intro and good deal. Or even hit up MJ for that matter. He knows all these guys.

On a side note, I hate to end a blog without a picture. Props to MediocrePokerRadio where I found this fine specimen.

I miss blogging just for the pleasure of google image searching each day.

Off To Another Nascar Race

Jeremy — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:28:01 GMT

I know I have been a little quiet lately, and I do apologize for that. After so many years in the poker affiliate industry, I have found it a little easier to slack off in the summer time.

Anyhow, after a year off from Nascar races, that time has come once again to make the pilgrimage to Michigan for the "guys summer trip" to this weekends Nascar race. I'll admit, it is extremely hillbilly, and with this group, it is nothing like a gaming convention at a 5 star hotel!

We have a 5th wheel camper, we will be frying a turkey, plenty of beer, and posting up with 4 other dudes surrounded by Nascar fans. I however have personally opted out of sleeping in a camper with 4 other drunk, snoring dudes each night. I went to Gander Mountain and bought myself a one man tent, kick ass sleeping bag, and an air mattress. The only time I plan on sleeping that close to Karl will be if we somehow end up in a jail cell somewhere together. (definetely not an improbable scenario) Barring that however, I'll happily be in my mini suite just outside the camper each night!

I am not a huge Nascar fan myself, but Karl is, and the good news is that he is in the nuts and bolts biz and knows people in high places apparently; We have pit passes each day. From what I'm told, you get to go back in the garage and be right next to all the drivers and crew..... should be interesting.

So all in all it should be a fun weekend and a great way to wind up the summer. I hate twitter and never use it, but this weekend I will tweet anything funny or interesting for all you "tweet geeks". Follow it at JeremyEnke (JeremyEnke) on Twitter if you want a few good laughs.

I'll be out of the office from Thursday through Monday. If you need anything however you can email my BB at myname @ thissite or text me at 815-222-6517. If you need something urgent just contact Greg or one of the mods.

Here is a basic preview of my weekend. FML or ballin weekend? I guess I'll know Monday night. :p

Feel free to leave any funny comments, I fully expect (and deserve) all of them.

&fs=1" width="644" height="390"> " />

Firing Employees In Tough Economic Times

Jeremy — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:57:38 GMT

I found the perfect solution for those of you that have offices with employees and have struggled with potentially downsizing within your company.

Letter from the Boss

As the CEO of this organization, I have resigned myself to the fact that Barack Obama is our President and that our taxes and government fees will increase in a BIG way over the coming months and years.

For our small business to compensate for the increased taxation, our prices would have to increase by about 10%. But since we cannot increase our prices right now due to the dismal state of the economy, I have to announce with deep regret that we will have to lay off six of our employees instead.

This has really been bothering me since I consider everyone in the company a part of our family. I didn't know how to choose who would have to go, so this is what I did. I walked through our parking lot and found six 'Obama' bumper stickers on our employees vehicles and have decided these folks will be the ones to let go.

I can't think of a more fair way to approach this problem. They voted for change, and I gave it to them. I will see the rest of you at the annual company picnic.

***Feel free to use at will***

Is it time to abandon the U.S. Dollar?

Jeremy — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:35:58 GMT

So tonight I was reading over some financial sites, and of course being a U.S. citizen it just makes you shake your head when you realize what has, and is happening to the U.S. dollar.

I know many people hate getting into politics, so I'll hold off on any rants. But in all seriousness I am wondering if I should start doing more business in Euro's or GBP's?

Obviously with any affiliate pay, we are all at the liberty of the programs who all (based outside the U.S.) love paying affiliates in USD. But for my other business deals or paid advertising, why not start working in a stronger currency?

Take PAL or consulting for example, the business model and monetization is simply a monthly flat fee. So regardless when one of you ballers sign up at a PAL partner, I just get a flat rate. Boooooo!

But my question is, since 100% of my business in this market is with non U.S. companies, why the hell am I working in USD? I mean hell, if I moved to London, would I really be charging USD for consulting or advertising? My companies business account can handle wires from any currency and I just have to pay a conversion.

