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In the last months the power balance between prominent casinos has changed; while
some companies are turning more and more aggressive marketing wise and therefore
more central, other major players are making their first steps back on their way
to vanish from history. So why should we care when the giants rumble? the problem
is that the aggressiveness of these companies hurt us webmasters in many different
ways that leaves an aftertaste of malice.
The primary (and most common) problem is of course that of the huge promoters…
after all what is your shot as a webmaster when promoting a big casino that is
already advertising in a million and one places? Most likely zero since in most
cases your visitor already has a cookie of major label casinos installed. So most
of the players you will deliver will not be tagged as yours. We invest money and
time promoting the casino, design mailers, post news, buy media and so on but
for little use. This is why I don't bother promoting 888, Party Poker, and the
like.
The other, less familiar, problem involves your personal relationship with
the casino. At a moderate size casino you will get a VIP treatment even for
delivering only $5,000 worth of monthly deposits, while a big casino won't give
you the time of day. Since they have several heavy affiliates they pamper their
preferable webmasters at your expense. How? Simply by directing the traffic
from you to the larger affiliate to increase his share of give him a bigger
slice of the cake in order to preserve him as an exclusive affiliate of the
casino. This stops you from growing since you are prevented from accumulating
players.
The third problem is a new and very dangerous symptom – casinos who are
bullying webmasters. I came across large casinos who threaten to shut down and
liquefy accounts in order to "stimulate" the marketing. This is dangerous
territory and I strongly recommend dropping such nasty casinos ASAP. Since we
handle the marketing on our expense we are not committed to any casino –
we're not obligated to market them or keep any contacts with them! Many webmasters
are tempted to go on and I can see why - this situation is so frustrating because
we have already put in the work, spent money, and indexed the casino. Plus we
trusted the affiliate manager that we'll make money of this casino; several
months and a few hundreds of dollars later we are still making practically nothing
– and after all this effort these bullies want to shut down our account
and stop paying our due (as little as it was…)?!
I won't have it. I don't work with companies that make threats and harass me.
The fear to quit will only increase other fears and insecurities. Enough is
enough. I say screw them. Let them have the money I made for them so far, but
they won't see another freaking dollar from me ever. (Don't worry, they already
started stealing my traffic and direct it forward…evil as they
are).
Other than dropping the cheaters I suggest always demanding payment in advance.
Every other week a new casino comes along wanting promotion. The affiliate manger
tries to sweet talk me that every single site on the world wide web is his affiliate
and so on, but in real life this casino buys media like crazy at the big sites
and makes a sucker out of the occasional small webmaster that markets is on
his expense. Sometimes the media purchase is so aggressive you think you're
the only one who can't make money of them – after all you have been sending
over hundreds of visitors every month. In such cases you must recognize that
you're wasting time and money promoting a casino that will not help you grow.
Why do it for free?!
Now I'd like to welcome your honest responses – in your experience,
who is the most tricky, nasty, and mean affiliate program or casino these days?
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