Hello + Questions :)

[azr120]

Hello people, I'm new here - I had a look at many recent posts in this forum and decided to make an account.

I've been a succesful bettor for many years, but I always wanted to operate some sort of website so I'm toying with the idea of starting an affiliate website and have a few questions. Here are my questions:

1) First of all, I understand that EU legislature has saturated the betting market in most countries, so I would be eyeing US/Asian or African customers. My (vague) question is, is it possible to target a geographically diverse group of people? Does it boil down to identifying geolocation or what are the main difficulties with such an endeavor?

2) Although I'm CS adjacent, I don't have any exposure to web dev. I understand that to get into an 'ok' affiliate program, you need to have some traffic already. I'm not too sure atm about learning how to build a complete website, but I've seen some ads pointing to prebuild templates etc. Is the wordpress the way to go and then maybe switch to something custom? I'd appreciate if any of you operating wordpress-based websites show me how they look.

3) I'm only interested in sports betting. My understanding is that there are these types of primary affiliate websites more or less:
i) betting advices/tipsters website that give picks daily and link to affiliate sportsbooks
ii) bestbonuses .com type // just advertise bonuses and how to articles
iii) random websites such as porn or whatever with affiliate links
iv) sports news / prematch info

I'm only interested in something like iv but I'd like to hear others thoughts about whether something works better. I understand that the 'all the bonuses here' is tough to make it discoverable but it's the only one that makes sense to me. Tbh I don't really understand how random people are convinced to register for sportsbooks in others haha

Any help or info appreciated. Thanks!

[drifter8]

Hi there and welcome to the forum :

- Before getting answer to all the questions, you have to tell or promise to yourself that fast results will not come and you need to prepare for 6-9 months, before achieving anything.

- being a sports punter for long years - this is nice. The idea is to offer sth, that people will come and search for daily, weekly or monthly.
- there are a lot of threads here and you can start explore the forum and see some new starters and advises on the spot.

- people will help you here, but you have to be straight to the point, not just asking questions and in few months to quit because it is hard.

-buy a domain, put it on the proper hosting and start your journey.

Good luck

[chaumi]

I think this might have the makings of a thread that might be better titled 'I'm new. How you you do the whole thing?'

In which case, it might turn out to ultimately be the lengthiest thread ever. So, the questions posed in the opening post are probably best tackled in sequence and over time.

Nothing wrong with the questions as such, AZR. Just the way they are posed suggests you may not have lined yourself up well enough to start from the firmest foundation. Short cuts work, and you can still be successful. But likely, they will cause you plenty of lost time and hair-pulling a bit down the road.

So, from square one...

And the first is an assumption. Which is.....you know (or have the ability to quickly and deeply learn and understand) at least one aspect of betting or gambling in depth. In this case, for you azr120, that's a tick.

Now the question is 'can you authoritatively present that knowledge using your own skills and knowledge, or are you going to need help?' In other words, do you need a direct team or to pay a third party? The answers have a direct impact on costs you will incur throughout, so useful to at least have this thought in mind at the start. You may not fully know the answer at this point, but at least you recognize it. And the real detail of the answer will become more important in other ways later too, as we'll see.


1. An idea | A target

We all know that creating any form of gambling or betting project entails stepping into highly competitive waters. For geos and or subjects/topics, there are very few exceptions. There are just levels of competitiveness.

So, let's work on the example of creating a sports news/sports event previews website. The example is a good illustration, I think, but you could replace it with pretty much any other gambling-related (or other) subject


Is it worth the time and money you'll need to target that subject?

The question really pivots around why you're creating the site. Because it's a passion that you want to share? Or to make money? Or both? For some, it'll be a combination, most likely. For a very limited few, 'just' a passion. For many, a vehicle to make money.

If it's satisfying a need to demonstrate (and share) a passion solely, theoretically, that reduces some concerns around costs and competition. With no financial driver, you don't have to make money. But still, if the intent is to share, you have to be found, and to be found involves many of the other aspects we're talking about.

