The largest problem you will face is to find out which casino affiliate marketing strategies really work, or just as importantly – which don't. There is so much misinformation about internet affiliate marketing that it's very difficult for the beginner to find the truth. Most wind up using wrong or outdated casino strategies and techniques that leave them working hard but getting nowhere.
Both poker and casino affiliate marketing are effective and profitable. Don't let anybody convince you otherwise. Today thousands of companies and individuals from all over the world promote gambling services via the Internet and make good money relatively easily. You can too.
It may take a while to learn the ropes before you start turning a decent profit, especially with all the garbage advice that's floating around. Understand that you will always be learning anyway, because today's killer internet affiliate marketing strategy could be tomorrow's dud. And understand that you will get it wrong sometimes. I've been involved in marketing for most of my life, but even so, I've made many mistakes since coming online in 1997 and I'm almost certain to make more.
The difference between those that make it and those that don't is simply this: The ones that made it refused to give up and kept trying until they found what worked.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
How To Integrate Keywords Into Your Web Site Copy
Here is a another great article I run across today and thought I'd like to share.
By Kalena Jordan
If you're reading this and your web site doesn't contain any body text on the home page, give yourself a good smack and go to your room without supper. When you're ready to behave and design your site with the search engines in mind, come back out and read this article.
The simple truth is this: search engines read text and not much else. You absolutely, positively need to use text on the pages of your site that you want indexed and ranked highly. Not graphical text that you created in your fancy design software, but actual, visible body text. Not sure if your site uses graphical or body text? A good rule of thumb that I learnt from search engine guru Danny Sullivan is to try and highlight the text with your mouse. If you can drag your mouse over the text when viewing it in a browser, chances are this is body text and the search engines can read it.
Ok, so you've created your body copy and your site pages are loaded with good old-fashioned text. But your job's not over! Now you need to get targeted. Search engines aren't going to rank your web site about socks highly if your body copy talks about foot sizes. You need to get specific. If you sell socks, then for heaven's sake, make sure your site copy has plenty of references to the word socks! At the risk of sounding like Dr Seuss, if you want to be found for, big socks, small socks, cotton socks and wool socks, then mention them all. Better still, sort your copy into categories based on your products and services. If you sell blue socks AND red socks, then have a page dedicated to each kind. This allows you to target niche keywords within your copy and meet the relevancy guidelines for logical search queries.
It sounds so obvious, but I'm constantly amused by the number of web sites I see selling particular items without once making reference to those items in their body copy. For example, there are thousands of sites on the Internet promoting web site design services right? Next time you see one, take a look at their body copy. You'll be surprised how often you'll see flashy looking sites without a single mention of the phrase "web site design" in their page copy. Instead they'll use fancy all graphic pages or Flash movies. Or if they do use body text, it might include cryptic jargonised language like "Internet Solutions" or "online brand building".
What the heck does this tell a search engine about their business? Absolutely nothing. Are these sites going to be considered a relevant match for search queries about "web site design"? No way! The creators of these sites might think they're being clever, but they are really missing the boat entirely. What's the point of having a web site if you are going to sabotage its ability to be found?
Anyway, back to you and your web site. So now you've added plenty of text to your pages and the copy flows well for the reader. You've researched your keywords and phrases using WordTracker or something similar and now you're faced with the dilemma of integrating the keywords into your carefully written copy. So how do you satisfy the search engine's craving for keywords without interrupting the copy flow for the reader? The answer is: very carefully.
Let's take a look at a practical example. We have a client that specializes in luxury adventure travel. Before I optimized their site, part of the home page copy read like this:
"We specialise in providing vacations for people who want a personal service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing reputation as one of the world's top travel providers. We can put together packages that include all adventure activities, accommodation, transport and food".
