Note: I will be posting the good, the bad and the ugly here. As you all know, life as an Internet marketer isn’t all sunshine and roses.

Project Updates

The Elite Affiliate System

Well let’s start off with the just plain ugly. After 12 months of development, we launched the “EAS” System with our former partners. We doubled our market share, increased income by 50%, and then it all went to hell. We found out our Rakeupdate Partners were pulling a “Full Tilt” and spending the operating capital. So we called them on it, made some demands, and made arrangements to end our contract together. Before we knew it. Daniel Persson and Amanda Barret, who is the official RU owner vanished with out money, and the4 money of thousands of poker players money.

Luckily we help most of our affiliate partners get their money and their players back. But we have yet to get most of our players back, and of course none of the money. I was so thankful to all the people who supported us, and now the Rakeupdate thieves will have to stay hidden as long as possible. We also know they won;t be able to scam anyone else too. On the bright side of all this, Eric and I took an idea from concept, to development, too launch successfully. So we learned some good lessons because of this project, sure it didn’t turn out good, but sometimes that happens.

The Twilight Website

Another growing project this year is our now 3 year old website which is a Twilight Fan website. At its peak, the site has gotten 40,000 visitors a day. We have learned how to handle that much traffic, and actually profit by teaming up with some of the official clothing companies. We also become one of the largest affiliates of Cafe Press and Hot Topic, which cam with its own rewards. With at least 1 more movie to come, this project has been a success. We have learned a ton of information from this site, and we have teamed up with a partner to run The Mocking Jay which is based on the Hunger Games movies. The first movie will be out in March, and I predict the movies to be even bigger than Twilight. We get to use our experience with PPC, Adsense, and other non-gaming revenue streams with this site. Should be fun, and the movies are awesome!

The New Auction Website

I have decided to take a chance and I’ve bought some ebay Clone software, and has several mods added to it. In short, this will be a very localized Online Auction website. If you have seen the Online Yard Sale Facebook pages popping up everywhere, then maybe you can understand why I think this will work. Several people have told me the market is already over saturated, but people told me the same thing about Poker Sites too. They may be right, but the investment is small, and I’m not out to make millions. Honestly if I can generate enough to pay for hosting, I’ll be happy. If it is a hit, then it can be scaled up, and it will become a new revenue source.

I have some creative ideas to help build this up initially, so I think it has a shot of being something cool.

New SEO Website

Well I have online poker seo, I sorta hate that it seems limited to just gaming. So, after some though I bought SEO Playbook. I don’t plan on this being just another SEO blog, like the thousands of others already out there. This site will have actually Case Studies, Examples, and a number of ebooks. I have no desire to do something useless, so I will add my own experiences and ideas to the site for others to use.

Golf

I found a new hobby, I’m addicted to golf. So far golf has cost me a lot of money, new clubs, country club memberships, and lessons. Like any good website guy, I also found some domains related to golf. Arkansas Golf was my first purchase, and I’m working on a few more now that are up for auction. Not only has it turned into a new hobby, but just getting out of the office has helped me lose 20lbs. So win win all around.

Consulting

As most of you know, I’ve been consulting the last half of 2011, and I’ll be continuing that into 2012. I’ve been lucky enough to work for some very large poker rooms, and affiliates. I have been asked to help out on some local business projects as well. To top it all off, last week I was asked to handle Marketing for a Political campaign. I’ll post more on that later, but I love a good challenge, and this isn’t a local city counsel campaign, its a very serious campaign, and after giving it some thought I decided to accept the challenge.

So that’s about it, I’m sure you noticed I didn’t bother posting anything Gambling related, I still have some large sites and that’s where I get a majority of my income. I have no plans to build anything new, and poker/casino stuff just doesn’t seem to be that interesting right now. Oh I did finally start to move things under my legal company, Felt Media – So that’s one item off my to do list.

