You just can't get the staff these days

[Casino-Matt]

Just wondering how other solo affiliates do things? How do you cope with the workload? The stress? Holding down a full time job along site the website(s)?

I have been working blood sweat and tears for nearly 2 years now and have tried to bring partners on board to share the workload and ideas. But everyone is failing to make the grade. I have given the chance to 10 people so far and only 2 have survived despite offering very generous equity shares in sites starting to become successful and profitable.

Now of course I can pay for writers, seo people etc but I have been looking for a proper partner or two or even a website merger partnership but people just seem either lazy or greedy or both. I want to uphold the quality and philosophy rather than hired sell outs.

So how do you do it? Have you partnered up or found good help or did you stic to going it alone?

 

[onlinecasinoscloud1]

For me hard to find people that are patient enough to wait for the results of our work, everyone thinks the money just will fly from sky, and all my shared projects from 5 years, has finished before gave some significant results and profits.

 

[gamingaffiliatesguide]

Partnerships are never easy so best to at least get things down in a good contract first and plan your escape strategy for when things don't work out.

That said it is never easy finding the right partner can you can say the same for the right programmer or the right person to hire. You'll want to do your due diligence, interview people and test them.

 

[Aeternus]

I stick to going alone. I buy whatever services I need, so I have never considered partnering up with someone.

 

[RyanWeb]

I do this full time, as my only job.. My wife helps also, although her work ethic is not 100%, more of an assistant that only does what I tell her.. I have tried to find other people to really get involved, but no one takes ownership or pride in their work. I have even setup sites for others in a 'partnership' where they had made a few thousand dollars after only a week of work, and they still quit after the first month.

The only thing I outsource now is writers, and am always looking for new writers that can take pride in their work. But its very, very hard. People want to be told exactly what to do, with minimal research...

Its super hard, even for me to stay motivated when everyone I come in contact with is lazy.. I thrive off competition, and would love to work with someone who can equally challenge me for ideas and work ethic. But every time I partner up with someone, we start a new project, put in hours and then they quickly lose interest or disappear.

 

[DaftDog]

I started in this business part-time. I was running my own physical business that took up a lot of my time. I used to work on my sites every free moment I had. I soon learnt my lesson about having too many sites and trying to cover too many gambling variants all at one time. When I decided to just concentrate on one site and devoted free time to that site only things really took off for me. I learnt to do everything myself, from writing most of my articles (I do outsource some writing), SEO is not as difficult as SEO experts would like you to believe. I design my own logos too.

I eventually reached a stage where my affiliate business was making way more money than my physical business. I'm happy to say that I now do this full time.

 

[AussieDave]

I've had similar, less than enjoyable experiences, as members have spoke of above.
Saying what we do, not as webmasters but also as affiliates, it's not something a lot of people will or can do.

Those of us who do this full-time, and those working toward doing it full-time in the future, like myself, have sacrificed plenty. Those that stick it out, regardless of the walls, suceed in enjoying a lifestyle not too many people have.

If your passionate about what you do, you'll never work a day in your life

Back in the day before social media, and the Google zoo came to town, I like other affiliates ran multiple sites. At one point I had 45 or so. Build, set, forget. They'd convert. These days though, unless your prepared to take on employees, and out source work, you'll go completely bat-shit-crazy, trying to run mutliple sites. Then there's the issue with people not living up your high-standards. So more time wasted. In end you wind up frustrated, because stuff doesn't meet your expectations.

Like Daftdog, I'm concerntrating ALL my efforts into one single site. Since doing so, I'm in a far better head space, as well as having a clearer and more positive outlook.

Most of my contexual content is out-sourced. The rest I do myself. If I fail or screw up, the bucks stops with me. That's how I like things, it works for me!

 

[slotplayer]

I do what I can on the workload and don't worry about. I have a list a mile long. I lost that sense of "keeping up" urgency long ago. It's not worth the stress.

 

[Shay]

Just wondering how other solo affiliates do things? How do you cope with the workload? The stress? Holding down a full time job along site the website(s)?

I have been working blood sweat and tears for nearly 2 years now and have tried to bring partners on board to share the workload and ideas. But everyone is failing to make the grade. I have given the chance to 10 people so far and only 2 have survived despite offering very generous equity shares in sites starting to become successful and profitable.

Now of course I can pay for writers, seo people etc but I have been looking for a proper partner or two or even a website merger partnership but people just seem either lazy or greedy or both. I want to uphold the quality and philosophy rather than hired sell outs.

So how do you do it? Have you partnered up or found good help or did you stic to going it alone?

I've operated as a 1 man show. I've also entered into successful (and some unsuccessful) partnerships, and I have outsourced work in addition to having done work for others as a freelancer.

To speak on partnerships of any sorts, I've found that communications (in advance) and expectations are often the cause for failure. Whether bringing someone in on a venture that is already underway, or starting a new venture - a very specific dialogue needs to take place (and often does not). Covering things such as "what will I do vs what will you do", as well as putting together a methodology for dealing with disagreements, a policy for taking on/booting advertisers, developing an exit strategy, and even how to hold one another accountable is paramount in increasing the odds of a successful venture. Goals and a process should also be defined and once accomplished, they should be reset.

