Can it still be done in 2018?

[Charlie Carreras]

Firstly, hello!

I'm new here.

Secondly, I'm looking for some information.

I started a casino portal 4 months back which has had zero success mainly due to me being very inexperienced and going round in circles making rookie errors plus sometimes there aint enough hours in the day etc.

Now obviously I know 4 months is fuck all time and I'd be a mug thinking I'd be getting rich of my brand new site ( sadly, actually that's exactly what I thought ) , however is it still possible to make a 10k/month site in the casino niche these days?

I'm curious to know about costs. Iv got a couple grand I'd be happy to spend on it if I knew I was gonna see it come back around.

I'm thinking bout ditching the site Iv got and just starting again. Buy an aged domain this time, custom theme, decent writing team and decent links. ( site Iv got now has 700 plus back links, pa/da 33/24 and about 300 visitors a month according to GA )

Cos as it stands not one of my kws (low to medium difficulty according to kwfinder) has ranked anywhere, possibly due to the fact my anchors are all over the shop and of the wrong ratios etc.

My link building so far consisted of a number of seo diversity packages and what claim to be the dogs bollocks of casino pbn links and other pbn links. 50 or so. Yet I ain't seen nada on the serps. ( I appreciate a new site in a competetive niche ain't gonna smash page 1 that quick )

I'm not asking anyone to hold my hold but a firm shove in the right direction and some sound advice would be fucking golden.

I spend everyday reading and researching but I can never quite piece it all together.

Advice welcome. Much appreciated. Apologies for whiney thread. Just wanna make some decent wedge. I'm sure you all can appreciate that!

Cheers

Charlie.

 

[AussieDave]

Hi Charlie, welcome to AGD

My link building so far consisted of a number of seo diversity packages and what claim to be the dogs bollocks of casino pbn links and other pbn links. 50 or so. Yet I ain't seen nada on the serps. ( I appreciate a new site in a competetive niche ain't gonna smash page 1 that quick )

PBN's are basically outlawed by Google these days, and have been since around 2014. Those still operating a successful PBN (private blog network) are flying under the radar. No one who still has a successful PBN, is going to flag it by selling backlinks.

Sorry to say, but you've probably done your dough, mate!

is it still possible to make a 10k/month site in the casino niche these days?

As AC/DC wrote in one of their songs... "It's a long way to the top, if you want to rock n roll!"

On average it takes 10,000 hours to become proficient in anything. Be this playing guitar, or in this case, being a consistent and successful affiliate. As you've learned, there are lots of pitfalls. While the industry is not the cash-cow it once was, there is still money to be made, if your prepared to put in the hard-yards.

FYI... out 100 newbies who start as affiliates in this industry today 2018-07-31, by this day next year, only 2 or 3 of that 100, will still be active. IMHO for the first 6 months, a commitment of at least 12 hours a day, 6 days a week (if not 7), is required. Reiterating, it's a massive learning curve, and only those with a driven focus and passion to succeed, will come up trumps!

 

[KasinoKing]

Dave is spot on there. Can still be done IMPO - but it's a LOT harder these days than when I started in 2006.

I have a friend who gave it a try: 12-months since launching his site, and ZERO sign-ups
He's going to keep trying though, and I'm sure that one day it will come.

KK

 

[awesamko]

Simply don't give up. It takes some time to build a good domain and decent seo. Especially when the budget has limits. It is still possible to earn some money like this. If you would like a link exchange, please contact me.

 

[Vargoso]

I cannot agree more with this comment

Hi Charlie, welcome to AGD

As AC/DC wrote in one of their songs... "It's a long way to the top, if you want to rock n roll!"

 

[Charlie Carreras]

Hi Charlie, welcome to AGD
Appreciate your feedback fella! Better keep my head down then. Cheers!


PBN's are basically outlawed by Google these days, and have been since around 2014. Those still operating a successful PBN (private blog network) are flying under the radar. No one who still has a successful PBN, is going to flag it by selling backlinks.

Sorry to say, but you've probably done your dough, mate!



As AC/DC wrote in one of their songs... "It's a long way to the top, if you want to rock n roll!"

On average it takes 10,000 hours to become proficient in anything. Be this playing guitar, or in this case, being a consistent and successful affiliate. As you've learned, there are lots of pitfalls. While the industry is not the cash-cow it once was, there is still money to be made, if your prepared to put in the hard-yards.

