Heres my take on it as an Affiliate Manager.
It depends on your site, and the quality of traffic that is coming from it.
To broadly generalise (and to simplify the post), there are 2 main type of affiliate sites – content sites that have comparisons and reviews with associated affiliate links, and All Other Types (which include Free Money, Make Money, Cashback and other sites that can be easily be PPC’d).
So, lets say you run one of the latter sites – *most* of the players you send will not have been looking for a casino. They wil have been looking for free money. Lets look at this scenario.
A player comes from a site of this kind – they deposit a fairly generous $200 and they lose it. They are unlikely to deposit again, as they were intrigued about how they could get more money.
On a Rev Share basis at 40%, you would earn $80 on this deal. Its a no brainer – a CPA of $250 would be a bigger earner for you.
However, if you run a site that is delivering players that deposit $700, then on the same RevShare model you would earn $280, so obviously a RevShare model would be better for you.
Now, as everyone knows – this isnt an exact science – you will always get trends that buck this – people will sometimes deposit more or less than is expected.
It is also worth noting that there are two main reasons why a gaming site will be willing to work with you like this.
1. A player you deliver to my casino isnt playing at another rival casino.
2. All revenues have an element of the cost of Brand Building built into them. By being on your site, my product becomes, more well known, more recognised, more respected and ultimately will generate more players through the trust that is implied by my casinos presence on a lot of different sites. Imagine how much money is spent on TV, radio, press and other offline marketing channels – and they cant even be measured like interwebulator traffic.
So, I would recommend one of two things.
*Either*
Decide before you sign up as an affiliate which one of the two scenarios is more likely, and take CPA or RevShare accordingly.
*Or*
Talk to your Affiliate Manager! Thats what they are there for. We are employed to generate revenue for our clients (the casinos) and this cant be done without you. You can always switch from RevShare to CPA and vice versa if you feel you need to.
From an Account Managers point of view, we make money for our clients when you make money, so it makes no sense for us to try and maximise our profits at your expense. Proper and real Account Management involves building a working relationship – you may only have one site now, but why cant I help you generate enough revenue to build two, three or ten sites. So when you sign up as an affiliate, *please* put as much information down as you can. This isnt cos we are nosy, but if I know *how* you are generating traffic; if I can *see* your sites, then I can help with recommendations, tips, contacts – even some limited SEO tips!
So, in summary (and sorry for the length of the post). Decide on the likely quality of your traffic based on your type of site, and dont be afraid of your Account Manager. Good Account Managers will always help you to succeed, because that helps us to succeed. I may look all scary and intimidating (and you can either ask Alex or Yvette or grab me at a CAP
event, but I aint!)
Any thoughts? Would be interested! Feel free to email, MSN or phone me if you have more questions about me, or what I have just written – even if you arent an affiliate of mine (yet!)
Neil Mitchell
Senior Account Manager
http://www.blackpoolclub.co.uk
email – [email protected]
MSN – [email protected]
Old Skool – 02078389399