What is Affiliate Marketing

Good question. With a very simple answer, at least for our purposes here. You will be paid to advertise, market and ‘sell' a casino. You don't become a real ‘partner' although the term is thrown around a lot. You wont need to worry if someone wins the big one, you just market. Period. The casino will take care of the rest. And marketing is sales. iI sales isn't your thing then you need to move on because that's all you will do. And not just the casino. You have to sell your site, your information and ultimately, yourself. You will find links to some great affiliate marketing resource in the MISC RESOURCES section. We are not going to try to reinvent the wheel here.

One thing to note, while it is, in it's most basic form all affiliate marketing, you will find it is not the same as selling books from Amazon.

CPA, CPL, CPE, CPC, NET, GROSS, WHAT THE ….

So what do they mean? Well you better learn them because that's how you will get paid. Which is best? Whichever makes you the most money for your effort. There is no BEST way. Just try them all and find what works for you.

The alphabet in a nutshell:

CPA – Cost Per Aquisition
You get paid X dollars for every person who clicks through from your site and signs up as a real player and deposits a certain amount. The amount will vary from program to program but $50 – $100 deposited is common. The amount you can expect will vary from $25 – $200 so make sure you sharpen your negotiation skills. You will find the first offer is not carved in stone so make sure you get what you are worth, not just what they want to pay. This is a classic case of “If Mommy said no, ask Dad”. If ‘John' offers you $40 put him off and call/email the marketer back and ask to speak to someone (else) and see what they will give you. Don't feel bad for them, they get paid the same whether you get short sheeted or not. And this is why.

NO

Did that hurt? Of course not. So what if they say no. It doesn't hurt and I guarantee you they will say YES far more often.

CPL – Cost Per Lead
You will be paid for each LEAD that comes to the casino via your site. This could require an email form to be filled out or a much more in depth informational questionaire. The visitor will not need to sign up as a real player at the casino or make any deposits. Payment on these is generally low, in the $1 – $5 range and is not found that often any longer in the casino affiliate area. This is done by casinos so that they can market the prospect themselves and save on affiliate payments over the long haul.

CPE – Cost Per Email
No different then the CPL above, just a different acronym. They wouldn't want to make this easy on you now would they.

CPC – Cost Per Click
Just what it says. You get paid for every, usually every UNIQUE, click that comes to the casino via your site. The casino tracks the traffic and determines what click is unique and what is not. This is th elowest of th epayment plans, usually in the .02 to .25 range so if you don't have a lot of unique traffic this will take a long time to add up. One comment on this form of payment. Casino traffic is worth FAR MORE then you will get with almost any CPC plan. Once you start paying for traffic you will hurt your sides laughing when someone offers you this ‘deal'.

GROSS
This is probably the best deal if you can get it. You get paid on all GROSS DEPOSITS into a players account. You have no concern whether or not they win or lose. If they deposit $100, you get your % no matter what the outcome of the play. Understandably these are not all that common and when found are of a lower % pay out as compared to the next, NET.

NET
This is by far the most common form of pay out for the casino affiliate today. You will receive a ‘net percentage' of the casinos take on the play. this is not as simple as it sounds as casinos will have a different definition of just what ‘net' is. Kind of like what the definition of ‘is' is. Meaning they will not hesitate to use it to their advantage as shown below.

Net = Deposits minus payouts
Net = Deposits minus payouts minus bonuses
Net = Deposits minus payouts minus bonuses minus chargebacks
Net = Deposits minus payouts minus bonuses minus chargebacks minus royalty fees*
Net = Deposits minus payouts minus bonuses minus chargebacks minus royalty fees minus reserves
Net = Deposits minus payouts minus bonuses minus chargebacks minus royalty fees minus reserves minus credit card processing fees

Like life, the higher up the food chain above you are, the more you will make.

Are all these charges real?

Sure, they are the cost of doing business. Just because you don't pay rent doesn't mean you don't have expenses.
Are all these charges JUSTIFIED is what you need to ask. There the answer is maybe. Depending on the way the casino set itself up and how it is managed they may very well be valid. BUT You will find casinos that are popular with affiliates and players and profitable that don't shove you down the food chain. Why? Dunno, but it pays to look and deal with those that are run well enough and care enough about you as an affiliate to put you higher up the ladder. Respect and trust are two of the most important ideals between affiliates and affiliate programs and, based on the list above, it falls drastically the further down the list the casinos put their affiliates. READ the TERMS AND CONDITIONS of every program you look at and UNDERSTAND them. They are intentionally cryptic. If you aren't sure what it means, send an email to support and ask. if you don't get an answer, well then they probably weren't going to pay you anyway, and move on. They WANT your traffic. They NEED your traffic. Far more then you need them, they need you. With about 1500 casinos online now and more opening all the time getting good placements on good sites is getting much harder for casinos of questionable character.
YOU control the market. YOU have a big say in what casinos survives and which casino fades away. Don't forget that.

I didn't forget…..

* Royalty Fees 101 – A casino uses a software for the games that the buy/lease/whatever. There are sometimes ongoing fees imposed by the software company that the casino has to pay. Normally this is based on total dollar played. The percent varies between software companies and casinos based on how big they are in the market ie MGS will normally charge more then Playtech and what kind of deal the casino was able to hammer out.
Not all casino pass on the fees to affiliates. Even if they use the same kind of software. Why, again, dunno, but in many cases it does seem to be just another profit center for certain casinos. if one can manage to make money and pay affiliates without charging it, or charging a very small % of it, why can't the other. Simple question with no answer I have been able to get. With this fee, some casinos will tell you that they will pay you 40% of the net. Unfortunately the net is far down the ladder and you will really get about 14%. OUCH. Hurt, didn't it. This is one of those ‘bend over and smile' moments in the casino affiliates world. Ask a casino why and they will tell you all about the history of the world, but wont answer your questions. Push them for an answer, and they stop answering your emails. This is the voice of experience speaking so listen, or not, it's up to you.