Im not lazy.. so why do i fail at every affiliate site i make.

[Squizzel]

Serious question, although, i doubt ill get many serious answers. I never manage to stick with anything or do anything for long enough to make money from it. Im not lazy, i play over a hundred thousand hands of poker almost every month so work ethic isnt a problem. I dont know what i do wrong each time.

The formular is supposed to be easy, create good content, get links, get traffic make money. Im failing somewhere, i need some answers or im just gonna give up. Hopefully, this post will do something to motivate me or steer me in the right direction and in a years time i can look back at it and laugh. But right now, my affilate game sucks. What do i do :-/

If i just knew exactly what to do to make bank id do it. Affiliating is harder than i thought it would be. Help me plz!

- Andy

[KevinMcC]

i play over a hundred thousand hands of poker almost every month so work ethic isnt a problem

Andy use that time on working on your affiliate sites instead...

[Squizzel]

i would if i knew what to do. right now ive probably spent hundreds of horus in total working across a number of failed sites and made no money. so i guess the time isnt well spent.

[CorryC]

The problem comes within your second sentence. Im no affiliate guru or anyone even close to some of the guys on here - but I do know one thing. It takes a shit ton of work and patience. Its just like poker man. You know you are not making any money playing poker without patience. Its about grinding it out and continuing to build content and build links and keep on building. Eventually things just come together one day.

If you do not give yourself the chance, because you are giving up to early - then it is impossible to succeed.

corrycummings on Skype - If you wanna chat, hit me up and I can tell you a couple things I do.

[addz123]

Dude if you want some answers give people more info. Are you just talking about your sig site?
For the record, I've spent timeless work on site's that have great content and traffic, and yet still make nothing, niente, F*ck all. But i've also spent zero time on some other projects which have earned money immediately. Being hard working is just 1 of a dozen factors i can think of needed to make money.

I'm sure you'll get some very good answers and motivation on this forum by providing more information

[Ridge]

Hey man, you and I talk daily pretty much. I won't get into details but I think you would agree I know you pretty well.

Here is my opinion:

#1 - I think you are looking for quick results with your sites, and when they don't get going you leave them to go stale

#2 Your #1 passion is playing poker, but you know that isn't the best thing for you, so you try affiliating, get bored and go back to poker. You will need to put poker on the back burner for a while so you can get your business moving

#3 I think if you apply the same passion you have to poker to running you sites, then you will be a major affiliate within 2 years.


Also, you said in your post this is supposed to be easy. That simply isn't true and if it was then this business wouldn't be any fun lol

[kushmoney]

Lol, I know how you feel. I have no idea how many sites I have that rank for their keywords and a 2 big ones that rank for a ton of keywords. After 3 months of taking this serious and maybe a year of promoting on one site. (wasn't too serious about it but still my links was up) Yet I still make less then $10 a month total from promoting poker rooms.

I have now only recently began to drive some ok numbers to one poker room. Even though my one of mentors' and I can't stop laughing at the name of the poker room. (You know who you are and do not say it )

The key to getting things rolling is pretty simple. First get one or two mentors that are making money the way you want to make money. For example, if you want to drive players to poker rooms via a poker blog then find 1 or 2 mentors (I prefer 2, you get to bounce ideas and come up cool ideas) making money this way here on PAL. (Even though blogs are the hardest converting sites around. Trust me I know.)

Second, I am going to use the blog example again. If you are blogging. You should have an SEO and affiliate link formula. (One of my friends such really listen to this) Each blog post should have the following for fast and long growth. This formula could be used for mini sites and big sites as well.

SEO/Affiliate link formula check list
Keyword research (Find 1 or 2 keywords that have traffic for your post)
A keyword should be in the title
A keyword should be in a subtitle (h2) - optional
A minimum of one link to another blog post within its keyword
A minimum of one affiliate link with a nice call to action

Side note: The formula above drive me a ton of signups (what I thought was a ton at the time) to pitbull poker and a few to full tilt poker. We both know what happen with pitbull and that damn 60 day rule took a lot of my players in full tilt poker.

Third, I am sure you already know this but a good design is a must. I am not even going to get into this.

Fourth, Finding good resources to use is highly important as well. Doesn't matter what resource or tool as long as its an asset to your business. It could be a place to get free backlinks or a wordpress theme like the dealer theme. (which I totally love, wish I got it sooner)

Fifth, Trial and error is one of your best teachers. Over time you will learn what not to do and what to do. Sooner or later everything will make sense on some of your sites and others you will fail no matter what you do. (learn this the hard way)

Sixth, this is hands down the most important thing. Never give up! Take me for example, I started this business with a poker blog and no budget! I still relay on selling links after PR updates and selling blog posts just to keep this business going. (Which is why I always make those crazy discount deals on links) Wish my affiliate income would speed up growth already but I know it will be another 2 - 4 months (hopefully) before that happens.

Bottom line, giving up should not be on your mind. Growing your business should always be on your mind. If you have to only focus on promoting one poker room then do it. Get the ball rolling on the right path, Growth!

Just my 2 cents

[Squizzel]

haha Randy's the man.

[CasinoKev]

Andy, no doubt you have the work ethic to make this work. The problem coming is a poker player (like I did) is that when you hear "write good content" it's going to have it's own meaning based on what you believe is good content.

In other words, if (as a player) you think to yourself, "there are too many crappy review and bonus sites, so I'm not putting up another one".

But as a marketer you have to look for terms that will make you money. Ranking #1 for "Pokerstars marketing code" will make infinitely more money than ranking #1 for "floating in hold em" for example.

You have a great blog, but you have to figure out make money from the traffic. Actually, the site isn't pulling up for me - just a blank page. But looking at the cache, I don't see poker room reviews or recommendations, bonus offers, or rakeback.

If you're going to offer Free poker training, you should take Dave's advice in
My Brutally Honest Site Reviews by Dave - Part 1

IMO, the best way to monetize would be to free poker training to all rakeback customers.

Speaking of monetizing, I see a great article on PT and HEM, but no list of the best poker rooms to use it on. No links to the programs themselves either.

So as a visitor, I would have to leave your site to search for HEM and then learn that I can get it for free by signing up at one of several poker sites through THEM. Why not offer it free to all your rakeback players that play 'x' number of hands in a month?

You could have a couple of calls to action that say something like "Get Hold'em Manager Free Today!".

You can't convert players if you don't have your affiliate links in their face.

If you haven't already I would do the following:

Read Poker SEO Tips - Gambling Search Engine Optimization Advice for solid advice on structuring your content, coming up with new ideas, and general SEO.

Read http://www.pokeraffiliatelistings.co...ffiliates.html , which will surely inspire you with some ideas to make some money.

Read Poker Affiliate Bible – The #1 Free Poker Affiliate Guide and email DealerDan with your ideas and site to get some great feedback.

Request a brutally honest review from Dave and take his advice if he has the time to reply. You commented after his review of addz site that he was harsh. Dave is straight-up and has been a true marketer for years. Listen to him and I'm sure you'll make money.

[PTC]

I didn't see anything that told me to sign up anywhere. If you want to make money from getting signups, you need to make calls to action that are visible and catch the eye as soon as you look at a page. Great example; you have an article about heads up poker strategy, why not take a screen shot that shows the lobby of HU tables on fulltilt, add an arrow with text in photoshop that says "heads up tables" and a small text that says "click to play now", folks won't miss it, it won't look like total spam, and it's relevant to your users reading that page so it can convert well. IMHO, this is a better conversion idea than i have on most of my own pages.