Simply coming together with the vague plan "you get links, design the logo, and open the affiliate accounts, I'll do the content and set the site up" generally fails. What happens when I decide we have "enough" content? What happens if you're not finding "good" links fast enough? Without a thorough conversation about the project and partnership in advance, you will become frustrated with the other person very quickly.

 

[Casino-Matt]

Some great responses, cheers guys. I don't feel so alone any more

My one word of advice from my experience is don't work with friends or family. Had to sack my brother and also my drinking buddy.

Thankfully no harmed relationships.

 

[LandofOz]

I started off doing this part-time many years ago. When traffic and business started picking up, I took it on full-time. I do most of the work myself with the exception of content creation. I just don't have the time and patience to write 500+ word articles and reviews anymore. I enjoy doing everything else myself though.

 

[NDG]

Difficult to have a partnership in this type of a business. Most people don't understand what it takes
to run a successful affiliate web site, or they just don't have the motivation or work ethic to run one.
So many people are interested in learning about the business, but very few are willing to give it a try.

 

[AussieDave]

Don't want to hog the thread

But...I was in a fairly long term partnership (4.5 years), with a number of combined sites, shared. Essentially I did the web dev, seo and graphic. My partner paid the bills for the server, provided the content, liased with the programs, and did whatever else was needed. That worked for many years.

However, looking back now, the reason things went pear shaped, was a break down in communications. I started feeling like a lacky, as if I was an employee, not a partner. The other party... Well he seemed to be taking umbrage over me telling what to do. The more I demanded he kept his side of the agreement, the less he did.

It didn't end well. We'd been affiliate friends since 2005. So a decent friendship was lost.

But you live and learn.

 

[jiriprochazka]

It's very difficult to have a good partnership in gambling, trading business, etc.. I think it's not about the business. If you are a plumber it's also very hard to find experienced people. It's little different because in this business you really need someone who you can trust. If you find someone patient enough and reliable then you will grow very fast. All business is about people and about contacts you have.

 

[Biti]

The thing is, if somebody has the essential skills, why he isn't running an affiliate business himself?

I would not work with family or close friends. That's asking for problems in my opinion. Or not even with shares with 99,9% of the people. Most people are likely into the short term. They want to do something today and receive money for it even before the end of the day. So, I stuck with people paying for the things they do and let them do what they're good at. It's difficult to find people that are competent for taking a share, which means they must know quite some different things about running a business, have the same ideas of running a business and the same work ethos as you have.

If somebody is specialised in just one thing. It's difficult. Why should a SEO-master work together and not pay just somebody for writing content? Content isn't that expensive it won't take half of the cake you're baking every month.

 

[dominique]

I did only what I was good at and hired people for the rest. Partnerships in such a fluid business are bound to fail.

 

[CygX1]

@dominique Do you still do any affiliate work since selling Games and Casino?

AGD and CAP are missing you. =)

 

[KasinoKing]

Just wondering how other solo affiliates do things? How do you cope with the workload? The stress? Holding down a full time job along site the website(s)?

I have been working blood sweat and tears for nearly 2 years now and have tried to bring partners on board to share the workload and ideas. But everyone is failing to make the grade. I have given the chance to 10 people so far and only 2 have survived despite offering very generous equity shares in sites starting to become successful and profitable.

Now of course I can pay for writers, seo people etc but I have been looking for a proper partner or two or even a website merger partnership but people just seem either lazy or greedy or both. I want to uphold the quality and philosophy rather than hired sell outs.

So how do you do it? Have you partnered up or found good help or did you stic to going it alone?

For some reason I have completely missed this thread until now!

Much like many above - I do EVERYTHING myself... and it is a bit of a nightmare.
I have considered trying to employ others to help, but I can't imagine finding anyone who wouldn't either need so much guidance that I may as well do the job myself, would be committed enough, or who wouldn't go off and do their own sites after a while with the knowledge they learn from me!
So I guess I'll just struggle on...

KK

 

[dominique]

@dominique Do you still do any affiliate work since selling Games and Casino?

AGD and CAP are missing you. =)

I haven't been, I have been sitting back and enjoying the fruit of my labor. Sometime I get the itch though.....

 

[TheGooner]

I also think that the problem with partnerships in THIS area is that each of us has our own way of working and creating sites, content and value and we have got used to doing things our own way and so we are not always good collaborative partners.

Without a very clear definition of who does what, when it's done, and how / when people are paid and rewarded as the site succeeds it is inevitable that there will be issues that come up along the way and that some people will become disheartened and drop out, or find other projects, or get involved in local work, family issues, other pastimes , etc.

It's very difficult to work as a group of "equals" as each person will add unique skills, some will add more finance, so the contributions will vary according to the situation. Most business partnerships are NOT equal, but they can be worked through with face-to-face discussions and clear expectations.

An online partnership is far trickier to pull off - and typically it fails if there is money involved - or vague expectations that have not been fully stated.
Typically online co-operation works best in an employer - contractor situation because work / rewards is fully defined.