Outing Rogue Affiliates

[lojo]

What is a Rogue Affiliate?

• Someone who promotes rogue casinos.
• Someone who links to known rogue affiliates.
• Lazy, greedy webmasters who don't bother to check the intergrity of their links.

Check your links and affiliations, please.

[hippo925]

i've seen that a lot actually. and to be honest, i feel really bad for people who stumble onto those sites reading about these great casinos and great 1 million dollar bonuses. of course, they are on the roque or not recommended lists here.

thankful am i that i know about casinomeister. but i wonder how many people don't?

[lojo]

Many longtime posters here have affiliate links in their signatures. This is great, and the vast majority of them are 'clean'. I'd just encourage anyone who cares about the unwitting victim (uninformed player) to click every signature link you see here; if there are known rogues on the site, PM the affiliate and inform them... if they don't remove the rogue links from their site within a reasonable time; out them here.

Note: For those that don't know the role of the affiliate in the grand scheme of things; here is some excellent reading. http://www.casinomeister.com/casino-...iates-help.php

In brief; when you sign up at a casino through a web page that is not the actual casino - the person who provided the link is paid for your business by the casino affiliate program, as sort of a 'sales commission'. (can be a one-time referal fee, a percentage of your losses over time, or a mixture of the two)

This can be a positive productive business relationship, and when you click through from a site like Casinomeister.com, you are supporting the forum and the work that Bryan does. Some of his links are found in the Accredited Casino section.

When you click through to a casino from a site that makes money from referring customers to a casino that will rip them off; you are financially supporting an affiliate who is no better than the rogue they promote. The more money they make by sending sheep to slaughter, the more likely they will be to send more.

Some affiliates out there have no morals in this regard, and some are simply uninformed and would probably prefer to do the right thing if it is pointed out to them.

Again, the vast majority of affiliates who post here are people of integrity and good business morals. It's up to each of us to decide what, if anything, we will do.

[BingoT]

Awww Thank You lojo,
Like the other day someone told me about bingoisus and I took them off after I looked into it even more.
I myself don't do this as an income and I don't have one part of my body that has greed in it one bit.After 7 years many people know what I do and Iam proud in what I do.
Over the years I tell people to please tell me if they join anything I have to offer and I will be happy to comp them myself but no one ever says a word because I think many people don't want anyone to know their business.and i'm fine with that but it would be nice.
I can rat out many that do this for profit & greed but that is not my business.
And please if I have something that is no good to the player please give me heads up because I hate hurting people in any shape or form.
As an affiliate everyone has to have trust in them wiithout that you have nothing.
And everywhere you go you see this one is talking ^%$# about that one and this one is talking ^%$# about that one and so on.
To this day I only get my 2 cents in with only one person because they have over 90 places and they are all no good.And they are out for blood.
I do say if your going to join a place do it with an affiliate and not stright to the site.Why give the casino everything.But find a affiliate that will work for the person if they have run ins with that place.An extra hand always makes a better out come in things.

Thank You
I hope i'm one of the good one's
Tom

[USA2112]

Good subject lojo, there’s allot of websites that don’t take the player into consideration when advertising as an affiliate even though they should. I think many fall short when starting their website, its almost counter productive thinking, they think it is this big cash cow and they do not care about the players and think their going to get their hands on the big money. “Not” you need return customers. The ones I loathe the most are people who use free sites and don’t read the TC’s for the site. They put up a bunch of casino banners and are breaking laws! when doing so, it is illegal. “ That‘s a story in itself ” And does nothing but hurt the whole industry.

Its not just about getting people to signup as players, for the webmaster / affiliate to earn money that comes from satisfied customers that signup at casinos and are willing to return and play, which means, players do prefer casinos that have good customer support and can be trusted when it comes time to cash out. Sending people to rogue casinos so they get ripped off is not a good strategy, 1.) you know they won’t go back and play at the casino again “why should they = 0 profit” 2.) chances are, I doubt they will come back to the website where they found the offer and signup for another round of abuse. “ Lost of members = 0 profit ”

I’ve been around the gaming forums for several years “ I have seen it all ” and just recently started my own site “ Its harder then I thought and I‘m using php ” and I’m trying to make sure to use nothing but good quality casino/poker offers, “ That‘s important ” and I still have a little weeding to do, and quite a bit of work on good content and such. But, most important is trying to do it right the first time and not just create a rogue pit, just would not make any sense.

