Many webmasters to say the least look down their noses in regards to WordPress. Despite what some may say WordPress is still a great choice for an affiliate site. I still have many earning sites that use WordPress although I’m not keen to use standard affiliate themes used by hundreds if not thousands of affiliates.

I’m not keen on cluttering my WordPress installations with countless plug-ins as doing so may create problems with later versions of WordPress plus may in many cases slow down my actual site. I strongly suggest if you are new to the affiliate world you simply stick to 2 WordPress plug-ins.

How To Install WordPress Plug-Ins

Installing WordPress plug-ins is a painless operation. Simply copy the  plug-in files to your server, login to the admin options of WordPress, select plug-ins, then activate the required plug-in.

All In One SEO Plug-in

This is a great plug-in for new affiliates! Once installed, for every post or page you create it makes the process of entering basic SEO data simple. Once you have activated the plug-in ensure you go to the All In One SEO Options as below.

For each post or page you create the following options will be added.

To keep things simply at this stage let’s say we have created a post that we intend to rank for Big Joes Casino.

Simply make sure the Home Title starts with Big Joes Casino. So for example for the Home Title we could have something like. Big Joes Casino – Claim £200 Free Today From www.bigjoescasino

Also start the Home Description with your main key phrase. For this example we could use something like.

Big Joes Casino – Exclusive £200 FREE Sign Up Bonus

Finally add keyword such as….

Big joes casino, bonus, big joes, deposit bonus, free bonus

Simple Sidebar Navigation Plug-in for WordPress

Internal links are now more powerful than ever before especially if you can build an authority site.  It is essential that your main key phrases appear on every page of your site. Some sites are ranking for competitive key phrases from internal links alone.

If you have coding skills then you can create your own sidebar menu. If you lack coding skills simply use the Simple Sidebar Navigation Plug-in.

Many webmaster do a great job of creating quality content plus work hard at driving traffic to their sites only to struggle  converting the traffic. Before starting to write this article I spent 15 minutes reading through strategy type sites and was  surprised that in most cases superb articles were not optimised for conversions. I’m always amazed how many affiliates will fall at the final fence by giving very little or no thought to creating content that sells.

For example I have just read a great article on Blackjack Strategy. The article was extremely well written plus even included a custom chart designed in an easy way so that users could easily follow the strategy. The article contained no call to actions and the only banner was at the very bottom of the page which if I’m honest I would have missed if I wasn’t looking for it. It was clear to me that plenty of effort had gone into creating the article but zero thought had gone into thinking about how to convert the readers of the article. I could clearly see how the superb article could entice readers to try out the system. The sad fact is that I guess many would return to Google to find a decent Blackjack site with a decent bonus to test the system.

Simply adding an extra paragraph to the article perhaps mentioning why a certain Blackjack site would be ideal to try the system, due to lets say a great sign up bonus, or even a good loyalty scheme, which in the long term would boost players ROI, is essential in my opinion. Any decent affiliate will already know that there is always a “fall off” of readers as they progress through any article. From experience it is essential to have at least one call of action in the first few lines of the article.

Let’s say we have an article that starts with the following.

For those of you who want to make their time playing online Blackjack a more profitable experience I have devised and tested a Blackjack system which is proving very successful. Simply read this article plus print out and use the enclosed chart for optimum play.

How about adding a sentence such as…..

The following system has been tried and tested at Big Jims Casino utilising the generous £100 Sign Up Bonus. Claiming the bonus alone will increase your ROI by over 11%!

Of course for the purpose of this article I have just made up the actual increase in ROI so you would have to do a little research to find the actual figure.

Getting back to the article I would add further call to actions in the article perhaps replacing the word Blackjack with Big Jim’s Casino Blackjack.  We do though still have a problem. In some cases perhaps the reader will already have an account with Big Jim’s Casino.  To resolve this problem I would not simply give away the Blackjack chart.  I would perhaps only display a portion of it then offer a full high res printable version free to the user if he entered his email address. Perhaps I would also bundle other charts covering other games such as Jacks or Better Video slots or even slots return to player’s percentages.

Look at your own articles. Are you really doing a great job of converting your readers into real money players or could you do more?