Extensive WordTracker keyword research for the client had determined that the home page should target the following key phrases:
· adventure travel
· best adventure vacations
· tailored travel
· overseas adventure travel
· luxury travel packages
So taking our original home page text, the challenge was to integrate these keywords carefully and naturally so as not to disturb the logical flow of the copy and lose the interest of the visitor. Here's how I did it:
"We specialize in providing the best adventure vacations for people who want a personal and tailored travel service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing reputation as one of the world's top overseas adventure travel providers. We can put together luxury travel packages that include all adventure activities, accommodation, transport and food".
Note that the key phrase "overseas adventure travel" accommodates the phrase "adventure travel" too. Voila! The search engines are happy because the site contains text content relevant to related search queries, the client is happy because we were able to integrate the keywords without distracting the visitor and I'm happy because I know the site is going to rank highly for the client's target search terms.
Now go and apply the same principles to your own site...
Copyright © Kalena Jordan 2002
About the Author: Article by Kalena Jordan, CEO of Web Rank. Kalena was
one of thefirst search engine optimization experts in Australasia and is well known and respected in the industry worldwide. For more of her articles on search engine ranking and online marketing, please visit
http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com
By Kalena Jordan
If you're reading this and your web site doesn't contain any body text on the home page, give yourself a good smack and go to your room without supper. When you're ready to behave and design your site with the search engines in mind, come back out and read this article.
The simple truth is this: search engines read text and not much else. You absolutely, positively need to use text on the pages of your site that you want indexed and ranked highly. Not graphical text that you created in your fancy design software, but actual, visible body text. Not sure if your site uses graphical or body text? A good rule of thumb that I learnt from search engine guru Danny Sullivan is to try and highlight the text with your mouse. If you can drag your mouse over the text when viewing it in a browser, chances are this is body text and the search engines can read it.
Ok, so you've created your body copy and your site pages are loaded with good old-fashioned text. But your job's not over! Now you need to get targeted. Search engines aren't going to rank your web site about socks highly if your body copy talks about foot sizes. You need to get specific. If you sell socks, then for heaven's sake, make sure your site copy has plenty of references to the word socks! At the risk of sounding like Dr Seuss, if you want to be found for, big socks, small socks, cotton socks and wool socks, then mention them all. Better still, sort your copy into categories based on your products and services. If you sell blue socks AND red socks, then have a page dedicated to each kind. This allows you to target niche keywords within your copy and meet the relevancy guidelines for logical search queries.
It sounds so obvious, but I'm constantly amused by the number of web sites I see selling particular items without once making reference to those items in their body copy. For example, there are thousands of sites on the Internet promoting web site design services right? Next time you see one, take a look at their body copy. You'll be surprised how often you'll see flashy looking sites without a single mention of the phrase "web site design" in their page copy. Instead they'll use fancy all graphic pages or Flash movies. Or if they do use body text, it might include cryptic jargonised language like "Internet Solutions" or "online brand building".
What the heck does this tell a search engine about their business? Absolutely nothing. Are these sites going to be considered a relevant match for search queries about "web site design"? No way! The creators of these sites might think they're being clever, but they are really missing the boat entirely. What's the point of having a web site if you are going to sabotage its ability to be found?
Anyway, back to you and your web site. So now you've added plenty of text to your pages and the copy flows well for the reader. You've researched your keywords and phrases using WordTracker or something similar and now you're faced with the dilemma of integrating the keywords into your carefully written copy. So how do you satisfy the search engine's craving for keywords without interrupting the copy flow for the reader? The answer is: very carefully.
Let's take a look at a practical example. We have a client that specializes in luxury adventure travel. Before I optimized their site, part of the home page copy read like this:
"We specialise in providing vacations for people who want a personal service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing reputation as one of the world's top travel providers. We can put together packages that include all adventure activities, accommodation, transport and food".
Extensive WordTracker keyword research for the client had determined that the home page should target the following key phrases:
· adventure travel
· best adventure vacations
· tailored travel
· overseas adventure travel
· luxury travel packages
So taking our original home page text, the challenge was to integrate these keywords carefully and naturally so as not to disturb the logical flow of the copy and lose the interest of the visitor. Here's how I did it:
"We specialize in providing the best adventure vacations for people who want a personal and tailored travel service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing reputation as one of the world's top overseas adventure travel providers. We can put together luxury travel packages that include all adventure activities, accommodation, transport and food".
