Affiliate Interview Series | Brian - edgarf76

**GPWA Dan** · 16 December 2015, 10:15 am

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Age: 38

Hometown: USA

Living in: Montréal, Canada

Favorite Food: Shrimp and broccoli

Must-Read Book: The Discourses by Niccol?Machiavelli and Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Sites:
PlaySlots4RealMoney.com
OnlineCasinoBonus777.com
OnlineBlingo.com
www.usslotcasino.com/
playrealmoneyslots.americanpokerdirectory.com/
?and many more

After looking at your username, some members of the GPWA editorial staff were convinced that your name was "Ed Garf," while others asserted it was "Edgar F." Believe it or not, this was a topic of debate for some time. Turns out none of us were correct, as your given name is actually Brian. Can you explain the genesis of your GPWA username?

I used to get mail addressed to some guy named Ed Ferrara. I didn't want to use the exact name so I use the pen name Edgar.

How did you become involved in the online gambling industry? What was your first site? How long was it before you started launching additional sites?

The first sites our company had were ink and toner review websites and K-Cup coffee review sites.

The first video game review site we had was B78NY.com, back in 2010-2011. Most people think our company’s first review sites were Every1bets.com and AmericanPokerDirectory.com. We were working with amazon.com, CJ.com and Linkshare.com, and one day we started to look for video games and could not find any. This is when we started to look elsewhere for good video game companies that were listed outside of CJ.com.

Your sites range in focus from sports betting to casino to poker and bingo. What vertical tends to be your most lucrative? Which gaming vertical (and which sites) do you enjoy working on the most?

That is a tough question to answer because things are very seasonal, especially with fantasy sports betting. We like the Facebook bingo games and are seeing an increase in their Internet marketing revenue.

I like working on all of the niches; I just love building brands. Marketing has always been my thing, so I just continue to expand and have fun.

What in your mind are some of your sites?unique selling points? How do you stand out from the crowd?

The biggest unique selling points are great content, in my opinion, followed by a good social networking campaign. It is hard to stand out from the crowd. I would say my focus is on building content, so when I outrank competition people bookmark our sites and come back and share us socially.

You have several sites that target Canadians, and others that are geared for an American audience. The Canadian market is less gray then the American market, but Canada’s population is only about 10 percent as large as the USA’s. What are your observations of these two large North American markets?

I like the Canadian market as it is less gray. Our goal is to comply with all laws 100 percent in all states and countries.

You also have a number of sites focused on mobile players. What steps have you taken to optimize your sites for mobile? Have you seen traffic to those sites increase or decrease in the last year?

Yes, the majority of the traffic is mobile and tablet. I made sure our sites were responsive way before (Google’s) mobile algorithm on or about May 20, 2015. We use Flytonic WordPress templates and try to test out our pages on all types of phones and tablets to make sure they look good.

The mobile traffic has increased a great deal; however, we had taken steps way before the aforementioned algorithm.

Are you a one-man shop, or are there other people who work on your sites? If so, how many? And what are their roles?

We have several people who write for the review sites, but my focus is on management and trying to capitalize on trends. As far as writers are concerned, we work with around five. We are small affiliates.

Describe your work environment. Do you work from home or in an office? If you work from home, how often do you get to see and interact with other people in the industry?

We work from a home office and bring our laptops and tablets with us when we go out. We work seven days a week.

As far as interacting with other people in the industry, we keep that limited to forums like the GPWA, where we feel comfortable.

What traits do you look for in an affiliate manager? How about in an affiliate program?

Helpful but not pushy. Pointing us in the right direction for top-converting pages, banners and brands. I cannot stand when affiliate managers go for the hard close for top positions. Reputation is important in an affiliate program as well as conversions. Good communication is extremely important to us.

What’s your preferred method of communication with affiliate managers?

Some of the affiliate managers we have become friendly with and talk to on the phone; others we speak to on Skype and e-mail. I prefer to develop a rapport based on trust rather than hard closes for top positions.

What prompted you to join the GPWA? How has it helped you?

I was researching the back links to covers.com and found the GPWA that way and have felt at home since. The GPWA has helped us in so many ways, from meeting people in the affiliate marketing business who have been extremely helpful, finding reputable programs to work with, learning SEO and a whole host of other things that have made a huge positive impact.

