Converting Poker Article and Poker Strategy Traffic

[themike537]

OK, everyone is looking for the great targeted terms like XYZ Poker Bonus Code, etc, but the fact of the matter is, most of us get more strategy and article traffic then direct room-related traffic. My question here is, what is the best way to convert it? I've come up with a few options I'm considering, and wanted to discuss it w/ fellow affiliates.

1. Banners - The easiest thing I can think of doing is just adding in related banners to articles, with a line of text underneath the banners. For example, if you had a Poker Tournaments page, add a banner about the $150,000 guaranteed at Bodog or wherever, then under the banner have "Play the $150,000 Tournament at BodogPoker.com (aff link)".

Some advantages I see here are that its related to your page, and it's very easy to implement across multiple pages by just copying/pasting. However, some users are banner blind and may just skip over it...

2. In text promotions - The next option we've considered is just promoting the room throughout the article. If you had an Omaha Poker page, at the end of say 3 paragraphs throughout the article, say something like "If you really want to find great Omaha games, try out XYZpoker.com."

Some advantages I see here are that it's directly related to the content of the page, but some people still may ignore it because if the article is talking all about strategy, then you just toss in a promotional sentence, they probably will see it for what it is. Also, a disadvantage is that you have to manually type the sentences into each page.

3. Using a "best room" structure - Another thing we've considered is to create a page promoting the "best room for Omaha/sit and go/tournament/etc poker". Then, in each article you have, you could add a table or link to that page, saying something like "click here to find out why XYZ poker is the best room for Omaha Poker". This page would then link to your page describing why that poker room is so great for that form of poker.

Some advantages I see here is that you're giving the user a reason to try out the room, especially if they're reading an Omaha poker article, read your best Omaha site page, then sign up. However, this is also time consuming, and the user has to go through multiple clicks to end up at the actual poker site as opposed to just clicking a banner or aff link on your page.

Now that I've rambled on about this, what do you guys think? We're looking to redo a few of our sites for better conversions, and want to make sure our time is used as best as it can be.

Thanks for your time!

[ThePokerBank]

When I read the title of this thread, I had a few things in mind, but you've already covered all the ideas I had. I can't really think about any other methods, but I believe that the real skill comes in making your links in strategy/news articles sincere, so that your visitors trust your opinions and don't feel as though they are being tricked into playing at a room.

You make a good example with the Omaha page, but I feel that you should probably use this sparingly. If you have an article on 'bluffing' and have a link at the bottom along the lines of 'the best room to make bluffs is at XYZ' and repeat this across the site, your suggestions are probably going to lose credibility. But if you can use them in the right places and be sincere about your opinions when throwing in a link, I'm sure you stand a better chance of getting a conversion.

Banners are always a good idea, but it's not always easy to get banners that are related to your article. This is why it's a good idea to make your own (if you are allowed). Here is one I have made, but I havent tracked the clicks on it, which is probably pretty criminal. I need to sort out OpenAds or something to see how well it works. But I'm pretty confident that it would get more clicks than a random unrelated banner.

[boarderman23]

Never even thought about custom banners, I think that's a great option.

[RounderStaked]

That is a great custom banner for a strategy article. I am very curious to see what kind of clickthrough rate it has opposed to a regular banner. Does anyone have similiar custom banners and track their clicks?

I think banners within articles do little, since most people have trained their eyes to ignore them. Even so I still insert a 125x125 banner in all my strategy articles.

I have found that placing a couple poker room links at the bottom of the article with something like "Try out this strategy at these top poker rooms" to be much more effective than any banners

[chrisptp]

footer and header text links have the highest CTRs (by far) of any ads we place in articles.

sample:

http://www.parttimepoker.com/the-mis...ntinuation-bet