Dealer Dan, pictured here with WWE Superstar Mick Foley, has been in internet marketing since 1996. He likes hugs, long walks on the beach, and making money while wearing his jammy jams. For more information, you can read all 
It was about 2-3 years ago where “Diversification” became a popular word amongst gambling affiliates. Many people were realizing that diversification was a smart thing to do. The gambling industry has had some severe ups and downs – and while every other industry does as well, nothing is as random and all over the place as the gambling industry.
Over the past few years that’s what I’ve been doing – and man, I love it. The problem with the gambling industry outside of poker is that it really is completely random. One month a casino can convert 80% of their no deposit players into real money players. Another month that casino might do 0%.
A sportsbook one month might be able to get a 60% rate for re-deposits by the punters, then the next month 5%. People can get turned off from betting due to bad referee calls etc.
Oh and of course – winning. The slots player can win, the NFL bettor can win. And this is all bad for you. Traffic numbers mean nothing if it’s not working out on the casino or sportsbook side of things. You can have a record month for traffic – yet make less money in that month than you have for any previous month in the last year.
That’s why I’m really enjoying diversification. July was a good reminder of this; gambling affiliate wise, I had one of the worst months that I can remember. Sportsbook accounts were in the negative, casino numbers were way down. Summers are often rough but this is one of the roughest I’ve ever experienced.
Yet I honestly didn’t care. Because I’ve diversified enough that honestly if all gambling income dried up I’d be completely fine.
And that’s a very nice feeling. Because with new regulations coming in every month etc it’s something that doesn’t stress me out anymore.
Furthermore, depending on the site you run or industry you go into – the “it takes money to make money” motto comes in very well. For example there will be some sites that have 100 pages of content, and the site grosses $2,000 per month. However you know that the income is comparative to the amount of content. So if you add 100 more pages of content, that will be an additional $2,000 per month. Even better is it enhances the quality of your site so there’s a good chance for higher rankings, different longtails etc.
It’s just very nice having websites that are like that. I always do spreadsheets for all my websites tracking income, expenditure etc. There is almost no correlation to the numbers when it comes to gambling. Some sites I’ve invested $20,000 in for a $100 return. Other sites I’ll invest $100 a month in and see the income become ridiculous. Then I’ll invest $1,000 as opposed to $100 on that site – but never see that actually affect the income numbers.
With sites outside of gambling, I really do see it. If you’ve not diversified yet – give it a try. Honestly there’s nothing better than a positive investment of money, and that’s what I find in a lot of non-gambling websites.
Another Reason I Love Diversification:
It means with actual gambling websites, I get to pick and choose websites that I actually WANT to do. No longer caring about the bottom line, I can run websites that I am passionate about, or websites that I’ve wanted to take a risk on but previously was cautious about wasting resources on it.
Take my latest website Sports Betting Tips for example. I’ve been betting sports since I was 15. Sports betting was actually one of my primary sources of income for a few years. Not a day goes by that I don’t have a bet on some sort of sporting event.
I’ve ran sports betting tips websites for years – but this is the first one that brings all the sports together. Usually I’ve went with niche websites for each sports – but this is the first one I’ve ever ran that covers all sports. And man – I’m having a blast. I outsource a lot of the content – but when it comes to the daily tips posts, I do them every day.
I have a rule that every article I write must be minimum 500 words. On some websites that can be a struggle – but on a website like that, where I am passionate about writing – I’ll have a 700 word article done in 10 minutes. It’s fantastic.
And there’s no real stress. With gambling websites, and so much competition, it could fail. Or it could bring in lots of players, but they could all end up winning initially and put my accounts in the negative. Or so many other things to consider.
But having diversified, and with gambling affiliate income not being something I’m too concerned about anymore – it’s just fantastic to run that site. I remember new sites I’d be checking the traffic numbers 5-10 times a day, monitoring the users as they visit the site. Now I’m MAYBE checking the stats on that site once per day max.
I’ve written a lot about doing affiliate work for something you are passionate about – and believe me, it’s without a doubt the best way to do things.
Motivation is Everywhere:
One thing you should always do is chat to people outside of the affiliate world. It’s amazing where you can find motivational quotes that keep you going.
It doesn’t matter if they are a business owner, a manager or an employee at McDonalds. There’s usually always something that motivates them. And even if there isn’t – just by talking to them, and getting below the surface of “I hate my job!” you can usually find something there that you can use to further your own motivation.
I was talking to a friend last week, who runs his own pizza place, and he said something that’s really been stuck in my head the last few days.
He really cares about the quality of the pizza they produce, and he told me what he tells his employees:
“To some of these customers – this pizza they are ordering is the highlight of their week. After working every day 9-5 it’s the weekend, and they’ve been looking forward to this pizza. So every time you make a pizza, make sure you make the best possible pizza you can – because after the week they’ve had, these people deserve the best pizza life can offer.”
And it’s funny – because I know a lot of people on the other side of that. People who work 9-5 all week, and then on Friday or Saturday nights they’ll order takeout food. It’s a staple of their lives – something they do every week without fail. They sit down and they go through all their takeout options debating exactly what they’re going to order, as well as what movie they are going to watch while they eat.
I think that’s something that should be applied to everything you do, and can be applied to affiliate sites as well. Don’t think about just making money – think about the end user. Think about the person googling “best online casino” or “best penny slots” or “best sportsbook to bet nfl”.
It’s your duty to give them the best possible answer, and best possible website for what they are looking for.
This article was written on September 15, 2014 however all articles are looked at on a monthly basis and updated to keep them relevant.
If you need to contact Graeme, please see his Contact Page. If you are an affiliate manager wanting promoted please see this page.
