How to Become a Casino Affiliate
By Dave Sawyer, Webmaster of OCR – The sole purpose of this page is to share with you my experiences first hand in the transition from working for an operator in the iGaming space, to becoming a full time casino affiliate.
I have been working in iGaming now for some 17 years, having first entered the sector by emigrating to Gibraltar back at the end of September 2000. The purpose of doing so was to start a new position of employment with Ladbrokes. This was my first experience of the iGaming Industry and I have not looked back.
Now you have probably come across this page either by searching on the search engines specifically for information on how to enter the iGaming Affiliate space, or your interest is piqued by the idea. Either way, I will try to show you the best way to become a casino affiliate, in what is one of the most competitive areas in online affiliate marketing.
Easy Money is a Myth
The idea of registering a domain name and slapping on a few pages on a shiny new website and sitting back to await the money rolling in, is a complete myth.
To be successful as a casino affiliate, takes a lot of hard work and time. This is more so, if there is only one person juggling all the work that entails creating a successful iGaming Portal.
First off, you need to know your subject matter and this applies for any industry that you dedicate your time to affiliate online in and not just the iGaming space.
Things have certainly changed since OCR was registered way back on 18th August 2004. Back then the US market was open and the UIGEA had not been passed – Indeed that was two years away. The US Market was most certainly the most lucrative for affiliates.
Pretty much overnight when the UIGEA came into being, countless affiliate programs left the US space, leaving only a few US Casinos for US residents to play at. As a result, many many affiliates decided to leave the space with the ones left competing against each other in those markets and territories where iGaming was in the least a grey area.
Write with your Target Audience in Mind
Ensure you do your research and write articles with your target market ( the players ) in mind. To this extent here at OCR we are a portal which is written and managed by players for players. Whilst, EasyPlay.Vegas receives a revenue stream, we do warn our visitors of operators to avoid such as with our Blacklist Casino section. Unlike many casino portals we are extremely selective as to who and which operators we work with. If they are not player friendly, we won’t recommend them.
Ensure you regularly update your content, if slot games are the main focus of your site, ensure you keep the content fresh with news of the latest slot game releases. Likewise, share your knowledge you have gained whilst playing online.
If you have expertise in a particular area, of use to players, then publish it and share with your visitors.
Network Network Network
Now you may have an absolutely outstanding site, chock full of useful content which most site owners would die for, but if you have little to no traffic, then it won’t be serving you well.
This is where networking becomes of paramount importance and key to your site’s success. It is imperative that you at least peruse the numerous webmaster forums dedicated to the iGaming Sector. By signing up and participating this also enables you to network with your peers.
From there relationships are born and as such some very good link partners could be created, with fellow ‘webbies’ that share the same ethics and understanding of the industry.
This is certainly the steps I took when OCR was in it’s infancy. Whilst I knew several people at some of the biggest operators, what with working for Ladbrokes and living in Gibraltar, it was still essential to network with my webmaster peers.
Since 2004 I have made some great friends in the industry among individuals who are or were my direct competitors. The likes of Bryan Bailey from Casinomeister and Ian Sims from Rightlander are two of my closest friends in the industry. Ian even attended my wedding in 2006.
As a result, you have individuals who you can share ideas with, exchange links to relevant content on each others sites and most importantly create life lasting friendships.
Additionally you may also want to attend one of the many iGaming Events and Conferences which are held annually. Not only does this enable you to build relationship with the ‘Casino Affiliate Programs‘ you work with, but they also allow you to network with your peers. Further enhancing your status and standing with your peers and your fellow webmaster.
Time
Should you follow the above course of action outlined and are prepared to dedicate many hours of every day to your site, then you may just be able to forge a career in this very competitive but extremely rewarding industry.
For further information on a whole host of tools and utilities which will help your site, check out our Tools and Utilities for Webmasters resource.
Page Updated: 13th November 2017
