My first affiliate site

[BeginnerGambling]

Hi all,

Firstly thanks to all active members for your input. I've read this forum loads over the last month after I started thinking more and more about entering the affiliate market. It's great to see so much advice shared freely.

I've almost finished the basic shell of my first site and would appreciate any feedback on it. beginnergambling.com

The target is predominantly the UK market and it covers the whole gaming spectrum. I want it to be a resource for people new to gambling who are looking for reliable, trustworthy sites that are simple to use. I know I'll get hammered for this, but I've not picked my affiliate companies based on reviews; I've picked the casinos based on the fact that every site I review is a site I play regularly and therefore know it inside out. There's sites out there that pay better commission, however they're (in my opinion) either tough to use or crap service-wise. I don't put my name to crap in my day job, so I figure I'll take the same stance here.

Again - this is more a labour of love than anything else at this point (though I've got a GREAT niche in the UK I want to enter by August). I know absolutely NOTHING about building websites, hence the use of Wordpress. I've spent a lot of time learning wherever I can, but I know you guys have a whole bunch of experience you can offer, so be as brutal as you like!

 

[BeginnerGambling]

Apologies - I should add I've still got a couple of posts waiting to roll as well as two other operators to add to the site. I'm aware it's quite limited both operator and content-wise now. At the same time, I don't want to go as spammy as some sites I see where they're trying to throw 30+ sites in your face hoping you'll pick one. I'm optimistic that by the end of this week I'll be able to invest £50 in putting the site on 25k+ social media newsfeeds. My day job involves a lot of targeted social media campaigns which is a particular strong point of mine, so I'm hopeful that until I really get to grips with SEO I can generate some traffic that way.

 

[KasinoKing]

William Hill MIGHT still be good for players (were MY favourite site for quite a while - but more than 10 years ago) but for affiliates they are SHIT and I wouldn't touch them with YOUR barge-pole!

I see you have Casumo on your casino page - they are good!

You site is extremely nice, well laid out & "clean".
So Welcome & good luck!

KK

 

[TipAGambler]

Hello and welcome!

New here my self, you can enter the thread i posted - very simillar to yours , just a few days ago. Its just below this one
Some of the tips i received might be helpful for you .

Not much to say other than that.

Good luck!

 

[edgarf76]

Glad to see you guys here. Welcome. Make sure you look at the way the forums are listed. Beware of the rouge brands. Other forums promote them but the AGD is the only forum that keeps it real. Good luck.

 

[BeginnerGambling]

Thanks for the advice guys.

I'm going for quite a content driven theme with my site, but does that help in terms of conversions? I've done a few articles (today for example,beginnergambling.com /25-1000-challenge) but is this beneficial? I've picked up around 250 views on the site since I launched it on Thursday but only 20 banner clicks and NO conversions yet.

Facebook already blocked me from advertising which has hurt my strategy. Apparently posting links to articles based on responsible gambling still offends them! Waiting for them to come back to me on my appeal....

 

[LandofOz]

Great site I have to agree with KK. I wouldn't promote W.H either.

 

[RyanWeb]

Great introduction, and you have the right attitude to help drive success. The site looks good, pages look good. I hate banners as they tend to look spammy, and four in a row on the main page bothers me. I would maybe find a way to make them look less like 'paid ads' and more like genuine recommendations. Look around at how others refer their traffic. I know you said your new to web design, and it doesn't have to be perfect. Sometimes a logo, screenshot or text link with a small description looks better imo

You are on the right track, keep up the great work.

 

[KasinoKing]

I've picked up around 250 views on the site since I launched it on Thursday but only 20 banner clicks and NO conversions yet...

Site live just 4 days and you're expecting conversions?
And with only 4 brands on your site? You'd be VERY lucky!
(Mind you, with Will Hills you might get conversions you'll never know about - they're good at shaving)

It took me 6 months to start seeing good conversions - and that was with 30-40 brands on my site and before all the USA "banning" came in.

Just keep doing what your doing (preferably without WH), add more reputable brands, and success will come it time...

KK

 

[BeginnerGambling]

Hi all, really appreciate your feedback on this

I'm considering my position with William Hill - I'm prepared to give them a chance as I really want to maintain my values as someone promoting products I know inside out and that I believe in. However I've got a couple of other sites I play which I'm comfortable replacing Willy Hills with should they screw me.

