Ideas to improve my site - all input welcome

9 replies
I just found this site and am very impressed with the amount of information available here. I wish I had found this sooner, I'm sure I would have saved time and done many things differently.


Quick background: I recently quit a good paying job (that I hated) in order to play online poker professionally. I understand that this might sound ludicrous to many, but I've been playing semi-professionally for over two years and have the skills to make it work as my primary source of income.

There is some uncertainty surrounding online poker legislation in the US - and there are a couple of directions that it may go in the next year or two. Because of this uncertainty I am determined to create other income sources.

I'm pretty well rounded when it comes to using a computer and I've always been intrigued by the idea of building websites that generate passive income.


My first attempt is with pokerhuds.com (not enough posts to link yet!)

Through this site I sell custom configuration files for the most widely used poker tracking software. These custom files display necessary statistics on top of an online poker table for every player seated. These statistics give users information on how to best play against a given opponent. The default configurations that come with the poker tracking software are severely limited, that's where my site comes in.

The products are solid and the competition is nearly non-existent. In fact, the lack of competition nearly made me scrap the idea before I started.

Currently my traffic is almost exclusively from search. Traffic has been steadily increasing, as well as sales.

I haven't done much of anything to drive traffic yet, other than write some blog posts and try to make my specific product pages keyword rich. I haven't worked on building back links, though I'm finding them pop up on their own (slowly).


So now I ask the experts, where do I go now? I'd be really interested in changes I should make to the site itself as well as the best way for me to increase quality traffic and maybe ideas to improve conversion.

I don't have a problem spending some money - I just don't know where to start.

-Thanks for your responses!
#critique #ideas #improve #input #poker #site #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author minisite
    I would suggest to improve the heading. Use a header theme that is related to poker.
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    • Profile picture of the author ShadyRay
      Thanks minisite, I'll look into that.
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  • Profile picture of the author coronaborcalis
    I think you have to makeover your web design, my opinion it doesn't look pro website. You're the lucky guy because one of poker website (pokerflix) give you blogroll link where you can get link as many as the website get indexed by google.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ken Durham
    coming from a gambling background and knowing a thing or two about gamblers, I would suggest that you highlight the benefits and not just the features. The definition should be right in the header also.
    Telling them how you can help game play is important.
    I would also include some sort of video tutorial if you don't already have one.

    Use Youtube and create video poker tips and guides for the software, for additional traffic.

    Build facebook fan pages and all of the other 2.0 tactics.

    Get listed in PokerListings.com. Then use your contact to grant you favors. Ask for them to write articles for you (which they insert one of their links) and brag on their directory to your contact, personally. Ask their advice on your site and let them help you. Then ask for your listings to be moved up a little. I got some very good traffic and SEO juice from them in the past. Just butter them up first... it works. Perhaps participate in their forums and become an asset to them also. Yes, it is a bit manipulative, but isn't everything?

    A couple of other things, start a Best Poker Room Awards or a small directory using your affiliate accounts. Be sure to nofollow the links. This is more for Google but you may hit some clients.

    Have someone create you an odds calculator and give it away for other poker site webmasters to use. Or any other type of link bait you can think of.

    Trade advertisements with some of the poker forums. There are tons out there. Join some of them and participate. Then gently show proof of the advantages of your software.

    You might also sponsor some freerolls for these forums. Even create an entire tournament of forums if you have the cash. These guys will talk and share if they find a good thing that can help game play. Get in there and help them while giving them some free tournaments with a chance to win. They like that sh*t

    There is no end to what you can do. And in such a tough niche to get recognized, you are going to need all of the tricks.

    The best of luck to you!

    Ken
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    yes, I am....

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    • Profile picture of the author ShadyRay
      Thanks for the thorough response, Ken!

      All very good info - I'll be jumping into it tomorrow and I might have a couple questions.
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  • Profile picture of the author wechta
    Fisr thing i would go is pro web design - if i see a page like this as a user i would think its crap...
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    • Profile picture of the author ShadyRay
      Thanks wechta, that seems to be a common opinion so I will be looking into that right away.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ken Durham
    I looked a little deeper at your site since poker is a passion of mine
    I see you do have some videos. People like videos, I would make this a part of the main menu: Free Poker Training Videos :: Poker HUDs

    I agree with the redesign. You are wasting far too much space above the fold. Get the "advantages" right up there where they can be seen. Try not to make people scroll to know that you have what they want, tools to help them get the edge. It's always about the benefits, and being lazy... Never make them work, even if the work is scrolling down a page. Not until you have their interest at least. With a glance, people should know what they are looking at. Just assume that only you know what a hud is and how it can "help" a player. Your job is to make them realize that they need this in order to be better player. Details come later, after they are interested...

    I would use the graphs as on the Heads Up Coaching page, and anything that points to more wins such as bullets with positive words, such as Increase Your Odds, More Wins, Play Like a Pro, etc...:

    If eating glass would increase our win ratio, then there would be a lot of us pulling glass from our teeth. The features are secondary, especially to the new player looking for any help they can get.
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  • Profile picture of the author ShadyRay
    You've given me a lot to work on - which is great.

    Coming from a sales background, a lot of your suggestions should have been implemented when I was creating the site, I think I was overwhelmed just trying to get everything done. I'll certainly be focusing on highlighting the benefits during the redesign.

    Thanks again, I'll update as changes are implemented.
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