| Posted by: mike_m235 at May 28, 2006, 4:44 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | j1911 wrote: mike_m235 wrote:
So without looking at your site, let me sum up my free advice:
1. Pay bonus. Pay it at 5x.
2. Don't screw up cashouts. Ever. And make them fast...as in the money better be in my neteller acount under 24 hours fast.
3. Don't ever screw with my account. Because I'll forgive you if your software locks up once a month...I won't forgive you if I turn on your site and my money isn't the way I left it.
If you do these three things, you will get some traffic. Once you get that traffic, if your site is okay and you continue to offer bonuses, people will come. A few will stay. If you screw up #2 or #3 people will leave and mock you, and other people won't come even for the bonus.
Yea, we can do that all just fine. But the question is how would we get a critical mass of players doing just that.. and then after that how do you generate cash-flow if your giving away so much money.
About the marketing budget,... | | Read Entire Entry |
| Posted by: DrStrange at May 28, 2006, 1:18 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | j1911, I have spent the last 20 years as the CFO of dozens of start-up businesses. I have been in the possition you guys are in too many times.
I hate to be so very pessimistic but I think your business is dead. You need millions of dollars to be a player in the on-line poker business. 15K is enough to properly close up shop and pay your final expenses. Pouring the last $15,000 into the deal is a waste of resources because there is no pathway to success.
You will not find a multi-million dollar investor because the business has nothing of value to give the investor hope of a big profit. The software side of the on-line poker business is ceratinly critical but easy to find. Yummy 'eye candy' graphics and such are not the way to spend resources - ask Paradise Poker about that. Because it is so late in the business cycle, companies trying to break into on-line poker today will need a vast marketing budget. Very vast sums of money. I think an unknown company starting in the on-line ... | | Read Entire Entry |
| Posted by: j1911 at May 28, 2006, 12:17 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | mike_m235 wrote:
So without looking at your site, let me sum up my free advice:
1. Pay bonus. Pay it at 5x.
2. Don't screw up cashouts. Ever. And make them fast...as in the money better be in my neteller acount under 24 hours fast.
3. Don't ever screw with my account. Because I'll forgive you if your software locks up once a month...I won't forgive you if I turn on your site and my money isn't the way I left it.
If you do these three things, you will get some traffic. Once you get that traffic, if your site is okay and you continue to offer bonuses, people will come. A few will stay. If you screw up #2 or #3 people will leave and mock you, and other people won't come even for the bonus.
Yea, we can do that all just fine. But the question is how would we get a critical mass of players doing just that.. and then after that how do you generate cash-flow if your giving away so much money.
About the marketing budget, I dont' think we can... | | Read Entire Entry |
| Posted by: mike_m235 at May 24, 2006, 12:07 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | If you put up a 5x 50% initial deposit bonus for new players, I'll be happy to deposit and beta test the crap out of your software. I imagine I'm not alone, either. If you want $ traffic that's what it's going to take, in my humble opinion. Okay, maybe not so humble. But in the world of the bonuswhore, money talks, software, eh, not so much. Most of the players here would play poker on a Nintendo 64 if it meant they could get their hands on a good 5x bonus from a site that paid to neteller quickly.
So without looking at your site, let me sum up my free advice:
1. Pay bonus. Pay it at 5x.
2. Don't screw up cashouts. Ever. And make them fast...as in the money better be in my neteller acount under 24 hours fast.
3. Don't ever screw with my account. Because I'll forgive you if your software locks up once a month...I won't forgive you if I turn on your site and my money isn't the way I left it.
If you do these three things, you will get some traffic. Once yo... | | Read Entire Entry |
| Posted by: moo321 at May 24, 2006, 12:53 am | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | | It's a terrible time to get into the poker business. If they legalize it in the US, that would be the time to move. Otherwise, it looks like you should have just bought some silver. | | Static Link |
| Posted by: depokerstar at May 23, 2006, 2:18 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | You obviously know much more than I do from the tech side of things. I don't dispute or question that.
My experience in the real world of poker sites that are trying to make a profit, says at this point your tech expertise will not matter that much unless you drive traffic to the site. And I don't think better tech is the key. There's a big difference in a conversion % for people that try something for free and ones that will deposit. Anyone remember Poker Mountain?
It will matter if it attracts several thousand people to deposit, play, and to keep playing at your site. There are reasons for the success of most of these sites, I think you should consider those and do homework on their business model. I don't mean to talk down to you, just giving you honest feedback of what many people that frequesnt BW look for in a new site.
Consider the current sites and the dog-eat-dog environment they're in. There's a reason why several of them have added Blackjack or merged opera... | | Read Entire Entry |
| Posted by: j1911 at May 23, 2006, 1:47 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | >great cashier and nice looks are nothing if you can't draw in the fish lik party or stars and
>500 people surveyed is nothing in the world of online poker.. that's like saying I am a winning
> player after 1,000 hands
Yea, thats' where the marketing side of things come in. | | Static Link |
| Posted by: j1911 at May 23, 2006, 1:46 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | Jay wrote: I wasn't sold until I heard that the About page would have a cool water animation. Sign me up!
Also, the "suit" emoticons are better designed than those at other sites.. that was putting a real crimp in my bb/100, so thank goodness.
| | Static Link |
| Posted by: j1911 at May 23, 2006, 1:45 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | Jay wrote: And not to be critical, but you show a gameplay video where, when the guy bets out on the flop/turn/river, the graphics flash "Raise". I assume some of the programmers DO play poker, no? That's not a raise.
Btw, if you're using a Merseinne Twister to generate seeds for your shuffle PRNG, how big are the seeds?
Hey, thanks for the notice of that we will change it to bet..