An affiliate may have done a great job creating quality content plus worked hard driving traffic to his site; this though of course does not mean that the site will be profitable.  Before I go any further let me ask you 2 questions. Please relate these questions to any site for which you are struggling to convert traffic.

What 10 pages of your site receive the most daily visitors?

How many daily clicks do the above pages receive?

If you can’t answer the above questions honestly, then I’m sorry to say you need to work on the basics before continuing with this article. Check your stats plus try the free version of Clicktale or any similar program.

In reality more visitors should equal more clicks, which should equate to more revenue. Yes it’s as simple as that! The trouble is that many websites are poorly optimised with many webmaster not even having a clue in regards to their high traffic pages or the clicks they receive. A good starting point is to create a spreadsheet and record your click through rate (CTR) for high traffic pages

Click Through Rate = (number of clicks / number of visitors) * 100

Also record your initial real money players (RMP) ratio to visitors and clicks.

(number of RMP / number of visitors) / 100

(number of RMP / number of clicks) / 100

Using the above formulas let’s say we have had 400 visitors, 28 clicks with 5 RMPs.

Our click through rate would be (28/400)*100 = 7%

The conversion rate by visitors would be (5/400)*100 = 1.25%

The conversion rate by clicks would be (7/28)*100 = 25%

If we also have click tracking software such as Clicktale we can also record the ratio of wasted clicks. By wasted clicks I’m referring to clicks that are not hitting our text or even graphical calls to actions. We can also calculate the value of every visitor and of course every click. Let’s go back to our test data but also add that the 5 RMPs generated a total of $523 in revenue.

We had 28 clicks so $523 / 28  =  $18.86 per click

We had 400 visitors so $523 / 400 = $1.31 per visitor

So using our test data we now know that every click is worth $18.86 with every visitor in real terms on average is worth $1.31.

When you start analysing different pages on your site you will find that some pages have far more revenue power than others. Either feed these pages with traffic from other pages with less revenue power or replicate what you are doing on high revenue pages on those that are not so successful.

Test different call to actions on pages and monitor the effects of the changes. Try different types of content on poor revenue generating pages plus of course write content that sells rather than content that does not.

Many webmaster simply don’t write content that sells plus in many cases use weak or no call to actions in their articles. This topic will be covered in my next article.

One of the biggest factors that in the long term that will decide if you will become a successful affiliate is your initial idea for your site. Again I will say don’t rush into selecting the niche of your site. Take your time! There are thousands of poker bonus sites, thousands of poker rakeback sites, thousands of casino bonus sites plus of course the same can be said for bingo sites. As I have discussed in other articles there are many new emerging markets in the online gambling world plus there are still many sub niches that have not had the attention they deserve.

Take at least a few days to think about the niche of your site. Don’t be afraid to extend the “brainstorming” time to even a couple of weeks if you are not 100% sure. Before moving on to purchasing a domain make sure you do the following.

Check how many existing sites are targeting your idea.

Can you create content better than existing sites targeting your preferred niche?

Are you positive you can monetise your chosen niche?

Do you have enough knowledge to write 2 articles daily about the niche? Prove this to yourself by writing down at least 100 possible article titles.

Read the List Building article. I would strongly suggest you start listing building from the very day you launch your site. Decide on a “hook” you can use for list building?

Research affiliate programs relating to your chosen niche.

Decide which programs you will promote.

Check if the program has a negative carry over policy.

Read the program’s terms and conditions.

Research how well the program is marketed.

Many gambling affiliate have built sites which in hindsight were a mistake.  These mistakes were due to inadequate research or targeting a niche which was simply too competitive. For Gambling Cash Cow I was able to scribble down 100 potential article titles in less than an hour. I also noted that there were very few sites that went into great detail in regards to building a gambling affiliate site, especially targeting those new to this industry.

List building is in my opinion one of the best forms of online marketing which a high proportion of webmaster simply ignore. List building is simply the process of building an opt-in email list from those who visit your site. You simply offer a “hook” to your visitors to opt-in to your list. The hook can be in the form of free information such as free sports betting tips, to an entry in a private poker tournament.

The success of your list building depends on three key aspects.

The quality of the “hook”.

