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2012 Should be awesome

Ridge — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:05:48 GMT

Most of you know I have been going through a lot of changes - Anyway, I get a lot of messages asking what I'm up too, if I'm still in gaming, etc. Also what my plans for 2012 are. So I'll see if I can update everyone.

Personal Stuff

First off, I've been dealing with my mother's health issues. She has been sick for a couple years, and nobody knew why. She's just turned 60 this month, and we found out a couple month ago she has "Lou Gehig's" aka "ALS" - No cure, some treatment, but just tough on her and everyone.

I'm the baby boy of the family, and the only one that lives close. So I've been in charge of setting up home health, Dr's appointments, etc. But overall, it's tough to watch a women who has always been on the go and active, to be tied to machines now. It is not easy to deal with for her, or for us.

As I said, I'm a big momma's boy, and it just sucks. Nobody should have to have ALS, its just a disease that pisses you off.

On the bright side, we have two boys graduating this year, one is signing with a college this week with a Baseball Scholarship, and the other with a Full Academic scholarship. We are so proud, and it just hit me that our boys will be going off to college. I'm 34, and feeling old and just worried. Of course, super proud.

Work Stuff

Since the Rakeupdate mess, I have been doing a lot of SEO/Marketing consulting for poker rooms, and large affiliates. I really love this type of work, and I recently accepted a role running the PR and Marketing side of a campaign. A State Appellate Judge is running for the State Supreme court, and this should be a fun experience.

Over the last 3 months or so, we have sold most of our websites and accounts. The last of the sales was closed last week. So we are now debt free! Which is huge for us considering when we got married, we could barley pay our rent, couldn't afford TV, etc. So nice turn around

As I said I'll be doing the campaign and continuing to take consulting jobs, and above all relax and enjoy life some.

I'm still dealing with the kids graduating, life goes pas quick. A lot of times I don't think I've been enjoying myself, and if guys like us that build businesses, sell business, etc - If we can't enjoy life some, what the fuck is the point? :)

So, I'm now planning a couple trips, and considering what new projects I want to do. In the past, all my major sites we developed slowly as I had time, and money. I never had a lot of either, so now that we are in a position to fund any project we want, I think it will be a lot of fun.

So, if you are looking for an investor/business partner, I'm opening to looking at anything.

PS - Oh I almost forgot. We all know there is a lot of shady crap that goes on in the industry. Over the years I've been in a unique position to see a lot of these shady deals and shady people. So now that nobody else can threaten to hold my money, or some other threat. I will be calling some of the people and companies out on their bullshit. So stay tuned for that. It feels nice not to owe anyone :)

Lesson learned!

Ridge — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:26:37 GMT

I've been getting a lot of PM's and IM's asking me if I'm still alive lol - So I thought a quick post here would be good and give me a chance to vent a bit

I've learned some great lessons over the past few months, the most important one (Thank you Kaus and MJ) is that my health needs to be priority over everything else! See, I have a tiny bit of OCD, so when I enjoy something (Like Marketing, building sites, making money) I get a little OCD about it. So ever since I realized I could make money being an affiliate, the challenge of it got me hooked!

The down side of this is that over the last few years the 15-18 hour days, 7 days a week, and living on 4-5 hours sleep finally caught up with me. I started getting sick and eventually ended up in the hospital. The initial diagnosis was "Congestive Heart Failure" <------ WTF? I'm only 32 I was thinking -

Long story short, I got out of the hospital and saw my family doc, he ran dozens of tests and let me know I didn't have CHF, but a serious infection and a blood sugar issues. All which can be treated. He did lecture me on fatigue and of course eating right as well. Unfortunately, my illness didn't end there, and overall I spent close to 2 months recovering and getting my strength back. It was a Big wakeup call anyway. I have 6 kids and an awesome wife, and I want to grow old and live long enough to be a burden on them all ;)

So, if you are anything like me and tend to get too wrapped up in things, remember to take a step back, smell the roses, and most of all take care of yourself. Not just for you, but for those who would miss you if you were gone.

The last couple weeks have been great though, finally putting a dent in PM's I never responded to, IM's I wasn't able to return, etc. Knocking out stuff that has been on my whiteboard for months now. Thankfully I have a great team of people I work with who gladly took up some of the slack for me.

Side Note: Tommy (PAL coder) has been a big help and learns quickly so we have been throwing some work his way, I recommend him if you have some extra work

Best of all we are near completing a 11 month project which Eric and I have poured our heart and soul into. We are actually in "live beta" now on a few and since I've never really been a part of such a major project, I had no idea how truly satisfying it would be to complete it.