FYI... out 100 newbies who start as affiliates in this industry today 2018-07-31, by this day next year, only 2 or 3 of that 100, will still be active. IMHO for the first 6 months, a commitment of at least 12 hours a day, 6 days a week (if not 7), is required. Reiterating, it's a massive learning curve, and only those with a driven focus and passion to succeed, will come up trumps!

PBN's are basically outlawed by Google these days, and have been since around 2014. Those still operating a successful PBN (private blog network) are flying under the radar. No one who still has a successful PBN, is going to flag it by selling backlinks.

Sorry to say, but you've probably done your dough, mate!



As AC/DC wrote in one of their songs... "It's a long way to the top, if you want to rock n roll!"

On average it takes 10,000 hours to become proficient in anything. Be this playing guitar, or in this case, being a consistent and successful affiliate. As you've learned, there are lots of pitfalls. While the industry is not the cash-cow it once was, there is still money to be made, if your prepared to put in the hard-yards.

FYI... out 100 newbies who start as affiliates in this industry today 2018-07-31, by this day next year, only 2 or 3 of that 100, will still be active. IMHO for the first 6 months, a commitment of at least 12 hours a day, 6 days a week (if not 7), is required. Reiterating, it's a massive learning curve, and only those with a driven focus and passion to succeed, will come up trumps![/QUOTE]

 

[Charlie Carreras]

Still not sure how to post on this forum lol. Cheers for everyone's feedback. Can't seem to reply individually. So il give a blanket thank you.

Awesamko - I could be interested in a link exchange. Iv seen a bit of bad press about it though. If you'require still interested give me a shout. Skype is easier. I use the same name.

 

[Batman]

Aussie Dave is bang on the money! I sold up in around 2011 and moved onto something else. Missed it a lot tbh so came back around the end of Last Year and wow things have changed!

I sometimes look at my old sites on archive back to the 1990's and see what a pile of crap they were, yet they made plenty of money.

Just before I left the industry things were changing rapidly and the focus was on content, people started to give up then even those with experience and half decent sites with potential. Banners didn't seem to work anymore and it was overall a lot harder, but I love a challenge so tried to adapt, which I did and build a great content site, then got an offer and sold up.

This time around it's way different. Content is everything, social media is a must and link building for me isn't a main concern, although must be done.

I've launched a couple of new sites over the past 6 Months working full time over 12 Hours a day, 7 days a week and they are working. That said I haven't really concentrated on calls to action or many casino reviews simply because I'm looking for traffic, putting loads of quality content up and seeing how it pans out.

I guess it's a case of don't give up your day job, just make this whole affiliate thing more than your day job and spend every waking moment working at it.

That imo is why people give up, it can fully consume you, and you may find, if your not careful, that you won't feel the sun on your face for a long time!

After all that rambling I would answer YES. It's most definitely possible in 2018, but you need to stay the course and put the effort in. The exact same as anything in life.

 

[Charlie Carreras]

Aussie Dave is bang on the money! I sold up in around 2011 and moved onto something else. Missed it a lot tbh so came back around the end of Last Year and wow things have changed!

I sometimes look at my old sites on archive back to the 1990's and see what a pile of crap they were, yet they made plenty of money.

Just before I left the industry things were changing rapidly and the focus was on content, people started to give up then even those with experience and half decent sites with potential. Banners didn't seem to work anymore and it was overall a lot harder, but I love a challenge so tried to adapt, which I did and build a great content site, then got an offer and sold up.

This time around it's way different. Content is everything, social media is a must and link building for me isn't a main concern, although must be done.

I've launched a couple of new sites over the past 6 Months working full time over 12 Hours a day, 7 days a week and they are working. That said I haven't really concentrated on calls to action or many casino reviews simply because I'm looking for traffic, putting loads of quality content up and seeing how it pans out.

I guess it's a case of don't give up your day job, just make this whole affiliate thing more than your day job and spend every waking moment working at it.

That imo is why people give up, it can fully consume you, and you may find, if your not careful, that you won't feel the sun on your face for a long time!

After all that rambling I would answer YES. It's most definitely possible in 2018, but you need to stay the course and put the effort in. The exact same as anything in life.

That's interesting man because obviously the content is king line gets banded around alot and looking at sites in the top 3 for low to medium casino kws their sites are packed with info. I think I will have no choice but to hire a shithot content writer.

