Interesting Online Poker Article

[Dave]

This is London - London,England,UK

ONLINE poker sites have expanded dramatically in recent years, but analysts are warning that they may prove a gamble too far and become the next dotcom bubble. ...


http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/busines...d398414?source=

Yea I really believe anyone trying to open a new online poker room will more than likely fail. There are tons of poker sites out there right now struggling to get traffic, even with big names like Doyle Brunson and Daniel Negraneu tied to them.

Party Poker is probably attempting to go public so they can raise funds in order to begin mass aquisition. Just my thoughts cause I seriously doubt they are struggling for cash right now. But they have to see PokerStars continuing to chip away at their market share. As much as I love Party, from a players perspective I enjoy the software better at Stars.

A similar instance is taking place in the home building industry right now. The top 5 big builders are constantly buying up the little guys to increase market share. It will be survival of the fittest to say the least. The only new poker site out there that I think will not only survive but prosper as well is Full Tilt.

[Dave]

Jeremey,

I just started promoting Empire, Absolute and Paradise.

Do you think it's worth the time and effort or should we be concentrating our
efforts on Party, Stars and Full Tilt?

I hear Stars and FT's affiliate programs suck.

Or should we promote all of the poker sites on our websites and let our visitors decide where they want to sign up at, sort of the shot-gun aproach to marketing?

What do you think is the most profitable way to go?

Here's my thought. Party Poker should be your lead program and will give you the best conversions. Party Poker is the absoulte best site to promote to "new" online poker players.

They have name recognition and play money players convert pretty good. With many other sites, people may sign up and play the play money, but then move onto another site before playing with real cash. Party has such great name recognition and exposure that usually people will give the real money at Party a try before they move on too the next site.

I personally think it is easier to manage your business by only heavily promoting a few of the best programs versus having 20+ banners trying to promote everyone. If you promote too many sites there is sensory overload and your visitors will be more confused than anything. But now let's say you take a program like Empire and promote the WSOP promotions and how easy it is to make the final tables in the satellites versus all the other online qulaifiers.

This will create some interest about Empire and get them thinking, hence getting them emotionally involved. This will be much more beneficial than flashing 25 different bonus codes in front of them for every poker site on the net.

Regarding the Pokerstars affiliate program. It is CPA and you get $75 per sign-up. I make a few bucks on it every month but I wouldn't focus your efforts on Stars as you want to build the residual income through revenue sharing programs.

About Full Tilt. Yes the affilliate program is awful right now. At least it is a revenue sharing plan, but at this point there is no way to track your stats. Apparently you get a report on the 5th of every month. I have spoken in depth with theirt affiliate manager though and they will have a much better system in the next few months.

I wouldn't suggest signing up yet, but keep this one on your radar screens once the affiliate program get going. Out of all the sites I think Full Tilt has the potential to grow exponentially more than anyone else in 2005. The software reminds me a little of Stars and they are starting to get more exposure.

With all the pros there, alot of people are signing up just to see what "FullTilt" is all about. Especially this year after the WSOP. You will see Full Tilt gear all over ESPN's broadcasts.

[Dave]

Thanks Jeremy,

I'll keep an eye on Full-Tilt.

Anybody sign up for ParadisePokers new affiliate program?

Any results yet?

How about Absolute, they're offering seats to the WSOP?

[El_Maximo]

Ive seen alot of arguments about the future of online poker. I think both sides of the argument have merit but Im inlined to believe that we haven't even scratched the surface. I think the US and European markets are the most saturated and they have tons of room for growth. The asian market is untapped and if they asian market picks up we will be overwhelmed with poker players. Ive been working on developing subs in different countries. I dont want to attempt to run sites in foreign languages but Ive had some success recruiting subs in other countries. Im really trying to develop subs in china, phillipines, japan, korea, ect, ect. I feel there is a ton of potential there long term.

[Dave]

I agree, there are still millions of potential poker players all over the world who haven't yet taken the leap to playing online for real money.

Our own stats of play money players converting to real money players tells us that.

I've thought about producing my site in foreign languages.

I get a quite a few visitors from Japan, China, Korea, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Mexico and other countries but they look at my homepage and leave. No speaka or reada da english I guess.

Does anyone have experience in foreign language websites?

Is it worth the expence and effort?

Getting subs in places like China and Japan sounds like it could pay off big time in the future.

Could you share with us how you're going about this?

That market is so huge I'm sure we could all grab a peice of that pie without stepping on each others shoes.

[El_Maximo]

Well I have only 2 foreign subs so far. My french sub I made a deal with. He wasnt totally convinced about marketing poker. So offered to get him started. 1 website and hosting for 1 year. Its a small investment of money and time for me to try and reach a foreign market. I should have his site up and running eventually. It was actually quite easy. Im just taking a site Ive finished for myself. Than he translates everything into french. Than we publish it. Most of the foreign subs Ive approached are 2+2ers I know or local aquantices that speak a foreign language. You can also pay someone to do translation work. Its not very expensive. But I felt using subs was better. I can only maintain so many websites.