Good News - Online Casinos to get Certified!

[Webzcas]

Received this mail this morning:

From: "Admin@CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com" <Admin@CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com>
Date: 21 January 2010 07:10:36 GMT
To: webmaster@xxx ( Removed live email address to stop spam bots )
Subject: Community Certification launches at CAP
We are pleased to announce the release of our new CAP Community Certification, which is a 100% affiliate-driven certification built to fill a void that exists in our industry.

For more information and full details, please view the post below

xxhttp://www.casinoaffiliateprograms.com/bb/39359-introducing-the-first-affiliate-driven-program-certification-process.html

A year on and Affiliate Media think the time is right to reintroduce their brilliant certification program again.

Deary Deary Me!

[BingoT]

I got it too.2 times lol

Introducing The First Affiliate-Driven Program Certification Process
CAP is excited to announce the introduction of a new affiliate program recognition process called Community Certification. This system allows you, affiliates who are members of CAP, to award reputable programs with a seal of approval.

What is Community Certification?

Community Certification is a way for affiliates to collectively recognize trustworthy and reputable iGaming affiliate programs. The first of its kind, this process allows affiliates to fully control and decide whether or not a specific iGaming affiliate program deserves to be accredited. Once an affiliate program is Community Certified, they will be granted a distinct seal to inform all affiliates that this is a trusted program which has been vetted by their fellow peers. These programs will also be highlighted separately on CAP for their high level of commitment to the affiliate industry.

How Does Community Certification Work?

1. Initially, Community Certification is only open to the CAP community. This means that CAP affiliates can vote on CAP listed programs who have submitted an application for certification. The certification is completely free.

2. Once CAP receives the application, our administration team will review the submission and determine eligibility. To be eligible, a program must meet the following set of requirements:
- Must have a dedicated affiliate manager that works with the CAP community
- Must have been established for at least six months

??If a program does not meet the above eligibility requirements, the application will be denied and the program will be allowed to re-apply once the above requirements have been met.

3. Once a program has been reviewed, it will be placed in a queue for voting on a first-come, first-serve basis. In an effort to ensure all applicants receive appropriate attention, only a limited number of programs will go up for vote by the affiliate community each month.

4. Voting will occur on a monthly basis, from the first day to the last day of the given month. All affiliates will be notified of the programs that are up for certification via e-mail and the CAP forums. An affiliate may cast his or her vote at any point during the month but may only vote once and a vote can not be changed once cast. Affiliates may vote for one or all programs and may return to the voting section to vote on any programs which they have not yet cast a vote for. Immediately after voting, an affiliate will be able to view the current voting scores for each program. The voting page will be located here.

5. Affiliates will have the opportunity to vote YES or NO for each program. When voting NO, an affiliate will be asked to provide feedback. This feedback is required and will be used to compile a report which that program can use to improve from. All votes and feedback will remain 100% confidential.

6. At the end of the month, any program which receives 80% of YES votes will be awarded Community Certification. After the completion of the voting period, the system will be checked for authenticity and any new programs receiving Community Certification will be announced.

7. If a program received less than the required percentage of positive votes, they will still be eligible for Community Certification at a later date. Currently the time is set for three months before a program can become eligible to re-apply for certification. The program manager will be given anonymous feedback about areas where they can improve so that they can correct any issues.

8. Once approved, it is also possible for a program to lose Community Certification. This process will be driven by the number of complaints received via the new CAP affiliate program complaint system.

Which Affiliate Programs Will Be Up For Review First?

To help introduce this process, we are initially offering limited eligibility to CAP Listed Programs. These are the programs that support our community and have helped provide feedback to CAP that led to this process. As only a limited number of programs will be up for review each month, those programs will have priority. This process may open up to other programs at a future date. For the initial round of voting, which will begin February 1, 2010, all of the CAP Listed programs have been given an application and they will go up for vote on a first-come, first-serve basis.

In the meanwhile, we invite you to take a closer look at how the system works and cast a vote for one of the “demo” programs until the first round of voting opens up: Online Gambling Affiliate Programs Community Certification

We would like to hear your feedback and want to shape this system around what best serves affiliates. Please post your comments within this thread or come by the CAP VIP Lounge at LAC to talk to a member of the CAP and give us your feedback in person.

