One of my friends over at the poker affiliate listings forum who is a newer affiliate asked me if I could do a blog post about how I decide which of my income I re-invest into my affiliate business and what I keep for myself.  Great idea for a blog post!

When I first started as a poker affiliate I was living in a dorm room at my University.  A couple hundred dollars a month started rolling in around Christmas I believe it was from link sales and then the affiliate revenue followed slowly – I actually remember the first link sale I made was a big one on a couple different pages for $800 and I was so amazed at how much money I had made from putting a few links up haha.

Anyways during the first few months when I was bringing in revenue I pretty much kept it all for personal stuff as I didn’t have a job in University and needed the extra beer money.  I can’t remember completely but I think I only forked out $50 for my first template and then maybe another $150 for a second and didn’t really purchase much more at the beginning.

When summer came around I told my parents I could live off my poker affiliate  income (they didn’t really “get it” and asked a few times if I was getting a “real job”).  At this time my income was around $1500 per month, which was half writing content for others, part affiliate income and part advertising sales.  At this point I was comfortable enough to start spending a little bit of that income on purchasing things that would take me to the next level as an affiliate.

I guess I had it lucky because I was around 19 and living at my dads house still so I didn’t need to pay rent, car payments, etc that  a lot of start up affiliates might have to pay.  I was comfortable living off around $1000 per month and started putting back $500ish back into my affiliate business.

Re-investing into my sites really helped and I slowly started to grow, earning more and more affiliate revenue monthly instead of having to rely on writing and selling advertising.

As I have continued to grow over the past two years I find on average I have always re-invested about 1/3 to 1/2 of my monthly income back into my business.  It takes discipline because I could always take that $500, $1000, $2000 or $5000 and go buy myself something nice, but for some reason it has always come naturally to me to re-invest in my business. I guess its probably because I love this job, and love seeing myself grow in the business and I know it takes some re-investing to get myself to the next level.

So if you are asking how much you should re-invest back into your poker, gambling or whatever affiliate business you will have to ask yourself:

What is the minimum amount you can live off comfortably and stay somewhat happy?  As a new affiliate trying to make it you might have to sacrifice some things in order to re-invest into your business.  I know there is a lot of things I pay for now that if I was a new affiliate I would cut back on in order to help grow my business – try and find a couple things you don’t really need to spend money on and cut back.  There is no set amount you will need to put back into your business, but the more the better and the faster you will grow.

Hopefully that post will help some of the newer affiliates – It’s late and I am not re-reading it tonight so I hope it ran together and made sense … anyways little plug here for my UB Referral Code portal which I have been putting a little “re-investing” into over the past few weeks.  My next post will most likely not be until the start of August for a goal recap post, but hey never know I’ve been really motivated lately maybe I will get another one in.

I haven’t made many posts lately that actually really help out my visitors to my blog (most of my posts are just recaps on what I am up to business and personal wise) so I thought it would be cool to post one of the conversion tests I have recently done.  Over the past 6 months or so I have finally started to testing different things to help with conversions.. something that is vital if you want to grow your business.

One of the things I decided to test was my “Submit” buttons for a newsletter sign up at The Sports Geek.  I started with just one submit button (I think it was a blue one), but when I asked for a review of my new template I had a lot of people saying I should be testing different colours with the button.  I ended up creating a split test at Aweber (very easy to do) for different colors of the button and “submit” vs “sign up”.

After leaving the new buttons up there for a while I ended up seeing  “Sign Up per Unique Display” (S/UD) ranging from 0.1% to 0.4%… on average I was sitting around 0.3% S/UD for these buttons.  Instead of switching to the button that was giving me the 0.4% (Yellow button with navy blue “submit” text) I decided to try out a new kind of button all together to see if I could beat that.

I have been following a couple “make money online” type blogs and I know these guys are pretty awesome internet marketers.  A common theme I see in a lot of their sales pitch pages is a submit or buy now button that is circled to make it stand out (see pic below).  I decided I would give this a try to see if it worked.

Not only did it increase my S/UD to 0.5% it also looks 1000x better with the template too!

You may be thinking an everage of 0.3% to 0.5% isn’t a big difference… but over the long run it really is.

