Thank you Jordan Spieth.
Not only for putting on such a beautiful performance. Not only for winning, after I had put $100 on you before the tournament began. But for doing something I never thought was possible:
Stopping the media from talking about Tiger Woods….as much as they were.
Seriously. I understand why they all talk about Tiger. I understand why my Golf app on the phone sends me an urgent breaking news notification, letting me know that Tiger MAY play in the Masters.
But holy crap does it still get to me.
What a great tournament it was though – and it was nice to see Phil Mickelson get back in the swing of things. It’s funny how opinions can change during sports. I’ve hated Mickelson for awhile. Ever since the Ryder Cup – he just rubbed me the wrong way. But boy was I hooked by him in round 3, to the point that I ended up cashing out my Spieth bet at the end of the day, just so I could spend round 4 cheering on Mickelson.
That’s what I enjoy most about sports. This week for example – the NHL Playoffs are beginning. I’m a Habs fan, and there’s a few teams I also am cheering on – like every Canadian team and the Flames. But there’s a couple of series where I honestly don’t care who wins – Lightning vs Red Wings, for example. However I’m sure around game 2 or 3, one of those teams will hook me to the point where I’m screaming at my TV as if it’s a matter of life and death come Game 6 or 7.
Been Awhile:
Holy has it ever been awhile since I’ve written on here, been a T_IM or anything else.
Just one of those things, where I get out of a regular routine and then get overwhelmed with work. Been such a busy time of it lately. I don’t even think I launched any new websites or anything – nope I didn’t – but just expanding current websites etc can really take up the time.
Let’s hope this is the beginning of me getting back into regular writing again. I really enjoy it, and I’ve got a lot of cool articles lined up here.
What I’ve Been Up To:
More and more, I find myself doing less and less with the gambling industry.
It’s interesting. I had made the conscious decision a few years ago to diversify. I felt business wise, that was a very smart move to do. The gambling world is always shaky. I mean hell – I put a lot of effort into promoting WBX(World Bet Exchange) over the last year. I was very good friends with the affiliate manager there. And while they didn’t have the liquidity of the likes of Betfair, they’d been around since 2002, online since 2006 and I felt confident about them going forward.
Then they up and close! Out of nowhere – sorry, we’re closed.
I can’t think of an online industry where that happens as much as the gambling industry. And I remember the days of the UIEGA, Black Friday and so on – and how devastating it was when a company closes. But these days it’s just “Meh, that sucks” – and then I move on. That’s a combination of diversification, and widespread promotion. I don’t focus on just one property – I promote 10 different sportsbooks, 10 different casinos and 10 different poker rooms over my sites with equal promotion – and if one closes, well another one takes that spot and there’s still 9 more.
But more than anything – it was due to the diversification. I’ve tried various different things since deciding not to work on gambling as much, and I’ve found a few niche that have been very profitable and I thoroughly enjoy doing. Websites on various topics, selling products online, and app development all of which is new to me, and a lot of fun to learn.
An additional benefit of all this though – is that it allows me to pick and choose WHAT I want to do within the gambling industry. I don’t feel tied to it anymore, to the point where I’m doing hours of research and testing trying to find a niche to crack that I don’t even enjoy that much. So the few gambling projects I DO start are ones that I am super passionate about, and then I feel that shows in my work.
Take GolfBettingTips.org for example. I’ve always enjoyed the golf, as well as betting on the golf. A few years ago I launched a Golf Betting Tips site – but I wasn’t putting the work into it I should have. It was more just about content and SEO and getting people there so I can throw them to Bet365 or whomever immediately.
Now I’m more careful about what gambling sites I run – it’s not about that. Now I’ve thinned down my portfolio, I can focus on the sites I’m passionate about. And now I think nothing of spending 3-5 hours on a Wednesday studying all of the form, and making the picks. And then I get results like these:
Of course it’s not all good – by allowing me this much focus it means I have to watch hours and hours of LPGA a week! But yeah it’s really nice not being under pressure, and not hating the gambling industry like I did for awhile.
MobileGeddon:
Finally – A reminder that the aptly named “Mobilegeddon” hits April 21st, so you have just over a week to make sure all of your websites are mobile friendly.
If you’re not sure – throw your URL into Pagespeed Insights. The only thing you’re really worried about is the mobile UX – it should be 95+.
However this is also the PERFECT opportunity to fix all the other crap as well – so you have nice big green checkmarks in both desktop and mobile. That’s what we’re working on this week. Got all the mobile UX stuff done – and now it’s all the other stuff just for some additional google love.
Going to be a very interesting day. Make sure you’re on top of it.