Too Late To Get in the Casino Affiliate Biz?

[nsawins]

We have promoted sports betting for over 10 years now and have done great promoting sportsbooks. However, we never have gotten involved with the casino affiliate side of things and are wondering if it's too late or too hard to build a new casino bonus/review type of site that solely promotes online casinos and maybe a little poker. Obviously we know any new site takes hard work to build and maintain. That's not my question. My question is simply are there enough quality aff programs that take USA players to promote and is it relatively easy/fast to start generating search engine traffic within say 6-9 months on long-tail terms. I'm just having a hard time trying to figure out how we can get enough traffic to a new casino bonu/review site if we are not in the search engines because obviously google does not accpet PPC for casino sites and I'm not sure what kind of fresh daily content we can put on the site to generate daily traffic. I mean, once we put up the standard review/bonus pages for each program we are going to promote, what other type of daily content is there to put on a casino/bonus review site? I would appreciate all feedback and if any affiliate managers could post feedback and help us out at all we will certainly promote your brand on our new site if we go ahead with it. Thanks. - Mike

[tryme]

The answer is no, it's not too late to get into the casino affiliate side of things.

In terms of fresh daily content, well it's not as easy and obvious as sports content. Casino content will boil down to these 5 things:

1) New games
2) Casino tournament info
3) Latest winners
4) New bonuses and promotions
5) Tips and strategies

[nsawins]

Thanks for the reply and help tryme. I appreciate it. I guess the best way to do it is to hire someone with casino tips and stategies knowledge to write custom articles and content for a fee to push daily on a blog to generate traffic and to keep visitors coming back daily. Do you have a list of top aff programs that accept USA players that are the best to promote on rev share?

[rak]

Do you have a list of top aff programs that accept USA players that are the best to promote on rev share?

I would look past this as promoting casinos which that USA players are disappearing as processing solutions disappear. Still definitely not hard to get into the casino biz, just need to find your niche, your target market and go for it.

You could also capitalise on whats been happening in regards to loss of processing solutions - how? I dont know.

[nsawins]

Thanks for the reply. However, since we are based in the USA and 98% of our traffic from all our sports betting sites are USA players we feel the fastest and easiest way to get in the game would be to promote the top USA accepting casinos. We can drive players to them from our email marketing lists to players we already have a relationship with, as well as generate traffic from the few but content-rich casino/poker pages/articles we have already on our existing sites. Plus, at the end of the day, there is simply too much money to be made from the USA market so there will always be a few risk-taking operators out there that will always market to and accept USA players someway, somehow. Certainly we will also drive traffic/signups to non-USA casinos as we do already with Bet365, but we feel we also would need to promote the top USA accepting casinos to maximize profit initially and long-term. Any help on what those programs are would be great. I hear affactive is one of, if not the best?

[bonusbetting]

I have limited experience promoting gambling sites and I haven't run a casino site, so take this with a pinch of salt, but one thing I've noticed is that although it's a very competitive niche with thousands of competing sites, the vast majority are not updated very often if at all. Google loves fresh content, so it should still be possible to get good rankings if you put the work in.

I'm focused on UK traffic and I've got bonuscasinos.co.uk which I'm planning to develop this month - I'm hoping this domain is good enough to achieve some top 3 rankings.

[nsawins]

I have limited experience promoting gambling sites and I haven't run a casino site, so take this with a pinch of salt, but one thing I've noticed is that although it's a very competitive niche with thousands of competing sites, the vast majority are not updated very often if at all. Google loves fresh content, so it should still be possible to get good rankings if you put the work in.

I'm focused on UK traffic and I've got bonuscasinos.co.uk which I'm planning to develop this month - I'm hoping this domain is good enough to achieve some top 3 rankings.

Ya man, I agree 100%. That is one of the 1st things I noticed as well. I see some sites that have a load of content, don't get me wrong, but it seems as if many of the websites were built over a couple of years and then they just stopped figuring they had everything they needed.

I know it's an extremely competitive niche, but in the sports betting niche we have to compete with a ton of sites that are pumping out daily content covering game previews and predictions. I almost think it's easier to climb the serps in the casino niche than in the sports betting niche these days. Maybe not to the top but definitely to the 1st page of google.

The only drawback I see is, much like the sports betting side, is there enough quality USA-accepting affiliate programs that can be trusted to payout and provide accurate stats?

Seems like the programs taking USA players are dropping like flies and if there's not enough competition than the few that remain might be tempted to alter their terms and keep more of the profits since they have no competiting affiliate programs to contend with for traffic.

