What would you say?

I think most of all I would have read more and did my homework before building the websites, it would have been less time going back and making changes. I really don’t think there is much else I would have done besides finding CAP much sooner, I have learned just about everything I know from this awesome community of gaming affiliates and affiliate managers.

@Renee 167200 wrote:

– to a new affiliate? (never been an affiliate for any industry)
– to an affiliate new to only our industry? (ie, has worked in other industries)

first, get a proper job! seriously, do not rely on receiving any income from your affiliate sites for the first year or so…otherwise you will be greatly disappointed. affiliate marketing should be your hobby that borderlines obsessive behaviour.

second, initially you will be working for free just because there will not be any financial returns in the close future. so prepare to only be rewarded with aesthetic satisfaction and/or pleasure from completing something.

i disagree about reading about SEO and all that particularly if you are new to affiliate marketing. you should first build your site! no matter if you do well or not, it will give you something to work with. if instead you first choose to read in depth about different topics, particularly about SEO, you might just get “information overload” and not even get off to building a site. you should channel your energy into your new site first (zeeennnnnn :3eyes:), everything else comes second! try to work in the ethic of “one miracle at a time” and slowly grow from there. seriously, this SEO stuff took such a long time to sink in for me, that i’m very glad i initially ignored it.

as for new affiliates in this industry, the first step is to go gamble online! and then gamble some more! repeat this until you understand the ins and outs of gambling online. this will not only give you a perspective on what you would like to concentrate your site on, it will also help you select a topic that is of interest to you…

Are there any guides to affiliates compiled and posted on the CAP site anywhere?

My advice would be to make sure that you are organized from the start.

Set up campaigns right away for every program that allows it so that you can get an accurate picture of your traffic. This will be priceless down the road when you have hundreds of web pages on your sites and need to analyze your stats to see where your traffic comes from.

Create a contact database that lists affiliate managers and other affiliates. Never buy, sell or use emails address that you did not collect via an opt-in method. Start collecting emails via your site from day one.

Be very careful when using your domain name to register at sites (even affiliates sites). I’ve found that the email I use for my affiliate account is the one that is spammed the most! Use a free email and then redirect it to yourself. Don’t setup generic email names like admin, webmaster or names that can be guessed by spammers. That way you can utilize your catch all folder for spam.

My advise as it relates to SEO is start early and be prepared to read alot. DON’T assume the information you read is accurate until you see it repeated on different sites. Don’t pay anyone to do it for you because this is the most important part of your business and you need to learn how to do it yourself.

Try to attend the affiliate conferences. If you can’t afford to go then start making a plan to work with one to two programs that you do well at and have a good relationship with the affiliate manager and give them your best exposure in exchange for sponsorship to the event. Make sure that they will go for it first.

There will be times when you will be totally overwhelmed and frustrated so you need to have something to reward yourself or to remind yourself of the goal.

Re. SEO, I tend to have a different view.

I don’t want to have a site that depends totally on the search engines or on ppc, both have proven to be very fickle and you can’t get a regular, steady income that way. It’s bad enough the industry has all these various problems regarding payments, add in total dependence on search engines and it’s a roller coaster ride.

Yes, you need the engines to get you off the ground, so you need decent SEO (Don’t believe all the stuff you hear at the SEO forums, for a newbie it’s too hard to tell the useful from the BS, go to the search engines themselves and look up their rules etc.) You’ll pick up additional tips as you work and grow and come here.

But IMO, the most important thing is to concentrate on NOT needing the engines. I know, a lot of people read this in disbelief. But – if you provide a quality user experience – both in the information you present and in the experience they can expect from honest casinos- you will get bookmarked. People share bookmarks. This is the mother of viral marketing, and it’s flawless and has no drawbacks.

While you have to comply with all SEO, it is only one of the things you need to do to market. You also need a quality product so you can ride out the ups and downs of a crazy search engine policy. That way, if the engines drop you, you still have a decent income. When they pick you back up, you grow a lot of new bookmarks, which will carry you through the next slump.

I look at this as a permanent situation. So I have always planned for the long run, not the short term profit. You may not share that view, and that’s a matter of personal opinion. But in my book, while you do need to pay attention to SEO, you have to pay a lot more attention to the user if you are planning to stick it out through thick and thin.

Ask yourself what your goals are – do you want to supplement your income? Do you want a full time job? Do you want a small business with employees or independent contractors?

There are many business models to choose from in this industry, and the above is mine. You could for instance also build many smaller sites and concentrate on always having a couple on top through SEO. What do you enjoy doing? Do you enjoy SEO? Do you enjoy building content? What if you like neither and want others to do it for you?

If you are planning on growth, don’t plan on early income. Like with any other business, plan to plough your profits back into the business to make it grow. Get help where you are deficient, spend your profits on good help. People always think you can make a gazillion $ in this business without investment of time or money. This business is no different from any other, you need to nurture it.

If you are just dabbling and hoping to make a side income, or to ride it out for as long as it lasts, by all means rely on SEO alone to help you do that. But if you are building for the long term, keep your users foremost in mind.

If you are failing to plan, you are planning to fail.

I’ve never paid for adverstising, direct mail, pay per click, reviews or anything like that. To me that is just as much of a long shot as SEO.

I’m going by my experience since 2001. Relying on SEO IMO does not mean you don’t consider the player or that you have a flawed plan. I see it as utilizing the best tool available to get the results you want.

There is no way anyone can convince me that SEO is not a reliable way to build a steady income because I’ve done it totally with SEO and my income has climbed each and every year and June 2008 was one of my record months.

I’m encouraged by this only because my site is not SEO’d the way I know it should and could be, but once I get it there then I’d like to do a comparasion next year to see who is right.

I don’t say that SEO is not useful. I support my pages with heavy SEO and accessibility methods – What is good for the user, will be very good for SEs too.

But for me relying only on Search Engines is scary. “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” It is like you promote only one brand… What if that brand will go bankrupt?

Search Engines are important. But trying to diverse your traffic inflow is a must. Good example: we don’t know anything about how search engines will handle the new TLDs… What if they will prioritize .gambling, .poker etc TLDs?

I just say that have your traffic from the SEs, but diversify to another traffic sources too (bookmarks, forums, sent out newsletters to your readers, gambling blogs etc).