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PokerStars has a horrible affiliate program and I believe their statistics are questionable. I would not recommend promoting them.
It’s too bad for PokerStars; if they had the same level of affiliate program that Party Poker has, they would be getting a lot more players. Party Poker just destroys them in all areas affiliate.
I can echo what Poker said.
I sent them traffic for a couple of months and contacted them to see why I hadn’t earned anything and their answer was they couldn’t find me in their data bank.
I had all their original emails they sent me when I signed up but that didn’t seem to help.
I’m glad you made that post Poker, as I have been so desperate for more poker rooms to add that are competent or somewhat trustworthy, that I was actually considering re-signing with poker stars again in hopes that it had been just a mistake.
Now I’m glad I didn’t.
I remind all of the most important slogan to remember as an affiliate: if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck.. you’re probably getting ducked.
One goof-up is possible, but when I see more than one saying the same things about a program. its best to leave them alone.
to sum up:
Poker Stars Sucks.
Well with a second WSOP win and the exposure people will be going straight to the site.
Our conversions are average and since Chris took over as aff manager we have little to complain about.
Hopefully they will read this thread and shakeup the aff side of things. It really is not the best as echoed by the previous posts.
Think about this Stars… Moneymaker and Raymer were very likely sent to you by an affiliate!
I signed up as an affilite of Poker Stars a while back but never promoted them at all.
I play there, and I like their software pretty well, and was planning to start promoting them soon. But it looks like from the feedback here, I probably shouldn’t.
Anyone want to go into more detail about their affiliate program’s failings? Do they just not track well?
Biggest downfall is stats are mailed to you. There needs to be online tracking and this is their most serious downfall.
Now, if I run a campaign I need to see results, now, not at the end of the month or I will not run dedicated campaigns.
Needless to say, no dedicated ones are run for Stars.
I also believe that ESPN prevented anyone from wearing online poker logo’s on their shirts/hats. If this is true, then PokerStars will not get the exposure that it did with Chris Moneymaker who won last years WSOP. He was wearing their hat and shirt throughout the event.
PartyPoker may not be the best poker site around, but they are a marketing machine. I promote them as well as Empire Poker (Party Poker skin) and I am doing extremely well. All the sites essentially provide the same service, it is just a matter of who markets better.
I also check the integrity of PartyPoker affiliate stats by having friends play and also creating dummy accounts to make sure they are not shaving, which they are not.
I make 90% of my Poker Affiliate income from Party + Empire poker.
Pokerstars is easily the most trustworthy poker site. They have cardroom managers and marketing people who have been well known in the poker community for ten years or more, all of whom make a living to some degree off their reputations. To suggest they are doing anything deliberately questionable is absurd.
What they are not is affiliate focused. Party/Empire is four times as big but almost certainly less than twice as profitable. Party has also this week made two moves that will hurt them somewhat, stopping interest on deposits and declaring newsgroup spamming reason for closing affiliate accounts. The latter has reached epidemic proportions.
Pokerstars logos will be all over the ESPN broadcasts this summer. The Ladies World championship had five women at the final table in Pokerstars outfits including the winner. Party was mostly a no-show at the World Series because it was mostly a Pokerstars show, even if Classic Poker and Full Tilt Poker also were everywhere, and Prima had a good bit of exposure.
The point is, you would be foolish not to have Pokerstars on your sites this summer, even if you choose not to put them in the most prime positions.
The second point is, given the huge exposure they will be getting, the thing to do is contact them with comments on what they need to do to run/improve an affiliate program… not super-aggressive affiliate program, but one that meets basic needs. Both sides need to build a better partnership, and that takes both sides being proactive. Also, if anybody with experience wants a job, send them a proposal for some affiliate management job. Personally I think they could use a couple of people with CAP-type experience.
Classics,
It sounds like you work for PokerStars. I have been promoting poker since its inception and I remember paying less than 1 dollar per click for the top position on Google for the keyword POKER. My point is that I have been in this game a long time and I know that Pokerstars has either faulty statistics in regards to their affiliate program or they are shaving their affiliates.
By the way, I would not be surprised if ESPN does some editing on all their airings of the WSOP and block out all the logo advertising that people on the final table are wearing.
Before Overture and Google stopped the gambling pan, I do not recall even seeing ads for pokerstars.com via PPC. That is because everyone knows their affiliate program has problems.
It is like comparing Microsoft to Apple. Apple is far superior in regards to stability, yet Microsoft dominates the game. That is because Microsoft is a marketing machine. Same thing goes for Party Poker. They are savvy marketers and will remain #1 for quite some time.
I would not spend much time promoting ClassicPoker and FullTiltPoker because I believe they are too late to the game. The PPC ban is going to put them as well as several of the smaller sites out of business.
Just for the record, I have played poker online for real money @ pokerstars, empirepoker, partypoker, pokerroom, planetpoker, true poker, ultimate bet, pokerroom and in brick and mortar card clubs for over 10 years.
Originally posted by pokerfreak
It sounds like you work for PokerStars.It sounds like your fanaticism can’t stand the light of day so you stoop to silly innuendos.
I just noticed on rec.gambling.poker your ridiculous post about “riverstars”. You obviously have an axe to grind, and are willing to do something to hurt them even if it means spewing that goofball/moron “riverstars” term.
It sounds like you work for Party Poker.
You should stop spreading inaccuracies, especially when it makes you look so uniformed.
Now, now lads, calm down.
Quote:Both sides need to build a better partnership, and that takes both sides being proactive..That, IMO, hits the nail on the head. If we have problems we approach the program first. There are very few instances that this has not resolved any problem.
This thread prompted me to go check some stats for one of our poker sites where they are both on a pretty level playing field as far as exposure:
Party 102 clicks
Stars 238 clicksUp until Moneymaker’s shining performance, Party ruled the roost as far a clicks. I can only see Stars continuing the trend. Time to go talk to the aff manager.
Did someone call for a proctologist?
:eh:
Well, all this information is very confusing, to say the least. I think I’ll wait and see how it all turns out before deciding whether or not to pursue affiliating with stars.
A Player from PokerStars won the tournament. From an initial $150.00, this guy is now pretty darn wealthy!
Heard about it on the radio last night.
It’s very simple, really.
Regardless of any other features: No stats = No campaigns.
We are in business here, and if you can’t fine tune a campaign but have to wait a whole month to see how it did, you cannot make educated decisions.
I am not spending ad money based on wild guesses.
Does anyone have a contact for pokerstars affiliate program? They don’t even have any info up on their website about it.
I do notice that in their careers section they are advertising for an online marketing manager, who’s tasks are listed as:
Implement automated affiliate status program, including contact with all existing affiliates, training, help and support as required.
Recruit affiliate partners, including aggressive marketing to affiliates of competitors.
Develop and implement plan for optimization of the PokerStars web site for spidering by major search engines. (This task may involve hiring of outside resources for optimization.)
Participate in development of effective affiliate advertising.
Research and report on a periodic basis on the affiliate programs of major competitors.Develop and implement marketing programs with key affiliates (special events, tournaments, email campaigns).
Make recommendations on improvements to affiliate marketing program.
Some interesting ones in there, but seems like they are on the right path though
And for what it’s worth… I play quite a bit of poker online myself, have played at most of the sites, and personally I think Poker Stars is the best by a mile – in terms of software, types of games available, players, tournaments – everything. If they can get a decent affiliate program together I’d certainly promote them.
