I registered my first site which is still my main site on the 18th August 2004 whilst I was still working for Ladbrokes in Gibraltar. I had been working for Ladbrokes for four years at the time, having joined them a couple of weeks before they launched Ladbrokes Casino in October 2000.
My former manager at Ladbrokes who is one of my best friends who incidentally employed me in my previous job in the UK prior to Ladbrokes, convinced me to try my hand at becoming an affiliate. He left Ladbrokes in 2002 to setup
32Red with Ed and a few others. Ed was also my Managing Director when I started work at Ladbrokes.
I had at the time and still do a political forum which I started back in 2003. By August 2004 it was getting some great results in google and Graham convinced me that I should try and achieve the same in the casino industry, particulary as I had at that time 4 years experience working on the other side for an operator.
When I launched Online Casino Reviewer, I bought an off the shelf template and only promoted a few affiliate programs. This was also compounded by the fact that everyone in the industry knows everyone in Gibraltar, so I had to be careful not to promote properties managed and run by companies located in the same office building as Ladbrokes, due to conflict of interest in my role with them.
I spent pretty much all my spare time for the next nine months working on Online Casino Reviewer. From starting out as a very basic and not very pretty looking site it slowly started to take shape. But traffic was low, partly thanks to the google sandbox applied to new sites and revenue was non existant during this period.
Then in June 2005 Online Casino Reviewer started to achieve some good serps in google and I earnt my first paycheck as an affiliate. It was at this point that I realised now I was earning money albeit much smaller than my salary with Ladbrokes, I had a tough decision to make.
Do I continue working with Ladbrokes in a secure position in a secure environment or do I take the gamble and strike out as a fully fledged affiliate. So as you can guess I handed my notice in, which due to my contract and position was three months.
By the time I left at the end of August 2005, Online Casino Reviewer had reached it's first birthday and I made around 1000 that month. Quite a drop from what I was used to getting paid from my employment with Ladbrokes. But the fact my website was starting to earn money was all the incentive I needed to continue working on it, to achieve better results.
Fast forward four years and I am still doing the job I love. Being a successful affiliate whereby you do not require an additional paid revenue source takes a lot of hard work. But if you enjoy the industry then you will enjoy putting the time and effort in.
The UIGEA has affected us as it has all affiliates and obviously we are currently in the middle of a global economic crisis. But we get by to the extent that when we moved back to the UK from Gibraltar, my wife stopped work. Well she does, she works for our company. But like me she is now also self employed.
We are by no means Big Affiliates, but our revenue has consistently been higher than what our former salaries combined were when we were working for someone else.
By planning long term and running your site from a players perspective is the best way IMO to be successful as an affiliate. That is why I still to this day only promote a few select casinos, whereby I am happy to play at.