The Bill Rini Poker Blog

I received a few different emails this week that were nothing unusual but for some reason they made me want to write about the subject of how to properly promote your product (most likely a website or poker room). I can appreciate that it’s tough getting a new website off the ground or even keeping your offering competitive in today’s market but you’ll go a lot farther and have much more success if you start asking yourself what you can do for me, rather than what I can do for you.

Ask any decent PR person if they go up to a journalist and pitch a relatively unknown client by saying “Hey, would you like to write a story about my client?” Nobody wants to write about your client. Why would they? What has he done? Or to put it more bluntly, what’s in it for the journalist? No, not payoffs and bribes (though, some shady ones will do it) but a journalist who sits around and writes fluff pieces about people and products nobody has any interest in isn’t going to stay employed very long.

So how do you get your client some press? Well, how about handing the reporter the story on a plate? Let’s say you’ve started an affiliate site or a poker room and you donate X% of your profits to charities. Going around and pithing people to write about that probably will only get your so far (or not far at all) but if you come to them with the makings for an actual story like “Hey, did you know that last year online poker rooms raised over $XXXXXXX for charities last year? I’ve got a list of all of the charity events run by online poker sites last year and I have a client that donates X% of the company’s profits to charity and I think he would be a great interview for the piece.”

If you’re a journalist would you rather someone approach you with a newsworthy idea or would you rather do all of the hard work of trying to make some PR agent’s client newsworthy?

In all the time I’ve been writing this blog, I seldom have written anything with the sole intent of getting or directing traffic. Sure, I might post some promotion here and there but I figure most people will give me that latitude knowing I have thirsty young women to buy drinks for and need to make a buck here and there like the next guy. But I also think I’ve earned it that right.

I don’t write a post because I want something from my readers. I write because I want to give them something. You may hate it or you may love it but my goal is to connect with you in some way. The post that has the most comments on this site is the one where 9 out of 10 people call me a liar, cheat, moron, and sometimes even physically threaten me for saying online poker isn’t rigged. Great! I’m glad to have caused someone to really be impacted by my writing even if it’s in a negative way.

When I lurk around on Poker Affiliate Listings I see all types of affiliates out there. But almost without exception, all the guys who are successful at being affiliates L O V E poker! Some even admit they’re losing money by not promoting casino games but they would rather put their time and effort into promoting something they are passionate about than making a little extra money.

And that’s the lesson here, if you aren’t passionate about poker then get out of the business. Anybody who thinks keyword stuffing an article for “online poker” is the way to riches is likely to be out of the poker affiliate game in under 18 months. Those kinds of people don’t care about providing value to their readers. All they care about is where they rank in Google and whether or not you’re clicking on their links. The problem is, nobody is fooled by it. People can tell when you care about what you’re writing about. Getting a link from me is useless if you can’t keep an audience. And the only way you’re going to keep an audience is to always be asking yourself, “What are my readers getting out of this?”

Life in Thailand

Keeping along the “what’s in it for my readers” theme, I thought I would share some pics from a party I went to on Saturday night up on Thong Lor at a place called Maya. My friend Offy was having a birthday party where and as part of my official duties running Thailand Friends, I’m legally required to attend such events for the sake of the business.

Please don’t pity me. I knew what I was getting into when I took over. I just felt so strongly about promoting good Thai-Farang (foreigner) relations that I was willing to make the sacrifice.

Bill’s Poker Blog

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Remember, if your company has a job opening and you want to list it on Poker Job Search, just give us a shout and we’ll get your job posted for you. And if you’re a in-house recruiter or agency and have a tough spot to fill please contact me about sponsoring Poker Job Search. Your jobs will get priority placement and a specific mention on this site as part of your sponsorship package.

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