What 7 Years of Playing Poker Professionally has Taught me About Internet Marketing! (18)
What 7 Years of Playing Poker Professionally has Taught me About Internet Marketing!
I'll start off with a little intro about myself.
Poker Pro Career 2004-2011 Apr 15 (Black Friday) > [check wikipedia link down]
To give a brief history how it all started, Chris MoneyMaker won 2.5 mil from a $40 poker satellite in 2003 at WSOP and it got me interested in poker.
I was always into numbers, statistics and strategies so I thought that I would give it a try and see whether it's just luck or it's really possible to win money.
First month I started playing I made 500$ using common sense, strategizing and gathering data on what works what doesn't. Within 6 months I started making around $1500 per month.
2 years in > around $5000+ per month. Started playing poker online and travel around the world.
4 years in > $10,000+ per month
6+ years plus > games became very tough, mainly because a lot of training sites came up, lots of data mining tools, different super advanced tracking softwares + HUD's but still I was making around $15,000+ per month playing 6 hours per day by using good table selection. Basically the end result was $125/h rate and $150/h coaching rate.
And looking into retrospective in those 7 years I never had a losing month and played over 3 million hands so I think thats a statistically significant sample to prove that Poker isn't just a game of luck like many naysayers believe.
BUT NOTHING LASTS FOREVER > 2011 Apr 15 > Black Friday came > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_..._v._Scheinberg
Full tilt poker funds got frozen. Good thing I had the discipline of withdrawing funds every month. So all i had left there was ~$20,000.
Some people kept their whole bankrolls there. $500,000+ and had only $10-20k in their actual bank accounts since they were playing high stakes. To be honest I don't know how they can live after that.
Long story short - at the moment I am in Philippines, Manila I am looking for other alternatives where I can apply my poker skillset and the first thing that comes to mind is paid advertising.
Obviously there are many similarities but given the limited time I will just list 7 of them which I think Poker and Internet Marketing have both in common. So without futher ado here it is:
1. Poker -[Practice Good Table Selection] >>> IM [Practice Finding Low Competition Opportunities]
In poker in order for you to make money, you need to be better than the average player at your table. As long as you practice good table selection and find tables with weaker competition you will make money.
On the contrary if you are a top 20 poker player in the world and you choose to play vs the top 10 players in the world you will lose money.
How can this be applied to the IM? If you are just starting out don't go for highly competitive niches full of "sharks": dating, insurance, forex & etc.
Everyone dreams about $x,xxx profit days. Instead of losing $xxx amount of money you must first focus on making $xx or even $x per day.
I bet that even the smallest positive results will keep you going forward and leave you wanting more.
Probably ~90% of the guys go right away into US/CA/UK markets just like everyone else > Instead you may find some smaller markets which has lower competition. Some international offers payout 2x less but the competition in some cases is non existant and CPC costs 3-5x less which = $$$$
2. Poker [Focus on the Prime Earning Hours] >>> IM [Focus on Day / Week Parting]
Do you know the exact hours when you make your profits?
After analyzing 500,000 hands I played I noticed that 4 specific hours bring me 85% of my profits.
So instead of playing 8 hours every day and draining my mental energy I just focused on playing those 4 hours instead. My win rate increased, I felt more happy, and I had more time to do other stuff (not to mention the many other benefits of less stress)
Do you know which hours and days are the best for your offer? Which hours bring you the best CTR + highest CR?
Higher CTR will bring you lower CPC and higher ROI.
Doing day parting / week parting analysis is a MUST.
3. Poker Myth [Games are getting tougher, not possible to make money] >>> IM Myth [Everyone is doing PPC, CPC increased, CTR decreased, not possible to make money]
I was hearing this year after year after year... Poker games are getting tougher, games dried out, not possible to make money anymore! GUESS WHAT? Every year I played, my profits increased more and more.
Thats built into our human nature. If anything doesn't give instant results = "too tough", "not worth the effort".
If you were truly committed to getting your dream body would you go 3 times to the gym and say... "Nah this $hit doesn't work?" - NO - you would go there for AS LONG AS IT TAKES!
Thomas Edison failed more than 1,000 times when he was trying to create the light bulb and then finally he succeeded. When asked why you didn't give up after failing 1,000 times he replied:
"I have not failed 1,000 times. I have successfully discovered 1,000 ways that don't work"
All you need is 1 way to make it work > so after every failed campaign you learn something that doesn't work - APPLY IT for the next campaign.
