My Site - Some Advice Sought

[gamblinglinkzzz]

Hi Guys,

Firstly, I am new to the forum and affiliate marketing, so please be gentle with me

My website, Gamblinglinkzzz.com - Your resource for the BEST Gambling Websites on the Internet!! seems to be getting plenty of hits, but these hits are not converting to sales..... in fact, I have only 1 sale from around 500 website hits, and the click-through rate isnt brilliant either.

I am thinking this may be to do with the layout of the site, although I like it, it doesnt seem to be doing the job.

Would you guys mind having a look at the site and pointing me in the right direction??

Cheers

[PaulEdd]

Originally Posted by gamblinglinkzzz Hi Guys, Firstly, I am new to the forum and affiliate marketing, so please be gentle with me My website, Gamblinglinkzzz.com - Your resource for the BEST Gambling Websites on the Internet!! seems to be getting plenty of hits, but these hits are not converting to sales..... in fact, I have only 1 sale from around 500 website hits, and the click-through rate isnt brilliant either. I am thinking this may be to do with the layout of the site, although I like it, it doesnt seem to be doing the job. Would you guys mind having a look at the site and pointing me in the right direction?? Cheers

Firstly Hello! and welcome to Affiliate marketing ~ you'll never look back

I'm happy to throw in my 2 pence worth... you can choose to ignore my advice.

Overall ~ well done, building a new site isn't easy.
Just to let you know that 500 hits isn't a massive amount of traffic, but it's a good start. 300 of your hits could be from search engine spiders and various bots that trawl the web ~ so don't get too worried about your conversion rates just yet.

If it was my site (and it isn't) i would get rid of the google ad words box ~ it's just inviting visitors to leave your site cheaply, I.E. you will get 5c a click thru when you could be getting $50 on a CPA deal with someone.

I would also think about what you want the visitor to do when they hit your homepage, right now your homepage doesn't have a clear message as too what benefits it offers the visitor.

I can see that you're trying to show various deals from casino, betting and bingo sites, so why not make that very clear to the visitor ~ a small paragraph at the top of the page that reads "Find the latest free cash deals from leading casinos, sports bookmakers and online bingo rooms with Gamblinglinkzz.com" and maybe a second paragraph "we also provide free strategie guides and systems to improve you play"

I would also change the text under each thumbnail which currently reads "Click image to enter site" to a more attractive call to action. maybe "Get £10 Free ~ Click Here", Free £20 bet ~ Click Here" etc etc... I know it sounds a little obvious, but little changes like this do make a big difference to conversion rates. I once worked as a web designer for an online bank, i found simple things like just adding a little arrow next to each text link sent the click thrus sky high!

lastly I would make some of your boxes on the homepage bigger than others, take the two best offers and make them very big, gradually reduce the size of the boxes smaller as you get lower down the page.

Hope that helps

[drivetowin]

Get some paid hosting

At the moment by using free hosting your website is sitting inside a frame (so I guess those adsense panels are actualy from your hosting company).

Being in a frame puts you at least ten steps down the ladder in SEO terms - so get rid of it.

[csn]

Originally Posted by PaulEdd If it was my site (and it isn't) i would get rid of the google ad words box ~ it's just inviting visitors to leave your site cheaply, I.E. you will get 5c a click thru when you could be getting $50 on a CPA deal with someone.

I disagree. To begin with, AdSense is a great way to get some regular income. It's how I started. I still have AdSense running on my sites, and it brings in some cash.

I understand it is better to make a sale than to make a click as the reward is greater. However, some people are not interested in embarking on that purchase. They click off the site as they think the information there would be relevant but alas it was not and they walk away. Better to have made some money than none at all.

Originally Posted by PaulEdd I can see that you're trying to show various deals from casino, betting and bingo sites, so why not make that very clear to the visitor ~ a small paragraph at the top of the page that reads "Find the latest free cash deals from leading casinos, sports bookmakers and online bingo rooms with Gamblinglinkzz.com" and maybe a second paragraph "we also provide free strategie guides and systems to improve you play"

Agreed.

Originally Posted by PaulEdd I would also change the text under each thumbnail which currently reads "Click image to enter site" to a more attractive call to action. maybe "Get £10 Free ~ Click Here", Free £20 bet ~ Click Here" etc etc...

Sensible advice.

Originally Posted by drivetowin Get some paid hosting

I certainly agree. The design is great. The fact that you haven't bought any hosting lets it down.

Because you are using free hosting, you may be losing some credibility from visitors. For example, if you haven't paid for hosting, is your content worth listening too.

All you need is some cheap web hosting to get you going. That way, if the site makes money, you can look at getting more reliable hosting. On the other side, if the site doesn't make any money, you haven't lost a lot.

Web hosting without banners, bars or popups is what you are after.

Hope this helps.

[gamblinglinkzzz]

Hi Guys,

Thanks very much for the excellent advice. Some of the points you have raised I already had in mind, like the hosting and to some extent the layout, I think Ill have a quick look at the site layout again soon and let you know when I have.

[tbp]

I think you're biggest problem is that it's just pages of links. While sites like these used to do well, theres so much competition now they don't any more.

At the moment your site is justing putting one more step in the process of signing up to these sites, and isn't adding any value to the experience. Why would someone come to your site, rather than just doing a search for "Casino sites" or similar in Google.

What you need is a way to make your site genuinely useful, which is the key to all affiliate sites now. Looking at your page, there is nothing on there which would persuade me to sign up with one of the sites. If you want to make sales, then you need to start selling!

What I would do is to give each external site it's own page. You would then give info about the external site, how much it costs to sign up, what sort of prizes you can win, offers that many of them do like for your first deposit they will match it. You could also have reviews of the various sites as well.

You can't expect people to sign up when you aren't telling them WHY they should sign up! You really need to sell them on the idea of signing up, so they come to your site and read your pre sell and make their mind up to sign up. They then go to the external site to specifically sign up, not just to have a browse around. You need to put all the info in from of your visitors, most people are too lazy to go out and look for it.

You also need a clear call to action as well. Don't just put a link to the site, put a nice big button on the page saying "Click here to Sign Up to xxxx - Get your first deposit doubled" for example. Notice that I have put Sign Up in caps, even though it's in the middle of the sentence. This is a psychological technique, which makes the words Sign Up stand out enough for the brain to pick up on without being too obvious. In effect you are giving the person an order. Obviously, this isn't going to make every single person sign up, but it has been shown to increase the number of people who do, and help the ditherers to sub consciously make up their mind.

Hope you don't mind me criticising, but i`m sure it will help with your sales, and I like seeing people do well with their sites.

[MooMoo]

TBP

Your write up is great!.. wish I had asked your advice whilst building my own sites.. even tho this thread was for someone else the info you gave was sensible and to the point. I shall take a note of it for when I re-do some of my own sites. Thanks!

[tbp]

No problem Moo Moo, glad I could help

I do find threads like these difficult, as I don't like criticising peoples sites after they've put in work to create them. It is constructive criticism though, and purely because I want to help. A lot of the stuff I`ve learnt along the way I wish someone had told me when I first started - would of made my life much easier As a result, I try and pass it on to others to help them avoid making the same mistakes that I did.

[DioBach]

On an aside about the adsense, if it is yours you could lose your account as you are in breach of the TOS, displaying ads on a site with Gambling content. Worth a heads up.

Also, your ticker mentions online gambling is illegal in the USA. That's not strictly speaking true. You can bet on horses in the USA legally, and it's not online gambling that's illegal, its the processing of payments that is in question at the moment.