Sharing The Workload?

Being a gambling affiliate is an easy job. I mean hell – you don’t even need money to become an affiliate. Get a free forum or a free blog, sign up for some poker rooms as an affiliate, then splash banners on your page and tell your friends to sign up. Congrats, you’re now a gambling affiliate! However to be a successful gambling affiliate, it requires a lot more. Being a successful gambling affiliate is NOT an easy job – actually; being a successful gambling affiliate is one of the most challenging, frustrating and difficult methods of employment there is, and requires more work than you can even imagine.

To be a successful affiliate, you really have to work around the clock. You have to build websites. You have to design them. You have to write unique content. You have to educate yourself in, and then put into practise search engine optimization. You have to do regular e-mail newsletters(or should!) . You have to do link exchanges, and market your site. You have to keep up with both industry and web related news, and adjust your sites to maximize their potential. You have to analyze data, and understand how best to use that data to increase profits. You have to be constantly updating your sites. Unfortunately, this list is just the top of the iceberg.

Of course, you don’t have to do it alone. No, you can share the workload.

That’s what this article is all about. You don’t have to do it alone – there are other options. Every option has its positives and every option has its negatives. I’ll be listing the options, a description of them, and then adding in my own opinion on the matter.

DOING IT ALONE: The most common option for affiliates, which is starting a site on their own. They will be handling everything about the site – from designing the site to writing the content to replying to all correspondence.

I’m sure most of you reading, whether you’re current, new or even prospective affiliates are automatically assuming that this is the best option. We all know the old adage, If you want something done right, do it yourself. And believe me – this idea has merit. I’m a real hands-on type of guy; if I have an idea or a concept of how something should be done, I really want to do that myself because I don’t trust how others will do it. When I have a vision, I know what that vision is, and I find often people add their own creativity into things, changing it from my vision.

Also, there’s no better way to learn something in life than doing it yourself. For example, one of the most important aspects of being an affiliate is search engine optimization. If I’m a new affiliate, I’m going to want to understand search engine optimization. Sure it may take some time, but in the long run it’s going to be better that I learn it myself. As I grow, I’m going to want to know these things so that it never holds me back from starting new projects. It also helps to have knowledge in all areas, so you can combine that knowledge to have success down the road. If I analyze my visitor data, and see that I seem to be getting a visit from a lot of Swedish players looking for bonus codes, I don’t want to sit back and say “Okay…now what?” and have to run to someone I’m working with who handles the search engine optimization, content writing or running of the website, to see what they think. I want to see that data, understand it, and act upon it myself, learning by my mistakes as I progress, and knowing full well exactly how to react to that data for maximum potential.

Of course, there are downsides to doing it by yourself, and a lot of important ones. First of all – the work involved. To really make money in this industry, you’re either going to have to be very very lucky, or work your ass off. If you’re a gambling affiliate and working less than 60 hours a week, I’d question whether or not you want to be in this industry. I mean – if you’re doing it just part time then that’s fine, but I’m sure many of you have the goal to make this a full time job, and to do that you ideally should be working at least 60 hours a week. There’s just so much endless work that you could, and should be doing. Building links, educating yourself via books, forums and other websites, networking, writing content, marketing, studying and analyzing data. These are just SOME of the things you should be doing. I personally work 6am to 6pm 6 days a week, for a total of 72 hours minimum per week. Add in some evening work and an easier Sunday schedule, and I easily hit the 80 hour mark. And I don’t even do this alone!

The mental drain of doing it alone can also be very, very tough. You’ll be lucky to make (a lot) of money when you first start out, and I know some hard-working affiliates who a year into this business still make just three figures a month. It can look bleak at times, and you will look back at the time you’ve spent, and wonder if it’s all worth it. You have no-one to fall back on, to discuss stuff with, to help motivate you, to take the load off – you just have yourself. Also a good affiliate will seek out other affiliates(such as myself) for a critique of their work, and if you’ve did it all yourself it’s common to gain a pride over that work, and to have someone criticize it can be really depressing, and really hurt your motivation into going forward. Believe me – there’s nothing I hate more than seeing an affiliates site who asked me to review it and having to tell that affiliate that they’re just not going to make a dime unless they start again from the ground up.

Plus, what about when you’re sick, or want to take a vacation? It depends on the site you run of course – but it can be very tough to take a week off from this job, because there’s always so much that has to be done to stay ahead of the game.