I'm new here - does offline affiliating convert?

[MR.Bluff]

Nice Thread.

I started as an offline affiliate. Was a poker player who wanted to earn some extra. At the beginng I was only promoting those deals to my friends and for few random person who I met in poker clubs/casino. Step by step it came a bit bigger.
Now later on I have my on web-site + people working for me. I still find it really good that I started as an offline. There was a lots of time to work out with many serious questions exmp: how things are working, what are my leaks of this business, what should I improve, how my "rivals" are doing this, DO I REALLY WANT TO DO THIS BUSINESS???

And after than when you are finally decide to have an web-site and start doing this for big times you are sure how much you want to be in this business!


Even I have my web-site Im still doing lots of offline marketing. Here are my few tips for it.

* Even you dont have a web-site make a domain and but there "coming soon". Now you can have a personal email (exmp: xxxx@jigglyspoker.com), those hotmails and yahoos sucks when its about taking people seriously.
Now you can make a business card where is your name,skype,msn and real email!

Anywhere im hearing people talking about poker im going to talk with them. "sorry guys you were talking about poker. how its going on......where you play......how good deal?....Okey, I have my own poker consulting company and I could fix you a way better deals. here is my business card drop me an email and we will setlle things up".
Heh, its also great way to get chicks in the bar/club when conversation comes to you and what you are doing


* Buy a stickers. Im sticking those to clubs´ toilets and all around music festivals now when its summer time.


*Poker clubs & casinos are great places to start chat with people and end up to give them a deals.


* I Bought over 100 poker books (normal price 45€ , got them for 5€ of one). Will make flyers a size of business card that says something like this: "Make a 20$ deposit and recieve poker book worth for 45€ for FREE, by using this code:xxxxx"

Will most propably use my CPA deals for this. Going to cost me totally under 10€ to buy and send this books to my customers. And every sing up gives me nice profit + Its really easy to throw this "cards" away when you are meeting new people.


* Most propably I will start hosting poker games at the one club. Its up to me how much I want to advertise my own site beside games.


* Have a "hoodie" + couple of Tshirt where is logo of my site. At this point I find it very important that those clothes with your print are COOL. Its not too atractive to have a "fruit of the loom"-shirt (or some another cheap brand) with small logo on top of your left tit.
Remeber that everything you do gives some kind of image to the people. Image about your site. What kind of brand it will have...its up to your moves


* Sport sponsoring. It cost 240€ + 100beers (from the shop) for me to start sponsoring one floorball club from 4.division xD Now on their shorts there is big logo of my web-site. And everybody will notice it because at that low division there is not much of sponsoring going on. Of course not so much audiences neather, but still hundreds of people will see it during the season. Even one of those will en up contacting me will pay it selfs back.

Really long post, sorry. Hope there is at least some tips for someone.

Cheers

Mr.Bluff

[Newjabber]

Really long post, sorry. Hope there is at least some tips for someone

Very good post, sure gave me something to think about thx

[Jiggly]

Mr.Bluff

good post thank you for taking the time to share and write all of that.

I can tell you have some good experience doing things offline.

From your experiences, how much in advertising or promotion does it cost you to find and convert one player?

also, if you can answer, how much does the average player generate for you, and what is the average lifespan of a player.

I have currently spent gbp136 on advertising, this month and have two sign ups (I'm still in my first month as an affiliate), so i don't really know what to expect.

I am aiming for 1 sign up a week, for my first year and reinvesting any revenue I may make.

I have no real money players yet.

[Spin32-Hayley]

We have several successful offline marketing affiliates who promote our poker room. They all market our poker room with an offline promotional code which releases an instant deposit bonus.

The call to action has to be simple and clear plus the offer attractive to the potential players. Flyers are good for distributing at shopping centres on cars, sign posts etc. But a business card with your name on is more personal.

I would suggest trying to use a landing page that is on your URL and direct the CTA directly to a registration page. Then test taking the player directly to the poker room’s website where they will have to navigate to the registration page and enter the offline promotional code.

