So we all want to earn free, organic traffic... get a good spot in the SERPs (search engine ranking pages), get hundreds of targetted clicks per day, and really launch our business. Free is good. Obviously, if you can achieve it, it's the way to go.
To get good 'serp, we need links, lots of them... any old links. We need some links from quality sites, too. We need well-optimized pages, rich in content, and if we're going to stick around long-enough to build into a "real website", we need what little traffic we get to convert.
But poker affiliates face some major stumbling blocks...
a) There are too many poker sites, all offering essentially the same information, in essentially the same format
b ) Search engines don't like affiliate links and don't much like gambling
c)Nearly everyone we'd consider a trading link trading partner, whether it's bobspokershack or FlopTurnRiver, is a direct competitor! And isn't keen to send traffic to our site... there are very, very few friendly, 'check out this cool site' one-way backlinks out there for poker affiliates.
d)Many of us cannot afford much in the way of advertising, and besides which the consensus is that the Googlebot devalues purchased links (vs. 'earned' links, a subjective term) and in the future will do so even further. And we all want to please the Googlebot.
So what can we do?
I've put together a few ideas and at the very least, they're a start, and should put you ahead of 75% of affiliates who brave the SEO waters.
1) Don't put affiliate links on your index page
I mean it
It sounds totally counterintuitive... but The Googlebot knows what affiliate links look like, and a page that contains 10 casino links with affiliate ID tags will be perceived as a sales site, a shill site, rather than a legitimate internet resource, and will be ranked in accordance to this distinction. Where possible, link directly to the casino with an old-fashioned URL (
http://www.partypoker.com rather than
http://www.partypoker.com/index.htm?wm=xxxxxxxx) and provide bonus codes. Put your affiliate links on other pages, deeper in your site. The Googlebot is watching you, and if any one page on your site needs to pass inspection, it's your front page....
If you're skeptical, take 2 mins and look at any major poker portal... o r any major site for that matter... but with regards to poker, everyone, from PokerListings to PokerTips to PokerNews, has exactly ZERO links with affiliate IDs on their homepage. Pages which do link to casinos, generally use re-directs but regardless, their index.html page code contains zero affiliate links.
2)Minimize the number of external links on your front page
If you've got trading partners, that's all well and good, but if you're linking out to 400 sites, you're not perceived as important as say, pokerlistings, whose index page contains zero outbound links. It's a balance in the early stages; you need some outbound links to attract trading partners, while you establish yourself. But fewer outbound links is better.
3) Don't attempt to fleece or take advantage of your trading partners
People catch on fast, most of us in this business aren't dumb. If you're angle shooting, don't expect anyone's support and cooperation for long.
4) Build relationships with affiliate managers at poker sites to which you're sending a lot of customers
A lot of them don't treat affiliates very nicely, but a lot of them are terrific resources and incredibly helpful. Send chatty emails. Ask them how they're doing, not just 'where's my money'
5) Put every penny you make, back into your site, or as much as you can possibly afford
If you're making $500 a month, use that $500 to buy some advertising, or to fund a promotion, or to hire someone to develop content, or otherwise improve your exposure and your product.
6) Add at least 1 new page to your site every day - bigger is better, it makes your site seem more of a presence on the web. One page isn't much, and at one page a day, after a year you'll have 365 pages.
7) Take the time and apply a stylesheet, get rid of ALL of your font tags, and dont miss any alt tags. The google bot is fussy, and it's important to be thorough and play by the rules of the game..... it's a huge pain to go back and clean code after-the-fact, but it's worth the trouble.
And that's it... if anything, the 'no affiliate links' thing is the pearl; the rest is just good business
Good luck,
Chris
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