No Technical Experience? No Problem

When it comes to creating attractive bookie websites quickly and easily, WebStartToday is the solution as it offers a site builder tool that requires no technical experience to be manipulated, allowing users to finish a fully functional website in less than a day.

Website Creation Steps

Here are the steps that you will need to follow in order to get your brand new pay per head bookie site up and running:

Step One: Create an Account

Visit WebStartToday.com and then click on the green, large button that reads “start now, it’s free.” After that you will see a new box popping up on your screen which is the “Get Started Now” section. You can either sign up for a new account with your name, email and a password of your choice, or you can just login using your Google or Facebook account.

Step Two: Select Your Favorite Design

You can select your design based on different categories such as Responsive, Professional Services or Business. We recommend you to get yourself a Responsive design because those are specially optimized for people that browse the web using their smartphones and tables besides their personal computer.

Remember that the different available designs have different theme options such as galleries, color selection and even advanced SEO, so make sure that you pick the one that fits your necessities best.

Step Three: Customize It

Once you have picked your favorite design, then you have two choices: You can either click on “Publish Your Site” and get your bookie website live using the predetermined options and pictures from WebStartToday or you can also start doing some personal customization. We’ll go for the latter, so click the button that says “Start Customizing” located on the lower left corner of the screen.

The first thing that you’ll see when you start customizing your site is a screen that asks you to enter your information. This is NOT your personal info for WebStartToday; it is actually the contact info that will appear on your website, so feel free to create your own email account for business purposes (a yahoo or gmail inbox will work for you) and use it on that form.

Once that’s done, you can hover over the home page with your mouse in order to find the “edit control” button, which allows you to edit the different areas of your website separately. On the different sections of the home you’ll have the option of editing things such as fonts, images, adding flash and even creating your own buttons.

To customize other pages besides your home page, click on the “manage pages” button located on the lower left corner.

Note: Remember that you can always preview your site after you’ve made some changes.

Step Four: Optimize Page Settings

Once you have customized your home and the rest of your pages, it’s time to do some optimization. After you click on “manage pages” you can click on “settings,” which will open up a new box that reads “Page Settings” where you can change the page name, the title, add SEO metatag keywords and update the metatag description. You will need to change the settings separately for every new page you create.

Step Five: Publish Your New Site!

Once you’ve finished giving your new website its final touches, you can immediately go live if you wish. You will be asked what kind of plan do you want to use, so go ahead and click on FREE. There are other two paid options which are Monthly or Yearly. You can decide to update your site at any time, and if you do, you will have the advantage of getting your own .com domain name and remove the WebStartToday.com from your current free domain.

If you started your career as a pay per head bookie with some big plans for the future but for some reason you are just not moving forward and things are somehow stagnating, here we have some excellent confidence-building tips that will surely help you get back on track.

Don’t Fear Some Negative Responses

Sure, going out there and get new clients for your price per head operation might not be so easy and you will certainly get some rude responses from time to time, but that is normal in any business.

What is important is that you prepare beforehand in order to know how to assimilate such negative feedback. You can start by practicing your “sales pitch” with someone close to you and get that person to respond to you negatively in order to toughen up your character and assimilate rejection in a better way.

Think Small Short-Term To Achieve Big Things in the Long-Term

Although it is great that you have a long-term plan, you really need to focus on the things that you do in the short-term in order to get to where you want to be as a bookie.

If you start targeting big-time players and you don’t get their business right away, you might feel frustrated, so, we recommend you to target small players first so you can start building up your bookmaking portfolio.

It is likely that the big players that said no to you a while ago might want to start placing bets with you after they’ve witnessed the gradual and steady growth of your betting operation.

Keep on Learning

Have you wondered if your lack of confidence is based on your perception of yourself as an uninformed agent? If that’s the case, then you can always try to improve in the areas where you lack ability in order to give your determination a much needed boost.

Make Friends with Other Bookies

Sometimes people have the need to express how they feel about their jobs but talking to their spouses or relatives don’t work because they need to be heard by someone that can really understand. A bookie is certainly not the exception, so it is good that you make friends with other agents in order to have people that get you and who can also give you some useful advice.