I could care less if I make a nickel or a dollar, “nickels right now” that’s not what it is about for me, I just like being around gambling in general and I would think any perspective customer would be the same “ they like gambling. “ Send them to the wrong casino and that can only happen once, send them to the right casino and they will return and play. I know I look at it that way.

[lojo]

That's great, Tom! And I'm sure if someone pointed out a link on your site, and you found that they weren't treating players right, you'd remove the link right away.

I can also understand if CasinoX didn't think it was any of their business where else an affiliate pointed, as long as CasinoX was an honest casino... I just don't agree that it is okay for them to pay people who may use the income to promote other casinos that will rip the players off.

I can be enlightened if anyone disagrees with my philosphy there... as it may reach too far and ultimately be none of my business.

I just don't think it's us against them (players vs casinos) I think it's the good guys and the bad guys. There are rogue players, rogue affiliates, and rogue casinos. There are honest players, honest affiliates, and honest casinos. That is the line that should be drawn in my opinion, and people should step on one side of the line and be counted if they care about others in their 'class'.

[lojo]

Thanks for the reply, USA2112. You make good business sense and I hope you succeed. If I would have a had a clue about the affiliate thing or was even remotely focused on online gambling when I started doing web development in '95 I think I could have done well for myself. (I don't really do anything web related any more)

I'd also be real interested in what some of the other webmasters have to say, as well as players and casinos. One of the Rival affiliate managers has assured us that they screen their potential affiliates for rogue content.

[USA2112]

Your right lojo, 95’ you would have caught the whole wave, but it’s never to late. I could have caught half of the wave but being I procrastinate to much and the rehabbing business I have I just let it slip on by. No biggie though, and I haven’t chose the greatest time to start because of “ legislations ect ” but I still look forward to the challenge to see what comes of it. Ah! the road to success! “ yeah right ” lets just say I‘m glad I’m still in the rehab business.

Its good to hear certain Rivals are screening their affiliate sites maybe others will follow. No matter where the overall industry is today there’s allot of changes that need to be made in the future that taint the business, including the fraudulent players that create multiple accounts and are always trying to cheat the casinos, this does nothing but put good casinos on the defensive. “ Not good! ” I believe this is a part of why some casinos end up rogue and bankrupt, they weren’t prepared for these types of obstacles like rogue players and chose unsavory tactics to fight against the situation.

[lojo]

As time goes on, maybe you can 'rehab' rogue affiliate sites for a fee

I have a friend on here with whom I haven't spoken in quite awhile; he looks out for affiliates... I have thought about approaching him to see if he would consider 'certifying' his members or somehow assuring they're 'clean'. He may already, never looked at his site.

Err hemmm... to any iffy casino reading this, you might want to get out of the Rogue Pit and off the Blacklists asap... I'm starting to get a little ember of passion in the pit of my gut... I'm sure with enough player community involvement, ANY casino that decided to run right could increase their revenues by being a stand up operation. I'd only want to offer a win/win situation.


μεγαλομανία moi?

[aka23]

I have a different definition of rogue affiliate. A rogue affiliate might include any of the following:

-- Sends unwanted spam. This may include email, as well as forum spam.

-- Has a site that causes unwanted downloads, such as an unexpected casino toolbar or a virus.

-- Copies content without permission.

-- Intentionally posts incorrect or misleading information, usually in an effort to encourage sign-up through their links. (This is surprisingly common, so much so, that I do not trust content on the majority of affiliate sites)

-- Unintentionally posts seriously damaging information to referred players, usually due to lack of knowledge about casinos or gambling.

-- Uses search engine "black hat" techniques, either on their site or on their competitors' sites.

-- Certain unfriendly site issues, like neverending pop-ups (close one and another appears).

-- Other things that don't come to mind.

==================================

Regarding promoting rogue casinos, I think it is more an issue of how the rogue casinos are promoted. Saying Rogue Casino X is great without explanation may fall under multiple categories above. However, saying Rogue Casino X is bad... play there at your own risk, does not.

On my site, I list all casinos that use the common softwares. This includes accredited casinos, rogue casinos, and casinos without affiliate programs. If I am aware of unexpected issues that may occur at the casino, I include a warning that describes the possible problems.. This allows players to make an informed decision about whether they want to play there or not. There are warnings about some accredited casinos, most of the rogues, and some casinos that are neither accredited or rogue. I hate when groups hide information from me because they think it is bad for me, and I wouldn't want to have a website that pretended certain casinos did not exist, simply because I think they are bad.