Where's the money in this industry?

[AndreS]

If it is in keywords, what are the keywords that actually make money? I have a few sites that are in the top 5 for their keywords and they get hardly any new players every month. I know most people who are actually making money on keywords won't tell the rest of us what the money terms are, but I would like more than speculation if possible. Maybe some affiliate managers can tell us what keywords their big earners are at the top for.

Or, is the money in building player forums?

Or, is the money in paid advertising?

Or, is there something else I'm missing?

There was a thread on CAP one time where the Professor answered that he knew of several affiliates making 7 figures. What the hell are they doing to make that much? And there are tons of affiliates that are making 6 digit and 5 digit incomes every month? What are they doing to make so much money?

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

If you are holding top spots but getting no players I would either look at your interface or get better converting operators like bet365 or 888.

Beyond that, if you weren't getting traffic I would say to target longtail or niche terms, but you mentioned you have many good positions - so this tells me you must have an issue with client-facing content.

The only other issue would be tracking - either on your end or your current providers

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

One more thing - if you are getting top spots and traffic and cannot get the traffic to convert - sell the real estate. There are plenty willing to buy it.

[Betpartners]

I think it is no much more complex than just keywords, content as far as i am concerned is just as important.

In fact i know of affiliates that basically have no online prescence and make fortunes.

There is so much more to making good money than just having a great site and prominent google position, though of course that plays a very important factor.

I know of a website that has virtually no google ranking or keyword placement with minimal traffic and not a single banner just 100% text in content and affiliate links and does very very well.

I know of a website that has the standard banners, great content, beautiful design etc and makes a lot of money.

But i also know of some websites that do the exact same and make almost no money and yet get far more traffic.

Demographics, visitor type and so also play an important factor.

So basically the answer is far from straightforward.

Hard work, good content, luck are essential ingredients also.

Sorry if that dont help answer you question but imo keywords are just one aspect and not the be all and end all.

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

I think it is no much more complex than just keywords, content as far as i am concerned is just as important.

In fact i know of affiliates that basically have no online prescence and make fortunes.

There is so much more to making good money than just having a great site and prominent google position, though of course that plays a very important factor.

I know of a website that has virtually no google ranking or keyword placement with minimal traffic and not a single banner just 100% text in content and affiliate links and does very very well.

I know of a website that has the standard banners, great content, beautiful design etc and makes a lot of money.

But i also know of some websites that do the exact same and make almost no money and yet get far more traffic.

Demographics, visitor type and so also play an important factor.

So basically the answer is far from straightforward.

Hard work, good content, luck are essential ingredients also.

Sorry if that dont help answer you question but imo keywords are just one aspect and not the be all and end all.

But without keywords you may as well be targeting trash. KW tell the SE's what the page/site is about.

That's not very good advice.

KW's are the most basic element.

[Betpartners]

But without keywords you may as well be targeting trash. KW tell the SE's what the page/site is about.

That's not very good advice.

KW's are the most basic element.

I think you have misunderstood what i am saying

I never said that KW's were not important, what i said was that content is JUST as important

I also said that KW's are one aspect, i did not say that KW's are not important or play no part.

To think that KW's are the be all and end all is misleading, they are not.

As i stated it is far more complex than that.

I understand that SEO and KW's and so on are your expertise but there is so much more to it and while you may think my advice is no good it is nonetheless more accurate than thinking KW's are the be all and end all.

You can be number one on google but if your site is crap dont expect return visitors, without good content your sustainability it questionable.

[Betpartners]

I should also say Gary that i do in fact follow your advice and have implemented some of what you ahve written so dont think i am underestimating KW's etc.

Just saying there is so much more to it, thats all

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

I should also say Gary that i do in fact follow your advice and have implemented some of what you ahve written so dont think i am underestimating KW's etc.

Just saying there is so much more to it, thats all

No worries Betpartners - maybe I did misread them - you are dead on in your advice - to be fair with LSA keywords are becoming less important but the theme needs to be KWbased - good advice!

[Betpartners]

It is without doubt a huge debating point what makes a site succesful and i do agree content alone is not enough, it is a combination of many parts.

What we can agree on is that good keywords and good content combination is far better than content or keywords on their own

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

It is without doubt a huge debating point what makes a site succesful and i do agree content alone is not enough, it is a combination of many parts.

What we can agree on is that good keywords and good content combination is far better than content or keywords on their own

Agreed.

That's part of what LSA is all about in Google's attempt to thwart the engineering of results.

Using a keyword cloud tool on the top sites are a great way to get a basis for cntent before spending time on it.

[AndreS]

For the sake of this discussion, let's assume that the site at the top is awesome. It has great content, it has great advertising techniques, it is trusted, it has great design and layout, easy navigation, visitors like it, etc... The question is, what keywords make money, assuming the site is great to begin with.

[lots0]

I have increased the conversion rate on a page by 300% by simply adding what sales people describe as a 'call to action'...

Not only do you need to know SEO... You also need to know how to sell.

The question is, what keywords make money, assuming the site is great to begin with.

LOL you gotta be kidding...
Last time I told someone my money making keywords (an aff manager for a **** program that will remain nameless) my keywords were 'stolen' by over a dozen sites in less than 48hours and I have been competing for those same keywords that I once 'owned' ever since.

