Online Casino Portals - All About Fun and ROI
Early last year the twenty-something portalmaster snapped up the domain Online-Casinos.com from the Namewinner.com site. He describes the price as "a gift" and within days it turned out to be a truly valuable present when he was approached by an online casino company and offered $30,000 for it.
(PRWEB) June 3, 2005 -- Maximizing the return takes skill, hard work...and a
million dollar domain.
Danish business administration student Jan Balslev
Pedersen has a domain worth multiples of many hundreds over what he actually
paid for it, the result of a combination of a relevant title and hard work
building it into a meaningful online gambling portal.
Early last year the
twenty-something portalmaster snapped up the domain Online-Casinos.com from the
Namewinner.com site. He describes the price as "a gift" and within days it
turned out to be a truly valuable present when he was approached by an online
casino company and offered $30,000 for it.
He declined the offer because
his sights were firmly set on building a quality online gambling portal, but
bids from both individuals and companies continued to flow in, several more than
$50,000 before he had even started enhancing the domain with a content-rich
site.
Today, his well-frequented casino portal attracts at least one
approach a week for considerably more than that. And with recent sales of
successful portals like Got2Bet.com, Gambling.com, The Prescription.com and
Casino.com running into many millions of dollars the potential for this sort of
business return is clearly considerable.
"It's an example of the
significant return on investment achievable with a carefully selected domain,"
says Pedersen, who went on to invest hard-won experience and tanker loads of
midnight oil in designing a online casino portal and obtaining the high-interest
content for it.
"My start-up costs were minimal because a few friends and
I did the work ourselves-the start-up cash outlay was under $100 as I recall,"
he says.
Pedersen was already a self-taught veteran in this highly
competitive industry, having started what became a famous Danish casino
information site called Casinoportalen.dk back in 2000.
Both technologies
and techniques have advanced remarkably since then," he recalls.
"Predictably, I had to learn from my mistakes - principally because I
did not immediately take on board the critical importance of really good search
engine optimization. Knowing what I know now about the industry, I should have
visited webmaster forums for free guidance. There is plenty of good and free
advice on the 'Net for new webmasters - it's just a question of reading,
listening and learning in webmaster forums."
Pedersen also learned what
sort of content attracted online gambling tourists to his site and then kept
them coming back: a dynamic and interesting public forum, carefully researched
directories of reliable and safe casinos, relevant news and gaming information
useful to online players of all types.
The hard work was worth it - two
years ago he sold his interest in Casinoportalen for an attractive profit and
had the knowledge and experience to go on to bigger and better portal
plans.
"Running a successful site is a busy life," says Pedersen. "In
addition to all the normal administration required by a profitable business you
have to be on the ball on what's happening in the industry and you have to
market the site in such a way that players will come back to you despite the
stiff competition out there."
A typical day starts with a patrol of the
major news sites and forums, checking search engine positioning and attending to
advertising and affiliate links.
Several times a week, the Dane will
study various casino sites in detail before registering and playing them for
real money without the operators knowing he is reviewing their casinos for
possible inclusion on his site http://www.online-casinos.com/.
"Publishing unique and
reliable reviews generated by myself is a responsibility I take very seriously,"
he says. "If a player uses one of the casinos in my directory I need to be
certain that it has been thoroughly tested for all operational aspects and found
acceptable, because if that player has a problem I have an obligation to help
him resolve it with the online casino if I am to retain my own and the site's
credibility."
Typical aspects that are tested include how big the
download is and how many games and what type of games are offered. What are the
graphics like? Is there sound? Is the gameplay fast? Is there multi-table play?
Can you track play history? How efficient is the cashier? What Support is
offered? What is the responsiveness like?
Asked which competitive portals
he most respects, Pedersen does not hesitate. "Those that offer something
different to the player and are known for integrity and professionalism," he
says.
"Sites like Casinomeister, GoneGambling and CasinoMan come
immediately to mind and seem to have large and loyal audiences and personal
values similar to my own. They have unique styles and content to distinguish
themselves, and they operate to a high standard."
Pedersen's target
audience is people looking for information on online gambling, and he is
particularly proud of his casino game section and its detailed information on
casino games like blackjack, craps, video poker, roulette and slots. There's a
section with over 100 free games that attracts players, too.
Thinking
ahead, Pedersen plans a forum and the introduction of German language
facilities. "There's never an idle moment, but it's a lot of fun and ultimately
a good return on investment if done efficiently," he
grins.
Contact:
(+45) 8620 9096
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http://www.online-casinos.com
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/6/prweb247385.htm