So, I’d love to hear about your projects and goals for 2012, so leave me some comments and let me know what you are up to!

US DOJ Flip Flops on Internet Poker

Why Should Poker Be Legalized?

This is simple, MONEY! Right now, the United States is almost 16 TRILLION dollars in debt, and its growing every day. Poker has also become a job for millions of Americans, and yes I know some idiots cannot control themselves, and they spend their rest money, etc on gambling. But with that logic, smoking should be outlawed, drinking should be, hell I could include a list of issues. The governments jobs is not to regulate people’s decision making. The US has tried that before, and we all know how that worked out.

I know the world and the US has become more of a nanny state every day, where people rely on the government. But that’s not the role of government. People have to have personal responsibility and self control. Not just for things like gambling, but also spending, eating, and taking care of themselves.

I’ll get off my soap box now, I want to thank everyone who reads, comments, and contributes to this site. I have some cool projects that will be coming out in the next month or so, and if you are a webmaster, business man, or affiliate marketer then I think you will find these projects interesting. Anyway, Merry Christmas from my family to yours, and lets have a kick ass 2012!

I know the title is pretty strong, but after going through it with a few AM’s and fellow affiliates. I think the title fits perfectly. I promoted titan Poker when they first came out, made some money, never got paid. As you can see, people on the largest gaming websites and communities have been scammed. Including members of GPWA, PAP, CAP, PAL.

Titan Poker Scam Histor As you can see, they have a long history of scams

About 8-12 months ago, a company contacted me trying to get me to promote Titan – After some back and forth, we finally agreed.

We spent a lot of money, close to 5k+ in content, translations, promo’s etc. Everything seemed to be going well. That is, until we asked for payment. Initially they seemed to ignore our request for payment, and after several emails of saying “hey, we’d appreciate being paid” – Then we were informed they thought our players were “low value” – Of course this is CPA’s -

So we basically said, we would just take them down. They contacted us and asked us to continue promoting, and of course we explained we thought we were being taken advantage of. The AM said if we took them down, there was [B]ZERO chance of every seeing payment[/B]. But said that if we promoted them another month, updated everything, pushed their latest promo, he would see about getting us paid.

So, faced with no return on our investment, versus maybe getting some back. We agreed, updated everything, sent some more players. All the while Pablo not understanding why we are hesitant to send ANY players there. Of course as Titan always does, they want “Top Position” lol – Of course they apparent don’t pay people, but they want top position…….

We noticed something funny, while we were showing qualified signups/conversions – Our balance stayed at 0$ – I asked our AM about this, I’m sure you can guess the reply. He also finally confirmed we won’t be seeing any of our money. Which is well over 10K + at this point.

Now, I know there are a lot of thread with people complaining that “w/e poker room won’t pay me” – But, keep in mind [B]we send literally hundreds of players to the largest poker rooms each month via CPA’s[/B] – Sure we have 1 or maybe two players that are removed for fraud. 1 or 2 our of several hundred a month – To rooms that are very strict about this stuff. So, we know we send good traffic, and we worked closely with all the rooms we promote to ensure we maintain high quality traffic.

Again, I recommend before you take our word for it, Google Titan Poker Fraud or Scam

So after asking around, including the company that sent us to these guys. It seems nobody gets paid, and this is standard practice for these guys. I’m sure their are exceptions, but looks like there is a common theme with Europartners.

So, now we have 3 sites with a ton of content on it, translations, etc. So instead of just removing them. I’m going to ensure everyone knows what type of operation these guys run. Complete with the messages and emails these guys sent. I don;t plan on posting an opinions or any of that, I think their messages and emails with convey the type of business they run. then the players can decide if that is the type of place they want to put their money on, and mostly importantly trust their money too.

There was serious “Red Flags” when they pretty much forced us to continue to promote them another month or so. I didn’t expect to get paid, but wanted to at least let it play out. Losing the money we invested, 5k+, plus the commissions we earned and will never see 10k+ – This makes this an expensive $15,000+ lesson we learned. But if my sites, or this posts keeps someone form being [B]Ripped / Scammed off by Europartners[/B] – Then it’s well worth it.

