Poker affiliates are laughing all the way to the bank these days as online poker has exploded with the popularity of shows like the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour. The concensus on the net is an "affiliate program" isn't a real business but with so many people playing poker, there is a LOT of money to be made. Online poker rooms realized from the beginning that word of mouth just wasn't going to be enough to keep the players coming, but with thousands of affiliates things change in a hurry.
Some poker affiliates are now making well over 500,000 per year by promoting their favorite poker room. Now...not every affiliate is making this kind of money but you would probably be surprised at how many actually are. It's estimated that Party Poker has over 50,000 affiliates promoting their site ALL the time, 24 hours a day 365 days a year. You really don't need word of mouth when you have that kind of backup
The poker rooms pay either a percentage of the profits (25-40 %) or some will pay a bounty per player between $65-$150 depending on the poker room. Most affiliates prefer the percentage which is supposed to be based on the "life" of the player that signed up but recent controversy has popped up on poker forums across the net when partypoker changed their "affiliate agreement". Apparently, partypoker has decided that if your player doesn't play for 60 days he/she is no longer your player and your percentage is null and void. If this is true and I'm not saying it is, then the life of the player doesn't mean a hill of beans. I know that I dont always play at the same room every 60 days, sometimes I might go 3 or 4 months playing at pokerroom.com before i go back to play at party.
Needless to say, it has stirred up a growing hornets nest of angry affiliates. I'm sure PP has enough brand recognition now that it wouldn't matter if they lost a few good affiliates here and there but......If 30-40 % got pissed, it could change the whole swing of poker traffic on the net. They might not be the largest room on the net anymore. Let's throw some numbers around and see what would happen if 100 super affiliates that average 500 players a month all of a sudden redirected traffic. Thats 50,000 players gone to another poker room. This is the kind of power that affiliates have on the internet and personally....I think it's a good thing.
My affiliate manager personally told me he has guys making over 100k per MONTH! How's that for an annual salary, that's a cool 1.2 million dollars a year. With that much money on the line it's no wonder they employ full time managers just to take care of affiliates needs. It also goes to show just how much money these casino's and poker rooms are making. The power of the internet!
About the Author
Another pokerdude goes all in
http://www.games-videopoker.com
