Dos and Don'ts for the affilate - Gambling Affiliate Place: Programs and Webmasters Forum

bb1webs · #1 03-23-2009, 02:50 PM

Hi and thank you for coming in.

I recently read a thread at gpwa which now escapes me what it was titled but it reminded me that we all could use a little reminding once in a while so I thought maybe we'd list some dos and don'ts which have been good to us in the past or continues to be. Here's my short list:

- Don't visit someone's site and assume that what they have promoted is what they'd recommend to either you or themselves if they had it do over. At the same time visiting someone's site to see if they promote who they recommend on the forums is never a bad idea either.

- Don't keep sending traffic to a place that doesn't make you money. Its foolish. It sends the wrong message to programs and we don't want that to happen. Example: some people list programs they don't trust because they view it as providing a service for their readers. If programs that are thought to be cheaters or incompetent to convert or retain players are allowed to sit next to legitimate programs that send you money every month ... what kind of message is that sending? Okay so I don't get the top page banner spot ... if I can be listed for free with the same approach as a legitimate sponsor that actually pays their partners ... sign me up for the free ride.

Perhaps not as much exposure but still exposure in a positive light.

- Don't not test or stop testing just because you make a little money with a program. You will gain a feel for what you should be making from a place and when you're inside bell goes "ring-ring" ... listen to it. Better yet make as many friends as possible that gamble from your site and listen. They will often tell you when you're being ripped-off if you will make yourself available.

- Don't fall for the old ... "if you want better conversions send more traffic" ... answer from tired AMs. That never has made any sense and never will. If they can't convert the first 500 then they can't convert the next 5000 any better.

- Don't confuse a request from an AM to give it a chance ie send enough traffic to find out ... with the afore mentioned. They are two different things.

- Don't ignore red flares such as a continued drop in income for no reasonable explanation. Bring those matters here and quickly. The more eyes watching your situation the more likely it will fix itself.

- Don't be afraid to post in forums. This will gain you crediblity with your peers so that when an issue comes up you can already have their trust and support.

- Don't post in the forums that there is a tracking issue and then not tell your peers who the casino / network is because its a quick way to lose favor. (a recent occurance where I noted the lack of enthusiasm towards a peer who gave us only pieces of information causing all to worry and then basically said "I got mine" and we never heard more until I was made aware of the name of the casino in question: see Inspiration's thread about Rival tracking issue... note this is not about Inspiration's unwillingness to give the info but rather he is pointing at a thread of such nature)

- Don't try to fool the community. You will be caught and as we have all recently witnessed it's not pretty. (ref the forum wars)

- Don't stand by and allow programs to force retroactive T&Cs upon you. Sometimes this might mean losing as in the recent situation of Full Tilt Poker where they are essentially stealing players but people are caught in the catch 22 where if they stop promoting they lose the current income but if they choose to continue promoting they are in essence setting themselves up for worse damage down the road. Do you want to lose big or lose bigger?

...... that's what I have to start with. Please add to the list.

triple777s · #2 03-23-2009, 03:05 PM

Great Thread Steve, i will add my good things and bad once i sit back and think about all of my mistakes and put them in some kind of order.

thanks for this thought provoking thread.

bonusgeek · #3 03-24-2009, 06:22 AM

Nice thread. My biggest mistake as a new affiliate was after reading a little in the affiliate forums and seeing how much the top dogs were making, I caught the fever and was so eager to get into the biz that I didn't quite research everything the way I should have and just slapped up a website anyway.

Consequently as I continued to learn, most of my time was spent fixing all the things I did wrong instead of working on new business, new websites and new content. I feel like I could have saved myself a lot of time and headaches if I had just taken an extra week to really absorb what I was getting myself into. Then I could have taken a slightly different approach to everything and done it right. So the point is if your a newb, take a deep breath and take the time to research everything, you will thank yourself for that later. Do Your Research!!!

Pokerkeep · #4 03-24-2009, 07:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bonusgeek

Consequently as I continued to learn, most of my time was spent fixing all the things I did wrong instead of working on new business, new websites and new content. I feel like I could have saved myself a lot of time and headaches if I had just taken an extra week to really absorb what I was getting myself into. Then I could have taken a slightly different approach to everything and done it right. So the point is if your a newb, take a deep breath and take the time to research everything, you will thank yourself for that later. Do Your Research!!!