That was at least until last week when the Copyblogger guys emailed me and asked me to check out their latest SEO Guide. After spending a few days going through the guide, adding some comments, and giving some suggestions. They made some changes and sent it again, I was happy to see it covered the issues I thought were most important. They also added a note at the end about the “Scribe SEO plugin” for wordpress. At first I sorta hated that they were promoting it more. as over the last couple years its been a little known “secret” in my opinion. Then after talking about it with my wife AKA “The Boss” – She reminded me that you could post the secret formula to life, and most people who read it will just ignore it anyway. Which is sadly true.

There is a ton of valuable information on everything you can think of. Literally step by step guides on how to make money online, and even though they get a ton of people reading them, only a small handful actually put the information into use. Much like the recently updated “Learning to Dominate a Niche” guide I wrote last year. We have added some more examples and updated the data. This guide is proven to work.

Scribe SEO Plugin

If you haven’t heard of the scribe SEO plugin, I suggest you check it out now. Currently it’s only a plugin for wordpress as far as I know. With more versions coming later on. The 3.0 version came out recently, and they added some nice stuff. We have Scribe on all our WordPress sites now, and it allows my wife (who isn’t into SEO that much) go through all of our pages and posts and correct issues without having me stand over her shoulder. It’s really been a game changer for our business, and I’m always amazed when I mention it to some of my larger clients and they’ve never heard of it.

So, if you haven’t ever heard of it. Or you’re not sure what it can help you with. then I recommend you go and check it out now. If you have been reading my blog for a while, then you know I don’t “pimp” products and stuff like that. I don’t need to and I don’t want to put anything on my sites which don’t provide value to my readers. That’s just not how I am.

Note: If you do try the Scribe plugin, use the link below and if you email me back and say it isn’t worth the money you spent. I’ll give you a refund.

Scribe SEO WordPress Plugin

Coppyblogger’s SEO Guide

Much like the Scribe SEO plugin, if I didn’t think it was awesome. then I wouldn’t be wasting your time or my time. But with all the crappy SEO guides out there, this stands out because it provides real information that can be used right now. If you know about copyblogger, then you know they are top notch guys in the online industry, and they have no hidden agendas. These guys provide value.

So, check out the guide below, and do yourself a favor and try out the Scribe plugin. If you think it sucks, I’ll refund your money, if you try it and like it. Then I’d love to hear about it. The first 5 readers who try it after reading this post and like it, will get a free link from us.

Anyway, I do have a few updates I plan on posting about. My buddy Jeremy Enke and I are working on a new project. I’ve been learning to play golf. Being the web guy that I am, I obviously had to start a site dedicated to Arkansas Golf Courses. So I’ll post more about that later

Oh and one last thing, if you get offended easily, please hit the “back” button now!

Leaving the Corporate World

Not a ton of people know that along with being an affiliate for the past several years, I still worked in the corporate world. Mostly doing Legal Affairs and Loss Control type of stuff. I could go on and on, but I won’t. It was a tough tough decision to leave a secure job, which most people would call a dream job. I made a fat salary and good benefits. I also worked 18 hour days for the last 2 years.

I would wake up at 6am, hit the office by 7:30 (was a 30 minute drive) – Deal with issues all day, get home at 6pm, have dinner with the family, then work on “web stuff” until 1-2am. Sleep for a bit and do it all over again. Funny thing was I loved every minute of it. But I never spent much quality time with the family, my health was suffering, and I just honestly got tired of the corporate world.

So I was working on my personal network of sites, working for Rakeupdate, and working for a very large corporation. It was fun, but it just wore me out. I don’t want to get into the Rakeupdate crap right now, maybe somewhere down the line.