I was checking out the guy's that won newcomer of the year at the igb awards. Dunno if you've seen it.
casino-professor it's called

It's a nice site but the homepage doesn't have too much content and they're ranking for free spins and free spins casino although I didn't see that too much on the homepage. 12k back links though. They do have some decent guides/articles though.

What I'm wondering is how much it cost to make a site like that?

Like Aussie Dave said it's a question of hard graft and iron bollocks.

 

[Frank]

What I'm wondering is how much it cost to make a site like that?

To make the site probably not much, but the BL profile that looks expensive

 

[Batman]

Agree with frank on that one

If you have a deeper look the home page of that site has a traffic value of 0 and low traffic. They might rank for free spins but that's on a specific page about free spins.

What you need to focus on really is content that's useful and informative. That's what makes the difference.

I recently got 4 amazing backlinks that money can't buy from the most powerful card game site in the World. Why? Because the articles I wrote were good, and it helped them in their research, so i got a mention or 2, 3 4.

If it's good people will appreciate it, and you'll start to gain momentum. When that happens just keep going and going.

 

[RazorGamer]

Hello Charlie and a warm welcome to AGD. I agree with awesamko here. You must never give up trying and always aiming to achieve your goals in life. I became a casino affiliate back in 2005 and I have to admit, that a lot has changed in that time and the competition has become much stronger and it will still continue to do so. Always believe in yourself and I wish you the best of luck

 

[AussieDave]

Content is everything, social media is a must and link building for me isn't a main concern, although must be done.

Well written, quality content that's engaging, is paramount. Selection of domain name, because branding is also very important too. EG - a domain such as FunkySlotsKings will brand well, and be memorable. On the other hand, freeslotbonuses - it's too generic, and worse keyword stuffed. Acronyms also work well these days. ThePOGG (a well known site) is a great example.

I've used content writers in the past, all with a varied degree of success. Some, you may as well flush your dosh down the S-bend (it's clear they're using re-spun software) While others are a lot better, and actual write the content word-for-word.

However, the most important tip I can give you is... Have a plan!

1. Get yourself a whiteboard and hang it in your workspace.
2. Jot down a model of your intended site on said whiteboard, including main nav links and child links.
3. Decide what content is going on which page, and stick to that plan.
4. Once you have all the above worked out, then, and only then, start building your site.
5. Whatever you do, do not keyword stuff.

With regards to acquiring backlinks... Quality over quantity.

Social Media... It's pointless having upteen dozen accounts, which, lets be frank, probably wont get used a lot. Instead, have those that you will use, and those which you will place content on, on a regular basis. There are some great WP plugin that will automatically feed content from your blog posts to Twitter for example.

NB - Facebook was great, but these days more and more affiliate's FB fan pages are being shut down. Keep that in mind

I'll finish this with a quote from Steve Jobs:

People say you have to have a lot of passion for what you’re doing and it’s totally true. And the reason is because it’s so hard that if you don’t, any rational person would give up. It’s really hard. And you have to do it over a sustained period of time. So if you don’t love it, if you’re not having fun doing it, you don’t really love it, you’re going to give up.

Reiterating... out 100 newbies who start as affiliates in this industry today 2018-07-31, by this day next year, only 2 or 3 of that 100, will still be active. If it was easy being an i-gaming affiliate, everyone would be doing it!

In closing...
This becomes your girlfriend, wife, the love of your life. Least until your making what you consider is a decent income each month. Then, and only then, can you start to have a 'normal' life again, and enjoy the fruits of your hard-work

 

[Kadabra]

casino-professor it's called

It's a nice site but the homepage doesn't have too much content and they're ranking for free spins and free spins casino although I didn't see that too much on the homepage. 12k back links though. They do have some decent guides/articles though.

What I'm wondering is how much it cost to make a site like that?

Really wouldn't focus on that. Specifically, I remember checking in the past and had a sense that it belongs to some casino company. Not sure why i came up to this. This one and Casinopedia.
And definitely don't pay attention to the awards.

I do suggest that you find your niche and slowly become an expert. If you are spreading all over with casino, poker, sports, slots, blackjack, fantasy - it would be impossible for you to really bring value.

 

[NDG]

There is a lot of good advice in this thread. It's harder to make money in this industry now,
then what it was 15+ years ago.. but, it's still possible to make a killing in this industry.

