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About LinkBacks
AGE:42
HOMETOWN: Stari Banovci, Serbia
LIVING IN: Vienna, Austria
FAVORITE FOOD: Scampi alla buzzara, beefsteak
SITES
bestpokerdeal.org
best-poker-rakeback.org
rsrakeback.org
affmoney.net
poker.in.rs
1x2.rs
bookmaker.rs
Tell us about your sites and the different markets they are focusing on. They all feature information on poker bonuses, promotions and ?most especially ?rakeback offers. How did you decide to concentrate on rakeback?
From the beginning I’ve been concentrating on rakeback and I’ve had a lot of success with it. Meanwhile more and more poker sites have been removing this offer. So now I too have to look forward and concentrate more on bonuses and promotions.
There is a lot of debate in the online gaming industry over rakeback. What are your thoughts on rakeback, and how it affects the industry?
Well, there are several ways to look at it. Players love it and take advantage of it. Affiliates get lower revenue per player, but there is still significant income!
When did you launch your sites?
I launched the first site at the end of January 2009. I started the second one in August 2009. And so on.
Many of your sites have a similar look and feel. What is the SEO strategy behind having so many sites with similar content but slightly different domains?
Everyone is talking only about SEO these days. Yes, SEO is maybe good but it is not my priority to have my sites online. The similar look comes from the PAS software, which is very effective. So . . . PAS Team, thank you for your perfect software!
How much traffic does your Serbia-focused site get compared to your other sites? How big is the poker market in Serbia?
My Serbian traffic is about 1 percent of my whole traffic. There are a lot of Serbian sites that I follow, and it seems to me that there is a good, but maybe not big, market there.
You list Serbian as your native language. How did you end up living in Vienna?
My parents have lived in Vienna for about 40 years, and so after my military training I decided to move there at the end of 1990. There was unrest in the former Yugoslavia. I was a young guy (21) and didn’t want to die for some political ideology. I think one or two years after I moved, war began. The upcoming war was the main reason why I left Yugoslavia.
How much of your traffic is mobile traffic? Do you have a strategy when it comes to attracting mobile users?
Right now I’m not focused on mobile traffic. This is on my “to-do?list.
How did you become involved in the industry?
Through a friend from Vienna. I had to script something for his rakeback site but it was not possible as his data was unusable for creating MySQL tables and queries. Because there is never enough money, a few weeks later I started to investigate online gambling after my friend told me how much money he was already earning in the industry. I thought to myself, "Why shouldn’t I try?"
How long did it take for you to start earning money?
It took me more than six months to get my first revenue into Moneybookers.
What traits do you look for in an affiliate manager? How about in an affiliate program?
Always be available for affiliates. Don’t keep us waiting one, two, three or more weeks to get an answer. I personally don’t like affiliate managers who only want higher positions on the site. And I really hate it when affiliate links are changed or are disabled or new sites are added, with affiliate managers promising you a lot and then if you want something they just don’t reply to your e-mail. And DON’T sell our e-mail addresses!
What advice would you offer someone just starting out in the industry?
This is really a good question. Maybe this advice will help. You need a lot of patience if you want to be successful. Don’t take too many different gambling sites into your offer, like I did when I started. Hire a web designer to build your site for you if you can’t. Don’t spam around.
What prompted you to join the GPWA? Did it have anything to do with the stolen-content issue that you were innocently caught up in, thanks to the unscrupulous actions of an affiliate manager in October 2010?
Yes, that was the reason I joined the GPWA. By the way, I have to confess that I didn’t know about the GPWA before then. I found a backlink from the GPWA in my site statistics so I looked into the thread about the stolen content. I had already had a few e-mail conversations with the complaining person, so we both contacted the affiliate manager to clear up this issue, and it was settled satisfactorily.
Some of your sites carry the GPWA Approved Portal seal. Why did you make the effort to get these sites approved by the GPWA?
The reason is that with the GPWA seals I get more effective players. Players have more trust in asking via e-mail or private messages via my forum for good deals, tips and help when they have trouble with some gambling sites. I’m really proud to have the seal ?and of course the T-shirt, too!
