New'ish' Affiliate. Would like website critiqued.

**bradmleeb** · 30 December 2010, 5:21 pm

I have started an ice hockey betting tips website about 2 months ago. I have been working on it part time and learning as I go. I have zero previous computer, SEO, or website building knowledge.... however, really enjoying the process!

My website is
www.BetOnHockey.com

I am just looking for some criticism, tips, comments. I would like to continue to consistently improve each week & month.

Any starter tips for creating some traffic for a sports betting based website is appreciated too. I have been trying to create traffic through Facebook & Twitter.

I would like to get more involved in this forum, as I have heard nothing but good things about the people & help here!

Thanks. Cheers.

**baldidiot** · 30 December 2010, 5:29 pm

Very nice looking site, and the name is great - very brandable!

**WinYourWayKyle** · 30 December 2010, 6:09 pm

Looks great!
One thing I would mention is make sure you have the permission to use the NHL logo and all that stuff on your website.
I would not want to see you go down under for infringement.

**pompeyrayuk** · 30 December 2010, 6:37 pm

Most impressive squire

**graham** · 30 December 2010, 6:43 pm

The site looks very nice and great domain, but I think you should try to focus a bit more on the conversions if you want it to make more money. Instead of signing up to the newsletter to "receive the latest NHL news", why not have something like "Sign-up to receive our HOT weekly betting picks for FREE" or something similar. Right now from just looking at the site there isn't much that makes me want to become a member. I would also put something like "Member Benefits" on the registration page to encourage people even more to sign-up. Your call to actions overall throughout the site seem quite week and I think you need to focus more on that. I would try some kind of a visitor activity tracking software to see what kind of heatmaps the visitors are generating on your site (clicktale is pretty good). Also I would have some kind of FEATURE BETTING OFFER on the homepage as people are coming to your site most likely to find out where to bet on hockey.

On the design front, I would make the text a bit bigger for the image rotation on the homepage and slow it down a bit. The font on the internal pages is also a little on the small side and I'd try to see how a bigger one looks.

**bradmleeb** · 31 December 2010, 4:08 am

Originally Posted by WinYourWayKyle

Looks great!
One thing I would mention is make sure you have the permission to use the NHL logo and all that stuff on your website.
I would not want to see you go down under for infringement.

Thanks for the imput Kyle.
Yes this was one of my concerns going into the build.
I have a licensing agreement with the Canadian Press for all my images and stats. I also had them check with the stats providers to make sure it was ok with the NHL.
The result was, it is ok because I am not a betting website. I am only an affiliate. However, I am prepared to make changes if problems come up in the future.

**bradmleeb** · 31 December 2010, 4:26 am

Originally Posted by graham

The site looks very nice and great domain, but I think you should try to focus a bit more on the conversions if you want it to make more money.....

Lots of good info Graham. Thanks.
I am going to try and implement a few ideas, I may need some help from my web guy to make the other idea changes.
- I understand what you see about the font size on internal pages. I have thought it could be improved too.
- Image rotation is a bit fast.
- You are bang on about the conversions.... this is where my focus will be. ("If I want to make more money".....haha. I like it.)
Thanks again for the input.

**graham** · 31 December 2010, 11:33 am

Originally Posted by bradmleeb

Lots of good info Graham. Thanks.
I am going to try and implement a few ideas, I may need some help from my web guy to make the other idea changes.
- I understand what you see about the font size on internal pages. I have thought it could be improved too.
- Image rotation is a bit fast.
- You are bang on about the conversions.... this is where my focus will be. ("If I want to make more money".....haha. I like it.)
Thanks again for the input.

No prob.. for someone with zero previous experience someone must have pointed you in the right direction because its one of the best sites I have seen from a newer person in the industry. If you need any more feedback after the changes just let me know. Those were the kind of things I noticed on a first glance look of the site. I don't really know that much about sports betting (especially hockey) but have placed a few bets at online books, but the key is to thinking what someone is really going to be looking for on your site when they google the main keywords. If its something like "bet on hockey" a good thing to have might be an odds comparison tool (these guys do this kind of thing great: http://www.oddschecker.com/ice-hocke...s-stars/winner) or even just a top 5 type list of best places to bet on hockey online with some kind of justifications.

