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Hello to all! :bigsmile:
I have been playing around with an idea of merging most of my sites into one big one. Now I have not done this for few reasons:
A. The sites “were” getting traffic
B. There were a quite a few distinctly different areas.
C. I fear the response what I will receive from link partners and the fact that I loose so many valuable incoming links is also a big minus.Now those were the reasons, but now with the resent changes at Y!(my main traffic source) and the new casino projects have made me to think this merger all over again.
Now what I mean by the merger is that basicly all my basic affiliate sites would be merged under one domain like this:
blackjack site -> 301 redirect -> bigsite/blackjack
poker site-> 301 redirect -> bigsite/poker
…and so on with all the sites.
Now by doing this I could use the pieces of content to build the pages/sections under the one domain and still avoid the duplicate content issue since the old sites were no longer existing.
So my question is
Would this be wise move?
Have you done something like this in the past?Please help me decide the future of my sites. At the moment I get some traffic from the SE’s, but with the recent changes the traffic is quite low. I know that by doing this I would finally have a site worth while if I manage to get it going properly. The stickyness of the site would surely increase ten fold and the over all quality as well.
Now here are the sites that would go under the hammer and finally merge as GamblingGiant.com
http://www.play2deal.com
http://www.thevegasonline.com
http://www.link-popularity.ws
http://www.cashbonuscasino.com
http://www.internet–casino.biz
http://www.classpoker.com
http://www.europeonlinecasino.net
http://www.free-blackjack.ws
http://www.free-slot-machine.biz
http://www.video-poker-online.biz
http://www.gambling-online-casino.ws
http://www.free–bingo.biz
http://www.roulette–online.biz
http://www.bestcasinorates.com
http://www.casino-gambling-online-casinos-gaming-betting-games.com
http://www.las-vegas–casino.biz
http://www.bestonlinecasinobonus.com
http://www.casino—-casino.com
http://www.casino–online-casino.com
http://www.thevegasonlinecasino.comSo comments please and I have even addet a poll so you can at least vote if you dont care to comment on this.
With Thanks, Mika :bigsmile:
I went through all kinds of contortions with this.
First had them seperate, then I just linked them to a central site, a hub that had all these sites hanging off it.
That worked well for me, but I was told the SE would not like that, so then I made it all one site.
Before you knew it though I was reviving the other domains and resurrecting them with new content.
Now Gamesandcasino.com is the large site that really came to be what it is now as a result of a bunch of smaller sites, and I have all the smaller sites seperately anyway.
That’s just the way it ended up working out. I like it the way it is now.
Originally posted by Dominique
Now Gamesandcasino.com is the large site that really came to be what it is now as a result of a bunch of smaller sites, and I have all the smaller sites seperately anyway.
If I may ask, how big of an portion of your overall traffic do those smaller sites play now days?
Lately they vary a lot. But some 20 sites put together do not reach more than 35% of the traffic G&C has. Probably less.
BUT – they have more targeted traffic as G&C covers such a variety of gaming. G&C continues to advertise the pages as if they were seperate, and traffic mostly comes in through the individual pages and not the index page. This keeps it better targeted than one would think, despite the variety of gaming going on there.
It does encourage people to travel through the site though, and the internal navigation includes everything. G&C has a high number of pages viewed per visitor. So people become interested in things other than what brought them there also and I get some people using and converting in several gaming areas.
It also has in excess of 50% repeat visits, and lots of bookmarked and type in visits.
I only do branding through the index page, and not too much of that anymore, the site is pretty much branded by now.
How do you measure repeat traffic? The only thing that I can see from the stats area that relates to this is the percentage of bookmarks per visitor and that has not been very engouraging even though it has gotten better after I addet free games and such. I normally get 2-4% of visitors to bookmark at my best sites so that’s not very good I think. I am sure that if the traffic/content would be merged under GamblingGiant.com it would be a lot more sticky then it is today, but the question is.. will I have traffic to begin with if I merge the sites?
I use several stats programs – I think awstats has a decent measurement of repeat traffic.
Well, I don’t know whether you will have traffic when you merge the sites – you may want to ask classics about whether you can get away with temporarily just linking the domains to the major site like I did, or maybe pointing them?
I do not want to say anything about this because I am not very knowledgeable and rely on others to counsel me with these things. You better ask someone else how to best proceed.
If each invidual site is not geared towards a subject/phrase(meaning very targeted) I would combine them. But if each site is very targeted I think they are worth more standing alone. And this is dependent on how you go about getting your customers. If it is through other kinds of advertising it may be different. But for the search engines, I’ve found the more targeted the better.
MSN is a wildcard. Not now, but within the next year, we may see actual competition with Google. And if their beta search is an example of what we may see in the future, you will want targeted sites on one subject. Now, if they change, and start counting links from every blog or message board in the world, it will have the opposite effect.