If you feel that finding friendly bookies in your area is difficult, you can always go to the internet and become part of a web community such as a chat or a forum where bookies gather.

Avoid Toxic Individuals

There are those whom are fond of gambling and those whom disapprove of it, so if your friends or someone in your family diss your business, simply try not to discuss it with them. If they ask you about it or start making negative comments, avoid expanding the conversation and try to finish it as soon as possible.

Never Say that You are an Aspiring Bookie

That is just an ugly way of naming yourself a wannabe agent. Sure, maybe you’re just starting your career as a bookie and are still not making as much money as you want to, but the truth is that you became a bookmaker since the moment you took your first bet.

So, in reality, you are not aspiring to be an agent because you already are one. Make sure that you know the difference and that you are aware of the fact that playing in the big leagues takes time, so try to be as patient as you can until you are earning as much cash as you wish.

Do Daily Affirmations

Talking to yourself in a positive way can have great benefits when it comes to becoming a more confident individual, so think of empowering phrases that you find helpful, repeat them constantly and try to make a habit of it.

The Low-Tech

If you are explaining a client about the advantages of betting using mobile technology and he seems confused and maybe a little disoriented, then you are probably dealing with someone adverse to all-things-high-tech. The good thing about this type of player is that he will likely rely on your word about how good the service is and will generally follow your advice blindly.

The Paranoid

Some players love to bet but they really don’t like anybody knowing that they are dealing with bookies because of possible lawful consequences or because they hide the fact that they bet from their spouses. For that reason, they will always try to be as discreet as possible and will even speak with a low voice when they get in touch with their agent or the price per head shop to place some wagers.

The Uninterested

There are many players that know their game and are savvy when it comes to placing bets, but there are also other kinds of bettors that just wager for fun without really considering the possible outcome of their latest bet; these are the disinterested ones. A positive aspect about this kind of players is that they will rarely give you a hard time.

The Hands-On

There are many bettors whom are frustrated bookies, and those are the ones that will see an agent as his equal. This type of client is the opposite to the disinterested one but they are also easy to handle as they usually know what  they want before they call-in with their wagers and usually won’t even want the phone representative to read him the current betting lines as as they have already studied them online.

The Grateful

This is the kind of client that will always be praising your work as a bookmaker. The appreciative player is a delight to have as a customer because they are very enthusiastic. They are usually looking to be treated the same way, so make sure that you know how to correspond their kindness in order to keep their business.

The Doormat

This is probably a bookie’s favorite type of client just after the grateful customer because they are usually very agreeable and won’t mind if a mistake is made. Bookies should be careful when dealing with a doormat bettor because if an agent, for example, charges him extra as an error, even though the doormat client is fine with the bookmaker’s decision at first, he might realize about what happened at a later time and will think the agent ripped him off.

The Special Deal

It is actually beneficial to offer players bonuses or special promos, but there are some bettors that never hesitate to ask for a special deal every time they’re on the phone with you. If you have a client like this and is quite profitable for your business, then put up a message on his betting account letting phone representatives know that it is OK to grant such client a free bet for every 3 he makes for example.

If, on the other hand, the special-deal player that you are dealing with is not getting you money, then you should consider not offering your services to him anymore.

The Make-It-Fast

This is the client that will usually call in a rush and try to get off the phone as soon as possible. This kind of customer can be a bit frustrating because they are normally quite demanding, so, if you are currently doing business with someone similar, just like with the special-deal bettor, you should give it a thought about how convenient it is for you to keep on serving such a person.

Instead, you can, for example, create a sports website and try to turn visitors into players. By doing this, you are enhancing your own internet presence without exposing your betting business.

Copy the Big Names

Have you seeing advertising for gambling sites on ESPN or similar web portals? Well, if they can do it, so can you! So try to check out important, relevant sports sites that have a lot of traffic and see how they are advertising sportsbooks and casinos in order to follow a similar approach.

