"Think Outside the Box" - Interview with Tell-a-Friend Power User DarthVader666
DarthVader666 of Portugal is our most successful Tell-a-Friend referrer ever, so we sat down with him to learn the tricks of his trade.
"You don't want to attract bonus hunters"
PokerStrategy.com: Congratulations on your success with Tell-a-Friend, how do you generate so much revenue?
darthvader666: My Tell-a-Friend commission comes from my websites. I started first with blogs at the end of 2009, then I started creating websites and I also have some forums.
PokerStrategy.com: How do you get traffic to your websites?
darthvader666: At the beginning I only wrote content about bonuses, then I started thinking that wasn't enough, I had to create more content. I started writing news, poker classes, rake races, regulation, even things like strip poker and how poker first started.
If you only write articles about bonuses, you get bonus hunters, and that's not what you want. I have changed my website a lot recently to focus on that; I am writing more poker classes and promoting how to learn poker on the headers more than just bonuses. It's important to show players they have to study and that poker is not just a game of luck, and that the bonuses are something you have to appreciate.
PokerStrategy.com: You need to attract good grinders if you want to make the maximum of $500 per player, how do you target VIPs?
darthvader666: The thing I am doing at the moment is analysing data to try and realise which countries produce these good players. The only thing you can do is not focus on keywords on Google like "free poker money", you have to focus on poker in general.
"It's important to get the players to study"
PokerStrategy.com: You also have standard affiliate deals on your websites, how do these differ from promoting Tell-a-Friend?
darthvader666: I have a free bonus of my own with other affiliate sites and things are not easy - I have to ask for IDs, there are cheaters, people send fake IDs. I tell people this money is for poker, not the casino and sports betting. With PokerStrategy.com you have the bonus, but you also have training and articles - these things are very important to get the players to study.
PokerStrategy.com: Not everybody liked it when we reduced our free poker money from $50 to $10, but it is now easier to get the free money - has it been good or bad for your business?
darthvader666: It's been over a year and I am still not sure whether it's better or not. In general I think I have made a little bit more now than I used to. Even if I like it or not, it was a change that had to be made, because if we want the business to survive we can't just give away lots of money. If the player is good, he can make something of the $10.
"There is no such thing as easy money"
PokerStrategy.com: Is Tell-a-Friend 'easy money' or is it a lot of hard work?
darthvader666: Anyone can make money from Tell-a-Friend, but in the long term you have to work really hard. Being a webmaster is a 24-hour job, you don't get Sundays. Two weeks ago I was on holiday in Germany and I was constantly checking up on my website and Tell-a-Friend.
SEO is really hard, nowadays Google updates their algorithms every week so you have to update content all the time.
PokerStrategy.com: As our most successful referrer, what do you do differently to everyone else?
darthvader666: I am not very good at anything - I'm not very good at SEO, I'm not very good at web design, I'm not very good at writing content. The only thing I think I'm good at is I don't give up. In Portugal we say " a stubborn person can be confused as a persisting one" - I am persistent. I graduated in food technology, so my studies have nothing to do with computers. In Portugal there is unemployment and low salaries, we all have to think outside the box.
You won't get rich overnight, it takes hard work. There is no such thing as easy money in life.
How to earn $500 referring friends to PokerStrategy.com
First you must refer your friends to PokerStrategy.com using the link below, or using some of the marketing materials in our Tell-a-Friend section.
They then have to sign up to one of our affiliated poker rooms and start earning StrategyPoints for playing at the real money tables.
You will receive $25 once your friend has earned 100 StrategyPoints, up to a maximum of $500 when they earn 20,000 StrategyPoints. You will also earn 10% of any future TaF revenue if your friend refers another friend to PokerStrategy.com.
| Your referred friend earns.... | You earn.... |
| 100 StrategyPoints | $25 |
| 500 StrategyPoints | $25 |
| 2,000 StrategyPoints | $50 |
| 5,000 StrategyPoints | $150 |
| 20,000 StrategyPoints | $250 |
| Total | up to $500 |