[Nifty29]

Looks to me like you would have to be certified to get involved!

[jetset]

Right on - especially with the disgraceful events of early 2009 still clear in most memories!

Some folks just won't see the writing on the wall and clearly expect to continue making profits in a business that almost universally holds them in disrespect.

[Casinomeister]

Right on - especially with the disgraceful events of early 2009 still clear in most memories!

Some folks just won't see the writing on the wall and clearly expect to continue making profits in a business that almost universally holds them in disrespect.

Showcased three times in 2009 awards:

http://www.casinomeister.com/bestworst2009.php#tweb

http://www.casinomeister.com/bestworst2009.php#head1

http://www.casinomeister.com/bestwor...p#disappointII

[dominique]

It's affiliate driven, the company Affiliate Media has no say in who gets certified.

It will initially start with programs that are listed there, but it will expand beyond that soon. Once it is sure that there are no kinks in the software ( the software is still being tested) it will be made available to all.

I think it's a great idea, it solves the dilemma of affiliates going to aff forums and seeing the aff programs that pay there for advertising and automatically assuming that this means the program is good. Listings can be bought at all affiliate sites.

With this in place, affiliates get to benefit from the prior experiences of others and programs with a good track record get approved and the rest doesn't, regardless of whether they pay for ads..

Being in the group of affiliate accredited programs cannot be bought. Affiliates at large have to vote them in.

It is meant to make it easier for newbies to decide who to promote. They are the ones who most often fall into the trap of promoting disreputable brands due to lack of knowledge. They end up being screwed, the players end up being screwed and I would like to see a way they can seperate the paid ad from the reputable place.

This system should compliment AGD and actually Casinomeister. If a casino group has the ok for T&Cs from AGD, the ok from the affiliate community for treatment of affiliates and the ok from Casinomeister for treatment of players, it should be one of the best possible choices for promotion.

It can happen that affiliate programs have good T&Cs but lousy support or they don't follow their own T&Cs, that the casinos treat players well but not affiliates, that they treat affiliates well but not players, and so on. This system is meant to fill a collective communication void here.

This is meant to give individual affiliates a voice to communicate positive or negative collective experiences and IMO it rounds the available information out nicely.

I know there will be suspicions galore, and some will not be able to see the good in this because of pre-formed opinions about the hosting company, but I think it's a good thing and I want to see it play out and see if it doesn't end up improving things for affiliates and players alike in the long run. It's a great idea.

[RobWin]

What another load of crap!! Hope you guys don't mind me all over the place here...

Everybody and their brother wants to "certify" programs and casinos now...good thing we still have the word "Certify" with us as it certainly means so much in this industry anymore...
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[Webzcas]

It's affiliate driven, the company Affiliate Media has no say in who gets certified.

But they will no doubt try and benefit from the 'prestige' of labelling programs such.

I won't be buying into this.

The only certifications that should matter to affiliates is Guard Dog Certification when it comes to terms and conditions being Affiliate Friendly. Plus obviously the case that casinos are not blacklisted here on CasinoMeister for player issues.

[Simmo!]

good thing we still have the word "Certify" with us as it certainly means so much in this industry anymore...

To be fair, most people here should probably be certified too

[dominique]

Guard Dog rocks and has had my full support from the very start, and still does, and always will. AGD deals in facts and is as forthcoming and transparent as can be and cannot be bought. (BTW, Andy needs a new server for it and there is a thread accepting affiliate donations, hint, hint.)

Personally I am sick and tired of seeing nothing but paid listings of affiliate programs (AGD excluded) everyplace I go. I can't count how many complaints I have read on how many affiliate message boards about paid ads misrepresenting programs to affiliates.

This will hopefully put an end to that at CAP.


Long as I am still moderating CAP I want affiliates there to have an affiliate driven evaluation of programs, independent of paid listings. Call it what you want - voted in, preferred, approved, certified, selected, or whatever one can find in the dictionary, it's still the same thing - a way for affiliates to pass on to newbies what aff programs they consider good.

If it's good for affiliates and/or players, I am for it. Give me a reason why this is bad for the CAP community, and I will see to it that it gets changed up.

And before everyone asks things I have no answers to - no, I do not speak for Affiliate Media. Yes, I speak for the community at CAP, until they tell me to shut my big fat mouth.