Poker, scratchcards, slots, bingo, acne, penis enlargement ... all valid niches?

Poker and Bingo I am completely comfortable with. I got drawn into Penis enlargement when he who shall remain nameless piqued my interest in the subject matter. Not because I wanted to make a whopper you understand. Purely because I was hooked on the huge commissions being touted. Could this be for real? Yes it could.

I don't have an affinity with the enlargement market. I mean who would and also be prepared to shout about it? That's why my sites are pretty second rate in this market. I don't go for all the "before and after" photos and stuff that the top guys go with although I'm very comfortable with the reviews site I built and with more work over the coming months I'm sure it will become a good traffic site.

Poker I love. Poker is a skill game that has luck involved but as we discussed yesterday you have to get the money terms right because there is so much competition that it's difficult to gain new accounts. It's very profitable when it works though. I don't have any problem promoting poker as ethically I believe it to be a skill game. Bingo is a fun game which everyone accepts you have to be lucky with to win at.

Scratchcards are a different matter though. Last month I had one player drop over $500 on scratchcards.

That got me to thinking about my morals and my whole approach to gambling markets.

Whatever way you look at it $500 is a lot to spend on scratchcards. It could be a footballers wife who got bored and fancied trying her luck. Or it could be something completely different.

I'm also sure that there are players who are going to do a lot worse (better) than this and it wouldn't surprise me to find a couple of players spending a lot more monthly than my existing big spender.

In casinos, slots and other "pure" gambling verticals you accept that the punter knows the risks and knows that they are up against the house "edge". Everyone knows that the only long term winner is the bookies. That's not going to stop people trying their luck though is it.

The temptation to become a gambling affiliate is so strong because of the "lifetime" revenue you can generate for the "life" of the player you sign up. Whatever that is going to be. (I mean the life expectancy not the revenue cut).

But seeing people dropping large sums of cash on scratch cards got me to thinking that morally and ethically, building sites that give a punter a selection of "free money" games that ultimately get them hooked enough to start going at the real thing is a judgement call I'd rather evade at this moment in time.

Is it ok for an affiliate to make money from other people's greed and desire?

This is the driving force for any sale of course.

Not that I'm giving up, I'm just questioning how you would feel when you make money from people who do things that are the antithesis of what you would ask your children to do.

Doing the lottery is one thing. Spending huge amounts on scratchcards seems like something else altogether. Although I do know people who spend a disproportionate amount of thier salary on said cards.

Do I sleep at night? Yes. Do I wonder if I'm contributing to a corrupt society? Yes. Do I like the money I earn from it? Yes.

I do however think that the lower paid and those who are vulnerable to this type of marketing are too much of a good target. I'm not arguing against online gambling like they have done in the States but I do think it should be made more difficult to spend half your salary on a gambling site in a few minutes.

Then again I'll be called "controlling" and told that people are entitled to spend their money on whatever they like.

When you pick your niche to go to market. Just remember that choosing something you don't have a passion about will come back to bite you in the ass more than one time.

General Marketing - Affiliate Marketing