We have to live with it ?

I am looking to get things changed for the better as more and more programs have become affiliate unfriendly.

e.g. :

Wagershare : 6 months waiting term for payments regarding locked accounts
Brightshare : lower revenue share (15%) for new leads if not delevering 1 min. new player within 3 months
Rewards Affiliates : sending emails to players that have not embedded the last referrer affiliate ID.

What can be done, get used to it ?

I see those programs have ALL the power, affiliates are becoming redundant.

It is a mistake to allow programs to continue to advertise on GPWA and attending Conferences like nothing has happened.

I am just amazed how affiliates just let it happen as your (future) bread and butter is at risk.

And ow yeah those who have the traffic do not care **** as they get paid a flat fee for the ads plus revenue share, asking them is wishful thinking.

I think that with the exception of people who promote US Facing gambling affiliate programs, the tolerance for tardiness is getting less and less. With respect to promoting to the US, I went down that road once and was burned, so when UIGEA was enacted, the way my income was impacted by slow pay / no pay from the time before caused me to simply ignore that market to avoid risk to the predictability of my income.

For "regulated" markets, it is not unreasonable to expect on time nearly every time payments. Effective last month, I quit sending traffic when my payment is late (my visitors get rerouted to a competitor of the late program of my choosing). I make a note on my review pages that the program is experiencing delayed payment issues on a temporary basis. We expect payment processing speeds to improve in the near future. However, in the interim, we suggest playing at xxx while yyy gets their payment issues sorted out.

I restore traffic to that program when payment is received. The length of delay is used to determine how long it will be before I get around to restoring their traffic.

If payment is delayed longer than thirty days, I revise my review to recommend a competing program on a more permanent basis. It is up to the affiliate manager to make sufficient arrangements with me in order to earn my business back.

Additionally, when an affiliate program contacts us wanting to "partner up", I research their program, the affiliate manager, etc. If they have or had payment issues, we generally will not work with them.

Of course, all of that can be avoided if the programs either pay on time or they pick up the phone/send us an email and let us know the nature and expected time frame of the delayed payment BEFORE it is due.

You don't have to live with anything you don't like.

Get selective about the programs you work with ... choose the best dozen (for players AND affiliates) rather than post 50, 75 or 100+ programs.

Affiliate programs make a business decision about what terms to offer affiliates.

Affiliates make a business decision about what affiliate programs to work with.

Affiliate programs that offer more favorable terms cultivate better business relationships with affiliates.

But it's not just about the terms. It's also very much about having a good product, prompt payment, long-term consistency, and about providing good support.

I think it is important for affiliates to vote with their feet (both when they think a program is good or bad for them). People respect that - both programs and affiliates.

We all know the marketplace has gotten tougher in many ways over the past several years. Regulated markets have lower margins overall, and there are more options for promotion in regulated markets, so the margins for promotional activities are generally less as well. But regulated markets can be larger markets as well

Michael

The problem is that some affiliate programs don't give a sh** that the payment delay they have any given month might keep an affiliate from being able to afford to go to the store to get their provisions of Ramen for the week.

I lost count of how many times I have had to ask a friend or relative to borrow a few bucks so I could eat that week.

And we never hear stories about how customer service at the casino walked out because they didn't get paid, or that they had to close customer service for the sportsbook because they didn't pay their electric bill.

But, when an affiliate needs a hand paying THEIR electric bill because some affiliate program is late with payments AGAIN, the affiliate is left to sit in the dark, and read the emails from them that say I'm sorry.

Gooner I agree with your statement, but my statement holds true no matter who it is that is late, and the affiliate is left with nothing but "I'm sorry's" and although I have a whole stack of them, the grocery store would not accept any of them for the food bill.

Rick
Universal4

well I just want to see some ideas how we can change things for the better and programs that want to rethink and cut us some slack.

e.g.

- Wagershare payment 6 months on hold --> 3 months on hold.
- Rewards Affiliates : find a solution that is more acceptable than embedding your own (RA) btag code in emails sent to players.
- Brightshare : a 15% revenue share is not of this time and not acceptable as it is outright theft, I rather have a minimum amount for payment.

