Tips for a tough market: Gambling
-
Yes, that's what I'm working on now. As you might already know / have guessed, gambling is not a really well regarded source of enterntainment amongst... well, amongst 90% of the world popppulitaion, yet there is a huge market for both online casinos and affiliate sites. I believe it to be the second biggest internet market after porn, so, yes, we live in a weird world.
Honest linkbuilding is almost impossible, there's really few people that would dare to post an entry on their reputated blog of the "check this out, my friend's new casino site" kind, neither placing on their site a nicely anchored back-link.
We also do CMS web-development, but, of course, not a single client has accepted to keep a link to our casino site in their footer.
We have tried some link-baiting technics with interesting content by sending it to news aggregators, but most of the feedback we get (after the users read our url) is of the: "gonna downvote the h*** out of you lousy spammer!" kind.
Our site doesn't look dodgy at all, we intended to get rid of the sordid look that most affiliate sites sport, and I think that we succeded. (Here it is, if you guys wanna take a look http://www.ilovecasino.es/ ).
So here we are, out in the cold, developing our own "satellite sites", working hard in the seo for all of our other sites, giving away free drupal templates that carry an uncloacked link to us in the footer... all the classics.
So, any nice feedback on how to get sweet white-hat links in such a complicated market will be strongly appreciated.
Hope you can pardon both my rather long question and pretty poor english
-
Have you read this YouMoz about white-hat link building in the gambling industry?
http://moz.com/blog/case-study-whitehat-link-building-in-the-gambling-industry
Edit: Just realized the original question is from 2011, so I don't imagine the OP had a time machine to see that post.
-
Paying for traffic is the best way to get traffic for gambling websites today. The main problem is - it is very costly and you need to experiment with many different affiliate programs for a lot of reasons.
- What might work for site A doesn´t necessarily work for site B.
- Brands that were converting great last year perhaps wont work anymore.
- Always try to think "out of the box". If you just do what other gambling affiliates are doing with success - they will always be a step ahead of you.
- Go conferences and meet people - it is one of the best places to get links from the industry.
-
Ah, the wonderful world of gambling SEO
Unfortunately not going to give you all my secrets on here but I'll give you a few pointers (I'm nice that way).
Get more social. Brand signals and getting people to talk about you is a moderate indicator that you're not completely rogue.
Off the back of that I'd make some more, non-promo led content. Looking at your site (y mi español no es muy buena) all your content seems to be promo driven. Get some content up people want to share and link to.
As an affiliate, you really need to offer 'more' to your user base. Give them tools to track their play or have exclusive offers or set up something like a shop they can earn points for based on their play. Ultimately there are 1000 affiliate sites they could use why are they going to recommend yours (and by recommend I mean talk about and link to).
Gambling SEO requires a creativity based almost entirely on what you can do to get people talking as (as you've discovered) people consider all links you try and acquire or share yourself as spam. You need people's friends or other people they trust (influencers) to be talking about your site.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Affiliate Marketing vs. Remarketing | What are the differences
What is the difference between CJ Affiliates and Criteo Remarketing? Could someone please define the differences? Thank you!
Affiliate Marketing | | JMSCC0 -
Any Good Email Marketing companies - CPA ?
Hi Guys Looking for some advice - are there any good email marketing services companies in the US that can help us to sell our health and pet products and would operate on a CPA basis ?? Any help much appreciated - thank you Gareth
Affiliate Marketing | | GAZ090 -
Affiliate marketing for our Amazon Products ??
Hi Guys. Can any recommend or is it possible to build an affiliate marketing programme to generate sales from our Amazon product pages rather the the traditional way of generating sales through your own website ? Can anyone advise ? Or recommend any companies ? Thanks Gareth
Affiliate Marketing | | GAZ090 -
Digital marketers - what are some of your QUICK WINS?
If you were to offer up some quick wins to a client to get a project off with an immediate bang, what would you recommend as quick wins to get the conversions ticking over from the outset? Thanks in advance.
Affiliate Marketing | | Martin_S0 -
Where can I find best resources for Affiliate Marketing?
Any suggestion for Affiliate training, forums, seminars, etc. for newbie? I'm doing my research but would like to hear from pros. I'm experienced web developer and Adsense publisher, now want to step in the world of affiliate marketing.
Affiliate Marketing | | webplex0 -
Trying to find a good B2B Affiliate Marketing Software solution
Hi there, I was wondering if anyone knew of a good B2B Affiliate marketing service for advertisers. I have a new software tool coming out shortly which I want to sell online and part of my requirements to do this is to set up an affiliate program for it. It has been 5 years for me since I last looked or used any affiliate tools so kind of feel I'm having to start all over again. As to reach of the affiliate solution it really needs to be on a global scale, failing that US and UK networks Thanks for any assistance Re David
Affiliate Marketing | | David-E-Carey0 -
Is setting up affiliate marketing on website worth it for a small businesses?
Is setting up affiliate marketing on website worth it for a small businesses?
Affiliate Marketing | | seoukrsf0 -
I want tips on how to start a Lead Mangement For a Human Resource website?
We as a SEO team has registered in niche specific forums and groups for community engagement (HR Forums and Groups). What else can we do to get a lead for our client.
Affiliate Marketing | | Virrtuo0