All I want is one conversion! (and then another one, and another...)

[BiggestBingoBonuses]

Greetings all,

Just reaching a point of frustration with my website (link in sig.)

Conversions are woeful (some providers with over 10,000 clicks with no conversion). While some of the traffic has originated from Twitter and Facebook (which I know is never of the highest quality), I am disappointed never the less.

My highest ranking in Google has been #3 for "biggest bingo bonus" and I have had several organic visitors a day.

I have taught myself php, learnt a bit about link farms/paid links (and not using them!) and how cruel adwords can be. I have no formal training in IT, marketing or web design and haven't yet had the chance to optimise my site - if nothing seems to be yielding conversions, I have no point of reference!

That said, I do add reviews etc. and tweak the site/banners to keep Google and visitors interested.

The site is a little over a year old and I wonder if anyone makes any money from gambling affiliation... I know people do, and that I must be doing something wrong/not doing something right.

I figure that you guys are the ones I should ask first!

Yours ignorantly,

John

[elgoog]

Hello John,

reading how persistent you are, you will manage for sure
just keep going!

How long is your website online now?

(also 10,000 clicks.... where does it say that?)

[BiggestBingoBonuses]

elgoog,

Thanks for your reply - I will certainly keep at it!

re: the 10k clicks, I am investigating this, so I would prefer not to say at this time.

I have, however, nearly 6,000 clicks on C-Planet with 5 downloads, 6 sign-ups and no deposits.

One thing I have learned though, is that using TinyURL to give friends/followers a link to a site sometimes results in the tracking cookie not being dropped properly - this extends to TinyURL links to a redirect hosted on my own site.

As such, I know of at least 2 conversions I have missed out on, but still, the numbers are low!

John

[HBKKH]

perhaps you need some exclusive bonuses. I've heard no deposit bonuses work well with social media traffic. The player must deposit in order to withdraw the free chips. Sent you a pm

[elgoog]

One thing I have learned though, is that using TinyURL to give friends/followers a link to a site sometimes results in the tracking cookie not being dropped properly - this extends to TinyURL links to a redirect hosted on my own site.

tiny urls to you site shouldn't be a problem,
(except that it's useless for linkbuilding)
but don't use them on your site!

[BiggestBingoBonuses]

Sorry - my mistake for not explaining properly...

A link such as http://tinyurl.com/<link> cloaking http://mysite.com/redirect/refresh_to_affiliate_program does not drop tracking cookies in the same way that using TinyURL to directly cloak your affiliate program...

Weird huh?

[sipka]

Your domain says "Biggest bingo bonuses" still your site advertises casinos (mainly).
Bingo players are different type of players than casino ones, if someone lands on your website using the "biggest bingo bonuses" keyword, he will be disappointed seeing all the casino offers and he will click away.
Either make your site only bingo specific (as the domain name suggests) or link the casino offers to bingo ones.
I don't say you cannot cross-promote casino to bingo players, but they will convert harder and they will play much less than players who actually looking for casino games. Honestly I would build a different website for the casino offers and leave this one as an only bingo source.

Also make some cross-linking between your pages. On your homepage there is a handy table with bonus types but I couldn't click on any. There are no "sales funnels" when I arrive at your site, just banners and some side links (and to be honest they remind me of Adsense links, so I won't click on them for sure). I would also remove the Adsense links, do not waste your precious real estate for something that won't earn you more than some pennies.

According to Google only one page is fully indexed in their results - your home page. Add more content, the site lacks of content, add reviews to all the bingos/casinos you promote, write at least 500-600 words pages, give the search engines more text, more content to index (from my experience a website becomes a "real" website at 100 pages content - others can say otherwise, this is what I saw and experienced when a site started to make money for me - ok, you can buy your way up with links for a one-page site too, but unless you don't have thousands to spend on links you need to attack the other way around -> with content).

Hope this helps and yes, there are a lot of money to be made as a gambling affiliate

[brean78]

I have to agree with sipka, you may be confusing your visitors with the bingo/casino mix. It is always off putting to find something you weren't expecting behind a link. IMO sites that do better are very specific, eg only focus on one thing. A site like biggest bingo bonuses - all I want to see is all the best bonuses for bingo sites, nothing else.

Also, I don't see many text links, just mainly banners. Have you ever heard of something called 'banner blindness'. You should look it up. I think a mix of text links and banners will work better for you.

By the way, there are plenty of affiliates making money from gambling affiliation here. Like you, many have felt the frustrations of trying to work out how to make money. Keep trying new things, ask questions and learn from your mistakes and you will get there.