If I get 100,000 visitors to my site this year the 0.2% increase in sign ups would equate to 200 more newsletter sign ups.  If I were to get one million visitors over the course of the year it would get me 2000 more sign ups.

Those extra 200 or 2000 more newsletter sign ups could be $1000′s of dollars that would have been left off the table had I not done this small test on the submit button.

Bottom Line is that if you are not doing small tests like this to increase your conversions you could be leaving a lot of money on the table over the long run.  Even if you are a smaller affiliate – start this kind of testing now and you will thank yourself down the road when you have extra money in your pockets!

If you are not a member at Aweber I suggest you sign up today and start a newsletter on your affiliate site… mess around with different CTA’s and buttons and help yourself build your online business!

Just as I figured I didn’t get any posts in on the blog for June as I was busy enjoying summer!  I ended up not doing as much work as I would have liked, but was pretty strict with getting my World Cup articles posted up.  Traffic was great on both my World Cup Predictions site and The Sports Geek and I had a lot of repeat visitors which is always nice.

JUNE AFFILIATE GOALS RECAP:

Work Hard at The World Cup – Did a pretty good job at this with getting articles posted and updates on my sites. Revenue was around what I expected with the World Cup and I hope these bettors stick around to bet on a variety of different sports now, as I am mainly on MGR.

Be Smart With Investing – Meh, I spent a lot of money this month and make a couple purchases I regret a little bit, but overall I did a pretty solid job.  I invested in content which is always good and got a couple solid links towards my sites.

Premium Sports Domains Up and Running – I am in the middle of doing that now, but wish I would of got it done in June.  I might even try and find a partner for the project as I’m not sure I could handle it myself.

10k affiliate revenue – Yeah I hit this again, which included a couple paid advertising spots for my World Cup site, and expenses were around where I thought near the 5k mark.

Overall I am satisfied with how June went, but I am probably going to regret not working hard in May and June as it’s just going to get harder in July and August as I get closer to the school year.

JULY 2010 AFFILIATE GOALS

• Get 2 “premo” sports betting domains up and aging, and my other poker domain going with a few pages of content
• Post purchased content
• Add 15 static pages to The Sports Geek
• 6k affiliate revenue (expenses around 3k) – I think it will be the slowest month of the year possibly for me

As far as personal stuff goes I am heading to Calgary on Thursday for another vacation … heading out to visit a buddy who moved out there and going to the Calgary Stampede!!  I also have a ball hockey tournament the following weekend and a few parties on the weekend so it will be a fun month but I need to make sure I get work done during the week.  Also continue to workout 5 times a week.

Have a good month! You might see another post in July from me, but if not the next will be a recap and August goals.

I didn’t get too much work done in the last week of May, as I was having some fun, but overall I had a solid May and it was a good start to the summer.  I decided to try and get my partying and some stuff done near the end of May and start of June, as June will be a really busy month for me with the World Cup starting up.  Below is a recap of my May goals and my goals I have set for June… it is going to be tough as June is usually the first really solid month of good weather, but I need to grind it out.

MAY AFFILIATE GOALS RECAP:

Transfer The Sports Geek + Add Content – This went really smoothly, although it did take quite a while for me to switch it over.  I really like the new template and I think it will help create more of a brand and repeat visitors.  Conversions for my newsletter are already way up which will be good in the long run.  I am going to test with a lightbox e-mail capture soon too.

Organize My Business More + Plan Summer – I did a pretty good job at this in May – things are a little more organized and I have hired a few writers for the World Cup, since I basically know nothing about soccer.  I have a basic plan in place for the summer that I will try to stick to as well.

Video Poker and Slots Sites Going – Yup got these both going with a couple pages of content and a few links pointing to them for now.  I will link to them in a future post, but they are nothing special at all, although I do like the Video Poker domain a lot.

5k in Affiliate Revenue – I actually surpassed this by quite a bit this month, which was surprising after the site sale.  I still have poker players playing under my MGR accounts which adds up and also received a few poker CPAs from past players.