Just curious to hear some of your thoughts on USD vs. Euro if you are running a business in the U.S. but doing 100% of your (non affiliate) business with non U.S. companies. Should be interesting, please share your thoughts...........

Is Twitter Over Hyped Right Now?

Jeremy — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:27:59 GMT

It seems like lately all you hear about is Twitter. I am going to go against the popular vote here and say that I think Twitter is far overhyped right now. While I do think micro-blogging is cool and different, I think Twitters growth is being completely driven by marketers and promoters, all with agendas and self interests.

Don�t get me wrong, I have a Twitter page myself, and like everyone else I post links to my radio show, and other promotional items. Aside from that however, would anyone really care if I posted that I just went through the drive-thru at Mcdonalds and tried their new Mocha? probably not. I mean seriously, do 30,000 people really care what Shoemoney is reading today?

The problem I see with Twitter is that you have millions of people �tweeting� based on their own self interests. Wow, you may have 2000 followers, who cares? How many people �following� your tweets genuinely give a shit about what you are posting? If you built your twitter account and gained thousands of unknown followers from marketing, I have news for you. All your followers are other marketers that never read your tweets and probably have no idea who you are.

I do think Twitter is great for celebrities, news outlets, or companies that genuinely want to use the service to get their message out to the masses. For the random individual however, I think it is rubbish compared to Facebook.

With Facebook, you have an actual social network, and not just a page to post multiple boring status updates that no one reads or cares about. Don�t get me wrong, I see why all the hype is here, and I see why marketers are jumping on the bandwagon. The buzz is there, and it makes sense right now for internet marketers to embrace something with so much press. What I don�t understand however is; who are the people that actually want to read and follow hundreds of others tweeters.

Can anyone reading this tell me that you really want to follow hundreds of people and know what they are doing all day long.

As an internet marketer looking at all my fellow internet marketers tweeting, I can only compare it to a watered down version of an MLM. Everyone is out there promoting how great twitter is to everyone else and getting new people signed up, yet very few internet marketers including Twitter itself is actually making money with the platform.

I predict in the next few years Twitter will be cannibalized by marketers the same way Myspace was back in the day. Someone tell me who are all these people are that actually want to read all these millions of tweets being made each day.

So I end this post with this question:

Is Twitter over-hyped right now?

Rakeback - What is the future?

Jeremy — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:43:27 GMT

Lately I have been talking to a lot affiliates about rakeback. It's one of those things that undoubtedly is not going to go away in the industry. If anything it is going to increase and players are going to demand it even more as they become more savvy and educated.

As affiliates, we could argue all day long if rakeback is right or wrong, or even how we would like to see poker affiliate programs approach it. Unfortunately however, it is really out of our hands. At some point in the future though, certain larger programs are going to face the reality that the issue of new players getting rakeback, while their loyal high producing players who signed up 5 years ago are stuck is a MAJOR ISSUE.

Right now, if you think these players are not being allowed to sign-up new accounts under a wife, girlfriend, etc. you are living in a fantasy land. Whether rooms admit it or not, they are well aware that it's happening every day. And quite frankly I doubt they give a shit if a traditional revenue share affiliate is losing their MGR, as long as they keep the player.

Anyhow, here is a great article by Bill Rini about rakeback.

http://www.billrini.com/2009/04/20/o...ship-rakeback/

Top 5 Reasons To Support PAL Partners

Jeremy — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:08:58 GMT

Top 5 Reasons To Support PAL Partners

Many of you probably see the partner sites in the right sidebar every day on this site. And for many affiliates, PAL/CAL are communities you visit every day. Don't worry, I see the analytics, I know. :) However, how many of you promote a large majority of the sites we have listed here?

Out of the enormous amount of poker affiliate programs that are currently in the market, the programs listed here are programs that see the value in PAL members and actually want to earn your business. Make no mistake about it, these programs all pay for exposure to be in front of you. Below I am going to list a few reasons why you should be supporting our PAL Partner Programs.

