How much $$ do YOU make?

[Neil]

Just checked this post, I see it's still active!

My partner and I built our affiliate site about 2 years ago, we've both worked in the Gaming industry, my partner is the SEO jedi and I'm the designer/front-end guy. Between us we've been an effective team.

Our earnings bounce around but we've made between $200 - $18k. We tried quite a few ways to scale to the next level but it's tricky, takes a lot of strategy, money, failing... hopefully we can get some knowledge here.

I've started writing a series of posts about our journey through the casino affiliate game, I hope this gives others some insight on how we came to be. In under 2 years we've made $42,678 total.

If you want to read our story you can read the first post here:
http://vegashero.co/how-to-go-from-0-to-42678-a-casino-affiliate-journey/

 

[AussiePunter]

This is an interesting thread, I've been working online for quite a while and my income has always varied wildly. Even more so now that I rely on gambling websites as my primary income source.

I've run the numbers and I've noticed that some programs give you the option of taking 1% of the turnover as opposed to CPA or RevShare, this seems like it would be a much safer method of getting a decent, consistent income and whilst I have always opted for RevShare in the past, I might consider a combination of CPA/RevShare hybrid and 1% of turnover for some affiliate programs. Can anyone with decent volume share with me if they think 1% of turnover is not selling myself short? My stats for the last year seem to show that I'm getting a little bit more than that, but not so much that would make a huge difference.

Having that peace of mind by knowing a whale isn't going to ruin my monthly income by winning big at the end of the month, wiping out all of the income from a hundred smaller bettors would be great.

 

[AussieDave]

AussiePunter,

If you can avoid the bundling, NCO and High Roller Corraling, then Rev Share, in the long run, is always going to be better, imho.

I'm on a wagering model at Rewards Affiliates. I like it because, as you said, the risk isn't there.
If everyone is playing slots, it's great. BUT it they're aren't, your not going to make much moolah, unless you have a large player base and they're wagering a lot per month.

I wouldn't go 100% wagering model with ALL casino's I promote, I spread the risk. Because if you snag a Whale or a larger player who, only plays for a couple of months, doesn't win and doesn't have much luck, then your going to earn far more on a Rev Share deal than a wagering model.

It come down to crunching the numbers and the risks your prepared to take.

 

[lalalaenhund]

Honestly, if you only promote casinos on a revshare deal with no negative carryover, and you have some volume, the risk is minimal. Casinos are always going to make profit. If you promote even 5 different brands on deals like I described above, the risk of being left with no income over 1 month is minimal, and over 2+ months in a row it's nonexistent. Sure, individual brands may sometimes make negative commissions, but who cares when it eventually evens out 100% of the time?

The real risk is a network going rogue on your ass.

 

[AussiePunter]

This is true with casinos, however most of my income comes from horse racing and sportsbooks. Promoting casinos as an Australian resident, whilst very tempting, is in a legal grey area that I'm not entirely comfortable with doing.

 

[AussieDave]

@ AussiePunter, Didnt you get shafted by Sportsbet Affiliate program, with their player quota back in 2013?

 

[lalalaenhund]

This is true with casinos, however most of my income comes from horse racing and sportsbooks. Promoting casinos as an Australian resident, whilst very tempting, is in a legal grey area that I'm not entirely comfortable with doing.

In that case you have a valid point. Have you thought about starting a company offshore just to promote casinos? I've heard of people doing that in jurisdictions like Australia.

 

[AussiePunter]

@Bet4You - Sportsbet altered their terms to be what many here know as "predatory", this is true. I could go on for pages about getting shafted by them, I did write something on here about them in fact. Instead of dwelling on the past I've moved on and I no longer actively promote them. It's a shame that I lost $x,xxx a month from two companies but it's not the first time it's happened to me and I doubt it will be the last.

@lalalaenhund - I have thought about it and it's becoming a more attractive option all of the time. I may even move one day to a more "liberal" country one day, however for now I'll just concentrate on continuing to improve my sites, there was a time not so long ago that I was considering selling my main site and moving on to something else. I'm glad that I didn't!

 

[AussieDave]

Promoting casinos as an Australian resident, whilst very tempting, is in a legal grey area

I don't think you've got much to worry about. I've been doing it since 2007 and with .au domains.

There was a moratorium for it in 2000/01, if your not actually accepting/taking the bet, you haven't got much to worry about. I sought legal council back in 2010. It was a grey area then and still is. Then again so too is obtaining nicotine liquid for Vape juice. However if you order it (for personal use) through the USA (and not China), Australian customs are not seizing it.

