affiliate scam or not?

[pocketnut]

I received an email the other day from a reputable affiliate program asking me to join.

Is this common practice, are there scammers that would go to such lengths to get your traffic, or am i just being paranoid?

[thepokerkeep]

Standard business practice.... I get emails nearly every day. I don't see anything wrong with the practice as long as they don't spam you repeatedly.

[pocketnut]

Standard business practice.... I get emails nearly every day. I don't see anything wrong with the practice as long as they don't spam you repeatedly.

Yea I kind of figured it might be, but I needed some confirmation. Me being a nube and all....

thanks pokerkeep

[RBS]

You will most likely get alot of these mails in the future.


Remember when they contact YOU, use it to your advantage and ask for a better than standard deal

[casinobonuseslisting]

i also get requests like this, but i never get time to reply them.

[LiveCasinoPartners]

I've got mixed feeling about this practice. I don't like spam and neither does anyone. At the same time you can't ignore the fact that it does work for affiliate programs. I can't tell you how many times I've seen programs reach new affiliates by sending unsolicited emails.

A year ago I wouldn't have done this. Until recently we didn't send emails like this. During the last year I have found a reasonable approach to this practice. Here's what we have been doing. Gabriel has been visiting sites and actually reviewing them one by one. He's looks at a site and then based on his visit he emails the webmaster. He always places his observations and recommendations in the emails . The other 75% is cut and paste though. This other 75% is what the program offers etc.

Are they unsolicited? yes, but eye balls have gone over the site and observations on each have been made. I get emails to support@luckylivecasino.com (which is a casino) from affiliate programs (One of them GPWA sponsored). lol.

[gillamano]

For me aswell its not spam. Long as your not getting the same message from the affiliate program all the time.

[Topboss]

I get literally hundreds of messages a day from the affiliate Programs and I am not exaggerating. The problem is that I cannot really accuse them of spamming because they send them to all different websites that I own as they all have their own email address which redirects to my main email address.
As I have 140+ sites it can get a bit out of hand with all of the emails, but Thank God for the shift,arrow and delete buttons...

[pocketnut]

I've got mixed feeling about this practice. I don't like spam and neither does anyone. At the same time you can't ignore the fact that it does work for affiliate programs. I can't tell you how many times I've seen programs reach new affiliates by sending unsolicited emails.

A year ago I wouldn't have done this. Until recently we didn't send emails like this. During the last year I have found a reasonable approach to this practice. Here's what we have been doing. Gabriel has been visiting sites and actually reviewing them one by one. He's looks at a site and then based on his visit he emails the webmaster. He always places his observations and recommendations in the emails . The other 75% is cut and paste though. This other 75% is what the program offers etc.

Are they unsolicited? yes, but eye balls have gone over the site and observations on each have been made. I get emails to support@luckylivecasino.com (which is a casino) from affiliate programs (One of them GPWA sponsored). lol.

wont most affiliate programs suspend your account if they know you are sending unsolicited emails? Don't get me wrong, I agree that if the affiliate isnt bugging the hell out of me I have no problem with it.

[satya]

Affiliates sending out unsolicated emails to players and affiliate programs sending out the unsolicated prospecting emails to affiliates are 2 different set of things.

I wouldn't call these spam emails. I will explain my reasons. I have seen this industry since 2002 when the gaming world was very small and had a limited number of affiliates. To grow the affiliate program, it was imperative to acquire new sources of traffic, new webmasters/ website owners from related industries and niches. As gambling paid much more than other products online except porn, quite a few new affiliates were interested in giving it a try.

A lot of affiliates have been inducted into the industry through prospecting. But times have changed now and some affiliates don't want to be contacted by affiliate managers or the prospecting team. In this case it will be very difficult for new programs to grow or new affiliate managers who start their portfolio from scratch to perform their tasks. At the end of the day the affiliate manager is just doing his job. I am not actively involved in this process since last few years, but keen to hear out what other AMs have to say.

What should be acceptable?
Day 1 - Prospecting email
Day 3 - Reminder email
Day 7 - Reminder email
Day 30 - Reminder (maybe)

* You will get most of the responses within the 7 days and if you don’t there is less likelihood that these people would respond. An email on the 30 day is also permissible if you haven't got a response. But if anyone has responded and has declined your offer, they should be removed from all lists.

** If you have multiple sites redirecting to your mail email id, you will receive multiple emails.

wont most affiliate programs suspend your account if they know you are sending unsolicited emails? Don't get me wrong, I agree that if the affiliate isnt bugging the hell out of me I have no problem with it.

[TravG]

As long as there is an opt out on the e-mail or they don't conitually hound me Im OK with the pratice as well. I think since my site is getting older I dont receive as many as I use to but I did get alot of them.

Unfortunatly I have not used any of them, but did negotaite a link exchange or two with some of them.

