Poker vs. Casino… So Far

Written on October 16, 2009 by Jeremy

First of all, I’d like to thank Jeremy for letting me post on his blog. This post is going to discuss my experiences so far in both the poker and the casino affiliate markets. I’ve been involved in poker affiliating for almost four years, and seriously involved in casino affiliating for around four months.

Obviously the casino side of my business is nowhere near maturity, but I still have enough experience to write this article. Keep in mind that these are all opinions based on my own personal experiences – yours may differ. Ok, let’s get into it:

Search Engine Traffic

There is definitely more search engine traffic on the poker side of things. I knew this going in, but it has become really evident to me in the past month or two. Even some of the bigger terms in the casino market really aren’t that big. My Internet casino site ranks towards the top for some decent keywords, and the traffic has yet to impress me.

Content Ideas

One aspect I’ve really struggled with on the casino side of things is coming up with enough content ideas to build a massive site. I’m just under one hundred pages now, and am running low on ideas that still fit in with the site’s theme. Poker is much easier for me – just writing about poker strategy can add hundreds if not thousands of pages to a site. This is a stark contrast compared to, say, Pai Gow Poker strategy, which is basically one or two pages unless you really stretch it out.

I know there are some big casino sites out there, but I don’t want to add thin content just to get bigger. I think I can get this site to 150, maybe 200 pages in time without adding sub-par pages.

I think the real issue is that poker offers a lot of content topics that are opinioned, whereas casino stuff is almost always factual. There is only one correct way to play your video poker hand, while there are dozens of “correct” ways to play a Texas Hold’em hand, all of which can be discussed on your website.

That being said, I’m sure that once I start to see more keyword referrals I’ll be able to come up with a bunch more good content ideas.

Player Value

This is the real reason I got into casino affiliating. Everyone I’ve talked to at conferences told me I was crazy not to be in the casino market, because that is where the real money is at. So, what’s the verdict so far?…

Basically, I haven’t seen it. My average player value so far is around $200 on MGR, which is pretty good, but isn’t quite what I was looking for. I think as I get more players and have more time to let them play, I will see something more like $300 or $400 average value per player, which will more than make up for the lesser traffic numbers.

Plus, I have yet to recruit any “whales”, so if/when that happens my average player value will go up significantly. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Link Opportunities

The final major difference I’ve come across in the poker and casino markets is the link opportunities available. I find it much, much easier to acquire poker links than to acquire casino links. This is largely due to me knowing a lot of poker webmasters who are willing to link out to my sites, and not knowing many casino webmasters in general.

Also, emailing casino webmasters to discuss their site is very hard, as many casino websites are outdated and the contact emails aren’t checked (or maybe the people just don’t care).

What do you guys think? Have your experiences been different? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so Skype me or comment on this post if you like.

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