http://www.pokerdiy.com RSS feeds for PokerDIY 60 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/602/944-new-home-poker-players-to-play-poker-with.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=602 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=602&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/602/944-new-home-poker-players-to-play-poker-with.aspx  We had a record breaking month of growth in October, 2009 with 944 new poker players signing up on PokerDIY to take advantage of our free services! This brings the total number of home poker players on PokerDIY to just under 43000... That is a lot of people to play poker against and meet! Find a home poker game now or start your own free poker league scoreboard like this one! Looking for poker players? Find poker players near you or check out our Poker Map. PokerDIY Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:23:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:602 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/597/your-poker-league-scores-on-the-google-toolbar.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=597 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=597&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/597/your-poker-league-scores-on-the-google-toolbar.aspx I use the Google Toolbar in Firefox and stumbled across a cool use for it! Put your home poker league scoreboard or personal poker player stats directly into the toolbar. This means you can access your poker league scores from where-ever you are with a simple click... Here is a screenshot of my own player scores in the Google Toolbar, but you really should try it with your own poker league to see how cool it is!   PokerDIY Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:55:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:597 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/594/last-20-home-poker-games-on-league-report.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=594 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=594&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/594/last-20-home-poker-games-on-league-report.aspx Someone requested that the last x home poker games are shown on the league scoreboard page so that you have a quick way of seeing the last couple of games your league has played (useful for double-checking those scores too!) This made sense so this enhancement went live today. There is a new tab on the League page showing the last 20 home poker games (regardless of which season they were played in). It also lists the date played, winner and number of players in the game. The view is alson on the iphone/mobile version and the poker league scoreboard report (automatic and manual) now lists the last 3 poker games for your league as well as the winner. You can also click on a Poker Season withing a League to see ALL the poker games played for that season with more info. This is just a quick link to the last few games. Thanks for the suggestion - what else would be useful for your league? PokerDIY Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:23:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:594 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/593/find-over-8000-home-poker-games-to-play-in.aspx#Comments 1 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=593 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=593&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/593/find-over-8000-home-poker-games-to-play-in.aspx The 8000th home poker game has just been listed on PokerDIY! It's great to think that so many poker players and games are connecting via our social network. This was home poker game number 8000 - The Scarface Poker club in Raleigh. If you run a home poker game and are looking for poker players or need some fresh fish be sure to list your home poker game now. It's free as always and only takes 30 seconds! You're more likely to find poker players than on Craigslist, Meetup or Facebook, plus you could even start your own poker league and record your home game scores on your free leaderboard. All home poker games are pushed to our Twitter home poker game feed. You can also subscribe to our latest poker game RSS (or zoom down on the Find Games page to get the RSS for your particular area). Just a reminder - the easiest way to find a home poker game in your area is either to search on your town OR zoom in on the home poker game map! If you have found a home poker tourney using PokerDIY we'd love to hear from you... PokerDIY Fri, 23 Oct 2009 05:07:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:593 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/589/auto-poker-league-scoreboard-reports-to-players.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=589 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=589&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/589/auto-poker-league-scoreboard-reports-to-players.aspx Poker league scoreboard reports are now sent by default automatically whenever your scoreboard changes. This saves you as the poker league owner having to manually send a leaderboard update after each game. Reports are queued up and sent 6 hours or so after the last game (this is to make sure that all the games are finished for a night - for example, if you play 2 games on a night you do not want to send a scoreboard report immediately after the first one). Games have to be active and there must be non-hidden players in a game in order for the report to be sent. One situation where you might want to send a manual report is when you want to include some custom message about the game or league. In this case you will need to do the report within 6 hours after the game. The auto-scoreboard reporting will check if you have sent it manually so you will not get duplicates. You can turn this feature off for your poker league by editing your league but we recommend leaving it on as the scoreboard report is very useful to your players to keep them interest in your league! The scoreboard report will also update your poker league Twitter account if you have set this up for your league. Note: Auto scoreboard reports only go to active season players (league members who have played at least one game for the current season). If you wish to send a report to all league members you can do this manually as before. Reports are sent on behalf of the poker league owner as Private Messages (your players can opt not to receive email notifications about this). PokerDIY Mon, 19 Oct 2009 04:07:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:589 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/588/poker-league-scoreboard-reports-now-update-twitter.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=588 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=588&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/588/poker-league-scoreboard-reports-now-update-twitter.aspx Do you have a Twitter account? (It's all the rage these days!). If you are a poker league admin on PokerDIY you can now automatically update your Twitter status when you send a poker league scoreboard report. The advantage of this is that your players can subscribe to that league account and be alerted on Twitter when the league leaderboard changes! Here is a live example of how the status update will look. This is a personal player account on PokerDIY a home poker league in Sydney, Australia. When you edit your poker league you can associate a Twitter account with your poker league (if you don't have a twitter account, why not set up one now (it's free). You can of course use your own personal Twitter account too. There is now a new optional section on the Scoreboard Report screen where you can choose to send an update to Twitter: Here's how it looks on Twitter: Why not try it now? Go to your own league and click on "Scoreboard Report"! PokerDIY Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:58:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:588 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/579/how-to-upload-images-links-and-other-html.