Anyway, it was great to know some people actually noticed when I wasn't around, and thanks again to everyone who messaged me or my wife asking about me. It really meant a lot!

Beta Testers Needed
Ok, yeah as usual I'm long winded and this post is getting long - Thanks again everyone, and if anyone wants to help beta test or just check out Eric's latest awesome creation, hit me up.

Thanks,

Randy

A Message To Everyone

Ridge — Sat, 15 May 2010 04:48:51 GMT

Last month or so, a close friend of mine died, and i posted about this on my personal blog and a lot of PAL members stepped up and donated money from sales and outright donations for the family.

Well we got all of the donated money to the family and his wife Daphne and today she posted a "thank you" on my blog as well as a poem Shane had wrote.

Anyway, for all the people that donated I want to thank everyone again. Also I want you guys to knwo that you really helped someone that needed it. So thanks again guys!

You can see a message from his wife Daphne here: http://www.arkansasgambler.com/perso...n/257#comments

Thanks again guys!

A Special thanks to PAL!

Ridge — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 03:10:19 GMT

I wanted to take a second to thank everyone involved in helping me raise funds for my friend Shane's family. The death hit his wife and children hard, and it him being so tough it just took us all by surprise.

Of course the family and friends have many tough times ahead trying to adjust, I feel so good about being able to ease some of the burden on them, even if only a little bit.

Several PAL members have donated money, money form domain and websites, sales etc. We have some very special people on here and I'm super proud to be apart and know all of you. Its one thing to help someone you know, but to help out complete strangers is something special!

I plan on going to visit with Daphne (Shane's wife) Sunday or Monday and taking her all the funds donated. I know some money is still coming in and I assure you it will all get to the family, so no need to rush.

Also I want to give out shout out to my man Riyaz at OnlyPoker.com - You are the man buddy! This dude rocks and this program is awesome, no bull.

Anyway, everyone involved has link on my blog, and other sites :) It's the least I could do for you guys. Please let me know if I missed anyone, and there is still domains and websites for sale from myself, OPB, Todd, and I think a couple others. These guys have all offered to donate a portion of their sales to the family, so check those sales threads out.

Finally, I know several people have emailed, IM'd, and text'd me over the last week. I've still been in a state of shock over all this, so I have not been doing much work. But I will be back at it come this weekend, so expect some replies soon and thanks for everyone's support and understanding.

Wow, that was way longer than I intended!

Thanks again guys!

Randy

Hitting the wall

Ridge — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:21:15 GMT

I'm wondering how many other affiliate go through this. 2010 which is great traffic and income wise, just seems to be a grind. I think maybe I've hit the wall or something. I don't even want to check stats or do much of anything. I just feel tired and I cannot seem to get motivated.

There is only so many poker sites you can work on before you just get sick of it I guess. I'm not sure if I honestly though I could keep up the manic pace I've set for myself, but after being sick twice this year with general cold/flu stuff I know I need to have a healthier routine.

I've started working out three times a week, we bought a new treadmill and some other excessive equipment, I think its way past time for me to start taking better care of myself.

I'm taking the family on a mini vacation this weekend, no work kinda thing. I'm hoping I'll come back motivated and ready to get back on track. I have several projects that I've been dragging my feet on, half finished reports, and even things I'm just too tired to email lol.

Anyway, hopefully after a few days of Margarita's and chillin' I'll get my spark back. Has anyone else hit the wall so to speak? Just lost motivation? My big fear is that; Right now everything is going way better than I could ever hope in regards to my online business. RakeUpdate business is growing by leaps and bounds, but I know when you get complacent bad things happen. This business doesn't take days off, so it can be dangerous..

Article Re-posted by John Chow

Ridge — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 03:36:23 GMT

I thought some of you might want to see this. This is an article about a project we worked on for my Twilight sites, and after chatting with John Chow he posted it on his site.

The original article can be found here: http://www.onlinepokerseo.com/700-in...subscriptions/

Originally we planned on posting it on Arkansas Gambler, but I thought it was a better fit on my SEO website.

Anyway, you can see the article which is about email marketing here: http://www.johnchow.com/how-i-increa...00-in-3-weeks/

Top Negotiaiton Tips and Top 20 SEO Tips

Ridge — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:49:18 GMT

Hey guys and gals,

The members of PAL have always been good to me, and if not for Jeremy, Party Riches, PAW, PAL, and several members here I would be where I am today. I've been trying hard to create a resource for new affiliates on my personal blog and my Poker SEO site as a way of giving back.