The quality of the sales pitch promoting the hook.

The quality of the follow up emails.

It’s common sense to realise that the “hook” must be something the users really wants. You really need to entice the users to go the extra mile and enter their email address which is not such an easy task as you would imagine. Think about your own experiences encountering email opt-in forms that appear on websites. How many have you subscribed to from perhaps thousands you have seen?

Form experience I’m not keen on pop-up email opt-in forms or those annoying scripts that float an opt-in form across the screen. Most of these I will close without even reading the promo text. Also it is a fact that the more information you request on your opt-form, the fewer the numbers of subscribers. At the very most you only need their name and email address although even the name is not really required. Add extra fields such as location, date of birth, sex etc and you are simply destroying your sign up rate.

A good tip I will give those who are using some form of information as a hook is to give the information a physical appearance. A good example is that for one of my sites I offer a Slots Strategy eBook. I have had great success just using a custom banner giving the eBook the appearance of an actual book, directing clicks to a sales page with of course an opt-in form.

I have zero graphics skills so I simply posted a contest on the Digital Point webmasters forum only paying a few dollars for the above design.

Aweber offer a great list building package for less than $20 a month. They also have a large range of templates so that your emails look and feel professional. IMO Aweber is second to none for email marketing. If you are on a tight budget then why not use a free script such as the WordPress Email Capture Plugin. This script is simple to set up plus of course will give you the option to try our list building for free.

Once your list starts to build, you can then move on to targeting your visitors with special offers. We will cover that aspect of email marketing in a later article.

Case Study

I was talking to Gerry Poltorak who runs the successful poker news site Poker News Boy. I will say from experience generating poker sign ups form poker news type sites is no easy task. I also reckon many of Gerry’s visitors are repeat visitors whom are even less likely to sign up to a poker room. News type sites can though be superb list building sites. You have to vary the hook due simply to the amount of returning visitors. If you keep changing to a current topical hook, then news sites can build huge lists.

So what sort of topical hook could Gerry use? Well for the last months or so perhaps he could have targeted those thinking about the WSOP. Perhaps an eBook entitled “WSOP Satellite Secrets” with a sub tag of “Win A WSOP Main Event Seat Free”. He could get one of his quality writers to research the best online WSOP satellites including those sites who offer free step1 type satellites.  I have no idea the sort of traffic Poker News Boys generates but even if he only managed to sign up 2% of visitors a day, in the long term the site would create a decent list.

After the WSOP he could then move on to perhaps something like the GUKPT which is a UK poker tour. Create a new eBook featuring most aspect of the tour plus of course how to qualify. He could even talk to the tour manager to get some form of online qualifier for one of the lower buy in events. If you are prepared to ask, you will find that account managers and poker tour manages will work with decent sites, giving you extra incentives to sign up your readers. You have to be a cheeky git, but if you don’t ask you don’t get. It is as simple as that!

For competitive key phrases such as “Poker Stars Bonus” many webmaster are in effect at war to obtain the top rankings. Breaking down off page SEO to the very basics, the more links on other websites to your sales page, which include your key phrase, the more you will increase your ranking for the key phrase.

So for our key phrases ideally we would like to get as many links to our website as per the example below.

If you intend to sign up to Poker Stars then ensure you claim a Poker Stars Bonus of up to $600. Some sites will even offer you a seat in a $1000 freeroll.

Note how the link above includes our exact key phrase and links to our sales page.

Again I’m just teaching you the very basics. All links are not equal. Many links carry very little or no value whilst other links have immense power. We will discuss link building in greater details in other articles.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is simply the process of optimising a web site by improving both internal and external aspects to generate increased traffic from search engines such as Google.

On Page SEO – The Very Basics

To give you a basic understanding of SEO lets imagine we have a poker bonus site such as www.tonyspokerdeals . We have created hundreds of quality articles for this fictitious webs site that link to our sales pages which we hope will entice our readers to click our affiliate links. Let’s imagine our site has a Poker Stars sales page targeting the key phrases “Poker Stars Bonus”

The actual URL of this page should be the actual key phrase we are targeting so in this case

www.tonyspokerdeals

For SEO purposes the actual heading of the page should also start with the key phrase we are targeting. So in this case…..

