Affiliate Interview Series: thepogg

[GPWA Aaron]

Age: 30
Hometown: Edinburgh
Living in: Edinburgh
Favorite Food: Curry
Must Read Book: Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan
Site: www.thepogg.com

How did you become involved in the industry?
I started out as a player years ago after reading Ben Mezrich’s Bringing Down the House.

When did you launch your site?
March 2011.

How long did it take for you to start earning money?
We’re earning some money now, but honestly we’re still working on that.

Right now your site seems to be pulling in a lot of traffic. Do you have any specific goals for where you’d like to take the site over the next year or so?
Major changes to both the site’s look and direction will occur in the next few months. Keep checking back at thepogg.com for details as they happen.

What traits do you look for in an affiliate manager? How about in an affiliate program?
First and foremost I look for AMs who make themselves available to me – there’s nothing worse than having to repeatedly send the same e-mail again and again. In an affiliate program, I’m looking for a team that understands that what’s best for their players is best for both of us. Happy players gamble more!

In January you turned the tables on affiliate program folks, letting them know that you’d be going to the London Affiliate Conference and would be available to meet with any of them who might be interested. How did that work out for you? Also, do you attend many conferences?
It worked out really well – I was contacted by several AMs for programs I was previously unaware of and got the opportunity to talk to a lot of people who weren’t necessarily hosting their own stalls. LAC was the first conference I’ve attended, but I will be turning up at more in the future.

You recently posted that you were looking to add a lot of video content to your site. What kind of videos do you plan to add? And why do you think it makes sense to avoid loading the video to YouTube?
You’ll have to check back on thepogg.com in the coming months to find out what’s coming. In general you’re better finding an alternative hosting service (preferably a cheap one) rather than YouTube as from time to time you’ll find the YouTube page for your video ranking above the page you embed the video in. But this is a more costly alternative and it’s still a good idea to have a YouTube profile.

What advice would you offer someone just starting out in the industry?
Don’t expect things to happen overnight and focus on generating content that users are really going to want to engage with.

What prompted you to join the GPWA? How has it helped you?
Interaction with people with more experience in the affiliate area of the gambling industry than me. I’ve made several contacts now without whom the site would never have reached the level of success that it has and whose advice has had great impact on where the site is going next.

What do you like about the industry?
Winning.

What don’t you like about the industry?
Losing.

What surprised you most about the industry?
I’ve been around the gambling industry on one side of the table or another for a very long time and very little surprises me anymore. I suppose the Betfair Happy Hour scandal a while back caught me a little off guard. It shows how quickly a good company can go bad.

A few weeks back you posted at length about Daniel Tzvetkoff’s having struck a secret deal with U.S. prosecutors to become a key informant in the case against the top operators at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker. Was Tzvetkoff right to try to save his own skin, or was he a cowardly, dishonorable, dirty rat?
Well, the wording of the question tells me your opinion! He’s neither. Everyone involved from the poker rooms through the affiliates and all the way down to the players knew that dealing with U.S. customers was illegal and they were all gambling that the U.S. government would never pursue this issue. I feel sympathy for all the people who’ve been financially affected by these draconian prosecutions, but I won’t damn the man for making a bargain that allows him to keep his freedom. There was no “omertà”-style code of silence in all of this, just a lot of people trying to make money doing something they knew they could end up in jail for.

You’ve told us that you don’t actually have an office (just a “gambling room”) but you work 11 or 12 hours a day, seven days a week, because you’re currently “in start-up mode.” Any indications that you might eventually be able to cut back on that schedule a little bit?
Yeah, there’s a fair chance that in the next 12 months or so I could relax that a little. The real issue is do I want to? I’m a workaholic and love what I do. I’m not somebody that’s particularly good at slowing down.

How long do you give yourself for answering e-mail? What e-mail tips can you offer?
I try to answer all e-mail as quickly as possible. As frustrated as you might be, always be polite and friendly. You can refuse or disagree with the contents of someone’s e-mail to you, but at the end of the day they’re your business partner. That means that while your views may be diverging today, new opportunities to profit could be on the horizon tomorrow and if you’ve burned personal bridges over business matters it’s a lot harder to access those profits.