JUNE 2010 AFFILIATE GOALS:

• Work hard at the World Cup.  Get one article per each match played in the round robin up on the sports geek. Optimize my Bet World Cup 2010 site
• Be smart with investing in some advertising + content
• Get one of my semi-premium sports betting domains up and aging with some solid content
• 10k affiliate revenue (expenses will probably be around 5k)

As far as personal goals go I want to try and fit in some fun during the World Cup – if it means for a little loss revenue oh well, its my summer.  Need to keep hitting the gym 4-5 times per week to stay in shape.  Make it out to a Blue Jays game or two.

Sorry nothing too exciting in this post, I will try and get a good post up sometime within the next two weeks, check back.

I had a very productive week in my second week of summer (first real week because of my Wisdom Teeth surgery last week).  If I can continue to work like I did this week all summer I think I will be very happy in the winter when the hard work would start to show.

To start things off I never slept past 10:00 am, any my average wakeup time was 9:00 am – I started waking up with no alarm by the end of the week at around 8:30 am.  Getting up early plays a huge role in me getting things done for a few reasons.  When I’m up early the sun isn’t out yet, so I don’t have the need to sit outside in the sun, and don’t mind sitting my basement working.  Also my roomates aren’t up to much in the morning (if they are even awake), so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything fun.  I also go to the gym around 4 with a friend, so if I were to sleep in it would be right in the middle of my working time, but this way I can get everything done before I head for a workout.

Another reason why I had a productive week was the fact that I don’t have as much income coming in since I sold my poker sites recently.  It pisses me off when I can’t check my stats and see that I got a CPA or two for my poker players each night, and I use it as motivation.  Of course I remember how good it felt getting a couple sign ups each day, so I am working to get that feeling back sooner than later.

Besides launching two smaller sites (that I am confident can produce some revenue if I get them ranking), I also got my main sports betting portal TheSportsGeek.com switched over to a completely new template.  Whenever I get a new, better look for a site I get excited and I really want to get it switched over so I work extremely hard.  I spent like 6 hours straight Wednesday night and then woke up early and spent all day getting the new template up.  The work is very boring in switching over a template, and I had a few problems, but now that it’s done I am extremely happy and excited.

I made a post at PAL asking for a review of the site, and most people seemed to really like the layout and design I got done for it (Eduardo did another excellent job for me).  I set up a split test for my Aweber newsletter sign up button, which was the main criticism I received.  I love asking PAL members for reviews of sites, because I always get something pointed out to me that I wouldn’t have really notice myself.  The next step for me is to work on calls to action and continue to put up solid content.  I added a bunch of new pages including the Sports Betting Articles section which I filled with 12 or so new sports betting articles, and I changed around the URL structure completely to something that made a lot more sense.

Anyways, overall a great week and I want to keep that up – of course I want to have a little fun soon as I haven’t done anything exciting lately at all – looks like me and my roommates are holding a Kegger for this upcoming May 2-4 long weekend

This is a guest post from Mike, who is a really successful poker affiliate.  There is a great message being sent here, and is something I need to try and follow more as well.  Thanks for doing an article for me Mike!  I will try post a couple more affiliate tips and motivation type posts like this over the summer, because I know I really like reading these types of posts (especially when I was a newer affiliate).

You Shouldn’t Be Reading this Post

Seriously. Get to work.

I’ve posted about this before, but the people I know who make the most money online don’t browse affiliate forums all day, study SEO posts, chat on Skype, or read affiliate blogs. Nor do they have the highest post counts at forums PAL… in fact, most of them have the lowest.

Of course I’m not saying you should never do any of the things above, because they do have some importance. I like to keep tabs on my friends by checking out their blogs once in a while, browse the forums to stay up on industry news (and it’s always cool to help people out… more on that later), and have Skype conversations to conduct business or chat with a buddy.

However, if you notice that most of your day is spent “researching” or “networking”, I bet you aren’t satisfied with your monthly income. And unfortunately, there is no amount of tools, filters, blockers, or anything else you can install on your computer that will cure your lack of productivity. You have to make the decision yourself.

Someone had a great post on the forums the other day (I think it was Graham) about how most of the older members who made up PartyRiches/PAW have “grown out” of the forum. I think that’s an excellent observation. Although I’m infinitely grateful for all the help I’ve received through the various forums Jeremy has run, I’ve gotten to the point where I know what to do and it’s just a matter of doing it. And I bet a lot of the people reading this post are at the same point.

