How Much Traffic Do I Need to Make $$$?

[aharon5741]

I am running a brand new site and I have been able to get 2,000 unique visits and serve over 3,000 page-views in my first 30 day period after launching.

I am seeing a CTR of 1.5% on banners and text links.

How many visitors does a site like mine need in order to make some real money at this affiliate business? Do people only start seeing sign ups after they hit 20k or 30k visitors a month?

Thanks,
Aaron

betexit.com

[Simmo!]

Hi Aaron

First up, apologies: I had to unlink the signature as the forum rules only permit sigs at a certain level of activity.

As for your question, although it is not an area I work in myself, it is harder to get sports betting sites to convert with banners. Word is that contextual links and very targetted CTAs are the way to go.

For example, if you are previewing a cricket match like Pakistan vs Australia then you would get a better conversion rate by mentioning odds and including the links within the content I'm told.

You might want to look at valuechecker.co.uk which helps with this (for a commission). Everyone I have spoken to says banners down the side of articles rarely convert - it's all about relevancy and contextual. Although to be fair that's the same in most markets, not just sports.

It's all about the audience you attract. If it's casual sports fans coming in for a story then you have to really work at tempting them to bet. Showing the Best Odds seem the way to go but even then they would probably need to make the user think "wow thats good" and how many times do you think that?

I'd guess (and it is just that) that more unusuaual bets (first goalscorer/correct score combos) might look the best bet as the odds are obviously higher.

I bet occassionally and I just looked at your site (very nicely laid out by the way) - the banners don't do anthing to make me think "oh yes i must go there". But with the Grand National coming up, had there been some odds on horses I might have clicked. Just a thought.

Cheers

Simmo!

[Casinomeister]

...it's all about relevancy and contextual.

That's pretty much is. You could have bucket loads of traffic, but if it's from bots from India or from people looking for sports attire, you're not going to fair well.

The main thing is to bring in traffic that is looking for what you have to offer - most of the time this will be viral traffic since these are the folks you can bring in because of their interest you've piqued.

[baldidiot]

You've already had some great advice!

My 2c... Try to focus on the quality of traffic, rather than volume. And most importantly think about what you would want to see from a site.

People like lists of things - such as recommended sportsbooks, or a list of bonuses. Most of my clicks come from tables on these pages.

On a similar note (for me at least) more clicks come from text links rather than banners. But if you do primarily use banners, rotate them. And I'd suggest promoting more than 3 products - if a reader isn't interested in any of them then you're SOL.

[NicolasJohnson]

Great advice so far.

I'll repeat the part of traffic quality. If you get players looking for 'free chips' you are going to need a lot more traffic than people looking for 'high roller casino bonuses'. And don't forget about the offer. If you show banners of casinos that don't offer free chips to free chip players, you won't convert. Or if you offer low roller bonuses to high rollers, it won't convert.

Last, it depends on your site. If you have a quality site where people come back again and again, you don't need too much new traffic per month to get a considerable following. If your site is low quality and people don't come back, you are going to need a ton of new traffic per month just to stay even.

Kind Regards,
Nicolas Johnson
Bet Phoenix Casino Affiliates Manager