Affiliate Prizes/Competitions

Cash is always good, cars are ok, but what appeals to me after cash is the opportunity to win a seat into a big poker event like absolute is having right now… there were 50 players in a tournament to win a seat to the wsop in december and they have had at least 2 that i am aware of and will have another in january…

i am sure i am not alone, may not be in the majority, but when i have a 50 in 1 chance to win something i like it a lot better than some random drawing that i am not privy to and, being a cynic, think that drawings always end up being an affiliate that the site wants to suck up to because they are their biggest client and some of us that only get 10-50 people a month for them are really small fish…

I think it is a lot better to give 50 people a smaller reward than to give a car to one person…

I agree with Dom, much better to spread the prizes out among more people.

Also as a fairly new player in the affiliate game I would be more motivated to promote when i think I have a chance of winning something. If i see a prize of a car or something offered to the highest performing affiliate I immediately switch off as it is more than likely going to go to one of the big sites with loads of existing traffic.

I have been preaching the same thing for years. One or two large prizes are not a real incentive to 98% of affiliates because they automatically assume only a super affiliate has a chance of winning.

Its far more effective and exciting to have a large number of acheivable prizes.

For me, absolute has got it nailed atm.

A 12K package with such a small audience is huge., especially since its somewhat tied to my skill AFTER qualifiying for the event (which isnt that hard to do)

I’m not too hot on the poker freerolls to be honest… some of us dont really care for the game that much. It would be like sending me breast enhancement pills because I promote breast enhancement. I would appreciate the gift but I would not necessarily use it.

For a lot of us poker is just 1 of dozens of industries that we promote.

I agree that having 1 big competition like a car for the top affiliate of the month is not the way to go. But I do like how casinoprofitshare did it, the more players you send the more tickets that you get into a draw. It gives everyone a fair chance based on performance. The top affiliate might not win but because of his performance he is given more chances. And no I am not just saying that because I won last months competition.

My favorite prize has to be trips but this will be dependant on the affiliate. Some affiliates who live in california or florida would care a lot less about a winter trip then someone in the northern us or canada.

But I do like how casinoprofitshare did it, the more players you send the more tickets that you get into a draw. It gives everyone a fair chance based on performance. The top affiliate might not win but because of his performance he is given more chances. And no I am not just saying that because I won last months competition.

Yeah, I like that approach too. It’s what Earn United are doing this month also.

The bottom line is really what the casinos themselves are trying to get out of this type of affiliate promotion. Are they trying to bring back formerly high producing affiliates ? In which case, offering personal deals and extra percentage revenue based on increased performance would be the best bet.

No need for affiliate competitions in this case – just emails and calls to the formerly high performing affiliates.

Are they trying to get affiliates who have signed up but never really promoted their properties to give them a strong push ? In this case, a CPA bonus for each new player would work. IE: As well as the 30% revenue share, we’ll give you $20 CPA for each new player in the next 30 days.

Are they aiming to get better placement on a wider range of websites, thereby increasing their brand awareness. In this case, a competition that rewards effort and success is the way to go. This would be several prizes – holidays are always good, cash, increased revenue share, bonuses for the most improved affiliates.

Prizes for the highest number of new depositors or the highest player value – these kind of things are always bad as they don’t incentivize anyone outside the really big performers to do anything.

Anyway, hope this helps in some way.

Excellent post, tryme!

I definitely agree there should be more smaller prizes instead of one big one. I haven’t even tried to win a contest for the cars or those type prizes like the Professor said, I don’t think I have a shot, so I don’t even give it a go.

I also agree with Cartel, for the poker players, that AP freeroll to the WSOP is awesome! Also Ultimate Bet just did a $2500 one and Bodog just invited me to a $5k one…..I LOVE These, but if you’re not a poker player, those won’t do much for you either.

I’d like to see more contests based on ‘improvement’ (ie: refer more players or generate more revenue than you did last month). This way, every affiliate has a chance.