New site feedback - Real Casino Reviews

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3 June 2010, 4:08 pm
Steve9

New site feedback - Real Casino Reviews

I have just finished developing a new website where people can review online casinos. I would really appreciate some feedback. Do you think it will be useful? Have I missed anything? Is there anything that is confusing or difficult to use? There are only a few reviews on the site right now since this is the first time I have announced the site publicly. Take a look and tell me what you think:

http://www.Real-Casino-Reviews.com

Recently, I’ve been looking for a new blackjack site to play on but finding good information that is unbiased, trustworthy, and not motivated by affiliate commissions has been difficult.

What I really wanted was a review site like all those ones for hotels or restaurants. I couldn’t find a good site with genuine casino reviews, so I decided to build one myself. My background is in software and web development, so over the past few months I worked on it in my spare time. It was fun to build, but it's not much good unless people use it!

In addition to posting feedback here, I invite everyone that has played a casino game online to write a review and help get the site started. <link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CSteve%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsoh tmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CSteve%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsoh tmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CSteve%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsoh tmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --</style>

Thanks!
Steve
3 June 2010, 8:22 pm
nico84

Hey, I like your site, very very nice. And I can see that there is a lot of work... Actually you are an affiliate in all the programs! This is a different site with more 2.0 web tools that others. The question is, are those tools (like writting a review) gonna be used by your clients? Cause what I think (Is only my vision) is that most affiliate site users are always looking for information in a lot of sites and is very dificult to fidelize them... Perhaps im wrong... but I like your new purpose, I like innovation.
4 June 2010, 10:33 am
Steve9

Thanks for the feedback Nico84!

The purpose of the site is really to provide users with a place to share their experiences playing the many online casinos available. The list of casino sites is really designed as placeholders to help get that process started and encourage the reviews. I envision that as some reviews start coming in, the site will get traction with users and provide valuable content that hopefully encourages them to come back and others to post ;)

To start I haven't actually opened any affiliate accounts as of yet - I don't want to distract the users with ads - depending on response from users I'll then look at the different programs that I may want to join.

Thanks again for the feedback and good luck with your sites.
4 June 2010, 11:17 am
casinogod

New site feedback - Real Casino Reviews

Steve I think you have a brilliant concept. We have toyed with the idea of allowing customers to comment on our sites our main reservation was that they could get spammed. What have you done to guard against that?
4 June 2010, 11:05 pm
Steve9

Andy - thanks for your excellent question.

Spam is definitely a concern as a site full of spamy response doesn't really provide any value to our users. I'm committed to ensuring that the reviews are unbiased and 100% legit.

To start, every review or comment on the site is manually approved by me. That should catch most spam. In addition, I'm also tracking IP addresses and I have a few other methods that I'll be using. However, I need to keep those methods secret from the spammers.
5 June 2010, 3:01 am
Simmo!

One thing I'd add: a long time ago I tried a similar thing with slot games. I couldn't get people to review them - the best I got was one liners like "its a good game". My site didnt have huge traffic - about 40-50 uniques aday and i got maybe 2 or 3 comments like that a month.

Therefore, if you find a similar reluctance to comment, I would suggest one of two options to consider. Firstly, people will generally only comment if they have something to say and your site may need to bring that out of them. "Leave a review" probably wont cut it, whereas something that contradicts their own opinion strongly probably will. That's a toughie, but worth some thought.

That usually leads to more negative comments than good ones but don't think of that as a bad thing - a) it means the other casinos on the site will compare more favourably and b) people are seeing the truth before they deposit rather than finding out later. That means your site gets more of a loyal following and also, you have a better chance of one of your players landing on a casino that will suit them.

The other option, is to incentivise people. Maybe $100 each month to the best review or something?

Cheers

Simmo!
6 June 2010, 6:39 pm
nico84

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simmo!

One thing I'd add: a long time ago I tried a similar thing with slot games. I couldn't get people to review them - the best I got was one liners like "its a good game". My site didnt have huge traffic - about 40-50 uniques aday and i got maybe 2 or 3 comments like that a month.

Therefore, if you find a similar reluctance to comment, I would suggest one of two options to consider. Firstly, people will generally only comment if they have something to say and your site may need to bring that out of them. "Leave a review" probably wont cut it, whereas something that contradicts their own opinion strongly probably will. That's a toughie, but worth some thought.

That usually leads to more negative comments than good ones but don't think of that as a bad thing - a) it means the other casinos on the site will compare more favourably and b) people are seeing the truth before they deposit rather than finding out later. That means your site gets more of a loyal following and also, you have a better chance of one of your players landing on a casino that will suit them.

The other option, is to incentivise people. Maybe $100 each month to the best review or something?

Cheers

Simmo!

Yes, I probably will make a review if you have something to give me, like Simmo says. The problem is that in the beginning is very dificult to give money to the people without earnings. Perhaps an affiliate program can give you a great promotion for one player each month, I dont know...

But because of your site system, I worked today mine and putted the chance to make comments about articles and casino reviews. Perhaps I dont recieve too much comments, but I think is something good for a site, doesnt it?
6 June 2010, 6:40 pm
nico84

And you are obviustly invited to make a comment! No matter is in English or Spanish!
7 June 2010, 1:53 pm
Steve9

Simmo,

Thanks for sharing your previous experience and the excellent suggestions.

I’ve thought about offering some type of incentive to people, like a contest for an iPad or giving away money for the best review. With all the offers in the gambling industry for big payouts I wasn’t sure if it would be enough to encourage people to write a review, but it’s definitely worth trying.

Your other suggestion of having content that contradicts their opinion is not something I’d thought of before. I really like the idea, but as you say it may require some thought.

Thanks Simmo for you very thoughtful post!
7 June 2010, 1:54 pm
Steve9

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CSteve%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsoh tmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CSteve%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsoh tmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CSteve%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsoh tmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style>  </style> Nico84 – I think allowing people to comment is a great way to get visitors involved in your site. As a bonus you also get free content that is regularly update which is good for SEO.
11 June 2010, 3:24 am
briankim09

I have take my time to visit your site. I like it. Thanks so much for sharing.