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I don’t think that it would benefit you in Google aside from increasing the time that visitors stay on your site, which is thought to be one criteria for rankings. I think you’d be best adding them to the individual slot pages, as then a user who is interested in the slot but hasn’t played it before can easily try it out before heading to an operator. That way, if they don’t like the particular slot, they’re still on your site and might hit another page where they find something they do like and gives you another chance at converting them.
@byebyebaby 252898 wrote:
I keep hearing that having slots on your website that visitors can play for free helps convert and keep players on your website?
Back in 2007 I struck a deal with Fortune Lounge to run free casino games and slots here in Australia. They provided a bespoke front end in flash. Anyone who wanted to play, added their email addy and a username. The system sent back a confirmation link. If they used a valid email addy, they receive this link, they click it and where then added to the system.
Albeit Australia was, back then, a virgin market.
Collected emails were marketed for FL casinos and hence the site did very well.While I ended up retiring the bespoke front end in 2010. With a new WP site forged ahead, I kept using free slot games, embedded into a WP page which also included promotions for MGS casinos. It continued to produced players but no where near to the figures it once did.
August 2013 marked 6 years in operation with this site and a new theme version, along with a complete overhaul of the site’s content blah blah blah. I’ve completely removed the free slot games now. Why?
It was attracting people who either had no intention of ever gambling online or if they did, they were very low rollers. Sure it gave a sticky component to the site but at what cost? I was tracking people hitting that page day in day out and going no where else on-site. It was free entertainment, that’s it.
Go back a few years and those who were around in say 05/06 should remember those promos which came out offering $500 free play. The way these were marketed gave players the impression they were testing new software or games out. Surprisingly those work really well for a while. Why? Because it was new concept. Would they work as well as they did back then, today, I doubt it.
It’s the same with free embedded games.
Every man and his dog uses them and they no longer hold that newness or special attraction they once did. I’ll go out on a limb here and say if you managed a sign-up ratio of 0.05% you’d be doing well. How many from that figure go on to make a deposit, even less.Food for thought… Why try and copy what everyone else is doing. Think outside the box and come up with an new angle. I can go on Google do a search and most sites all look similar. For all those sites, banner blindness comes to mind. I’m sure only a small % of site visitors; more likely only newbies, get suckered into the Top 5 or Top 10 casino home page listings.
I would not bother with free slots these days and they were my a good part of my bread and butter in past years. Fro example, not too many had the 3d slots back in 2010, google it now.
Some are a bit of a pain to maintain like the igt slots and you should really make sub-campaigns for each slot or game.
So many casinos have free play slots on their sites these days. I’m a little suspicious of tracking when you send a player to a casino landing page, they start playing the free games and decide to register through the game.
@slotplayer 253113 wrote:
II’m a little suspicious of tracking when you send a player to a casino landing page, they start playing the free games and decide to register through the game.
I’m very suspicious of social media links they have on their sites. How many of these actually track new referred players? Or is this just another way to screw us even harder!
@AussieDave 253115 wrote:
I’m very suspicious of social media links they have on their sites. How many of these actually track new referred players? Or is this just another way to screw us even harder!
I don’t understand, are you talking about facebook free games or like buttons?
the problem as I see it and I could have it wrong, is when a player visits a casino via your aff link we pass the aff id via address bar url, inturn the url is parsed and a cookie is written to the player’s pc with the aff id. We can view this with firefox.
However when the player does an action on the casino site, ie.. clicks the dl button, plays a free game, visits the promotions page or any other page on the casino they need a read cookie function on that page. We just assume they have it.
it also could be that they uses sessions inconjunction with cookies and simple credit the aff as long as the session is live no matter what page/action on the casino site they’re viewing/doing.
@AussieDave 253109 wrote:
It was attracting people who either had no intention of ever gambling online or if they did, they were very low rollers. Sure it gave a sticky component to the site but at what cost? I was tracking people hitting that page day in day out and going no where else on-site. It was free entertainment, that’s it.
It’s the same with free embedded games.
Every man and his dog uses them and they no longer hold that newness or special attraction they once did. I’ll go out on a limb here and say if you managed a sign-up ratio of 0.05% you’d be doing well. How many from that figure go on to make a deposit, even less.Were you targeting people looking for free slots (where I’d agree that the traffic is going to be worth a lot less than people searching for casino terms and probably won’t convert), or did you just include the free slots on other pages without mentioning them? On the original poster’s sites there are pages about individual slot games – I’d think that for completeness, if you’ve got someone who is interested in a particular slot or slot provider, then you might want to have a free play. If they go “oh, I like NetEnt slots – what’s Thunderfist, I haven’t seen that before” then it’d be a good way to let them, as a serious casino player, try before they leave the affiliate site. That way if they don’t like it, they still have the option to check out a review page about a different slot. If you experienced different on your sites then that’d be very interesting to hear.