Fresh Content is King

If you want to have the chance of making some good business using your new sports site, you need to attract as much traffic as possible, and in order to do that, you must upload fresh content every single day in order to keep new people coming all the time. If you really don’t have the time to do the site’s updates yourself, then we recommend you to hire a helping hand that can take care of that part of your marketing efforts for you.

Be Controversial

The more controversy in a story, the more people gets interested in reading it. For this reason, you can, from time to time, create content that might be catalogued as controversial in order to get the attention of more readers.

The trick for this to work is to be controversial about a current hot topic and you can, for example, visit social media sites where a given news piece is being discussed in order to give your controversial opinion on the matter and promote a link to your site for a related story (Let’s say that you see a discussion about Rafael Nadal winning the Roland Garros, you can then create a story on your site about rumors of Nadal using steroids to get the title).

Make Use of Newsletters

Using a service such as MailChimp can help you create outstanding newsletters. If you decide to make a sports website, you can add a sign-up form to it in order to collect email addresses from your newsletter subscribers.

Then, in your newsletters, you can inform about your site’s regular activities and you can also write a few lines on your services as a bookie. Try to be as discreet as possible with the info you add on your wagering operation as to be perceived only by players and not by the rest of your subscribers (for this purpose you can actually use common wagering slang that can be easily perceived mostly by bettors).

Create a Forum for Your Site to Engage Visitors

People love to talk sports, and that is one of the main reasons why online forums are so popular, therefore, you can create your very own forum on your site in order to prevent people from leaving your sports website shortly after they arrive. Many people will certainly get hooked with the forum’s topics, and what is best, you can create your own “sports betting corner,” where you can speak freely about the services you offer.

Assess Your Strategies with Google Analytics

If you want to be more effective when it comes to your sports site’s marketing efforts, then you can make use of Google Analytics in order to verify how people are getting to your site and why. By doing a focused analysis of the traffic you’re getting will doubtless help you determine what is exactly working and what’s not, therefore, you’ll have the chance to make the necessary changes in order to ensure that the majority of your visitors will be part of your targeted audience.

What is the Real Difference Between the Two?

A contractor is someone that you pay to for doing a job with the person’s own resources and an employee is someone to whom you pay and also provide the necessary equipment and other necessary materials to perform a desired task.

If you want to find out what is your best option, consider the following aspects:

• How much control do you need to have over the person that you wish to hire? This really depends on the position that you will be hiring for. If for example you want to hire someone to help you recruit new clients on the street, then your best bet is to get a contractor to whom you will be paying a commission every time you end up doing business from a referral.

On the other hand, if what you want is to launch a serious online advertising effort, then you will be better off with an actual employee to whom you can give instructions when needed.

• Do you want to pay benefits? Just as you are a bookie freelancer with no direct employee benefits, if you hire a contractor you won’t have to pay for such things as insurance or vacations either, though if you decide to open your own office and hire internal personnel, you might have to pay for things like those unless you reach a salary-only agreement with the people that you are planning to hire.

• Also consider that when you hire a contractor, you probably already trust in the person’s capacity to execute the job that you need done. If you hire an employee, you can even take the time to train the person based on your personal requirements.

Hire Based On Specialties Different Than Yours

Since you are a bookie and are using the services of a price per head shop, then you are fully covered when it comes to all-things-bookmaking and client attention. For that reason, you must focus on hiring people that have specialties different than yours as they can really help you have a better overall coverage of your operation, whether they are employees or contractors.

Do You Have A Small or a Large Wagering Operation?

By answering this question you can really find out if you need to hire employees or contractors or both. If you have a small betting business because you are just getting started, then your best bet is to hire a contractor as you will be saving a lot of money when it comes to overhead costs.

If on the contrary, you are running a medium to large operation, then you can hire both contractors and employees. On one side you will have your office employees that might include people for your very own marketing department, a personal assistant and contractors to help you gather clients.

Also, if you have a small bookmaking business but you indeed have the resources to start growing the operation at a large scale from the beginning, then you can also opt for hiring both employees and contractors as in the long run it will be difficult for you to handle some of the aspects of your business and having trustful, consolidated people since day one will undoubtedly be of a great benefit.

What is a Professional Network?