[bonusbetting]

I don't know enough about the US market, but in the UK there are plenty of big, reputable names to promote.

> it seems as if many of the websites were built over a couple of years and then they just stopped figuring they had everything they needed.

I don't know. The business has very low barriers to entry - you just need a domain and some very basic skills to build a website. Like most businesses that are easy to get into, 90% of people will fail, or decide the money they are making is not worth the time. I reckon very few people make a lot of money in their first few years, but if you get it right, there is a lot of cash out there.

One interesting exception I've noticed from reading this forum is Dave Merry of Castle Affiliates - from reading his blog, his first domain was liveroulette.co.uk. That was a good find

[CasinoTom]

My 2 cents...

I would look to find a niche within the market and look to promote something that isn't so generalised and competitive as things like 'bonuses', 'free money', etc, etc as the market is saturated with these kind of sites at the moment, with the established sites having a stronghold.

Also, I would look to appeal to players by location/language, the types of games that they are interested (be it slots, blackjack, etc), brands (Marvel, DC, etc) or even the type of player that you are looking to appeal to (such as VIP). These may not see as many players coming in compared to the 'comparison' sites, but if you are starting out you will have a much better chance of making a name for yourself within a niche than trying to cater for all tastes.

Also, if you are being more targeted it is likely that you will find your conversion rates higher than just having an 'overall' casino site.

That's not to say you can't challenge the big guys - but it will be a lot harder than being more specialised in today's market.

[Daera]

Thanks for the reply. However, since we are based in the USA and 98% of our traffic from all our sports betting sites are USA players we feel the fastest and easiest way to get in the game would be to promote the top USA accepting casinos. We can drive players to them from our email marketing lists to players we already have a relationship with, as well as generate traffic from the few but content-rich casino/poker pages/articles we have already on our existing sites. Plus, at the end of the day, there is simply too much money to be made from the USA market so there will always be a few risk-taking operators out there that will always market to and accept USA players someway, somehow. Certainly we will also drive traffic/signups to non-USA casinos as we do already with Bet365, but we feel we also would need to promote the top USA accepting casinos to maximize profit initially and long-term. Any help on what those programs are would be great. I hear affactive is one of, if not the best?

I recommend Intertops, Mainstreet and Affiliate Edge programs. They're U.S. facing, have solid reputations, and good processing.

[gaffg]

It is never too late but if you want to challenge for the standard keywords in search engines you will need at least a year or perhaps an expired domain

[graham]

I don't think its too late, but I think the earning potential has dropped dramatically as of recently. If you really want to expand I would diversify and look outside of gambling because payment processing for sports would also affect casino so you would be putting all your eggs in one basket.

[Webzcas]

It is never too late but if you want to challenge for the standard keywords in search engines you will need at least a year or perhaps an expired domain

That may well have been the case back in 2004/05 when the sandbox was in effect, but certainly not true now. You can get a new site off the ground and ranking well in google within months.

BTW don't just rely on search engines for traffic. There are plenty of other sources out there, if your content is good quality.

[nsawins]

Thanks for the help guys. Ya, I think the USA market is shaky especially if you devote all your resources to simply USA-accepting casinos. I think the safer and better long-term strategy would be to focus on the Euro market where it's legal to play online and those companies are regulated.

Therefore, I think opening up a Casino site that focuses on UK/Euro can be successful relatively quickly with the right planning. I just wish I had more content writers to help with reviews, articles and SEO stuff to get a site like this off the ground quicker.

[gaffg]

If you want to challenge for online casino, casino bonus, keno then this is tough.

It is better to challenge for more niche content within casino

That may well have been the case back in 2004/05 when the sandbox was in effect, but certainly not true now. You can get a new site off the ground and ranking well in google within months.

BTW don't just rely on search engines for traffic. There are plenty of other sources out there, if your content is good quality.

[Webzcas]

Of course it makes sense to go for numerous long tail terms, this applies to any industry or vertical you work in, not just gambling. But plenty of newer sites can rank for the top dollar terms just as well as older sites. All to do with the quality of the content, your backlink profile and of course your seo.

It is IMO just as tough for old and new sites alike. You get out what you put in.

If you want to challenge for online casino, casino bonus, keno then this is tough.

It is better to challenge for more niche content within casino

[eaton2003]

Never too late to get involved in anything you do. FaceBook became popular after MySpace and this is when everyone said no one can repeat MySpace. Google became popular and the most used search engine after Altavista, Yahoo and Lycos and have maintained that position. It is never too late to become the best in your area.