Poker Stars Bonus

It’s also a good idea to start your main body text with the key phrase or at the very least include the key phrase in the first line of the body text. So for example…

Our Poker Stars Bonus code not only gives you a great deposit bonus of up to $600 but also gives you a seat in our monthly $1000 freeroll tournament.

The key phrase should also be repeated at least a few times on the sales page. This is known as keyword density.

For those who are building affiliate sites for perhaps the first time I strongly suggest you use the All In One SEO WordPress Plug-in. This makes it easier for you to enter meta descriptions & meta keywords.

Your key phrase should appear in both the meta description and meta keywords.

To test your on page SEO you can use online tools such as the SEO Doc. This tool will analyse your page and advise you of changes so that your page is fully optimised.

The above are only the basics of on page SEO. I would strongly advise you to use Google to research further in regards to on page SEO and Keyword density etc.

An affiliate is simple someone who runs a web site sending their web sites visitors to another web site in return for commissions. There are three way affiliates can earn commission:

For each click

For each sale

For each lead

To become an affiliate you simply visit the vendor’s website, enter your contact and payment details then wait for the vendor to approve your application. Once approved you are given a unique link that you can easily paste on your website. The links contains a unique tracking code so that the vendor can keep track of commissions owed to you. Signing up to an affiliate program should always be free. If you are asked to make any payment then steer well clear!

Part of your back link building program should include building blogs which of course you link to your main site. There are two ways to do this. The first is to host your own blog network whilst the second way is to use free blog hosting sites.

There are now dozens of sites such as WordPress.com that allow users to set up their own blog completely free. These free blog hosting sites can be a great way for you to build free links to your own sites at no cost. The key to using free blog hosts is to create quality blogs. Blogs created with crappy content littered with dozens of links of course will not help your rankings. Many of the free blog hosts also are not keen on gambling blogs so you will have to think out of the box a little.

For the purpose of this article lets imagine you have a sports betting affiliate site. You site mainly features UK football with daily content regarding targeting bets of the day. If you created blatent sports betting blogs on free blog hosts you will have an extremely high chance of having your free blog removed from the network. A better approach would be to create fans type site blogs. For instance you could create a blog about Liverpool FC updating it once per week with results, news and views. You could extend your network by creating the same sort of site for dozens of other UK football teams. Of course you are going to have to spend time each week to updating your blogs but as I have said in other articles if you are going to make it as an affiliate you are going to have to put the hours in.

When creating new blogs I prefer to leave blogs link free for at least a couple of weeks to gain trust with the free blog network. After a few weeks though I will slip in a crafty link. Again think about how you do this. Don’t write an abvious article which makes it clear to all you actually own the site you are linking to. Instead simply include a few lines in an article about a the team winning where you made a few quid as somebody told you about a great free bet offer at l com.

Remember don’t turn your free blogs into spam blogs! Add links sparingly! Also remember at the very least to update each blog at least bi-weekly as many free blog providers will remove blogs that are not updated.

To get you started I have included below a list of free blog providers. There are though many more. Remember don’t spam!

#

#

#

#

#

# ( # )

#

#

http://knol.google.com

# (MSN Spaces # )

#

#

#

#

PR6

#

#

#

# (Profile points must be 75 for do-follow links)

#

PR5

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

PR4

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

#

Many new affiliates struggle with the process of link building. They end up building hundreds of poor quality links that have little or no value. So what type of back links should we build? How many back links should we build?

Google states that we should not try to manipulate the Google Algorithm by building links.  If we follow the rules set by Google then we should simply produce great content that will attract links naturally. There is no doubt that quality content will in time generate back links, but the trouble is this could take years. By building back links we are in effect at the very least bending the rules set by Google. The art of building back links is to make the back links appear natural to Google. If we overdo the link building process we will be penalised, of that there is no doubt.

Let’s think about how back links will occur naturally. If we have quality content then bloggers will link to our content on their blogs. We may receive back links in blog comments.  Our content may be included in niche directories. We may generate links from discussions in forums. Others sites in the same type of niche may also link to us. Those who use Twitter may tweet about our content. Facebook users may also link to our content, as may well will other social networks users. Video Bloggers may discuss our content including links in their video description. Over time our quality content will generate a wide range of links which will range in quality from very low to very high.