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=579 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=579&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/579/how-to-upload-images-links-and-other-html.aspx It is really easy to upload your own images, links and other HTML in your own blog posts, leagues and other content on PokerDIY. Only certain places on PokerDIY allow HTML editing - usually it is the large text boxes on edit forms, like the Body field on a blog post or the league description when setting up a league. Firstly - you need to switch the editor from "Plain" to "Html" if it is not already in Html mode (if you can see a toolbar or little arrow above the textbox then it is already in HTML mode if it does not say). Once you have done this you should see the iconbar at the top of the textbox like this:   Note: Sometimes the icon tool bar above is not expanded by default (usually when there is not space). In this case it will look like this:   All you need to do then is click on the little down arrow on the left-hand side to get your toolbar. We'll now go over some of the basic formatting tricks: You can format your text with the usual cool stuff like bold, italics and different font colors. Note: You can use keyboard shortcuts like Ctr-U, Ctr-I and Ctr-B. If you want to test it out - start a new blog post and write some text and play around with it (you can always delete it if you don't like it!). If the textbox is too small you can click on the Expand button (the first icon one that looks like a monitor) to get full-size editing. Creating links is also simple - just highlight the text you want to link and click on the link button (it looks like a chainlink). Enter your URL you've got a link. You can insert smileys (and poker cards , check it out!) by clicking on the smiley face icon (you can't miss it) - start making your posts more fun and it helps a lot when showing what cards you had. The icon that looks like a picture of a sun and mountain is the Insert Image icon. Use this if you want to upload pictures into your post. You can enter a URL (if the image is online, for instance in flickr or on your website) OR you can upload it from your computer by clicking on "Browse Server". Click on the "Users" folder and in the top right you will see "Upload new File". You can use this to select a file on your PC and add it to the folder. Find it and select it to add it to your post. The last icon we'll cover is the Source icon. This one is a little technical (most users won't need it) but it can be useful. If you are familiar with HTML then you'll know that some editors can distort your HTML when pasted in from Word or other programs. If you click on the Source button you can see the HTML view of your post and make changes in direct HTML (for example, if you have bold text it will show as "<strong>bold text</strong>". This can come in handy sometimes. There are a couple of other icons on the bar to play around with - don't be afraid to click them and see what happens - now you can make your posts more fun! PokerDIY Wed, 07 Oct 2009 01:40:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:579 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/578/best-x-results-top-scores-scoring-for-a-season.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=578 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=578&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/578/best-x-results-top-scores-scoring-for-a-season.aspx You may have noticed a new Season scoring option today - you can now score your leaderboard on the Best x Results. The poker league management websites comparison chart  has been updated. Thanks to Wick for the feature request - please let us know what else you want for your scoreboards! You can change this scoring setting at season level so why not try it for your next season? (obviously if you turn it on halfway through a season the scoreboard would change drastically ;) How it works: Lets say you set it to the best 10 results over the season. Harry plays 12 games and his best 8 are used. Mary plays 5 and all 5 of hers are used. Mark plays 9 and 8 of those 9 are used to work out their best scores for the leaderboard. Let us know if you have any particualr scoring needs for your home poker league that we don't cater for yet! PokerDIY Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:30:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:578 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/573/add-guest-with-no-email-option-for-poker-leagues.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=573 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=573&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/573/add-guest-with-no-email-option-for-poker-leagues.aspx You can now add Guests to your poker league. You may want to use a Guest if the person does have an email address (or want to use it for privacy reasons, even though they are never shown on PokerDIY). Another use might be if a person plays once and never again. You can add them as a Guest instead of a normal user - all you need is their name or nickname. This feature was long overdue - most of the other poker league sites have this feature but it kinda got left behind on PokerDIY for one reason or another. One thing to bear in mind when adding a Guest is that because they have no email their is no way to contact them or send the league report updates for example. They will not be able to log in and change their name or profile pic. It really is just a name, although they will have the complete player stats and a profile on PokerDIY. Note: If a Guest wanted to "claim" their account for whatever reason, they would need to send an email to the League Owner who would need to approve it and let us know. We can then update their profile, they can request a Forgotten PW and they are no longer a guest... What other features do you need for your league? PokerDIY Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:42:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:573 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/570/email-blast-scoreboard-reports-your-league-on-your-own-blogfacebook.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=570 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=570&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/570/email-blast-scoreboard-reports-your-league-on-your-own-blogfacebook.aspx This email blast was sent to all Poker League owners on PokerDIY highlighting the new poker league scoreboard features. PokerDIY Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:41:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:570 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/569/send-a-personalized-poker-league-scoreboard-report-to-your-players.aspx#Comments 4 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=569 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=569&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/569/send-a-personalized-poker-league-scoreboard-report-to-your-players.aspx After a good poker game the league host normally updates the league scoreboard and sends out an email with a report about the game and a link to the latest results. This is something that is usually done every time the scoreboard changes after a game and takes some time. We decided to make this easier by adding a new feature to all poker leagues on PokerDIY - League admins/deputies can now send generated league leaderboard reports with just a few clicks. Each player will receive a personalized report about the league, ie. where they are ranking currently, how many points they have, how much cash they have won (hopefully) and how many times they have been hitman etc. It will also show the top 3 positions, who is coming last, who has lost the most cash, won the most cash and a lot more... Here is an email snapshot from a recent home game to give you an example: This was an actual league scoreboard report sent for the Sydney Home Poker League. If you manage your poker league on PokerDIY you can send your own players reports right now. Go to your poker league home page and click on "Scoreboard Report". You can chose which of your poker league members receive the report (only the active players this season, or ALL of your poker league members?) and include message if you want. We've got some great enhancements for this feature planned: Twitter integration Auto-scheduling (everytime the scoreboard changes we can send a report) and loads more! Thanks to the PokerDIY member who suggest this feature, we've updated the Poker League Feature Comparison Chart! Let us know what else you'd find useful for your home poker league... PokerDIY Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:09:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:569 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/565/add-players-to-game-filter--active-season-players.