The Poker Affiliate Blog

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.

Tags: codes, discount, iPokerVIP.net, online, pizza, pizza hut, poker, pokeravantage, victor chandler

I’ve got to confess I’ve not been working as hard as I should have been recently. I feel pretty guilty about it, just this feeling I don’t deserve the business to still be running almost. Then again maybe the wheels will fall off in a few months and punish me for it.

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 !

Tags: Deal, iPoker News, iPokerVIP.net, online, Playtech, poker, vcpoker, victor chandler, vip

Been a while since I’ve updated – I really want to keep the blog ticking along nicely, good for the SEO I think .

Finished my exams a week ago and the last one didn’t go so well. I had been up all night and was sat at the top floor which had some sort of sun magnifying dome right above my seat. It was just beaming down on me so strongly and to those who haven’t had the pleasure of staying up all night I’ll tell you a bright sun is the most disgusting thing ever.  Throughout the exams I guess I’ve been hedging my bets with the questions and it backfired in my last exam when the only question I could answer I just didn’t understand: “stratified reproduction curtails reproductive agency”. Pretty gay.

Since then I’ve been to London – donked off money which completley sucked. I ran fairly bad and actually felt I played pretty well. The sickest pot was a KcTs2c board where I got it in with KJ which is defo pretty light for 200bb + stacks at a 8 handed table but, I gave some chat which made myself look ridiculously weak (not deliberatley) so got myself in a spot where I could shove or fold. Anyways the guy, who I thought was fairly solid – tank called with 88 and obv the turn was an 8. Pot was just shy of £1k . So that kinda sucked.
I’m probably going to roll on down to London in the summer and give grinding the 2/5 game a shot for a month or something just to prove to myself I can beat it + I love the city it makes Edinburgh feel pretty small and mundane.

Next week I’m heading over to Gibraltar which should be decent. VC are putting me up in a really nice looking apartment which I’m obviously really grateful for. It should be good to get some nice weather, although the last week has been pretty awesome here.

After Gib I’m going to hang out in London for a bit and meet some people to discuss future affiliate related business ventures. Hopefully, I can make something really big happen this summer !

I’m also going to ‘hire’ my 1st employee this weekend. Sounds a bit more formal than it is but, I’m going to pay a friend a weekly wage to do some stuff. He’s easily capable of this stuff just the potential hazard with mates is they try and freeroll off you a bit but, its just going to be a rolling thing so if that happens  it won’t be a big deal. He will be liasing with new rooms, paying sub-affiliates and PMing on 2+2 mainly. Maybe doing other things like content for newsletters but, we’ll see how it goes. I’ll still be in contact with all the players as usual so he’s just really going to allow me to cast a wider net and hopefully, can help get iPokerVIP established on some other networks.

Anyway I guess that’s everything

Tags: iPoker News, iPokerVIP.net, Live Poker, London, poker, Vic, Victoria Casino

Had an exam today which went fairly well considering my knowledge isn’t particuarly great – should go into Uni more ! Couldn’t have really asked for better questions so hopefully I did okay. Revision and doing the exam isn’t too annoying its more the constant thought that I’ve got to do them in the back of my head. 1 down !

The election has been pretty interesting. I felt really bad for the Lib Dem candidate in my constituency who really worked 10* harder than any other. Anywhere in Scotland is going to be tough to crack for anyone on Labour’s right I guess. It turned out the Lib Dem candidate lost by under 1k votes and you’ve got to think if he can’t upset Labour now there won’t be many other opportunities. The Labour MP was caught up in the expenses scandal and generally just seemed to be coasting on the fact he was a Labour MP. It was enough anyways.

I actually didn’t vote. Firstly, because I couldn’t make up my mind. I disagree with traditional Labour values, don’t think Gordon Brown is a good face for the UK however, I do believe is probably a fairly moral guy and despite what economist’s claim he is best qualified for the financial situation. Conservative or independent’s are completley wasted up here, SNP just seem to be further left than Labour and play on Scottish people’s patriotism and Lib Dems want to introduce a mansion tax which is unfair, wind down trident and a vote for them just encourages a hung parliament which means even less will get done than usual !

Aside from the decision itself being impossible I don’t really believe in politics. Government itself is incredibly inefficient. Civil servants retain their jobs regardless of the government and are the fuel that the political car needs to move. They’re notoriously bureaucratic and obviously have their own vested interests.

Secondly and most importantly in my opinion, is the amount of money in politics. Who do the government care more about appeasing: The voter or the company who pumped millions into their campaign who were actually responsible for the success ?