I've changed the front page following your feedback RyanWeb. I wasn't all that pleased with it myself and actually doing it that way looks a lot better now I look at it. It means the mobile site needs zooming in/out but it's not a huge deal. I'd guess it makes the loading speed a lot healthier too!

KK - I didn't want to sound like an asshole there. I was just hoping that with my traffic now over 300 views I'd pull at least one conversion. Does anyone have a guide as to what a decent conversion rate views/clicks/customer would be? Thankfully I've got one sportsbet affiliate programme who are waiting to launch in the next week and then waiting to hear back from another casino that I trust. I know even six is still a low number of operators, but I'm trying to keep it focused on a few quality sites rather than going scatter-gun.

Thanks again all!

 

[footballaffiliate]

William Hill MIGHT still be good for players (were MY favourite site for quite a while - but more than 10 years ago) but for affiliates they are SHIT and I wouldn't touch them with YOUR barge-pole!

I see you have Casumo on your casino page - they are good!

You site is extremely nice, well laid out & "clean".
So Welcome & good luck!

KK

Agreed, drop William Hill. These guys might have the biggest stand at conferences, but they're the biggest theives too. You can't run a sustainable business on a business relationship with William Hill. Have a read of their T&Cs and other posts across the forums.

 

[byebyebaby]

Site looks clean, which I like.
And have to agree. WH really sucks. They drop you to 10% if you don't bring new players.

But also add more brands. With only a few, you won't get players, or hardly any at least.
It is hard in the beginning, took me some months to finally make a little money. But hang in there, keep adding content and it will finally start working.

 

[gabriel_LCP]

Hey there! Good stuff! I like the articles section, I read the one about Wayne Rooney and thought it was pretty interesting. I also think that its very noble to address the safe gambling aspect of the industry like you do.

All the best to you in the future. If I was to give one constructive opinion is that I would maybe work a bit on the logo, since I do see it is just a bit choppy.

 

[BeginnerGambling]

Thanks all - I'm starting to get the impression I should drop Willy Hills!

I'm still not happy with the site and am tinkering with it most days. The logo is definitely something I want to review; I want something a lot more crisp and clean. The background is also on my hitlist (as well as increasing SEO and just about everything else!). This site has been really helpful. I've picked up my first organic customer, thought as it's on the lottery site I've made £2.70 off them, so not quite time to retire....

 

[gabriel_LCP]

Thanks all - I'm starting to get the impression I should drop Willy Hills!

I'm still not happy with the site and am tinkering with it most days. The logo is definitely something I want to review; I want something a lot more crisp and clean. The background is also on my hitlist (as well as increasing SEO and just about everything else!). This site has been really helpful. I've picked up my first organic customer, thought as it's on the lottery site I've made £2.70 off them, so not quite time to retire....

Well congrats on the first depositor! We all have to start somewhere!

 

[BeginnerGambling]

Haha thanks - now all I have to do is get a Solicitors letter so Facebook will ratify me as being eligible to advertise on there! At the moment I'm doing whatever I can to drive traffic but FB marketing was a huge part of my plan and they blocked me after two campaigns....

 

[Casinodriver]

Looks quite nice and clean! Good luck!

 

[pokersidor]

As an equally new Casino affiliate my opinion might not be worth that much, but to me it looks good. I'm still working on mine, but I'll follow your example and ask for some last advice before I launch it.

 

[NDG]

I would go with a better logo and an image of roulette that is not so blocky around the roulette numbers. Also, I would change some of the brands that you are promoting. When it comes to the UK market, some of the better known land-based brands have affiliate programs that aren't very trustworthy. I think the 18+ image at the bottom is way too big. I rounded the edges and made the image a bit smaller for you, if you want to use it.

 

[BeginnerGambling]

Thanks for the feedback; exactly the kind of stuff I'm looking for. I'm still working on getting a solid logo. I think this is my fourth one since I started! Is there any decent software out there for designing your own stuff?

The image of the roulette wheel has skewed for some reason and I absolutely need to change it.

The 18 logo was to appease Google during my licence application period as previously they were unhappy with the size. I definitely exaggerated it and can reel it in a bit now that's sorted.

Thanks again - all constructive stuff