Archive for the ‘Poker Affiliate Solutions’ Category

Monday Sales Call - The PAS Community Forum

Monday, November 17th, 2008

PAS is very excited to announce the launch of The PAS Community Forum. Be sure to stop by and create an account on the forum so we can hear your questions, comments and suggestion.

We encourage all PAS Publishers to post questions/comments regarding site customization and site administration in the appropriate forum. The PAS tech, design and support team will be checking the forum throughout the day to answer any questions you may have.

Best,

Tony Guerrero

Affiliate Manager

Poker Affiliate Solutions

What does the Cryptologic/Boss Media Merger Mean to us?

Friday, November 14th, 2008

There have been some conflicting opinions on what the Cryptologic/Boss Media poker merger means to players and affiliates.  Some argue that less competition is bad for the industry. Others are worried that their Cryptologic players will not like the software and leave. Some worry that if a player wanted to play on Boss they would be playing there anyway and not Cryptologic while others worry the monthly bonuses will go away.

While all of their negatives certainly have a case I feel this can turn out to be a good thing in the long term. Let’s face it, Cryptologic has seen better days. They have seen major skins leave the network. Littlewoods and Poker Plex have already left, WPTOnline has announced they are closing and William Hill has already announced they are leaving to iPoker. This has shrunk the player base by 20% and that is with William Hill still around for a few more months.

In my opinion Cryptologic and Boss Media are a great match. Both have the same rakeback cap, they do not deduct bonuses from MGR, have strong gaming businesses outside of poker and have strong gaming brands. This will help attract new players to the network and help retain existing players. The game quality on Cryptologic and Boss Media are also about the same so not much will change there.

So what about affiliates? What will happen with us? While it will give us one fewer network to offer the skins on the new Boss Media/Cryptologic Network will have more competition between them. There should be more promotions and bonuses for our players. I feel it is safe to assume the standard Boss Media bonus of 20% contributed rakeback will stay the same. This makes a bonus 50% rakeback when combined with the standard 30% rakeback.

The one concern I have is that currently Boss Media has a minimum $100 MGR policy for players to get rakeback in a month. If Boss Media continues to enforce this then it may alienate some micro limit players. It is possible that the Cryptologic skins may not have this policy. For that reason, and the fact Boss Media limits the number of accounts a player can have to three on the network, makes this a great time to encourage players to sign up for our existing Cryptologic offers on BetSafe, Sun Poker and Interpoker.  The merger will take place during the first quarter of 2009.

BetOnBet Added to PAS

Friday, November 14th, 2008

BetOnBet is now available to PAS publishers.  BetOnBet is a member of the Microgaming/Prima Network.  The offer will show as a bonus offer as Microgaming does not allow sites to offer rakeback to a player until they have actually converted.  Players will receive a 100% up to $500 bonus that is not deducted from MGR.  They will also receive a 30% “loyalty bonus” which is the highest allowed by Microgaming.  To add BetOnBet to your site go to your admin section and click View/Moderate existing sites and offers.

Russian Players Cannot Get Rakeback at Cake Poker

Friday, November 14th, 2008

New Russian players can no longer get rakeback on Cake Poker.  This does not affect existing Russian players.  The alternatives for Russian players signing up for rakeback are CardSpike and Red Star Poker.  Red Star Poker offers a Russian version of their software as well as Russian support.  If you manage your own content this is something important to add to your Cake Poker review page.  It has already been changed on all content provided by PAS.  Russian players can still sign up and play on Cake Poker but they cannot get tracked to a rakeback affiliate.  This means they can not participate in the Races and Rolls promotion either.

Betfair Added to PAS

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Betfair Poker is now available for all PAS publishers.  Players receive 30-37% rakeback depending on their points earned in a calendar month.  This has been a poker room that has been requested by quite a few players so we expect Betfair to convert very well.  If you want to add Betfair to your site go to your admin section and click View/Moderate existing sites and offers.

Monday Sales Call - The PAS Top 5

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Below are the top five things you can do as a PAS Publisher to improve your rakeback site. All of these suggested actions are fairly simple and can improve your search ranking and user interface tenfold. Each suggestion links to a step by step guide on the PAS Wiki Page.

1. Customizing Meta and Title Tags can improve your Google ranking by up to 25%. This process is very easy and can improve your website’s traffic flow.

2. Add custom content to your rakeback site by creating unique poker room descriptions/reviews on your offer pages. Start a poker blog on you rakeback site talking about your poker experience. Also, be sure to create a welcome message on the front page of your site.

3. Add new rakeback offers when they are available. Check your Admin area for new PAS rakeback rooms and make sure that your players know about the new offers.

4. Change the order of how your offers are displayed. Some rooms are more popular than others in different regions of the world. Why is the most popular poker room in your market on the bottom of your site’s offer page? Changing the order of your rakeback offers is easy and often overlooked.

5. Contact your players telling them about new promotions and offers. Remember, your players come to you for their poker room information, so be proactive!

