Affiliate income - megabucks or not?

[lots0]

I'm talking about the paysites - adwords.

People are willing to pay up to $100 per click for certain key words.

I just checked adwords for 'online casino' and 'online blackjack' and it said £0.37-£0.55 for online blackjack and £0.44-£0.66 for online casino. Which seems relatively cheap.

They are cheap because those keywords don't convert.

[thelawnet]

They are cheap because those keywords don't convert.

So what does? What are people paying $$$ for?

[lots0]

So what does? What are people paying $$$ for?

You really expect me to answer that...

I have spent years of effort and tons of money figuring out what keywords convert.

If I publish those keywords in a public forum, I might as well just give away my business...

Just the fact I let out that those particular keywords you mentioned earlier don't convert.. will probably end up costing me money.

At one time I was foolish and told someone in an open forum that I ranked in the top three on the first page for [insert big money keyword], it took the competition less than a month before they pushed me down to page 15 in google for that keyword... It has taken me 8 months+ to climb back to the bottom of page 2 for that keyword. This little screw up cost me tens of thousands of dollars.

This is a cut throat business... and as has been mentioned many many times this business attracts some of the worst of the worst. People who have no qualms in stealing ideas, keywords, code, text, images or whatever else they think will make them a few bucks...

There are many people in this business that will act like your best buddy to your face while they attack your site and steal your stuff. Hence all the mistrust between the affs. The site listed in my profile has been under attack for longer than I care to think about. The only positive thing is that because of all these constant attacks I have learned to protect all my sites, gambling and non-gambling, from most attacks by black hat SEO and hackers.

[thelawnet]

You really expect me to answer that...

I have spent years of effort and tons of money figuring out what keywords convert.

If I publish those keywords in a public forum, I might as well just give away my business...

Actually I was asking about the keywords that have high CPC, something which you can check in a few minutes with an adwords account.

Some high CPC keywords are very unprofitable because they are too competitive. If you are paying $100 CPC and have 5% conversion, then you need to be making well over $2000 for example.

It's not necessarily the case that a high CPC is a good thing to buy, in a sense that the value of that kind of customer acquisition will tend towards zero, because people will bid up CPCs to such an extent that there's no profit left. The only way around that is improving conversion rates on your site, increasing the vale of a conversion, or driving traffic through other means.

I've always thought that sites built for advertising (be it adsense, casino, whatever) are a thankless task, because it's easy to replicate.

Also I would be interested to see how gambling-related traffic breaks down. There are relatively few sites that seem much use, obviously things like wizardofodds, casinocity, this site, the various bonus-hunting sites, and a few others. But so much appears to be essentially parasitical, it reminds me of the monthly gambling magazine I receive courtesy of some casino (sorry, don't remember the magazine's name), that purports to compare two casinos and gives them star ratings for payout and the like - it's really just BS, a facade for promoting casinos to players.

I guess this is a function of what I mentioned in my OP - the ability to (possibly) make hundreds or thousands of dollars from a single player signing up is a strong incentive to generate content of little value in an attempt to cash in. So as a result we not only get the wizardofodds-type stuff that you'd expect to find online about anything maths-related (not limited to gambling), but also the junk that exists purely because there's a $ to be made.

There are some good sites made for the purpose of cashing in, the difference with the successful ones is time, effort and talent I guess. A site like gonegambling is designed purely to get players to signup and play (compare with wizardofodds - most people reading there will just read and leave - but then WoO has much more traffic), but is a good site because there is added value in the form of games and such like. This means investment of time/$$$/ideas. Others like reviewed-casinos (and in many ways casinomeister) have the advantage of being around a long time.

What it comes to is IMO you need novel content. I guess if you do enough black hat SEO you can make money out of crap as well, but that seems hard enough that you might as well do it the right way.

[love2winalot]

Hiya: OK I have a question. Do any of you use other means to get traffic to your site, besides everyone trying to be listed in the top 5 of Google? Like doing some stuff the old fashion way, add in newspaper, flyers, add in gambling magazine, sticker on your car, and so on?

[WagerWitch]

You really expect me to answer that...

I have spent years of effort and tons of money figuring out what keywords convert.

If I publish those keywords in a public forum, I might as well just give away my business...