You can think of your network as a group of friends that are willing to help each other for professional reasons, and when it comes to building one, it shouldn’t be hard to do as you just need to keep in touch with old contacts while continually making new ones.

Use LinkedIn

The positive power of social media to make business is certainly indisputable, and when it comes to create a professional network, you can always use the help of a website such as LinkedIn, which was created especially for that purpose.

Who Can I Include?

The idea is that you will include people that you know since your college days. Remember that guy that used to place bets and was ready to become a business major? Who knows, maybe that guy is now in Las Vegas running a promising betting business and needs an expert in pay per head solutions like you to run things. That is just one scenario about how important is to keep in touch with all the people that can help your wagering operation grow.

You can consider to network with people from:

The Betting Industry: Since you are running a wagering business, you really need to be close with those who work in similar industries as most players are fond of all-things-gambling and you might end up getting new clients from a casino contact for example.

Entertainment Venues: You must definitely include in your network the names of the owners of entertainment venues, especially those which are commonly visited by gamblers as this can also lead you to new business opportunities.

Colleges: College kids love to gamble; that is a fact, and for this reason, networking with someone inside local colleges that is connected will secure you some regular players.

Online Marketing Industry: Promoting you bookie operation online will be key when you decide to increase your opportunities of getting new clients. You can consider to network with professionals in areas such as SEO, online marketing, web design, graphic design and others whom can help you create and maintain a professional web presence.

Be Genuine

Even though you are trying to build a network for professional purposes, the reality is that some, if not most of the people that you are including as business contacts can become your personal friends in the future, though for that to be possible, you will always have to remain classy and most of all, genuine.

Accept Invitations from Your Professional Contacts

If a particular contact from your professional network invites you to a private event, it is certainly in your best interest to attend if you want to cement a good relationship, plus you’ll also have the chance of knowing other associates from your contact that can end up doing some business with you.

Grab the Phone and Call Old Contacts

If you know of an old contact that can help you advance in your bookie career but you’re afraid to call because you haven’t spoke to that person in a while, grab some courage and pick up the telephone in order to dial that person’s number. The worst that can happen is that he/she might not remember you, but if all goes well and you’re able to rekindle the friendship, then all it took for you to add a key contact to your professional network was just a few minutes of your time on the phone with an old pal.

If you want to create long-term relationships with your customers, it is essential that you always stay in touch, and using email newsletters is really your best choice because it is a proven fact that most people check their email on a daily basis, especially now that everybody has smartphones and can go online anytime they want. Although there are a few companies that offer a decent email newsletter service, we recommend you to give MailChimp a try because it is free and of high quality.

What is MailChimp

MailChimp is a website that allows pay per head bookies to send email newsletters to their clients without paying a cent until they reach two thousand subscribers. Before that, the user has the chance of sending an amazing 12,000 emails for free per month.

How it Works

Let’s see how MailChimp works step by step:

Creating a list:Once you have signed for your Mailchimp account and have provided all the requested information, you can start getting subscribers, and for this you need to set up a list first. Just visit the Dashboard and click where it says ‘Create a List.’ You will then be asked to fill out some info such as the name of your newsletter, the name of the sender, the reply email and a reminder for people to know why they are getting an email from your bookie website.

Create a Sign-Up Form:Now it’s time to head back to the MailChimp Dashboard and click where it says ‘Lists’ and then on the option that says ‘Design SignUp Forms.’ After that you’re ready for the ‘Built It’ stage, where you can pick which components you want to include in the form such as name, email ad, phone and address.

Lastly, on the ‘Design It’ stage, the user can pick the colors of the form. (A good thing is that when you register to MailChimp and add your URL, the site will provide you with a selection of colors for your newsletter that go hand to hand with the colors of your own website).

Share Your Form with the World: Once you’re done creating your form, then you can visit the ‘Share It’ tab, where you’ll have the option of sharing the URL for your new signup form in social media, making it easier for those who know you and do business with you to subscribe to your newsletter. On this very same tab you will also find another option to embed a smaller subscriber box to the sidebar of your website. We certainly recommend you to make use of both of these features.