@slotplayer 253121 wrote:
I don’t understand, are you takling about facebook free games or like buttons?
I’m talking about the social media buttons/links on the casino pages we refer players to. Having been in the game for years, If I don’t understand how cookies work by now, I’m in dire straits
Edit: I recall a couple of years ago a link on either 32red pointing to Dash or vice versa wasn’t tracking, it was a straight link. I believe the word negligible was used by the aff program in reference to the number of clicks this link received. Affiliates were feed the same BS story regarding straight links at the footer of Casino Rewards newsletters too.
When you cut back to the bare bones, these places wouldn’t have these players if affiliates did not refer them in the first place. Hence every link, even if it’s only receives a click through rate of 0.0001%, if that doesn’t track referred players, then we’re being scammed.
That one player an affiliate sends, who clicks on a non tracking link, means the casino scores a player for free. I’m in business to make money, not to give a casino, players for free. No matter how miniscule that click through rate is, if I sent a player, they should be tracked to me, no if’s not but’s!
@Luke 253125 wrote:
Were you targeting people looking for free slots (where I’d agree that the traffic is going to be worth a lot less than people searching for casino terms and probably won’t convert), or did you just include the free slots on other pages without mentioning them?
Originally the site targeted free play slots. Though as I mentioned, Australia back in 2007 was effectively a virgin market. Casinos were not even targeting it back them. From memory the term “online pokies” in Google held around 90,000 listings. Today for the same search term in google.com.au has 6,280,000 listings.
Without blowing smoke up my backside, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. By mid 2009, the site had gained over 25k in player casino sign-ups.
As the market started to cotton onto the potential in Australia, that monopoly soon faded. In early 2010 the site changed to WP. The free slots (pokies) were still included but I added player guides, casino and games reviews etc etc.
The latest version (v3.1) is due to be released sometime this week. I’ve completely done away with the free slots. I found they attracted a high % of freebie hunters. These day, for me, it’s more about investing my time toward highly targeted phrases and long tails, which attract genuine punters looking to gamble, than say your casual players. That concept works for me.
Guess it also helps a lot of money and time was invested into the Brand to begin with. TV ads were run for the first 3 months of opening and we gave away i-pods in the first 3 months too. Plus it’s a .au TLD. Even 6 years on, people still search for the Brand name in Google. Obviously the marketing and Branding worked well here and still does.
I honestly think though, the free slots angle in Australia is a flogged horse. That doesn’t mean it wont work else where. The OP asked a generalised question and I gave my opinion.
Edit: I’m a firm believer if your going to do something then do it right and be the best you can be. I also think if you want to be successful in your chosen niche, you need to be committed to your site 100%. Having a site which offers reviews of each available slots game and include each free play slot on that page, is a monumental task. Not only to set-up but also maintain. If an affiliate isn’t committed, then they get sick of the constant need to update with latest slot releases. Setting this up to throw it away in 6 months cause it’s too damn hard to maintain is a BIG waste of time. Better investing time into a site you can maintain, which doesn’t take over your entire life.
One site that excels in this regard is http://www.latestcasinobonuses.com/ However, it’s just not a single webmaster running this site, I believe it has a few editorial staff, web developer etc etc.
@AussieDave 253128 wrote:
I’m talking about the social media buttons/links on the casino pages we refer players to. Having been in the game for years, If I don’t understand how cookies work by now, I’m in dire straits
Edit: I recall a couple of years ago a link on either 32red pointing to Dash or vice versa wasn’t tracking, it was a straight link. I believe the word negligible was used by the aff program in reference to the number of clicks this link received. Affiliates were feed the same BS story regarding straight links at the footer of Casino Rewards newsletters too.
When you cut back to the bare bones, these places wouldn’t have these players if affiliates did not refer them in the first place. Hence every link, even if it’s only receives a click through rate of 0.0001%, if that doesn’t track referred players, then we’re being scammed.
That one player an affiliate sends, who clicks on a non tracking link, means the casino scores a player for free. I’m in business to make money, not to give a casino, players for free. No matter how miniscule that click through rate is, if I sent a player, they should be tracked to me, no if’s not but’s!
I ran a link checker on my site and it flagged CR BJB dl link as having a problem. The link was correct. so it looks like the CR dl links don’t actually download the installer anymore but take the visitor to a signup page where they need to enter name, email to dl the casino.
