Jeremy

There is a very interesting thread running about the topic of bonus codes and events that have transpired with a certain operator recently. Anytime you bring together the top competitors in any industry, there is bound to be debate. This has been going on since the days of PartyRiches. Personally I am just happy that the members here at PAL conduct themselves in a respectful and professional manner.

To throw my 2 cents in, I don't believe there is really ever a justifiable time that bonus codes should override another existing affiliates cookie. Although bonus codes are great, and many of us make a lot of money with them, they are somewhat archaic in nature.

The intent of bonus codes when PartyPoker introduced them was for offline marketing, not for affiliates to SEO the term and make free money.

I don't write this to offend anyone, but it's just the truth. For affiliates, bonus codes are great and I'll personally keep promoting them as long as their available, why wouldn't you? For operators however, most lose money with bonus code schemes.

The comical thing to me is that most rooms offer the same bonus regardless if you sign up with a code, or through an affiliate. If you are an operator and a potential player arrives at your site without any cookie attached and makes it 1 click away from signing up; why then send them back to google to search "xxxx bonus code". I mean really, did that affiliate really refer the new player, as is the intention of poker affiliate programs?

Like I said, I'll continue marketing bonus codes. In fact if the room I am promoting has bonus codes, they will be on the page along side the review or whatever.

Last year my buddy who is the owner FatWallet.com and I had a conversation about how outdated and unreliable the whole cookie system is. Cookie tracking worked great until multiple browsers began coming out with various security features.

In the future, I would love to see an affiliate tracking system that tracks via refferer URL and not cookies. I mean if you arrive at a site from xxxxx.com, there is no question of if a cookie tracked,etc. I realize there may be some arguments about why this wouldn't work, but overall the current affiliate tracking methods in our industry are sub par, to say the least.

Please feel free to share your comments or thoughts on the whole cookie issue. Or you can even write you own blog post here at PAL and have your voice heard!