Also, I make no 2nd tier income on any links here, so it will never affect your commission by signing up through PAL. In fact, I could care less if you follow a link from here. But it would be great if you let the A.M.'s know that you're a PAL member, and let them know you appreciate them supporting OUR community.

So here are 5 reasons why you should promote PAL Partners:

1. Accountability - Every affiliate program that joins the PAL community knows that they will be held to a higher level of accountability. If issues ever arise, they know that they will be responsible to both me and this entire community for resolving any issues in a timely manner.

2. Direct Line Of Contact - Each affiliate program that gets listed here is accessible to me via email, messenger, or phone within 48 hours. If any issue or dispute were to ever arise with a partner room you are promoting, I am always here to arbitrate it for you. Communication is key in any business, and you will never have a problem with that in regards to a site listed on PAL/CAL, I will personally see to that.

3. They Want To Earn Your Business - In all my years in the gambling affiliate business, nothing has been better than working with people that actually want to earn my business. Many of the affiliate managers here are active and accessible in the forums, and some even blog. Unlike many A.M.'s in this industry who just manage new sign-ups, these A.M.'s are at PAL/CAL for one reason; they want to do business with you, and more importantly, they want to see you be successful!

4. My Commitment - You have probably noticed my name is on the top of this site, you have my personal commitment. While I will never certify or accredit programs (because I don't believe in it). I take a lot of pride in knowing that both the affiliates and affiliate programs listed on my sites are the best of the best. I will commit to always act in the best interest of the affiliate community and help fellow affiliates with any issues they may have with any partner program listed here.

5. Special Deals - The beauty of PAL/CAL is that affiliate managers know that active members here are the real deal, and not random CPA scammers. They know that most of us live, eat, sleep, and breathe affiliate marketing. Because of this, you can usually negotiate special deals by contacting them through here. Or to make you're life easier, contact me, and I'll sort some special VIP deals for you. Nothing is better for an affiliate manager than being introduced to affiliates who can consistently produce new real money players. Leverage your PAL membership, and contact these A.M.'s today.

As PAL members, there is really no reason not to support the affiliate managers who are a part of this community. I encourage you all to comment and share your positive experiences in this post about PAL Partners who you have worked with in the past, or are currently working with now.

The Reality Of Running Forums

Jeremy — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:10:01 GMT

Over the past few weeks I have spoken with a few affiliates who are interested in creating an online community or adding a forum to their existing poker affiliate site. Quite frankly I think there is a lot of misconceptions about operating forums. They are no where near as profitable as many would think.

I think the reason most people want to run a community versus a static content site is because it is something tangible where you can see real activity from members every day. However the unfortunate reality is that active forum members do not equate to $$ in your pocket. In fact, active forum members are probably the worst when it comes to getting people to click on banners and leave your site.

I have spoken about this a few times in various speaker sessions, but think about it for a minute. Whether it be a community like 2+2, or even Facebook, people come to these places to be a part of the community, not necessarily to click out to another site. On the flipside, when someone comes to your site from Google after searching for "best online poker bonus" or whatever, they are genuinly looking to find information and then leave (hopefully thtough your aff. link).

This isn't to discourage anyone from starting a forum. I just think people should think about what they wish to accomplish with a forum. If your entire goal is to convert players and make money, a forum isn't the best way to go about it, SEO is.

On the other hand, if your looking to create a community of friends that you can nurture and grow, and perhaps make a little money in the process, then by all means, a forum is probably a good idea.

The other thing to keep in mind if you are starting a forum is this; There are hundreds of existing poker forums already out there. What is going to make your forum unique or different from the rest of the forums already in the market? What is your member acquisition strategy? How will you keep members active?

This post is just some food for thought regarding running an online community. In my next blog post, I'll share some tips and ideas for those who are planning on forging ahead and starting a forum.

One thing I always say about running a forum is that it's the equivalent of being in a daily soap opera, however without the movie star pay, and without the luxury if sleeping with hot chicks every day.

I welcome comments or questions from affiliates who are already running a forum or thinking about running a forum.