Choose an established partner:

When new poker rooms are starting up with names like Chocolate Poker, FatBet Poker and A-Winning-Hand (complete with dashes!), it doesn’t take a genius to realize that the poker market is becoming saturated.

Everyone wants a piece of the action, but unfortunately not everyone is going to be able to get it. And if a poker room is getting short on cash then you can be fairly certain that as an affiliate you’re not going to get paid – the Cardspike debacle of 2008 was proof of that.

Therefore, make sure that any merchant you chose to partner yourself with has a proven track record in the industry. Every affiliate has their own requirements, but personally I won’t consider working with a poker room until they’ve been around for at least 18 months.

Communication:

I can’t stress how important communication is when it comes to working with a poker room. Whether it’s sorting out problems or simply keeping abreast of upcoming promotions, you need to be working with a program that will get back to you quickly and accurately.

Therefore before you sign up to anything, write the program in question an email. Ask them some questions about how their program converts, what promotions they have coming up … anything that needs a response, and then wait to see how long they take to get back to you.

After all, if a poker program doesn’t get back to you quickly when they’re trying to sell themselves to a potential new affiliate, you can be pretty sure they’re not going to be keeping you up to date with things when they really matter.

In short, if you haven’t heard back from a program within a couple of days then move on.

Payment Processing:

Receiving payment each month is what it’s all about, so make sure you’re happy with the arrangements. First up, there are a number of different payment methods out there, so choose a program which pays you in the manner that you suits you best. Make sure you’re aware of any charges that you may incur by using these methods. Equally, if you prefer to be paid by check, then you may well want to find out how long it’s going to take for that check to reach you.

You’ll also want to ask when the program aims to pay you each month and then do some research on the various affiliates forums to see how reliable the program is at paying you on that date.

Feel free to hit me up on PAL if you have any questions or comments to make – my username is theshortstack and my latest project focuses on discovering the best casino online.

The aim of the list is to help new affiliates come up with ideas for content. Let me be the first to say that if you just decide to replace the Keyword with poker, casino or slots then you are probably going to find that it’s been done before. However I do think the list is a pretty valuable resource for anyone who is planning to target a niche within the poker or casino niche.

How To Play Keyword
Where To Play Keyword
Best Place To Play Keyword
Playing Online Keyword
Number 1 Place To Play Keyword
Where You Should Play Keyword
Where To Download Keyword
What Site To Play Keyword On
Keyword Myths
Keyword Game Info
How Do Keyword’s Work
Recommended Keyword Games
Types Of Keyword Games
Keyword Bankroll Management
Playing Keyword To Win
Best Online Keyword Bonus
Bonus For Keyword
Biggest Online Keyword Bonus
List Of Keyword Bonuses
Best Keyword Website
Biggest Keyword Jackpots
Keyword Jackpot Games
Keyword For USA Players
Keyword For UK Players
USA Keyword Sites
UK Keyword Sites
How To Win At Keyword
Winning At Keyword
Make Money Playing Keyword
How To Beat Keyword
How To Cheat At Keyword
Keyword Hints And Tips
Keyword Secrets
Basics Of Keyword
Keyword Games Online
Play Keyword Game Online
Play Keyword For Real Money
Play Keyword For Cash
Play Real Money Keyword
Is Online Keyword Safe?
Is Online Keyword A Scam?
Keyword History
Small Stakes Keyword
High Stakes Keyword
Online Keyword Guide
Guide To Playing Keyword Online
Keyword For Beginners
Best Keyword Software
Online Keyword VS Offline Keyword

There really are so many ways to build content around the niche that your are planning to target. I’m pretty sure I could come up with another 200 of these if I had to. No excuses get writing your content!

Doovde is my PAL username and I’ve amassed quite a few gambling websites over the last year including my newest project fruit machine game which is based around UK pub slot machines.

As most affiliates who have been in the game at least a few months will tell you, getting links is not easy, especially to your competitive pages. 99.9% of other webmasters are not going to link over to your poker room review or your bonus code page regardless of how awesome of a job you did writing it. Sure there are a few exceptions but they are far and few between.

