Measure of Success

[jdwanchalk]

Alright, I started building my first real poker site about two months ago. It is purely a review site.

I have (according to Yahoo) about 85 total backlinks, with some coming from rather solid sites and about 10 being one way.

I haven't invested a dime into anything yet, beyond my time and the domain registration.


Anyway I am now ranking on page two for "poker site reviews" and "online poker site reviews"

I rank on page two for some smaller sites such as Reefer Poker, page one for Aced, and so on and so forth.


I have around 15 signups this month so far, with 4 or 5 being real money players.

I am around page 9 for "PokerStars Review" but want to one day be page one.

I like to write everything in one sentence per paragraph format.




So, my question. Would a handful of one way links (first money I will have spent) from PR3 and PR4 sites really help me out? I want to be ranking for the money terms, in other words I want to be page one for the site review queries. Will it take thousands of dollars at this point, or just time and hundreds of dollars?

Any insight is appreciated.

Jonathan

[CK]

Two months isn't alot of time really when you think about the sites your up against. Especially when it's your first site. Something else your gonna run into, or I did anyway. That while some terms work well for one room, it doesn't do a damn for another room. With your first site your often guessing what works and what doesn't and you need to do alot of testing. I know that doesn't really help you much but its the truth.

I personally don't think you need a ton of links for a review type page to do well, but others will likely say yeah you do. I think time can do it and building more pages etc. Yes others do buy lots of links, and links are important but it's not the only thing you have to work with.

If your getting impatient you could build another site since you've got a good base on the first, and just add to your main one daily. Its easier to earn $1000 from one site x 5 than it is to get to the $5000 mark on a single one and so on.

[Hazo]

Hey Jonathan,

IMO, going after review terms would only cost hundreds and not thousands. Heck you don't have to spend thousands to rank for competitive phrases.

I may not be the best person to speak to because I don't get into the whole link game as much as everyone else. In saying that though, it shouldn't be too hard to get where want.

I would add more pages with a slightly different focus and link them to your money pages. Make sure your interlinking is spot on, it's free.

Nick

[Josh]

We have ranked #1 for Reefer Poker review since they came out (I think) and several other xxx poker review terms as well. We even had a site that ranked #3-5 for Pokerstars review. The results from ranking for these terms have almost always been less than we expected.

The plus side is that the effort it takes to rank for some of these terms is quite low, excluding the big rooms. When targeting review terms the main factor is the overall exposure the room receives online. Few people will search for xxx poker review if the room has very few affiliates and doesn't do any marketing.

I can think of several Merge & Cake skins that you'd be able to rank well for with minimal effort and probably see decent results, without buying any links. Since you are an excellent writer you could easily make due by writing reviews of newer but well marketed rooms and giving them away for a link back. I also know several solid sites that accept promotional type articles with links in them. All in all, it isn't the worst or hardest way to make a buck in this industry but there are a lot of traps affiliates can easily fall in to:

• Going after a term no one searches for
• Going after a term that is very competitive and expecting quick results
• Putting a lot of effort into a term only to find out the results are terrible
• Having your affiliate account closed because you are not sending legitimate traffic
• ...ect

[jdwanchalk]

We have ranked #1 for Reefer Poker review since they came out (I think) and several other xxx poker review terms as well. We even had a site that ranked #3-5 for Pokerstars review. The results from ranking for these terms have almost always been less than we expected.

The plus side is that the effort it takes to rank for some of these terms is quite low, excluding the big rooms. When targeting review terms the main factor is the overall exposure the room receives online. Few people will search for xxx poker review if the room has very few affiliates and doesn't do any marketing.

I can think of several Merge & Cake skins that you'd be able to rank well for with minimal effort and probably see decent results, without buying any links. Since you are an excellent writer you could easily make due by writing reviews of newer but well marketed rooms and giving them away for a link back. I also know several solid sites that accept promotional type articles with links in them. All in all, it isn't the worst or hardest way to make a buck in this industry but there are a lot of traps affiliates can easily fall in to:

• Going after a term no one searches for
• Going after a term that is very competitive and expecting quick results
• Putting a lot of effort into a term only to find out the results are terrible
• Having your affiliate account closed because you are not sending legitimate traffic
• ...ect

Thanks for all the advice, you and Kaus have both made me think a lot about what I am aiming for in terms of searches.

When you say writing articles for a link, I take it that you mean as an alternate to paying for links?

[Hazo]

Thanks for all the advice, you and Kaus have both made me think a lot about what I am aiming for in terms of searches.

When you say writing articles for a link, I take it that you mean as an alternate to paying for links?

Yes, that's what it means.