Ditto

I spent the first year making mistakes and the second year fixing them.

*Take your time, ask questions, read every forum you can, ask more questions...
*Read the casino terms and conditions. (affiliate and player)
*Test the AM's response time. If they don't reply within 24 - 48 hours, run!
*Test the casino support system... see above.
*Join GPWA, PAL/CAL, AGD, GIA, and GAP. Spend time (a lot) on these forums, make friends, ask advice.

bb1webs · #5 03-24-2009, 03:42 PM

Great points. I think I am still fixing 1st year mistakes

bb1webs · #6 04-20-2009, 02:40 AM

I would add today that you should give serious merit to those times when you hear someone you respect say they don't trust a program.

Even if you are making good money with that program and everything seems great.

It may come to light down the road that the program you thought was okay was only okay as long as you were sending traffic and if/when that ever falls to the wayside you will find out who you're true (business) friends are.

That doesn't mean you should dump a program that is making you money because you heard others you respect say it was not on their list of favorites places ... but rather that you should keep what you heard in the back of your mind and then be MINDFUL that you shouldn't bet too heavily on that program because its been my sad experience to be able to report to you today that those programs which were questionable for above reason ... turn out to be everything your friends tried to warn you about.

inspiration · #7 04-20-2009, 06:43 AM

Quote:

I would add today that you should give serious merit to those times when you hear someone you respect say they don't trust a program.

Yeah why do not you just slap me in the face with trusting Vegaspartner / Starpartner, you told me I would go downhill eventually and ........ I am.
Retention must be awful.

They even lost their domain starpartner.com it seems : only the .eu is available.

Quote:

Even if you are making good money with that program and everything seems great.

I can send all the traffic I want to Referback, Vegas Affiliates it will not result in bigger earnings.

Quote:

It may come to light down the road that the program you thought was okay was only okay as long as you were sending traffic and if/when that ever falls to the wayside you will find out who you're true (business) friends are.

RB gets first prize for that since all US accounts were closed, they have not been able to produce good numbers.

As you can see all respected programs I could depend on for trust just gave me a bad feeling about this money driven industry.

LiveCasinoPartners_Adrian · #8 04-20-2009, 08:11 AM

Great list Steve, I would quote you, but then I would have to quite your entire post.

I would add:

- DO NOT steal, borrow, or use other's content. I've had to make too many late night calls to noob webmasters who copied and pasted my content. It's very frustrating for ethical webmasters to find their websites suffering sue to other's laziness or greed.

DO maintain a professional human tone on forums. I don't like it when things get personal, political, or religious. I don't have a problem with humor or being bawdy though.

I've even seen someone get flamed at CAP for placing a space before a period at the end of a sentence.

That's it for now. I'll try to think of some more soon.

triple777s · #9 04-26-2009, 04:41 PM

I have to ask a question about "stealing" content.

There are two situations i am not sure about and thought my friends here could set this issue to rest for me.

1. Affiliate programs content? I am always being offered "original" content from some of my affiliate program managers, "revenue giants" is one, and i wonder if you copy and paste the content they offer, and other webmasters do the same, is this a bad thing?

2. Prweb releases....are they ok to copy and paste?

Thanks for your thoughts and opinions on this. Its really quite important, and i would love to be able to put these subjects to rest in my head.

Thanks
Pat

slotplayer · #10 04-26-2009, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by triple777s

I have to ask a question about "stealing" content.

There are two situations i am not sure about and thought my friends here could set this issue to rest for me.

1. Affiliate programs content? I am always being offered "original" content from some of my affiliate program managers, "revenue giants" is one, and i wonder if you copy and paste the content they offer, and other webmasters do the same, is this a bad thing?

2. Prweb releases....are they ok to copy and paste?

Thanks for your thoughts and opinions on this. Its really quite important, and i would love to be able to put these subjects to rest in my head.

Thanks
Pat

by defination if two or more people use the same "original" content then it's not original.

I never use any provided content except maybe grabbing a snippet or two of the the casino bonus promotion info/terms and maybe some deposit and withdrawal info.

I'd only use a paragraph or two of the press release and then have a link to the full release at the end of it. you know a link to the press release site like prweb for instance.

I used to have a page with links to all the press releases I did over the years but I think I removed it. I can't remember at this point.

As a matter fact I just had a press release approved 10 minutes ago for another retail site I did last october. Gets released tomorrow, not my best work but good enough.

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