Working for yourself is hard work

What Have I been doing?

I get this question a lot lately. I’ve mostly been working and spending time with my wife and kids. We have 6 kids and the youngest are are two 13yo girls, and my oldest are 17 and 17, and they are graduating this year. I’m only 33, so as you can guess we started young and with them graduating I’m feeling old as hell! We are starting to visit colleges now, one of our boys has been asked to come to several schools to play college baseball, and the other scored really high on the ACT test, so schools like Harvard, Stanford, Notre Dame, etc – All want him to come for a visit. Both will likely get a nice scholarship.

It’s looking like all our kids will have an opportunity to go to college, which is just amazing. Less than 10 years ago my wife and I were struggling to pay our daycare bill. We were poor, like couldn’t afford cable TV poor. Her family was a little better off financially than my family, but neither of us grew up as a spoiled “rich kid”. Its funny how some decisions which at the time seem unimportant, turn out to change your life, and the life of those around you. I’ll post more on that later.

So I’m still adjusting

I guess I was sorta foolish to think I would just make a smooth transfer from corporate life to working 100% for myself. It’s just been tough to adjust. My sleep schedule was tootally whacked out initially, I didn’t set a good work schedule, etc. I’ll have to make a post about working for yourself. The transition can be brutal.

Anyway, I have plans for a lot of posts just to get some things off my chest. So now that I have this update out of the way, I’ll be posting more soon. OH almost forgot! I have turned into a huge golf nut, which is really just LOL to my wife. Sure I was a jock in high school, but golf caught me off guard. But:

1. It gets me out of the house/office

2. Gives me wife some much needed “alone” time – This is serious since I no longer have a normal job

3. Since I’ve started playing I’ve lost 20lbs

4. My sons are addicted too, and so are my daughters. So now we have an extra family activity we can do together. We have access to a very nice country club where we can hit the driving range at 3am if we want too

5. Well I’m a business man and I make websites. Golf is a Multi Billion Dollar business each year. So of course I’ve met some new clients, and bought Arkansas Golf
(Still under construction obv) and I’m working with a couple very nice Golf Country Clubs.

6. Best of all I now have a hobby which isn’t on a computer lol

So to give you an idea of the last 4-5 months for me, lemme re-cap:

• In March my partner Eric and I made a lease agreement with “Simian Play” the parent company of Rakeupdate
• In May I made the decision to leave my long time corporate job as the legal affairs director of a billion dollar corporation. My websites were making mid $xx,xxx month and growing, we just launched the new EAS system. What could possibly go wrong right?
• In April the US DOJ decided to smack the entire poker world down – Thankfully my gaming sites mostly target non-US players -So while income did drop some, it wasn’t devastating for us.
• In April my wife got very very sick and spent over a week in the hospital.
• Over the next three months:  Two of my sons had to have sports related surgeries, all 3 of my sons wrecked their cars, and RU was involved in things I wanted no part of. So we ended the lease agreement with them. By doing so I also lose several poker accounts, and 90% of my rakeback players over the last 3 years Not to mention the income as well.

Now, I don’t want to come off as having a pity party for myself. So don’t take it that way. I think I’m just tired more than anything. Tired of the gaming market, tired of the shady stuff that happens in gaming, just simply tired.

Several positive things have come because of all this diversity, and I would be foolish to think I haven’t learned some very valuable lessons through all this.

Positive #1 – Eric and I took an idea from paper, all the way to development and launch. Of course there are things we could have done better, but its good to know we can do it. On top of that, the feedback on the system itself was great. It made money, it has features you cannot find right now. Features webmaster can use to grow their business. EAS is no more, but that doesn’t take away from our accomplishments.

Positive #2 – Although my wife and I worked 24/7 dealing with the influx of new players, affiliates, etc – We still got to spend a lot of time together. With the kids on summer break, it was nice! I can honestly say I married my best friend.