Note that the key phrase "overseas adventure travel" accommodates the phrase "adventure travel" too. Voila! The search engines are happy because the site contains text content relevant to related search queries, the client is happy because we were able to integrate the keywords without distracting the visitor and I'm happy because I know the site is going to rank highly for the client's target search terms.
Now go and apply the same principles to your own site...
Copyright © Kalena Jordan 2002
About the Author: Article by Kalena Jordan, CEO of Web Rank. Kalena was
one of thefirst search engine optimization experts in Australasia and is well known and respected in the industry worldwide. For more of her articles on search engine ranking and online marketing, please visit
http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com
Black hat SEO to do or not to do?
What is Black Hat SEO?
Black Hat search engine optimization is customarily defined as techniques that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner.
These black hat SEO techniques usually include one or more of the following characteristics:
* breaks search engine rules and regulations
* creates a poor user experience directly because of the black hat SEO techniques utilized on the Web site
* unethically presents content in a different visual or non-visual way to search engine spiders and search engine users.
One should try and stay away from black hat seo, as it will give you good rankings in the beginning but will cost you in the long run.
So try to stay away from using this methods:
ALT Tag Stuffing
A Normal Alt Tag image src=file.jpg alt="nice picture"
A Stuffed Alt Tag image src=file.jpg alt="SPAMMY words that you use to increase the keyword or word count on your page without anyone really realizing that you did anything like this and that has nothing to do with your web site like mesothelioma and lawyer because those are both high cost words in Google Adsense"
The stuffed alt tag is invisible to users, but visible to search engines. When they build out the index of words found on your web site, those stuffed tags get added to your word count as something relevant to your web site.
Google will Drop your site from the index for doing this. I modified the image src so that it will show up in this entry.
Meta Tag Stuffing
Much like ALT Tag stuffing, meta tag stuffing follows the same concepts, shove as many words in there that you think will rate high in the Google or other search engine index (usually based on data from Google Adwords).
Normal Meta Tag
Meta name="description" content="something relevant about this web site"
Stuffed Meta Tag
Meta name="description" content="more spammy content stuffed with high value words like asbestos lawyer, mesothelioma, lawyer, and others"
Meta keywords are also stuffed in the same context as the content meta tags. Any meta tag can be stuffed, just depends on how much the black hat SEO wants to cut and paste or type.
Google will ban your web site from their index if you do this.
Title Pages
They are also great to have a lot of massively non relevant words in the title as well. Although this is usually not as heavily abused as people will see this wrapping around the top of their web browser.
Hidden Input
Using words the same color as the background of the web site
Script type text followed by words
Form elements like "input=hidden" followed by words
NoScript followed by words
These inputs are generally much like Tag Stuffing, and Google will ban your web site if you try to use these techniques.
While many people want to get their sites ranked higher in the search indexes, some times the methods used have a negative ramification more than a positive one. If you are thinking about hiring an SEO company, make sure that they follow good SEO practices rather than bad ones. People pay a lot of money to get their sites ranked higher, no sense in wasting it on a group of folks that will get your web site banned.
Black Hat search engine optimization is customarily defined as techniques that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner.
These black hat SEO techniques usually include one or more of the following characteristics:
* breaks search engine rules and regulations
* creates a poor user experience directly because of the black hat SEO techniques utilized on the Web site
* unethically presents content in a different visual or non-visual way to search engine spiders and search engine users.
One should try and stay away from black hat seo, as it will give you good rankings in the beginning but will cost you in the long run.
So try to stay away from using this methods:
ALT Tag Stuffing
A Normal Alt Tag image src=file.jpg alt="nice picture"
A Stuffed Alt Tag image src=file.jpg alt="SPAMMY words that you use to increase the keyword or word count on your page without anyone really realizing that you did anything like this and that has nothing to do with your web site like mesothelioma and lawyer because those are both high cost words in Google Adsense"
The stuffed alt tag is invisible to users, but visible to search engines. When they build out the index of words found on your web site, those stuffed tags get added to your word count as something relevant to your web site.
