Bloggers are always looking for more ways to make money from their website. After all, what’s the point of working to build SEO if you can’t make money from all that traffic coming in?
But monetizing your gambling blog isn’t quite the same as monetizing any other kind of affiliate marketing blog. Although casino affiliate profit margins are higher than standard programs, there are still a variety of obstacles to overcome.
Meet Google, your biggest money-making obstacle
The problem is largely with Google. When monetizing any website, most people start with PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns and Google AdSense, which means paying for ads to appear in search results.
But in the U.S., those methods are blocked to gambling affiliates: Gambling and poker-related sites aren’t allowed on AdSense.
So monetizing a gambling blog requires a bit more creativity — and work. Still, it can certainly be done. And here are the four top places to start when doing so.
#1. Affiliate Marketing. Duh. This is CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com, and we’re naturally strong believers in the power of affiliate marketing as one of the best ways to make money with any website.
And affiliate marketing is probably the reason you’re here in the first place. CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com is one the internet’s largest and longest-running gambling forum and casino affiliate marketing resource. All the questions you’ve got about getting started with gambling affiliate marketing you can find by browsing our blog, forum, and archived content.
But here are the basics: Casino affiliate marketing is when you place ads for online gaming rooms on your website. Whenever someone clicks on one of those ads, and spends money at that website, you get paid a commission.
To make the most money via casino affiliate marketing, add your affiliate links to all your blog posts—and blog every day.
2. Banner ads and sold text ad links. If your site is big enough to support it, start displaying other types of ads on your site. This is different than affiliate marketing. You’re not getting paid a commission, but charging advertisers money to place ads on your site.
“In 2009 I made more than 20 advertising deals for Jimmakos.com,” writes Jim Makos. “I usually sold text ad links at the front page for an average price of $50/month but I also placed banners for a monthly fee and published promotional articles.
“The average cost for a banner has been about $140 per month depending on the placement in the front page.”
3. Email marketing. Use your traffic to build a list — and make sure they’re voluntarily opting in, preferably with two stages of doing so. Read CAP’s guide to email list marketing here, and read a cool summary of how to monetize that email list here.
4. Get professional. If your site is large-scale, and you really want to leverage all that traffic and turn it into revenue, you’ll want to find an expert who can actually put more detailed practices into place.
Look, it’d be easier for you if we could just tell you how to do that. Right? But it isn’t that easy. These metrics change all the time and only a pro is going to be really good at it, because only he or she can spend all day doing it.
Places like the CAP Forum are ideal for finding making connections with specialists. But do your research and make sure everyone understands and is clear about what is being purchased before any money changes hands.
Closing comments
What do you think? Do these four steps make sense to you? Do you have any direct experience with any of them? As always, we love to get your input. Sound off in the comments and let us know what you think.