Affiliate reviews.
An effective approach to affiliate marketing is the production of a review site, where visitors can read about a selection of online casinos in an attempt to find one that suits them best. If the reader fancies checking out the online casino after reading the review, they’ll probably click on a link to join the casino, after which, the affiliate gets their cut.
However, something I’ve noticed a lot when checking out these reviews is they all tend to say the same thing…
‘Check out such and such casino, it’s the best online casino ever!’
Of course, that can’t be true for all online casinos out there so why is it so common to find all the reviews on one review site claiming the same thing?
With the marketplace of online casinos, bingo sites and poker rooms bursting at the seams, any edge an affiliate can get over his/her competition obviously means more commission for them.
So what can you, the affiliate, do to get that edge when it comes to your online gaming reviews, and end up with more click-thrus to the sign-up page, and more commission in your pocket?
Here are a few tips on the kind of reviews you should have on your online gaming review site and how they’ll help you pull in more sign-ups.
– Everyone wants something different
First of all, you have to realise that everyone’s looking for something slightly different from their ideal online casino and claiming that all the ones on your review site are ‘the best’ is not gonna achieve anything.
You have to go a bit deeper and think about what your visitors are looking for. It could be a massive first deposit bonus, a huge selection of games, one game in particular, better odds of winning than most, promotions that reward players of a specific game, a unique VIP program… the list goes on.
Potential online casino members know they have hundreds of online casino sites to pick from and it can be quite a daunting task sifting through them all to find one that’s just right for them.
So make this task easier for your visitors and get real about what’s really great about the casinos you promote. What makes them different? Why choose them over the thousands of others out there?
If you can make your reviews more specific in this way, you’ll be giving your visitors exactly what they’re looking for, increasing your chances of more sign-ups.
– Remember you’re talking to a real person!
I really can’t emphasise this concept enough. It’s sad to see online gaming communications of any kind that are aimed at members or potential members with absolutely no personality, no character, no style, not a scrap of human element to them at all – it’s like they’ve been borne of the computers we use themselves, complete with robot tone of voice!
Think about how you would convince a friend of yours to try dining at your favourite restaurant. Since it’s a friend of yours, you probably have a good idea about their likes and dislikes so you’d relate your dining experience to your friend in terms of things they also like. Maybe this particular restaurant has a knack for cooking the steaks to perfection and you know your friend loves a well cooked steak!
Chances are you wouldn’t be droning in monotone about something general that isn’t relevant to your friend in the slightest. How could you class that as convincing?
The point is, remember you’re talking to real people through your online gaming affiliate reviews. They have likes and dislikes, they landed on your site for a reason, they’re looking for something in particular, so tell them you have it. Don’t scare them off with corporate talk about things they don’t care about and don’t talk to them like you’re a couple of machines exchanging binary information!
Put some feeling into your reviews, give them depth and a personal touch. We’re all people and we all relate to written materials much better when we know there’s an actual person with similar tastes to ourselves behind the words.
– If you can, give visitors a special offer.
Many affiliates have at their disposal a special bonus offer they can present to visitors of their site as an extra incentive to encourage sign-ups.
If you have such an offer, make it clear in your review! Specify that it’s a special offer and that it won’t be around for long. Emphasise that now they’ve found their ideal online casino, the deal does get even sweeter with this great offer…
It could be that tiny extra nudge that makes the difference between trailing off to some other site or actually signing up. And we know what difference that can make in terms of your commission.
– Tell your visitors what they should do!
So you’ve got what you think is a pretty good review that speaks to people, specifies what’s really great about this particular online casino, puts the special offer up front and emphasises that it’s a limited offer.
So you slap it on your affiliate site and wait for the page views and click-thrus to start piling up.
The page views mount up, cos you probably already get a good amount of traffic to your site.
But those page views are just not converting into click-thrus. How come?
One vitally important addition to any review is your affiliate link, of course, but also a call to action.
A call to action is exactly what it sounds like. You’re telling your visitors what action to take now with one simple sentence, the shorter the better.
The problem is, if you don’t tell your visitors what they should do, they’re not gonna automatically know. You have to guide them in the right direction, make it clear what they should do next.
So something like ‘Click here to deposit and start playing’ would be a call to action.
That’s it for online gaming affiliate reviews for now. They can be a very useful way to direct people to an online gaming site that suits them, and something of a cash cow for those affiliates who are smart enough to do it right.
If you need reviews written for your affiliate site that actually work, get in touch and we can have a chat about what I can do for you and your commission. 
Sarah McIver Copy 