Our job is to simply speed up and mimic the process of acquiring links naturally. We want our links to look natural to Google. We should acquire a wide range of links, with I believe, varied quality.  A great back link profile would include links from a wide variety of sources with a wide variety of value. It is clear that that if a site only has back links from one source, let’s say blog articles, then this is going to be flagged by Google. Also if a site only has high quality back links this also is going to look unnatural to Google. It is also common sense to realise that if we build a 1000 links in a week, this is of course going to look unnatural to Google.

This is of course is not rocket science. You will be amazed though how many affiliates completely destroy their sites with poor link building.

Finding quality programs to promote will ultimately be the key to your long term success. I like to build my sites around quality programs. As I’m sure you are aware from my other posts I prefer to opt for revenue share working with well known UK brands. You should never simply select a program to promote just because someone tells you so. You should spend at least a little time doing your own research not from just an affiliate’s point of view but a player’s point of view also.

Here are the processes I go through when testing out a new program.

Program Landing Page

As an affiliate my job is to push my visitors to the operators landing page. The operators landing page should be well designed, have great calls to action plus of course do it upmost to entice the reader to sign up with perhaps special deposit offers etc.  If the landing page is poor then of course it is going to affect my conversions.

Sing Up Process

I will always sign up to the program as a player so I can simply check out the sign up process. The sign up process should be smooth and easy. At this stage though I will not make any deposit.

Initial Contact

How the program handles new sign ups is of great importance to me. I would expect a welcome email but perhaps also a great offer to entice me to make my first deposit. I also expect the program to email me again within a couple of days if I have not made a deposit. I don’t want the program to bombarded new sign ups with daily emails but I do expect the program to do their upmost to tempt me to do so. Great programs will email long term no depositors at least on a monthly basis to entice them to sign deposit.

Testing The Actual Game Play

Prior to making a deposit I will always log in to the site simply to see what the site has to offer for those who have not yet made a deposit. Poker sites will offer free rolls, casino will offer free play slots whilst bingo sites may offer free bingo games at certain times. If the program is engaging those yet to have made a deposit at least some of these players will convert at a later date. Many programs even have software triggers so that when a non depositor returns to their site even to play for free the site will again email them.

Real Money Play

After a week or two I will make deposit at the site. I will test the real money play plus I will take a good look around the site. I will also contact support to see how long it takes to get a reply. Remember I’m looking for quality. I’m happy to leave the sites with poor marketing, poor game play and support to other affiliates.

Ongoing Marketing

A good operator will do a great job marketing existing players. I would expect that at least once per month the operator will email all players on their database informing them of the sites latest promotions. Remember I always prefer a revenue share deal, so if the operator is doing a great job getting players to redeposit then they are in effect making money for me.

Offline Marketing

When one of the operators I promote runs a TV ad campaign this always results in my sites getting increased traffic which of course leads to increase conversions and revenue. One of the sites I promote ran a two week TV ad earlier this year. My signups for that site alone, increased to over 200 for that one month. You simply do not get that from some of the smaller programs.

Account Managers

I will be honest and say that many affiliate programs have poor support. Ask any affiliate and they will tell you that they have been frustrated time and time again trying to get hold of their account manager. The simple truth is that great account managers are few and far between. The turnover of staff on some of the smaller programs can be extremely frustrating. You build up a great working relationship with one account manager only to find out he has moved on elsewhere. Great account managers though are not going to be leaving the industry so I tend to follow them as they progress up the ladder. I’m very loyal to both great affiliate programs and of course account managers as I realise just how much they are worth to me.

I only work with UK affiliate programs. These are tried and trusted so I don’t have to worry about them going under like some of the affiliate programs that accept US players. I also don’t have to worry about being screwed. I know many US affiliates prefer to stick to their own demographic so they on the whole bypass UK programs as UK programs do not allow US players. I believe this is a mistake as there are many emerging markets in Europe far easier to target than the US or UK. It is also clear to me then when the US regulate online gambling the UK sites will be amongst the market leaders in the new US market. Remember I’m in this industry for the long term.