Without paying for links or spending time negotiating details of link exchanges with other webmasters you’re going to have to think outside the box to get the links your website desires.

Innovative Ways to Get Links

There are unlimited ways to get links and this list is by far from a thorough list, but it is just to get the ideas flowing.

• Create a tool other webmasters can use for exchange for a link, such as a hand replayer or playing card plugin
• Create a wordpress theme and give it away with a footer link
• Produce a youtube video and link back from youtube and enhance your own content
• Write content and provide it to another webmaster with a link in the article (just like this article I’ve written for Poker Affiliate University)
• Create a one of a kind piece of content that naturally gets links naturally – linkbait content
• Create a viral piece of content

A distinction between linkable content and viral content is that ‘going viral’ usually means that your content is literally exploding across the web in a short time span. Linkable content is content may not ‘explode’ all at once but may gain links constantly over time. Both can be very valuable but take different techniques to achieve. I’ll leave the creation of truly viral marketing over to Professor Enke, my example will be more on the type of content that gets links steadily over time.

Again, this is only scratching the surface of ways to get links, but lets talk a bit more about creating linkable content. I like this type of content because it naturally gets links as the word spreads about content itself.

Creating Linkable Content

Link worthy content can be anything really, but it needs to be a quality piece of content that delivers something very different from what you can find everywhere else. As we mentioned earlier, you are not going to get many links to bonus code pages or poker room reviews naturally. Other poker portals just are not going to make a habit of linking to you regardless of how awesome of a job you’ve done writing them.

So you have to create some content that others might find interesting enough to send a link over to. I like to think what the active poker bloggers might link to and use that as a starting point as most of the poker bloggers (the really good ones anyway) make a habit of linking out to other sites all the time.

As an example, I’ll show my latest attempt at link able content. I decided to compile a list of the funniest poker links I could find on the web. A few weeks back, I was surfing the PAL forums and came across a thread that brought up the infamous TJ Cookier (the chocolate chip cookie that looks like TJ Cloutier). I started digging and racking my brain to find the threads that have the hilarious photoshopped threads from all the big poker forums. I researched and compiled a list of the best links on the web related to funny poker stuff. From the poker pro’s doing other jobs like Phil Hellmuth working at McDonalds and the hilarious Scotty Nyguen and Men the Master as taxi jockies.

If you will notice in my example of the funny poker links, along with providing unique content (in this case a list of related links) I also use multiple calls to action to encourage and simply ask for people to link to the content. I ask them to bookmark it, dig and stumble it and to link to it. Even right now, I’m asking those of you reading this right to stop what you’re doing and ship over a link to the content as well. Or, feel free to leave comments with links to other funny poker content and help me share a few laughs with the poker world. I think we could all use that right now so, take a few minutes and slap a link up from your blog, forum or site.

Besides, I think giving out links is like karma, gotta give them out to get them back so what are you waiting for.

The best thing you can do to create link bait is to first just try something. You could try to write a comprehensive list of poker professionals and the names of their pets, or find out compile a list of poker pro’s favorite drinks… who knows. Just do something unique and interesting. You aren’t going to get the links you want writing poker reviews, bonus codes or even poker strategy (unless you are an exceptional player who can also write well).

Creating link worth content is not easy, but it can be very beneficial for your sites health, so give it a shot, what do you have to lose?

Jason Spry is a long time member of the PAL forums and full time affiliate. His most current project is based on the casino game Let it Ride poker that has let it ride poker strategy, tips and ways to play let it ride online, look no farther that LetItRide.org!

The escalating cost of acquiring poker players makes some CPA deals quite attractive.  However you need to keep in mind one thing and that is the companies are willing to pay these CPA rates in the understanding that the players will make them more money in the long run than if they offered you a revenue-share deal.

