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[boarderman23]

Hey, my partner, themike537, and I created our first poker affiliating site approximately 3 months ago. It is a site focused on the sit n go niche. We posted it here for reviews when we started, but we would really appreciate if you would rate our progress and give us a few more pointers.

If you would like to view the site, the link is in my signature.

We average 50 unique visitors daily. The number rose from 0 to 50 in around 6 weeks, and has since leveled off.

Our forum has 28 members, but the only posting ones are my partner and I on our 6 different accounts, along with some various posts from personal friends.

We are ranked in the top ten for almost every variation of sit n go searches, and we have articles ranked in the top three for many of the specific searches.

Our page rank is 3, as we are advanced members at link metro and have sent out over 1000 link requests so far. Around 500 were accepted.

We have about 50 pages on our website; around 30 are news and articles, along with 6 poker site reviews. When we started we mainly focused on link exchanges, but now our main goal is more content, and we try to add it as regularly as possible.

We are now working on sydicating some of our articles across the internet with our links to try and get more traffic besides search engines. We hope to have over 100 uniques daily in a month.

Our biggest concern so far is that we have no real money players. Our first month we had a personal friend sign up at Party under us, but besides that we have had nothing. Our stats show that we have a couple downloads at a few sites, but not even a play account anywhere.

Hopefully the affiliates here can help us out. If you see anything wrong with our site please be harsh as we need the advice. We can't figure out why we are having trouble getting real money players, and if you can help us it would be greatly appreciated.

[Ritch111]

Just a content thought.

You should also add 6 person sng's. That is what I play now and the payouts are pretty good, considering there are 4 less people playing. Turbo as well.

Ritch

[SunPoker.com]

Quite honestly, I think you have a great site and I don't think it will be too much longer until you have some real money players. While there are exceptions, it usually takes at least 3-6 months for most new affiliates to start seeing some action in their accounts. It sounds like you are working diligently at improving your situation, but I believe in a short time, you will start seeing some results.

It's not an easy business, but it looks like you have a nice product. Keep up with the good work.

Regards,

Mark

[Scott]

Just a few thoughts here.

When I first see your page, I don't know who you are or what you want me (the reader) to know. I'm instantly confused on why I should stay here.

I'd get rid of the intro/welcome paragraph. People don't read, they scan. No one is reading that first paragraph.

Try some more traditional direct response (DR) language. Capture the reader's imaginiation. Bring them in with a big headline. Your focus is SNGs, so start there. Example:

Headline - Finish in the Money in EVERY Sit & Go You Play!
Sub-head - Read our Sit n Go Strategy Tips to Learn How

Not perfect, but you get the idea. Present your site as THE authority on SNGs. Do the same for your Forum.

To make room for a longer sales pitch on the home page, I'd move the News and Articles section to the top nav bar.

Didn't read all of your articles, but make them more personal. How do YOU win? Why do you play at a given room?

Maybe try something like, "check out the SNG I won last night at Party." Show your winning hand, walk through the strategy you used, was there a great laydown or outstanding call, etc. Within the text, link to an affiliate site.

Add an area for visitors to post their best SNG story or pull it from your forum so it's prominent on the home page.

Consider changing the page title on your home page. You're 8th on google for a "sit and go poker" search. Change your title to "The only site you need to visit for Sit & Go poker".....that's a little long. For SEO, stick to roughly 35 characters and don't repeat words in the title. My point is, maintain your key words but put a sales pitch in that google searches will respond to.

Also for SEO, get rid of the "home" link. Keep the link of course but change it to either "Coin Flip Poker" or "Sit & Go Poker" - something that will actually help your rankings. "Home" doesn't help.

Lastly, capture emails - always capture emails. Build a relationship by providing good tips and content through an eNewsletter. Then promote your affiliate programs to your list.

Just my quick glance thoughts. Don't get me wrong. You've got a great site - better than a lot of site out there. But there's a lot of potential too.

Good luck.

Scott

[themike537]

Wow, that is some great advice. Thank you for putting that time into your post, we'll work on all those areas.

[mikebrad]

Boarderman and themike,

First of all, I really do like your site. I remember a few months ago when you posted your review and it seems like you've made lots of improvments since then.

However, I want to elaborate on the SEO points that Scott mentioned. You definitely need to get rid of the Home link. It should say "Sit and go strategy" or "Sit and go poker", something to that effect. Basically, whatever your main keyword is.

Also, I've noticed that only a few of your pages have PR. What are your main entry pages for your traffic? If you are not getting any traffic directly to your reviews, maybe you should consider getting some links to internal pages and try to bulk up the PR of those pages. Article directories are sometimes a good source for one-ways into your internal pages.

I am just a little bit ahead of you. My site has been live for about 4 months and I can tell you, it is worth hanging in there. This month started out with a bang and hasn't let up. Here is my "history":

January - got 1 RMP at absolute from a WSOP satellite page (didn't make any money from him, though :angry: )

February - Nothing (a few sign ups, no conversions)

March - 1 RMP at paradise from that same WSOP page (this one cleared, though)

April - 2 RMPs at absolute, 3 RMPs at doyle's, 2 RMPs at tilt, 2 RMPs at Poker Heaven

As you can see, April has "blown up" for me. Now, I know that these numbers a very small compared to most people on this forum but I am also just starting out and I've posted this to keep you guys motivated. I have a full time job and a wife and a kid, so I've hardly been able to do what I would like to do with the site.

Oh and also, the majority of my traffic comes in through my review pages. I really don't have that much traffic, but it is all targeted and the bottom line is that's the traffic that converts.

Hang in there guys,
Mike

[themike537]

Ok, thanks so much for all your advice guys.

About the "Home" link. In the top right corner of all my pages I have a link to my home page that says "Sit N Go Strategy | SNG Tips". I figured that would help with SEO. Should I do away with that link, and just change the other one?

Also, I'm assuming here that you're talking about the Home link on the bottom of the pages, the text links, and not the button at the top. I've heard that button links don't count for SEO, but if I'm wrong correct me.

For our links, almost every single one has been directed to our home page. That is most likely the reason nothing else has PR. We're going to focus on getting links to our reviews and individual articles to try and bring more traffic in from subpages.

Almost 100% of our traffic is coming to our home page because of this, so we're going to work on that.

Thanks again, great post.