Obviously at the end of the day it's your call.

Though I'm pretty sure if your promoting non-Australian-licenced sportbooks etc, then your breaking these grey laws, already

 

[WagerPod]

Its getting harder and harder to make it in this industry, too much competition and we are classed as dirt of the shoe of Google. We are also being overrun by hackers.

 

[slotplayer]

yes, its getting pretty tough but you know, keep plugging away.

 

[xecutable]

Ask anyone in any other industry and they will tell you the same thing. Truth is, if there was an industry where there was no competition and the money were pouring in, everyone would be doing it. Competition should encourage you to be more creative, not discourage you to keep on going lol. Tbh, I see a lot less newcomers, than back in 2012-13?

 

[WagerPod]

True, but then again the lucrative markets are more competitive. I suppose we have to compete with other affiliates, hacked sites and the online casinos themselves.

 

[AussieDave]

Competition should encourage you to be more creative, not discourage you.................. Tbh, I see a lot less newcomers, than back in 2012-13?

I thrive on competition, hence agree with you.
However maybe your sites haven't been targeted by the hacker. In my case they have. Most of my time and energy is now wasted trying to stay 1 step ahead of this bastard.

Although I soldier on, it's extremely discouraging.

As far as newcomers, it goes in waves.

Back when I started, anyone who couldn't code, didn't stand a chance, it kept the market lean. But Since WP (and other CMS's), site builder software etc became available, the competition has risen sharply. Though, if 100 newbies started tomorrow, maybe 2 or 3 would be still doing it a year later. That's the advantage we have. Most people come into this industry thinking it's a cash-cow. What they don't realise is the sheer amount of hard-work you have to put in before you start making decent cash.

 

[Neil]

Everyone is getting hacked, I work at a hosting company and It's a real problem for all.

The problem starts with people simply not updating.

In my opinion there needs to be more innovation in our industry, focusing on niche instead of being too general worked for us. You also have to look at bringing in brand new players instead of trying to bag experienced ones, those big spenders are few and far between.

We get 5-10 paying players who rarely play again the next month, I believe that the games need to be brought to another level, many providers are just duplicating the same old thing. The new generation want games like Candy Crush!

Also, as new countries are opening up it's like a land rush, that's where the experience comes in to jump in early and setup shop before they all do.



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[AussieDave]

Everyone is getting hacked, I work at a hosting company and It's a real problem for all.

The problem starts with people simply not updating.

Touch wood I haven't been hacked BUT I get scraped and my adcopy along with my Brands and meta data is used to out rank me. I've implimented multiple layers of protection (not WP security plugins) and while I've managed to keep 99% of the crap out, it's that 1% which is causing me all the headaches. Which I can't seem to pin point, even using raw log stats.

I've stopped my sites being cached, yanked all the RSS feeds and if the new security measure I've just added yesterday, still doesn't stop it, I'm going to start blanketing entire Countries. I market to Australia and New Zealand, so in my case if your not in these Countries, I don't need or want you on my sites.

This hacker issue shouldn't be an issue for savvy webmasters. It generally isn't. Where the hacker has made a killing, is all the WP sites out there which are operated by non webmasters. Granted WP advises of updates in the backend & or updates automatically (though only current version patches). I found an Aussie WP site a few weeks back that had been hacked. What version WP were they using? V3.1. And worse you contact these people to let them know and they think your trying to pull some scam on them...

I've given up doing that now, I just report the sites to Google. Though with the entire WWW being hacked, my reports are not even a speck in the bucket

 

[slotplayer]

I don't see any hacked sites on p1 of Google.com for any of the long tails I tried a couple months ago.

 

[AussieDave]

I don't see any hacked sites on p1 of Google.com for any of the long tails I tried a couple months ago.

The hacked pages are rampant in google.com.au

 

[Neil]

@Bet4You that sucks, I do feel for you!


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[RyanWeb]

Tbh, I see a lot less newcomers, than back in 2012-13?

Agreed, it takes a rare person to put in the time and effort and now a days, to many people are happy working for peanuts putting in a few hours and zoning out on their phones facebook or tv. I rarely use my PC for anything other then work... I tell everyone I simply work when I have nothing better to do.. and its true.. While everyone else is on facebook chatting their lives away I would rather be researching or creating new content. To me its a hobby turned job... And sure sometimes I hate doing it, but once I get started I always feel good about putting in a full days work!

My point, I think 90% of the world is just lazy now-a-days.. Every year it seems to slowly get worse.. But hey, it works to our advantage (aside from the hackers.. Also a product of lazy looking for a quick buck)!