I have been in the online gambling industry for over ten years and during my time I have seen some small affiliates earn large amounts from a select few players.  Luckily these affiliates choose revenue-share so they continued to earn money from the players they referred far after they continued sending depositors.  One good poker player can easily generate in excess of a $1,000 a month in rake, where if you were paid CPA you would have earned just a one off payment from that player, whereas with revenue-share you will continue to earn for the life of the player.

Choose revenue-share over CPA as in the long term this is a winning option for an affiliate sending qualified players.  The average revenue-share amount is 25-35% commissions for life of the player.

If you bring an average of 10 depositors in a month and were to make $200 CPA for these players you would earn $2,000.  However with the same players if they generated an average of $75 a month in rake each ($750 a month total in rake).  You will earn an average of 30% of $750 coming to a total of $270.  The players are likely to stay with the same poker room for a couple of years, meaning you would have made $3,240 in commissions in the first year alone.  This is $1,240 greater than you would have made by a generous CPA offer.

If this argument is not convincing enough for you to consider working with affiliate programs on revenue-share you should take a moment to think how you would feel should you refer that all important VIP player that generates $1,000’s a week in rake you got paid a measly CPA.

A major risk factor affiliate managers need to consider when working on CPA is the potential of CPA fraud.  This is when an affiliate deliberately creates a CPA deal with a program with the intent of defrauding the program).  Programs have overcome this problem by setting up limits/rake which needs to be generated before the CPA is released, but the potential for abuse still exists.

As an experienced poker affiliate manager I find the ones who work strictly on revenue-share have more value, however I do cater for both.  Some of the large poker affiliates earn six figures a month, and a majority of their commission check comes from players they referred twelve months back.

This article was written by Simon Eaton the affiliate manager for the bet365 poker affiliate program.

Free rolls do work when used correctly, but when used incorrectly can damage the potential of affiliates referring those all important depositing players, and catching that whale.  Why?  the reason free rolls can be harmful to your site is that they are sometimes offered to frequently on websites and the good poker players do not want to be capped on their winnings, nor find free rolls useful so they simply stop visiting your website.   So some of the best free roll are offered less frequent and on websites which offer advice on poker strategies and game play.

When free rolls are presented correctly on a website they can be amazing and do help give your players the opportunity to trial the poker room before depositing.  If you want to have success by offering a free roll, private tournament I advise you take a few of the following steps.

Partner yourself with a respected and established brand that offers free rolls rarely.  This means when a free roll is offered your players do want to be part of it and will do anything to get in as it is so hard to find.

Before issuing the code for players to join the free roll collect some data from your visitors such as email address, name with the ability to future market to them through emails etc.  This also helps you keep track on which players are playing on the free roll as most poker affiliate programs restrict what details you see from the players you refer.

Go for quality when offering a free roll to your members rather than quantity.  As weird as it sounds your site visitors are going to respect you more if you limit those who you offer free rolls to rather than making it widely available for everyone.  Once you have decided on who can play in the free roll then send them a personalized invite also explaining the benefits of joining that poker room to show you have taken effort in selecting a quality poker room to partner with.

Free rolls are fun and free so when running them you should expect your actual signup to depositor conversion to drop drastically.  You can limit the drop a little by being selective who you offer private free rolls to and giving your visitors a reason to deposit at the poker room.

Finally take advantage of free rolls offered by networks and rooms for their members if you can not come to an agreement for a free roll with a decent poker room.

This article was written by Simon Eaton the affiliate manager for the bet365 poker affiliate program.

What is an Exact Match Domain?

In my opinion, an exact match domain is any domain that contains the keyword(s), and only the keyword(s) in front of .com, .net, or .org. There cannot be any dashes, numbers, letters, or other words in the domain. The domain also cannot be any other extension unless you are targeting a regional search engine. For example, a .ca domain could be exact match if you are targeting the google.ca engine, but would not be exact match if you were targeting the google.com engine.

If you were targeting the term “poker sites”, the only exact match domains would be pokersites.com, pokersites.org, or pokersites.net. Some domains that wouldn’t be considered exact match include poker-sites.com, pokersites247.com, or pokersites.info.