This is probably why manifesto’s are ridiculously vague. The intention isn’t to give the people what they want (or not in full anyway). Its to consolidate wealth and maintain power. There is no other way to explain the lack of change throughout the West. Anything that happens in reality seems to be politician’s playing with numbers or superficial. With the big decisions not being put to a referendum and quietly sprung into action. I guess people would tell me this is the concept of efficient democracy. Instead of having a vote on individual issues the MP’s will take your decision for you. An MP that’s part of a mainstream party will rarely vote in the commons based on their own opinion. They will vote where the whip tells them to and in return they’re part of the party, more likely to get a seat and enjoy a kushty salary + benefits. This is exactly what the majority of backbenchers are doing. What is the point in having an MP ?

Labour MP’s were filmed recently offerring to ‘fix’ things for people i.e. Laws, white paper’s passing etc for a daily fee. Usually £5k a day. I doubt they were thinking of their constituency then.

I could go on for a while with various examples but, I’ve got to confess it kinda frustrates me how people become so socially invested in politics. Labour, Conservative or Hung Parliament things will be extremely similar regardless. Big Brother, Iraq and ridiculous taxes. People tell me the Lib Dems were against Iraq – it just seems to me it was the only viable move for them at the time. They know they will never be in the posistion to act on it and even if they were its not like Obama is doing much regarding his pledge concerning the war. The conservative’s couldn’t slate it too much because they would have done the same and it was because of money. Not necessarilly oil but, a certain opportunity to consolidate wealth.

I’m not knowledgeable enough to have a decent discussion with someone who is heavily involved in politics about this stuff but, based on these facts and so many more its hard to see how voting is doing that much.

Maybe I should have exercised my right to vote regardless and feel kinda bad telling people I didn’t vote because in many ways its a rare opportunity even to influence the face on the country a little.

Tags: Conservative, Election 2010, General Election, iPokerVIP.net, Labour, online, poker

Sorry for a lack of post lateley. I’ve got my 1st exam on Friday but, haven’t been revising as much as I should have been – hopefully get cracking soon (using this post for procrastination).

The ads are up, along with the thread and its good to see things going fairly smoothly. I’m going to put Winner Poker & maybe a few other more competitive offers up tommorow and change the text on the home page a little (my bounce rate is alarmingly high) and hopefully that should kick things up a bit.

iPokerVIP was based on 2 premises;
1. Under the table deals are harder to come by – the market is moving.
2. iPokerVIP showcases the best legal deals.

I’d say I’ve got 2 bang on but, for all the time people have speant scrutinising my site 90% of the under the table affiliates could have been cleared out. Its pretty ridiculous and demonstrates that the iPoker network probably don’t care much for the rules themselves – just that people aren’t seen breaking them and the status quo remains intact, at least superficially.

The irony is that there are people in Birmingham who work for playtech whose job it is to catch these affiliates. If 90% of players can find these deals how can’t these spies who work on it everyday ?

I think the main problem is that iPoker doesn’t have a clear vision of what kind of network it wants to be. Its like one week they want uber-aggro deals so they can compete for Euro players on Stars and Tilt and the next week they’re banishing these deals wanting a fishy network and claiming that’s the way forward.

Tough spot. For a company worth over $1bn you’d think they might at least come close to getting it right.

Tags: affiliate, ecoop, ipoker deals, iPoker News, ipoker vip, iPokerVIP.net, online, poker, Rakeback, software

So its 5am and I’m still awake. Had one late night mid week and that’s thrown me completley off sync. I’ve been going to sleep at 1 in the afternoon and getting up at 6pm and don’t feel to great about it. So hopefully a bit of writing will help me nod off and get up around 10 tommorow (5 hours pfft).

I deposited some money onto PKR to check it out and overall I don’t feel the softness of games outweigh the lack of volume / rakeback which you can find elsewhere. I just can’t multi table. So I just have withdrawn $1.2k now which is not bad for a days work. Bit of a hit and run on the site. Although because the money has been transferred in and out of my account in $ I’m sure it will earn HSBC a nice £20. Always good to do my bit for them. I guess on PKR there are too many distractions for the fish / donks to spew their money off optimally. They’re getting distracted by all the little gizmos. It just hasn’t really done it for me. I prefer SkyPoker when it comes to uber soft sites.

I’ve been doing some research into some new shares to buy. Well more like thinking not much research. There just seem to be some certain undeniable truths in the west at the moment. Consumerism overall will grow, people are becoming more money oriented, lazier and our world is becoming more driven by technology. I don’t mean I’m going to go out buy HP or Sony shares because they’re too widely spread and just because tech is on the grow in the longterm doesn’t mean Sony will be. I was thinking a company involved in nano-technology.

The other company in general I quite like is Mcdonalds. Are their sales going to go down anytime soon ? Who is realisitically going to challenge them ? They just seem to have it nailed down, although maybe their price reflects this. Another company would be Nike. I just find it hard to see how their actual business isn’t going to grow. There aren’t many legitimate competitors and the market for trainers, sports clothing, fashion etc is on the up and up. The population of the world isn’t going to buy less trainers in 2010 than it did in ’09. I mean I don’t have any facts whatsoever its just hard to see. Obviously, the company can have a fundamental flaw and regardless of what market its in it just won’t enjoy the same growth.