Google will Drop your site from the index for doing this. I modified the image src so that it will show up in this entry.
Meta Tag Stuffing
Much like ALT Tag stuffing, meta tag stuffing follows the same concepts, shove as many words in there that you think will rate high in the Google or other search engine index (usually based on data from Google Adwords).
Normal Meta Tag
Meta name="description" content="something relevant about this web site"
Stuffed Meta Tag
Meta name="description" content="more spammy content stuffed with high value words like asbestos lawyer, mesothelioma, lawyer, and others"
Meta keywords are also stuffed in the same context as the content meta tags. Any meta tag can be stuffed, just depends on how much the black hat SEO wants to cut and paste or type.
Google will ban your web site from their index if you do this.
Title Pages
They are also great to have a lot of massively non relevant words in the title as well. Although this is usually not as heavily abused as people will see this wrapping around the top of their web browser.
Hidden Input
Using words the same color as the background of the web site
Script type text followed by words
Form elements like "input=hidden" followed by words
NoScript followed by words
These inputs are generally much like Tag Stuffing, and Google will ban your web site if you try to use these techniques.
While many people want to get their sites ranked higher in the search indexes, some times the methods used have a negative ramification more than a positive one. If you are thinking about hiring an SEO company, make sure that they follow good SEO practices rather than bad ones. People pay a lot of money to get their sites ranked higher, no sense in wasting it on a group of folks that will get your web site banned.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
How to drive free traffic to your website.
There are many ways to drive traffic to your website but none can better than getting it for free.
Here are a few links for you to take a look at:
http://www.trafficattheraces.com/
http://www.trafficbunnies.com/
http://www.freetrafficvault.com/
http://www.hits2u.com/
http://leaptraffic.com/
Do a search for more free traffic links on yahoo or Google.
You should be able to drive over 5,000 new customers to your site every month by using these methods.
Here are a few links for you to take a look at:
http://www.trafficattheraces.com/
http://www.trafficbunnies.com/
http://www.freetrafficvault.com/
http://www.hits2u.com/
http://leaptraffic.com/
Do a search for more free traffic links on yahoo or Google.
You should be able to drive over 5,000 new customers to your site every month by using these methods.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
SEO and Blogging
A blog is an online interface where people can post their thoughts, opinions, and ideas. Blogging is one of the most popular Internet activities online today. Blogging for business has recently emerged as one of the top trends for making business Web sites more accessible to the search engines and creating an online interface where customers and corporate representatives can interact and exchange information. Understanding how blogs can help you to improve your search engine rankings can help you make the decision to start a blog to improve your SEO efforts.
Link Building
Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to build incoming links to your web site. Once you develop a following for your blog, other bloggers and Web site owners will link to your posts and may even promote your blog on their Web sites. Having a blog is an excellent way to have one-way links generated for your site. These one-way links will lead search engines right to your site so your information can be indexed.
Keyword Optimization
Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to optimize each of your posts with specific keywords and help drive targeted traffic to your site. Using keywords in your blog can be as simple as making a keyword-rich post or using keywords in each of the links you build on your blog page. If you use carefully researched keywords and implement them correctly, you can boost your search engine rankings with your blog.
Improved Site Usability
Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to build a Web site with relevant and useful content. Web content is one of the most important tools you can use for optimizing your Web site, so using a blog as an SEO tool can help you to have a site that is rich with content and information. All of your posts, comments, and other information can be considered content so it is important that everything you place on your site have some relevance to the products and services you are offering. This relevance will help you to boost your SEO efforts.
Interactivity
Most Web sites lack interaction between the Web site owners and visitors. This is because the message is being displayed for visitors to read but there is no way for visitors to add messages. With a blog, you can allow your visitors to post links, add comments on your posts, and suggest topics for future posts. This added interactivity will make your Web site a resource that people turn to again and again.
