Consider yourself my mate

Over the years I have built up a number of contacts on msn, mostly from the poker world, from many different countries, most of whom I’m never actually met, but nonetheless would consider friends, well in that unique online sort of way.

Starting poker sites back in the day

One such character is Randy Ray, from Texas. Randy and I go back to the times (about late 2004 I think) when we both had started new poker information websites, my site that I still have is www.firbolg.com, his was www.unknownpoker.com.

Chat and exchange of ideas

We got to know each other as we exchanged links, and from time to time chatted to each other about how our sites were going,  about different ideas for our sites, about poker, about the Internet in general and just general chit-chat as you do. 

Follow a success story

Anyway Randy’s site was far more successful than my site ever was, Randy has since sold his site for a very healthy profit. Even after my fervour over my poker website died down, every few months I’d still have the odd chat with Randy.

Chachachachanging

One such chat in early summer of 2006 led to a major change in my career path and in my life in general. My regular job at that time was a computer programmer, at the same time I was becoming a more serious poker player and was already seriously toying with the idea of going professional, if my wife had not not been dead-set against me doing this I probably would have done so a whole lot earlier.

Working for Pokerstars

Anyway it turned out that Randy had been working for a number of months as the content manager for the largest online poker room in the world Pokerstars. When he told me that my brain went into overdrive. I thought to myself the next best dream job from actually being a player would be to write about it.

Giz a job

So with tongue-in-cheek I asked him any chance of getting me a job there then? To cut a longish story short, in less than a month’s time I was contracted to write for Pokerstars. I will be forever greatful for this opportunity that Randy gave me.

Departing stars!

For almost a year Randy was my manager, but I think once again Randy and I shared parallel experiences. Randy had other website related interests that he wanted to pursue and departed Pokerstars to pursue them, while I became more and more determined to be a poker professional rather than writing about it, and so I too parted company from Pokerstars shortly after Randy left.

Moan, whine, grumble

A few days ago I chatted to Randy again on msn for the first time in many months. Randy’s truly a great guy, he tolerated my long moan about how bad poker was going for me.

Ask and you shall receive

I asked him about his websites were going. I did have a bit of an ulterior motive for the inquiry I’ll admit. I already had an idea that I might start a new poker website, and Randy was a good guy to talk to about this kind of thing in the past.

Sold out

Turned out Randy had sold all his websites and had started a new one. http://www.pokerseo.org/.

Google for poker and seo

Well since it was about Poker and Seo(Search Engine Optimization) I thought I’d check it to see where it came in Google for poker and seo. It came 2nd, just behind Steve Badger’s (who as it turns out is a pal of Randy’s) http://www.poker-seo.com/ .

Randy knows seo

Randy clearly knows what to do to achieve high search engine rankings, but he does so with the right ethos, his sites are first and foremost about quality content.

Give WordPress the nod

Anyway I discussed what I wanted to do with my site with Randy, Randy recommended using WordPress to me, and since it was the second time it was recommended to me in 24 hours over Joomla, which I had been planning to use. I thought well if it’s good enough for Randy it’s good enough for me.

Blogging with WordPress is easy

I still haven’t really looked too far into WordPress, but so far I’m very happy, the installation was very easy and starting to blog is simple as hell.

Feature in search engine rankings

Also all output so far meets w3.org’s standards, a facet which is built into how WordPress works apparently, which will help the blog to feature in search engine rankings.

Look at Randy’s site

Randy recommended I look through his site for help with doing my poker website. Randy is available for consultation for a hefty but no doubt well worth it fee for companies looking to create a poker site, but the information on his website is free.

Do it the right way

I haven’t looked at it thoroughly just yet, but it already appears to have high quality information on it, that I have no doubt, will help guide me in the right way when I create my poker strategy sites.

Minimalize it

Randy goes for the minimalist look, in fact he’s a minimalist as a matter of principle.

What I really really want

Prior to speaking to Randy I had been thinking about doing a fancy though not too obtrusive looking website but as Randy says “People just want answers to their questions, and they want them quickly.”  

Googling for poker

And of course he is right, when I went googling poker strategy, if I had been genuinely looking for poker strategy information I wouldn’t have been a happy user.

Eureka

Lastly it was at the end of my conversation with Randy that I got the brainwave to create this making a poker website blog. Randy immediately exclaimed “That’s a great idea”. 

See what happens

Well I think this conversation with Randy may yet turn out as rewarding as the conversation that got me the poker writing contract with Pokerstars.

Good intentions

I fully intend to look right through Randy’s website http://www.pokerseo.org/ and put in to use as much of the information that it has as possible. 

Follow me following Randy

I will be outlining in the coming days my progress through Randy’s sites and the decisions I make as a result.