How do you manage your “to-do” lists? Do you use any special software to help you out?
At the moment my “to-do” list is a notebook. It’s been coping so far.

How much time does it take to keep your site updated?
Well, I work 11 or 12 hours a day. That gets broken down into e-mail, phone calls, content generation and site upkeep. All of it I consider to be part of keeping the site updated.

How much time do you devote to SEO and/or social networking in order to drive more traffic to your site?
It varies depending on what I’ve got to do. Personally I don’t consider SEO to be mutually exclusive to the rest of the work on my site. If I’m working on an article that I know is going to generate a lot of backlinks – is that content generation or SEO? As to social media, it hasn’t been a major priority up till now, but will be a lot more important to me in the near future.

If someone were visiting you, what’s the one place you’d definitely take them to see?
The Gurkha Café restaurant.

There are quite a few cat-lovers in the GPWA ranks, and you’re definitely one of them. You posted recently that currently you have two cats. Tell us a little about them. Any other pets around your house?
I have a very large ginger and white long-haired male called WeeMan who’s the most placid creature you’re every likely to meet and a very small ginger and white short-haired female called Witch who’s always racing about and wanting to play. Fortunately – even though she’s fully grown – she’s too small to hurt you even if she tries. We also have a couple of guinea pigs and a fish.

What’s your favorite vacation spot?
I guess I’d say New York, but not the city itself. We’ve got friends living a little further out.

If you could have one “superpower,” what would it be, and why?
Who says I don’t have lots already?

What’s your favorite TV show or shows – any programs that you make it a point to see when they’re aired for the first time?
I never watch TV shows when they’re broadcast. If I want to see something I’ll wait and get it on DVD. There are a few I’m looking forward to picking up in the near future – "Game of Thrones" and the new series of "Dexter" and "Breaking Bad" are the highlights.

What’s your all-time favorite movie?
Ghostbusters. No explanation required.

If you were shooting your autobiography, whom would you cast to play you?
My life seriously isn’t interesting enough for me to drag any actor into that career-ending role.

If you could invite any five people, living or dead, to dinner, who would they be?
I’d only invite two: illusionist-mentalist Derren Brown and gambling expert James Grosjean. I’m sure some interesting ideas would occur if those two met up.

What are three things that nobody knows about you?
Many years ago I ran a music reviews website.
I’ve toured with Machine Head.
I’ve done press for both Iron Maiden and Metallica.

[SlotsAff]

toured with Machine Head? You must have some stories then!

[Renee]

How long do you give yourself for answering e-mail? What e-mail tips can you offer?
I try to answer all e-mail as quickly as possible. As frustrated as you might be, always be polite and friendly. You can refuse or disagree with the contents of someone’s e-mail to you, but at the end of the day they’re your business partner. That means that while your views may be diverging today, new opportunities to profit could be on the horizon tomorrow and if you’ve burned personal bridges over business matters it’s a lot harder to access those profits.

If there was one piece of advice I could give to anyone in this industry, regardless of the position they hold, this would be it. Thanks for sharing

[Maria F]

Nice interview!

It would have been nice to see your picture

[baldidiot]

Touring with MH is damn cool - I remember them from back in my rocker days when I was at college.

[samantha.pacquiao]

What are three things that nobody knows about you?
Many years ago I ran a music reviews website.
I’ve toured with Machine Head.
I’ve done press for both Iron Maiden and Metallica.

- Interesting!!

[Doolally]

Great interview. Will be interesting to see the new site additions in the coming months.

Nice to see a fellow Scotsman here too!!

[Anthony]

Thank you for sharing, great interview!

[p.arena]

Cool interview, I like your taste in TV shows

12 hrs a day, 7 days a week is brutal!

[davemerry]

Great interview.

Met thepogg at LAC, nice guy! He came across very analytical, I wouldn't like to play poker against him!