Hi Everyone,
It’s been a day since my last post, for the simple fact that I’ve been discussing our options with the development team and the board of directors here at T4G.
Before I comment any further on this matter, I’m going to address some of the comments/reactions of the posters in this tread.
bb1webs
Judging by your comments, it seems as though you’re an experienced affiliate who has been in the industry for quite some time now. I appreciate the fact that you brought this to my attention, because in all honesty … it was overlooked on my part and I certainly understand your concern. Was this a huge oversight on my part? IMO, no it wasn’t … considering the other aspects of the business I try to manage on a daily basis, not to mention the other initiatives I’m eagerly trying to put in place because of the feedback and emails I receive from you guys on a daily basis. I continue to encourage these types of suggestions and recommendations, because I’m here to help you guys make money. If I was trying to take advantage of you like some of you are suggesting, how good does that make me look as an Affiliate Manager? I’m not here to beat you down and “steal” players … I’m here to make you guys money, which in turn will make the company money. It’s a pretty simple affiliate business model when you step back and take a look at the big picture. I wouldn’t get too far, especially in the online gaming industry if I was out here trying to pull a fast one every time I could. So a little patience and a little understanding would be greatly appreciated while I go to bat for the 400Affiliates Team (including myself) to the board of directors, instead of posting what your POV on the type of person I am without knowing anything about me. You, yourself even said that you know nothing about our company and nothing about me … so how about giving me a little time to build a relationship with you before passing judgment on me on a public posting forum.
The BBQ comment you made was a little disturbing to me. I’ve been put here to manage the 400Affiliates program and take all of my partners concerns into consideration and ensure those concerns have been addressed and the options weighed so that the affiliates are being taken care of without compromising the business model of the casinos.
Hi again,
well its (to me) extremely obvious that this was a deliberate act … which therefore deserves no understanding.
It demands an action that will make me feel comfortable to promote them any further.
anybody that’s been around this niche for more than a couple weeks knows what they are doing when they send out an email from the casino that the player was signed at … promoting a different casino and not adding the deserving affs link code.
Shuffling their feet around and saying oh gee, I didn’t know any better simply will not fly with me.
that said, the only possible solution that’s going to make me feel comfortable promoting them any further is to credit across the board.
I’m not even sure how to reply to this post. I’m afraid that if I say something which seems slightly negative, you might turn around and tell me that I’m giving you nothing but excuses. All I can say, is that you haven’t even given me the slightest opportunity to build a relationship with you whatsoever. Instead, you’re insisting that I’m deliberately trying to rip people off which couldn’t be further from the truth. If I can reiterate my point above, how much sense would it make for me to do this? I’m in this business to build relationships with my affiliate partners and take everyone’s concerns into consideration … not to lie, cheat and steal for a quick buck. I’ll have a hard time pleasing everyone in the affiliate world, but I’ll certainly do my best to do everything I can to keep as many people happy as I can. Will that mean making every change to the program that has been suggested to me? Probably not, because those changes might not fit into the overall business model at this point in time. Down the road, those suggestions might be applied … but I can’t do everything at once. It’s a process for me … a process for T4G and a process for the affiliates. It’ll take time, but I can guarantee that I’ll do everything I can to get this program running as smoothly as possible.
In the quote above you said: “Shuffling their feet around and saying oh gee, I didn’t know any better simply will not fly with me. That said, the only possible solution that’s going to make me feel comfortable promoting them any further is to credit across the board.” You know what … I’m not shuffling my feet around, but I can tell you that the cross promotion emails were NOT intended to steal your players and take money away from our affiliates. The promotions department sends out emails on a regular basis which is part of our player retention/conversion strategy. I can assure you that we don’t have this program in place to steal your players away from you … should we have included a clause or a statement which suggested going back to the original affiliate the player came from? In retrospect … OF COURSE! But it wasn’t done intentionally … that I give you my word on. If my word means nothing to you, then I’m sorry, but hopefully some day it will be worth more than what it is now.
I don’t want to start this relationship out on the wrong foot bb1 … and this post is simply to clarify a few things, not to come back at you with snide remarks and go “tit for tat” with you. I’m hoping that you will see where I’m coming from here … it has never been my intent, nor shall it ever be my intent to try and rip you guys off. I came from the affiliate side of things and the last thing I will do is try to steal your players and develop bad business partnerships. It doesn’t make sense to me … it’s just that simple. With that being said, I appreciate your suggestions and encourage you to keep them coming – just be sure to know that I’ll always have an open ear. This is a business of developing relationships and building trust. Of course I don’t need to tell you that, because you’ve been around the block a few times from what I can tell :bigsmile:
Engineer
You and I have been working closely together over the last few weeks, trying to implement new ideas and structure the affiliate program to suit the needs of ALL affiliates. Suggestions to fire my developer and put somebody in place who knows what they’re doing is an outright attack on me and on the people I work with. Nobody said it was an impossible change to make, but I can guarantee you it’s not a simple as adding an “If/Else” statement to a function in the affiliate code. If everything were that simple, the program would be bulletproof right now. What I can tell you is that it’s a fix that will take several weeks to implement, which in turn takes developers time away from other pressing projects. Not to say that this project isn’t pressing, or that it’s any less important than any of the other projects, but our technical team is on a schedule and unfortunately for me … we don’t have endless resources right now to accommodate all the changes I’d like to see. Again, those changes will take some time … but I can promise you that we won’t forget about them.
Engineer, you should know as well as anyone that I’ll always go to bat for you guys. I’m not going to sit here and lie to you on a public posting forum … that just isn’t my style. I’ll always be as open and honest as I can with all of you … even in the public eye. I’m not here to make enemies …
Final Words
With all that being said, we’re going to add this change request to the queue and work towards having the affiliate tags added to those cross-promotional emails. Until that time, we’re going to stop all other cross-promotional emails. The only promotional emails your players will receive will come from the casino from which they signed up.
I do apologize for the fact that to some affiliates, this “appeared” to have been an attempt to steal their players … but I will reiterate that this was definitely not our intention. It was a mistake on our end and we’re going to work towards implementing a change that works for everyone. Although we probably won’t automatically tag that player to the affiliate for ALL T4G properties, we will work towards adding a recommendation to the email that will remind the player who they signed up with and if they wish to remain loyal, click “here” to sign up under your parent affiliate. Bonusgeek’s suggestions make perfect sense. His Nissan analogy is a perfect example of why it’s not in EVERY affiliate’s best interest to structure the affiliate tagging in such a manner that this player is tagged for life to one affiliate. Every affiliate will offer different contests, promotions and other incentives that will attract people to their website. Those affiliates might work with me directly to come up with a specific DVG promotion or contest that will only allow that affiliate’s players to be eligible for that incentive at any given time. If the player wishes to take part in that promotion/contest and has already been tagged under a different affiliate … well then it’s not fair to the player that they will not be eligible to participate in the contest and/or promotion. If we opened up the doors and allowed all players to participate in whichever contest or promotion they pleased, regardless of what affiliate they signed up with … I think we all know the trouble this would get us in from a business perspective.
Again … I want to thank bb1 to bringing this to my attention. Give me some time and I’ll be working towards a permanent resolution to this problem, however for the time being … I will make sure that no more cross-promotional emails will be sent out to your players without referencing the parent affiliate. I agree that this isn’t fair to the referring affiliate and will do everything I can to get something in place as soon as possible.
Cheers,