I am of the opinion that affiliates are entrepreneurs and affiliate managers are like business consultants. There has to be a high level of understanding, trust and clarity to develop a mutually successful, profitable and long term relationship. The affiliate manager has to invest loads of time in the initial stages of the relationship and help the affiliate.
AMs are expected to be proactive and help the affiliates all the time. But affiliates have to acknowledge the fact that if they work with 20-25 programs (on an average), the managers have to deal with 0.5-1K active affiliates for medium size companies. For bigger operations AMs would have a portfolio of 5K affiliates. Therefore it is good for an affiliate to be proactive and speak to the AM anytime he or she has an issue.
I have made a check list of questions to ask before you start promoting a new program.
Player Acquisition
1) Tip for new affiliates as well as old
2) Guidelines for affiliates – dos and don’ts
3) Target audience (if any) for the brand
4) % of conversion of different sources of traffic
5) Player values (expected/projected/approximate) from different sources of traffic
Deposit and withdrawals for players
1) Deposit and withdrawal options and limits for various payment providers
2) What happens when a deposit is declined? Is there an automated process or a transaction support team which contacts the players and suggests them alternative payment solutions?
3) Daily/weekly/monthly limits for deposits and withdrawals. What can a player do to get higher deposit limits?
4) What happens if a player wins a big (e.g. $500K)? Is he allowed to withdraw his winnings at one go or in one month? If the casino has a per month withdrawal limit, get an explanation in detail how it works with big wins.
Player Retention
1) Ask for a list of retention promotions that the casino does to increase player value. Some people have the misconception that a no deposit bonus, sign up bonus or reload bonuses are all the retention that a casino needs. In reality these are primarily the hygiene factors and the players expect these by default. Retention goes way beyond these.
2) How the VIP program works?
Games
1) Brief description of all the games and game rules
2) Most popular games from the casino’s point of view and what the players’ perceive as good.
3) Bet limit on games
4) Payout of the games
5) How many versions of games they have?
6) If it is a no download client, which browser versions do they support?
Affiliate Commissions and Payments
1) What is the payment date for affiliates?
2) What are the payment mechanisms for affiliates? Is there any extra cost for certain payment methods?
3) How commissions are calculated?
4) How transaction fees are accounted for?
5) How charge backs are accounted for?
6) For a casino with no negative carry over policy, how is the following situation accounted for? A player won $20K in one month and withdraws his winnings. The next month the player deposits $20K and losses it all. Does the casino absorb the 20K loss in the first month and in the second month share the 20K drop by the player with the affiliate?
7) Is it possible to get a special non standard deal?
Do they offer extra incentives for affiliates who can deliver volumes?
Contract and resolution of issues
1) How malleable is the affiliate contract?
2) Do they offer life time revenue at the same rate of commission at which you started from day one? It is understood that with better performance the commission will go up, but it is better to check if there is a chance that the program may reduce your rate of commission on existing players if you don’t perform.
3) Is the program a member of any independent affiliate forum or body where you can go for help if your issues have not been resolved after negotiations with the affiliate program
Hope this helps.