I really like the pressure washer idea as I have seen this used in London advertising parties etc. But I think it’s very hard to convert from an image or text message on a pavement. It may be good for brand awareness and may support your affiliate site activity but I would build a campaign that is supported with flyers and business cards.

I have also seen poker and casino affiliates hang banners on motorway bridges. This is a good way to get traffic.

These marketing ideas work well in city areas also where there are universities. You also maybe able to place adverts on taxis or joint promote with night clubs etc.

[Jiggly]

I have also seen poker and casino affiliates hang banners on motorway bridges. This is a good way to get traffic.

This is something I didn't think of, I suppose its a matter of,

'how long will it stay there for before the authorities take it down', which will determine its success.

[jdwanchalk]

This is a massive waste of time when compared to the online alternatives, really. Now, anyway. Maybe five years ago it worked. The most you could possibly hope for in your wildest dreams is nothing compared to what you could get online.

[addz123]

This is a massive waste of time when compared to the online alternatives, really. Now, anyway. Maybe five years ago it worked. The most you could possibly hope for in your wildest dreams is nothing compared to what you could get online.

100% agree, was thinking of posting something myself. First off, who jots down a bonus code they see on a random banner? What kind of technophobe who plays poker at the casino doesn't already have an account?

Personally, i just feel anyone who wants to play online poker/betting will do it at their own accord i.e. by searching on the internet. The world is full of generic advertisements so how the hell can an affiliate banner with a silly bonus code stand out?

Offline affiliating has only ever worked for me with my friends, and even then it's complicated explaining to them about bonus codes and why they should play at this site and not another one etc...

Fact is, your marketing and shoving a product in someones face that no one ever asked for, and there's a complicated bonus code to remember. and you're not offering anything unique that stands out anyway. At least in online affiliating your getting traffic that WANTS to play here etc...

[MR.Bluff]

Mr.Bluff

From your experiences, how much in advertising or promotion does it cost you to find and convert one player?

also, if you can answer, how much does the average player generate for you, and what is the average lifespan of a player.

I dont think offline marketing is excpensive at all, its more how much effort (your own time!) you will but on it. I paid totally under 200€ for 1500 quality business card (5 diferent name) + 300 stickers from Hong Kong.
When Im on the casino or diferent poker events and giving a business card is convertising pretty nicely But on the other end to give this same business card at the club dont convert at all. Drunk person dont give too professional picture + many of those people are not deeply on poker scene, so they dont know too much what you are offering to them.

Im having a diferent kind of players under me. But basicly im gettin 50-500€+ per month of my players. For small players the lifespan is around few months to over a year. I cant bee in toughts with them 24/7, so they are not fully connected to me and could possible leave when they heard of better deal. But still not too many players are leaving for better deal (because Im still giving them a valuable deal for their rake level), most of case the reason is lack of interesting. And they will have a break of poker.

For high volume players the lifespan is long. Had really few big rakers who had leaved somewhere els. Because this are the players who are generating my living, so Im of course treat them like a piece of gold. This is the target group you should get more in touch with(= they see you are great guy with great deals). So example: when they are looking for new deal to diferent network you are the first guy to ask about it, of course

Agreed with Spin32-Hayley that flyers + business card is the easiest way to convert, the only problem is that the right people should find this ones.

Like addz123 and jdwanchalk told its not too efective to give this flyers for people who dont know much about poker (they wouldnt understund even if you would offer them best deal on the planet). But im dissagree with this fellows that offline marketing does not convert. Why you cant do that beside online adv? You guys dont have a business card to give poker players you meet?
Reliable %%% of my high volume players had found under me on diferent kind of poker eves (=offline marketing). Big tournaments/events are the best places to find high volume players. Whats even better you could meet them personally and give way more trusthworthy picture about your self (= Boosting the brand of you and your site). This rakers will convert many times of one CPA deal on every month!


