CAP Community Member of the Month Spotlight: May 2013

We are excited to spotlight CAP’s Community Member of the Month for May 2013… Congratulations, Lenny!
Lenny has been a member of CAP since 2005. Lenny is one of those old-timers who lurks around the forums, but when he posts, he makes an impact and gives some great info to everyone. Big thanks to Lenny for being part of this community, and for making some great contributions to the industry.
We caught up with him to learn more about his career in the business!
How did you get started as being an affiliate in iGaming?
I got started out in late 2003 or early 2004, not sure of the exact date or reason. When i first started it was on a free forum from proboards and it was a poker forum, didn’t do well money wise but taught me basic html and how to attract members.
What are your top traffic drivers, and how did you learn them?
Currently my top traffic comes from Google, this is from the past 16-18 months, before this I owned a bunch of exact match domains, which worked very well, but we all know how google changes algo’s all the time. Currently SEO is our #1 traffic driver but I am looking into expanding with social media, ect Twitter, facebook, pintrest things like that. Seems to be the traffic driver of the future.
What factors do you look at when deciding on an operator?
Most of the operators I work with have been listed on our sites since the beginning, such as bettingpartners, mainstreet and affiliateedge. Its difficult these days to choose a new operator as a lot of them wind up with some nutty term changes to steal there supposed “lifetime Player Commission”. Honestly at this point I do not trust anyone new, and if i was going to signup somewhere I would get recommendations of other affiliates who have already worked with the program for some time.
What are your thoughts on legal standing of the online gambling industry?
First off online gambling in not illegal in the USA. The transfer of funds is. But lately a lot of changes have been happening, A lot of states are looking to legalize online gambling. For me I hope it stays in a grey area. If online gambling goes legal in the USA, I do not think affiliates stand a chance in competing with the big advertisers. ESPN, TV commercials, print ads in newspapers and casino mailing lists.
What was the biggest lesson you learned in your years of being in this business?
Biggest lesson is to not fully trust any affiliate program. Ones that can be your best producer for years can suddenly close up shop and no longer pay you, or change one of terms and conditions and retroactively implement it thereby killing your earnings with them. In the past year we have seen may programs looking to cut corners and start by screwing affiliates, lowering commission, quotas and other things.