Some affiliates like to debate that domains with dashes in them are just as valuable as domains without dashes, but all of my experience says that’s not true. I own numerous domains with and without dashes, and to be frank, the ones with dashes basically suck.

What are the Benefits?

The main benefit behind having an exact match domain is its power in the Google search engine. Even for a highly competitive term, an exact match domain with a few decent links pointing towards it will rank in the top ten or twenty results very quickly.

Another benefit of having an exact match domain is the ability to gain great anchor links from quality directories. Most good directories force you to use your site’s official name as the anchor text of the listing, and if you have an exact match domain you will get a very relevant link. For example, if you listed InternetCasino.org in the Yahoo directory, you would get the anchor text “Internet Casino”, which would further help you rank for the term “Internet Casino”. If your site was InternetCasinoHub.com however, your link would be “Internet Casino Hub” which wouldn’t help your ranking quite as much.

One Word vs. Two Word vs. Three or More Word Domains

Something that I haven’t seen discussed much is the value of a one word exact match domain vs. a two words or more exact match domain. In my experience, the one and two word domains work the best. Those are the ones that usually get the top ten or twenty ranking right away, and gain ground from there. Three word domains can also work, but four words are really pushing it. At that point the site starts to look spammy, and the domain will lose a little bit of its effectiveness.

One thing I really haven’t experimented much with is exact match domains with “modifiers” in them. For example, I’m curious to see if Google would give a domain like BestPokerRooms.com a boost for the search term “best poker rooms”. I suspect you would still get a boost, but not as much as if the domain was OnlinePokerRooms.com.

Buying Exact Match Domains

Another point I would like to discuss is the price of exact match domains. Nowadays you won’t find any great exact match domains available for registration fees – most of these can only be acquired in a private sale. You will most likely have to pay a premium for a big ticket exact match domain, but I highly recommend it. Even if you have to pay $10,000 for a highly prized domain, you are much better off doing that then buying a generic domain and investing $10,000 into links and content.

This article was written by Mike Wittmeyer who is a very successful poker affiliate, and contributor here at PAU.

There is no question that the economic crisis our world is going through has directly affected many markets, including the poker affiliate market.  The good news as poker affiliates however is that we are in a unique position where we can truly create our own destiny.  During these tough times however, the competition will be even more fierce than it ever has.

If there was ever time to increase your work ethic and you ability to “think outside the box”, it is now.  You cannot do the same things you did 1 or even 2 years ago and expect to have the same results.  In this article I want to share 5 thought provoking things that can hopefully get you thinking about your own poker affiliate business over the next 12 months.

I’ll summarize the 5 principals I feel are of the utmost importance for continuing to be successful as a poker affiliate in the coming months.

Rakeback – It seems that in the poker affiliate industry, affiliates are either rakeback or non-rakeback.  I have always been a traditional affiliate and not had much interest in rakeback.  However the reality is that as our players become more savvy the rakeback segment of our market is going to continue growing.To compete in the months and years to come, it would be a good idea to add some sort of rakeback component to your portfolio.

Added Value For Player – As mentioned above, online poker players are becoming more and more savvy every day.  High value players no longer simply click on banners and sign up to new rooms.  They are looking for some sort of added value for their business.  Whether it be rakeback, free poker cash, freeroll tournaments, or a massive bonus; players are demanding more from affiliates and rooms for their business.

Globalize Your Business – If you’ve been a poker affiliate in the U.S. for any amount of time, then you have undoubtedly been asked the question “What if poker dies out in the U.S.?”  My answer is who cares! We are in one of the only businesses where the entire world is our entire market.  Whether you globalize through translation or foreign PPC strategy, start considering the importance of globalizing your business.

Tools, Widgets, & Applications – Traditionally poker affiliates have always driven their traffic through building websites, writing content, search engine optimization, and other methods.  Have you thought about developing some sort of tool, widget, or application?  I know I have.  Developing a unique tool, widget, or application in the online poker industry is a great way to differentiate yourself from other affiliates and drive incremental sign-ups that you may not have been able to convert with a standard affiliate website.

