How Google has changed the landscape

Yoni Sidi, marketing director at Market Box Media, explores some of the strategies affiliates struggling with Google can use to gain traction

I come from a world that now seems outdated, old and ancient, one which is led by innovation, regulation and Google. Things have changed so quickly it’s a miracle the affiliate world has managed to keep up.

One of my first affiliates was a professor at Oxford University who didn’t have a clue about gambling or affiliation. He wrote a thesis on the molecular structure of carbon fibres and happened to call it the Monte Carlo Casino thesis. Within days the old Google spiders (which have probably been replaced by holograms) had picked him up and placed him at the top of the tree for all casino-related keywords.

I called him up and closed a deal to take all positions on the site on a rev-share deal. After some nice healthy cheques, three months later he was able to put money down on a house, all from his Monte Carlo thesis. Those were the days when this was an open and fair market, where anyone had a chance to make money and enjoy the fruits of their labour. But times have changed and so has Google on numerous occasions, giving power to the operators who can afford it and making it near impossible for affiliates to gain natural traction.

Adapting to change
So what can be done by affiliates? Well, we all want and need affiliates – they are the heart and soul of this industry and it needs to stay that way. Over the past few years we have explored many avenues to continue generating traffic and the most popular and effective way is through pay-per-click (PPC).

Closing clever guarantee deals with the operators to make sure they can afford to buy the clicks and reduce their risk means the deepest pockets normally win the war on this battlefield, as you need to be able to manage your cashflow and conversion funnel. Every click has to be counted and with some clicks costing nearly £100, it isn’t for the feint hearted. Those who succeed, which is less than a handful, have become large operations with close ties to Google, spending hundreds of thousands per month.
So if that’s not an option then what next? Social media is normally an easy and cheap option but is often a slow burner that is time consuming and doesn’t always provide the needed player value. Opening fan pages and gaining likes and followers is great and a fun process, but monetising the system isn’t easy.

Clearing the hurdles
If social seems too much work for not very much return then data capture is another avenue, although operators are so careful of spam and getting complaints it’s hard to know what is clean and what is dirty. But if you do have data, how do you monetise it?

If you ask for a flat fee it could mean you don’t believe in the quality, and if you take a performance deal then you are at risk. You also have to decide if you want the responsibility of sending the mails yourself or letting the operator take your data and send them for you.

It’s not an easy time for the industry but we have faced tougher problems and come through and we will do the same again. In my opinion those that, no matter what route they decide to go down, have a good, clean reputation and work in the correct way without trying to cut corners, will do the best. If all else fails, make money quick and sell up. And then, of course, do it all again.