Here’s A Lesson In SEO

Ever hear of Walter Cherepinsky,  Los Angeles? He’s a guy who started up his own football betting website in 1999, and it has existed ever since. When we say “football betting website,” we don’t mean that you can go there and place bets on the NFL. What we mean is that Walter set up a site, www.walterfootball.com, and he touts himself as an expert handicapper.

Throughout the NFL season Walter breaks down every game, analyzing it forwards and backwards, and then he gives his recommendation on how he would bet that game, or if he would just leave it alone. He also tells the visitors exactly how he is personally betting each game, and how much money he is putting down. Why does any of this matter from an SEO standpoint,  Los Angeles? Read on.

The Genius of Walter

The thing about Walter is that despite his painstaking analysis of every game, he loses about as much as he wins. At the end of some seasons he finishes up a little bit in the black, and some seasons he ends up losing money, a few hundred dollars, say, or upwards of a thousand, even. It might seem like a lot to some people, but if you’re concentrating on what Walter is winning and losing, you’re missing the entire point of why this site exists.

Walter is making his profit from ad money, just like many of the smartest people who run websites online. There’s always going to be plenty of reason to run a site that sells products, but the products that Walter is selling are controversy and hype. It’s a genius business model, too,  Los Angeles.

There are always hundreds of comments on Walter’s message board whenever he lists his picks for that week, some of them talking about how he’s right, but many of them from trolls ranting about how stupid Walter is. They don’t realize that by practicing some fundamental SEO, Walter is winning every week regardless of whether the Rams or the Patriots cover the spread. Walter is getting major money through ad revenue because he’s tapped into a couple of extremely hot markets: American football and sports betting. You think there’s some interest in both those things? You bet there is!

What We Can Take From This

I’m not suggesting that after reading this, you should copy Walter’s business model and start up your own football handicapping site immediately. But there is undoubtedly a lesson that can be learned from the savvy Mr. Cherepinsky. Walter actively engages with the commenters on his website all the time, just like any good brand does. His site is optimized with keywords like “NFL draft” and “picks against the spread.” People are definitely hunting for this stuff.

And Walter’s funny. He’s a very entertaining guy, and that’s part of why people keep coming back. It’s not so much for his picks, which miss as much as they hit. It’s because he’s created a brand for himself, and he’s practicing solid white hat SEO. So, there’s much that we can learn from Walter. You might not go to his site to see if you should bet on the Steelers this week, but you can sure go there to get a lesson on money making SEO 101.