Build Relationships
This is a simple viral marketing tool you can use to improve your SEO results. Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to build a strong relationship with prospects and customers. These people will come to enjoy reading your blog and may recommend it to other people. When customers see that you are making an effort to provide them with a forum for their questions and comments, they may develop more loyalty for you and your business.
Link Building
Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to build incoming links to your web site. Once you develop a following for your blog, other bloggers and Web site owners will link to your posts and may even promote your blog on their Web sites. Having a blog is an excellent way to have one-way links generated for your site. These one-way links will lead search engines right to your site so your information can be indexed.
Keyword Optimization
Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to optimize each of your posts with specific keywords and help drive targeted traffic to your site. Using keywords in your blog can be as simple as making a keyword-rich post or using keywords in each of the links you build on your blog page. If you use carefully researched keywords and implement them correctly, you can boost your search engine rankings with your blog.
Improved Site Usability
Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to build a Web site with relevant and useful content. Web content is one of the most important tools you can use for optimizing your Web site, so using a blog as an SEO tool can help you to have a site that is rich with content and information. All of your posts, comments, and other information can be considered content so it is important that everything you place on your site have some relevance to the products and services you are offering. This relevance will help you to boost your SEO efforts.
Interactivity
Most Web sites lack interaction between the Web site owners and visitors. This is because the message is being displayed for visitors to read but there is no way for visitors to add messages. With a blog, you can allow your visitors to post links, add comments on your posts, and suggest topics for future posts. This added interactivity will make your Web site a resource that people turn to again and again.
Build Relationships
This is a simple viral marketing tool you can use to improve your SEO results. Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to build a strong relationship with prospects and customers. These people will come to enjoy reading your blog and may recommend it to other people. When customers see that you are making an effort to provide them with a forum for their questions and comments, they may develop more loyalty for you and your business.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
marketing budget and planing.
A marketing budget is more than something you “have to do” each year. It is the framework upon which your casino affiliate marketing success depends. As you begin the budgeting process for 2006, keep these important tips in mind:
1. Be strategic. There are more good marketing programs out there than you can shake a stick at, much less implement. Your job is to figure out – through the budgeting process – which of those programs make strategic sense for your business.
The marketing budget can then help you stay focused throughout the year.
Think goals and objectives. A strategic marketing budget is about identifying marketing programs that will result in achieving your business goals.
Start with the big picture objectives then define general strategies that support those goals. Finally, identify specific marketing programs that can “make it happen” for your business.
For example, a goal may be to expand sales of the Widget Brand by 15% in the coming year. Potential strategies for doing this could include: (1) Improving the existing Mini Widget, (2) increasing sales force penetration and (3) creating a new line of Widgets. Each strategy is a different approach to increasing Widget sales, and each requires different supporting actions and marketing programs to achieve the goal of increasing sales by 15%.
Programs to improve the Mini Widget could include (1) adjusting pricing, (2) updating the packaging or (3) adjusting the marketing message to emphasize a more appealing benefit. Contrast this to programs designed to increase sales force penetration (such as bringing on a new broker or establishing the ability to gather leads and take orders online).
The right actions and programs for your particular casino affiliate program can vary dramatically, depending on your goals and strategies. Consequently, strong strategic analysis behind your marketing budget can make a dramatic difference in the success of your marketing efforts.
2. Understand that feeling uncertain is normal. Feeling overwhelmed or incredibly confused at the beginning of the budgetning process is expected. The purpose of budgetning is to find your way to the best actions for your business. As you progress towards the end of the analysis, the best programs to include in your marketing budget to grow your particular business will become clearer. Just remember internet casino affiliate marketing works, it is just a matter of persevering.
3. Be realistic. Optimism is a plus in marketing your casino affiliate site, but understand your company’s limitations. A small or one-person business can implement only a fraction of the marketing programs that large companies can. So, choose programs carefully and concentrate on seeing them through as the year progresses.
