Why did you guys do this in the first place?
I assume you guys used us affiliates to get Poker.com huge exposure, then an affiliate portal that already drives a ton of daily traffic and enjoy that Number 1 ranking in Google, etc..
Am I close?
C’mon now Dalster44, that is one of the dumbest posts I have ever seen. Why do some many people automatically assume evil motives?
I don’t want to get into this too much as I am not a part of the Poker.com affiliate team, but would like to try and help clear up a few things.
– The Poker.com software is no longer being advertised on the Poker.com website. Right now this is all that has happened. You may think a lot of players will see this, but you would be thinking like an internet savvy affiliate, not like an average player. In my opinion most existing players will not know this has happened and even if they type in the Poker.com domain they will still be redirected to a landing page because they are cookied – just like they always have been. Click on one of your banners then try it for yourself. Also, the great majority of players will continue to click the icon on their desktop to play within the Poker.com software and nothing will change for them.
– Affiliate links are sent to pokercs.com and always have been. They would have no effect on Poker.com SEO whatsoever. The domain had high ranks in google before it ever offered it’s own software and anyone thinking this is some sort of well thought out SEO conspiracy is nothing but a clown that has seen too many evil geniuses in Bond films.
– There’d be a very good reason for this happening – otherwise they wouldn’t do it. Smart people in this business will understand that. Clueless people will come up with far fetched conspiracy theories.
– If there are some download links not working, that needs to be addressed asap. Mine seem to be working fine and am still registering new players daily at Poker.com.
Of course this is not an ideal situation, and it seems there are many things that still need to be worked out and communicated to affiliates.
But I have confidence that the Poker.com/Merge team will do this. They’ve always acted with integrity in the past and it would be commercial suicide to mistreat affiliates as they launch new brands into the marketplace.
Please don’t sensationlise things – look at the facts and ask genuine questions, then everyone here will be able to get a better understanding of what is actually happening now and what they have planned for the future.
With the current state of the industry, a new poker brand that is backed by an existing group and is accepting players from all over the world can only be a good thing for affiliates…