Onto something I know more about…
I guess a few readers will have followed the ipokervip legality debate on 2+2. My guess is playtech haven’t made a firm decision and now Titan are at it.

It was suggested to me that my thread was removed from affiiates/rb forum because of the word rakeback in the forum name. My site has no mention of RB anywhere and I categorically don’t offer it. Whereas RTR and friends seem to get off with it. I guess I can live with that but, now Titan are using the word Rake and Rakeback consistently in their ad campaign. I guess it might be good for the network and at the end of the day what they’re offerring doesn’t compare to me so it has its positives but, it just goes to show how having it in with the owner of the network can do wonders for you ! Or just being the same person altogether.

As you can see on the right I’ve got players on Titan and don’t have anything against them. If you have an advantage, I guess push it as far as you can. The fact remains a lot of other skins would be afraid of doing something as bold.

Cynics will come along and say I effectivley did the same thing with iPokerVIP and I guess the difference is a) In my honest opinion I didn’t think the methodology of my offers were different b) As a business I represent myself. Playtech are a PLC and the owner owns Titan. Whereas I just want to showcase the best offers I can find and don’t want to do anything apart from give players the best. Anyway, its nothing against Titan I’d do the same in their shoes. Its going to be an interesting next few months because I’d be suprised if their was no reaction to this.

New offers should be up this week along with the support thread. May is going to be a really big month on iPoker so its defo a better time to kick off compared to August or something.

Tags: iPoker News, iPokerVIP.net, online, Playtech, titan, VC, VIP Deals

I feel a lot more positive about things. I kept on saying how the negative press from competitors just meant that ipokervip was such a threat but, didn’t really appreciate.

I got a bit too emotional at the weekend about the whole thing and kinda regret some of my posts and their bad spelling ! I was doing this on no sleep just trying to give almost instant rebuttle so that a pile of neg stuff didn’t come up.

I’m feeling a ton more positive mainly thanks to VC being behind me 100% which is really awesome. Although this issue is much bigger than ipokervip for them its really refreshing and certainly not something that they need to do.

A ton of new offers are coming on tommorow and I’ll be getting together some statements for 2+2. From there its up to them whether they will get behind the support thread and at least confirm they have emails from the right people that confirm the legality of the offers.

Hopefully, the new support thread should be up soon with the banners – I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve said this.

* VC Poker Olympics *

Here is some great news for all my VC players. The next events in the Poker Olympics will be based to a higher degree on rake meaning that the limit players cant take advantage anymore. I don’t have the full details yet but, this actually means some of my players might take the next events seriously !

So its all positive ! Feel like I’m still growing up at the moment getting huge mood swings… I’m a weirdo.

Jamie

Tags: Bet365, Deals, iPoker News, iPokerVIP.net, Rakeback, titan, vcpoker, vip

If anything merits a post on this blog its my support thread for iPokerVIP.net which has been live for about 48 hours. If you have half an hour give it a read. Its interesting for sure no matter how the debate ends.

Read The Thread Here

Firstly, I need to express my gratitude to all those who have supported me throughout the thread. It means a lot that people can understand my point of view and trust me as an affiliate. I will continue to give absolute best to all my players and anyone working with me. Thanks again !

The thread has affirmed my belief that iPokerVIP.net can be a genuine competitor when it comes to deals on the iPoker network. On the thread there are a series of extremely successfull affiliates all worth several million who feel the need to debunk my business. Regardless of what they’re saying or their tactics I’ve got respect for all these guys who are undoubtedly great entrepreuners. All starting successful companies from scratch. If any of them come accross this post I’d love to chat and learn from you sometime. No matter what is said on that thread or concerning the companies I have no ill feelings at all.

The basic argument running throughout the thread from the likes of PokerAddict, Karim and a few other affiliates hiding behind new accounts is that if the deals on iPokerVIP.net are legal why is nobody else doing it ? and as an after thought if they are they will come and crush me. I will have a small time advantage and its not as if my offers can’t outgo theirs.
PokerAddict actually used to own the affiliate site RakeRebateReview.com which you can view here (as it was seen in ’06 or whenever).

I think its a great idea and myself am working on: CompareTheRake.Com which I think has a lot of potential (one of these sites should take off right !?).

My argument for the legitimacy of the deals was simple. Deals working the exact same way already exist. They’re just not as aggressive.

The deal offered on iPokerVIP.net for VC poker is a simple VIP upgrade and a 1st deposit bonus. This coupled with The Poker Olympics and the fact its legal is a huge deal and will reward VC greatly.