The RNG generator was one of the first things coded though, I believe its' 4096 bits.
And each poker table has it's own entropy seed. | | Static Link |
| Posted by: Jay at May 22, 2006, 12:39 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | And not to be critical, but you show a gameplay video where, when the guy bets out on the flop/turn/river, the graphics flash "Raise". I assume some of the programmers DO play poker, no? That's not a raise.
Btw, if you're using a Merseinne Twister to generate seeds for your shuffle PRNG, how big are the seeds? | | Static Link |
| Posted by: Jay at May 22, 2006, 12:23 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | I wasn't sold until I heard that the About page would have a cool water animation. Sign me up!
Also, the "suit" emoticons are better designed than those at other sites.. that was putting a real crimp in my bb/100, so thank goodness. | | Static Link |
| Posted by: TheJourneyman at May 22, 2006, 12:18 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | j1911 wrote: I read your post, your obviously entitled to your own opinion but I disagree.
We have a 18 % conversion rate for people that visit our site to sign up and play our software.
People that signup usually play for approx 45 minutes to two hours of play time.
We have a great secure site
https://secure.crystalpoker.net
Our new cashier will be coming in soon which is very nicely integrated much better then pokerstars and partypoker's and the other skins.
Our server code was written in c/c++ on linux, and our cpu process are very low.
One machine can handle over 50,000 connections.
We have a built in a debugger routine, our actual lobby interface is completely skinned with one touch movement. Our Auto Evolve mechanism is much more efficient then our competitors, only having to download exactly what is needed not redownload the entire new install. A file comparison is run to see what new files must be sent.
We have our own... | | Read Entire Entry |
| Posted by: j1911 at May 22, 2006, 12:07 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | I read your post, your obviously entitled to your own opinion but I disagree.
We have a 18 % conversion rate for people that visit our site to sign up and play our software.
People that signup usually play for approx 45 minutes to two hours of play time.
We have a great secure site
https://secure.crystalpoker.net
Our new cashier will be coming in soon which is very nicely integrated much better then pokerstars and partypoker's and the other skins.
Our server code was written in c/c++ on linux, and our cpu process are very low.
One machine can handle over 50,000 connections.
We have a built in a debugger routine, our actual lobby interface is completely skinned with one touch movement. Our Auto Evolve mechanism is much more efficient then our competitors, only having to download exactly what is needed not redownload the entire new install. A file comparison is run to see what new files must be sent.
We have our own 'Network Monitor' wh... | | Read Entire Entry |
| Posted by: depokerstar at May 21, 2006, 8:00 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | j1911 wrote: thomashobbes21 wrote: Why would a bunch of players who mostly play online poker for a living visit a site that does not allow them to play online poker for money? At least the beta sites like jungle poker offered some decent prizes for low stakes players. Perhaps host a few bonus whores excluse free rolls and you will get your traffic.
ic. I was aware there was a heavy focus on real money games here.
Didn't know so many of you played for a living.
actually just wanted you guys to check it out, but i see you all play as a job and what not..
Am looking for mostly people who just play for fun..
-J
I dont play for a living, mainly for fun and to make a little extra cash while having fun. BUT, there's a huge amount of free poker sites, plus all the real money sites have a free option as well.
You should really ask yourself from a business perspective why anyone would download and then spend the time to play at an a... | | Read Entire Entry |
| Posted by: kissmyjazz at May 21, 2006, 7:47 am | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | Why would somebody test your website for free while you are planning to make money off it? I dont think it is smart decision to open yet another poker room when market is clearly oversaturated.
Go and come up with some other business idea, your project will fail anyways. | | Static Link |
| Posted by: j1911 at May 21, 2006, 2:15 am | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | thomashobbes21 wrote: Why would a bunch of players who mostly play online poker for a living visit a site that does not allow them to play online poker for money? At least the beta sites like jungle poker offered some decent prizes for low stakes players. Perhaps host a few bonus whores excluse free rolls and you will get your traffic.
ic. I was aware there was a heavy focus on real money games here.
Didn't know so many of you played for a living.
actually just wanted you guys to check it out, but i see you all play as a job and what not..
Am looking for mostly people who just play for fun..
-J | | Static Link |
| Posted by: terrellk11 at May 20, 2006, 5:41 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | | Not to mention the fact that there have been all kinds of trojan horses built into various computer programs lately that are used to get access to players online account information. Downloading a random program like this from a complete stranger seems almost like begging for trouble. | | Static Link |
| Posted by: thomashobbes21 at May 20, 2006, 4:35 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | | Why would a bunch of players who mostly play online poker for a living visit a site that does not allow them to play online poker for money? At least the beta sites like jungle poker offered some decent prizes for low stakes players. Perhaps host a few bonus whores excluse free rolls and you will get your traffic. | | Static Link |
| Posted by: j1911 at May 20, 2006, 12:22 pm | | Topic: Beta Site Forum: Bonus Whores | Sup Folks.
Me and a few buddies have been working for a while developing some software.
We where kind of fed up with what was out and thought we could do better and we kind of wanted to make some neat software that people would enjoy.
Anyways, I know this site is all about real money games, but check out our site.
It's beta and there's no money stuff..
http://www.crystalpoker.net
Appreciate if you could check it out; maybe leave some feedback or something.
Btw, Is it even possible to get our site popular. Suppose we have better software, better graphics, better features, better tournaments and everything better except less marketing dollars...
..But what is important is popularity, I’m starting to feel like it's impossible to get our site popular because there's so many of these dam skins and what not. And all the poker news sites require money just to do a dam press announcement. Anyways, if you want to join our team or hav... | | Read Entire Entry |
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