$200 Budget

[Holyman]

I remember an old thread about what a webmaster would do with a $100 budget to get traffic to their site -

I thought I would start this again, only with $200..

So, the question is: You have an existing website with decent traffic. You have $200 to increase that traffic and get more visitors to you site. How would you spend it?

Thanks guys and gals!

[themike537]

Hmm.

$15 - Arrivenet.com Press Release - Just write a general review of your site, and link off to your major pages with your anchor text.

With the rest I'd probably just hire someone to write some high quality poker articles. I'm a big fan of having great content on your site.

You could also purchase some links with some of the money as well.

But in the long run adding great content to your site will really pay off.

[LadyHoldem]

My opinion has actually changed, I think I would buy links in articles on newsy sites or blogs, anything with decent traffic really, because I seem to get quite a bit of traffic this way these days. From being mentioned in news articles. I'd suggest links that will stay forever, and do pass juice, just because they're preferable to expiring links that don't.

You might also go for a banner on a medium sized site, though I don't know if that would work as well.

Content is a great idea, but I generally try not to suggest that one, else I appear insincere. The more words you have floating around the more keywords.

A consult could be a good idea, there might be some traffic streams that you are not utilizing.

As Mike said, Press releases, These are good for traffic and backlinks

[PKing]

My honest answer?

I'd put that $200 in the bank, and use to it pay for my web hosting expenses for the site over the next year.

Then I'd try and write an article per day, every day. If I couldn't do it everyday, I'd write at least 5-6 articles per week.

I'd write about things that are topical. Things that are going to draw interest (and subsequently, links) to the site.

This is exactly what we do. We don't spend a dime aside from our web hosting expenses.

[Holyman]

Anyone want to write a review of my site for me? I will pay of course, but I would like this done today..

[hoursurfing]

Disperse the money using title keyword targeted press releases. Turn that $200 into ....?$... in no time. Then you can start playing the game.

[Holis]

How much and how long?

and where would the review go?

PM

Originally Posted by Holyman

Anyone want to write a review of my site for me? I will pay of course, but I would like this done today..

[TheDonk]

Originally Posted by hoursurfing

Disperse the money using title keyword targeted press releases. Turn that $200 into ....?$... in no time. Then you can start playing the game.

Have any places you particularly like?

Thanks,

TheDonk

[ramchip]

I'm going to be 100% honest and I hope all that read this post will take my comments in good faith. Firstly compared to many of you I'm new to this industry and I have been developing my sites for just over a year. When I first started I wasted too much time and money buying links to boost my pagerank which did very little to increase my traffic or RPMs. I was working under the illusion that sites with decent pagerank had decent traffic which is simply not true. I have even managed to get one of my sites to PR5 with under 50 visits a day. All I did was buy site wide links on a few PR7 sites and the next PR update my site was PR5 (this was not a poker site).

Also I have made mistakes buying ads or links on sites that were advertised as having decent traffic when in fact they did not although now I have learnt how to get a goods idea of any sites traffic.

I also use to play online and live poker for years before I started my own sites so I think I have a good understanding of what poker players are looking for before they sign up to a poker site. Lets say that you want to sign up to a poker site on the Microgaming network. You have a choice of 30+ skins on the network and a choice of 100s or 1000s of sites advertising these skins. Most networks now have more than one poker site on their network and each one of these sites will have their own bonus or rakeback deal.

In the UK players have now wised up to the fact that they can shop around for a rakeback or bonus deals but to be honest a lot of affiliate sites do not cover these details in enough detail. So if I look at an affiiate site and it does not give a good breakdown of the bonus then I'm simply not interested and will look for another site. Obviously new players or those just looking for freerolls will not be put off by this but I can assure you serious players will be and these are the players we want to convert to RPMs.

Also many affiliates promote a certain site on a network when another site on the network may offer a much better deal for players. A good example is the Boss network where some sites offer rakeback and some do not. Decent players will shop around and find the best deal so it is in the best interest of the affiliate to find the best deal to promote to potential RPMs.

Also I have to say that some of the strategy displayed on affiliate sites is poor and it is obvious to poker players that the site owner knows very little about poker. Put yourself in their shoes and for example would you buy a new car from a salesman who knew nothing about it?

Poker has changed over the last few years and players are much more aware of the game than they were 2 or 3 years ago. Also players are switching to other forms of poker such as Omaha and Stud and from experience thses games can be very profitable.

So back to the original question of how to spend $200. Firstly make sure for the sites you are promoting you give the info the players want to see. If you don't then they will simply move on to another site for the info and you will lose a RPM. So make sure you give the main details such as bonus clearing requirements, game types available, PT compatiable deposit / withdrawal methods etc.

For the network you are promoting make sure you have a competitive package and are not promoting a site that offers players a relative poor deal compared to other sites on the network.

Spend time to understand poker, learn about other games such as Omaha and Stud and find sites that have decent traffic for these games.

You have a wide choice of sites you can promote so research these sites and promote the ones that offer the best deal for players and you will not go far wrong.

Before you buy links or advertising on any sites spend a day or two looking at the site. With forums you can get a good idea of quality of traffic from what the members post and how many new posts are generated each day. You can also get a good indication of the nationality of the posters by noting what time the forum peaks each day. Also with forums the ratio with members to posts should be at least 20X, if not then most times either the owner has inflated the membership, the owner has hired posters or the forum is riddled with spam bots.

When buying advertising on other sites spend time reading the content of the site. Is it well written, does it make sense and would poker players find it useful?

Sorry to ramble on a bit but I hope I have got my points across. Quality content + quality products + quality advertising = loads of RPMs.

[haynesey]

Good Post Ramchip.

Reminds me to work on rooms bonus pages.