Affiliates!!! The Good!!! The Bad And The Ugly

[lots0]

IMO, the biggest problem with casino affiliates is that we are a loosely associated group without any real leadership or goals. Combine that with the mass of incoming newbies with dollar signs in their eyes that don't have clue about the business and that will promote anything that 'looks' good... and you get the situation we currently have in the business.

The big question is..... What are we gonna do about it?

I'd like to suggest we think about organizing a REAL professional organization of affiliates. This would mean the organization would NOT promote ANY casinos and avoid any appearance of conflict of interest and only operate off of member dues...

Are we professional enough to accomplish something like this?

[Casinomeister]

Great thread! Thanks to all those participating!!

Just a few quick comments:

Good thread btw lauriejim.

There is a way to fight the spam. Affiliate programs have a strict no spam policy we all agree with when we sign up. Spam can be reported there. ...

Actually, I've saved you some time by listing points of contacts for each aff program here:
http://www.casinomeister.com/online_casino_spam.php

This is linked to every page on the main site

One thing that many people forget is that affiliate is being used interchangibly with the term "webmaster" - I've always tended to consider myself a webmaster. Casinomeister predates most affiliate programs, so I never really got too involved with them. I steered away from affiliate message boards, and when it comes to conferences, I'm mainly involved with the industry focused ones. My mission was/is to provide information and a community that supports the needs of both player and operator. Maybe the term should be changed to "advertising webmaster". But anyway...

Great stuff!

I would like to take it one step further for my fellow affiliates.

What happens when a great casino comes along with no affiliate program?

For example, a new casino comes out called THE BEST EVER CASINO IN THE WORLD. And it is. Would affiliates put them on their sites? Even though they can't make a dime. Players should know right?

I have asked myself this question recently because my partner brought it up and I didn't have an answer!

Most new casinos come online with massive marketing budgets. This is about the only way to stay competitive in an extremely volatile environment. If a casino came online that was trying to break the mold as mavericks - no marketing budget - then that would be a massive red flag in itself. But if they were truly walking on water, sure I'd recommend them here. Why not?! Welcome "Casino Jesus"!

Actually, I've given a number of entities free advertising on the site - most of this was non-casino oriented though.

Personally, I feel that to be a good webmaster/affiliate, you need to subscribe to a Casinomeister-like philosophy.

Be helpful, accessible, and get involved with the gaming community. It's really quite simple.

[dominique]

Devil Advocate

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Hiya: I will try to answer the question of How/Why an Affilate would ask for a % of a players winnings be given to him. I am going to use a very old example, as it is easier to explain.

Player joins a Casino, Get Bonus, learns how to protect the Bonus, and makes a Profit ALMOST ALL THE TIME.

This same player now becomes an Affilate, builds a website, and creates a Walkthru on another url, on how to do what he did, and where at, and so on.

The Affilate charges a FEE for this Information, and knows that asking for the Fee upfront will just be a waste of time, and so instead charges a % of the almost always guarenteed profit.

Old Example: "This no longer works". %100 match deposit Bonus, up to $500. All Games can be played to meet the play thru requirements. Play Roulette, Bet $250 each on Black, and Red.

Or, flat bet xxx$ in BJ, unless you lose 3 in a row, and drop to table Min bet until losing streak ends, and go back to the large flat bet. and so on.
Simply Put, the Affilate is Selling the Information on how to be a Bonus bagger, and make a steady profit from the Casino's.

If the player Wins, he makes money off the Fee. If the player actually lost, he makes money from the Casino, via his affilate %. I have never actually heard or seen this done, but assume someone somewhere used to do this.
__________________

I have heard of this frequently over time, and it is usually some bogus strategy being sold that way.

[RobWin]

IMO, the biggest problem with casino affiliates is that we are a loosely associated group without any real leadership or goals. Combine that with the mass of incoming newbies with dollar signs in their eyes that don't have clue about the business and that will promote anything that 'looks' good... and you get the situation we currently have in the business.

The big question is..... What are we gonna do about it?

I'd like to suggest we think about organizing a REAL professional organization of affiliates. This would mean the organization would NOT promote ANY casinos and avoid any appearance of conflict of interest and only operate off of member dues...

Are we professional enough to accomplish something like this?

How would the affiliate make a living under a program like that Lots0? Or do you mean as a whole that the organization would not promote any casinos but yet the individual affiliate still would?

[cpdnd31]

I just started my website trying to become an affiliate. My #1 rule when I started was I only posted gaming sites that I played on, enjoyed & got paid quickly. My #2 rule they have to have toll free numbers and or live chat. I'm in the USA and it seems like more and more sites are out there everyday grabbing our money knowing there really is nothing that can be done. That's why I am proud to be a Casinomeister member. It's a group of caring individuals trying to stop the scam as well as the spam.

[Consultant]

I have not much experience as an affiliate, but I think a good affiliate is like a good business man (or woman):

1. Action oriented
The best 1 word business plan: Improve. Many people have ideas and visions that could make them rich. Nobody has ever planned not to be a succes. The key is to get going. A good day is one where you realized part of the plan. You should always be selling, not strategizing about selling.

2. Make meaning
Profit should be an incentive, a desired by-product, but never your guideline. The goal of your business should be to make meaning. It's really quite easy: Solve a problem or make something good better or last longer.

3. Be unique and customer centric
Your goal should be to provide value to the customer (players) and be unique in doing so. There is no point in ranking casino's by the color schemes of their homepages, nor is it useful - let alone profitable - to clone a leader.