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=565 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=565&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/565/add-players-to-game-filter--active-season-players.aspx There's a nifty new feature on the "Add Players to Game" screen which should help the larger leagues when adding poker games. In the past, this screen showed all your league members. So imagine a home poker league that has been running for for a few years (maybe a season per year) and had around 80 members. Some of these members might not play regularily or haven't played since the first season. This made the adding players to your game a little tricky to navigate. So now there is a nice little filter you can use to only show the players that are active for the current season (Active means they have played in a poker game this season). It will default to this filter if you have more than 20 league members to make it even easier.   Remember to give us your feedback and raise your poker league feature requests here - what do you want to see on PokerDIY? PokerDIY Fri, 25 Sep 2009 09:56:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:565 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/559/pokerdiy-upgrade-update-and-downtime.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=559 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=559&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/559/pokerdiy-upgrade-update-and-downtime.aspx For those of you who didn't know, PokerDIY was due to be upgraded to a new core version today (this would have meant some cool new features - more on this later). Unfortunately things didn't go as planned! 7 hours of downtime later and we finally managed to restore our site to exactly how it was. For this we whole-heartedly aplogise and we promise it will never happen again ;) In a nutshell, our engineers hit some hicups which tested our backup/restore processes to the max. At least we know they work, albeit a little slow! So... the upgrade is still planned but it's been postponed for a week or two while we get our act together to make sure this does not happen again! Thanks for your patience... PokerDIY Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:20:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:559 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/555/pokerdiy-core-software-upgrade.aspx#Comments 1 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=555 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=555&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/555/pokerdiy-core-software-upgrade.aspx Please note that today for the next 3 hours you may experience some odd behaviour on PokerDIY. We are upgrading our core platform software which will bring lots of new features (more on this later). Unfortunately this is a rather large upgrade so the site will experience some slowdown and issues as we get things up to speed. We are going to have to switch off the LiveID, OpenID and Facebook Connect Login ability for a while - we'll get it back up ASAP. Please log in normally until then. Sorry for the inconvenience and please be patient - will let you know as soon as it is complete. PokerDIY Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:44:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:555 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/550/add-league-players-from-your-address-bookgmailhotmail-etc.aspx#Comments 5 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=550 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=550&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/550/add-league-players-from-your-address-bookgmailhotmail-etc.aspx A new feature went live today which will help poker directors with big leagues get started a lot faster.  In the past you could only add 1 player at a time if they were not registered on PokerDIY. You can now add a whole stack of poker players at once to your league AND you can import them from your Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail/other contact address books! To give it a go, click on "Add new Player" on your league and go the "Add Players via Email" screen. Click on the big "Add from my Address Book" button and chose your email provider (don't worry, we don't store your email username or password, promise!). You will then see a list of all your contacts in your email address book. You can then add these people to your league. A little side note that league owners may have noticed - when you add league players like this they are added as your friends instantly (we assume you know them!). I've updated the Poker League Website Feature Chart - Keep the feature requests coming!   PokerDIY Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:49:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:550 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/547/poker-league-import-fixed--total-cost-buy-in-rebuys-addons.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=547 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=547&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/547/poker-league-import-fixed--total-cost-buy-in-rebuys-addons.aspx A while ago a league director raised an issue - bascially they were importing poker game results from the Tournament Director and the league scoreboard was not taking into account Rebuys and Addons, which meant that the profit column on the scoreboard was not balanced. This was an annoying oversight but I am pleased to say it has now been fixed. I'm just sorry that it took so long! The Buy In column on all views has now been replaced with a Total Cost column. Total Cost = Buy In + Rebuys + Addons If you do not play with Addons and Rebuys you will notice no change in your scoreboard except for the heading name change. If you have been importing games from Tournament Director then your scoreboards will now reflect the correct amount. Let us know if things don't add up! I've updated our Poker League Software Feature Comparison grid to reflect the fix. PokerDIY Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:18:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:547 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/539/compare-poker-league-management-website-features-easily.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=539 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=539&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/539/compare-poker-league-management-website-features-easily.aspx What features do you look for when running your home poker league? The ability to customize your poker league scoreboard? Whether or not you can filter on minimum games or change the scoreboard ranking? Whatever your feature-requirements are there are a lot of poker league management websites around these days and all do things a bit differently. We decided to put together a feature-comparison chart of the different websites and services and what they offer. This means you can tell at a glance which websites are better in certain areas and which should be avoided. League Website Owners: Do you want to see your website on the grid? Write on the wall below and let us know so we can add you. Please keep us informed if you implement or change a feature so we can update our chart. Poker League Directors: Any other features that you want ranked/measured? Let us know!  Don't forget we like to keep our players happy at PokerDIY - let us know if you have a feature request for our own poker league software so that we can add it in for you! PokerDIY Sun, 06 Sep 2009 10:15:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:539 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/531/onlinepoker20-interview--poker-leagues-go-social-with-pokerdiy.