Anyway, a couple topics that have been requested I've tried to cover with my last few posts. I hope you guys get something from them that help you make money! Also please leave some comments on what has worked well for you, or any tips and advice.

Also I'm running a little contest. The best "Affiliate Tip" left on the comments will get a free copy of "SEO Book" - Just leave your comments on the site and I'm going to have a couple respected members here decide the winner.

My latest posts are:

Top 20 Poker SEO Tips

Top 5 Negotiating Tips

Two Article you need to read

Ridge — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:46:56 GMT

We all have our own points of view of marketing, seo, and making money in general. We are all very strong willed business men and women and I encourage everyone to try different thing and never let anyone tell you what you "have" to do to make money or have a good quality website. Work hard, have goals, and keep the eye on the prize!

We all have our own way of doing things, that's not usually a right or wrong thing, it is what it is.

The first article is about Building a Business model that meets YOUR goals. The second one is a great article about Targeting Winning Keywords. There are billions of KW's and phrases you can go after and rank well for, but you need to find the ones that will make you money.

Also, thanks for the guys who wrote these, its great to have a different perspective on issues and in the end it makes us consider all things. Much like poker, there is many ways to play a hand. :)

Guest Post by Mike W. Managing time as a growing affiliate

Ridge — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:00:25 GMT

Hey everyone,

MikeW was nice enough to make a guest post on my Blog, its a great post which discusses "Managing your time as a growing affiliate"

Thanks again to Mike as there is a ton of great info in this article. Also I want to invite everyone to leave a comment with your link.

7 Random Thoughts and Tips you will find useful

Ridge — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 18:08:13 GMT

Hey guys,

I thought everyone would want to check out this guest post GregW (Poker Bank) made on my blog this morning. I'm truly honored that he and a few other well know webmasters would take the time to do this.

If you don't know who GregW is, then you need to check out his site The Poker Bank which is one of the best Poker Strategy websites on the web.

Here is part of his Article:

1) Simple is almost always better.

There have been countless times where I have laboured over review page layouts and the way I display content on my pages. This usually results in about an hour or so of my time spent toying with CSS to get it looking �just right� or as close as I can get to �perfect�. However, I�ve come to realise that 95% of the time the simple option is so much better.

The �content over design� idea has been hammered home so many times that we just gloss over it, but seriously, it couldn�t be truer. The more complicated a layout gets the harder it is to develop and the more likely it is to mess up at some point. So why spend time working on something complex when it will look just as well and be easier to manage in a much simpler form? READ MORE

Rakeback Secrets I don't want you to know

Ridge — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 03:35:51 GMT

I've been visiting these forums since the party riches days. Jeremy and many other members on here have shown me how to make a living, and given me security for my family. I no longer have to rely on "working for the man" to get by. Not has being an Poker Affiliate given me a better life, but I've also been able to provide extra income for my programmer (Eric), several writers, etc.

We are all essentially small business owners and we are the life blood of the economy. Hopefully this will hold true even with all the radical changes and special interest groups that seek to destroy and enslave people like us. Make no mistake, a massive power grab is happening!

Anyway, the point of this post is to give something back to this forum, and hopefully something in here will allow you to one day give something back and help keep the small business spirit alive.

Rakeback Secerets

Almost daily I get IM's, email's, or PM's form fellow affiliates asking my advice on building a rakeback site, or Rakeback vs Revshare/CPA model and my answer is pretty much the same for everyone. Long term Rakeback will make you the money. As we have seen form Tony's great post on assigning an actual value to the average rakeback player, there is NO doubt Rakeback players are worth more than the average non rakeback player. For obvious reasons:

Most Rakeback Players are grinders
Rakeback players are loyal
New Players don't know about rakeback, if a player is finding your site looking for RB terms, they know what they are doing!

Secret #1
Rakeback in general is still in the early stages in the poker world. Poker Rooms have always offer some type of bonus, but Rakeback is a different story. We all know the old dominating poker portals, they dominate the SERPS for some of the most valuable keywords. This is great news for new affiliates and rakeback affiliates because that leave money making rakeback terms WIDE OPEN!

Now although these terms are wide open, that does nto mean they are easy to find. XXX Poker Room Rakeback which of course is a good KW is not always the best KW for rakeback traffic. But there is a million other terms which are and will make you money.

I was talking to a buddy of mine today who is trying rakeback for the first time. He recently started a rakeback site, his first rakeback site and within a month he has had a few good SU's already! He was really surprised and very happy. He knows that in the bonus side of things, it is not that easy.

