Starting a new site, need to get some contacts.

[cpbaffiliates]

Originally Posted by PartyForFree

Good point.

I'm going to take down a post I put up on my financial services message board. I don't want anyone to figure out I try to buy low, and sell high.

Can you even imagine if that gem ever got out?

I put my post back up..its nothing revolutionary and its not as good as the pokersavvy type deals but it is technically an "incentive". Its actually an incentive that encourages people to clear the full bonus and not bail. Im not just auto bankrooling and the other crap thats frowned upon.

Did not think everyone would be so bothered by me taking down a few posts.

I take it you are on MGR?

[ThePokerBank]

Originally Posted by cpbaffiliates

Really? So in that case why do MGR CPA, Bonuses, free rolls, pokersavvy type give aways exist? After all its all about the poker right? Its called marketing and trying to be competitive.

That's not quite what PPP was saying. He was highlighting how although poker rooms offer bonuses and promotions, it's not the only thing affiliates need to focus on to try and get sign ups. A lot of poker players just want to sign up to a good room and play poker, regardless of whether you can win a ferrari in X tournament.

You have to remember that you're catering to actual poker players, and not just numbers that are looking for the fanciest bonus.

[cpbaffiliates]

Originally Posted by ThePokerBank

That's not quite what PPP was saying. He was highlighting how although poker rooms offer bonuses and promotions, it's not the only thing affiliates need to focus on to try and get sign ups. A lot of poker players just want to sign up to a good room and play poker, regardless of whether you can win a ferrari in X tournament.

You have to remember that you're catering to actual poker players, and not just numbers that are looking for the fanciest bonus.

Yes and my site helps people find the best bonuses at the best rooms.I plan on reviewing rooms on a variety of criteria with an end of the rainbow incentive if they fully clear the bonus. I dont just reccomend the biggest bonus or the highest cpa room I actually am trying to add value to my visitors so its a win/win situation.

I wasnt going to add incentives originally but when I did the neccessary market research I concluded I need to in order to be remotely competitive.

[kaus]

Originally Posted by cpbaffiliates

I wasnt going to add incentives originally but when I did the neccessary market research I concluded I need to in order to be remotely competitive.

No you dont! Anyone that tells you that is wrong. Someone at one time gave me that advice just over a year ago and told me that unless I can offer something better than the PokerListings sites and the other sites that give away incentives (which at my level would be ridiculously stupid to do) I would never be able to compete, and ultimately never send traffic.

You know what thats bullsh!t. I tried giving away money, and in turn I got people complaining that they should have had it by now and thats to many points to clear. I tried doing the poker book thing, and I have tried freerolls. Each of these amounted to nothing but a pain in the ass (speaking for myself). Sure some have great success with it, but I didnt and it cost me well more than I made. I remember Graham telling me not to give away free money but I didnt listen,

You have something even better than an incentive and thats content. The more content you can write the more keywords you can nail and the more targetted traffic coming to your site. You dont need to spoon feed your players with every little fancy offer to get them to play. Write what they are wanting to read, use your longtail keywords and start writing. Players are looking for alot more than just a bonus. I never relied on a bonus as a player and never will. I want more information than that. I want to know where the best game is, overlays, why xxxx poker room has incredibly loose limit games. I want to know why I should play there and why I shouldn't. More than just the review. You can still get signups from these players as well as the others searching for bonuses without making yourself broke at the same time.

[cpbaffiliates]

Originally Posted by kaus

No you dont! Anyone that tells you that is wrong. Someone at one time gave me that advice just over a year ago and told me that unless I can offer something better than the PokerListings sites and the other sites that give away incentives (which at my level would be ridiculously stupid to do) I would never be able to compete, and ultimately never send traffic.

You know what thats bullsh!t. I tried giving away money, and in turn I got people complaining that they should have had it by now and thats to many points to clear. I tried doing the poker book thing, and I have tried freerolls. Each of these amounted to nothing but a pain in the ass (speaking for myself). Sure some have great success with it, but I didnt and it cost me well more than I made. I remember Graham telling me not to give away free money but I didnt listen,

You have something even better than an incentive and thats content. The more content you can write the more keywords you can nail and the more targetted traffic coming to your site. You dont need to spoon feed your players with every little fancy offer to get them to play. Write what they are wanting to read, use your longtail keywords and start writing. Players are looking for alot more than just a bonus. I never relied on a bonus as a player and never will. I want more information than that. I want to know where the best game is, overlays, why xxxx poker room has incredibly loose limit games. I want to know why I should play there and why I shouldn't. More than just the review. You can still get signups from these players as well as the others searching for bonuses without making yourself broke at the same time.