Positive #3 – Although ending my relationship was the right thing to do on so many levels. I will miss working with the owner. I considered him a friend and I hope he finds a way to fix his issues. It didn’t work out like I hoped it would, but there is a lot of lessons in that alone. Working for him for a few years taught me a lot. I’ll leave it at that

Positive #4 – With a lot of extra responsibilities behind me, I can focus on running my business, exploring new niches, spend more time with the family, and smell the roses.

Positive #5 – I have taken up golf! I’ve been so caught up in ensuring everyone was happy, work was getting done, etc. I forgot about myself. My son Tyler went golfing with his uncle. The next day he begged for me to go with him. It took 1 trip and I was hooked! We have 2 great golf courses within 25 miles. Within a week I bought my first set of clubs, and 2 weeks after that, the local “club Pro” was selling a set of Callaway’s – So now we have two sets of clubs. I got my first birdie the other day, it felt greats. Over the last 1 1/2 we have been golfing almost every other day since!

I never thought I would be a golfer, I played football, baseball, and wrestled in school. I was the definition of a jock. There is something very calming about golf for me, oh it can be frustrating, and I have throw a club or two. Overall, its some of the best fun I’ve had in a long long time. Oh and of course, being the obsessive person I am, I bought a golf site Arkansas Golf – surprised?I took down the old site and I’m totally re-doing it -

So, that’s been my summer. The kids are back at school and I’m looking forward to working on some new things. Most of all I’m happy I’m finally old/wise enough to take a bunch of negatives, and turn it into positive life lessons.

• Black Friday
• The Fallout From Black Friday

So basically the US government has finally dropped the hammer on online poker in the US. The BIG issue is this also screw millions of US poker players that play poker for a living, and a ton of poker affiliates who rely on US players and these three poker rooms for income every month. Once again, the US Government is “protecting us from ourselves” and of course disrupting millions of people’s income. We have already seem several Affiliate Companies laying people off, and even the poker rooms making cut backs.

I’m not going to keep diving into the history of this event, or the UIGEA, etc. If you are reading this, you probably know the background anyway. Needless to say, the entire industry has been changed overnight. Right away some people have already declared the affiliate industry dead, or online poker in the US dead. This is silly IMO. Above all else the affiliate industry and online poker industry are businesses. Almost all industries or markets have ups and downs and companies that cannot adapt to change, are doomed to fail 100% of the time. Hell, to prove this point, within 24 hours of “Black Friday” some large poker portals went up for sale for bargain prices.

What to do now?

I started this post about a week ago and never finished. It seems every day some new drama bomb is coming up. The UB/AP and Pokerstars Offices were raided in cost Rica, UB/AP fired most of their staff, drama, drama, and more drama. I could go on, but again if you are reading this your probably know more about the daily roller coaster than I do after a while I just find it hard to constantly search for more news and events related to this bullshit.

So I keep being asked “What should affiliates do now”?

Well, if you are committed to this business, then you will be fine. The DOJ just did all of us a huge favor, many affiliates have already thrown up their hands and bailed. Sold their websites, or have no motivation now to keep going. Some of these affiliates over the next year could** have been competition for us, but not now. Also, you won’t see nearly as many people jumping into the Poker Affiliate game – So again less competition.

So if you plan on continuing (like me) then if you haven’t already, you damn well better start adding some new content have targeting non-US players. I wish I could tlel you its as easy as just translating content into various languages, but if it was then what fun would that be? Geo Targeting is all the rage now, but the US customers and no-US customers do not react the same to various calls to action. They don’t look for the same things that US Players do. So there are a lot of little things, nothing super secret, nothing complicated, just plan ‘ole work _

Finally, I have to say overall this DOJ stuff will be good for the industry as a whole, It was bound to happen and it moves us one step closer to regulation. No more payment processing issues, no more shady rooms (or not as many), and the fear will be gone. We just have to adapt and make the most of it for now.

