I’ve officially dropped out of uni now.

Day to day living is great but, obviously this is my life and I don’t want to screw it up too bad. Ofcourse you can be successful without uni but, its a high variance game to play nowadays.

In the UK everybody goes into further education now which makes people like me pretty much unemployable. Working at a call centre or a customer assistant is ofcourse possible but, nobody goes into that as their career. Its a scary though but, as a consequence the value of degrees have gone down.

Anyway, I’m a lot happier without uni. Actually doing something I want is pretty amazing. Although its a feeling I need to appreciate and remind myself of otherwise it will just become the norm and I may never be able to integrate as an employee (I might need to someday).

I have some pretty high hopes for iPokerVIP and other ventures like StudentPizza, PokerAvantage etc (which are taking their sweet time !) and the company is growing. The problem is I want to take on staff and an office and it becomes pretty tricky. I don’t want to be in a situation where the company is becoming bigger and I’m earning less.

Getting an office, employing people etc is costly and its almost impossible to accuratley judge what kind of value they’re going to bring to the business. A lot of the time an employee will be doing stuff I’m perfectly capable of doing but, their true value is in freeing up my time to grow the company further – I find it impossible to put a value on that.

Even a creative / web designer – its hard to judge how much new business a website will generate or a new logo.

I guess its just a case of some educated guesswork and covering my back. Obviously I dont plan on buying an office and sticking 10 guys in it to begin with.

Anyway, next year this time I hope I’m in an office with 2 other members of staff and really making shit happen.

The winter is going to be interesting. I’m kinda counting on it being a time where the company bank account can enjoy some growth

See ya

From then on it will just be about player acquisition.

After the new ads, buying studentpizza, design, banners, translation and all that other good stuff I will have made a very small loss this month although there are no more major expenses in store for 2010 (apart from a trip to the affiliate conference in Budapest).

I’m really excited for the new ads to see how much better they do than the last ones. I think we look like a really pro outfit now and hopefully will be in full flow by Budapest.

Anyway, I’ve got a few much more exciting updates in store soon but, need to get some sleep now.

Just a quick update.

Things are going about a 7/10 I’d say – always seems to be the favoured rating. Don’t want to go for a 9/10 to seem cocky but, don’t want to come accross as a pesimistic twat either. Just right.

Anyways, business wise I’ve been putting in the hours recently and looking forward to the new updated ipokervip (and ads) coming out towards the end of this week. Hopefully, next week the same site will be up in Dutch and German.

I know I’ve already gone on about it but, the site is a total step up from the old one so it will be interesting to see how people respond to all the new stuff.

On top of that we have PokerAvantage.com
This is something I’m going to really have to put the hours in on and am going for a different web designers for just to see how they do. I can only pile so much work on one set of guys. As far as I can tell there is not one comprehensive comparison site for players in France and nowhere needs this kind of service more than France at the moment. All the sites have pretty different rake structures and reward programs and the market is so saturated a lot of the companies are in dire need of affiliates. In my opinion, with 30+ sites all catering to <5% of the online poker population this need for outsourcing recruitment to affiliates is only going to be exacerbated.

StudentPizza.Com / PizzaVoucherCode.Com & PizzaVoucherCodes.Com are all coming out soon. Which are basically voucher code sites specific to Pizza Hut, Dominos and Papa Johns.

Online ordering of pizza is on the rise.
Fast food / takeaways are on the rise.
Popularity of comparison sites and affiliate driven business is at an all time high.

The concept of having special offers for fast food online has been done before but, not specifically for pizza. MyVoucherCodes.Co.Uk is really hard to navigate and isn’t particuarly reliable whereas JustEat.Co.Uk doesn’t focus on value but, rather offerring a an online solution to smaller, local takeaways. So I really believe there is a niche for a value driven, pizza voucher code site. We will just need to wait and see…

Apart from business, its going alrite. My body clock is pretty shit which means I’m only really working, then going out at night and repeating. If I was to get up at 10am fitting the gym into my day and learning some Spanish would be pretty painless.

Always a goal for tommorow I guess…

I hope its just age really, probably.

Anyway, I got tons more crap to write about and lots of work to be getting on with so will try to come back tommorow to share it with you guys.

On a sidenote: all this growth is occuring because of Michael (guy I started employing recently) and I’m really pleased with how its going. I actually barely recruit players anymore. Best £550 a month ever speant so far. Hopefully, it continues.

Anyway, I decided to go with someone different for the PokerAvantage logo. Not because I’m dissapointed with the ipokervip or pokeraffiliateblog logo but, just because I want to see what else is out there. Competition is only good for the business too. If people understand I’ve got other options it means work must be done faster, at a better cost and be of a higher quality than the other party. I guess that’s only a positive thing for me

Here are the logos for PokerAvantage. I’m really pleased with them and think it could turn into a really well recognised brand amongst poker players in France.

I’m looking to setup a network of localised affiliate sites to better serve poker payers in the future.

