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

[GGW Laurie]

Have you ever wondered what an Affiliate can do for you and just whats in it for them, after all no one does all this hard work without getting something out of this.

I myself have used a few when clicking on banners for no deposit bonuses, to check out a new casino. I used to believe that if you used an affiliate you would most likely lose, this is not the case infact.

It seems we are bombarded with emails, left and right, some of them just to stupid to understand, i would define them as the Ugly, someone not knowing or having the hard work and time invested, but merely buying email addys and sending , well crap is crap imo.

The bad seem to be the ones that send out old promos and do not keep up with the latest in the gaming world, they send out not a few but many daily and use my all time favorite one i recieved "Our Casino Is Pregnant With Bonuses" good greif, how lame or just down right stupid or desperate will one become, well it did get my attention, i just hope no poor fool fell for it, so which brings me to the Good Affiliates..........

How do we know we can trust them, is it by the gaming sites they have set up for us to veiw? I pretty much know who i can trust that are decent Affiliates on ths forum, some have invested alot of time and hard work and will take care of a player when in need of help, i have seen this happen on this very forum to often.

So what makes a good Affiliate? I would love to hear from some of those great Affiliates, maybe a few Bad and Ugly Affiliates will tell why they promote some of these rogued casinos, but that may be reaching a bit to far.

laurie

[vegetagirl2008]

For one a good affiliate will not promote rogue casinos in the first place. Second the affiliate has to take great care of their players if they themselves want to be treated the same way. For affiliates who promote rogue casinos are going to expect alot of hassle from players with non-payment issues and the like. Also some affiliates spam their promoted website a affiliate that does not promote rogue casinos will not.

[dominique]

This is my view of what an affiliate should do for you:

1. Provide current information for you in one spot that lets you compare such things as bonuses, softwares, individual games, strategies and whatever else is of interest to you. Different players enjoy different aspects of playing, and somewhere there is an affiliate who thinks the same way you do. S/he will have your favorite site.

2. Provide support should you encounter issues with a casino you signed up with through their site. That automatically causes the affiliate to only list good sites that s/he trusts to treat you right. A good affiliate has few if any player complaints to deal with because they don't promote dodgy places.

3. Update information all the time. This is an easy task for a new site just starting out since it's small. For a big site, it's a full time job or maybe requires staff to help. For such big sites, this can only be maintained if it offers lots of interesting information - it takes a lot of consistent player support to generate enough funds to make this into a full time business or add staff. Affiliate income fluctuates right along with your winning and losing. So unless there are a lot of players happy enough to consistently support the site, winning and losing doesn't balance out and there will be many months without any income.

4. Affiliates need to not only spend time researching the casinos and their offers, but they need to constantly monitor player message boards and affiliate message boards to identify rogues. Usually casinos that cheat one group will eventually screw the other one too, it's a character trait of the operator and not confined to players or affiliates. A crook is a crook.


The bad and the ugly:

When affiliates who have little experience build websites, they are lost. There is too much information to absorb all at once, and they often advertise rogue casinos without being aware. The lucky ones get called out at Meister or someplace and get a fast education. These new affiliates may mean well but just lack knowledge. More often than not this results in baptism by fire (like I said above, rogues are rogues and affiliates are screwed on a daily basis also) and the new sites die as fast as they are created.

Then there are spammers, these folks could care less about individual players. They are in it for some quick money and players should NEVER click on an ad in unsolicited mail.

And you have blackhat affiliates who are only in it for the quick buck and use any means to get to the top of the search engine. Usually that entails hurting everyone who gets in the way.

How to tell a good site from a bad one, ask yourself the questions:

Is the information here what I am looking for, and is it up to date?

Is the site just a collection of ads (billboard site) or does it show that time was spent on researching and presenting facts?

If I have an issue, can I find the owner for support?

Does the site have a rogue section/blacklist?

If all this looks good, bookmark the site and come back at a later time to check on updates to see if they have been made.

Players can control which affiliate sites survive and which don't. A click is like a vote as to whether the site should be in business or not.

The affiliate works for free always for the player, using an affiliate is positive for players if they find what they want on the site, and if the affiliate supports them. There are no drawbacks.

The affiliate also works for free for the casinos until someone clicks on a link, so the bad ones tend to go out of business quite soon, only to be replaced by newer ones. There is an incredible turnover, many many people try their hand at it thinking it's easy money and soon realize it's hard work and quit. What players often don't know is that bonuses are deducted from affiliate revenues, as well as other operating expenses.