[Lee-Ann]

Totally agree - you will receive mails all the time from programs wanting to work with you.

A simple YES / NO / MAYBE in a few months... never goes amiss.
It's all about open communication. If someone loves your site and wants to work with you they are going to be eager to get in touch and e-mail is the easiest way to do this. IF you get continually spammed that's something totally different.

Affiliate managers are always looking out for new partners to work with, if however you are not interested in taking on any new brands, or you don't particularly like the brand they work on just say so and your response will be respected.

If you ignore - the person sending the e-mail is likely to follow up in a few days again...

Just my 2 cents worth...

[satya]

Problem is affiliate managers or any sales people are overtly optimistic. Also due to the pressure of targets, ignoring their emails will be considered as went to spam and not a NO to their offer.

But if you say no or ask them get in touch in a few months, that helps.

If you ignore - the person sending the e-mail is likely to follow up in a few days again...

Just my 2 cents worth...

[Renee]

Problem is affiliate managers or any sales people are overtly optimistic. Also due to the pressure of targets, ignoring their emails will be considered as went to spam and not a NO to their offer.

But if you say no or ask them get in touch in a few months, that helps.

If an email is not answered, I will always follow up in a month or so just in case it went to spam. I'll change subject lines, even remove everything from the email..

I've had one affiliate reply after an email every month for 8 months finally telling me he will work with me. I'm not exactly certain what changed his mind. Maybe it was my persistence, or maybe my email finally reached his inbox.

I do know though that if he had replied no at the start I would have made a note not to email him again.

It's a fine line between spam and recruiting, especially when you have people working on commission it could become harassment after awhile when you have 50 people from the same company contacting you.

[davenewgates]

I often received that kind of request but I just ignore them due to my lack of time but it's up to you if you'll accept their approach, there nothing wrong as long as they are not doing any spamming.

[universal4]

The problem is (and although an unpopular idea that most affiliate groups refuse to admit) no matter what we say...yes, no, he** no, or stay the heck away from me) it doesn't matter....because 3 to 7 weeks from now the same groups will approach us again.

In addition to that, that same group will likely approach us a dozen or more times this week....

They find domain names, do a whois, and then solicit all the emails found on the whois reports from the domain name compilation.

In addition to that, in most cases those domains and emails are not cross referenced with current affiliates.

Want proof? I can show you dozens and dozens of solicitations from affiliate programs I already belong to, or that I have asked not to contact me again, or that I have asked to contact me at a different email address.

Rick
Universal4

[wagerjunction]

Our approach is similar. Meaning that we go through sites and email the webmasters on an individual basis with a proposal.

If the person is not interested, fair enough, we respect the decision and make sure not to contact him/her again. On another note we do not send reminders since people will definitely find it bothersome.

To be on the safe side, what I personally do is keep a database of all the sites I've visited, their URL's and the responses. Then when starting on a new campaign I go through the DB in order to make sure I do not contact someone who is not interested in working with us.

Gabriel has been visiting sites and actually reviewing them one by one. He's looks at a site and then based on his visit he emails the webmaster. He always places his observations and recommendations in the emails . The other 75% is cut and paste though. This other 75% is what the program offers etc.

[universal4]

That is good Amy,

Then when you run accross sites that were not tagged to an individual before you can increase the listing for that person, and therfore reduce redundant solicitations.

I wish all groups would do that.

Geez, I have had some days where the same person will contact me 2 or 3 times in the same day, each one with the exact same wording except discussing a different site, clearly showing they are just spamming for affiliates.

Rick
Universal4

[radicaldomains]

I get literally hundreds of messages a day from the affiliate Programs and I am not exaggerating. The problem is that I cannot really accuse them of spamming because they send them to all different websites that I own as they all have their own email address which redirects to my main email address.
As I have 140+ sites it can get a bit out of hand with all of the emails, but Thank God for the shift,arrow and delete buttons...

Lol, its spam, the trick most all affiliate programs who spam is the following.. They do not spam the program, instead spam all domains spidered in interest of buying advertising on their site.. They use a domain of the real affiliate program domain.. ie affiliate program is casinocoinsforcash.com. They spider the net and spam to every gambling site from betty@casinocoinsforcash.com asking for advertising info pretending to want to buy advertising on their site. The goal is not to buy advertising, but to promote the affiliate program, so the site owner gets curious who this is and goes to casincocoinsforcash.com then hopefully signs up. Or replies, and now is a further targeted option. The fact they are asking to buy advertising, kind of clears up the situation of direct plugging in URL's and gives them a clean escape.. Its pathetic, its spam, and there's the trick of the scammer trade.. Hope you all abuse it, so it becomes a lost art.

[satya]

Hope you all abuse it, so it becomes a lost art.

LOL, good one