@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.