It all started about 2 years ago. I was a
college student in a rural southern town with a
diminishing bank account. I constantly looked
for ways to make money online so I could avoid
working a $6 per hour job at a local restaurant.
My first peek at online income came with a
promise of huge earnings in only 12 days. Yes
I am talking about the famous Ponzi scheme
12dailypro. A small group of kids from my high
school had stumbled upon this website soon after it
had launched, and they continued to sign everyone
they knew up... including me. I was a little
late however. The site was closed and deemed
illegal just a month after I had signed up. So
much for making a fortune like my classmates.
Now I was hooked. Just the thought of being
able to make money with a website made my mouth
water. I had just quit my job as a valet to
come to school. It was obvious that there was
no way I was going to make the money I was making
parking cars at college. I decided to take
some of the money I had saved and devote it to
creating my online empire.
My next step was affiliate marketing. I
read tons of articles and blogs about making money
with affiliate programs with pay per click
advertising. After doing some research I
decided to take the plunge and start a few ad
campaigns with Google's Adwords. I ended up
losing a little money, but nothing like any of the
horror stories you read about online.
One day out of the blue I decided to start an ad
campaign on overture. I set it up, set a
budget, and forgot about it. That is until the
next day when I checked to see if there were any
sales. Over $200 dollars in sales for the day!
What a feeling. After my advertising expenses
I had profited about $100 for the day. I was
ecstatic. This went on for a month or so until
the product I was selling became popular with other
affiliates and the price per click went up to the
point where I could no longer make a profit.
Fun while it lasted.
It was right around this time when I began
getting involved with poker affiliate programs.
I had been reading tons of blogs and articles about
the top affiliates who were making $20,000 or more
per month, and I was ready to do this myself.
Just like any other newbie would do, I dove in
head first. Party Poker was the first room I
decided to promote. I looked to the third tier
search engines that allowed gambling content so I
could start an ad campaign. I bought a domain
name and spent about $350 in a week with over 50
play money signups. Sadly, only three
converted into real money sign ups, two of which
were on the mgr plan and one on a cpa plan. So
I was busted, and I could not afford to lose any
more money to PPC advertising. With no
more drive, I soon lost focus.
I let the poker affiliate programs drift away
into the back of my mind. From here I went
back and forth between marketing informational
products and playing online poker. Neither of
which was I any good at. My funds were
dwindling and I was forced to work at a hell hole of
a restaurant called Locos. I delivered food
for $4.50 an hour plus tips.
Fast forward nine months. Luckily the two
players that I had signed up on the mgr plan had
been playing like crazy. Although it took a
while to recover the initial loss of $350 I had
suffered to acquire these players, I was eventually
out of the red. This was enough to take the
sting off and spark my interest again. I
decided to try again.
I had now learned that my new friend who lived
across the hall, Brent, could design attractive
websites. One 30 pack of Keystone Light and I
had a decent website to work with. Done deal.
I decided to give PPC advertising the middle
finger and go for a content driven web site that
gets organic traffic from search engines. This
is much easier said than done. Luckily the
domain I had purchased earlier in the year had a
little age on it. I was amazed to learn about
how much competition there is for poker and casino
affiliates. I knew that it was going to take
tons of work to make any progress. There was no way I could ever be
successful at this by myself.
I would have to guess that around this time is
when I discovered Poker Affiliate World. I
read through their forums everyday trying to pick up
on what the successful affiliates were doing.
Some people had started huge portals, others had
started poker leagues, some started local based
sites and promoted them in their college towns.
What separated these guys from the rest is that they
were all so willing to help each other.
Although it would be months before I registered and
made a post, I had found my resource for help.
Present day: I currently have two poker
related websites and two more in the making.
My earnings are nothing spectacular, but enough to
keep me wanting more. I've been working hard on the heads up poker section of this site as well.
I had to leave the rural town where I was in
college to come back and work in the big city.
There is only so much dishwashing one can take
before throwing in the towel (pardon the pun).
I currently work as a valet at night and a poker
affiliate during the day. I think it's a good
balance. Just enough hard work at night to
make me want to become successful enough to quit
work as a valet.
If there is any advice I could give to anyone
before getting started in this industry is to do
your homework. Don't listen to the hype about
the fortune you will make. Read this article about the mistakes new affiliates make. It will help. When your done reading
that read 3 Tips for New Poker Affiliates or
Publishers.