I have one big site ( GoonersGuide ) and a share of three smaller sites ( PokerLabrat, BookielabRat and CasinoLabrat ) that I work in partnership.
However, I’ve taken a different approach to advertisers / partners, typically only working with a dozen of the best (in ou opinion) in each vertical.
So GoonersGuide will have a dozen sportsbooks (and their other channel offerings) and maybe only 6 each of the specialist casino / poker only sites. While CasinoLabrat wil have the best dozen casino sites etc, PokerLabrat the best dozen poker sites etc, etc.
This has four positive things for us :
1) LESS HASSLE WITH DODGY SITES :
We only include the best sites, with player safety and longevity having an influence, meaning that we get to avoid the strife and heartache and fallout from nearly all of these newer, smaller sites that get dodgy. (Grand Prive / Cardspike)
2) EXCLUSIVITY HAS ITS REWARDS :
Space on our site is at a premium – and we knockback 90% of requests for entrance. We have an extended waiting list of potential advertisers and can usually charge a monthly tenancy is addition to rev-share when we finally accept a new entrant.
3) PERFORMANCE PLUS :
Because we have a relatively small number of programs on each site, each of the programs gets significant exposure and tends to perform well – and we consider that the minimum monthly return for each program is a $x,xxx. If it’s not then the advertiser is put on notice, and after 3 months is dropped.
4) NO QUOTA ISSUES :
This means that we don’t have quota issues ever. We are likely to drop a non-performing program much quicker than they are likely to raise a quota issue. And with only a small amount of focused advertisers we tend to sail through any monthly minimum signup limit anyway.
I acknowledge that it’s possible that this approach will miss out on potential easy sales, if say a loyal player who is active in our forum wants to join up to PokerSatrs or UltimateBet then we don’t get the cash and they have to look elsewhere.
But I’ve found that our approach does have the upside of minimising all the mucking around with banner and link changes, dealing with pushy AMs who want more exposure, monitoring player issues and keeping reviews up to date and the general issues that come with affiliating with a program.
With two dozen valued partners it still takes us about 1/2 days each week to ensure that our text and offers and reviews are up to date. I don’t know how you handle hundreds in a good thorough manner?