The point is, a lot of friends and family seem to think that everything I touch goes well lol. In some respects they are 100% right! What they don’t know is:

1. I was a high school dropout (eventually finished but that’s not the point)
2. I’ve been fired from most jobs I’ve ever had (and for good reason in most cases)
3. I make impulse decisions all to often
4. I allow my emotions to guide my responses all too often
5. I have OCD tendencies and although some would say that is beyond control, sometimes I don’t even try.
6. I have a weight problem, always struggled with this but again sometimes I don’t even try

So those are just a few of my personal failures and struggles. Again the only point is we all fail daily, its just about what we do after failing that matters. Do we learn something? Do we try again? Do we never try “that” again?

What do you do when you fail?

A little Background

As most of you know, I’ve been an affiliate for 5 years now. A couple years ago I took a consulting position with the parent company of “Rakeupdate” which is one of the original Rakeback Companies in the poker industry. The owners and I hit it off pretty quick, and by the time my contract ended, they offered me a position managing their company. This was a great opportunity for me, and gave me a chance to experience the industry from a new point of view. I’ve been a poker player, an affiliate, and then I became essentially an affiliate manager dealing with the Rakeupdate (RU) Partners. The best part is RU had awesome rates, good customer service, and they always put our members first. The downside is that the RU software system was horrid! Of course in 2003 it was state of the art, in 2009 it was awful.

It worked for what it did, but it was poorly designed originally, and as we grew the short comings were magnified! So when I came on board, RU had already hired an expensive software team to develop RU 2.0 – Long story short, we finally fired them after almost 2 years and very little results. So two years and almost 200k later, we went back to square 1 much to the dis-may of our team and our partners.

My new goal was to find a company that could build a new system to do everything we needed and that had everything our players/partners wanted. After months of searching, I was about to give up when I finally proposed the idea to my best friend “Eric” who has a masters in programming. I have worked with Eric since I came into the industry, and he recently left his corporate job to work with me full time and to do his own thing as well. Thankfully, I convinced him to take on this project, and away we went. In Jan of 2010, we started laying out what we needed/wanted in the new system. By Feb of 2010, Eric had already begun the initial development stage. Fast forward to about October of 2010, we were ready for beta testing!

After beta testing, we started conducting demo’s with the Poker Rooms, our Affiliate Partners, PAL Members, and even non-gaming affiliates to get some feedback. The feedback was awesome and we couldn’t be happier! Eric and I put our time and money into this system, so hearing great feedback was very re-assuring. We didn’t want to make another PAW or PAS – We wanted/needed to make something better and more useful to affiliates. Anyone can make Stats or rakeback software, we wanted to go one step further and make “Marketing Software”. PAS set the bar pretty high for us, and for that we are thankful!

What Is Elite Affiliate Software?

Ok so now that I’ve covered some background, let me tell you about the system. I could go on and on about how awesome it is, but instead I’ve been making a series of Videos to show some of the features and tools. Obviously the video’s are not high quality, but they work for what I wanted. We are actually working with a video production company to make more professional videos, but they are not ready yet.

A complete website solution – The Elite Affiliate Software (EAS) was designed with webmaster in mind, so we made sure that no matter what type of website you have, our system will work with it. There is no reason to limit our system to Rakeback Affiliates, if you like to do CPA or Revshare Offers, that’s easy to do. Not only can the system be used on non rakeback sites, but you can use the EAS system as a members are so you can build a one on one relationship with your players/members. Once you build that relationship, then you will have customers for life! Here is a full list of Website Integration Options which include;

Sub-Domain Solution – This allows you to use our software as a members area and much more

Full Domain Solution – Don’t have a website yet? You can point a domain too our system and get setup quick. Our system is a full CMS so there is no limitations.

Existing Website Integration – If you have an existing website, our system can easily integrate with it.

API/Data Feed Solution – Have your own website and members area? We provide stats data feeds for you so you can take advantage of our high margins and promos while continuing to use your own system.

