Affiliate Manager Interview Series: Massimiliano "Max" Rossi – Vegas Affiliates

[CityGuard]

Age: 24
Hometown: Bellinzona, Switzerland
Favorite food: Homemade pasta
Favorite movie: “Banana Republic” by Woody Allen

What differentiates Vegas Affiliates from other affiliate programs?
Our experience gained through eight years of doing business, trust and strong relationships with our Webmasters.

How did Vegas Affiliates get its start?
In 2000, soon after we started, we were approached by the Minivegas Group to offer them support on managing current affiliates as well as acquiring new affiliates. We have been working together ever since while constantly improving the way in which we do business to create an opportunity for everyone to share in our success.

Do your brands target different niches or are they generally oriented to the same audience? What are the demographics of your targeted customers?
Our brands target a broad spectrum of users from many different areas in an effort to offer the best in online entertainment to as many players as possible.

What was your favorite subject in school? And why was it your favorite subject?
Math. Numbers don’t lie.

What three keys to success would you recommend to a new webmaster starting out?

1. A good understanding of their traffic.
2. A clear understanding of the industry.
3. Aligning with an affiliate network that will cater to their needs.

How did you get started in this business?
I was lucky enough to be approached by friends already involved in the industry.

What songs are on your iPod (or mp3 player)?
I rarely do compilations. I prefer to listen to discographies. Right now, Stevie Wonder is filling all the space in the iPod.

What one thing (event, person, or program) has most influenced the way you conduct yourself / do business as an affiliate manager?
The difficulty that I had to face when I started in April.

You experienced difficulty with your stats in April and general payment processing difficulties. Can you describe what happened? What was done or is being done to resolve the difficulties and ensure they are not repeated?
We experienced difficulties due to the process of moving from our current reporting system to a newly developed system that would improve on the level of reporting. The problem came in when we discovered some compatibility issues between the new system and the database. We then scrapped the project and reverted back to the previous system.

To avoid this from repeating itself, we’ve instructed the developers to go back to the drawing board and gain an even better understanding of our current systems before attempting to develop a new updated version.

Vegas Affiliates brands offer several languages and target a number of different locations. What are the keys to attracting players from all over the world? Or should affiliates concentrate on getting players from just one or two countries?
Due to the fact that we are more or less all new to the non-US market, we would encourage affiliates to learn from the various open markets, whether tapped or untapped.

What kinds of marketing tools do you offer to help affiliates drive and convert traffic for your brands?
We provide webmasters with the choice of seven unique casinos, all offering something different and available in various languages. We are constantly adding more languages to our portfolio. Our casinos are also powered by Microgaming software, one of the biggest software providers in industry and one of the most reliable. We offer increased customer satisfaction and retention through the choice of more than 260 games along with a strong focus on (multilingual) customer support. Combining all of the above with our eight years of experience in the industry and strong focus on security (certified by eCogra), we believe that we are a valuable partner to all webmasters.

Please describe your ideal day off.
Spending the entire day reading while listening to some good music in the company of the one I love most.

What’s your next big purchase (personal)?
I’ve always dreamed of buying an original Fender Rhodes. And recently, I found one.

What’s the key to building successful relationships between affiliates and affiliate programs?
Trust, stability, respect and support.

If you could choose any five people throughout history to spend a day at a casino, what games would you play and would who would you invite?
I would like to have Napoleon, Sun Tzu and Machiavelli over for a game of Texas Holdem.

[itay]

CityGuard, great interview and well outlined!

Itay

[aksana]

Yes, interesting interview. Thanks