Now, if it's to make money, then you have to be pretty convinced that money is there to be made. So, you need to be thinking along the lines of 'If I successfully target topic or subject a, b, or c, is there any potential for income from that market and how I cover it?' and/or 'what am I missing that tells me there is nothing in this market, it's limited in some way, or indeed it could disappear entirely or shrink to a wildly less worthwhile value in future?'

What's needed to come to a conclusion on those questions is knowledge, experience, perception, study, and thought. And a few other skills or activities I missed. Or strong advice from those with that level of understanding and ability.

It's possibly worth noting here that the intent might not be to create something that earns money as it goes but is ultimately worth money to someone or something (ie, an organization). That approach would revolve around a long-term plan with inherent risks, of course.

Either way, if the market is there, then you have to know if you have realistic prospects of tapping into it (see further below for my thoughts in more detail, but bear in mind they're just thoughts. There will be experts with better knowledge than me, and better placed to comment).


The competition at a high level in general (on a global level)?

Extremely high. You're on the back foot from minute 1, and it will take a superhuman effort (and/or tons of cash) to compete effectively. Just go and search 'sports betting news'. Look at page 1, note the names, and understand they're there (in most cases) because of authority, age, skill, expertise, SEO, and in most cases, strong financial backing.


Does that mean don't make the attempt?

Not necessarily. But it will need to be a long, long-term plan. And you would definitely need a team and the finances. And that still may not be enough to 1. ever beat the competition because of their inherent head start and expertise, and 2. because things change (and will change) in the aspects involving 'presentation and ranking of a website page or pages' (although this can be an opportunity provided you can second-guess those changes quicker than the competition, but that's hard to do).


How do you counteract that and enhance your chances of success?

1. By targeting one (or more) specific aspects/topics that sit under the high-level subject umbrella. So, our subject is sports betting news. But what news? Football, basketball, cricket, nnnnnnnnn,etc. It'll still be competitive, and most previous comments still apply. But you've now narrowed the focus. This works in multiple ways:

Allows you to focus on what you know best
Easier to build on that knowledge, or get focused support
Greater chances to build your authority
...and a handful + more

And, of course, each individual subject can be broken down further. You shrink your potential audience, but increase your chances of competing. Get it right here with your target subject, and this is likely your best current chance of getting some success in a reasonable timeframe and hopefully within whatever budget you have.

2. Target by geo

The first consideration is which geo. The opening post mentions US, Asia, Africa. Do we really think any of those are particularly less competitive than Europe or Oceana.

The answer is probably yes in some instances, either because they're newer markets, and/or they're opening up due to legislation, and/or they're growing.

But the US? No chance for someone from a standing start. You either needed to have started 10+ years ago or have started anywhere over a year ago with a huge background already in place that covers every element of what you need to build a successful site. It can be done; I know a roughly one-year-old site with huge prospects. But the creator definitely didn't begin from a fully standing start.

English-speaking Asia? Africa? Probably easier and doable, but still tough. For example, there have been articles talking about the explosion of betting and gambling in India for years. Again, there is competition with a head start. But, for some topics, it's possible to do it better.

Note : if you decide on a specific country target, then there may (and probably will) be some benefits from building your site on the appropriate cctld. Or, you build on a higher level tld, and use technical solutions involving subdomains and hrflang etc (all of that last-named is outside of my knowledge, but there are plenty of resources that would explain it)


Can you target a subject or topic to a geographically diverse audience?

Yes, you can. Thousands of websites (probably millions) do it.

You're either reliant on the ability of search engines to effectively collate, understand, rank, and 'assign' pages to an audience that would find them relevant to them....or you need to technically use everything at your disposal to educate a search engine on what your target geographical audience is. In reality, a combination of both in some cases.

I think it's possible to overthink/ over-engineer this. If your subject is a higher-level one that appeals to and gives valuable info to multiple geos, then (if you do it well/to the required or appropriately authoritative level), you should find your pages naturally appear for search terms across multiple geographical locations. Your position will vary due to multiple factors. All of this can be easily proved just by searching if you know where to look.

At a specific page level on a high-level subject site, supposing you had an individual page or pages you wanted to be found in a specific geo, then appropriate naming, content structure, and possibly well-formed anchor text in inbound links might do the trick (maybe even outbound links, to a point, but that's debatable). The potential use of other technical factors in this sort of example would be outside my experience and skills.