This belief was further reinforced last week when I attended a SEO/Social Media conference. I went into the event hoping that I could pick up a few tactics from the so-called “gurus” that would give me an edge in the poker market.

However, over two days of presentations, Q&A, conversations, and panels, I learned two small things, neither of which will have a major effect on my business. There are no secrets… I’m pretty sure half the people I know could have run those sessions.

So what is the solution for an affiliate who wants to get to the next level? I’m not sure I have the answer, but it definitely isn’t to install “productivity boosters” on your computer, learn a new SEO theory, or read the latest time management strategy. I think all you need to do is decide deep down if you want a high post count or a fat bank account, and everything will flow from that decision.

BTW – I’d be very hypocritical if I told everyone to stop posting at/reading PAL, because I learned pretty much everything I know from those forums. But once you get to a certain point you need to cut down on your browsing time and increase your grinding time. If you want to help new affiliates out that is great, but there’s no reason to stay involved in all the drama and bickering that often fills the boards (and can quickly waste an entire workday).

This post was provided by Mike Wittmeyer of BestPokerSites.org.

I am a little drowsy writing this, as I just had surgery yesterday getting my 4 wisdom pulled and am on a couple meds but bare with me.  The surgery actually went pretty good and I wasn’t in as much pain as some people had told me they had experienced.  Yesterday I did basically nothing but sit on the couch watching TV and movies with my laptop.  Today I did pretty much the same, except I got outside for a few minutes to read a magazine – I should be back to working a little bit tomorrow.

I am all done school now and it feels unreal! I have 4 full months to work, relax, party, vacay, or whatever I want really.  In my last post I said I had some pretty significant news to share with any friends or other affiliates who read my blog.  If you’ve been following my progress you know that I started off with poker, which has been my main source of income in my close to three years in the business.  The other week I completed a sale selling off all of my poker websites, so I am just left with a few casino sites and my sports betting sites.

I did this for a few reasons.  The main reason being I am not too big of a poker player, and don’t enjoy writing about it as much as sports and casino stuff.  Another reason is that poker affiliate programs seem to be screwing over affiliates lately and it was really annoying.  The last reason was I just simply had too much on my plate and wanted to cut down on the amount of sites i owned.

Anyways onto my April goals recap and goals for May…

APRIL AFFILIATE GOALS RECAP:

Kentucky Derby $$ – This just passed on Saturday, which was technically May 1st, but I included it as April goals because all of the work was done in April pretty much.  I got my two domains ranking decent and got some pretty good traffic on the sites.  Me and Niko made some money off our site, which was my first site I’ve ever partnered on (besides a smaller one with a buddy of mine) and I have to say I’ll probably be looking to partner up on future sites with other affiliates, I really liked how it turned out.  Overall I met and probably exceeded my expectations of this years Derby, and I plan to working on things further in advance next year.

30 pages of content up – I ended up purchases a lot of content in April and got around to some articles myself, so I definitely got this goal done.

Launch UFC, MLB and Nascar Sites – I got all of these sites launched at least temporarily so they can be indexed and start aging.  For some reason my new MLB site I got up maybe 3 weeks ago still hasn’t been indexed, I hope its not penalized from the previous owner of the domain.

Earn 10k Affiliate Revenue – Didn’t hit it this month, but I was over 5k which will always keep me happy.

Cut back on expenses – Errr I did this a little bit compared to the month before, but still spent quite a bit. I spent smarter though, which was my main goal.

MAY 2010 AFFILIATES GOALS:

• Transfer The Sports Geek to the new template, which means I have about 20 pages of content to write for it as well
• Organize my business more as I will be outsourcing more so I need to do some planning
• I am going to try and plan my whole summer as far as work goes, of course things will change but I want a plan
• Get my slots and video poker sites up and going
• 5k in affiliate revenue – yeah half of my goal last month as I cut out a good chunk of my revenue with my poker sites

As far as personal goals go I am still wanting to make it to the gym 4 or 5 times a week.  I am also playing hockey 4 times a week (2 ice hockey and 2 ball hockey).  I want to get out for a few rounds of golf.  I also want to make a trip to Detroit to watch both a Red Wings playoff game (assuming they don’t get knocked out early here by the Sharks) and a Tigers game (maybe May14th vs the Yankees).

Have a great month everyone!