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=531 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=531&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/531/onlinepoker20-interview--poker-leagues-go-social-with-pokerdiy.aspx OnlinePoker2.0 is a great read for poker players and web enthusiasts alike. They follow and discuss advances in poker and social media/internet technology, so it was only a matter of time before we met up to discuss the future of PokerDIY - you can read the full interview - "Poker leagues go social with PokerDIY". It's nice to see a useful poker blog/site with meaningful content - check it out if you get a chance... PokerDIY Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:25:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:531 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/527/pokerdiy-interview-with-pokersoftwarecom.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=527 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=527&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/527/pokerdiy-interview-with-pokersoftwarecom.aspx PokerDIY was featured a few months ago on PokerSoftware.com, a site dedicated to all-things to do with yep, you guessed it, poker software! It gives a bit of insight as to how PokerDIY was formed and answers the Who, What, Why, When and Where questions... Many thanks to Dan Cypra from PS for the interview. You can read it in full: PokerDIY interview with PokerSoftware PokerDIY Fri, 28 Aug 2009 13:19:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:527 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/524/add-your-poker-league-scoreboard-to-your-own-siteblogfacebook.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=524 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=524&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/524/add-your-poker-league-scoreboard-to-your-own-siteblogfacebook.aspx If you do any of the following this may interest you. Do you... Run your own home poker league? Have a league website or blog where you post the league scoreboard results? Have a iGoogle, Netvibes, PageFlakes or Facebook profile? Play in your own home poker games? If you answered "yes" to any of these questions then keep reading why you might like our poker widgets! In a nutshell you can now grab your PokerDIY poker league scoreboard (example) or player scores (example) and put it on your own website, blog, Facebook profile or just about any other web platform. When you browse the web you see far too many people posting their poker league scores each week and I'm sure it's pain typing it out! Just grab your poker league and embed it in your blog with a few clicks and you always have the latest scores updated in real time when you make changes on PokerDIY! To give you an example of how it might look we set up a free account on Blogger (any one can start their own blog in seconds) and added our league to it. Check it out here! It's pretty basic but I'm sure you get the drift. You could put your own scores and the league leaderboard on your normal league website with all your own news updates, events, photos and videos etc. Of course, you are welcome to use your free poker league scoreboard on PokerDIY anytime - we're constantly improving them all the time but who wouldn't like to show off their scores on their Facebook profile?! So... to put your poker league on your own website, follow these steps and let us know if you get stuck! Make sure you are logged in and view your profile, scores or poker league. You will see a "Share" button that looks like this - All you have to do is click it and chose what platform you would like to put your widget on. We have some great poker Facebook apps so that you can show off your poker league on your profile and we integrate with most platforms such as Blogger, Wordpress, iGoogle, PageFlakes, Netvibes etc. If you use any of these the widget will instruct you how to proceed - most of the time you just need to be logged on and it will automatically add your widget to your page of choice! If you have an HTML page you can grab the embed code at the bottom of the widget menu (once you have clicked on "Share" and paste this into your HTML page directly. Be sure to read our Poker Widgets FAQ for troubleshooting and guidance!   PokerDIY Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:21:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:524 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/518/poker-league-scoreboards-with-dr-neau-tournament-director-and-stm.aspx#Comments 1 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=518 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=518&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/518/poker-league-scoreboards-with-dr-neau-tournament-director-and-stm.aspx If you publish your poker league scoreboard from Dr Neau, STM or The Tournament Director to PokerDIY then you may have noticed a new little icon on your poker game results. Have a look at this demo home poker game... (screenshot below)   Don't be alarmed, this just indicates that the game results were exported from one of the above and not manually entered. There is also an icon for when the poker game has been added with PokerDIY Mobile. Check out this example mobile poker game here. PokerDIY Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:38:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:518 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/515/now-league-deputies-can-update-your-poker-league-scoreboard-too.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=515 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=515&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/515/now-league-deputies-can-update-your-poker-league-scoreboard-too.aspx A feature request came through recently from Ryan T who runs his poker league on PokerDIY. He wanted some other league members to be able to update their poker league scoreboard and manage their league. Imagine in the League Owner goes away on holiday or doesn't play that day - someone else might need to upload the poker scores! Fair enough. A fairly common-sense requirement and one that was only missing due to lack of time and the other 101 common-sense requirements that were more important ;) But it was time to get this in so here it is: you now have the ability to promote your poker league members to League Deputy Admins who can do just about everything the League Owner can do! Start your own poker league now if you don't have one to see it in action (we don't mind if you set up test leagues!) or check out the screenshots below (taken from the live Sydney Poker League)...   League Deputies can do everything the League Owner can do, EXCEPT: Delete the poker league Delete other League Deputies Promote normal poker league members to League Deputies. They can do everything else, from importing poker games from The Tournament Director to editing the league info to updating your home poker league scoreboard. So think carefully when you promote your members and make sure they are trust-worthy! BTW: Did you know that you can submit you requests and feedback and then track when we comment or implement it? We take requests like this seriously and really appreciate all feedback, especially from our league directors, the ones actually using PokerDIY to run their leagues! So... if you have an idea or want something improved on PokerDIY, raise a feature request now...   PokerDIY Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:29:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:515 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/467/pokerdiy-july-newsletter--better-player-stats-and-more.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=467 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=467&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/467/pokerdiy-july-newsletter--better-player-stats-and-more.aspx PokerDIY July, 2009 Newsletter - We've been working on the poker player stats screen to make it more useful - for example, have a look at this players scores. Read more about how you can have this on your own poker league or Click here to see a live poker league in action. PokerDIY Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:54:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:467 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/460/home-poker-games-scores-and-personal-player-stats.