Question for Poker Bonus sites owners

[pheal]

I started poker affiliating a year ago now and I'm wondering what I should do with the first poker website I made. I did the mistake many beginners do when they start and tried to do everything in one place: poker news, room reviews, texas holdem strategy and bonus codes. It made me work twice as hard as I would have if I had focused on a specific niche to get the same result but still I learned so much I don't regret it.

Some months ago I decided to focus on the "money terms" and despite my utopia of making the "all around poker site", I still managed to get good ranking for poker bonus search terms. Now I have a dilemna. I know successful affiliates like Dealer Dan advise to go the rev share route from the start but I didn't because I needed money to fund my other projects, and I also thought that for bonus sites, players would be more of the "hit and run" style, clear the bonus and switch rooms.

My question is: should I switch to revshare? If yes, for which rooms? I have the feeling I might be losing money in the long term but with all that's happening right now with FT and PS, I feel a bit reluctant. So I'd like some advice from poker bonus sites owners who promote the following rooms:

Full Tilt Poker: I'm currently on the PAW CPA deal. Revshare might be interesting but it seems rakeback is getting more and more talked about in poker forums. Also, 90% of the players registering on my rakeback site play exclusively on Full Tilt, so I might be biased but it contributes to the feeling I have that more and more players know about rakeback.

Party Poker: I'm also currently using the PAW CPA deal. Party Poker is a great brand, with no rakeback offers (well, officialy) so I don't run the risk of losing my players. Still, I see it more as a newbie room and don't know personnaly lots of players who rake a lot there. Again, I guess I'm biased because the "real life" players I know are experiencd and none of them plays actively on this room.

ChiliPoker: A brand that is not as well known as Titan on iPoker but still offers great exclusive promotions for the countries I'm targeting, and no rakeback. But I'm afraid players will see this room as a "novelty" and rake a little or clear the bonus before moving on (to PStars or Full Tilt).

PokerStars: They offer the crappiest CPA of all the rooms I promote but it's such a great brand with fantastic retention. I wanted badly to be on revshare for that room when I heard some affiliates were on that plan. But with the new VPP rule, the deductions for affiliates, and other affilliates telling my their revshare revenues are crap, I'm not sure anymore. I pushed Stars back to the last positions on all my sites and wonder if it's worth to continue working with them.

What's your take on these rooms and the CPA/Revshare options? I get an average of 15-20 CPAs per month for that site, all rooms combined. Do you think I would catch up in less than a year revenue wise if I switched for revshare?

By the way, sorry, my English is not perfect

[KevinMcC]

In a bit of a rush but...

Party Poker - I'm on CPA with them as well but I noticed they have their party casino within the software now, along with the sports betting. Also without offering rakeback it might be a good situation to move over to MGR.

PokerStars - I am on CPA and the conversions are horrible. My view is if the player generates the 250 FPPs they are probably worth well over $75 CPA. I'm not going to be giving PokerStars any exposure from now out (unless they switch back to 100 FPP which was more fair).

Full Tilt - I like the Full Tilt CPA but never been on rev share to test that out.

[pheal]

In a bit of a rush but...

Party Poker - I'm on CPA with them as well but I noticed they have their party casino within the software now, along with the sports betting. Also without offering rakeback it might be a good situation to move over to MGR.

PokerStars - I am on CPA and the conversions are horrible. My view is if the player generates the 250 FPPs they are probably worth well over $75 CPA. I'm not going to be giving PokerStars any exposure from now out (unless they switch back to 100 FPP which was more fair).

Full Tilt - I like the Full Tilt CPA but never been on rev share to test that out.

Thanks for your reply Kevin! I didn't know Party had merged the casino side of things with poker. That would be a very good reason to move to revshare!

[TonyG]

Hey Pheal,

Party - Our affiliates have had a lot of success with rev share at party. Depending on how a player deposits at Party the CPA requirements can be quite high. I advise affiliates to go rev share at rooms with great retention. Party has been around for ages and I think they are in a great position if regulation occurs in the US.

Full Tilt - I would stick with the CPA. Rev share at Full Tilt can be an issue once players find out about rakeback. You might try vetting your Full Tilt prospects to see which players should be sent to your rakeback site.

Poker Stars - Again, I advise going rev share with any room that has solid retention. Stars player support is the best in the business and that's part of the reason players never leave. I am a rakeback guy and I still play at Stars

iPoker - stick with the big brands if you going to go the revenue share route. Titan and Mansion are solid rooms where we have had more success with Rev Share than CPA.

Hope this helps

Tony

[TheDonk]

Party - Our affiliates have had a lot of success with rev share at party. Depending on how a player deposits at Party the CPA requirements can be quite high. I advise affiliates to go rev share at rooms with great retention. Party has been around for ages and I think they are in a great position if regulation occurs in the US.

Tony

Great post Tony. After a talk with a friend last night, not only am I gonna switch to you guys for UB and AP CPA's, but as a result of your post I think I'll be switching to you guys for PP as well.

[pheal]

Hey Pheal,

Party - Our affiliates have had a lot of success with rev share at party. Depending on how a player deposits at Party the CPA requirements can be quite high. I advise affiliates to go rev share at rooms with great retention. Party has been around for ages and I think they are in a great position if regulation occurs in the US.

Full Tilt - I would stick with the CPA. Rev share at Full Tilt can be an issue once players find out about rakeback. You might try vetting your Full Tilt prospects to see which players should be sent to your rakeback site.

Poker Stars - Again, I advise going rev share with any room that has solid retention. Stars player support is the best in the business and that's part of the reason players never leave. I am a rakeback guy and I still play at Stars

iPoker - stick with the big brands if you going to go the revenue share route. Titan and Mansion are solid rooms where we have had more success with Rev Share than CPA.

Hope this helps

Tony

Thanks a lot for the great reply Tony!

[pokerextras]

I'm a big believer that money makes money, and although some rev share deals might work out better in the long term, cpa's will make you far more money immediately which you can reinvest into other sites and seo etc, so your money will be working for you and will ultimately make you more money than waiting for rev share to pay off.