4. Stay focused. Your marketing budget is only as good as your implementation. Keeping your “eye on the ball” – rather than spreading yourself too thin and implementing poorly – can make the difference between profit and loss.
5. Watch the budgets. For each marketing program included in your budget, spend some extra time and collect real-world costs to use in the budget. This can prevent overspending later on.
6. Put measurements in place. It is difficult to tell if a marketing program is a success if there are no mechanisms to measure results. Write up what you wish to accomplish with the program, how you are going to measure those accomplishments, and your baseline measurements. Later – during and after execution – you will be able to identify and fix problems as well as pinpoint reasons for success.
7. Don’t forget all four of marketing’s P’s. Promotion gets a lot of attention. Pricing, place (distribution strategies) and product are equally important to the bottom line. Consider adding new or improved products/services to the mix, evaluating pricing strategies and improving distribution, along with advertising and promotional campaigns.
Following through with these seven casino affiliate marketing budget tips will strengthen both the long-term and short-term foundations upon which your business depends. A marketing budget is more than something you “have to do” each year. It is the framework upon which your company’s marketing success depends.
1. Be strategic. There are more good marketing programs out there than you can shake a stick at, much less implement. Your job is to figure out – through the budgeting process – which of those programs make strategic sense for your business.
The marketing budget can then help you stay focused throughout the year.
Think goals and objectives. A strategic marketing budget is about identifying marketing programs that will result in achieving your business goals.
Start with the big picture objectives then define general strategies that support those goals. Finally, identify specific marketing programs that can “make it happen” for your business.
For example, a goal may be to expand sales of the Widget Brand by 15% in the coming year. Potential strategies for doing this could include: (1) Improving the existing Mini Widget, (2) increasing sales force penetration and (3) creating a new line of Widgets. Each strategy is a different approach to increasing Widget sales, and each requires different supporting actions and marketing programs to achieve the goal of increasing sales by 15%.
Programs to improve the Mini Widget could include (1) adjusting pricing, (2) updating the packaging or (3) adjusting the marketing message to emphasize a more appealing benefit. Contrast this to programs designed to increase sales force penetration (such as bringing on a new broker or establishing the ability to gather leads and take orders online).
The right actions and programs for your particular casino affiliate program can vary dramatically, depending on your goals and strategies. Consequently, strong strategic analysis behind your marketing budget can make a dramatic difference in the success of your marketing efforts.
2. Understand that feeling uncertain is normal. Feeling overwhelmed or incredibly confused at the beginning of the budgetning process is expected. The purpose of budgetning is to find your way to the best actions for your business. As you progress towards the end of the analysis, the best programs to include in your marketing budget to grow your particular business will become clearer. Just remember internet casino affiliate marketing works, it is just a matter of persevering.
3. Be realistic. Optimism is a plus in marketing your casino affiliate site, but understand your company’s limitations. A small or one-person business can implement only a fraction of the marketing programs that large companies can. So, choose programs carefully and concentrate on seeing them through as the year progresses.
4. Stay focused. Your marketing budget is only as good as your implementation. Keeping your “eye on the ball” – rather than spreading yourself too thin and implementing poorly – can make the difference between profit and loss.
5. Watch the budgets. For each marketing program included in your budget, spend some extra time and collect real-world costs to use in the budget. This can prevent overspending later on.
6. Put measurements in place. It is difficult to tell if a marketing program is a success if there are no mechanisms to measure results. Write up what you wish to accomplish with the program, how you are going to measure those accomplishments, and your baseline measurements. Later – during and after execution – you will be able to identify and fix problems as well as pinpoint reasons for success.
7. Don’t forget all four of marketing’s P’s. Promotion gets a lot of attention. Pricing, place (distribution strategies) and product are equally important to the bottom line. Consider adding new or improved products/services to the mix, evaluating pricing strategies and improving distribution, along with advertising and promotional campaigns.
Following through with these seven casino affiliate marketing budget tips will strengthen both the long-term and short-term foundations upon which your business depends. A marketing budget is more than something you “have to do” each year. It is the framework upon which your company’s marketing success depends.
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