Why Choose Elite Affiliate Software?

One of the things that has always set us apart from our competitors is that we are only looking for serious affiliates to work with. If you are throwing up a blog and want to offer rakeback, then you will be better off going somewhere else. We want serious webmasters who can provide value to their players and the poker rooms we work with. This is what allows us to offer such high margins, big CPA’s, and the best Revenue Share deals. You can view a basic list of our offers and promotions here:

• Rakeback Offers
• CPA Offers
• Revenue Share Offers

EAS Features and Tools

As I said above, we wanted to do something more than just make nice software. So we built in several features and tools which will help convert players, and make you money! Here is just a few of the main features -

Custom CMS – Obviously having a CMS isn’t anything ground breaking, but the ability to control 100% of your website/backed is essential to your marketing plan. With our system there are no limitations. You can control the look and feel, the content, the page structure, the tital tags/meta data, even the URL Structure.

100% SEO Control – Since I’m an “SEO Guy” – This was very important to me, as a webmaster you want complete control over yoru on-page SEO efforts, anything less is un-acceptable. with the EAS system you have 100% control!

Built In Email Marketing System – We all know how important building a good mailing list is right? With our system, every member can be contacted via support ticket or email. The Email Marketing system is very easy to use and we built in several “Smarty tags” so you can customize every email you send to our users. The system also allows you to define various filters so you can target specific groups of players. There is no limit on what you can do with this tool, and it’s just a great way to keep in contact with your members, and inform them of the latest contest or promotion.

Again, I could ramble on about the features and tools, but it will be much easier to show you. This post wasn’t intended to turn into a “Why is EAS great” post, but I am just so excited about the system! Anyway, I’ll be adding a new video today going over some of the tools int he system – If you have a minute, please check out our other videos here: EAS Tutorial Videos

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Oh as always of you have read this far, thank you and here is a few websites you should check out!

Michael Jackness – Former Poker Source Online owner

Affiliate Bible - Simply the best Gaming Affiliate resource on the net

Online Blackjack – This is Chris’s W. website which is one of my wife’s Favorites for Blackjack

The past 5 years of working online has been fun, tough, stressful, and full of failures. Thankfully there has been some major successes. My wife (the boss) and I have been having long conversions about what has worked and what has not. Of course some things that worked well a year ago, won’t fly now in the marketing world. Google has made major changes, the Gaming Market has made major changes, and of course MY business has had to make major changes. We have been able to adjust, grow, and best of all learn over the last few years. I think 2011 will be a huge year personally and for our business. It will also be a major year for online gaming and a serious challenge for all Internet business men and women. Also, I re-posted a Google SEO Recap for 2010. It really shows just how many major changes we saw last year. Every one of them affected websites of all types. I expect 2011 to be even busier!

Personal goals for 2011

I’m Fat - Ok so first up, I’m getting super fat lol – I’ve always struggled with my weight, over the past 10-15 years I’ve played software, coached my sons in basesball, football, and my girls in softball. So that kept me in shape. It was also “Pre-Online Marketing” which of course has me in front of a computer a lot, or in an office. So my weight has gotten outta control! I mostly need to make better choices about what I eat, and get some real exercise. We have a nice new treadmill, and a bowflex. So I have what I need, its just the mental aspect of it I need to win.

Quality Time with the family – I’m lucky and have an awesome family. We have six kids, 3 boys ages 15,16,17, and 3 girls ages, 12,12,14 – they are AWESOME kids. We have fun when we are together, and sometimes just all stand around and tell goofy stories about out day and laugh until we hurt. My wife and I are relatively young parents, I had a child when I was 16 to give you some type of idea. So I think there is a little less of a generation gap than some parents have.

Overall I just want to spend more time with them, making memories that will last. They are already being recruited by several colleges for sports and or academics. So soon they will be graduated and in college. It just gos by so fast and seems unfair. So 2011 will be a year of good times!