Sending Out Your Very First Email

There are six easy steps that you need to follow when it comes to sending emails:

Creating a Campaign: On the Dashboard, click on ‘Campaigns’, then on ‘Create campaign’ and finally on ‘Regular Ol Campaign.’ Next, you will be asked to which list you want to send your newsletter to. Remember that if you have separated online marketing efforts for sports players and horse bettors, then you can always create separate lists for newsletters directed to only a sector of your clients.

Adding the Campaign Info: the next step is to give your campaign a name and choosing an email subject. The first one your clients can’t see, but the latter, the subject, they can. For this reason you must be able to pick an enticing title for your newsletter in order to encourage people to open the email.

Picking a Template: After all the above is ready; you can then proceed to pick a template for your newsletter. There are different options such as basic, predesigned, Drag & Drop and one called ‘My Templates’ that contains the ones that you previously designed and saved.

Write your newsletter: We recommend you to write your newsletter in a separate document and then upload it to the MailChimp editor, which is very simple to use.

Send it! Once you have given your newsletter all the personal touches you want, it’s time to hit the send button. You can actually decide whether you wish to send your newsletter right away or if you want to schedule it for later.

Be in Constant Contact

Although using price per head services will cover most aspects related to clients, you can always take a few minutes in order to get in touch with your customers as that will help you to be perceived as a concerned bookie. Remember, staying close to players is one thing and harass them is a very different one, therefore, make sure that you keep in touch while keeping your distance.

Serve as a Wagering Consultant

There’s many people out there that will love to place some bets but they just don’t do it because they don’t know how and are afraid of losing their money easily. You can turn those undecided individuals into new clients by offering them your services as a wagering consultant.

This means that you can teach them everything about wagering types, payouts and all things related to placing a sports bet so they will feel more comfortable when handling their cash to you, and in case they lose, they won’t feel as if you are taking advantage. Also make sure that you teach your prospective customers how to place a bet over the phone and how to do it over the internet.

Apply the VIP Treatment

Do you work with some players that are fond of some heavy action? Then these are the key bettors that are probably providing you with most of your profits. They are also certainly the kind of clients that you want to keep satisfied because the moment they feel mistreated; they will most likely move on to place their bets with someone else.

Although heavy players lose big bets on a constant basis, they certainly don’t like to be considered losers, and by treating them like VIP’s, you can certainly prevent them from not betting when they’re feeling low.

In order to avoid this, set such players apart from the rest and list them as VIP’s. This means that you will have to put an extra effort into trying to please these clients, but at the end of the day it will all be worth it.

You can be sure that you when you go the extra mile, your VIP customers won’t forget it.

Pay Them on Time

Regular players enjoy betting, but what they love the most is getting paid when they win, therefore, make sure that paying your clients on time is going to be a priority for you. If you can’t pay a customer when you have to, you are not only running the risk of losing his action, but it is likely that such player is going to spread the word around and that will make it even more difficult for you to get new clients, especially if the person you couldn’t pay to is a bettor from your community.

Offer Credit

As a bookie, you probably are picky when it comes to choosing your clients because you don’t want to deal with people that won’t pay you when they lose a bet. Being selective ensures you that you will always be able to collect your earnings and also allows you to offer credit.

By offering credit to your clients, you can prevent players from not wagering when they are out of cash and you can also secure their business for a while.

Be Creative When Approaching New Clients

Just because you know of someone that places sports bets, that doesn’t make that person your client immediately. In fact, if the player is satisfied with the wagering service he’s currently receiving, it will be difficult for you to get his action.

For that reason, you must be willing to get interested in your prospective client’s tastes and hobbies in order to create a sentiment of familiarity around your business, which will help you to seal deals more easily. You can for example offer a new customer free tickets for an NFL football or NBA basketball game! Just be as creative as you can.

Also, don’t forget to take care of your current clients, especially the heavy players. If you have a nice budget and want to keep the big spenders happy and placing wagers with you, grab some cash of your own and pay for vacation trips for your VIP customers or pamper them with some exclusive gifts from time to time. Remember that the important thing is to try to create a bond with each particular customer.