Good advice on the content and I agree with you.

Im not really going to be "giving out free money" I was just going to offer prizes that amount to about 25% of my CPA just for like an icing on the cake close the deal part of my marketing pitch I have/had planned. Thats only after they prove they were able to fully clear the bonus. So essentially the worst case scenario if everyone was able to fully clear the bonus and inform me of that I would "lose" 25% of my revs so no risk other than my marketing expenses.

Thats interesting about you saying people were complaining about it taking too long to get the incentive ect. But I guess either way you still get the CPA but it could hurt you in the word of mouth department perhaps.

Im not too concerned with organic traffic yet as its so competitive with SEO. I will work on offline first and paid ads first and then SEO as an after thought for later.

Cheers!

[mjmurphy53711]

You are so me 3 months ago, will be an interesting bump in 3 months.

[kaus]

Originally Posted by cpbaffiliates

Good advice on the content and I agree with you.

Im not really going to be "giving out free money" I was just going to offer prizes that amount to about 25% of my CPA just for like an icing on the cake close the deal part of my marketing pitch I have/had planned. Thats only after they prove they were able to fully clear the bonus. So essentially the worst case scenario if everyone was able to fully clear the bonus and inform me of that I would "lose" 25% of my revs so no risk other than my marketing expenses.

Thats interesting about you saying people were complaining about it taking too long to get the incentive ect. But I guess either way you still get the CPA but it could hurt you in the word of mouth department perhaps.

Im not too concerned with organic traffic yet as its so competitive with SEO. I will work on offline first and paid ads first and then SEO as an after thought for later.

Cheers!

But it is free money, its an additional amount given to the player once terms are met from you. And just to let you know getting that approved by a room will be very difficult. The reason being most bonus players are at your site for the bonus and that alone. They will go to the room deposit, play the required amount of hands and leave. Also many of them will have already figured out if it will be worth them playing so unless your deal gives them value they will find someone else. In that case if you do provide them with a deal that benefits them it will not benefit you or the card room. If you want to offer them something like that than mgr as 27 suggested is your solution but like I mentioned if they leave and dont continue to play than your pretty much SOL for the cash.


One more little tip - if you want to keep your self on track learn about seo. Easier to start now than later when you have to fix yoru site because you screwed up your files, you didnt know how important things were from the start. If I stopped screwing around with my own " ill do it later" attitude and had of paid attention to some of the guys here I would have been so much further ahead than I was and I probably wouldnt have made as many mistakes. Its not that hard to get the basics down and even though you think its too competitive you would be surprised what a well optimized page can do. Not saying your wrong or anything just telling you from my own experience.

Good luck

[cpbaffiliates]

Originally Posted by mjmurphy53711

You are so me 3 months ago, will be an interesting bump in 3 months.

It should be interesting to see what happens once I go live. I doubt il ever get anywhere near the big guys but if I could even get anywhere near 100 sign ups a month that would be more than enough for me. I have a number of other niches than poker Im promoting as well.

Could you share the most important things you have learned in the last 3 months?

[PPP]

Originally Posted by cpbaffiliates

Really? So in that case why do MGR CPA, Bonuses, free rolls, pokersavvy type give aways exist? After all its all about the poker right? Its called marketing and trying to be competitive.

And it's a minor aspect of marketing. You said it was all about incentives. For the business I'm in, the poker business, some middling part of it has to do with bonuses and incentives, while the vast majority of it is all about playing poker games.

The world is not black and white, and some people do engage in tail wagging the dog marketing, but the big mass of the poker affiliate business has playing poker as its focus.

[cpbaffiliates]

Originally Posted by PPP

And it's a minor aspect of marketing. You said it was all about incentives. For the business I'm in, the poker business, some middling part of it has to do with bonuses and incentives, while the vast majority of it is all about playing poker games.

The world is not black and white, and some people do engage in tail wagging the dog marketing, but the big mass of the poker affiliate business has playing poker as its focus.

I agree that is obviously an important part of it and I respect your opinion.