Get to a conference! Well, I suck. I actually got 2 offers for a free trip to the London Affiliate Conference, I had planned on going for 6 months. Life sorta got in the way, and with the projects we have going its just not the right time. I’ve been turning down free trips for years now, and I’m pretty sure eventually people will stop offering. I really want to see parts of Europe and London and Rome are at the top of my list. The second trip I passed on was a free trip from Gr88 Poker, these guys are awesome. When I let them know I just couldn’t make it, they still wnated to give me something. So They sent me a 32gb Ipad 3g+wifi – this is something I really wanted, but wasn’t sure I needed for $800 lol – but now that I have it, it has some business and task manager apps that I’m not sure how I lived without.

Business goals for 2011

Well this is gonna be a tough one. We have so much going on, its takes a wall of whiteboards, a smartphone, and my new Ipad to keep up with it all. Thankfully we have good people all around us to help drive the train.

Elite Affiliate Software – Feb 1st is the un-announced official launch of the new software. This software will replace the old clunky RakeUpdate Rakeback software, but will not be limited to rakeback. We have spent 12 months in development, and getting feedback from affiliates, poker rooms, affiliate managers, etc – We wanted to do something more than just being “Stats Software” – so along with Rakeback, CPA, revshare – We have worked hard at making it “Marketing Software” – The tools we developed like the built in email marketing tools, reports, impressions/click tracking, have all come together nicely. Of course we paid special attention to use control, customization, seo, and usability.

I’ve been a poker player, I’m an affiliate, and I manage affiliate partners. So I know what I wanted and what people need to help with their business. I’m super excited about this project and about expanding into new markets. it will be a lot of work, and has been a lot of work. But isn’t that what we love to do? Note: pay no mind to the actual Elite Affiliate Software site, I threw it up, but we have been so busy with beta testing, tweaking, checking, and double checking everything I have no messed with it much.

No more new sites! – of course that doesn’t count for the EAS site lol – It was started in 2010, so I get a pass there. now I would start new sites if google and the gaming niche was like it was in 2009. With all the changes and new challenges of creating a new site from scratch, I just don’t want to do it. I’m not saying you shouldn’t, but I have sites which are 4-5 years old now, are authority in their niches, and make money. So we need to focus on maintaining and making these sites as awesome as they can be. funny thing about websites, I have never had a site in which I said “Ok, there is nothing I can do to improve it or make it better”. Show me a site which is “done” and I’ll show you someone who doesn’t know websites…

Also, if you want an awesome example of how to start, build, and develop a new website in a competitive niche, check out Best Slots Online – This is a site made by one of the best SEO’s I know.

Cleaning up my inventory – I already started this one! We have 200+ domains and 40+ websites. We do gaming, poker, casino, MMA, Entertainment, etc. We have a little of everything. But we have a lot of stuff we just will not have time to develop in 2011 and possibly never. I try never to impulse buy things, so usually everything we have has some type of potential be it exact match domains, or domains with good monthly search volume. Anyway, if you are looking for a cheap domains or starter site, check out this thread – I also have literally thousands of dollars in wordpress and html templates to go with them if you need one, free obv.

Continue to develop existing sites – this of course goes with the last goal, I want to keep adding resources, tools, content to our existing large sites. We spent a lot of time in 2010 updating old content and making everything current and accurate. Its amazing how fast data and information goes out of date. 2011 we will be tracking and monitoring all sites and keeping them updated and relevant. With google being all over the up to the minute information, this is a crusial aspect to any website. the world is “real time” now and your websites should be as well.

Ok, that’s all I have for now. I’d love to hear what all of you plan on doing in 2011, so please drop us some comments below. Also, check out the 2011 Goals for some of my fellow marketers:

• Poker Marketing Star
• Matt Geer Goals for 2011
• Daneil Merritt
• IPoker Affiliate
• Online Poker