INSIGHT
of these brands, I’ve noticed how
community content doesn’t rank well
for ‘money’ phrases.
Forums can be informative because
they feature real people talking about
real experiences that you can learn
from. But that doesn’t usually translate
well into a simple list of excellent
casino bonuses.
AskGamblers is unusual in this
respect because it mixes community
content with highly profitable search
rankings – in fact, it ranks for most
casino brands. Based on the idea that
Google search results are a popularity
listing, players want this community
feedback before committing
themselves to a new operator.
Meanwhile, OLBG focuses on
betting tips and has an ‘OLBG army’
of loyal punters feeding into its tipping
listings. That creates a network effect
where betting tips improve because
you got more people contributing and,
by law of averages, there will be some
remarkable tipsters. The better the
tipsters, the more attractive OLBG is.
These retention features in
AskGamblers and OLBG are part
of their DNA and it would be
virtually impossible to replicate them
successfully. These sites work because
of the network effect and unless you’ve
got something game-changing, you’re
unlikely to compete against them.
Finally, you have big affiliates
with initiatives that aren’t core to
their DNA. LCB is interesting in this
sense because of its combination
of a casino-listings website and a
destination with forums and other
initiatives such as the LCB shop.
Players gain payment in notional
dollars as they contribute to LCB
forums, comment on posts, rate land-
based casinos, slots and games, and
are active across the site. They then go
to the LCB shop and cash out those
notional dollars against offers from
operators. These mechanisms build up
the network effect created by user-
generated content for elements such
as casino reviews by gamifying player
engagement – that is, they encourage
engagement with typical elements of
game playing, such as point-scoring or
competition with others.
Next moves
So what do you do next if you’ve
enjoyed a success? As I mentioned
earlier, it’s about understanding why
it worked for you. Doing these big
initiatives around player retention is
great but you have to have the right
ingredients in place, including:
• Evidence that enough players
do come back to your website
via direct referral.
• Having something already on your
website that’s a suitable foundation
for growth – for example, you
might have a forum where the only
real hotspot is casino bonuses for
Curaçao-licensed casinos.
• Making sure that, whatever your
initiative, it helps you rank better
because it generates original content
leading to profitable rankings and
helps build the network effect on
your site.
• Having enough money to have a go
– I would say bet no more than 20%
of your spare cash on a retention
initiative and assume a third of your
time is going to be consumed by this.
The odds are that only 10% of thin
affiliate webmasters should seriously
look at big retention initiatives. If you
are part of the other 90%, concentrate
on getting to the bottom of why you
are successful and do more of it.
Next time, I’ll discuss how to analyse
and get to the bottom of why some thin
affiliate sites rank and others don’t.
NICK GARNER
is founder of Oshi.io, a
successful Bitcoin casino
and founder of RIZE.
digital, the igaming marketing
services agency which specialises in
SEO, affiliate management, content
and translations.
iGB Af filiate Issue 71 OCT/NOV 2018
45