I will also say I don’t like to work with programs that have a negative carry over policy. Most UK sites apart from Bet365 have a no negative carry over policy. Sorry but whilst Bet365 retain this policy they will never be one of the main sites I promote.

Another important factor to check out before deciding on a site to promote is what charges will be made against your revenue share. Of course in most cast players bonuses will be deducted but also there may be charges for deposit and withdrawals. I’m happy for these deductions if they are reasonable and of course as long as I secure a better than the standard advertised rev share deal. You need to keep an eye on any charges so you can calculate your net rev share income.

If I’m unable to contact my account manager then the alarm bells start to ring. I do realise that account managers have a tough job looking after hundreds of affiliates, but It only takes a few second to send an email stating that they are busy and will get back to me later. I have a great solution to account managers that are difficult to get hold of. I simply don’t work with them! It’s as simple as that!

So as you can see I’m very picky about which sites I promote. If an operator does a poor job emailing their client base, then I will lose money. If the operators landing page is not 100% then I will lose money. If the operator’s player support is poor then this will result in player moving on to another site, so again I will lose money. If the operator has a poor marketing strategy then I will lose money. I’m looking for the maximum ROI possible so I don’t want to throw money away working with poor operators.

Smaller programs may offer me a higher rev share deal but long term the big brands simply will always make me more money!

So before even building your site do your research as a player and of course as an affiliate. Good affiliate managers will be happy to answer your emails before you sign up to their program.

Before we move on to the process of actually building your site I thought I would tell you a little more about what to expect as a gambling affiliate. I’m not going to lie to you and say you are guaranteed success as this would not be true. The fact of the matter is most affiliates fail. If you are going to become a success in the gambling affiliate industry then you are going to have to work extremely hard. You are going to have to dedicate yourself to this project.

Last year I launched an online affiliate school. From one of my forums I manages to recruit over 20 people who wanted to give affiliate a marketing a bash. To make things easier the plan was to target soft niches keeping away from the gambling niche. I set up a couple of affiliates sites with all members allocated a maximum of 1 hour of link building per week. Can’t fail right? Wrong! To be honest the whole experience was a nightmare. Link building is not rocket science, but it is to say the least tedious. People quickly got bored of building links or simply did not put the effort in to their tasks. It became clear after a couple of months that the project was doomed to failure.

The affiliate school project made me realise that everybody is not like me. People have different priorities, goals and of course lifestyles. If I’m going to tackle any project then I will give it 100% or I’m not going to bother. I’m not one for watching TV, nor one to sit around doing nothing.

Many new gambling affiliates want instant success whereas in the real world this in most cases does not happen. I would say that on the whole you need at least 9 months to establish your site. That’s up to 9 months of work without any reward! Can you now start to understand why most affiliates fail? You are going to have to devote a couple of hours a day, day in day out with no reward for maybe 9 months. Of course you may get lucky in the first few months, but this is highly unlikely. Are you really cut out for this?

Getting back to the online affiliate school project it was clear they there were at least a few who could make it. I encouraged them to build their own sites so that they could tackle the affiliate gambling market. As someone who for most of their working life has always been self employed I realise that if you are working for yourself you work harder. Why spew your guts out for an employer when you only get a small cut of the rewards? Enthusiasm was high for all the new gambling affiliates at first, but I was dismayed to find that after a couple of months most were starting to lose interest. Again this reinforced my belief that without reward it is very hard to stay motivated. Many start to believe it is virtually impossible to generate decent income from gambling affiliate marketing. Trust me it can be done. You can do it!

So was the online affiliate school a waste of time? Well I would say not! One of the members, a Scottish lorry driver is making great progress. He is promoting a renowned UK brand, has achieved a top 3 ranking in Google with rev share up to £300 per month.  He works his “balls off” building his site which has now over 1000 pages. I fully expect him to be earning at least a £1000 a month towards the latter months of this year. He is already expanding his network so the sky is the limit for his future earnings!

So now you know that if you set out to make it in the gambling affiliate world it is not going to be easy. You are unlikely to be rewarded for at least 9 months. You are going to have to dedicate yourself EVERY day for at least a few hours. People will tell you that you are wasting your time. You will constantly doubt that you can make it. Are you really cut out for this?