Networking, Partnerships, & Joint Ventures – Just because the overall economy might be shrinking doesn’t mean that our individual businesses need to.  The poker affiliate market is filled with so many brilliant minds that you would be amazed what can happen when two people come together with different skill sets but one common goal.  Here’s some food for thought, would you rather have 100% of $2K a month, or 50% of $20K a month?

Nobody said that prospering in a down economy would be easy.  However even if you look back at the Great Depression, there are many companies that were started in this era and went on to be multi-million dollar organizations.  The poker affiliates that will see the most success during this historical period are the ones that will be able to embrace new techniques and strategies to attract and convert new players to online poker rooms.

In its simplest terms SEO can be described as the process by which traffic to a particular site is increasingly generated by search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN.  For example, when you go to google and search “online poker”, the top sites in the search results are very well optimized for the keyword “online poker”.

Before I go any further on SEO, I feel the need to set the expectation that SEO can literally be a subjective science.  Although the fundamentals of SEO are understood, many people will disagree on what is right and wrong, as well as what works and what doesn’t.  If you read any SEO forums or websites, you will quickly learn just how subjective SEO is.  Likewise you should you understand that no matter how much information we put into this book, mastering SEO can take months to years.

One of the most important pieces of advice I can give regarding SEO is the following.  Before you start trying to figure out algorithms and how to rank for keywords, you should focus on writing quality content that your visitors will want to read. Content is still king!  If you can build your foundation on quality updated content, the rest of learning SEO will be much easier for you.

Let’s start by familiarizing you with the most common key terms and acronyms you will here when discussing and researching search engine optimization.

SERPS – Very simple, this stands for search engine results pages.  Type any word into Google and hit search; the page you see is commonly referred to as the first page SERP.

Keywords & Key phrases – Keywords and key phrases are the specific words and phrases you want your website to rank well for in the search engines.

Spamming & Search Engine Spam – Historically most people think of spam as email spam.  Search engines can be spammed by rogue webmasters as well however.  SEO spam involves the webmaster using non conventional and unethical methods to misrepresent their websites and influence higher rankings in the SERPS.

Google Pagerank – Although google pagerank has lost a bit of it’s luster in the past couple years, it is still important.  Pagerank is a 1-10 measurement by Google that calculates an individual web pages relevance and importance based upon a number of factors.  Most importantly though the quality of the incoming links to that individual page.

Algorithm – This is a complex formula that search engines use to determine the rank of a particular website for a specific keyword or phrase.  Algorithms are constantly changing to ensure search quality, accurate SERPS, and eliminate spam.

Alt Text – This is the text that is shown when the cursor is held over an image.  It’s primary use is as a placeholder and will replace the image in the event the browser does not load the image.  It is debatable how important Alt Text is in SEO.

Anchor Text – This is the text that is written on the page that acts as the link and links to the final destination.  Anchor text is extremely important.  For example if I were trying to rank well for the keyword Poker Affiliate, it would make more sense for me to link like this Poker Affiliate than this click here.

Backlink – This is a very common term you will hear and it refers to any link from another page to your website or web page.  It is sometimes referred to an incoming link. If the links above were on a website, they would be backlinks.

Deep Linking – This is the process of linking to pages within your website from your homepage or other popular pages.  Deep linking normally is done for indexing and optimizing pages that would normally not be found from your homepage or common directory.

Meta Tags – There are various types of html tags used for SEO, these tabs help search engines identify what you page is about

Once you understand some of the concepts above, I encourage you to head over to Randy Ray’s site on Poker SEO. There is a wealth of knowledge here.  If you have more questions, you can also ask them in PAL’s Poker SEO forums.

Taking your poker affiliate business global and promoting within several different markets can be extremely profitable.  However there are some things you need to consider when branching into markets that may be foreign to you.

There is no question that having your website translated into several different languages will be profitable.  This chapter however is about some of the challenges and considerations for poker affiliates when entering new global markets.

