One of the most interesting jobs in the poker market is being a poker writer. Poker writers are people who are in the middle of the action and are the first ones to know all the latest news. Being a poker writer is also a hard work. Good English or native language skills are not enough, because a poker writer should understand the game of poker from the inside, play online poker, communicate with fellow poker players in the largest online communities and social networks etc.

Writing about poker is usually not a full time job, unless one gets lucky and their skills and sharpness of quill are noticed by some big poker media site or a popular magazine. Sometimes poker writers work for a few companies at a time because they receive their salary for a written piece and not for the time they spend writing it. The prices vary from $10 to $50 per simple 500 word text depending on the topic or the purpose of writing (SEO texts are cheaper, creative writing for blogs – in the middle, analyst stories for magazines – best paid).

If you have good writing skills and would like to start your poker writer’s carrier, you should start from SEO texts, rewriting and guest blogging.

There are tons of freelance job sites where you can search for any poker related text writing offers. One of the best websites of the kind is GetaFreelancer.com. Just try searching for “poker writers” and you will get the latest job offers.

You can also try searching for poker blogs that need poker bloggers. For example, one of the most popular blogs in the poker market BillRini is now looking for a poker writer. By the way, Bill also manages a Poker Jobs website, where everyone can submit a position and look for new job offers (simply subscribe to RSS).

Another popular blog site PokerBloggs.com is also looking for a poker writer. Their requirements are absolutely fair and not very demanding:

…poker writers who have knowledge of all forms of poker. Writers must play online, must have knowledge of Omaha, Holdem, Razz, Stud, and follow the high stakes games at Full Tilt Poker and other sites. Writers must also have many hours of watching poker on TV under their belt.

PokerBankrollBlog is looking for writers since 2008. Everyone is free to submit their poker article in this blog, but it must fit to their Terms and Conditions.

There are some other sites for Poker job postings, but they are either neglected or have no visitors. The best way to get the job is to write a few articles, make a short presentation of yourself and send an email to the editors of the biggest poker media sites like Cardplayer, Pokernews, PokerListings etc. Of course, they may get lost in the busy mailboxes of the biggest online magazine editors, so you should be patient. All these sites also have their blog sections, so you could try writing there first.

My.Pokernews.com is an open blogging service, your blogs might even get to the PokerNews homepage upon editor’s decision, so you can easily become their special blogger. Cardplayer and PokerListings usually want pros to write their blogs, but you can still prove your writing abilities.

As you can see there are lots of opportunities to get a poker writer/blogger job these days. Some independent poker bloggers can earn enough from their blogs, so that may as well be a full time job. However, this way of income is rather hard, because the author must build their personal brand. A paid blogger can write under a nickname, while independent poker blogger must be like a poker celebrity. It is your decision which path to choose.

Why do some people hate Facebook? One of the reasons is “too much useless information”. And this is absolutely true. Facebook has become the place where a lot of people try to sell their products in various ways. Therefore, lots of fake Facebook fan pages are created every day.

To those who are not yet familiar with the Facebook Page tool, I can say that it is a wonderful application for any brand to distribute valuable information in a more acceptable way for the Facebook users. One can post text links, blogs, RSS, videos, pictures, PDFs, presentations and much more.

Some poker brands use Facebook marketing quite successfully. For example, the official PokerStars Facebook page has got approximately 30,000 fans. Some of the others also have as much as 1000-2000 fans. This amount is just enough to update the majority of the readers with the latest news without waiting for them to visit the website or subscribe to the RSS feed.

Unfortunately, there are more dead pages than normal. ‘Normal’ means that the page is updated at least once a week, it contains various information and not only the RSS feed update made using the Facebook Notes feature, various tools are used, videos added etc. In other words, the basic capabilities of the Facebook page are being used.

For example, the BetfairPoker Facebook page advertises their major promotions using the Static FBML application. This requires some specific web design skills and programming knowledge. The page does not only advertise the latest promotions, but also updates the fans with the news about the Betfair poker pros and their achievements. The opposite example would be Gus Hansen’s ‘unofficial’ Facebook page with 27,000 fans and 0 updates from the Gus Hansen’s agent or the FullTilt social Media team (Gus Hansen is a FullTilt pro). It seems that FT does rely on the social media very much. The official FullTilt’s Facebook page only provides their blog updates.

It is only the beginning of poker in social media, therefore the marketing people still do not consider Facebook or any other social network as a possible source of income. Maybe in the next 2-5 years the situation will change and people will be able to get high quality information resources on Facebook. So far there is a huge absence of pages worth following. It is hard to admit, but there are only 50-60 quality poker fan pages. All the others are either dead or created only with the purpose of advertising someone’s online poker affiliate links.

I have analyzed and evaluated PokerKnave in my Poker 2.0 Blog. That was the last part of my series analyzing various poker blog engines. I have reviewed and evaluated 20 various poker communities and social networks and gave them the average points evaluation by 10 criteria. PokerKnave collected 4.3 points (5.0 is maximum possible) and is no 2 in TOP20 poker blogging sites.

The disadvantages of PokerKnave are very small, therefore if creators could read this article and make some decisions, PokerKnave could become the best blogging option in the World.

From my own personal experience, I would mention the navigation issues (little confusing) to be solved to become a perfect blogging solution.

Good luck developing the best poker blogosphere!

What is Poker 2.0? It’s  definitely not a second version of some poker software. It is a new term (I didn’t come up with it) defining the web 2.0 aspects in poker.

People might ask: what is Web 2.0? In simple terms web 2.0 describes all kinds of internet services and tools which allow the users generate their own content. Comments on CNN.com are not WEB 2.0, but if someone sends a picture of a crashed plane and it becomes the primary information source – it can be considered to be web 2.0. It is closely related to all kinds of social media which is based on the user generated content – status updates, pictures, videos, links with descriptions, blogs, music, files etc. Social networks are global institutions which unite people with all kinds of interests. There are some narrow interest-based social networks where people communicate and share their experiences related to the particular hobby or topic.

Millions of people all around the world are interested in poker. It has no age limit while played just for fun and it is enjoyed by people speaking various languages. Many Hollywood movies have moments with the main heroes mentioning poker (they do not speak about Baccarat or backgammon). So it comes as no surprise that there are numerous social media services made just for poker players.

This is when Poker 2.0 comes in. All poker related information, generated by poker players about poker can be called Poker 2.0. Need some examples? Here is the list of the most popular poker-related content:

• poker blogs writing about poker experiences
• poker hand analysis of a particular play situation which serves as a perfect learning tool
• poker videos illustrating online play (filmed poker tables are not exactly web 2.0, as it is done by professionals for the TV or the internet shows)
• online poker table screenshots illustrating the hand or the winnings of the player
• Poker FAQ made by the players when newbies ask the questions and advanced players answer
• Poker forum – discussions of all kinds of poker issues
• Chip count updates from under the table provided using Twitter or any other micro-blogging service
• Polls and surveys created by the users, not the public opinion research companies
• erhhh. I am sure I am missing something else

As you can see there is a lot of content which interests poker players and can be generated exclusively by poker players.

I have a blog about it called the Poker 2.0 Blog. Every week you can read something interesting about the poker social media. No affiliate links, no banners, no rakeback promotions, NO promotions at all. Just my research of some new or yet unknown poker tools and features on various poker and global social networks.