Just the fact I let out that those particular keywords you mentioned earlier don't convert.. will probably end up costing me money.

At one time I was foolish and told someone in an open forum that I ranked in the top three on the first page for [insert big money keyword], it took the competition less than a month before they pushed me down to page 15 in google for that keyword... It has taken me 8 months+ to climb back to the bottom of page 2 for that keyword. This little screw up cost me tens of thousands of dollars.

This is a cut throat business... and as has been mentioned many many times this business attracts some of the worst of the worst. People who have no qualms in stealing ideas, keywords, code, text, images or whatever else they think will make them a few bucks...

There are many people in this business that will act like your best buddy to your face while they attack your site and steal your stuff. Hence all the mistrust between the affs. The site listed in my profile has been under attack for longer than I care to think about. The only positive thing is that because of all these constant attacks I have learned to protect all my sites, gambling and non-gambling, from most attacks by black hat SEO and hackers.

Uhm - no doubt.

However - if you want to send me those words via PM - I'll outrank you in 1 week... LMAO - ok not really - but I would try to get more conversions using those words.

Cause right now - I could REALLY use those conversions... LOL!

But seriously - I would think it would be a nice world to work together in... I wish people weren't so cut throat in this business. It makes me sad that it is so - but I have witnessed it time and time again.

[lots0]

Actually I was asking about the keywords that have high CPC, something which you can check in a few minutes with an adwords account.

If you can check it so easy your self, why bother to ask? (Rhetorical question)

FYI - I don't use adwords... IMHO adwords is for people that can't figure out how the system works. (Besides imo Brin and Page have more than enough money)

My take on Internet Marketing:

It does not matter how 'good' or unique your content is, if no one sees it. So you need good ranking in the search engines to bring in the eyeballs.

However...

If your content is 'crap' or spam then it won't matter how many eyeballs see it, cuz no one is going to convert/buy/sign up/download or whatever you want your visitors to do.

If you want to make money with Internet Marketing , you need it all, eyeballs and 'good' content.
Lots and lots of eyeballs and content that people like and use.
There is no substitute imo.

[mojo]

Hiya: OK I have a question. Do any of you use other means to get traffic to your site, besides everyone trying to be listed in the top 5 of Google? Like doing some stuff the old fashion way, add in newspaper, flyers, add in gambling magazine, sticker on your car, and so on?

I don't do any off-line ads yet but will after the UIEGA settles down. I think others outside the usa have done well with the old fashioned way though. I would like to do that eventually. It would be fascinating for me and something I would enjoy.

Meanwhile, it's best not to follow the crowd and seek the #1 'online gambling' spot on google. I leave that to the big dawgs and don't bother spending my energy competing. What I do is find my little niche and work with that.

[mac-online]

I work 10 hours a day and my head starts to hurt at the end of it. I had to stop for a week to let it all rest. I feel good now and am trying to relax at the work station. A calm attitude keeps me a bit cooler. But I think faster than when I first stared. My cognitive capacity has increased. It is good for me I think. I had to get used to the long hours sitting in the same position. It was my back at first. That went away. Then it was a muscle in my neck. That is almost gone. I wouldn't have though that this job was hard on your body. But it is. Long walks are good. I do a two hour every day. Optimism is KING. Two days ago I had my first deposit and I have been with more energy ever since. I opened my site 3 months ago, from a dead start. Now I have a steady 15 unique visitors per day. But I am concerned about the affiliate program. How can you trust them. I am going to start a new site and get into promoting a casino that is in the family. I should have done that from the start.

But the first site taught me a LOT.

There are a lot of interesting variables you need to cover. It is a dynamic challenge.

Good luck to anyone who will start a site. If you have done well at another type of work. Those same qualities should carry you through being a good Web master. This industry needs more good people, that can still wear the white hat once things get good. I find that to be a problem as much as not making it. Success is a drug,,, very addicting.

[thelawnet]

If you can check it so easy your self, why bother to ask? (Rhetorical question)

That's not what I said.

It's easy to check if you have an adwords account. I don't.

FYI - I don't use adwords... IMHO adwords is for people that can't figure out how the system works. (Besides imo Brin and Page have more than enough money)

So why are you being so cloak-and-dagger about Adwords CPCs?