Purchasing A Domain Name

Before you start to set up your gambling affiliate site you are going to need a domain name. I will tell you that new domain names (domain names with no history) take much longer to rank in Google so these should be avoided. To give yourself a good start you will need a domain name that is at least 2 years old and never been dropped. For those that don’t understand let me go into more detail. Firstly the best place to purchase an aged domain name is the Godday Auction site. Let’s say we are looking for an aged casino domain name.

Go to #

Type “casino” in the search box.

For the  list perhaps the domain that interests me the most is  www.topcasinosignupdeals

As you can see the domain is available for only $5. We need those to check the history of the domain.

Let’s check how old the domain is.

How To Check Domain Names

Go to #

Enter “topcasinosignupdeals.com” in the search box.

As you can see from the above the domain is 3 years old and has not been dropped. If it had been dropped then it would show in the registrar history. You can also check if this domain was an actual site. Please note that I no longer believe that dropped domains recieve a penalty from Google!

How To Check A Domains History

Go to #

Then type www.topcasinosignupdeals into the search box. If this domain did at one time have a site then it will be listed. Most will not. You can also check it the domain has any back links. You will understand more about back links as you read through this eBook so don’t worry. To check for back links for this domain:

How To Check Back links

Go to www.yahoo.com

In the search box type “site: www.topcasinosignupdeals”

In most cases the domain will have no back links. For a good domain with a decent name that use to be a site and has back links you will in most cases have to pay more, sometimes much more. I have though seen good domains up to 7 years old with even quality back links sell for as little as $10. Many times bargain domains reappear quickly on affiliate forums at a price much higher than they were purchased for.  As this is your first site simply go for a domain that costs under $50.

Branding Your site

For  www.topcasinosignupdeals I’m already thinking about how I could brand this domain. It would be easy to simply make the main site emphasis “Top Casino Sign UP Deals” perhaps with a sub title of “We Only Publish The Best Online Casino Sign Up Deals”. In my opinion this would be a much better domain than something like casino53.com.  A better option might be to go for something like tonyscasino.com or something along those lines. Think big, think brand!

Don’t Rush In To Buying A Domain

Again don’t rush into buying a domain. Take the time to choose a domain name that you can brand. If possible try and find a domain that at some time did have a site and a few back links. Make sure the domain you purchase is at least 2 years old with no drops. Also if the domain does have back links ensure these are relevant to your niche. Also make sure the back links are simply not spam.

The process of setting up your very first gambling affiliate site can be a mind blowing ordeal. To simplify things a little I have broken the process down to ten stages. One great tip I will give you is don’t rush. Taking time to plan and research your site will pay dividends in the long run.

One of the major skills any new affiliate should have is the ability to create quality content. It is essential that for the niche you choose, your are able to generate at least a couple of quality articles daily. Long term quality content will generate sign ups.

Many niches wit in the gambling industry are saturated whilst some niches are more profitable than others. For some reason many new gambling affiliates seem to want to jump into the very competitive niche of poker simply because they know of others who have made a small fortune from this niche. For now the online poker boom is well and truly over. Many European sites are reporting reduced turnover in the poker sector plus more of the small sites are going bust than ever before. Many believe that poker is the most profitable niche in the gambling industry but this simply is not true.

Let’s imagine we have 2 punters who are just about to make a deposit to an online gambling site. Both are going to deposit $100. One deposits at a poker room we are promoting whilst the other deposits at an online casino we are promoting. At both sites we have a 30% revenue share deal. The poker player plays 9 x $10 + $1 sngs whilst the casino player opts to play slots. The poker player wins a few games and ends up playing 24 x $10 + $1 sngs before he goes bust. Our casino player at one stage is up $50 but like most slot players he feeds his winnings back into the slot. How much would we earn for each player? For the poker player we earn 30% revenue on all the rake generated. So for our poker player sign up we earn 30% of $24 which is $7.20. For the casino player we earn 30% of all loses so we earn 30% of $100 which is $30.

So not only is the poker niche very competitive but for losing players it is less profitable. Sports betting and even bingo work in the same way as casino revenue share so you earn commission on players loses. So let’s make things easier for us for our very first site. Let’s forget about poker preferring to target something less competitive plus more rewarding.

