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.

Graham and I also took a helicopter tour from Vegas to the Grand Canyon, which was stunning to say the least. Besides the Grand Canyon, just flying in a helicopter over the Las Vegas Strip and Hoover Dam where quite the sights.

The rest of the tip was a bunch of networking with other affiliates, which lead to some new motivation and got me thinking about how I’ve been running my business vs how I need to run it (aka increase my hours!). I always get extremely motivated after these trips.

I actually couldn’t wait to get to work so I put some time in while I was there. After seeing the domain that Jon Holloway landed, I got motivated to find some exact match domains for future projects. I just picked up a few that I can’t wait to develop, I just have to make sure I don’t start a project then leave it for the next one before finishing. Mike Wittmeyer just wrote a great article on this called: Ready for Summer, Multiple Sites or One?

What all this is going to come down to is execution. If I don’t put in the time and effort into my projects, they simply won’t go where I want them to. I am back to an early work schedule which helps me stay focused. Some of my current projects are starting to take shape, which have me super motivated as well.

Unfortunately, while writing this I just made plans with a friend to go golfing. I guess I’ll have to put work on hold until tonight.

To update a previous post about my 50 pound challenge, I hate to say…but it’s not going too well! I’ve lost on a few pounds, which is better than nothing but nowhere near the 50 I’d like to lose. I’m going to stick with it and try to get back in the groove of dieting.

Anyways, it was so nice getting away from the weather in NY for a week.  I stayed at a timeshare resort in Orlando, which provided a really relaxed environment.  I went to a few dinner shows, which are one of my favorite things to do there.

In case you don’t know me very well, I am a huge car fan.  My brother and I went to an exotic car show where they had two Ferrari Enzo’s, two Bugatti Veyron’s, a Ferrari 599, a SLR McLaren, and much more.  The polished Veyron is a special edition costing 4 million dollars.

It’s was a fun week, but as always it felt good getting home especially after getting up to catch my 6 am flight!  I’m looking forward to getting back to work Monday and have a lot to take care of.

I am hoping to move into my new office sometime this month, but that all depends when the previous renter gets around to moving out.  I’m only moving next door to my current office to get something bigger.  I’m thinking about putting a pool table in there to help take my mind off work once in a while, but we’ll see how that goes.

Not too much in this first post, but I plan to update the blog pretty regularly.  However, I think we all know how that goes.