You’ve either; decided to become a casino affiliate, you’re looking into it or you have an affiliate site. Whatever the answer, we can relate.
The road in front of you is long and with any new online venture you are faced with various obstacles and tough decisions. Don’t let that put you off though, the thrill of making your first buck will get you hooked.
Be prepared to get frustrated, if you go nuts over failure then this isn’t the game for you. With any software product or any product that you’re trying to sell, it takes patience.
At this point all I can do is reflect on what we experienced, it obviously differs from one to another but there will be a commonality.
Here are my top starter tips:
Don’t be like all the others
Another review site won’t get the volume of visitors you need. If you try to compete with the big guns out there, you will be in over your head.
Test a few avenues
Create small focused sites, you don’t need an amazing domain name, it doesn’t always have to match the subject matter. If you manage to bag a great URL then that’s great.
We created a couple of sites that were focused on 1 game. Our one site manofsteelslots.com was launched when the game just came out, we snapped up the domain and quickly launched a page dedicated to the game. The result, we instantly had visitors.
What did we learn, that you can generate traffic by focusing on just 1 game. This means you can get going quickly, these small projects will help you gauge.
Have a rough plan and stick to it
Create small realistic goals, such as getting 10 visitors a week consistently. Ranking high is hard work, before you get famous you need to network in order to get that initial lift. That requires a good plan.
Don’t get distracted
Easy to say, but staying focused is a challenge for everyone, getting visitors should be your first priority. Don’t worry about converting right away, create a formula that works. Ditch the small things, it’s honestly a waste of your time, be brutal and be precious with your time.
Remember, without visitors, you’re nothing.
Think like a startup, because you are one
In the world of SAAS (software as a service), there are some fantastic lessons to be learnt when building your own little empire. Listen to podcasts, my favorite is The Foundation, these guys have streamlined the process of making a profit. Your ultimate goal is to make a profit.
Join a community
It’s always nice to get advice from trusted sources, sign up with a few communities to learn the lingo and get the latest news on what’s going on. I highly recommend GPWA and Affiliate Guard Dog, the people running it are nice and helpful, it’s great to be a part of something.
Build something that you’re proud of
After finding our niche, we created Slots Marvel, a site dedicated to Marvel Slot games (I will uncover all of our experiences about this site in another chapter). We’ve learned a ton of things whilst growing our site, we iterated and automated. In turn, we got some amazing results which surpassed our expectations. Create something that kicks ass!
Don’t be afraid to fail
You never really fail, the learning is in the doing. You will go there to come back, get used it.
My proudest achievements came from trial and error, becoming a master means being a student first, enjoy the days of asking stupid questions, you’re allowed to as a noob!
Learn how websites function, the more you know the better
I went from a Graphic Designer to a command-line coder, and everything in-between. It’s nice not to rely on other people, I write copy, put together campaigns and build themes. I’m sure you can get by without knowing most of these things, but I like to know why my site got hacked and how to fix it, instead of getting someone else to do it. That’s just my opinion though 🙂