So the French market will have a French site and so on…

Anyway here is a little mind map I’ve been using to keep track – it actually doesn’t have much content but, pictures are always nice.

If anyone out there can speak French, German or Dutch get in touch because I’m looking to get some part time support staff who can speak English and one of these languages.

The last week has been pretty productive. I’ve got a ton of content done for the new site(s), purchased some great domains and locked down some amazing exclusive deals with some big sites (all while keeping the usual day to day ticking over and recruiting some new players).

So I’m fairly pleased. I actually made a mind map of where I see the company going in the future (the .com market is diminishing and its my view that affiliates will need to become localised as the sites do. Anyway that’s for another time!).

I’ve decided I want to get out of Edinburgh. Its an amazing city but, I never went away to uni and am almost 21. I need to see the world, meet new people and experience new things.

I know a few people in Barca and hopefully, can get a decent grasp on Spanish before I go.

Its not a case that I love Barcelona (I’ve not even been there before) but, if I can be anywhere in the world why should it be the UK ? and Barcelona seems like a fairly decent place to start.

In 12 months or so I aim to get an office and have a full time creative on board. I do not want to setup an office in Edinburgh. I’d feel that would be locking me down for life.

While im away I hope to play a lot of Squash (which should help me meet people) and maybe continue my uni degree or transfer over my uni credits to an Open university degree so at least I’ll scrape an undergrad degree sometime.

Anyway, I need to get away and do something different. It will be great for the business if I’m hanging out with 9-5ers or whatever the equivalent is there. At the moment my body clock is shot to pieces and ofcourse its my own doing however, in order for me to keep a different one I’d need to find a completley new group of mates which I don’t want to do. Its just the student lifestyle here and I’m looking for something a little different.

Anyway, I’m looking into a 1 on 1 Spanish tutor and looking to get started next week. I was thinking each day next week I have an hour of Spanish followed by 1 hour of Squash and although each day I’d be spending £50, it would get me doing something. At least some of my money would actually be improving my life and making me do these things – which is what I need.

Anyway, I got a few nice topics lined up to post about in the next few days so keep checking back !

Also the background should be changing soon to make it easier for you guys to read.

I’m (like a lot of people) very good at talking anc coming up with ridiculous concepts but, putting them into action is a different game. I love making deals, getting subs on board and generally setting the direction the business is taking. For example at the moment; Offerring new rooms, extending the 2+2 ad campaign and becoming more localised – we will have a seperate version of the site for a number of territories although it may not be under the same brand name. I guess adding more rooms seems kinda obvious and not really a directional decision but, I felt iPokerVIP originally carried more weight as a company specialising in iPoker. Rather than bombing in like every other affiliate trying to hit the mainstream and saying ‘we are just like the big guys, we offer everything and don’t have a fucking clue what we’re talking about’. IPokerVIP’s lack of choice or maybe wealth of choice on the iPoker network (maybe not) was a USP.

Anyway the site getting redesigned is really exciting and I guess looking at the test version and the current site makes me feel that the current site doesn’t cut it at all. Too much info hitting people, too small and its just not quite in the same league as the other guys.
The new site will (like the original) blow the competitors out of the water in terms of the value and I fully expect another uproar somewhere. This time the people trying to damage iPokerVIP will have even less credibility and hopefully I’m more laid back about it.

New ads willl be appearing on 2+2 and for like £200 a month I regret not freshening them up for the last 3 months. 2p2 is expensive but, if I’ve got someone manning the forum who is personable and good at what they do, along with good offers and a reliable brand name I think iPokerVIP could be going mainstream very soon.

The New banners are going to be pretty unique. They’re going to contain the bonus code for exclusive offers. Obviously I will be starting with VC Poker and one of the slides of the banner will say ‘Highest VIP Level at VCPoker Instantly. Enter: IPOKERVIP at VCPoker.com’ I don’t thnk an affiliate has ever done this before and it will be interesting to see how it does as a part of an iPokerVIP banner. Another frame on the banner will contain my; MSN, Email and Skype. Its differet anyway !

Anyways looking forward to all of this and more !

Feel like I’m on a roll with the updates. Firstly, I’d like to say F U iPoker for their software at the moment. Its totally unacceptable for a company worth in excess of $1bn and one that is meant to take poker seriously. You can bet their casino software has far less downtime. Anyway, I’ve been hit like everyone and so far its probably cost me $2k which is really beginning to piss me off.

Anyway, with that off my chest.. let’s get into the post.

I’m 20 and a few of my ‘friends’ from school are now graduating from uni’s in England (3 year courses, Scotland is a 4 year course). A few of them are coming out with 1st class degree’s from Oxford and Cambridge and its pretty sobering for me. One in particualr who I used to be good friends with is set for Harvard Law after getting the best mark for law in his college at Cambridge. There is no doubt he will have worked like mad and certainly deserves the recognition for it.

