Rakeback links and non rakeback links on the same site?

[MPC]

Stupid question, but if I have an established site and add a new rakeback section to it, the existing review pages are still non rakeback links. Granted I could change them, but should I? Or should I simply add a link "rakeback available for this room" pointing to the rakeback page, while keeping the regular affilaite links. Or should I just change all links to rakeback links?

[Chalkie]

Stupid question, but if I have an established site and add a new rakeback section to it, the existing review pages are still non rakeback links. Granted I could change them, but should I? Or should I simply add a link "rakeback available for this room" pointing to the rakeback page, while keeping the regular affilaite links. Or should I just change all links to rakeback links?

Interesting question and one i have considered too.

Personally i think integrating rakeback into an existing poker site is a mistake. Mainly because once you introduce rakeback in such a place you are killing any traffic that you will get to poker rooms that you do not offer rakeback for yourself when rakeback is attainable for the room anywhere else. Once a player has rakeback, or knows of it they are unlikely to play without it at a new room.

Lets say you did this, what would your existing players be thinking when they come back and see that new players can now get rakeback at a site where they play through you, but they cannot get it?

In my mind, all you are doing is converting your site to a rakeback site, which it is not geared too surely. Fine, if that is what you aim to do, however, i would have thought that the time taken to do this may be better spent on a completely new rakeback site.

In my experience rakeback and non rakeback sites are 2 seperate genres and dont walk hand in hand. I can count on my left hand the number of sign ups to Poker Stars i have achieved from my rakeback network of sites - Infact i can honestly say its NONE!

On the other hand, if you have a very busy poker site then perhaps you would be wise to turn it into a rakeback site period, If you feel that rakeback is the way forward.

Thats my take on it anyway, but i am sure that there are other opinions with far more experience than mine and that people have been there and done that!

[Pokeraddict]

Another thought is that if your URL does not have "rake" in the URL you are in a position where you can promote iPoker/Ongame/MG as bonus/VIP on the same site you are promoting rakeback on rakeback friendly networks. This would be an example where having a hybrid rakeback/non rakeback site would be beneficial.

[Newjabber]

Im pretty sure that the ipoker network dosent allow that you promote them if rakeback is mention anywhere on your site! Maybe someone can confirm this

[Pokeraddict]

Im pretty sure that the ipoker network dosent allow that you promote them if rakeback is mention anywhere on your site! Maybe someone can confirm this

Only if your URL contains "Rake" is there a problem or if your site is primarily a rakeback site. There are plenty of sites out there that promote iPoker bonus/VIP as well as rakeback offers from rakeback friendly networks. When I worked for Bonus Whores we did rakeback at some rooms and had iPoker offers, to this day they still do.

[MPC]

Rakeback is probably better suited for the traffic I target (around 200 pages of poker strategy and a more coming). I am willing to take a hit on individual revenue if that means more conversions overall. Just trying to think what is the best way of making the change.

Honestly, I'm not that concerned about the player that signed up via regular links who comes back to see that rakeback is now available. It just means my business is changing/evolving and this is a new benefit that I am adding on. Sure, it sucks for that person, but what about the hundreds of potentials future sign ups? The benefits far outway this problem I think.

[Mr-AJ]

That's a nice question and here's my experience about that.
Depending on the kind of traffic your users care more or less about rakeback. I have one big site where 99 % have no idea what rakeback is. Conversions with bonus offers are better compared to rakeback so it's pretty senseless to promote rakeback there.
In this case it might hurt you because they accidently sign up under rakeback even though they would have also signed up with a simple bonus.
But if you expect your visitors to learn more about rakeback and are willing to get it in the near future it doesn't hurt you that much.
It's not possible to give an accurate answer here. All I know is that it might hurt you when you have a lot of "non-rakeback" traffic.

Regarding the ipoker rakeback stuff it's not clear at all. I know that iPoker already has some staff that looks if an ipoker skin appears at sites with rakeback in their domain. I know a lot of affiliates that had problems with xyrakeback domains and also affiliates that had problems without rakeback in their domain. IPoker makes a lot of revenue with rakeback penalties right now so they focus on that even more in the future.

[rakebackengine]

i think its best to keep them separate. if you are converting well on non rakeback - keep it that way. maybe on some pages you may select 3 deals and say - rakeback is available at this site, and link it through to your rakeback site, but i wouldn't be promoting FTP as a bonus offer in one menu and FTP for rakeback in the next menu.

conversely - you may wish to point out the differences, showing that for micro limit guys, getting signup bonus and reload bonuses is a lot better than rakeback. but on the other hand mid limit guys are better off with rb.

then you are clearly stating the pros / cons and giving your user an option (whilst linking through you your rakeback site, if they prefer that option).

tim

[Ridge]

I've tried this several ways. one of my biggest site has rakeback and non rakeback, granted not for the sames rooms though. I did have a big site which I sold some time back that has rakeback and non rakeback for the same room, it worked well but I like to go one way or the other per site. Mainly for my own sanity.

Ideally you need to know exactly how your visitors are finding you, if it is all SERP traffic that you can probably offer both for each room and it won't matter. If however like you say you have a Strategy site where players are reading multiple pages, it is a bigger issues. Versus a site which is mainly bonus term focused where they find you searching for "party poker bonus codes" or something.

So in your case I would do one or the other to avoid a player thinking they are signing up for rakeback and not getting it.