Affiliate Website Considerations
This article is written as a starting point for newbies to the industry or for those who may be considering adding other gaming options to an existing site or setting up a new site but in a different sector, such as bingo.
The Goal
- Getting prospects to visit your site.
- Encourage the prospect to click on your tracking link to direct them to an online casino, bingo, sportsbook or poker site that you're affiliated with.
- See your referred players make deposits.
That's as simple as it gets. But there's a whole lot more to it than that!
Getting Prospects to your site.
Potential Prospects
There are many different types of prospects that exist in cyberspace. These prospects, or potential players, should be identified before you put the hard yards into your site.
You have two questions that you will need to consider to start with. Do you want to be the "one stop shop" for all prospects or do you want to refine your site so as to attract exactly the type of prospect you think will convert best for you?
By taking the broad approach, a prospective player should be able to find what they're looking for on your site from your wide range of options, and therefore at least visit some sites under your affiliate account (and of course hopefully deposit).
On the other hand, getting very specific about the types of players you want to attract may result in less work for more conversions. Both have their pros and cons and will need consideration before you start out.
Content Pitching
You will want to seriously consider who your content is going to be pitched to. For example, how would your pitch differ between a first time player of a game and that of an experienced player of a game but inexperienced to online gameplay? Of course, the content would vary greatly dependant on this one small component alone. A first time player may want to know the rules and how best to win. A first-time online player may want to know what the differences are between on and offline play.
What prospects are searching for should greatly impact on what content you want to provide for prospects.
One of the best tools I have found for this is Word Tracker. It allows you to enter a word, such as Bingo, and it will return all the results relating to that word that people are searching for within many search engines.
A ranking based on the number of times a word or phrase is searched for and how many competing sites have those keywords provides a great measure to how hard or easy it will be to obtain a good ranking within a particular search engine. There is a trial version you can use that gives limited data but I think the money is well spent in their subscription service.
By carefully using your content and keywords together to target a particular phrase you will increase the desired traffic you are aiming to attract. I say carefully as your site must not only be search engine and keyword friendly but the content must be legible and call a prospective player to action.
The Click
Now that you have the prospects on your site, you will need to get them to take the next step which is to click on your tracking links, normally through text links or banners.
Now to a certain degree, this will be out of your hands but there are a few considerations that may influence the click.
Plain Text Links
If you are using plain text links on your page it will be a matter of how clearly they are displayed and where throughout your page content you position them.
As an example, you may have written a review on Bingohall.com and your last line may be something like:
Why not take the time to check out what Bingohall.com has on offer with a FREE $5 Bingo Bonus to play for free'
This is the call to action. You are putting something in front of the prospect with a direct request for them to take action.
Some affiliates swear by this type of link and others do not. Once again it will depend largely on the page content and the type of traffic you have attracted.
Banners
Sometimes less is more. If you have ever been to a candy store that offers so many types of candy you don't know which one to choose you will know exactly what I'm talking about!
Sometimes too many banners can be a distraction rather than an advantage in getting the click.
I have seen great results with limited but strategically placed banners. For instance, you can have a number of static banners on a page with maybe one or two with stronger, faster animation.
Where are your eyes drawn to?
By selectively placing banners you can actually direct prospects to click on the properties that you know have been producing the best results for you.
On a page that has a lot of text a banner with color or animation can be used effectively to create attention.
To help you determine which banners are going to be effective you should be able to ask your affiliate manager for their opinion of which banners are producing results. Along with this, over time you may see clear patterns developing as to which banners and locations are producing the best results.
The Deposit
Now it could be argued that once the prospect has clicked and left your site that converting them into a depositing player is out of your hands. To a large degree, this is correct, but there is however a few techniques that will help the operator get them to deposit.
Use a banner for a specific landing page. I see it so often that a banner says "GET FREE CASH" but when you click on it the prospect gets taken to the home page… from here if they do sign up they are unlikely to automatically get this bonus in their account. If I'm a player, I'm pretty upset I didn't get my free cash and would most likely go somewhere else rather than contact the support team.
So the trick is to match the banner with the landing page and the promotion.
An example of this is a Bingohall.com $5 Free Banner that Links to a $5 Free landing page that automatically adds $5 to that players account when they sign up from that page. Click the banner below and see how seamless the transition between the banner and landing page is.
Simple and seamless with a happy client who then feels good about depositing their hard earned cash.
Easy... Right?
This is just one very small part of what will help you to increase conversions and income in an ever-increasingly competitive industry. I hope that it helps you in some way.
