What's your opinion on adversiting poker training sites on your site?

[addz123]

Hey,

As the title says, I want to know your opinions on advertising a poker training site or recommeding them to players on your site.

My problem with doing this, such as with pokerpwnage (mtt training site) is that they overtly advertise rakeback to their users, and encourage them to sign up to poker rooms through their links.

While I am all for increasing the value of my site to users, and showing them where they can get advanced training through videos and coaching, I think first and foremost we are businessman and this may lose me money + players.

the idea of promoting a training site with rakeback is the biggest issue though.

So, is there any reason to bother reviewing or advertising training sites? I know many (such as pokerpwnage) have affiliate programes that reward sending players there who buy coaching or subcribe to products, but i don't think this compensates for losing potential players (or maybe i'm wrong?)

PS incidentally i wrote a 500 word pokerpwnage review that i decided not to put up, so if anyone wants to take this off my hands for a link just pm me).

[Matt Geer]

I haven't promoted one yet, but have looked into it. I could be mistaken, but I think some of those programs have a rev share type of deal. Each month that the subscriber pays, you make money.

If that's the case, yeah, you might lose money from a rakeback/cpa/rev share but will still make money from the subscription. And if they were willing to get a subscription in the first place than it's possible they're more serious about their game and may stick it out for awhile with the training program.

Also, when I think of going to a training site, it's because I already suck at online poker which means I already have a site I'm playing at. So I'd imagine alot of those guys do to.

Again, this is all speculation, I don't have any first hand experience.

[addz123]

Also, when I think of going to a training site, it's because I already suck at online poker which means I already have a site I'm playing at. So I'd imagine alot of those guys do to.

hmm that's interesting, could mean i'm not losing players at all, but still get money from them if they sign up to the training site's subscription.

Actually just writing now though, I think the point isn't that people who go to training sites already have an account. The point is that by overtly advetising a training site, even my casual users may have a look (so i'm losing players in this sense).

[leporello]

Go with programs who don't offer rakeback, namely Bluefire Poker. Also I believe Deuces Cracked have a way of blocking rakeback from all your referrals should you so wish.

PokerSavvy Plus give you small sub affiliate %s if anyone ever signs to one of their rakeback deals.

[xYassassinYx]

I wouldn't bother.

I've sent 300+ uniques to Bluefire Poker and only two joined = $100...

I was giving them great exposure, but now i'll just have the reviews in a sub section and find smaller rooms to promote

[herschelw]

I read this thread and a few like it and we've decided to pull down our rakeback adds in order to give you all more incentive to promote Pokerpwnage without feeling we're competing with you. We never signed up many people for rakeback anyway since most people already have memberships on the major rooms before they join our site. They should be down in just a few days. Im not sure what the rules are on posting a link to join our affiliate program here so just pm me if you'd like the link to signup.

[addz123]

I read this thread and a few like it and we've decided to pull down our rakeback adds in order to give you all more incentive to promote Pokerpwnage without feeling we're competing with you. We never signed up many people for rakeback anyway since most people already have memberships on the major rooms before they join our site. They should be down in just a few days. Im not sure what the rules are on posting a link to join our affiliate program here so just pm me if you'd like the link to signup.

That's really cool of you man!

[Self Made]

Also I believe Deuces Cracked have a way of blocking rakeback from all your referrals should you so wish.

No, they only do that for players that come in through a PAS site's "free training" deal (not free to PAS site owners, just to raking players).

DC does convert though.

[Squizzel]

I think its a revenue supplement and not a main earner. Basically, i wouldnt give it prime placement because you have an opportunity cost of sending them to a poker room or too a training site and ur $ click is likely to be more sending to a room.

[Joe Tall]

No, they only do that for players that come in through a PAS site's "free training" deal (not free to PAS site owners, just to raking players).

DC does convert though.

Actually we offer this beyond PAS. We do work with PAS directly but we have a program that some might be interested in.

Our DC Advantage Program - deucescracked.com/advantage

We did two studies on our rakeback customers. Once in October, and then over the holidays. We found a 95% increase in avg MGR production for the customers who watch our videos. If you want more details on this study, PM me.

Two keys to this program that address a lot of concerns are:

1. We do not bill you if your user does not use his account. 0 viewed videos = $0.
2. We modify the rakeback links on our site for your customer. This protects your customers.

We also have an affiliate program that is separate from the DC Advantage Program.

Thanks,
Joe