You joined the GPWA a little more than two years ago, and in that time you’ve amassed more than 1,600 posts, nearly two a day. Were you active in forums (of any kind) before joining the GPWA? How important are forums in general in your professional and non-professional life?

I was not very active on other forums before the GPWA. I just happened to stumble upon the GPWA researching back links, and it was everything I was looking for in an affiliate marketing forum. Since then I have also been active on Affiliate Guard Dog, which has been very helpful.

What do you like about the industry?

I like the money and have fun building websites.

If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be and why?

If I could change anything, it would be to have more companies be held responsible for the terms and conditions that they understood and agreed upon when the affiliate signed up, without the company having the option to change the terms and conditions as a TOS. There are too many untrustworthy companies out there.

What do your family and friends think of your work as an affiliate?

They do not understand the business model.

Do you gamble online? If so, what do you play?

I don’t gamble at all. I don’t find it fun and would prefer to save money rather than take a risk.

How long do you give yourself to answer e-mail? What e-mail tips can you offer?

I answer e-mail very promptly, I would say at most one day depending on the urgency but usually right away. One tip I would give other affiliates is to prioritize their e-mails and answer them in order of importance.

How do you manage your to-do lists? Do you use any special software to help you out?

I manage by writing down my to-do list, then writing out what the desired result I want to accomplish, then I write out a mini plan of action for that to-do. A lot of the to-do’s fall into the same category, which saves time. Also this is a great way to prioritize things based on the results a person desires.

I do not use any special software, just manage everything by my desired results and do my best to get the results I desire every day.

How much time do you devote to SEO and/or social networking in order to drive more traffic to your sites?

I devote a few hours a day to reading up on the latest SEO and social networking news. I build different sites using different SEO and social strategies to experiment.

What’s the most difficult thing about running your sites?

The most difficult thing is figuring out what companies to put in the top spots of the review sites. It can be tough finding programs that pay affiliate marketing revenues on time and in full that convert well.

What’s the best thing about running your sites?

The revenue and having the ability to work from wherever we are.

What do you do to stay in shape ?both physically and mentally?

Martial arts. I practice Hapkido and Taekwondo.

What’s your favorite vacation spot?

Florida.

What’s your all-time favorite movie?

Back to the Future 2.

If you could invite any five people, living or dead, to dinner, who would they be?

Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Sun Tzu, Niccol?Machiavelli and Arnold Rothstein.

What are three things that nobody knows about you?

I am a very private person is the one and only answer that I have.

**sweetbet** · 16 December 2015, 2:17 pm

Great interview. I love all of the Back to the future movies. They're awesome

**Miles_FTA** · 17 December 2015, 1:52 am

Very Cool Interview looking forward to working with you ..

**marina.boomtown** · 17 December 2015, 2:35 am

Hi Brian,

Glad to know your real name

Sunshine state is definitely a nice vacation spot all year around, Id love to go back one day.

Happy Holidays!

**wonderpunter** · 17 December 2015, 3:05 am

I hear you on finding a marketing program that pays on time.. This is one of my biggest gripes about the business, as if I don't have enough to do already chasing up for payments for the hundreds of hours I put in every month, actually right now Im chasing two before Xmas, it shouldn't have to be this way.

**dfiocch** · 17 December 2015, 3:25 am

Cool interview, edgarf!

**Vira CAsinoAffilate** · 17 December 2015, 3:53 am

Great interview, Edgar!

**Maikel_Fruity** · 17 December 2015, 4:12 am

Very nice interview Brian!

**SocialBetting** · 17 December 2015, 4:19 am

Reall cool interview I enjoyed it, I always like reading others stories it can be very inspiring

**Fruity_MariaFlorides** · 17 December 2015, 4:58 am

Originally Posted by sweetbet

Great interview. I love all of the Back to the future movies. They're awesome

OMG I had the biggest crush on Michael J. Fox!!!!!!

Great interview

**TraceyL** · 17 December 2015, 5:39 am

Enjoyed reading your interview and found it very interesting. I love the fact that you can work from anywhere as well, it is one of the biggest bonuses about working on the net.

**AE-Stephen** · 17 December 2015, 8:41 am

Good read Brian, I also wondered where the user name came from haha!

**ocreditor** · 17 December 2015, 10:11 am

Very nice interview

I'm also in to martial arts, studied kong-fu for 4 years

**edgarf76** · 17 December 2015, 3:21 pm

thanks guys and gals and the GPWA, I enjoyed it.

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