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=460 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=460&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/460/home-poker-games-scores-and-personal-player-stats.aspx The poker player scores and statistics view has been enhanced quite a bit in the last couple of months. Lets have a look at this poker player's profile stats to see the new improvements (it's the live stats our own Sydney Poker League and I'm doing better this year  ;) PokerDIY Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:44:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:460 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/444/40-000th-poker-player-on-pokerdiy--a-brief-history.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=444 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=444&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/444/40-000th-poker-player-on-pokerdiy--a-brief-history.aspx PokerDIY started out in life in 2005 as a website for a small group of friends who got together every Wednesday for a home poker game. Roll on 3.5 years later and we have just had our 40 000th poker player sign up for their free account on PokerDIY! This is great news – our community of poker players is growing at a astonish rate – let’s take a look at some milestones and you can see why PokerDIY is more than just another poker social network. PokerDIY Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:48:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:444 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/442/your-own-poker-player-profile-url.aspx#Comments 2 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=442 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=442&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/442/your-own-poker-player-profile-url.aspx  Good news! From the 23rd of June, you are now no longer just a number on PokerDIY – you can have your own poker player profile URL. Your Display Name is used at the end of the PokerDIY URL (like this; http://www.pokerdiy.com/Your Display Name) to give you your own unique URL which you can give out to people. For example, here is my own poker profile: http://www.pokerdiy.com/rod.aspx PokerDIY Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:442 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/439/customizing-your-poker-league-logo.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=439 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=439&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/439/customizing-your-poker-league-logo.aspx We recently had a performance issue on PokerDIY due to the amount of new poker leagues being created.After tracking it down to a file system issue we had to temporarily remove the ability to change your poker league logo. The good news is that it is now fixed and easier than ever to upload your own image for your poker league! PokerDIY Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:31:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:439 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/436/improved-poker-league-scoreboard-updating.aspx#Comments 1 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=436 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=436&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/436/improved-poker-league-scoreboard-updating.aspx Those of you who manage your poker leagues on PokerDIY will know that in the past updating your poker league game results was a bit of a pain. If you were not using Dr Neau, STP or The Tournament Director to import your results, you'd have to enter them manually through the web or iphone. One of our users eventually commented on how slow this process was and raised a Feature Request. Well, we listened and redesigned the process to make it much quicker and easier to record your game scores! PokerDIY Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:33:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:436 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/428/new-look-for-pokerdiy.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=428 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=428&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/428/new-look-for-pokerdiy.aspx Over the past couple of years PokerDIY has been through 2 different UI redesigns. One of the most common complaints in the last year has been that PokerDIY is hard to navigate. We wholeheartedly agreed with this statement and tried to work out what was wrong with the UI that hindered usability. We came up with a few different areas that needed improvement: The main menu was hard to navigate and a great deal of information and resources were not being used because of this Certain key areas of the site were hard to find (for example, the Poker Forums) Many visitors come into sub pages on PokerDIY and do not see the home page first. We wanted to help them identify where they were and what they could do We wanted to increase the value of adverts for our sponsors and advertisers The new skin design addressed on all these points and focused on usabilty. As you can see at the top of this page is a Breadcrumb which helps pinpoint your location within the site. We made the search box a lot more prominent - if you can't find something we encourage you to search for it. We also made it easier to sign up, log in and edit your profile. There is now a Bookmark button at the top right of every page. You can bookmark your favourite pages in Facebook, Digg etc. with ease. The main menu got our main attention - it uses hover over drop-down menus to make it easier to find what you are looking for. Instead of 12 different menus we now have only 6. Things have been moved around a bit to make them easier to find. Every page is a little bigger and brighter and more spaced out for easier reading. We switched from Arial to Verdana font as this was easier on the eyes when scanning lots of text. So... this is the new PokerDIY look. We hope you like it! PLEASE feedback to us your thoughts, opinions and especially your criticism - this helps us so much!  PokerDIY Wed, 13 May 2009 11:49:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:428 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/374/do-you-use-facebook-and-pokerdiy.aspx#Comments 4 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=374 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=374&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/374/do-you-use-facebook-and-pokerdiy.aspx Do you have a Facebook account? Do you use PokerDIY? The good news is that you can now log on to PokerDIY using your Facebook account. This means one-click log ons and a lot more! Before we go any further - are you a PokerDIY-Facebook fan? If not, please join our Facebook fanpage as this helps us immensly! Now, the next time you log in (top right), click on the Facebook button (see login image below). The first time you do this you will need to associate your Facebook account with your PokerDIY account. This only takes a few seconds and will save you lots of time in the future! You will need to log on to Facebook and it will look something like this: Once you have associated your PokerDIY account with your Facebook account you can log in with one click. There are a couple of more advantages that will become more obvious later - we like to stay on the cutting edge and you will be sure to see more Facebook features on PokerDIY and like-wise more of PokerDIY on Facebook! Did you know you can already embed your poker player profile on Facebook (or your own blog/website for that matter?) If there is anything in particular to do with Facebook that you'd like to see on PokerDIY please let us know!   