Don’t Just Run Your Business, Grow It

Now that you’re working with a renowned pph shop, you’re starting to get comfortable as your current clients are getting a great bookmaking service and you have a lot of free time. That is all good, but you also need to avoid staying trapped in that comfort zone and instead, you should be seeking for new ways to increase your profits.

An easy way for a bookie to make more cash almost instantly is by integrating online casino software to his betting operation in order to offer players the chance of playing card games or testing their luck at the slots.

Let Extremely Demanding Clients Go

If you want to run a bookmaking operation, you will have to deal with all sorts of customers. Some you will like working with; some you won’t, and although you will have to serve all of your clients equally if you want to preserve your standards of quality, you will also need to cut bothersome players.

Running a pay per head wagering operation ensures your clients that you’re offering first-hand solutions, but players, on the other hand, can be quite demanding and difficult to handle. It’s easy for the pph shop’s clerks and managers to deal with the regular hard-time customers, but there are extreme cases, and unless it is a heavy player, it will be in the agent’s best interest to let such clients go.

Get an Assistant

If you signed for pph solutions, but for some reason you still don’t have enough free time, you can always consider the possibility of hiring an assistant that can help you with any daily tasks concerning your wagering operation. Make sure that the person that you hire is someone that can run your business as well as you do.

Do Some Planning but Remain Flexible

It is safe to say that to have a business plan is a wise thing to do, but you also need to have the ability of embracing new opportunities as they come your way, so, if you are too rigid when it comes to the planning you did concerning your betting operation, you won’t be ready to go in a new direction when needed and your inability to improvise will certainly slow you down and prevent you from improving in your career as a bookie.

Always remember that things can change from the moment you did your plans and the time when you need to execute them, therefore, try to always be open to do adjustments to your strategies as you go along.

Create an Entertainment Site

You can create a website that will be mostly devoted to content that will get the attention of possible clients. Your main page will have to be clean of any advertisements concerning your betting operation as your mission will be to try engaging with up-to-date stories on sports, the gambling world, and other topics of that nature.

When running this kind of site you will certainly get a lot of traffic, but only a percentage of your visitors will become your clients, therefore, you need to try to be very subtle when promoting your services. We recommend you to create sub-pages dedicated to sell your bookmaking operation in the background of your site and to be conservative when it comes to put ads concerning your business.

Acquire Strategic Web Partners

If you are running a bookmaking operation, you might want to get your ad on an sports-oriented site, and the owner of the latter website might also like to do the same on yours as both share the same kind of targeted audience.

For this reason, it is quite important that you befriend the owners of sites which are frequently visited by players and then try to make them partners. The more popular the sports site for example, the more exposure your ads will have, so the more chances of getting new clients. You can work out a deal with the owner of a popular niche site that can be based on a commission for new clients.

Launch Your Own Guerrilla Campaign!

A guerrilla marketing campaign can take some time to develop, but it will pay up with some good results if you put up a constant effort when it comes to visiting forums, message boards and blogs in order to spread the information about your bookmaking solutions.

Host a Live Event

If you already have the emails of some of your frequent bookmaking site visitors or if you simply have your smartphone full of contacts related to your betting business, then you can invite everybody to ongoing VIP-style online live events where you’ll offer your expertise on upcoming games and similar subjects.

If you are an expert at game predictions but you feel camera shy, then you can partner with someone to help you make your videos. Even better, if you have a good budget, then you can even invite some special guests for your live events from time to time in order to make them even more popular.

Having access to a service like this will certainly turn you into a more concerned and enthusiastic bookmaking agent in the eyes of your players.

Offer Podcasts on Your Site

Hosting a live event full of predictions previous to an important sporting event is beneficial for current clients, but when it comes to attracting new players, you can also get them hooked by uploading your previous live events on your site in the form of podcasts.

Since you want to attract more customers with your podcasts but you don’t want to give out your predictions to all of your site visitors, you can upload the videos to the web once the sporting events for which you created the live events are over. This way you can ask people to join your mailing list if they want to be invited to your next live event and this will help you to gather the personal email address of people that might turn into future players.