I also noticed a win palace dl link that does a redirect with some other aff id other than mine in it. I have to look at this closer.
you know how cookies work but I posted it as more of an fyi.
@slotplayer 253131 wrote:
I ran a link checker on my site and it flagged CR BJB dl link as having a problem. The link was correct. so it looks like the CR dl links don’t actually download the installer anymore but take the visitor to a signup page where they need to enter name, email to dl the casino.
Any affiliate who sends their players to Casino Rewards venues, while they will track on that site, they (CR) have implemented that dreaded $25K give away. Which is just another way to steal your referred players.
Here’s 2 of the T&C’s for that comp (errr scam).
- To remain a member in the Giveaway, the entrant must not unsubscribe form the Captain Cooks Casino mailings throughout the duration of the Giveaway.
- All information collected from entrants will be kept confidential – personally identifiable information on individual entrants will not be sold or otherwise transferred to unaffiliated third parties. Communications from Captain Cooks Casino generally update and advise entrants of new games, events, services, and benefits. (should also include – spam you with our other 28 casinos)
I’ve never heard of anyone winning these. IMO these draws are just another way to rape affiliates of their referred players. This is what happens when you promote proven scam artists, they’ll always find ways to steal your tagged players.
NB – I found this funny – “the entrant must not unsubscribe”, going players who have tried to unsubscribe from CR mailers (errr spam) in the past, it’s an impossible task to stop the onslaught of Casino Rewards Spam!
This clause is even funnier:
CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT BY AN ENTRANT TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE ANY WEB SITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE SWEEPSTAKES IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, CAPTAIN COOKS CASINO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES FROM ANY SUCH ENTRANT TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
But this draw is designed to STEAL referred players and rightful affiliate commissions.
@slotplayer 253131 wrote:
I also noticed a win palace dl link that does a redirect with some other aff id other than mine in it. I have to look at this closer.
These days, running link checkers isn’t being paranoid, it’s being smart
@AussieDave 253138 wrote:
Any affiliate who sends their players to Casino Rewards venues, while they will track on that site, they (CR) have implemented that dreaded $25K give away. Which is just another way to steal your referred players.
Here’s 2 of the T&C’s for that comp (errr scam).
- To remain a member in the Giveaway, the entrant must not unsubscribe form the Captain Cooks Casino mailings throughout the duration of the Giveaway.
- All information collected from entrants will be kept confidential – personally identifiable information on individual entrants will not be sold or otherwise transferred to unaffiliated third parties. Communications from Captain Cooks Casino generally update and advise entrants of new games, events, services, and benefits. (should also include – spam you with our other 28 casinos)
I’ve never heard of anyone winning these. IMO these draws are just another way to rape affiliates of their referred players. This is what happens when you promote proven scam artists, they’ll always find ways to steal your tagged players.
NB – I found this funny – “the entrant must not unsubscribe”, going players who have tried to unsubscribe from CR mailers (errr spam) in the past, it’s an impossible task to stop the onslaught of Casino Rewards Spam!
This clause is even funnier:
CAUTION: ANY ATTEMPT BY AN ENTRANT TO DELIBERATELY DAMAGE ANY WEB SITE OR UNDERMINE THE LEGITIMATE OPERATION OF THE SWEEPSTAKES IS A VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL AND CIVIL LAWS AND SHOULD SUCH AN ATTEMPT BE MADE, CAPTAIN COOKS CASINO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO SEEK DAMAGES FROM ANY SUCH ENTRANT TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.
But this draw is designed to STEAL referred players and rightful affiliate commissions.
These days, running link checkers isn’t being paranoid, it’s being smart
I had asked about winners in $25K giveaway in a post a few years ago but don’t recall a response, however the op was on a different subject.
I remember that used to be a $60K giveaway years ago. Not sure if it was $50K at one time but that number also comes to mind.
I’m somewhat stuck (being in the US) promoting them for now as I want to keep my ps card/account open. of course that whole passport issue could be a deal breaker.
I have 4 mail order sites to deal with and its only because they’re slower in the summer that I can even play around with the old slots site. its lost 15k visitors a month so I’m trying to get some of that traffic back.
@slotplayer 253139 wrote:
I’m somewhat stuck (being in the US) promoting them for now as I want to keep my ps card/account open. of course that whole passport issue could be a deal breaker.
Anyone can promote who they like. Casino Rewards, Rewards Affiliates even clip joints like Cool Cat Casino etc etc. However I feel it would be irrasponsible of me not to inform affiliates (especially newbies), about these places and how they can affect (errr steal) your players and commissions