Ever since the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) was signed into law by President George Bush on Friday Ocotber 13th, 2006, entering the global markets has been a common direction for many poker affiliates, and rightfully so, it makes sense.

With much of the market share falling off in the U.S., as well as a large majority of online poker and online casinos cutting off U.S. players, this was a logical approach for any poker affiliate to take.  And actually, it was and still is a very smart approach.  There are several emerging markets within online gambling that are without question going to be extremely profitable in the months and years to come.  Eastern Europe and Germany are just two examples. Many of the Nordic regions and even Russia are also experiencing the Boom that the U.S. experienced back around 2004-2005 with respect to online poker.  I like to call that the (WSOP Moneymaker days).

So yes, the poker affiliates that can gain exposure into these countries will definitely be able to grab a piece of the pie.  But when I see all the “experts” and various people at conferences speaking about going global by simply translating your website, I really question their true expertise and have to laugh.  I do feel qualified to speak about this as well.  Throughout 2006-2007 I was member of the board of directors for PokerNews Ltd.  I have seen firsthand some of the challenges of going global and capturing market share in 20+ countries and languages, especially in the online gaming market.

It sounds simple to just go to a freelance site and pay to have your site translated, or even worse run your content through Google translator or Babelfish …..think again though, this is actually a bad business decision in my opinion.  If you have already done this, do yourself a favor and have a poker player fluent in that language give it a quick read through for a second opinion.

If you’re going to attempt to enter foreign markets via translation on your website, do it right and partner with people in those countries who understand the local market and demographic.  Below is a list of the 3 biggest challenges for poker and casino affiliates when entering foreign markets:

1.  Translation  – This is the most important and critical aspect of entering a new market.  The fundamental problem with “English only” speaking affiliates is that they hire a translator, and then there is no way to know if the translation is good.  And unfortunately with bad translation, you will actually build a bad reputation for your site in these markets.  Keep in mind every language has so many various subtleties.  What would you think if you went to a U.S. site and read something like this:

“The game of Texes Holdam is played by individuls from around the country area. Here at  we offer bonus for you best at sites. We can do also rakeback at 35% for sites no U.S.”

Laugh out Loud if you have to, but this is how your site will look if you pay for cheap translation.  This brings me to point number two.

2.  Translator - There are two critical things you will need from a translator to do a good translation that will allow you to present a professional page in one of these emerging markets.  For starters you will need a translator that speaks fluent in both languages.  If they only speak fluent in one language, and mediocre in the other, your content will look like the sentence above.  Second and equally important, you have to have a translator that understands poker!  There are so many terms that are going to get garbage translations if you don’t have a translator that understands all the various poker terms we throw out there….and believe me, there are too many to count.

3.  Understanding of the Culture and Market - Maybe not as important as the prior points, but nonetheless it is important.  Entering an emerging market is no different than choosing a niche.  How can you promote within a niche for example if you have no idea what the niche is even about?  Foreign markets are the same way.  But the beauty is, once you have a firm understanding of that foreign market, you can make a killing by catering to them.  But keep in mind the cultures in some markets are much more difficult than others to learn.  The Asian market is a prime example, because this is THE toughest market to crack into for U.S. and English speaking affiliates.  For one the fraud is incredibly high, and two, the real gamblers are more apt to gamble at true Asian sites, and not a translated .com.  Furthermore poker is not their game of choice right now. It’s games like Baccarat and other games that are somewhat obscure to English speaking affiliates.

Although there are several challenges for poker and casino affiliates when entering global markets, the ones mentioned above are probably the top 3.  Although the other smaller challenges that shouldn’t be overlooked can include having to get banners made in various languages, or sending players to rooms that accept players from that country but have no translation of their own on the site.   Most affiliate programs and even sites only have a couple languages.