Many internet concepts are network related. Only one affiliate can dominate every niche. It offers zero value to start a small copycat network of an existing big network (e.g. casinomeister forums), and it's pointless to clone an unsuccesful network.

4. Polarize but never compromise your integrity
Good brands have lovers and haters. Your goal should be to ignite passion. Some people love Ryanair, others hate it. Some people love the Virgin brand, others think Richard Branson is overrated. You can give countless examples. What they all have in common is that people talk about them.

There really is no such thing as bad PR, as long as it's reversable. If people think your site is ugly or stupid, no problem, let them and learn from it. Certainly don't block those people! Engage with them, but keep 80/20 in mind. What you should avoid at all cost, though, is losing your integrity. If you commit fraud, send spam or operate a scam operation, people will find out and you lose your reputation forever. Those things are irreversable.

5. Incorporate and put the company first
If you are serious about business, you should incorporate. Get a job on the side if needed to pay for those costs. Making it all more official gives your trading partners confidence and forces you to work harder and be more professional. You might get stuck with higher costs if your business doesn't go well, but burning your own ships is a good way to make you fight harder. If you feel incorporating is overkill, maybe you should question how serious you are about this entire affiliate thing.

Also, put the company first. You are an entrepreneur, not a CEO. Your goal should be to build a great business, to realize the business vision, not to remain 100% owner. Few people, if any, manage to become billionaires without sharing equity and surrounding themselves with a great team. Equity is like shit. If you pile it all up, it starts to stink. If you spread it around, nice things start to grow.

6. World domination in theory, niche by niche in practice
Rome wasn't build in one day. Microsoft didn't start out as the operating system giant, and Google didn't have dozens of features from day one.
As soon as you know what you want to realize and how this is unique and value adding, you should start splitting up the master plan in short term goals. Determine milestones and make assumptions. This should lead to clear tasks. Test and learn. Rinse and repeat.

7. Understaff, but outsource
You are constantly selling by now, and the next part of the master plan is always around the corner. Avoid the temptation to overstaff. You should remain agile. Comfort is the enemy of creativity. If you don't know how to fill your day, something is wrong. Your organisation should remain agile. So keep on going, but outsource selectively. Succesful people often demonstrate the ability to be maniacal in what they do best, and outsource all the rest to reputable people. Pay for value if you outsource. Building a business is a group effort. The quality of your business depends more on the quality of the weakest link than on the greatness of the best man behind it.

One area where you should not understaff is customer service. Your clients (players) put the food on your table, so there is no excuse not be available to them. You can outsource in fractions of FTEs using sites such as oDesk.com, elance.com, guru.com and rentacoder.com.

8. Have fun doing it!
Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Building a semantic search engine might be a billion dollar opportunity, if you don't see yourself doing that, it's a zero dollar opportunity to you personally. Warren Buffet rightly says life is a snowball. Find a place you like with a lot of snow, find it early and let your little snow balls turn into an avalanche.

This is how I see being an affiliate, or doing business in general. In short, the key is to get going, make meaning, add unique value, ignite passion, incorporate, niche thyself, stay agile, work with the best and - most importantly - HAVE FUN!

I honestly believe that if you live life like this, you will also find yourself admired by your peers, loved by your friends and family, and without regret later on in life.

Now, please excuse, I have to get going!

[TOC]

I tried not to respond to this thread but it's SO SELF SERVING I had to jump in. Most of the senior posters here run portal casino's, yes the one with banner after banner trying to get you to click the link. And yes they make money if you lose. I know of NO affiliate program if your winning TONS of money, you the player that affiliate gets paid. I agree with several posters that there are good portal affiliates at this site but from my experience many of these webmasters attack white label casino's such as mine and we promote the same system. Even though our casino is supported by CM's accredited casino the attacks fly. Do I need proof, OK heres the link.

http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/...ing-spots.html

So, in short if you click a link or enter an affiliate website remember the the money is spread around. If you enter the casino directly, the casino gets it all. I do support affiliates but I don't like the portal vrs. white label, it's the same!

[dominique]

. And yes they make money if you lose. I know of NO affiliate program if your winning TONS of money, you the player that affiliate gets paid.

In many cases this is true, but for instance at Casino Rewards one is paid by wagering and win or lose is irrelevant (and they have a ton of casinos), and Slotland pays a percentage of deposit regardless of win or lose, and almost all programs have CPA which pays per player sent and win or lose is irrelevant.

And in those programs where the affiliate chooses revenue share and win or lose does impact revenues, it is still financially advisable for the affiliate to choose casinos with LOTS of winners. If you don't realize that happy players are the most important asset to an affiliate you are missing the point.

Re. white labels, I am not all that versed in them but there are many variations that demand different degrees of responsibilities from the person running them. There are those that are simply premade websites looking like a casino, but any and all things are handled by the issuing casino. In that case, the issuing casino is what needs to be trusted, and the affiliate is irrelevant to the player. Unless of course s/he engages in spamming or blackhat techniques to promote the place.

Others are full fledged licences and the person running them has huge responsibilities financially.

And I assume there are a lot of others operating in the area between those two extremes.

[lots0]

I tried not to respond to this thread but it's SO SELF SERVING I had to jump in. Most of the senior posters here run portal casino's, yes the one with banner after banner trying to get you to click the link.

That is insulting and just not true.

[lots0]

How would the affiliate make a living under a program like that Lots0? Or do you mean as a whole that the organization would not promote any casinos but yet the individual affiliate still would?

The affiliates would be members and run their business as normal. The Organization would not promote casinos or have any appearance of conflict of interest and only operate off of member dues... much like many professional organizations.