PokerDIY Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:06:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:374 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/360/manage-your-home-poker-league-with-pokerdiy-and-drneau.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=360 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=360&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/360/manage-your-home-poker-league-with-pokerdiy-and-drneau.aspx Do you use DrNeau to manage your home poker league or tourneys? Or perhaps you use PokerDIY to publish your league scoreboard and organize your home games? (for example, here's my home league!) Either way, life just got easier with the release of DrNeau version 3 which allows you to publish your poker league results directly to your PokerDIY league scoreboard! PokerDIY Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:50:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:360 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/325/the-best-way-to-find-local-home-poker-games-tournaments-and-players.aspx#Comments 8 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=325 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=325&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/325/the-best-way-to-find-local-home-poker-games-tournaments-and-players.aspx Either way, PokerDIY can help with our new Poker Games section. In a nutshell - it's a free (like the rest of PokerDIY!) service to help find local poker games, poker leagues, poker players and poker groups >in your area. PokerDIY Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:43:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:325 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/323/pokerdiy-marks-3rd-anniversary-with-map-service-to-find-local-poker-games.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=323 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=323&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/323/pokerdiy-marks-3rd-anniversary-with-map-service-to-find-local-poker-games.aspx Finding local poker games, poker leagues, groups and players just became easier with a new Google Maps mashup service from PokerDIY PokerDIY Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:52:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:323 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/320/poker-games-and-poker-events-on-pokerdiy--whats-the-difference.aspx#Comments 5 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=320 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=320&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/320/poker-games-and-poker-events-on-pokerdiy--whats-the-difference.aspx PokerDIY has poker games and poker events. This can be a little confusing so I am going to explain the difference as they serve slightly different purposes. Poker Games (middle icon on top  ) are like poker game ads - ie. the intention of holding a poker game, looking for players, leagues etc. Here is an example of a proposed poker game in Manly, Sydney. You can drill down by location, search by distance from your closest town etc. As you can see, it is essentially an ad (always free ;) for a poker game or league to try and get players or to find a game. Poker Events (main menu bar under Find) are useful for poker league managers to schedule, manage and organize an ACTUAL poker game, event or tourney. For example, you know you are definitely playing a poker tourney next Thursday as part of you poker league and you want to see which of your poker league members can make it and who is busy etc. You can schedule an event and make it private (so only your poker league members see it). They will receive an invitation and can RSVP (you'll get notified) so everyone can see who is busy etc. This works very much like MeetUp, Facebook events etc (you can export your poker event to Outlook via iCal). Here is an example of a poker event (for an online freeroll - it doens't have to be a live game!) You could of course use both methods - post your home game in the Poker Game section if you are looking for players and then set up an event everytime you have an actual game scheduled. This is what we do for our Sydney Poker League. Sorry, one last thing just to confuse you even more- after you have uploaded your scores for your poker league on PokerDIY (you do have a poker league scoreboard right?) you will notice that your profile shows "Last x Poker Games". Basically a poker league has one or more seasons which consist of one or more poker games. So here is my poker league, here is the 2008 Season and here are the poker game results from last week. I hope that clears it up a bit! Let me know on the poker forums if you have any queries! PokerDIY Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:01:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:320 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/317/pokerdiy-breaks-into-the-alexa-100k-website-list--trafficgrowth-stats.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=317 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=317&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/317/pokerdiy-breaks-into-the-alexa-100k-website-list--trafficgrowth-stats.aspx With the steady growth and new users it was bound to happen sooner rather than later – Alexa puts PokerDIY at 98 906 as of the 26th of November, 2008. This really is exciting and shows that poker players are finding value in our free service. PokerDIY Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:48:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:317 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/315/my-brush-with-google-death-paid-links-and-the-affect-on-the-little-guy.aspx#Comments 4 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=315 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=315&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/315/my-brush-with-google-death-paid-links-and-the-affect-on-the-little-guy.aspx I had a very real brush with Google Death recently and I thought I would share my experience out of interest. I run PokerDIY.com, a social network for poker players that allows you to manage your poker league and find local poker games and players. You do not play poker on PokerDIY, it is a service for connecting poker players with league management (think Facebook + Craigslist for poker). All this is free of course. My prime revenue stream is online advertising. I just want to state now that I do not ever want to be an affiliate-driven poker site – i.e. I send someone to an online poker room and I get $50 (they probably lose $500) – most of the large poker sites operate on this model but my long-term vision is to have a successful social network and provide a respectable, useful, free service (I started PokerDIY because I kept sending our home poker league scores on a spreadsheet with mass emails). I personally do not play much online poker (playing live poker with a couple of mates and a few beers is one my favorite pastimes) and I really dislike the spew of keyword-rich poker sites with masses of affiliate banners of them offering no real value to the net visitor. I have tried MANY different types of online ads – ranging from AuctionAds, AdBrite, Adsense, Affiliate Ads, etc. and the most lucrative (as-in, keep me afloat lucrative) has always been the custom, flat rate ads (i.e. Not CPC or CPM - a webmaster contacts me, we agree on a rate and I put up their banner or text-link for a set duration of time). Why not Google Adsense? A year ago the great Google god (GGG) decided that PokerDIY does not comply with their guidelines (no gambling or casino sites) so they disabled my Adsense account. (For the record, I completely disagree and have appealed this decision as my site is a social service, not a gambling platform - you don’t play poker on PokerDIY!). I hope to hear back from them soon and will keep you posted. I think contextual ads (as opposed to untargeted, content-insensitive ads) are of course better for everyone. So; my point - Every now and again I experiment with different ads and options but I have repeatedly found text-links always give the best ROI (note, this depends on so many factors like your site’s target market, UI, traffic etc. This is merely my experience). The