Its pretty scary though. 3 years ago I had identical grades (arguably better in some ways; Best mark in Scotland for Philosophy and for my history dissertation and a more rounded CV – I used to play a lot of Squash and was in the top 5 in Scotland) but, didn’t get into Oxford. I think I was just too young and in reality didn’t want it as much as these guys. I stayed at a friends before the interview, ended up drinking and making myself pretty ill. I didn’t treat them like I did my Squash or this business.

Now, 3 years have past and there is a huge gulf in the way our lives will pan out. That’s okay because we’re different people but, its just a wake up call.

I’m genuinley happy for him because hard work should be rewarded. My only reservation is that I feel I should have and could have done a lot better academically with my grades.

I kind of think golf is a good analogy for life. Its not like tennis or squash where I’m playing against someone. Sure there are other people on the course; there are tiger woods’ and complete amateurs but, all I can strive for is to be the best I can be, watch these people and learn from the routes they’ve decided to take. I’m not against this guy at all, I just believe (when we were younger at least) I was academically in the same league as him he just had a different mentality.

What is reassuring is that we actually have the same ends. I think people go into further education for 3 reasons;

1. Intrinsic interest for the subject they’re studying. These people are academics.
2. Uni as a continuation of school qualifications – considered obligatory. A box that needs to be ticked with a 2:1 showing they’re suitable for employment. This, I guess makes up the majority of students.
3. Uni as a ‘time to shine’. To set yourself away from the field. Using the connections and impressive qualification as a means to acquire wealth and social status.

This guy is number 3 and he wants the same end that I do. He just believes he can achieve it with less risk or gain x value more times out of 10 via his chosen path than mine. The sad thing is, looking at it logically, its true. Dropping out of uni (what I did orignally when I did Law at Edinburgh) to start a business was retarded in terms of expected value. 1 in 100 times it might become successful… the rest I’ll be stuck.

Anyway, apologies for this post being slightly self indulgent. The nice thing is that when something like this happens we should be happy someone we know has shown us what we are capable of. Its not about people being better than you, its about you seeing someone become the best they can be, the optimal version of themselves and attempting to emulate that.

What Can We Learn From The Recent Developments in France ?

All the major players have been fiercly contesting the new French market.
BWIN, Party, Chili, PokerStars are some of the sites that have successfully secured French licences.  These companes are ofcourse pressuring the authorities to get rid of the black market operators such as FTP to give them the best chance to make money for the French government.

In my honest opinion France is too small to merit so many licencees and the battle will be fought on liquidity. Once player’s realise there is better traffic and a better selection of games at one room in particular its going to be tough for the others to claw their way back. Its very interesting because France is a blank canvas and it will be interesting if Pokerstars can utilise their superior player base to get an early lead.

Personally, I believe the networks have the best chance of acculmulating decent traffic early doors which may propell them into the lead.

The one certain thing is that France is definitley worth watching becausethe fight that is being fought now will be happening in territories all over the world in the coming few years. Other governments will not be able to resist the opportunity of another income stream but, need to be careful not to take too much out of the poker ecosystem and bring the game in their country to a premature end.

Cash is King however, especially in the Land of the free where everything has a price. PPA representatives kid themselves Stars is constantly months away from a licence and that the US government can’t turn away the oppurtunity to instantly monetize Star’s volume of traffic.

Although the tax implemented by the Government on Stars would likely be more costly than their current expenditure on payment processors its tough to see Stars turning the opportunity down.

It is well documented their would be an uproar from the land based operators who have been paying hundreds of millions every year and no doubt have a good relationship with the right people.

We’ve established why licensing Stars maybe controverisal but, why are we not seeing Harrah’s Poker or Party Poker USA yet ? Surely they’re turning away millions in tax every month that goes on ?

The name of the game for the US is to monetize poker as effectivley as possible.

Licenced rooms entering the American market now would definitley have their traffic canibilized by Stars. Once players became remotley educated and realised there was another site with; Far higher liquidity, better games, better software and most importantly lower rake it would become a no brainer.

Liquidity is #1 in online poker. You can have the best software, bonuses and customer service but, without a good selection of games its going to be near on impossible to attract a good amount of players. Companies such as Victory Poker just didn’t appreciate this and thought generic branding and shitloads of money would be enough to get them through – it wasn’t.

Case Study France: France now has several licenced rooms such as; Pokerstars, Party and Chilli. FTP haven’t applied for a licence and can offer far greater traffic than the exclusively French facing licencees. They can’t advertise in France however, the majority of semi-serious French players on Stars have jumped to FTP, not PokerStars.Fr .Realistically there is little the French govt can do apart from block FTP (which will take several months and will still be accessible via VPN). Ofcourse FTP don’t stand much of a chance of getting a licence now but, I doubt they ever wanted one.

So, to conclude: The USA are going to slowly hurt Stars and FTP’s liquidity to make their licences worth more to the buyer and to them in terms of tax revenue.