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 
Welcome to Thank Geo-Targeting It’s Monday. Geo-targeting is something that for the last couple of years I’ve taken for granted, and I wanted to take a second to stop and actually publicly thank it.
Geo-targeting is of course the act of tailoring content towards a specific country. Oh you are from the USA? Here’s Bovada, 5Dimes and Classy Coin Casino. You’re visiting from the UK? Check out Bet365 and World Betting XChange instead!
I was reminded about how awesome geo-targeting is, when I managed to boost the numbers for my NHL Tips site mailing list by a significiant margin over the past couple of weeks.
The NHL Tip site is BetNHL.ca and it kills it. You might think with a .ca name the majority of the traffic would be from Canada but nothing could be further than the truth – Canada is actually #3 on the list, behind a couple of European countries.
So we have a mailing list – the lure of the list being getting the tips delivered to your inbox each day. With the NHL season nearing an end I REALLY wanted to push that. Our rankings have been incredible since I launched the site earlier this year – but we’re now hitting the NHL off-season for a few months. Rankings could drop off, and people could forget about the site. So it’s imperative that I get as many people connected to us via twitter, facebook, e-mail etc as soon as possible – so that I can hit the ground running come the off-season.
So over the last few weeks we’ve been pushing it with the following text:
Be sure to subscribe to our daily tips, because not only will you get the tips e-mailed to you every day but we’re working on some special mailing list exclusive bonuses and free bets.
Now that’s an okay sales pitch. I’m giving them a solid reason as to why they should sign up, and then adding in an incentive. It was bringing in on average 5 new subscriptions per day.
I then modified it slightly to geo-target without going overboard. It now says:
Quick note for people from United States: Be sure to subscribe to our daily tips, because not only will you get the tips e-mailed to you every day but we’re working on some special mailing list exclusive bonuses and free bets only for people from United States.
(And yes – I’m geo-targeting that just for you!)
The result? Average of 25 new subscriptions per day. And the only change was adding the users country twice inside the blurb. 5x the amount of subscribers.
If you’re using WordPress, and not using Epik Geo-IP or any other form of geo-targeting you’re missing out. The $50 price is nothing compared to the money you’ll make with it.
Speaking of Mailing Lists:
I’m about to take on an interesting challenge. One thing most of you probably know about me, is that I’m a big sports better. I’ve been betting sports since I was 14 years old, and I even did it professionally for a few years. I run a wide variety of sports betting tips websites dedicated to various sports. And now I’m about to take on my hardest challenge yet:
The CFL.
The CFL is the Canadian Football League. Now you might wonder WHY this is my hardest challenge. I mean, I run betting tips websites on WNBA, Darts and Golf. Surely a CFL Betting Tips website will be a piece of cake?
Well it should be – except for one problem:
No-one bets on the CFL.
Seriously. Are you friends with any sportsbook affiliate managers? Ask them how much action they’ll get on the CFL. Even bookies whose clientele is all Canadian – no-one bets on it! It’s amazing.
That’s why it’s one of my biggest challenges; because no-one bloody bets on it!
Even more importantly – no-one searches for it! So it’s a bigger challenge because I can’t rely purely on SEO; I need to focus on other areas of marketing.
And that’s where the power of mailing lists come in handy.
I’ve got over 100,000 subscribers to mailing lists spread out over a wide variety of sports tips websites; NHL, NBA, NFL, Darts, Golf, WNBA, UFC and more. Are these people interested in the primary area of this website, which is the CFL? No. But they ARE interested in the secondary area which is sports betting.
Thanks to these mailing lists I’ll be able to hit the ground running with the CFL website. This is especially important in the early days because it gives you a nice boost without having to rely on the search engines, and also can get a lot of nice natural linkage all over the web.
Harvesting e-mail addresses is important. Just aim to target people for the right reasons. No-one gives a crap if you added 10 new articles to your generic casino website; but they MAY be interested in no deposit bonuses, special VIP bonuses, or news about the latest slot machines.
If you’re doing mailing lists, FeedBurner is pretty decent for scraping your RSS, although for the more pro version I can’t recommend AWeber enough.
Party LOL
Last week I blacklisted Party Partners.
In response to the blacklisting, they invited me to sign up for a new account…..without gaining back any of the affiliates or players I sent over the last 8 years.
My response to them was simple:
Go Fuck Yourself.
Best WordPress SEO Plugin for 2013:
I get asked this a lot. And no wonder. Whether you’re new to being an affiliate or an experienced one – there’s a lot of plugins out there. And the “best” SEO WordPress plugin has changed over the years. A few years ago it was that “All In One SEO Plugin” – I think that was the name of it. Then headspace2 came on and took over.
I’m always trying the new ones, and right now I feel that Yoasts WordPress SEO Plugin is the best of the bunch. Of course it’s really one of those things where personal preference overrides all and the differences aren’t that big – but if you’ve been using the same WordPress SEO plugin the last few years – maybe try that one out.
It’s Summer – Treat Yourself:
It’s Summer. Hopefully where you’re at the weather is nice and hot. In Canada it’s currently hit and miss – sadly more miss than hit.
But this is the perfect time to really experience what it’s like as an affiliate. If you have a laptop/netbook great – you’re all set. If you don’t – go out and get one.
Then set yourself up with an office in your garden. Or head down to the waterfront with your laptop, and do work there for a few hours.
Basically – work outside! That’s all I am saying. Honestly there’s nothing I love greater than basking in the beautiful rays of the sun while working. It’s just such an awesome feeling – and one that really gets you pumped for the day.
Nothing really reminds me more of how great being an affiliate is than that. After a few hours hard at work you simply lay back in the lounger, sip on a cold drink and enjoy the sunshine without even needing to get up.
If you’re an affiliate, part-time or full-time; make sure you experience that. It’s one of the best things about this job.
Have an awesome week.
This article was written on June 24, 2013 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.
