How I made $7,000 in August of 2006 With Free Advertising

Six months ago I wouldn’t have even dreamed about writing this article, but since the dramatic changes in the legalities of online gambling, I am able to write this without fear of hurting my own income.  This is because, in part, of my inability to continue to generate an income.  Online gambling, you see, is a dead fish.  Well, at least in North America, where the governments have made transferring money to online casino’s illegal.

I started by negotiating a generous CPA rate of $150 per referral.  This meant that, for every referral I sent which deposited $50 or more, I was paid $150.  Since I demand at least a 100% return on my investment, I was willing to spend $75 per referral.  I would up spending a paltry $50 for the entire month, while making over $7,000 in total commission!

Once I had negotiated by CPA rate, I then focused on how I was going to generate the referrals.  I chose to open a poker tips website, knowing that I would have some heavy competition.  However, I knew that I was just starting, and that it takes time to run with the big dogs.  My website, which is now offline, was very simple: the main landing page welcomed the visitor and directed them to three other pages: Basic Hold’Em Strategies, the Art of Bluffing, and Top Places to Play. 

Each page had several references to the online casino I was an affiliate for, though I did so through the use of text promotion- no banner or image ads here.  I went for a passive approach, using phrases like “When playing at AFF LINK, be sure to watch the timing bar at the bottom of the screen”- these were innocent and passive in nature, yet induced the curiosity needed for the user to click on the link. 

The page that brought in the money was the “Places to Play” page, and it did this through three different approaches:

1. First, I wrote a review of the casino I was an affiliate for.  I kept it as brutally honest as possible, highlighting the flaws and commending the positive attributes.  Since I don’t promote shady or poor products, the review was a positive one.

Throughout the review, I had my affiliate link plugged nearly every time the casino name was mentioned.  I also had it in the main title, and that was the link that most people clicked.

2. Second, I talked about why they should play poker at my recommended casino.  I didn’t just mention it because it was a good casino to play at.  I mentioned the extremely reliable software, in-house payment processor (which meant reliable payouts), multi-national user base (for more potential winners), generous deposit bonuses, high end security, and overall reliability of the casino.  I did all of this without sounding like a salesmen, but rather as one friend recommending a good movie to another friend.

3. Third, I mentioned the applicable deposit bonus via my affiliate link.  I referred to my affiliate link as a “promotional” link, and I made the point that users coming from my webpage were eligible for a special deposit bonus.  This wasn’t a lie- I talked with my affiliate manager and arranged an exclusive $25 deposit bonus on top of the existing bonuses for my referrals.  It was nothing big, but it made me unique and gave me an edge.

I then began to promote myself via article marketing, releasing opinion articles about poker and other games.  I began to receive around 50 uniques a day, and though this isn’t a lot of traffic, it is highly targeted.  My conversion ratio was around 1:80, which is pretty high for online casino’s.  I never had to do major volume simply because I was being paid $150 per referral. 

The site was growing, though the laws in North America changed and forced me to shut down.  The lesson that I learned remains, however, and the marketing techniques still hold true.  The website that I had was a quality, high-content page that offered a lot to the user.  And, if 1 in 80 of them converted, they offered a lot to me. 

It just goes to show that a little bit of creativity and a lot of hard work can yield amazing results.  Now, go out and generate the same kind of success with your websites, whatever they may be.