Ps. After reading Spin32-Hayley´s post I just remember about universities! You could contact them and ask if they have their own poker club etc and try to get in touch with their chairman.
During this autumn Im starting my first partnership with one Uni in Finland. Contacted the chairman of uni´s poker club. Now after few month we both are looking long lasting partnership that will start during this autumn. They will promote my site and deals and I will give them a small cut of profit (+ some pokerbooks etc.. basicly what ever makes them happy).


lol. too tired to check the grammary.

Cheers

Mr. Bluff

[addz123]

I dont think offline marketing is excpensive at all, its more how much effort (your own time!) you will but on it. I paid totally under 200€ for 1500 quality business card (5 diferent name) + 300 stickers from Hong Kong.
When Im on the casino or diferent poker events and giving a business card is convertising pretty nicely But on the other end to give this same business card at the club dont convert at all. Drunk person dont give too professional picture + many of those people are not deeply on poker scene, so they dont know too much what you are offering to them.

Im having a diferent kind of players under me. But basicly im gettin 50-500€+ per month of my players. For small players the lifespan is around few months to over a year. I cant bee in toughts with them 24/7, so they are not fully connected to me and could possible leave when they heard of better deal. But still not too many players are leaving for better deal (because Im still giving them a valuable deal for their rake level), most of case the reason is lack of interesting. And they will have a break of poker.

For high volume players the lifespan is long. Had really few big rakers who had leaved somewhere els. Because this are the players who are generating my living, so Im of course treat them like a piece of gold. This is the target group you should get more in touch with(= they see you are great guy with great deals). So example: when they are looking for new deal to diferent network you are the first guy to ask about it, of course

Agreed with Spin32-Hayley that flyers + business card is the easiest way to convert, the only problem is that the right people should find this ones.

Like addz123 and jdwanchalk told its not too efective to give this flyers for people who dont know much about poker (they wouldnt understund even if you would offer them best deal on the planet). But im dissagree with this fellows that offline marketing does not convert. Why you cant do that beside online adv? You guys dont have a business card to give poker players you meet?
Reliable %%% of my high volume players had found under me on diferent kind of poker eves (=offline marketing). Big tournaments/events are the best places to find high volume players. Whats even better you could meet them personally and give way more trusthworthy picture about your self (= Boosting the brand of you and your site). This rakers will convert many times of one CPA deal on every month!


Ps. After reading Spin32-Hayley´s post I just remember about universities! You could contact them and ask if they have their own poker club etc and try to get in touch with their chairman.
During this autumn Im starting my first partnership with one Uni in Finland. Contacted the chairman of uni´s poker club. Now after few month we both are looking long lasting partnership that will start during this autumn. They will promote my site and deals and I will give them a small cut of profit (+ some pokerbooks etc.. basicly what ever makes them happy).


lol. too tired to check the grammary.

Cheers

Mr. Bluff

In my time at university i tried marketing to our poker society which had over 300 members. At one point I even organised a $500 freeroll that anyone could enter just for my univeristy - and in all that time I only picked up 3 signups.

The FACT is, offline affiliate marketing doesn't work. Maybe 5 years ago when online poker/casino was fresh and new, but no anymore. All these sites do enough work to advertise themsevles.

As an example, everyone in my university poker society already had accounts at the major poker rooms, so what incentives can I offer them to change? They're not going to be long term value players either. In hindsight, I was promoting something that no one wanted. All live poker players have online accounts nowadays - you can't just pop into the casino, say hi, dish out your card and expect 10 signups at the end of the week.

Before you say "well I might have just sucked at offline affiliate marketing", I don't. I became vice-president of my poker society in 3rd year just so i could exploit it. I offered online weekly cash games with private rooms for students but they are clearly not interested.

I can't think of a single place offline affiliating is worthwhile at the moment in the UK. The only way to target rmp is in poker games/casinos - and all these have online accounts anyway.

[jdwanchalk]

Correct, if you waste your time doing anything offline you probably just don't have a clue.