This post was inspired by an affiliate blog I came across randomly yesterday, who listed 10 different ways in which to make money from the online affiliate industry… While this is not really my area (leads / PPC etc), it did get me wondering whether I could come up with a list of 10 ways to make money from the online poker industry… Observant readers will already be able to tell that the answer was ‘Yes’, a blog post titled ’10 Ways To Make Money In The Online Poker Industry’ kind of gives it away, right.Many of the items listed are broad themes, which could themselves be broken down. Amazing just how big and diverse online poker has become in 2012!
10 Ways To Make Money In The Online Poker Industry
#1 – Become A Winning Online Poker Player: Starting off with a shocker… there are people out there who win money from the games! This is a smaller percentage than you might think, less than 20% are profitable and I would say less than 5% make consistent money <1% a living wage (and most of those because they have low overheads!)… If this seems small, just remember that 90% of players will never visit a poker forum or read a strategy book.
#2 – Become A Bonus Whore / Grinder: The next best thing to winning, and arguably a subset of it, is those players who robotically play 12 tables at a time, all day and earn their living from bonuses and rakeback… while most burn out within a year or two, there are always the next generation of grinders ready to fill their boots!
#3 - Stake Other Players: You can buy pieces of other players action and share profits with them on several websites, though the majority of deals are privately arranged. This reduces personal bankroll variance for the staked players, and is a money maker for those prepared to take the risk of bad ‘horses’ and losing streaks.
#4 – Become An Affiliate: These people make money by sending players to poker rooms, usually through websites or blogs. This is big business, and the model on which many of the familiar websites use. While the majority make very little, there are ‘super-affiliates’ out there making 6-figures monthly from the poker business.
#5 – Become A Poker Writer: Big range here from the guys writing strategy articles for affiliate sites through to the authors of ‘courses’ and books and the journalists reporting the latest online tournament action. We might also include poker bloggers who make a little through adverts in this category.
#6 – Teach Others To Play: The best coaches can earn $100’s per hour, and have waiting lists of students eager to have their games analyzed. Still others make videos on poker training sites, sharing their skills with a wider audience for a monthly subscription.
#7 – Work For Poker Operators: Running a poker site is no small task, with jobs at all levels available within these organizations. You might need to relocate to the Isle Of Man, Gibraltar or Malta for the very best career opportunities – however talent within the poker industry can be well compensated and is distributed globally.
#8 – Software Creator: Some of the most popular poker software tools are multi-million businesses in their own right, while smaller projects can still bring in a lot of money. If you can program then finding a niche for a brand new tool could be your road to riches.
#9 – Aggregator: Affiliate compensation goes up sharply after a certain volume of players is reached. For example if you send a room 1000 players each month, you can get a far higher per-player rate than someone sending just 10 players. Aggregators take advantage of this and manage sub-affiliates on varying scales, they pay the webmasters more per player than going to the rooms directly – and pocket the difference between their offer and the larger amount that high volume gives them.
#10 – Search Engine Expert: Gone are the days of simply throwing up low quality poker sites and selling links on them. However there is big demand among both affiliates and poker site operators for those people who can help get them to the first page of the different search engines. Social media and syndication of content could also be included here. In fact this could be broadened to include those who help poker webmasters with design / coding and so on too. Well, I am sure there are more… maybe I’ll come up with a new list at some point down the line.
For now, however you make your living – best of luck at the tables!
Mark