Why I Work with Networks
The below post is a guest piece by Michael Wittmeyer of www.BestPokerSites.org.
In the early days of poker affiliating, the question always asked by new affiliates was “Should I take MGR or CPA?” Nowadays, an equally important question is “Should I go direct or work with a network?” This article is going to explain what a poker affiliate network is, how working with a network compares to working direct, and why I personally prefer to work with a network.
What is a Poker Affiliate Network?
A poker affiliate network is a group of affiliates who have combined their efforts to take advantage of increased CPA/MGR deals. By pooling their traffic together, the individual affiliates are able to negotiate better terms and bigger payments. Two examples of existing affiliate networks are Poker Affiliate World and Reef Media.
Individual affiliates are able to sign up for the network, generate tracking URLs and bonus codes for a wide selection of online poker rooms, view all of their stats in one location, and receive one payment for all of their traffic.
Working with a Network vs. Working Direct
There are a few primary differences between working with a network versus working directly with individual poker rooms: you only have one affiliate manager, you view all your stats in one location, and you receive one payment each month.
One Affiliate Manager
When you work with a network, you handle all of your business through one contact instead of maintaining communication with several affiliate managers. This is nice because no matter what you need, you can fire off an email to your one contact and have it taken care of.
Also, since you will likely be in touch with this person at least once a month, it is easier to develop a good relationship as opposed to trying to develop a relationship with an individual affiliate manager who you might contact once or twice a year.
Stats in One Location
One of my favorite parts about working with a network is that I can log in to one location and view all of my stats for the month instead of having to keep track of several usernames/passwords and log in to several websites.
Some affiliates don’t like that they aren’t able to view individual poker room stats from the source, but if you need further proof you can always email your affiliate manager and have them send you screenshots of the individual poker room’s affiliate backend, so it has never been an issue for me.
One Payment per Month
Ever since I started working with networks, my accounting has become much simpler. Every month I request and receive one wire transfer to my bank account instead of logging into several websites, requesting payouts, and collecting checks/wires from each individual program.
Why I Prefer Working with Networks
Although I think I have already explained a few of my major reasons for preferring networks to individual programs, here are a few more reasons why I like working with networks:
- It makes selling your network easy. About a year ago I sold almost all of my sites, and by having all my statistics in one location it was extremely easy to prove revenue for all of my sites. Also, we only had to transfer one affiliate account instead of 10+.
- Bigger starting CPAs. By going through a network, you almost always receive a bigger starting CPA than by going direct. Also, in my experience it has been easier to increase the deals as you increase your volume via the network than working direct.
The only way I would go back to working direct was if I became big enough that I could actually negotiate better deals direct. However, even with the network taking their cut off the top, I have always found that my current player volume gets better deals going through the network.
What do you guys think? Do you work direct or with a network? Feel free to leave your thoughts below.
Category: blog