One question I had for you is in reply to your response to Kyle you said "I have a licensing agreement with the Canadian Press for all my images and stats". Would you be able to say what something like that costs? Is it exclusive to just hockey or all news?

**WinYourWayKyle** · 31 December 2010, 12:11 pm

Good stuff in checking that out first.
I live in Toronto, the hockey capital of the world....
And I would hate too see your site go down for missing something like that....

Great site either way.... Good luck with your venture...

Where are you located?

**bradmleeb** · 1 January 2011, 5:03 pm

One question I had for you is in reply to your response to Kyle you said "I have a licensing agreement with the Canadian Press for all my images and stats". Would you be able to say what something like that costs? Is it exclusive to just hockey or all news?

I like your suggestions. Thanks..... I think I have some work ahead of me.

I did have someone help me with the website build and we threw ideas off each other to come up with the website.

As for the Canadian Press. I am getting my 'main stream' news feed articles, all my images, stats package (which may not have been necessary) and signed up for 1 year. I just signed up for hockey news, but there is all industry news available. As for price... I think I may be paying too much, but I appreciate all the content.

**bradmleeb** · 1 January 2011, 5:07 pm

Originally Posted by WinYourWayKyle

Good stuff in checking that out first.
I live in Toronto, the hockey capital of the world....
And I would hate too see your site go down for missing something like that....

Great site either way.... Good luck with your venture...

Where are you located?

Thanks.

I actually know all about Toronto and the Centre of the Universe. I actually played hockey there, and was with the Leafs organization for 5 seasons. Had a good time in T.O!

I am now playing over in Germany in the DEL. This is my 4th season here.

**manuelinbmw** · 1 January 2011, 8:13 pm

The site looks really good Id expect it from someone with alot of experience not a newbie. Now that you have a decent site up. Start learning all you can about seo and plan to devote a majority of your time in that area to get things rolling! One recomendation. Maybe try to get like top 3 sportsbooks to bet on hockey on the front page. Good luck.

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**bradmleeb** · 9 January 2011, 5:06 am

Originally Posted by manuelinbmw

The site looks really good Id expect it from someone with alot of experience not a newbie. Now that you have a decent site up. Start learning all you can about seo and plan to devote a majority of your time in that area to get things rolling! One recomendation. Maybe try to get like top 3 sportsbooks to bet on hockey on the front page. Good luck. [/URL]

Thanks for the advice. I am in the process of trying to put some top sports books on my homepage. I want some sharper images than what are currently there. I really like that idea.... although I am slow moving on making it happen.

**manuelinbmw** · 10 January 2011, 3:28 pm

**Gabriel_LCP** · 10 January 2011, 5:15 pm

Your site looks really good congrats! And yeah I agree with graham about sending your members free picks for the games (or something like that), it'll making them want to make bets themselves!

**Barclay** · 12 January 2011, 1:03 am

Hi Graham,

Being a newbie webmaster myself all I can say is that it looks amazing for your first site. Really professional layout, not too flashy, and a ton of information.

I noticed that the domain age is also from 2001 which I think is a nice plus as well (I'm not proficient enough in SEO *yet* to know how helpful that really) - did you purchase the domain with content or without?

All in all I think you're off to a great start!

**Casinonewbie** · 12 January 2011, 2:13 pm

Very impressive for a beginner I have to say! And you seem to have quite a few fans on Facebook as well, which is awesome!

Just keep up the good work!

**bradmleeb** · 13 January 2011, 3:34 pm

Originally Posted by manuelinbmw

Your welcome. Heres another tip for you. I took a look at your source code and your meta tag title looks like this.
Bet On Hockey | Home

Delete the home and add another keyword in there.
[/URL] |

I going to look at the SEO stuff and change some titles and add keywords.

Great tip!

**bradmleeb** · 13 January 2011, 3:37 pm

Originally Posted by Casinonewbie

Very impressive for a beginner I have to say! And you seem to have quite a few fans on Facebook as well, which is awesome!

Just keep up the good work!

The hockey angle has allowed me to create a lot of fans/friends on facebook. Most are fans of the team that I play on.

Great to have facebook fans. It looks good, but there is not a lot of conversion there.

**JoeAdams** · 16 January 2011, 5:46 pm

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