******************
So, I'm hoping this has gone some way to tackling Q1. It should spark some thinking. Because if you haven't thought this through and understand exactly where you are, then there is arguably little point in worrying about whether you should use Wordpress or something else.

That question of what to use as a CMS is important, of course. as is the subject of hosting. Thoughts on these to follow as and when time allows.

[BCGame Affiliates]

Hi and welcome!

I think chaumi has done a great job answering your questions

[azr120]

Hello guys thanks for the replies.

@chaumi appreciate the time you spent to write such a lengthy and informative post. I believe it contains essential information for a fresher. I understand that it's hard to decipher my intentions from just a few words, but I might have come across differently than I intended. Your post is excellent, however it is not very relevant to me. I simply want to do this just for fun; in fact even if I was serious about it and wanted to do it the proper way it, financially it wouldn't be worth my time. As I mentioned earlier, I'm a very experienced in betting and also have experience within the igaming industry, so I understand how difficult such an endeavour is and what it involves. I don't plan on making the new one-man action network or anything like that. There is just something fascinating about doing your thing with your website and I'm thinking of trying something just for the fun out of it. In a sense, that it will most likely revolve around satire and memes. The affiliate part is just the cherry on top; I don't need money out of it but if it would work in any level of success that would be funny

So, I will persist with my question re wordpress. Given that I have no real web dev xp but also I'm not too sure whether I want to delve into that atm - is wordpress the way to go? I only have a vague understanding of what that entails. So I'd appreciate some info if you guys can share.

Thanks!

[chaumi]

All noted, AZR, and thanks for the clarification.

Really, what I was trying to do here was lay out some stuff that would apply to anyone starting out from scratch. Wanted to do it for some time, it will (hopefully) save answering the same sort of questions multiple times. This seemed a good opportunity.

I'm also hoping some others might chime in and cover anything I get wrong/misrepresent/leave out.

Anyway, next step CMS and hosting (the two are intertwined in some ways).

Try these as starters.

If I get time, I will try to outline my own thoughts on WP.


https://www.gpwa.org/forum/namecheap...e-261205.html?

https://www.gpwa.org/forum/hosting-d...n-260440.html?

https://www.gpwa.org/forum/recommend...e-259559.html?

https://www.gpwa.org/forum/hosting-259603.html

https://www.gpwa.org/forum/cms-you-using-252942.html

https://www.google.com/search?q=ways+to+build+websites


Just a note, though. If you're not building a gambling-related website, it could well be that you'll get more valuable answers on a different type of forum. There will be a lot of skilled website builders here, but logically, their thought processes are likely to lean towards 'Ok, so how is this relevant to my subject'...and the answers might often skew that way (as they obviously will in the linked threads above).

You'll still get value, though.

Why?

Because if you can 'do' gambling, you can do anything.

[CiaranMc]

maybe u make more $ and have less aggravation by proofing and selling your picks via a 3rd party site.
no marketing, no advertising, just sales. Your first post mentions building, but marketing is the big challenge.
'build it and they will come' is generally a myth...

[at least this could be a good "starter" to bring in $, which can plug the vacuum of your technical savvy (hire a webdev, build a site, grind out a win)

[chaumi]

Leaving hosting aside for now (it's probably covered well enough in the threads above, but we'll touch on it again)

And also...to cover off the point 'it's all just for fun'...because there are some still relevant considerations...

So, it's for fun, but you still want to get found, right? Just the same as if you want to earn money from it. You still want someone to be reading or viewing what you do. In which case, everything here has relevance. The driver is different, and is likely to ultimately result in lesser positive results because your commitment is less.

To have the best chances of getting found, you need to start off on the strongest footing that your preparation will enable, and that your finances and ability to soak up information will allow.

Hosting is part of that, but as I said, it's aside for the moment.

ofc, if it's really just for the fun of building, then pick any solution that's easiest/cheapest and go for it. But I'd say that would be applicable in only a few very rare cases.

CMS

An illustrative story...