If players use links at useful info sites and avoid clicking on links in spam or billboard sites the situation cleans up all by itself.

Casinos don't put food on the affiliate's table, players do. Affiliates who don't get that soon go under.

Another thing that affiliates often don't realize is that one needs to watch closely for winners. Casinos that don't have a good percentage of winners should be dropped even if not rogue. Who wants to play at a place where they can't win? In the long run places with lots of winner do better anyway, because everyone enjoys playing there.

[love2winalot]

Hiya: I used to be an affiliate a long time ago when USA players could play anywhere. I only supported 1 Casino, that being Captain Cooks. I had no expierience prior to this, only having played online, and mostly at this same Casino. I chose them for 2 reasons....

1. They had no Chargebacks, or negative income balances. Either you made money, %30, of players losses, or you made/lost $0 on players winning. imhop, It is kind of hard to promote a Casino, and say, "Good Luck to you, i hope you Win", When you will not make any money unless they lose, and would actualy lose money if they did indeed win.

2. imhop, and i did, the Affiliate needs to be playing at the Casino they are promoting. So it becomes, "Do as I do, and not just Do as I say".

Saying, "They pay out fast", is one thing. Posting a winner screen shot, the withdraw banking screen shot/w date of request, and posting the picture of the Check in your hand and the date it arrived, IS A MUCH BETTER THING. A Picture really is worth a thousand words.

Also, the more information you provide, the better. To many affilates, ASUME. They think everyone is only a slot's player, and knows all the deposit/withdraw methods, and all about bonuses, and all they need to do is point them to one of their Casino's.

The worst thing you can do is just flat out LIE. On my main e mail account, some Affilate sends me e mails a few times a week. They are all pretty much the same.
Hi, I am on my way out the door, but.....................
"I" got the Casino to give you this Bonus.....but you must hurry...........
Look at all these bonus offers...........they wont last long..........
The Bonus was cancelled, but, I, got them to reinstae it for today only.....
and so on.

It is kind of like the old tv commercial of the guy in his studio apartment, by the railroad tracks calling you and saying, "Hi, boy do i have a Hot Stock for you".........If it is so damn hot, WHY DON'T YOU BUY IT"....hehehe

In a few months i will be moving oversea's, and will become an affiliate again. I will be spamming.........ummmm i mean bombarding your e mails...........ummmmmm i mean trolling message boards...........ummmmm i mean ......?????????? hehehehe, Weeeeeeeeee.

[mojo]

Dom pretty much covered it all.

The way I see it, affiliates should always be reachable. They should have a contact button and/or forum for players to go to. If a player needs help, it should not matter whose banner they loaded the casino from. An affiliate worth their salt will go to bat and at least get to the bottom of an issue and not be concerned with whose banner you are from.

Another thing to note is that affs point of contact is the Affiliate Manager, not the casino manager. This is the first place we go when a player issue arises. We can usually sort it out there. If not, we can certainly take it further. If I've done everything I can to no avail, then it's time to get the big dogs in so I recommend CM. If a player is right, we never quit.

Personally, I think it helps if an aff is or has been a player too. They know what the norm cashout is, and can spot problems pretty quickly.

Bottom line is affiliates that care about their name and fair gaming last through everything thrown at us. An affiliates good name is really all we have in this tough TOUGH biz.

[GGW Laurie]

This is my problem with the Bad and Ugly Affiliates, we have so many new forum members here who may be new to online gambling, they might get an email one day from one of these Rogue Promoting Affiliates and bing bang boom, they end up playing at some of those Rogue casinos and then they soon end up here on casinomeister, not knowing whom to turn to and how to get their winnings.

Thanks for the awesome posts so far Affiliates, i didnt really expect any of the ones that promote the Rogues to come on here and post, but did you either?.................laurie

[mojo]

This is my problem with the Bad and Ugly Affiliates, we have so many new forum members here who may be new to online gambling, they might get an email one day from one of these Rogue Promoting Affiliates and bing bang boom, they end up playing at some of those Rogue casinos and then they soon end up here on casinomeister, not knowing whom to turn to and how to get their winnings.

Thanks for the awesome posts so far Affiliates, i didnt really expect any of the ones that promote the Rogues to come on here and post, but did you either?.................laurie

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. You can forward your email to whichever casino is being promoted and they can get the affiliates account name by the banner tag in the mail. Then the norm is to write the affiliate and tell them to knock it off. If the affiilate still receives complaints, they can get their affiliate account shut down.