reason for this is PokerDIY’s good PageRank. For a few years the home page has been a PR5 and all the major subpages either a PR3 or a PR4. This directly translated into good ad rates for text-links and the advertising income made the time spent on the site worth it. This has all changed over the last year as Google have made their guidelines quite clear regarding bought and sold links. In a nutshell, they say that buying a link to increase your page-rank (incoming links count as “votes” towards a site’s worthiness) is a no-no and any site caught buying or selling links will be penalized. I won’t go into detail on this – it caused an ongoing, massive debate in the SEO and advertising world and this post is merely the affect it has had on me, the little guy. Firstly – I should state that I do agree with this conceptually. I don’t want to be able to move up the rankings in Google because I have money (or lose out in the rankings because my competitor has more money). I want a fair race where your web visitors are the judges and a sites ranking depends on its usefulness and the value it offers in its respective field. However, we have to be realistic – I (and most web entrepreneurs) rely on online ads to make money – if you remove this revenue stream a webmaster has to either secure an alternate stream if possible (we are in a recession in case nobody noticed) or shut shop. I fear for most people like myself “who just get by” and have no major backing behind them this is almost a death blow. Let me show you the tangible effect this has had on me: Two weeks ago I noticed that my Page Rank on my homepage had dropped from a PR5 to a PR3. Several potential advertisers inform me of this fact (almost gleefully) and suggested I reduce my ad rates and moved on. I did some research and although I can’t be sure I got the impression that Google was starting to “slap” webmasters on the wrist who were involved in the illicit link trade business. This had happened to many sites over the last year and seemed to be on the increase. But I never thought it would happen to me though (I’m the little guy!). I dropped everything and did some serious research on their guidelines – suddenly my worst fears had become a reality overnight with that casual PR drop. You might argue that PR has no influence on SERPS and or whatever (there’s endless discussions on this too) but it definitely has an effect on my revenue stream and the reactions of the advertisers whose payments I rely on. So, I had to make a big decision – Continue along my this path and risk a harder slap or Re-think my ad strategy, update my site, humbly get on my knees and beg for forgiveness (which involves pleading for my PR2 increase back). Oh yeah, and watch revenues tumble.   Let me give a brief bit of background on why neither of these 2 choices thrilled me: Either way, my ad revenue is going to drop – it’s just a matter of time. In the first case, I could keep my ad rates the same for the next 6 months or so, but I would definitely notice a drop in re-buys (90% of my advertisers periodically re-purchase their ads and I have a good relationship with every one of them (PokerDIY grows stronger every month – we are now in the Alexa top 100k, although of course this is no real indicator of a site’s success as I could have written a bot to hit the site periodically if I didn’t have better things to do)). Over time though the Google slaps would get harder and PokerDIY would wither up and die in the long run. Who knows what GGG is capable of when you risk his wrath – let’s see – PR0, lower SERPS and worst of all, the Google Death Blow – de-listing from the index). I therefore decided that whatever happens I want to stay on the right side of Google (Matt Cutts take note!) like a good little dog. But… if I play by the rules it means I keep my PR and traffic, but then I have to do things like a) not sell links or b) sell links that rely on eyeballs and not SEO – ie. Add the “nofollow” tag to them so Google does not think you are bigging-up the site you link to. Again, I see their point. If Paddy’s Poker Palace buys a link from me I should not be telling the world that PokerDIY endorses them (with link juice), I am merely saying – here’s an ad, click on it if you like and make your own mind up. Adding a “nofollow” tag is the only real option but boy, this is where the problems start. I have to either refund the advertiser (the value of their purchase has diminished) or offer them an alternative. Refunding is not an option as I cannot suddenly raise the money to pay back all my advertisers at once. So I am working on an ad package of an equal value (with a bit more thrown in for the trouble and hassle this has caused!) to make sure they get value for the remainder of their ad time. For example, if they had a direct text-link I will now offer them a 125*125 non-direct banner. Someone might argue that I could just leave the ”nofollow” tag off until the end of their advertising, but besides killing PokerDIY PR and traffic this would have a negative effect on their site anyway – not only because of the loss of traffic and PR, but Google would penalize the target site too for engaging in the despicable practice of ad purchasing for PR gain (it’s no secret that this is why people buy the little text links that no one clicks on). Out of interest, I had one existing advertiser contact me and request that I PUT the “nofollow” tag on as soon as possible (their site was being penalized for purchasing links), which I did. *UPDATE* A few days after implementing the “nofollow” tag on all text-links my PageRank was restored to a PR5. I believe this shows that Google is using algorithms and bots/spiders to automatically handle this affair (as you would expect). If this has not affected you then I would imagine it is only a matter of time – take action now so you don’t have to face the mess I am in. The other very tangible affect is that I have literally slashed my ad rates by more than half. In one day my potential forecast has more than halved with a single action from Google. A big company or firm might be able to budget for this kind of drop and have a contingency action plan built in, but for a many web entrepreneurs this is a serious blow. It could very well lead to a mass of small players dropping off the face of the web, leaving a clear web-class divide between the big players with money and the rest of us. So in a way even this action allows the big players to get to the top of SERPS – they’ll be #1 if there are no competitors with the financial backing to compete. Is this perhaps what Google want – a clean sweep of the web riff-raff to improve the quality over time? I will save the details of my Advertising Rethink for another post as this is getting a bit long. I thought I would share this story as testament to Google’s power and how it affects me, the little guy... PokerDIY Wed, 26 Nov 2008 01:08:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:315 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/283/poker-league-scoring-enhancements.aspx#Comments 1 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=283 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=283&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/283/poker-league-scoring-enhancements.aspx You can now rank your league season by Points, Average Points, Profit, Average Profit or by Games Played. You can set the scoring method at Season level so that each season you could decide to change it and not affect past results. Here are some more poker league scoring enhancements. PokerDIY Sat, 11 Oct 2008 10:07:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:283 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/282/pokerdiy-poker-league-update--new-scoring-options.aspx#Comments 1 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=282 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=282&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/282/pokerdiy-poker-league-update--new-scoring-options.aspx We have just released a new version of the PokerDIY Poker League core software. There are a number of major enhancements and a couple of small new features. If you manage your poker league