[elgoog]

Sorry - my mistake for not explaining properly...

A link such as http://tinyurl.com/<link> cloaking http://mysite.com/redirect/refresh_to_affiliate_program does not drop tracking cookies in the same way that using TinyURL to directly cloak your affiliate program...

Weird huh?

erm...never did such a thing b4... why not just let people visit your website??

[clearlyportals]

Agreed.

Your site is confusing and I can't really seem to find any content on there? You say you add reviews but I couldn't find any, says it's under construction?!

I would remove all references to casino if you are targeting bingo players, and take a look at some of the top bingo affiliate sites to see how they promote bingo.

[CasinoTom]

I would have to agree with the points that have gone before. Casino and Bingo users are, essentially, an entirely different demographic so with a URL and content on site not matching you will see conversion being very low indeed.

Bingo has almost become it's own branch of social networking (at least in the UK) and many of it's biggest affiliates have seen that they need to instil this community feel to attract a player base that reflects the merchants' offering, which is not something that is usually attributed to Casino affiliate sites - certainly not in the same way.

Tom

[BiggestBingoBonuses]

Thanks for all your input - the criticism is painful, but very much appreciated!

I also implemented a redirect dependent on where visitors originate (i.e. US visitors get directed to the us-safe subdomain (if it works properly), so in checking the site, I have definitely missed some content - thanks for the heads up.

I think it's a good point about the Google ads too - I was only emplying those to see if there is any effect on speeding up indexing, but it appears not in this case.

I will have a think about how to implement your suggestions in the best way and look forward to bringing you some good news! (I would say soon, but internet marketing is something that never moves quickly...)

[clearlyportals]

What is your main focus though out of interest? US or UK/Europe?

What do you find yourself spending most of your time on?

[BiggestBingoBonuses]

What is your main focus though out of interest? US or UK/Europe?

What do you find yourself spending most of your time on?

UK/Eu, but I have concerns surrounding the internet gaming act in the states... I was initially going to put up a "sorry, you're not allowed in" page, but I didn't feel it was that accomodating, so wanted to provide some content for US visitors.

Perhaps I should go with my first instinct?

[TanyaEverest]

First, congrats on putting in all the effort and being open to criticism!

That being said, I that you need to take a look at what you want your site to say. As some people mentioned before, the casino/bingo mix can be confusing. I would first focus on working that out. Second, there isn't too much in terms of content on the homepage. I see the notice about being online, and about us, but the meat and potatos really should be some content that can be cached and help not only your site rank, but help your visitors work out what your site is all about and where to go next. There's a lot of page space open-fill it with some great content!

[BiggestBingoBonuses]

Tanya,

Thanks for your input - there is a lot of good advice from all of you!

It is embarrassing that I have made so many errors, but reassuring that people are willing to help me put them right.

I think another overhaul of the site is required, so it may be a while before I can update you and everyone else who has taken the time to give their advice.

Thanks again!

[TanyaEverest]

Anytime! If you have any questions at all-feel free to email me directly-tanya@everestaffiliates.com or tanyaeverest on Skype

[slotplayer]

change that all slots casino banner to their bingo one and you should get something going.

I have, however, nearly 6,000 clicks on C-Planet with 5 downloads, 6 sign-ups and no deposits.

so many clicks tells me visitors could not find what they were looking for, assume they found your site through a bingo related search and decided to check out c-planet properties, well c-planet is RTG and bingo is not RTG's flagship, their "real series" slots are.

[WildmanSC]

Concerning conversions, I wish I could help you with that. I too am waiting for 1.

[ddm]

Hmm, here's some little CRO tips which have worked very well for me.

tip 1:
parse the referrer query string for traffic from SERPs
When the player goes to your homepage, if the SERP query string contains "bingo" , do an insta redirect to your bingo page, if it's casino, redirect to your casino offers page.. (simplifying things here somewhat, but you get the gist). This is NOT cloaking as any SE bots will not have a referrer query. This is also good for the UX if your homepage is biased towards one product (casino) over another (bingo)

tip 2:
add a little JS slide-up with a decent offer and CALL TO ACTION which shows only once [for users who don't have a cookie.. i.e 1st time visitors].

Before I used #2 on my footy site I was getting .5% of all traffic to go to my "money page" ... adding the Slidey thing and CTA resulted in 3.5% of visitors going to my "money page".

hope this helps, hit me up if you want some code for #2.. #1 you can hack the php yourself ... teach a man to fish and all that

best of luck w/ your site m8.