What do you like about the industry?
You can do your job without any pressure. If you do more, more (money) will come back ?and all of this without a fixed location. So it’s a win-win situation.
If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be?
Eliminate all those barriers and limitations that exist in some countries. Example: if I play online in a country’s lottery, no one cares how much money I have invested or how much I have lost. But that same country will prevent me from engaging in online gambling as those games are “illegal?in their opinion.
What surprised you most about the industry?
The number of poker, casino and other gambling sites that have opened since I began with my gambling site. Meanwhile I get e-mail every week requesting that I add such sites to mine.
How long do you give yourself for answering e-mail? What e-mail tips can you offer?
Usually I answer all e-mail ASAP. My e-mail client is checking for new messages every five minutes (so far it’s working the way it should be working). When I sleep, all e-mail has to wait until I wake up.
Affiliates everywhere are drowning in spam, and dealing with it consumes time, money and bandwidth. What are you doing currently to combat spam?
There is no chance of stopping spammers from doing their stupid e-mailing, so all such e-mail is landing in the trash folder. I started a thread on GPWA to expose some of the gambling spammers. I will continue this just to show what affiliates should not do and to encourage affiliate managers to let webmasters know which of their affiliates are spamming around ?as per their T&Cs, spamming is forbidden.
How much time does it take to keep your sites updated?
Uffff . . . too much time, as there are so many! If you look at my sites right now you’ll see that they are all out of date ?this winter killing me . . . kids ill, wife ill and I’m not feeling so hot either!. Also, I moved my server quite recently. But the worst thing happened just before the server move: HDD crash without any backup. So, updating the sites will have to wait. Usually I update content two to five hours daily to make it better, but there’s always something that still needs to be improved.
How much time do you devote to SEO and social networking in order to drive more traffic to your site?
As I mentioned earlier, SEO and social networking are not my priority. I’m trying, but I don’t invest more than 10 minutes a day.
If someone were visiting you, what’s the one place you’d definitely take them to see?
Schnitzelhaus in Vienna Prater, so we could drink beer until we fell. (I’m joking ?I haven’t done that for many, many years.) Anyway, I would show him/her the Vienna nightlife.
What’s your favorite vacation spot?
Greece, but my fantasy destination is New Zealand. Why? I really don’t know. As a kid I dreamed about it, and the dream is still alive. One day, when I’m really there, I’ll send a postcard to the GPWA. I promise!
If you could have one “superpower,?what would it be?
The power to help everyone in this world to have a better life.
What’s your all-time favorite movie?
All Eddie Murphy movies are my favorites. The guy is funny and always makes me laugh, even when I’m tired or sad.
If you were casting a movie with yourself in the leading role, who would play your romantic interest?
Of course my wife, Ana-Marija. She is the only person who deserves this position ?no one else.
If you could invite any five people, living or dead, to dinner, who would they be?
Okac, Kinez, Sole, Kuzman and Beli ?so that we could do again the same things we did as teenagers 20 to 25 years ago, wreaking havoc like we did before!
What are three things that nobody knows about you?
1. I don’t like to gamble online or offline as I hate when I lose.
2. I’m a shy guy.
3. I would like to be a rich man!
Results 1 to 3 of 3
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29 August 2012, 9:26 am #1
Former Staff Member
- Join Date
- July 2006
- Location
- Needham, MA
- Posts
- 451
- Thanks
- 40
- Thanked 144 Times in 64 Posts
Affiliate Interview Series: Nicky - NickyV
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The Following User Says Thank You to GPWA Aaron For This Useful Post:
NickyV (28 October 2013)
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30 August 2012, 2:12 am #2
No longer with Harbour Gaming Affiliates
- Join Date
- November 2010
- Location
- Cyprus
- Posts
- 2,406
- Thanks
- 368
- Thanked 337 Times in 248 Posts
Nice interview! I would also love to have that superpower.
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30 August 2012, 2:13 pm #3
Sponsor Affiliate Program
- Join Date
- January 2007
- Posts
- 679
- Thanks
- 191
- Thanked 302 Times in 170 Posts
Love it! We need an affiliate conference in Vienna!
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