on PokerDIY or know someone who does then read on! PokerDIY Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:53:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:282 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/284/pokerdiy-poker-league-update-email-blast.aspx#Comments 3 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=284 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=284&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/284/pokerdiy-poker-league-update-email-blast.aspx This is the email blast that was sent to all poker league owners on PokerDIY to let them know about the new poker league scoring enhancements. PokerDIY Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:30:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:284 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/241/pokerdiy-august-newsletter.aspx#Comments 1 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=241 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=241&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/241/pokerdiy-august-newsletter.aspx Read the PokerDIY August Newsletter, Edition 4 with poker league updates, site news and loads more... PokerDIY Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:31:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:241 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/239/pokerdiy-traffic-growth-and-new-features.aspx#Comments 4 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=239 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=239&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/239/pokerdiy-traffic-growth-and-new-features.aspx PokerDIY is growing quickly. At the time of this blog post we have an Alexa Ranking of 131 776. There are 499 poker leagues are being managed using PokerDIY custom poker league software, 496 poker groups throughout the world and we've paid out $4600 in poker freeroll prize money! PokerDIY Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:45:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:239 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/235/start-your-own-poker-blog.aspx#Comments 4 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=235 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=235&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/235/start-your-own-poker-blog.aspx Now everyone can share their poker ramblings and bad beats with other poker players right here on PokerDIY. Start your own poker blog and share your thoughts on anything to do with poker - bad beats, good beats, the poker industry or even a plug for your poker website or product (yes, free poker advertising!) PokerDIY Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:58:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:235 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/322/home-poker-league-management-just-became-easier-with-pokerdiy.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=322 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=322&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/322/home-poker-league-management-just-became-easier-with-pokerdiy.aspx Poker players can now track their poker game performance over time by taking advantage of the new integration feature between PokerDIY's free poker league management software and The Tournament Director. PokerDIY Tue, 19 Jun 2007 02:59:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:322 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/208/managing-your-pokerdiy-league-with-tournament-director.aspx#Comments 5 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=208 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=208&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/208/managing-your-pokerdiy-league-with-tournament-director.aspx Do you use PokerDIY to manage your home poker league? Do you still record your results on paper or in a spreadsheet? Have you heard of The Tournament Director? Do you find recording the results to be a real pain? You can now publish your TD results to PokerDIY! PokerDIY Fri, 15 Jun 2007 10:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:208 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/205/beating-the-freeroll-password-thieves-and-the-new-password-release-system.aspx#Comments 2 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=205 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=205&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/205/beating-the-freeroll-password-thieves-and-the-new-password-release-system.aspx Passwords for PokerDIY Freeroll Poker League games will now be released automatically with our new software to ensure freeroll players are active community members. This should deter freeroll pw thieves. PokerDIY Sat, 02 Jun 2007 10:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:205 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/197/poker-league-software-update--start-your-own-poker-league-now.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=197 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=197&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/197/poker-league-software-update--start-your-own-poker-league-now.aspx We've just released some great new features in our poker league software to make starting and managing your home poker league easier than ever! (I've sure I've said it before, but in case you missed, it - it's free!) PokerDIY Sat, 28 Apr 2007 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:197 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/194/watch-our-little-poker-community-grow.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=194 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=194&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/194/watch-our-little-poker-community-grow.aspx Last month 452 new poker players joined our poker family. This month we may beat that - so far we have 317 new poker enthusiasts, and it's only half way through the month! You can now also watch the poker league stats grow on the PokerDIY home page. PokerDIY Tue, 17 Apr 2007 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:194 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/190/pokerdiy-newsletter--online-poker-leagues.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=190 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=190&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/190/pokerdiy-newsletter--online-poker-leagues.aspx Every couple of months the PokerDIY Newsletter is sent out with the latest site changes and features - this issue concentrated on creating your own poker league online. This is the exact email that was sent out. PokerDIY Fri, 13 Apr 2007 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:190 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/186/own-a-blog-make-money-blogging-about-the-poker-leagues-on-pokerdiy.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=186 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=186&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/186/own-a-blog-make-money-blogging-about-the-poker-leagues-on-pokerdiy.aspx We are trying the beta CreamAid service - if you own a blog then review our Poker Leagues, help your favorite poker site, and earn some hard cash! PokerDIY Sat, 31 Mar 2007 10:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:186 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/184/staying-up-to-date-with-our-poker-alerts-and-rss-feeds.aspx#Comments 0 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/RssComments.aspx?TabID=584&ModuleID=2142&ArticleID=184 http://www.pokerdiy.com/DesktopModules/DnnForge%20-%20NewsArticles/Tracking/Trackback.aspx?ArticleID=184&PortalID=6&TabID=584 http://www.pokerdiy.com/poker-blogs/id/184/staying-up-to-date-with-our-poker-alerts-and-rss-feeds.aspx If you play poker and have never heard of RSS and think it stands for "Really simple and Stupid" then you really want to take a look at this! By bringing the beautiful game (poker of course) and technology like RSS together, we can save time finding information and have more time to do the things we really want to be doing... PokerDIY Fri, 23 Mar 2007 13:00:00 GMT f1397696-738c-4295-afcd-943feb885714:184