Originally posted by f&p
If each invidual site is not geared towards a subject/phrase(meaning very targeted) I would combine them. But if each site is very targeted I think they are worth more standing alone.Hmm.. most of the sites are targeted to some measure and some even more.
My main categories are:
Free Blackjack
Free Slots
Free Bingo
Online Casino
Online Casino Gambling
Online Poker Rooms
Casino Cash Bonus
Online Casino Bonus
Gambling Online
Online Roulette
Casino Online
Casino RatesI think a few of those sites really delivers or has delivered on topic, but the problem is they do not deliver anymore. For the last 3 days my sites have fallen like a rock in the SERPS in the yahoo and so I have two options in my opinion;
A. Remove crosslinking between the sites and perhaps scatter the domains onto many different servers with different who is information and hope that they will pickup again.
B. Forget about multiple domains and crosslinking and just merge them all into one big site that has many different sections to which the old domains point to.
(C. Forget about affiliate marketing completely and point the domains to my own casino and then concentrate all efforts getting affiliates onboard marketing my own casino.)
Now the option C is the most unlikely to happen at this very point, but might be happening in the future if this new casino starts to produce good results and I see affiliates joining the program.
I have always wanted to make my own casino & sportsbook rather than to be a affiliate so perhaps that is why I have never truly made it as an affiliate as my passion is to own and run a casino of my own and that is how I got into this business.. by starting my own private label with BTD a few years back. I will soon make my decision about the merger and at the moment it seems that I will begin merging the sites, but if you have a opinion about it – please do share, it’s not too late yet
If you want to go completely operator and forget affiliate business, you will need to have a software that people in general want to promote.
Future Bet has a terrible reputation with both players and affiliates, and very few affiliates will promote it. Last I heard CAP did not allow Future Bet casinos as approved programs. I am not sure if the Professor changed his mind on this, but I doubt it.
Originally posted by Dominique
Future Bet has a terrible reputation with both players and affiliates, and very few affiliates will promote it. Last I heard CAP did not allow Future Bet casinos as approved programs. I am not sure if the Professor changed his mind on this, but I doubt it.Hmm.. I know about the few problems in the past, but since those few incidents a long time ago there has not been problems at least that I know of. The problems in the past were caused by some problems in the processing and a temporal cash flow problem.
Since then the owner of FutureBet has changed and there has been a lot of improvements. As you said in another thread;
Often the old news are changed. Nothing is set in stone.So that is just what I have been thinking of when deciding to go with FutureBet – Perhaps the things have changed, at least I havent seen any incidents concerning FB in a long time and even the Casino Meister has removed them from the Rogue list.
So all this concidered – wouldn’t it be time to give them a chance?
No Mike
Future Bet fell off of everyones radar screen because basically no one has been fooled into playing at one of their casinos for a long time due to their incredibly bad track record.
Unfortunately I suspect some people who are newbies may be caught off guard by the new and regurgitated crop of Future Bet casinos. In a few months the horror stories from players and webmasters will likely start to turn up everywhere again. Which is a damned shame if you ask me.
Originally posted by Professor
In a few months the horror stories from players and webmasters will likely start to turn up everywhere again. Which is a damned shame if you ask me.Now to what do you base this assumption? I mean if the operators are now screened better and the FB covers the action to certain degree and the table/sportsbook limits are kept in tone with the funding – what will cause the problem?
Based on past performance and track record Mika. Nothing has really changed. Some things never do. I highly recommend all players and webmasters avoid Future Bet casinos.
There is no use being a guinea pig to see if this group has changed when there are so many quality casinos to play at or promote. Why should anyone take that unecessary risk? Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. How many times do people have to get burned before they should just decide that they should leave these crooks alone?
You are going to get burned by these guys like everyone else has Mika. And that’s a damned shame too. Cut your losses and promote an honest platform now before you come back here in six months and say “Gee, they told me everything was better now, I guess they lied!” You wont be the first and you probably wont be the last.
I understand your point and perhaps where it is originating from, but I am charge of my own casino and I am the one paying the affiliates so in that sense I cant see eye to eye with your post. I will keep building player base with them and I am quite confident that everything will go as it should and I can personally guarantee that any affiliate who decides to join me marketing this casino of mine will surely get paid and that’s a promise I intend to keep!
Time will show the truth behind it all and I hope that once I get you the proof you need you will concider these things again. If I will run into heap of trouble(which I highly doubt) I will let you know that as well, but non the less I will always pay the affiliates and players even if that ment that I would have to pay them from my own reserves if FB wouldnt pay up for some reason, but I feel that is very unlikely to happen. I personally know another FB licensee and he is doing well with his own casino&sportsbook and the players are returning so I guess they are happy with the service they are getting.
I’d like to comment that from my past relationship with Mika, I find him very reputable and honest. He was owing me money on and he was chasing me in order to pay. Great guy.
Mike, pm me some details about your casino