When I find keywords that make money... I NEVER tell anyone... ever.

[AndreS]

Understood Lotso. That is why I said maybe affiliate program managers can tell us what their big earners are at the top for. However, that is the same problem because they don't want others competing for those terms either.

The problem with all this is that the newbie comes in, even experienced people, spend tons of money, time, and a great deal of effort to get to the top, only to find there is no money. There's been a couple threads about why affiliates are so annoyed, grumpy, whatever, maybe this is a reason.

Anyway, if there is any gracious people out there who wish to share the keywords that make money, we all will appreciate the help.

PS - again, let's assume the site has proper 'calls to action'. Actually, just imagine that the site does everything you think it should do.

[LiveCasinoPartners]

....Understood Lotso. That is why I said maybe affiliate program managers can tell us what their big earners are at the top for. .

I understand what you are saying, but an affiliate manager should never even hint "who" is doing "what" or even if an affiliate is making anything.

Since, I started as an "affiliate" I understand how important it is to maintain your "money making keywords" a secret.

The keywords found to be profitable by an affiliate were either found by luck or trial and error. More likely hard work and trial and error. So, it would be a breach of ethics to hint at someone's keywords or even their sites.

One thing I can say, is that the programs usually feature their highest converting products more prominently. That should be a clue as to what is making more money for the casino and affiliates.

One more thing: Our program LiveCasinoPartners would not mind it if a GPWA affiliate wanted keep their traffic source more discreet (white hat of coarse) for fear of anyone on our team knowing the exact pages or site your high converting traffic comes from. I could only offer this for GPWA members becuase of the trust issues.

[AndreS]

Well maybe this is why there are such trust issues in this industry. If affiliates themselves know they themselves are keeping things secret, how can affiliates trust that the programs they are promoting aren't keeping things secret from them for the benefit of their business, too.

[TheGooner]

Hard work, good content, luck are essential ingredients also.

I was going to say content, content, content ... but BetPartners is probably more accurate by including all three.


Perhaps a key thing is to create a website where you are provding content and information after thinking like a consumer. I try to provide all the information that I would need about a poker room, casino, or bookmaker before I joined up.

So that when I get a visitor I want to provide enough information to get a good chance at a converted player.

[raphnix]

The two misleading facts between Contents And Keyword Targeting are actually:

1. Target the Users mainly
2. Target Search Engine Crawlers or Bots

Most debate about SEO actually tackle this two different issue. They sometimes thought they are the same, as SE is like your honest users trying to look and sort relevant web pages in the net. IMO, it's more like suggesting that human internet searchers are mere robots who read and rank your website senselessly.

My point here is to separate the two as a different approach to avoid further arguments.

If you want your site to be appreciated by your readers or visitors regardless of it's SE ranking, then prioritize the first goal, otherwise do more optimization to gain more users/visitors from organic SE searching means.

The latter might be applicable provided that the traffics/users trust SEs for relevant results.

[AmCan]

here are two secrets:

1. keywords like "Play Poker" will convert better than "Poker Rules". the reasons should be obvious - action keywords vs informational keywords

2. Give them opportunities to goto/download Casino. My partner and i launched a poker site years back. it ranked in google within about a week. Each review page on the website had just 2 links to the pokerroom in question in a page of content. I went and linked the pokerroom's name and all the images to pokerroom in question. basically each page now had 11 links. it increased conversions significantly.

Get people who want to play, make it easy for them to get to the property.

[Connie B]

Hello,

Keywords are very important and other non-gambling affiliate programs restrict
a number of keywords and their mispells from their affiliates.

Some operators do their own keyword buying and dont want to compete with
their own affiliates on that.

I remember managing a non-gambling affiliate program where the most of
the customers were coming from mispell keywords. The operator got greedy
and placed those keywords on their keyword policy. Fortunately, this affiliate got
paid for his efforts but couldn't continue on that niche he found.


Cheers,

Connie Burstin

I have increased the conversion rate on a page by 300% by simply adding what sales people describe as a 'call to action'...

Not only do you need to know SEO... You also need to know how to sell.



LOL you gotta be kidding...
Last time I told someone my money making keywords (an aff manager for a **** program that will remain nameless) my keywords were 'stolen' by over a dozen sites in less than 48hours and I have been competing for those same keywords that I once 'owned' ever since.

When I find keywords that make money... I NEVER tell anyone... ever.

[PokerAddictz]

here are two secrets:

1. keywords like "Play Poker" will convert better than "Poker Rules". the reasons should be obvious - action keywords vs informational keywords

2. Give them opportunities to goto/download Casino. My partner and i launched a poker site years back. it ranked in google within about a week. Each review page on the website had just 2 links to the pokerroom in question in a page of content. I went and linked the pokerroom's name and all the images to pokerroom in question. basically each page now had 11 links. it increased conversions significantly.

Get people who want to play, make it easy for them to get to the property.

I was reading through this, and I was about to say the same thing as AmCan's number 1 secret.
Always try to use action words... You should avoid keywords that will attract "looky lou's"...

Win Poker, or Play Poker etc. = good
learn poker, or poker rules etc. = alot less conversions.

Oh... and you have to follow it up with a page that makes the click worthwhile as well. Remember... you have approx. 8 seconds to show the user that they clicked the right link, otherwise you lose them forever.