Six years ago, I was using a WYSIWYG editor to build sites and had been using it for 5 or 6 years. Purely because when I started, I had zero knowledge of how to build a website and looked for the easiest solution possible. To me, at the time, I saw it as the only way I could do something.

It was a mistake. A big one. It 'worked'. But ultimately the limitations hurt.

I'd even looked at Wordpress before and came to the conclusion 'no, that's way over my head'. And I wasn't inclined to pay for it (another mistake, but another discussion).

But WP changed. It became more WYSIWYG-like, and eventually, the switch became a no-brainer.

And it's improved since.

Nowadays, I'd suggest it's a no-brainer for anyone coming in new, that doesn't want to have to learn coding (although you will ultimately need to know some), and wants the simplest, lowish-cost way of getting started (disclaimer: I don't know enough about other do-it-yourself CMS solutions to know if any of them are easier, or cheaper. That said, new options are appearing and possibly need some investigation...example...https://www.google.com/search?q=head...ebsite+meaning).

So, with WP, you have many, many options. For the sort of site you want to build, there are dozens of website themes and builders where you'd literally have to 'just' get hosting, identify a theme and either its own builder or an add-on one, choose a template from one of hundreds or maybe thousands of examples, and then learn how to edit that template with your own images, styling, text, etc etc

For gambling, there are many ready-made themes that you can use. Most are covered in various threads on this forum. Obviously, they're probably not relevant in this specific case, but anyone starting new in gambling websites should at a minimum be aware of their existence.

Once you've come to the conclusion that WP seems your best bet, suggest starting here.......

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+...with+wordpress

[azr120]

Hey @chaumi thanks for the input. You mentioned something about non gambling related content, but what I'd do would be still betting related just less serious content. Nevertheless, thanks for all the info - did some research on my own and stuff are pretty straightforward, had no idea wp.com and .org are different things till a few days ago haha. If I go for it I'll share it with you

@CiaranMc selling any picks is like an oxymoron, it simply doesn't work like that. Anyone who does that is either very stupid or a con artist and unfortunately it's been a trend for quite a few years

[chaumi]

Good news, AZR

When you get to the point where you think you've decided on precisely what to use to build (ie theme, builder, whatever) and host your site, it won't do you any harm to post for comments on whether you seem to be on the right/best/easiest/least likely to be problematical track

[PaulEchere]

There already are some pretty good answers here, nevertheless I will still add a couple of points, hope this helps.

1) First of all, I understand that EU legislature has saturated the betting market in most countries, so I would be eyeing US/Asian or African customers. My (vague) question is, is it possible to target a geographically diverse group of people? Does it boil down to identifying geolocation or what are the main difficulties with such an endeavor?


A: Going as narrow as possible with GEO targeting is the right way to do it imo. That is, unless you have a solid budget foundation to pour into your project.

2) Although I'm CS adjacent, I don't have any exposure to web dev. I understand that to get into an 'ok' affiliate program, you need to have some traffic already. I'm not too sure atm about learning how to build a complete website, but I've seen some ads pointing to prebuild templates etc. Is the wordpress the way to go and then maybe switch to something custom? I'd appreciate if any of you operating wordpress-based websites show me how they look.

A: As with the previous question, if you have some $$ to spend - you can look at custom-built solutions and things like that. However if your time is your primary resource, WP is perfectly fine.

3) I'm only interested in sports betting. My understanding is that there are these types of primary affiliate websites more or less:

A: So am I. I only cover sportsbooks / betting, but by doing that you have to acknowledge that you are turning away ~80% of potential revenue.
For sports-related content, I personally think betting tips aren't the best option, as people who are looking for hem already have an account with a bookmaker where they want to bet. Making them to change their mind during the minutes they ready your tips is highly unlikely.

bestbonuses .com type // just advertise bonuses and how to articles are probably one of the most profitable content niches if done right.
Although it is still a bit more nuanced than that - you would need to do your homework and try to understand what people in your target region are actually searching for / are interested in.

[JKgamble]

But if someone starts very niche focused for the US market it's still not possible in your opinion ?

Is Australia even better ?