Creating a Poker Niche
When you decide how you’re going to attack the
poker affiliate market, the best advice I can give you is to find a
“niche”. A niche is a submarket in the poker market, and by
targeting a smaller niche instead of a broad market you’ll have a
much better chance of becoming a dominant site.
Some different niches one can focus on include:
1. A poker variation niche. Some good ones to consider are different
variations of poker such as
Omaha Poker, Seven Card Stud, or Five Card Draw.
2. A poker strategy niche. Smaller niches such as
Sit and Go strategy,
Heads Up strategy, or other small poker strategy markets will give
you a better chance of success.
3. Going after smaller poker rooms. This is a great method. The idea
is to create a site based strictly on a small poker room, and
dominating Google for search terms related to the room. I’ll get
more into how to do this later.
For number 1, a good example I like to use is www.OmahaHustler.com. This site focuses on providing it's users with Omaha Poker strategy, then encourages them to sign up at a poker room that is great for playing Omaha Poker.
Since there isn't a lot of Omaha Poker sites, the site ranks fairly well for its search terms, and brings in a nice amount of traffic.
For number 2, an example to use is www.CoinflipPoker.com. This site is focused on providing its visitors with Sit and Go Strategy, and does an excellent job at that. Then, similar to Omaha Hustler, they promote a poker room that is great for playing sit and goes, and encourage their players to sign up there.
Number 3 is harder to show an example for, but I'll still explain the concept. This method will give you the best conversion rates, but can be harder than the other two, and you have to be really on top of your game.
What you do is find a poker room that is just about to launch, or has recently launched. Since it's a newer room, there will be very little competition for terms related to the room. So, you can create a website that dominates terms such as "XYZ Poker" or "XYZ Poker Bonus Code" or "Play at XYZ Poker".
Since these terms are so targeted to the room, you should see great conversion rates. However, you have to recognize when a new room has potential, then act quickly. If you're a new affiliate, I'd recommend you start off with one of the first two methods.
If you're ready to start your new poker site focusing on a niche, I recommend that you check out the Poker Affiliate World Integrated Affiliate Network to choose which rooms to promote. If you haven't heard about this program, check out our review of the program to learn more.