"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
Michael Jordan
4. Poker [Know your numbers] > IM [Know your numbers]
NUMBERS.NUMBERS.NUMBERS > NUMBERS Don't lie.
So many times I was devising different strategies just to realize that all my theoretical "What should work" strategies are worthless and don't perform like expected.
What you think that should work and what actually works are 2 completely different things. I was reading some time ago in Mr.Green's blog where he posts a picture and users were trying to guess which will perform best - GUESS WHAT? Like 80% of the answers were WRONG!
Human beings are complex creatures - in some aspects we are the same but at the same time we are completely different. 1 day you come up with that amazing angle, offer, picture, headline, CTA, etc which you're damn sure it "should" work and then later on you find out it completely bombed. What happened there?
We view the world with our preconceived notions. What "tickles" us doesn't necessarily tickle others.
Essentially, we trying to avoid pain and go towards pleasure. But our actions can go in 1000 different directions.
Especially if the gender of your demo = Female -oh that mystical creature 
Don't even try to use logic what should work and what shouldn't.
What females think, what they say and what they do = COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THINGS!
Don't assume anything > Test it out so it will be backed by numbers.
5. Poker [Know your competition] > IM [Know your competition]
In poker the term is known as "exploiting opponent tendencies". You need to know your opponent to devise a counter strategy, find out what he is doing good and incorporate that into your own game and find out where he is weak so you could "exploit that weakness" that's where he is leaving his money on the table, thats where it's a chance for you to grab that MONEY!
In IM > do you watch what your competition is doing? What offers they promote? If the offer runs for some xx days it's most likely making money. When you see that ask yourself a question:
What are they doing right? What can you learn from it? What principle is behind it? Why is it working? > copy that and apply to your own strategy. I'm not saying jack the whole landing page, but incorporate the tactics they use and make your own.
At the same time look for weaknesses > What can be improved? Is it the Headline? Body, a Better CTA?
Can you target better demo? How can you take what is already there and make it even better?
6. Poker [statistical significance + variance] > IM [statistical significance + variance]
If you don't know what that means > this is the 1st thing that should be learned in PPC/SOCIAL marketing.
So many times I see poker noobs play 1000 hands and they are proud when they make X amount of money. Or at the same time winning players goes on the losing streak and they start making adjustments to their game when in reality they shouldn't - its temporal statistical variance.
To give a better example lets say you have 1 million impressions. If you would break it down into smaller subsets to 10 x 100,000 impressions and then to 100 x 10,000. You would see that all these sub samples perform differently.
let's say over 1 mil impressions you have a ROI of 30%
If you would devide it by 100k you would see 15% 20% 35% 18% and different kind of numbers which averages to around the number of 30%
So you need to count the Standard deviation and then what 2 SD will be from the average > this will be equal to 95% of the results that should fall within those 2 SD.
The lower the sample the higher the statistical variance will be.
So in some 10,000 impressions you might have 100% ROI and in some 10,000 impressions -20% ROI >
The more impressions you will have the less variance it will be.
So learn to do a Statistical Significance Tests.
7. POKER [Never ending improvement] > IM [Never ending improvment]
Times when you go to college get a degree and have a profession for life are over. Don't like it? Well get over it.
World is changing so quickly that the Universities can't even catch up with the education programs.
Whatever you learn in first 2 years of college by the time you finish it - that knowledge will be obsolete!
If you stand still in the business world you are actually moving backwards, because the rest of your competition is always moving forward. Don't let them catch up!
In poker 5 years ago people who were playing $1000 NL cannot even beat $100 NL games anymore! So now they do poker coaching videos instead, teaching others how to play Well at least they are still SMART to teach instead of play 
In IM it's almost the same > there were times when PPC has just emerged = Those who figured it first made a crap load of money. There were times when SEO has just emerged = those who figured out how to build links fast made fortunes.
Everything evolves fast and you need to figure out how to be ahead of "average learning curve".
Once you get some good/awesome results don't even dare to get that feeling: "I've arrived", "I've made it" now it's time to bask in the "glory" NO!
