GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 40- February 2018

• Make sure you keep up with industry news. Know what’s going on and which programs to avoid. Do your research properly; it will save you time and money in the long run. • Standardize file names, image names and content paths right from the start. Be consistent right across your site, as this will make it easier to automate things when you can no longer maintain the site in a manual way. SUMMARY I’m still a little more than four years in and so glad I chose to go the niche route. I don’t feel I have it cracked yet, but I continue working hard and I try to be as innovative as I can. My off-page authority is better than my on-page, and I’m spending time finding ways to improve my on-page. Just because you’re in a niche doesn’t mean you’ll run out of content. As I’ve learned more about the subject, so has my list of content to create. Knowing a subject and doing keyword research will help you find a niche to specialize in. Keyword research is vital. You’ll probably get most of your traffic from long-tail keywords, so having in-depth knowledge of the subject will help you identify what they should be. Your traffic is likely to be from experienced players who know what they are looking for. Make sure you know what information will be important to them and provide it. Your traffic will be lower in volume than with big-term keywords, but it will be more targeted and higher quality and will convert well. Just knowing how to play a game is not good enough. You have to provide more detail. Building your authority on- and off-page will help drive traffic to your site, and hopefully, Google will reward you. Creating a lot of content about the same subject can be really difficult. You need to find angles and be creative to keep it interesting and informative. The quality of your data will distinguish you from your competitors’ content. Find a way to be unique with the information you provide. Take part in player forums to help build your authority and be able to research ideas with other likeminded people. Make sure you understand the capabilities of the operators who will convert the niche traffic you send them. Some are better than others. It’s not all about commissions. Neil Walker , 53, lives in the U.K. and is the “one-man band” behind www.livecasinocomparer.com , which he says is still a site very much in progress. He calls himself a “lifestyle” affiliate and loves all aspects of his job, partic- ularly traveling, meeting new people, and learning more about his chosen niche and the technical stuff that holds it all together. When not working, you can typically find Neil on the golf course. Top takeaways about working in a niche iPad illustration by Andrey Mertsalov/Shutterstock 45 W W W . G P W A T I M E S . O R G