Newbie question on marketing

Hello. This is my first post. I have been researching for about a month opening a casino portal promoting about 12 or 15 caisnos I would affiliate with. Reading the posts here has provided me with invaluable information already, and make me believe that with work this can be a successful operation.

Clearly, the marketing will be the single best determining factor if I can make a reasonable income doing this. I understand SEO is the best martketing startegy...it also seems to be the most difficult and competitive. I have also been looking at buying trageted traffic. The costs seem reasonable. However, every website I've visited offering targeted traffic has touted how their traffic is "good" traffic while other webistes don't live up to their promises. Since they all say this, how do I know which are good one to use? Which have you had success with? Also I have read notes here saying that some people on this forum offer good targeted traffic, please let me know how to get in touch with you. What type of conversion ratio is it fair to expect from buying targeted traffic?

Other than SEO's and targeted traffic, what other marketing strategies should someone just starting in this field look into that are reasonably priced and effective at drawing traffic?

Thanks in advance for your wisdom

Watch for odd terms of service. Such as not being allowed to have code on your site that allows your site to break out of frames. Don't trust gaurantees... They are worthless. Usually, they offer a really small 'trial' buy that you can try out... That sometimes shows you how it will pan out.

Also, watch for what type of ad it is. If they offer you pop under, it's better than banner, and if they offer CPC, it's better than banner...

Main thing, watch out for #1. You.