Just push yourself even more - ask yourself what is the next step? Who is better than me and what can I learn from them? How can i go even deeper in the matter. What other stuff I can learn to compliment my skill?
Did you know that 1% richest population owns 35% of whole country's wealth? And that another 19% owns another 50% - that means top 20% own 85% of whole country's wealth.
Don't settle for being average > Push yourself to become SPECTACULAR! and NEVER STOP IMPROVING! NEVER EVER!!!
To sum up the post : STM is a great community so wanted to contribute as well I hope that with STM help I will be able to transfer and apply my poker skillset to paid advertising.
My plan is POF > FACEBOOK > PPV > MEDIA BUYS and the end result within 2 years of constant improvement $2000+ profit days - as you can see I am modest and not greedy at all
gl in your persuits STM'ers
P.S. If You are in the Philippines let me know
Good post bro check this one out, it's on a poker forum and they talk about similarities between IM and poker (among many other things)...
Yes I've read it already - very good tread > actually because of that tread I want to learn paid advertising ASAP
Good stuff bro.
I played small stakes poker for awhile. I multi-tabled (around 10-15 games or so at a time) $6 - $20 SNG's on FT.
I can't even begin to explain how playing the game has helped me out in so many ways. Studying HH, finding leaks
in reg's games, paying for coaching from better players, studying Holdem manager stats, all that. Like you said
numbers numbers numbers, stats stats stats.
One of the most important things I learned from playing is how to deal with tilt and variance. Listening to
Jared Tendler really helped me out with the mental side of the game. I've started to notice that the longer I'm
away from the game, the shorter my fuse is and it's easier for anger to take control lol.
Maybe I should fire up some Jared Tendler audio to get this tilt and anger back in control lol
Thanks for taking the time to write this post man.
GL
I think playing 1 hour of poker every day should be a mental habit of everyone. This will improve your thinking processes dramatically which then can be applied to many areas of your life.
2p2? FTP/PS Name?
I worked with a lot of training sites on their backend technical projects, including DeucesCracked and Bluefire.
Awesome Learned a lot from Phil Galfond - too bad he left Bluefire. Pm sent regarding SN.
Originally Posted by allthegold
Very cool, i think you have the right longterm mindset to succeed big. Even though fast cash campaigns do come often, you need the mindset of knowing it's not likely, also with a longer time mindset you'll acheive longer term campaigns.
- Start small, get the feel for campaigns/the industry.
- As soon as you get the hang of it, go big!
From meeting a lot of affiliates, the more analytical types of affiliates tend to do better with proven campaigns/offers/niches and tracking/testing better then others, so that may be where you want to focus/start.
damn... i don't know jack shit about poker....
Originally Posted by dconstrukt
internet marketing? or poker? :-)
Used to play mid/high stakes cap games on FTP before IM. I don't think anything can stress me out anymore because poker has already taught me to deal with the worst of it
Glad to see lots of poker players here! We should get a game going at ASW in Vegas!
You'll hit 2k Profit days well before 2 years.
Originally Posted by theguvna
I started playing in 03, I used to be in awe of anyone playing 5/10 or 10/20 back then but look at it now, crazy. I remember the excitement over Moneymaker too, great days for the game and that whole 'finding something new that not many know about yet'. Good luck with your IM ventures, it'll be worth it.
Poker is a wonderfull game but can give alot of stress too. I have to say that one of the most important skillsets to have is patience. If you have love for the game this will come more natural. It's all about not making mistakes over and over again and not letting your emotions get in the way. This can easier said than done.
I've also played poker for a couple of years and it did give me some important lessons as your decribed. I see alot of things being a chance off and getting yourself in the best position to "win" which means if you don't it doesnt mean you did wrong, it just means you had bad luck
Goodluck on your new adventure
Poker players who convert to AM tend to do well, from my observation over the last few years. It's probably the closest profession to AM in terms of similar skills needed - risk management, bankroll management, mindset, math - other than perhaps "conventional" list-based internet marketing.
I don't play poker myself, but my gf used to grind sit-n-gos. Watching her progress was actually very helpful for me in terms of developing AM concepts, both for myself and for teaching others. I'd definitely recommend anyone who does AM and doesn't play poker to learn at least the basics if you have time!
I look forward to reading future posts from you - sounds like you've got the skills and mindset to succeed!
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