Best,

Tony Guerrero

Affiliate Manager

Poker Affiliate Solutions

Monday Sales Call 11-3-2008

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

And the Winner Is …

MenosRake.com.br! Congratulations to the winner of the first ever PAS Publisher Promotion! Menos Rake wins a £1,500 seat plus accommodations to the Gala Coral British Poker Tour Grand Final, courtesy of Poker Affiliate Solution.  Good Luck! PAS will be sweating via the internet, so make us proud.

The contest was extremely close and literally came down to the last few hours.  Stay tuned for information on the next publisher promotion.

Best,

Tony Guerrero

Affiliate Manager

Poker Affiliate Solutions

Monday Sales Call 10-27-08

Monday, October 27th, 2008

Knowledge is Power

One of the first things I did when I started playing poker was to join Two Plus Two. I don’t think I posted one time in the first year of reading the forums. I just read every strategy thread that I could and tried to learn from others who had way more experience than I did.  So when I started working in the poker affiliate marketing industry I searched the Internet for forums/sites that specialized in my new field of work. I wanted to learn as much about the industry as I could and in a short period of time. I knew I was getting into an industry that changed every month, so I wanted to find websites that kept up with the trends.

From playing online poker for a few years, I knew who the major players were in the industry(Full Tilt, Card Player, DeucesCracked, Poker Listings, etc..). However, I had no idea who the up and comers were. I had no idea how big Cake Poker had gotten and that the iPoker Network was the number three network in the world.  I found all kinds of useful information and stats about online poker traffic by going to PokerScout.

I also wanted to find a community that was made up of online marketers like myself. There are several high quality forums for poker marketers and one of my favorites is Poker Affiliate Programs. PAP provides new poker marketers with free resources, articles, and the largest poker affiliate forum online. I make sure to browse through PAP every morning when I get to the office. I just started contributing to the forum and have found the experience to be very beneficial.

Another great resource that I use is the Affiliates/Rakeback Forum on Two Plus Two. This forum keeps me up to date with what the players want.  This resource tells me which rooms are growing in popularity among the players and where are they looking for rakeback. After all, they represent our customers and our goal is to give our customers the best promotions/percentages/bonuses in the market.

Knowledge is power and I try to keep my head filled with the latest/greatest technology, promotions, offers, networks, etc. I enjoy sharing what I’ve learned with the PAS Publishers that I work with. I advise that you guys take advantage of all the wonderful information that is available on the web. Also, please feel free to leave a comment about which forums/sites you routinely view.

Best,

Tony Guerrero

Affiliate Manager

Poker Affiliate Solutions

PAS Introduces Our First Publisher Promotion!

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

PAS is very excited to announce our first ever Publisher Promotion! We are giving away a seat plus accommondations to the British Poker Tour Grand Final. This package includes the £1,500 buy-in as well as travel and hotel accommodations. Below are the tournament details:

Tournament: Gala Coral British Poker Tour Grand Final

Location: Gala Casino Harbourside in Bristol U.K.

Dates: December 1st-7th (main event is 5th -7th)

Buy-In: £1,500+50

Travel and Hotel: Included

This trip is offered exclusively to PAS Publishers!

How to win:

Sign up the most new real money players through PAS from October 21-October 31 and you will win!

A new real money player is one that signs up between October 21-October 31 and plays at least 1 raked hand at any of the poker rooms offered by PAS and our Publishers.

We will announce the winner on November 2nd.  Best of luck in this promotion! Please contact me if you have any questions.

Best,

Tony Guerrero

Affiliate Manager

Poker Affiliate Solutions

Publishers (at) pokeraffiliatesolutions.com

Monday Sales Call 10-20-08

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Niches within Niches

 

One of the biggest problems with Poker Affiliate Marketers, or most businesspeople/entrepreneurs for that matter, is the desire to be all things to all people.  Too many have the mindset of “Build a good website or a good business, make it as all inclusive as possible, and watch the customers flock.” 

 

But most fail to ask the question…What do those customers have in common?

 

If the answer is, “They are all interested in Playing Poker,” chances are, you could do a lot better.  That answer is too high level.  If you only try to appeal the customer at the highest level, you have no real hook. 

 

Narrow it down:

My customers are female.

My customers are interested in getting Rakeback.

My customers live only in Erie, Pennsylvania.

 

Now my customers are women from Erie, Pennsylvania interested in getting rakeback while playing poker.  That’s a niche within a niche within a niche within a niche.

 

The disadvantages to this, of course, is that the potential customer pool is smaller.  But the advantage is that it is so much easier to own that market.  The smaller the market, the more you can become the dominate player, the more word of mouth gets around about you, and the more you can target your offerings based on the market.

 

The biggest mistake people make in business is forgetting to ignore some potential customers while giving extra attention to the subset of customers they do target.

 

In the Erie example, my niche was too small.  But too small is better than too large.  It’s easier to be a smashing success with your target market when you go too small.  And if you do encounter this good problem, you should be able to easily replicate the process.

 

In poker marketing, you can target by game type, game limits, country, state, sex, desired incentive method, other hobbies besides poker, and many, many other groupings.  And in rakeback, as an example, even just a few players can make you a success…Rakeback Site for Sale.

In addition, read this post by Seth Godin, which conveys a similar idea a lot better than we can.