Some of the less desirable programs won't care but it could certainly fill up their mailbox.

[BingoT]

Thank You Laurie great post to ask.(The Affiliates)
I think Dom,Mojo,Love2winalot,Vegetagirl2008 summed it up here.
But I have to say some players have told me some Affiliates ask for a % of the money the casino owes them.
I think that is crazy for anyone to ask someone.
Just help them out for nothing.
I even helped people that never joined anything by me.
It like my saying "People Helping People"
Never put that nasty word of Greed on your mind and help all that needs it For Nothing.
If you tell me this or that is no good I will pull it in a heart beat.Just like that last eposode of that shady thing Irish Luck pulled on the players.
That spam email all I have to say to them go &%$# off
We all have to work together.
~T~

[RobWin]

[quote]

Have you ever wondered what an Affiliate can do for you and just whats in it for them,

Think of Bryan (Casinomeister), a lot of peeps don't actually realize that he is also an affiliate, and I'm sure a lot of you have signed up to casinos thru his banners and links here as well. I know that I have several times, along with other affiliates on this board as well. I feel if I am good enough to sign up thru their affiliate link then they also will look out for my best interests as their player. At least I would want to expect that as a minimum service from the affiliate that I signed up under.

I myself have used a few when clicking on banners for no deposit bonuses, to check out a new casino. I used to believe that if you used an affiliate you would most likely lose, this is not the case infact.

laurie

Surely you did not think that of the Meister now did you..

By the way, Great post and questions Laurie...I know a lot of peeps in the affiliate industry now and it absolutely blows me away with amazement that they can promote a casino that they don't actually play at or never have played at themselves and tested the casinos systems, meaning game play, depositing and withdrawing options etc.

How in the hell can anyone consciously promote a product or service that they themselves do not use? There are a hell of a lot of new affiliates that enter this business everyday that literally don't know a damn thing about an online casino but yet the programs will simply let them promote away. That is the main issue that I personally have a hard time swallowing as an affiliate. That needs to be tightened up by the programs for sure, but most likely never will be as they are in the market to convert as many new members as possible.

Dom summed it up purdy well here. As for me, I would have never even considered becoming an affiliate if I had not been playing at all of these online casinos over the past 13 years and had that player experience behind me. I've experienced the spectrum in that time frame of the good, bad and ugly affiliates and casinos. How can new affiliates with no player experience know which ones are the good casinos and which ones are the bad ones?

One thing for sure is the fact that it is not easy at all earning money in this business, I can guarantee you that. It requires a hell of a lot of dedication and due diligence and long hours to be a good affiliate. Then you get to the day before the end of the month and look at your stats and think, great...I'm going to make a couple of dollars this month, WRONG...you log-in the next morning just to find out that one of your players has turned your account upside down for possibly the next 3 months now by cashing out a big win. Of course you are happy for them but in that same respect you, the affiliate, are now broke for the next month. So you can never rely on a definite steady income.

IMO, a good affiliate will test the deposit and withdrawal structure, time-lines, etc., of a casino before offering it to their visitors. Sure you can talk to them and they will paint you a rosy red picture of how great their casino is but if the affiliate has not personally tested it themselves then how can you legitimately offer it to your website visitors, that is, if you really give a $hit about your visitors and players that sign up thru you.

Now a GREAT Affiliate like the Meister and others here as well for instance will go to bat for a player and try to make sure that the casino does right by them if they happen to have an issue, even if that player did not sign up thru them by way of a link or banner. Maybe the player will remember that free service the next time they want to download and sign up to a new casino and then go back to that affiliates site that helped them out.

So in closing this, I urge everyone that is a player to seriously consider using a good affiliate as your go to person when you have an issue or you are looking for a new casino to sign-up at!
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[dominique]

Great post, Rob!

The best affiliates are players who decided that they cannot find the type of info online that they feel they would benefit from most. So they went about creating a site around it.

I remember when I started playing I was grateful to find a site that sorted their banners by software. At least I could figure out what the games would be like. The site was nothing but banners....

There was hardly any info available on anything back then. Things have come a long way since then - one can find answers to most any gambling related questions online and there are sites organizing things in all kinds of different ways, so one can always find one that is centered around one's own personal interests.

You have to consider that all the info out there is put up by affiliates - and no one can afford to do all that work for free. If affiliates all went out of business, there would be no one but the casinos providing info - and there would be no way at all to tell who to trust and who is rogue.