I think that one of the biggest problems is that new affiliates buy a domain and build a web site
as they learn more about the industry, instead of doing all of the research first before jumping in.

Also, it takes a lot of time to tweak everything, continue to learn more about how sites rank, build more
content to increase your authority in the industry, etc.. until you start to bring in traffic and convert that traffic
into players. There is a high learning curve, and the affiliates that ultimately succeed in this industry are those
with an incredible drive or passion for this industry, and for developing content that ultimately helps the players.

 

[xecutable]

Hello Charlie,

First of all, give yourself a pat on the back for not giving up (yet) and for reaching out to fellow webmaster. I believe a lot of people in here gave you some great advice. But the bottom line is what do you believe in? Cause it wont matter if you get 10 pages with positive replies that it can be done if you believe 'I can't'.

Ahref's research on around 19 mil keywords was that only 5% of the websites make it to page 1 within the first year. Whether that applies to our industry I have no idea. I've seen other report 6 months, and I myself saw positions moving into lower bottom of p1 at around the 6m mark too.

Moz and a few other companies did researches on how long it takes for a backlink to move you a spot up and they came up with 8 weeks (2 months) at least. None of those are 'facts' but you can start to see that TIMING is a very big factor.

This is for your benefit. This, in a way protects your business that most of the new websites will not get a piece of the pie. Sure there are still low value, hacked website ranking high, but the majority of the newcomers are clueless.

Back to timing. When I started back in 2009, took me 2 years to start making decent income, and that was with a help of a mentor. Last year I lost all of my income, and I started from scratch. Took around 6 months to start getting registrations. It will probably take more time until I go back to the old income and surpass it, but what does that matter if it's gonna happen eventually right?

Point is you don't need us to tell you what's possible and what's not if you enjoy the industry, the site, the learning, the people. And if you are not, then no amount of positive pep talk here will change that. And then my friend it's a waste of your time. And why waste time doing something that makes you miserable, when you can do something that you enjoy.

 

[Kadabra]

Last year I lost all of my income, and I started from scratch.

Hey,

Wanted to ask if you mind sharing why that happened? (if it's something to learn from).

 

[xecutable]

I guess being too focused on the UK and sports betting, where the choice of quality books was slim, basically sky, bet365, and idk perhaps pinnacle.

Never thought I'd see the day an UK company/ies will terminate contracts out of the blue and/or limit promotion exposure with crazy/stupid/ludacris requirements.

Have I had worked with 5-10 brands, wouldn't have affected me that much. Maybe if I wasn't focused on EPL and the UK market as well. Or if I had focused to build more traffic on the homepage and wasn't chasing longtails with good conversion on a specific brand.

It's very easy to lose focus, and purpose when you start making more than you can spend, and every need of yours is met. QQed and whined about it like most people at the start, then decided that 2 months is enough self-pity and anger and started again. You never know maybe one day I'll look back and see it as a good thing.

 

[Kadabra]

makes sense.

Well, naturally annoying but can be a good thing. I'm sure now you know much more and can make things much better. I know the next site i'll build will be very different from the first ones i did - so many mistakes it's hard to look at. So something like that can actually push you forward (and i am not one of those "everything is for the best" people).

Btw, your site looks great. but I would replace the Gambipedia logos above the posts with an image form the post itself. One more thing - i think seeing two tables on top (main one and side one) can be a bit confusing. Sorry for barging, not sure you were looking for any comments

 

[BeginnerGambling]

I find myself asking the same question. I quickly realised my first site I started a year ago was simply white noise in the grand scheme of things, nothing unique about it and not much in the way of potential, so I left it dormant and have shut it down. I set up a very niche sports betting site about 11 months ago and it did reasonably well - 700 views per week, high up on page one of Google, 58 NDPs in the first year and managed to generate £600 per month within 3 months. For a part time gig I was pleased!

Unfortunately these things change quickly. 95% of my income was through one player who self excluded after a few months of losing £100 a day. Bet365 quickly closed their program with me only having 4 customers. William Hill proved to be a colossal waste of time - I've not generated enough income from my 6 players to even get a single paycheck, despite them getting more clicks than any other operator on my site. Finally, Sun Bets collapsed a couple of weeks ago taking the other 48 customers with them.

Essentially I'm back pretty much where I started but am running out of sports books who actually operate the market I promote. All very frustrating when you look at it and I find myself wondering whether there's much money to be made since the regulation on the UK market tightened up so much.