Here is a link to RTR’s partner site PokerLoyaltyPrograms. For Circus Poker (An iPoker skin) they offer a first deposit bonus, reload bonus and VIP upgrade. The only problem is that the VC deal represents higher value.
The way that value manifests itself is identical.

If I’m told that iPokerVIP.net is illegal I will simply offer value in a way that is considered legal.
I’ll wire players $100 when they deposit $2k or more, huge deposit bonuses, monthly reload bonuses, races, a store on my site, a point system on my site.. the possibilities are endless. As a concept iPokerVIP.net is healthy and I’ve got great belief in it.

Karim also claimed that the Will Hill deal consisted of a race, first deposit bonus and the standard VIP program and is therefore nothing like my deal. Wheras my deal offers a VIP upgrade + a VIP points chase.

The PLP website clearly states “Exclusive PLP VIP status – Contact us for full details” (More)

Logically this can only mean 2 things; a) They are misrepresenting their deal on PLP b) They are lying about the nature of their deal with WH to cover their back.

Thankfully RTR have published a table concerning their rake race with screenames included.

Some noteable names on the leaderboards include;  WON2FREE4FIVE , burzen and Gurl2

Here are the standings in the WH race at the moment

The majority of this table is made up from serious rakeback grinders or winning players who would not settle for the combination of the WH program and race alone which would net them a pretty slim return compared to so many of the other accessible deals out there. Its just unbelieveable.

One thing for sure is that the thread has generated a ton of publicity which won’t be bad as long as the iPokerVIP.net’s legitimacy is recognised.

I’m asking myself why I did this now but, its just nature. Always want more and always try to be better. I want a career in this industry and a reputable company with above board deals. So I guess that’s the reason. A lot of people would have stayed quiet and I know of a few who are far more successful than me who are just happy to do the underground thing and keep quiet. Eventually that is going to have to stop and I want my business on paper. Maybe one day I’ll want to sell it, or merge with another company (If they’ll take me after this) and it would put me in a much stronger posistion.

I’ve been nailed a bit for the blog which in hindsight was an awful business decision. There is no point in having a blog if its not to be open and that’s come back to bite me a bit on the thread. In a way its good though becuase it means I have to be accountable for my decisions and previous opinions.

I’m going to try and remain as straight forward and up front when posting here and won’t be deleting the blog or editing any posts (lets face it. This thing was saved onto people’s hard drives hours ago !)

Jamie

Tags: iPoker News, ipoker vip, iPokerVIP.net

The support thread is live and I think its going pretty positivley although I can’t mention my site is iPokerVIP.net and not.com so I suspect I’m losing a ton of hits like that.

A link is here; http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/51/affiliates-rakeback/official-ipokervip-affiliate-support-thread-760802/

I think I’ll change the avatar and the OP maybe to something a bit more purposeful. Although the ads haven’t started yet the thread has been quite postitive with a ton of people supporting me which is always nice. I think a more informative OP will help things and as the thread progresses it will hopefully become less about trolls or people trying to lecture me and more about serving the players who are the reason its there in the 1st place.

Ads should be out soon and some new VIP deals on the site and then its just a question of waiting and seeing.

One time

Tags: Deals, iPoker News, iPokerVIP.net, Playtech, vip

Had a few days of doing very little affiliate stuff. Just a few hours here and there each day and I just feel more tired really. I can only compare it to like a treadmill and I’v been running and running and now I’m off it I realise how tired I am.

I’ve been seeing a few friends from school who are back from uni and that kinda thing which has been nice although describing stuff to them kinda makes me empathise with poker player’s whose fiends aren’t into it. That’s a healthy thng though for sure.

These ads on 2+2 are driving me around the bend just thinking about them. Sure it was easter and then things slowed down but… actually just had to delete my 2+2 rant in case anyone from the forum sees it or it got posted on my support thread or sth. But, I’m very much advertising there because there are no other competitve options. Not because I like the mods. A lot of the people heavily involved in it don’t seem like they would be capable of functioning with normal human beings. Probably couldn’t walk down a corridor either becuase their heads are too big.

Anyway, I can’t wait until the ads are up. I’m chuffed with the site, the banner ads are looking beautiful and everything is paid for so there is hopefully going to be a lottt of saving going on in the next few months which would be amazing.

I’d love to get away somewhere. Somethign ideal would be Amsterdam but, its probably not warm enough there yet. I was thinking San Remo for the EPT but, it would kinda take the buzz away unless I cashed. All my friends are doing exams (They’re unfortunatley also in the back of my mind) / kinda broke .

Hopefully I’ll go to Thailand meet some people after mine and maybe Argentina or something too. Who knows. But, I really want to go / live somewhere warm for a few months. Don’t really know why I bought the car then…

Til next time.

Tags: 2+2, Easter, iPokerVIP.net, online, poker