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Great article Jeremy I agree that there is a great opportunity with the the US market opening back up albeit on a small scale at the moment but I am sure won't be long through most of the US. I do affiliate marketing but new to poker affiliates but love to play poker so have decided to get in the poker market. You seem to be the authority on the subject so I look forward to learning from you.

will non US affiliates be able to affiliate for the US market(s) ?

It feels a bit like it's going to be a very closed US only affair afaiks

While US affiliates have been able to continue to work in non US market and then when US opens again they will have a closed shop - as non US affiliates will be put in the part of the whole "offshore" non regulated untrustworthy excluded group

have I read this wrong ? or will the sub affiliate route that most US affiliates will have to take for the reasons you outline (costs etc) offer a gateway to non US affiliates too ?

I agree Gooner, I don't think the regulated markets get particularly interesting for affiliates until the interstate compacts start being rolled out.

Likewise I just can't see affiliates going state to state spending thousands of dollars trying to get licenses and vendors permits. Remembering to renew domains is enough of a pain in the ass. Imagine having to renew licenses with U.S. states every year....No thanks

From the operators I have spoken with though, they are hoping a sub-affiliate model can be incorporated. Likewise they feel that the large scale affiliate model itself is still a bit pre-mature to discuss considering they are just trying to launch on time right now.

Thanks for your feedback though. I think many feel the same way at this point.

Yeah .... nah ....

I'll wait for the interstate compacts to start to develop, and for the application process to be a lot less intrusive and restrictive ...

Great interview!

[IMG]http://cdn.elev8.com/files/2010/07/think-outside-the-box.jpg[/IMG]

Hey Dave, thanks for the words.

Maybe it is time for some inspirational post?

Thanks!

"Yah, I think I said I was coming back to the online gaming industry after the winter SEO season... but I'm gonna need those TPS reports on my desk by this afternoon."

-Bill Lumburgh

[QUOTE=Jeremy;bt5165]If you have a ton of "fulltilt" / "pokerstars" keyword traffic......talk about a great opportunity to send that traffic somewhere else that actually does take U.S. players.

None of us know how this will shake out. But, if PS and FT really are donkdown in the U.S., there are going to be millions of players looking for a new home. That smells like opportunity to me. We as affiliates may as well position ourselves to take advantage and make the most out of a bad situation.[/QUOTE]

Redirecting room specific keywords to other places has never been very profitable. I've had some of the highest volume room specific keywords and have tried to redirect it elsewhere before and the results were piss poor. Perhaps with this situation it could be different, but usually people are looking for what they are looking for, and don't give a shit about being redirected elsewhere.

You are right Jeremy, the FBI is not going to go after ESPN for the Poker Stars ads they had all over their site just last month.

Wow, I hadn't heard the news until I tried to log-in to my Full Tilt affiliate account and got a message from the FBI

I am shocked.... as usual Jeremy is right, this is a huge opportunity for poker affiliates who stick with it and wait out the storm and diversify into other markets. I've always said that if you have the skills to make any money in this industry, you can do very well in the hundreds of less competitive internet marketing niches out there. Multiple streams of income from a variety of online industries is the key to internet marketing security. And keep building those subscriber lists in every niche you are in! A buck or two, here and there really adds up over time.

Hi Ridge, Corp and Jeremy..... remember it's always the darkest, just before the dawn.

Hang in there my friends, and prosper.

Dave

Merge isn't going anywhere, at Lock we'd be happy to talk to affiliates about how we can help with their US traffic. While its a dark day for the industry the silver lining is its an amazing opportunity for us to really dig in and take some more market share.

I think you guys are really over estimating the willingness of people to play after this. This is magnitudes more "serious" than UIGEA, I would think, anyway. Plenty of people that I know who play a ton or full time said they are not playing online at all anymore, anywhere, so I can't see why amateurs would want to risk it. I think a lot of it hinges on whether people get paid, too.

One small silver lining is while I experienced almost the exact same feeling: semi-panic, anger, wtf do I do now, etd, as when the UIGEA came down, this time it went faster and I remembered how things developed last time, how things turned around, and how I wound up solidly back on my feet and even doing better.

As you say this looks substantially worse, but there are opportunities in every dark moment.

Nice post Jeremy. As a "newer" affiliate I'm kind of excited as well. My chance to work my a$$ off and possibly capitalize on people looking for a new poker home. Everyone was just chillin at FTP and PS it was nearly impossible for us newer affiliates to get any type of conversions.

I'm a little concerned as to how this will trickle down (sports betting, casino, other sites...) But in the meantime I'm just gonna work hard and see what happens I guess.

Im ready to adjust, im just in abit of chock today.

Excited? I'm fucken pissed! If there was a site where you could trust your funds were safe, it was PS/FT.

This is an interesting read [url=http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/fbi-charges-11-internet-poker-kingpins-20110416-1difk.html]FBI charges 11 internet poker kingpins[/url]

Hopefully this plays out ok.

Conspiracy Speculation...Something in the back of my mind wants to say the timing of this was so obviously strategic in an effort to cripple big brands while the implementation of US regulation begins to take place. No outsiders seems to actually know whats going on, not even the big las vegas casinos ( maybe they do :D)... A partnership between these private companies and US casino brands was never going to happen,

The DOJ may have been chuckling with the news of these future partnerships with the big untouchable poker brands that dominate the player-base and search engine positions. The DOJ knows exactly what they're doing at this point and has a particular reason for doing it on april 15, 2011.

I'm actually kind of excited to see how all this plays out. Whether its all right or all wrong, its entertaining.

If you have a ton of "fulltilt" / "pokerstars" keyword traffic......talk about a great opportunity to send that traffic somewhere else that actually does take U.S. players.

None of us know how this will shake out. But, if PS and FT really are donkdown in the U.S., there are going to be millions of players looking for a new home. That smells like opportunity to me. We as affiliates may as well position ourselves to take advantage and make the most out of a bad situation.