Maybe the programs need to start paying the smaller amounts first and work backwards. (reverse alphabetical might also work)

This way, the money gets into the hands of the small guys who probably need it more, (who they care about less) and if a few larger affiliates don't get paid, they pull the plug on their traffic and the group either learns very fast that EVERYONE deserves to get paid in a timely fashion, or they lose the big boys (who they need to survive).

Beyond REPLACING the programs we feel are not a good fit for each of us, and trying to lobby for better treatment I think are our best choices. (Pretty close to what Gooner said)

Rick
Universal4

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Originally Posted by universal4

Maybe the programs need to start paying the smaller amounts first and work backwards. (reverse alphabetical might also work)

This way, the money gets into the hands of the small guys who probably need it more, (who they care about less) and if a few larger affiliates don't get paid, they pull the plug on their traffic and the group either learns very fast that EVERYONE deserves to get paid in a timely fashion, or they lose the big boys (who they need to survive).

Beyond REPLACING the programs we feel are not a good fit for each of us, and trying to lobby for better treatment I think are our best choices. (Pretty close to what Gooner said)

Rick
Universal4

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I think that the programs just need to commit to doing what they promise to do. I stated what my new policy is regarding what I will do if/when programs are late in paying. I'm not for paying small guys first, big guys first, or reverse alphabetical order. I'm simply for them paying everyone on time or early as stated. I now have no problem documenting on my sites who is suffering from delays in payment and will gladly name and shame on my sites and redirect traffic to a competitor of my choosing (maybe I'll even ask the affiliate manager which of their competitors they'd prefer to give traffic to while they sort out my payments).

Yep totally agree Shay:

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and the group either learns very fast that EVERYONE deserves to get paid in a timely fashion, or they lose the big boys (who they need to survive).

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Rick
Universal4

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Originally Posted by GCG

well I just want to see some ideas how we can change things for the better and programs that want to rethink and cut us some slack.

e.g.

- Wagershare payment 6 months on hold --> 3 months on hold.
- Rewards Affiliates : find a solution that is more acceptable than embedding your own (RA) btag code in emails sent to players.
- Brightshare : a 15% revenue share is not of this time and not acceptable as it is outright theft, I rather have a minimum amount for payment.

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well I got invited to the wagershare/betway office and it built some good bridges with me, but the 6 month thing will not be changing, they told me that. So to me, you have to pick what terms you are willing to put up with and what firms you want to work with, those ones that you don't agree with simply don't work with them.

for example, a fair few people moan about sportingbet, but they earn me a steady amount each month, pay one of the quickest out of everyone so if I can get some "sportingbet" related traffic I'd be mad to delete them because they don't have the best affiliate terms

Well I am not asking from GPWA to change the gambling industry but there could be more achievements made : limit upon cross promotion, not accepting programs that have a low revenue share clause if not sending new depositing players (hijacking your traffic)

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Originally Posted by GCG

Well I am not asking from GPWA to change the gambling industry but there could be more achievements made : limit upon cross promotion, not accepting programs that have a low revenue share clause if not sending new depositing players (hijacking your traffic)

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I'm not sure why GPWA should limit what programs they accept just because they don't have terms that some people don't like. I put it squarely at the affiliates door what programs they accept and not at GPWA as they are running a business as well. It isn't like the terms and conditions aren't available for people to read and information out there.

When it comes to changes that are made afterwards which is harmful then I do think GPWA should be straight on to them

Yea, and good solid, honest and calm discussions about those terms, here in the open, will help more affiliates then by not having them here.

Rick
Universal4

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Originally Posted by MichaelCorfman

Affiliates make a business decision about what affiliate programs to work with.

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Indeed we do.
Our site rejects about 90%-95% of business approaches - usually because the prospective partner has "issues".

If I were a small affiliate starting out today i would work with 3-4 programs only and forget the rest.Sad coming from somebody who use to work with every single program as they opened up back in 2005 but I see the quotas and leaner margins being the way this business is going .A program charged us $35 for the wire fee and they have never done this in 5 years ,they said with 350 wires a month the fees are signficant so they have to pass it on.