Who here does this full time?

[the saint x]

I'd like to hear your story. How long did it took you to go full time how much do you average out per month and many players do you have? Show me the way very much appreciated.

[eenzoo]

Typical question from a successless/desperate Newbie.
Start working or ask questions who can help you.

[drifter8]

Work, work and work. After 6-9 month when you stumbled , failed, made tons of mistakes, pls come around with reasonable question.

The way is - devotion, belief and really hard work. If you do not recognize yourself in these words, there are many ,many more other businesses and areas for personal development.

[Christiaan]

I can only agree with the others. You need to work very hard. Don't give up, it will take time. It is possible but it needs a lot of dedication.
Many people see affiliate business as something you easily start and make money with. It is not like that, or you have to be very lucky. You do need to work hard to get something started.

[BettingBoss]

Bit of a harsh response from eenzoo.

Saint - my site has been live for around a year and it's not close to where I want it. I don't have any income and I've pumped an entire year of salary into the site.

With hard work, I have no doubt it'll get there, but this isn't for the faint of heart.

It will seem pointless at times, so if you need a part-time job to keep ticking over, then do so.

[allfreechips]

Took me over 2 years to double my take home pay from my corporate job, things were a lot easier back then though, good luck!

[TheGooner]

Bit of a harsh response from eenzoo.

Harsh - but 100% accurate.

How many players do you have? How much income do they bring? How much can I make?
It's all irrelevant to a new affiliate with a new site, in one of a million small niches in the gambling affiliate space.

--------------

Here is my response :

I've been doing this since 1999.
I've referred over 15,000 players to one organisation and over 50,000 in total over 20 years.
We get around 100000 to 150000 session per month - reading approx 500,000 pages per month.

Business was pretty good until about 2014 when the growth of cookie blockers, privacy cleaners, vpns meant that player referrals stopping being tracked with 100% accuracy, and has got worse since as a myriad of government regulation has meant restricted markets and unprofitable markets for programs meaning smaller and smaller revenue.

Is it STILL a full-time living? Yes - but only due to the vast number of players referred prior to 2015 who are at top quality programs that continue to honour good revshare deals.

If we were only counting the revenue for players registered since 2017, then it probably would not pay the basic website running costs and article content costs, and that's the cold harsh fact despite our reasonable results in the serps.

-----------------------------------------

If you read that as a new affiliate then you should get a cold chill for your newbie project and it's probable failure.

But if :
- you have a gambling niche that you like,
- you are passionate about the area,
- you are targeting a market that is profitable
- and have content that is interesting
- and have top quality advertisers (not just the ones offering the highest payments)
- and a jack-of-all-trades set of skills towards SEO, html, php
- you find a way to get good supply of new traffic through search engines ..

Then you will improve, you will find general ways of getting things done on your site cheaply (free is best) and you've got a chance making a profit / living out of your site in the future. But I would estimate less than 1% of new inexperienced projects can do that.

As to how quickly that comes, it depends.
In the 2000's it came within a year, 2010-2015 it may take 2 years, 2016+ who knows?

Read it and acknowledge it.

[Sherlock]

I wonder whether there is just one person who dared to ask such questions in the beginning and had some success.

I still remember my first 2 USD made online and it was like a miracle. I indeed wanted to know how deep the rabbit hole goes, but I wanted to know by myself through my work. I never asked anyone how exactly he is making money or tried to copy the style of work or tried to get the justification from other people, that what I think is right, is working for them. In fact it was always the opposite: if something works for someone, then why should I do it? My thinking is that the niche is then occupied by other people, who have much more skill and experience than me, so I have to look elsewhere, where no one is looking at and where no one can tell whether it makes sense.

Even when I was going affiliate fulltime with the biggest project, I remember I asked one online guru. It is a real guru, smart and honest person, but he is not doing affiliate. Still he has a lot of knowledge and I still respect him. He said that what I want to do is a total nonsense. He was wrong.

It makes no sense to ask other people. You must know if you feel it is the right thing to do. You must have some calculations and adjust the calculations accordingly after you see something real (traffic, conversions etc.).

I want to do hydropower for example. I would never go to my competition to ask how is their business. Since I want to do it, it implicitly means that I must have feeling that other people do something wrong, because I want to beat them. I believe that only the business that brings something new and does some things differently, can succeed. People who bring nothing, who want to risk nothing, will in the end get nothing. One can also say that if I want to go to new niche, the businesses at the market do not allocate resources right and that is exactly why I wnat to be in. Why should I waste time with the idiots who are in and do it sub-optimally?

[Strider1973]

If we were only counting the revenue for players registered since 2017, then it probably would not pay the basic website running costs and article content costs, and that's the cold harsh fact despite our reasonable results in the serps.

This!

[Sherlock]

This!

Yes it is quite difficult to explain to employees: Guys actually we are not making money even for your salaries, yet for servers. But the show will go on for a while, because I need to keep those programs alive and I need to cash out the money I deserved 10 years ago.