What people like me don't want you to know is that Rakeback is really that easy! Ranking for good KW can be done easily if you do it the right way. Research, Research, and more Research!

Secret #2
you do NOT need a ton of volume to make money at rakeback. We have already seen how much better the player value is compared to normal players, so it pretty much balances out. You won't be getting 35% when offering rakeback, but you can get anywhere from 12%-25% + lots of other cool things to offer that bonus affiliates cannot. RakeRaces, Freerolls, special events, etc.

Secret #3
Affiliate manager love good rakeback affiliates! Of course they do, we bring in the highest value players for them! You will be amazed the deals you can make when you have a good rakeback site. Special rates, special tournaments, etc. For example: I work with a couple rooms that do not deduct bonuses from me or my players!

I hope this helps some newer affiliates or some affiliates that are caught in a rut and are not sure what they can do to increase income. I encourage everyone to try something new!

Want to Offer Rakeback?
As some of you know, about 3 months ago I took a position with one of the leading Rakeback Providers and over the last few months I have helped several great affiliates transition into the rakeback market. Not only do they get to pick my brain but I also make sure they get better starting percentages than they will get anywhere! You will also get to offer $100,000 in additional Races and Rolls for your players.

So, if you are looking to get into the rakeback niche, hit me up and I'll help get you started now!

Randy's SEO Test #1

Ridge — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:10:28 GMT

This will be the first major SEO theory test I'm doing this year. A lot of people like reading about others test from year ago, I want to do my own, and so should you. Of course we all know SEO takes time and above all else lots of testing. This week I'm going to be trying something and I wanted to share it with everyone first, then report back with some results.

Disclaimer: I will not be doing this test within the gaming industry, so everyone who has already reported me to their nearest AM, get a life lol

Here is the jist of what I'm going to do.

I'm going to buy some domains that have high PR and develop them into mini sites. These sites will have PR4+ and the url's will be vague and not specific to any niche. I'm sure you can guess what I'm going to do with them next right? :)

Now, I don't want to get into the who whitehat vs blackhat bullshit. This is mainly a test. Obviously we are all grey to blackhats like it or not. Now, the purpose of this is only to test a theory of mine, not to make this a standard practice because there is easier ways to rank well for terms.

Of course this has all been done before, but you cannot really know something unless you have tried it. This test won't cost much, mainly time and will be neat to see the results.

Also, if you have done something like this yourself, please post how your test turned out.

Randy's Rants - I love this business

Ridge — Mon, 25 May 2009 22:43:26 GMT

I'm just so happy with the way everything has been going in my personal life and business life. I think it is amazing that I can spend 18 hours a day working on my sites, or detailing tasks for my programmer or wife to do, and yet I still hate going to bed and cannot wait to get back at it again.

I'm giving some serious thought to at what point should I go full time as an affiliate. I have a kickass corporate job which allows me to spend any downtime I have (and there is quite a bit) doing w/e I want. The people I work with are honestly some of the smartest people I know. Overall I have what most people would call a dream job. I need to post some pics of my office sometimes. Not to brag, but it rocks!

Over the last 8 months all my hard work before that seriously started to pay off. I'm set to make more money in 2009 than I've made in the last 3 years combined. It almost sounds like I'm bragging, and I guess I am, but I'm so excited. Again, the question is "when do I leave the security of a constant pay check for the risk of total self employment"?

Now, if some of the good fortune and issues I mentioned above are not enough, in the last two months I have been offered full time jobs essentially being a consultant for a major affiliate network, and another job consulting for a well know online poker room. I owe this all to the man himself "Randy f'ing Ray" lol <<<----- Since I first met Randy my life has changed and I've went from "making a living, to making some coin" all with his guidance and help. I feel truly blessed and I don't believe in coincidences either.

Ok, I've rambled a bunch now. My main thought when I started writing is that "I love this business". Last night I decided to check a couple affiliate accounts that I don't promote much at all. In one account I found $400 and some change, and I found $200+ combined in the other two. This business rocks!!! Poker and Casino players rock, and I have some tough decisions to make soon.

I'd love to hear with other affiliates that have made the leap and that have families to worry about.

Randy's Rants - Godaddy Sucks and so do I

Ridge — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:52:23 GMT

Godaddy.com Sucks

The last three days have been very trying to say the least. First off, I decided to break down and get a dedicated server to handle my growing forum and the nice increase in traffic on my 30 websites.