Now I will share with you some “inside advice” on the easiest way to get past these obstacles and launch into a foreign market properly.  Although I am not a huge fan of keeping everything on a .com, it has worked wonders for some of the various sites I have operated in foreign countries.  You can use subdomains, but is always better if you can get a domain that ends in the countries domain extension.  For example, if you want to launch a German site, you should by a .DE domain.

Next, instead of simply hiring a translator to translate all the important pages on your new .DE domain, why not partner with a poker player or webmaster from Germany that can be responsible for ALL the current and future content for that language?  Even if you write all the content or outsource it, they can simply translate it.

Two things though……pay them well, and give them a simple CMS (Content Management System) to take care of all the content.  This is very important as then you’re partner is not limited to X amount of dollars for X amount of pages translated.  Instead it encourages them to make the kind of money they see other big webmasters making and they won’t want to leave you to do their own thing.

Don’t be greedy either and try to make extra 10% for a lesser value partner.  You will make your money back 100 times over if you bring on the right partner and pay them well.  Likewise be willing to provide them the resources they need to be successful.

When entering a foreign market, one key thing to remember is that these readers want news and articles on the poker scene in their area or country.  You can only post so many Las Vegas tournament results before it will be obvious that your site is simply a translated U.S. site.  This is why it is so important to partner with someone who understands the countries poker scene and also has the freedom to create their own content.

Of course you want to have site reviews and strategy articles in the native language, but including too much U.S. focused news content is going to be poor ROI.  Once again, pay your writers and translators well (based on performance), and give them a simple way to add content so all they have to do is pump it out, and not worry about technical stuff.

There are some great opportunities that lie ahead for poker affiliates within new emerging markets.  However if you want to enter into these markets and build your brand as a professional one that will attract repeat visitors, you must do it properly.  Furthermore I think it is always important to be moderately successful in your native market before venturing into others.  The purpose of this chapter was to point out a few of the important things that must be taken into consideration when thinking of jumping off the bridge into the foreign and emerging markets.  It can be lucrative and extremely profitable for poker affiliates, but just make sure to cover all your bases.

It’s funny when I look back over all these years. Many of the best relationships I have began back in 2005 when people bought my ebook, PartyRiches. During my tenure in this industry, one of the most rewarding things has been is seeing all the affiliates I have mentored who are now truly living the dream.

There are a couple fundamental principals in this industry however that have allowed the strong to survive, and unfortunately the weak to fall apart. I want to share these observations of mine because I believe they are of the utmost importance to affiliates, operators, and providers.

Although the gaming affiliate market is huge in our minds, it’s actually a pretty small tight knit group in the big scheme of things. If a program screws over affiliates, within a day it will spread like wild fire. If a top affiliate is caught spamming or cookie stuffing, the same will apply. If you get into a nasty battle in a forum thread with another affiliate, it will be remembered. Likewise as an affiliate, if you publicly slam an affiliate program and call them crooks because one player maybe didn’t track, this does not go un-noticed by every other A.M. out there.

With that said, always remember your reputation and how important it is in the online gaming affiliate industry. In fact, next to your performance, your reputation is everything. This is probably more important for operators and providers than it is individual affiliates. Nonetheless, I always ask myself if what I am doing is going to positively or negatively affect my reputation. Of course my first love is being an affiliate and buying new sites like  PokerSelect.com <—-Shameless plug for link exchange requests.

But as a provider, founding the PAW forums, the PAW Network, and now PAL; I have to be cognitive that although I may be a seen as a leader amongst poker affiliates and poker affiliate programs today, I could destroy my reputation in a very short amount of time by making bad strategic moves or not using common sense.

Secondly, I have learned throughout these years that it is never smart to burn bridges in our industry. In the poker affiliate industry I have been involved in several partnerships and various relationships. Some worked out while others failed miserably.

Regardless the outcomes of the various business relationships, I have always opted to take the high road and not burn bridges. The program or person you may be pissed at today, could be someone you are depending on or NEED to do business with years down the road. Remember, in this industry there is one thing that is constant, and that is change. If you can’t adapt to change, being a gaming affiliate, operator, or provider is the wrong industry for you to be in.