David Fiske A subtle blend of affiliate marketing and web development

After yesterday's article, I've decided to take a look at some sectors and suggest what affiliates could do to develop an online presence that makes a profit.

Today, given the success of Gaming Alerts on Dragon's Den yesterday, I will take a peak at the gambling sector.
 
Online betting and gambling uptake is on the rise and has been for some time. It's a competitive sector just like the insurance sector but to counteract the risk, there can be good rewards. AstroBingo are offering a new car as an incentive, for example.

So where to begin?

Firstly, it's important that if you want to tackle all 4 sectors (bingo, casino, poker and betting), it would be worth your time setting up four websites that all have a similar domain name (e.g. thisispoker, thisisbingo, thisiscasino and thisisbetting) and create a website design that differs only be colour, linking the portfolio together.

Bingo

Bingo seems to have become more popular, especially with the advent of bingo chat rooms. Essentially, your site would need some reviews and news. You could create a forum but your goal is to push your readers over to the bingo halls rather than keeping them on your site. Having said that, you want to collect their email address to market new bingo websites to them, special offers, etc.

That would get you to the level that a lot of websites are at as it stands. To succeed further, you need to offer something quirky. Gaming Alerts is based on the likes of the BBC News ticker you can download.

How about a hall of fame? Money Saving Expert forum members seem to pride themselves in showing to the world how much money they've saved. Why not offer a bingo hall of fame so that your visitors can add up how much they've spent and how much they've won.

Poker

The basis will be almost identical to the bingo site, only your focus will shift now. Bingo is generally lower play values than Poker. So whatever you offer your visitors needs to cater for the wealthier player.

News, special offers, etc. would be wise. Your quirky feature would be more difficult

Casino

See above.

Betting

See above.

All of them

It's important to remember that natural SEO will help but it will take months before you see any worthwhile results. PPC is your best solution given the competitive market of gambling.

The quirky feature of each site would have to be something special and something you could use to add value to the site. At the end of the day, most affiliate programs pay out on the first deposit. So you should be interested in signing up visitors rather than focussing on getting them to continue to play. Some programs payout on referrals by your signup so you may want to push the "recommend to a friend" facilities!

This market is crowded and complex to play in but do it right, offer something different and you could be on to a winner. Offer something that looks and does the same as everyone else's sites and you'll have just wasted your time.

Remember to put yourself in the shoes of your visitor.