I called up the ever trusty staff at Godaddy and chatted with them about my best options. Then I chatted with my programmer Eric (mewsiclovr) and we dedicated that a Premium VPS on godaddy would be the way to go. However, Eric kept telling me that "godaddy sucked ass" and we should just move everything elsewhere. He has been telling me this for two years, and like the stubborn ass I am, I ignored him..

So, I made sure I could get at least dedicated IP's on my VPS, and godaddy assured me it would not be an issue, I just had to pay extra. So cool I thought, let's do this.

We got all 30 sites moved which is not an easy task, then I went to buy the dedicated IP's because the VPS only came with three, and I found out I had to submit a requests, which I did. I kept getting a request back for "more details" to "justify" why I need them. So, we explained that we needed them for specific programs and such. Apparently, this wasn't good enough. Some nerd at Godaddy gets to decide if I am WORTHY enough to get them and I kept getting the run around and requests for more info.

Finally I called godaddy and explained this to the CS rep, finally I was put on hold for their supervisor. This lady then explained to me that my requests have been denied because they don't feel I need dedicated IP's. WTF OMFG JESUS!!!! After arguing with them for over an hour, and a total of 3 hours that day, I finally realized that they were seriously not going to give me the IP's no matter what. So Godaddy not only has some lonely nerd making calls about what "I need" , but they blatantly lied to me to get more business. I even had email proof where I was told additional IP's would be no problem.

Needless to say, this all really had me stressed, and now out of principle I have to move all my stuff off godaddy. I will not do business with companies like this.

I Suck Too

Last night was a rough night, I have a ton of work to do for my clients, and my own business. It was just not to be!

We have all heard the story of computers crashing and not having backups. Well, this happened to me last night with my brand new laptop I've been so proud of.

I do keep most of my stuff on a server, but I still love hours and hours of screenshots, images, site files (with edits I didn't have saved), pic of my kids, etc. All gone!! Most of the pics and stuff I'm 90% sure we have duplicates somewhere, but I know a ton of my images and stuff are el goneo lol

The weird thing is I'm not sure what happened, I'm pretty sure it was some nasty virus. I spent 3 hours trying to fix it myself, and when I was ready to throw it out and go buy a new one, my very cool wife dialed tech support because its still under warranty. After we got past the language barrier (because I don't speak klingon) we finally decided to just wipe it and restore it.

The restore took 4 freaking hours, no joke. I actually thought the restore feature was corrupt as well. But it finally worked itself out.

Anyway, do yourself a favor and back you stuff up today!!

Randy's Rants - Notice to the world

Ridge — Wed, 06 May 2009 03:38:59 GMT

I thought I really needed to make this post 6 months ago. For those that don;t know me well, or haven't dealt with me, I'm a pretty cool customer that works 18 hours a day doing corporate work and website work. I enjoy working these hours and love how my life is going. That being said, I'm bad about be a bit too short with some of my comments or don't take enough time to explain myself well.

I have always been outspoken, to the point that I sometimes have to bite my tongue to keep form saying things that will offend people. I always seem to rub people the wring way without meaning too, but I think I'm one of those people you either like or don't with not much room in the middle. its just my nature.

Case in point: My buddy Hazo was debating with me in the "Rakeback: thread, after several back and forth posts he hit me on IM and asked if I was pissed at him lol - Took me totally by surprise as I thought it was just a fun debate. But it reminded me that I had been wanting to make a post like this.

My point is that I tend to rant about things, without actually being mad or really upset. I find ranting helps me get it off my chest and move on. On more than one occasion I've had people IM me or call me and ask if I was pissed at them. Which was a total shock to me because it had not crossed my mind.

So, I'm trying to be more aware of how my tone comes across in posts, sometimes I am just too short in my posts, this is mainly because I'm so pressed for time and "blurt" my thoughts out.

Also, I do like posting stuff that might become a hot debate topic even if it has been gone over a 100 times before. I haven't always been around, and its the same for other affiliates. I also think that over time issues change and a fresh perspective is a good thing.

So, posts like the Rakeback post, or pokerstars domains, etc are not just being posted to start shit, but because these are issues on the forefront of our industry and they need to eventually be resolved. I actually heard a sound solution the the rakeback issue today that I had never heard before form Bill R, very good stuff Bill!

Anyway, my IM is always open to anyone. So if you have an issue with something I say, or how I say it then feel free to let me know. Chances are I chose piss poor words explaining my view or something of that nature.

Forum are weird because its always hard to tell exactly how a person means something they type, in the real world body language is everything, so its very different in our online world.