As I have already stated in a previous article “Emerging Markets In The Gambling Sector” there are many new niches which could prove very rewarding and profitable. First sit down and write out your interests. Remember you need something that you can write about every day. I can relate to a friend who last year was setting up his first site. He was a keen follower of football so as you can imagine he was keen to set up an online football tipping site. As he was a Chelsea fan he wanted to target the English Premier League. This of course would have been  a bad mistake as there were already dozens if not hundreds of sites already doing this plus even most of the national UK newspapers also devoted part of their online websites to this niche.

You simply have to start by making things easier for yourself. Starting with a site targeting Premier League football you are virtually committing yourself to failure as the niche is simply too competitive. If you are determined to target a competitive niche you need to find a less competitive sub niche within the main niche.

If you use Google to search for “Premier League Football” or “Premier League Betting” you will quickly see this is a very competitive market. However if you search for the lower leagues of English football you will find these are far less competitive. Find a uncompetitive sub niche!

Use online key phrase tools to research how competitive search terms are. Take your time as there is no rush. The planning and research stage is perhaps one of the most important stages of setting up your site. Poor planning and research will in most cases damage your chances of long term success!

My friend opted to create a site targeting lower league English football of which I’m delighted to say he is doing rather well.

Take your time planning and researching to find an uncompetitive but profitable niche!

Before even starting to think about planning your first site lets discuss the costs involved. Many falsely believe that a gambling affiliate site is extremely expensive to set up although in many cases this is simply not true. The following articles will give you a step by step guide to setting up your own site plus a daily action plan to make your site a success. Using the methods and processes in this section I have created many sites that have become a success generating thousands of pounds in affiliate revenue.

Perhaps one of the greatest advantages of working online compared to the “real world” is that start up and running costs are vastly reduced. You should already have a stable internet connection and a standard pc. You don’t need an office or even a car to carry out your daily task. Your biggest investment in you new business has already been made by taking the time to read this site.  Let’s take a look at what our projected expenditure will be during year 1 for your new business.

Start Up Costs

Become a member of Godaddy’s Domain Auction site – $4.99

2 x aged gambling domains @ a max of $20 each = $40

2 x banner designs @ $25 each = $50

1^st month web hosting from Hostgator @ $9.99

2 x WordPress Blogs – Free

Total Start Up Costs For 2 Sites =  $104.98

Ongoing Monthly Costs

Hostgator Hosting – $9.99

So for just over $100 plus your time and effort you can be up and running. The biggest investment will be committing yourself to this project as you really need at least 4 hours a day. I will warn you now that over 95% of those who attempt to become gambling affiliates fail without ever making a penny. If you have drive plus of course you can commit yourself to this project you will give you a great chance of success!

This section is intended for those who want to dip their toes in to the world of gambling affiliation. I’m hoping that by 1^st July I will have completed this section so it gives a complete step by step guide to creating your own site plus an action plan to make your site a success.

The Gambling Cash Cow Strategy is simple. You simply create 2 sites using WordPress. One site will be your main affiliate site whilst the second site will be used for selling links and link exchanges. Most of your time will be taken up building links for your main site (affiliate site). For the second site you will simply be adding a few links per day so that this site picks up a healthy page rank during the next Google page rank update. Any revenue generated from links sales will be ploughed into your affiliate site. The articles in this section will guide you through every process of building your site. Read through this entire section then read the start up action plan. Once your sites are up and running simply follow the daily action plan.

You don’t have to be any sort of IT genius to become a successful affiliate. I would say that you do need to able to write decent articles plus of course your chances of success will vastly increase in you are dedicated and self motivated.

Many start out in the affiliate industry working on their sites in their spare time. In most cases though success is not instant, so as you can imagine many affiliates fail to make the break through to become full time affiliates.

I’m not going to promise that you can easily generate a 6 figure income because only a very small percentage of gambling affiliates achieve that. If you are dedicated and self motivated monthly revenue of up to £5000 is possible. You are going to have to dedicate at least 2 hours a day to this project at the very least if you are going to make it in the long term. The more time you devote to this project then the greater your chance of success.