Some say - all PR is good PR - Does it apply here?

[PingPong]

I’ll talk about the sports bookies mainly, but you can surely draw some parallels to other gambling sectors.

There have been more and more companies that drop their affiliate friendliness levels etc etc.
As the result the most common thing for affiliates is to accept new terms, mainly due to lack of alternatives. (my experience shows that brand awareness plays important part for new player)

Nevertheless some affiliates stop promotion, some go even further and create sites like belosers or put programs on various blacklists etc. These efforts are useful of course, but I doubt about effectiveness as they mainly target affiliates. I invite you to look at this from a different angle as I think this is not about affiliates.

I believe we should mainly target bettors - people who actually bring money.

Normally what we do with a good affiliate program is we try to highlight the best things – advantages, bonuses, great customer service etc etc.

So what can we do with a bad affiliate program – I think we should promote the worst things of bookmakers in question with about the same effort. Do our best to advertise their low odds, poor customer service, lack of promos, slow withdrawals, terrible interface, lack of betting markets, customer complaints/issues etc etc.

So, once again, not just delist and forget, but show the bad side of the bookmaker to the potential client.
Obvious attitude is – “Avoid at all costs!” “Withdraw now!” “Stay away!” “100% unsafe!” etc

This MUST get adequate expose though on EVERY suitable site of yours. Not in some godforsaken corner, but proper placement, adequate bad review, poor rating, clear advice not to, etc

YOUR main advantages
+ you can direct bettors to avoid the worst aff program brands and choose the good ones. Your relations/revenues with good affiliate programs can potentially improve
+ there is a chance that bad programs will lose potential and existing clients. Again, bettors will start looking for alternatives
+ there will be more value in your website content and it can potentially influence SERP
+ some programs can potentially reconsider their policies, terms etc and move from affiliate-disrespectful to affiliate-neutral or affiliate-friendly (ok, this point is really naïve, but look at the next one)
+ … I’m pretty sure you can think of many more advantages yourself

YOUR main disadvantages
- you’ll have to use your head
- there is some effort involved
- … maybe something else ?

Does it sound like a plan? Do disadvantages outweigh advantages?
Very much interested in your feedback.

[xecutable]

That's a common problem especially if you have been promoting books that used to have good terms and then went over to the other side. I have encountered this recently with 4 brands and here's what I did.

I set up a message in red, explaining to the reader why I have done the thing that I have done and how it can potentially affect players. Since I am using cloaked links I simply forward the traffic to another more suitable book, leaving the bad brands with 0 traffic.

This is what I use:

"Due to poor treatment and/or change of partnership terms from xxx and several other books, we have decided to redirect all links to a more worthy and quality book xxxx. While we understand that players might be treated differently (better), we feel obligated to share our reasons for the change with you. We believe that, if a book cheats or treats its partners poorly, it might start or already is treating its players the same way. Thank you for your understanding!"

Might not be the optimal message but it gets the readers attention and I get contacted for further details.

I have to disagree with a good place for exposure, as your main point is to sell (put up brands that convert and treat you well). I cannot see why should a bad brand get a good spot, when it can be used to bring you additional revenue.

Bottom line, keep your content and cut off the traffic. Give an explanation why you have done so, and let the visitor decide for himself. This is how I deal with bad apples. Doubt this affects them in any way, cause well they have enough cash to pay here and there and get the necessary exposure.

[thebookiesoffers]

trouble is the latest couple of affiliate programs to change their terms and conditions are still very good earners for me. Im not cutting my nose off to spite my face

[xecutable]

trouble is the latest couple of affiliate programs to change their terms and conditions are still very good earners for me. Im not cutting my nose off to spite my face

Well yeah this is the exception. If you still make decent money, you'd probably wanna keep them around.

[PingPong]

thebookiesoffers

Yeah, I see your point and it’s a tricky situation.
You let them bite your finger off and hope they won’t bite off your hand. Then they bite your hand off – you pray they won’t bite your head off. Then they bite your head off – and you’re.. dead.
The trends are – they will choke you sooner or later.


xecutable
Thanks for the contribution
Very interesting idea with the message – not sure how you achieve this technically – visitor clicks on Brand1 banner and gets redirection to intermediate page with a request to visit Brand2?

The funny thing is that ‘they’ rarely treat their players better. I mentioned this in my first post -
“low odds, poor customer service, lack of promos, slow withdrawals, terrible interface, lack of betting markets, numerous complaints/issues on player forums etc etc.”
Try to explore this from a player point of view and you’ll see what I mean.

My point about good exposure is that we MUST educate visitors. I’m very much confident that ‘general’ conversion rates allow good placement for this.
for e.g. - if your website has 1000 visitors today, from which are 100 depositors. In this particular situation 900 leave empty-handed. So why not pass some knowledge to them? I personally have lots of suitable visitor traffic for this and pretty sure that you do as well.

I agree that this idea will have little effect with no support from affiliates. If we can’t find any snags right now, I’ll try to send this thread to more webmasters and see what they say. There are lots of cheated outside this forum.
I think if we act together this is win-win situation long-term.

[xecutable]

Right exactly how it happens u click on brand 1 and get redirected to brand 2, and the message explains one. If they insist to go to brand 1 I let them type out the url themselves, cause I don't/won't recommend it.

To be honest I see your point, and next to the top 10 recommended books, I bet there will be lots of reading on Top 10 not recommended books. People always tend to want to see the dirt 1st .

[thebookiesoffers]

thebookiesoffers

Yeah, I see your point and it’s a tricky situation.
You let them bite your finger off and hope they won’t bite off your hand. Then they bite your hand off – you pray they won’t bite your head off. Then they bite your head off – and you’re.. dead.
The trends are – they will choke you sooner or later.


xecutable
Thanks for the contribution
Very interesting idea with the message – not sure how you achieve this technically – visitor clicks on Brand1 banner and gets redirection to intermediate page with a request to visit Brand2?

The funny thing is that ‘they’ rarely treat their players better. I mentioned this in my first post -
“low odds, poor customer service, lack of promos, slow withdrawals, terrible interface, lack of betting markets, numerous complaints/issues on player forums etc etc.”
Try to explore this from a player point of view and you’ll see what I mean.

My point about good exposure is that we MUST educate visitors. I’m very much confident that ‘general’ conversion rates allow good placement for this.
for e.g. - if your website has 1000 visitors today, from which are 100 depositors. In this particular situation 900 leave empty-handed. So why not pass some knowledge to them? I personally have lots of suitable visitor traffic for this and pretty sure that you do as well.

I agree that this idea will have little effect with no support from affiliates. If we can’t find any snags right now, I’ll try to send this thread to more webmasters and see what they say. There are lots of cheated outside this forum.
I think if we act together this is win-win situation long-term.

you do what you want mate but it ain't a path im going down. i'd prefer to work building a good honest working relationship with brands instead of fighting them

[PingPong]

To be honest I see your point, and next to the top 10 recommended books, I bet there will be lots of reading on Top 1 not recommended books. People always tend to want to see the dirt 1st .

Absolutely!
- Some rank bookmakers by stars - so they can give 1 out of 10 etc
- We can also use banners like banned sign (with a brand) - for eg http://i.imgur.com/jLrUA.jpg
- ideally write proper bad review
- etc etc