Also another paradox: when bet365 closed the program and did not steal the revenue, for my employees it was the same situation like if they stole it. Actually the fact bet365 did not steal was worse for them, because I got passive revenue stream and I do not need the people for my survival, so they must work even harder. It is crazy as Giffen good.

[BettingBoss]

Gotta admit, that's hard to hear for someone looking to make it in this industry.

Will keep at it, however.

[casinoFM]

If you read that as a new affiliate then you should get a cold chill for your newbie project and it's probable failure.

But if :
- you have a gambling niche that you like,
- you are passionate about the area,
- you are targeting a market that is profitable
- and have content that is interesting
- and have top quality advertisers (not just the ones offering the highest payments)
- and a jack-of-all-trades set of skills towards SEO, html, php
- you find a way to get good supply of new traffic through search engines ..

Then you will improve, you will find general ways of getting things done on your site cheaply (free is best) and you've got a chance making a profit / living out of your site in the future. But I would estimate less than 1% of new inexperienced projects can do that.

Best answer ever. I would like to highlight one very essential point mentioned by TheGooner: The costs: Besides a fast server and a good theme and maybe two or three plugins plus either semrush, Ahrefs or a similar tool do not waste to much money in the beginning. You can do everything else yourself.

And dont be afraid of failing: I removed or rewrote all content i created when i started in 2016. Out of 120 articles only 3 had some traffic. I completly changed my site architecture, changed my affiliate programms, the layout, my keyword research strategies, my backlink aproach. It is a constant learning curve. But if you are dedicated and keep i mind thegooners advice, you have great chances of succeeding.

[nwalker]

If you read that as a new affiliate then you should get a cold chill for your newbie project and it's probable failure.

But if :
- you have a gambling niche that you like,
- you are passionate about the area,
- you are targeting a market that is profitable
- and have content that is interesting
- and have top quality advertisers (not just the ones offering the highest payments)
- and a jack-of-all-trades set of skills towards SEO, html, php
- you find a way to get good supply of new traffic through search engines ..

Then you will improve, you will find general ways of getting things done on your site cheaply (free is best) and you've got a chance making a profit / living out of your site in the future. But I would estimate less than 1% of new inexperienced projects can do that.

As to how quickly that comes, it depends.
In the 2000's it came within a year, 2010-2015 it may take 2 years, 2016+ who knows?

Read it and acknowledge it.

I would add, offer something different from your competition. Don't create the same content as everyone else, it's almost impossible to compete against established affiliate sites, unless you have very deep pockets. You need to find a way to stand out from the crowd.

[DanHorvat]

How long is a piece of string?

If I had to start from 0 today, I'd probably see income within 3 months and would be able to make it a fulltime thing within 8-9 months.

Someone else could start a million-euro business in the same time frame because he has connections and is more ambitious.

And then someone can do it for years and achieve nothing because he is trying to rank in 2019 with outdated skills and concepts.

[Progameinc]

When I retired three years ago, I decided to spend time on the gambling field that really fascinated me.
I started studying WordPress and set up my first site.
Although, English is not my language, but I am improving as I go along. It is not easy to review a gambling site when you do not master the language.
At first, I thought the process would take 3-6 months, and now, 3 years after I started, I have almost no revenue from my sites.
I do not despair and look at analytics hopefully.
My first site contains about 1000 pages and the second about 200 pages.
I know how to do SEO and do it on-site while writing, but few sites agree to place links to the gambling field.

[MMM]

At first, I thought the process would take 3-6 months, and now, 3 years after I started, I have almost no revenue from my sites.

In that case you need to stop and understand what you are doing wrong. Analyse where the issue.
Your site is 1000 pages and you know SEO and no revenue - meaning something in your direction must be changed. Just posting same pages won't help.

- You get traffic - yes/no
- You do get traffic but it doesn't conver
- Convert but low value.
ETC

Then you can understand where the problem is. Bad content, bad KW or something else.
You seem smart and dedicated - don't just keep the same way. Stop, think, find the solution.

[Nick Bennett]

I do it as a second business. This makes it both refreshing and enjoyable, so I don't mind putting in the hours. As everyone else has said, be patient and work hard. Also try to differentiate yourself from the countless similar betting portals by using unique content.

[fullbenefit]

Full time. Used to work with my local players without having an actual website.
But then the idea came, started growing and learning more. You need a vision and your project has to be your "baby", or otherwise - think of doing something else.


It has to be a full time job or otherwise you can't "make it", especially if you are the main person responsible for the website.
It is hard nowadays but like everywhere, you have to be creative. It is rough right now for newbies but maybe the times will change.

[Malikbhai]

@Progameinc - Make a website in your own native tongue. Gamblers aren't just people who SPEAKA DA INGALISH LANGWEJ...

[big fish]

That's good Advice Gooner!