I suppose an “About Me” page is where you would expect to read a third person professional write up on myself. Hmmm…. well that’s not really my style, so I’ll just go ahead and tell you “about me” in my own words. 
Giving Away Free Poker Money = Terrible Player Values
November 20th, 2007 by Jeremy EnkeOkay now that my week long tooth saga is over, let’s talk some business. A few thousand dollars later, and several milligrams of Codeine and Vicodin, Operation Root Canal is complete. (In Al Sharpton’s voice) —–> Can I get a AMEN MY BROTHA! I feel a million times better.
So let’s go ahead and open up a can worms. About once every two weeks you see a new affiliate posting either over at PAW, CAP, PAP, or GPWA on how they are getting screwed by Party on their CPA’s. Anymore before I even read the entire post, I already know the story. Because every story is the exact same bullshit. The latest CPA Scammer with complaints in the forum is this guy, but it is actually with Mansion and not PartyPoker this time.
I’ll preface this by saying that in rare occurrences, the free money schemes by affiliates do give value to the rooms. 95% of the time however they are nothing but fraud and a way for the affiliate to make a quick CPA score.
The successful affiliates that do incentive marketing are sites like PokerSourceOnline. These guys drive hundreds of players via incentives each month. But their traffic is coming from word of mouth, a huge database, and more importantly the search engines. Likewise, they have negotiated deals with the poker sites that take into account lower player values. When you are sending xxx-xxxx players to one site however, you can afford to have some bad players.
Most of the affiliates you see getting pissed off in the forums and not getting paid however have a business plan that resembles the following:
Typical CPA Scammer Business Plan
1. Sign-up for a large CPA program with lower requirements. And then make no mention to the affiliate program that you are doing free 50’s or incentive marketing.
2. Call all their buddies and offer to transfer $25-$50 to them as long as they do the following; Play micro limits and make sure they don’t bust before playing X amount of hands or earning X amount of FPP’s (depending on CPA requirement)
3. Hop on messenger and contact everyone you know, even some people you don’t know with the same offer.
4. Build a storefront website so it looks like you’re actually marketing. Don’t worry if there is no Alexa or Pagerank, or even if it is no where to be found in the SERPS. No one will question how the 4 page site is sending 50+ players a month.
5. Log in, check stats and get excited seeing the CPA balance going up up up everyday.
6. Collect money, take the profit, and repeat with the same people and a different room the next month.
And there could be a #7 that most of these clowns don’t include in their plan. This involves getting the dreaded email from the affiliate manager. Usually the email states their player value is terrible and that they are getting moved to MGR or not getting paid at all. Then make sure you run to the largest poker affiliate forum on the net and state your case. I’m sure the people that spend 50 hours a week on SEO, or spend thousands of dollars on marketing or development will have sympathy for you.
In the old days prior to the UIGEA, affiliates were getting away with this type of promotion. Not that it was right, but it was adding player liquidity and sign-ups. For rooms like Party who were literally swimming in cash at the time, this was fine. All the new sign-ups and depositors looked good to the shareholders.
This is a new era however, and that shit isn’t going to fly with any room. If you’re offering free money while on a CPA plan, you should almost expect to get shut down.
99 times out of a 100, people that get a free twenty or fifty bucks will never rake the equivalent of the CPA the affiliate is getting paid.
Keep in mind, there is a reason they are taking your free money….. Usually it is because they don’t have their own, or they have no way to deposit on their own. Or more than likely because you implemented steps #2-#3 of the plan above.
Affiliates might be able to get away with this on a limited basis doing CPA’s. But if you are looking to be in this business for any type of extended period, this is a shitty business plan with no long term potential. This is of course unless you are a big outfit like PSO. However I can tell you from running a network of my own that most Free 50 guys or incentive marketers are nothing more than bottom feeders and scammers. Most of these guys could care less about player values or developing relationships. They just want to get their big CPA check and move on to the next room with the same players.
Feel free to comment…… This should be interesting.
November 20th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Very well said. Glad to know your philosophy is the one that wins out in the long run.
November 20th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Agree about the player value. It is going to be low. But what you descripe feels more like a scam than a actuall free money offer. I think that it is a market for free money offers and that is newbie players that want to try out poker for the first time but are a bit afraid to deposit right away. And who knows one of these players turn into a high stakes pro
If you turn it around you should state that rake-back players have very high player value.
Maybe a bit to simple, but when I first started out playing poker I used some free money accounts and other free offers to get my knowledge, build up my bankroll. I think some of these pokerrooms have made a very nice income out of me. So all player values at free money are not terrible…
November 20th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
They think they will get rich quick, and that just doesn’t happen in this business
November 20th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
Nice article Jeremy.
My perspective is that the AMs could make life easier for themselves here. They obviously have the means to detect CPA fraud after the event - why not make a nice bold type web page up front explaining this and that accounts will be locked etc during the sign-up process…. would seem to me prevention is better than cure.
Cheers for the insight!
Mark
November 20th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
I promote the free $10 at VC poker and had one player rake over 3K in one day. Not sure if he originally was a free money player or a legitimate player on my site, but that was a shock to see. As for the player values, I agree, they are pretty crap. Since it isn’t their money these players don’t really care if they just lose it. That guy in the PAW forum was a bit of a joke.
November 20th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
I agree with Blix here. Yes some are out to make a quck buck and I have had my fair share who have Im me with a deal. But thats what I originally used to learn…those and freerolls.
I think when an affiliate is signing up the rooms should put in very clear terms on that application that no incentive marketing should be used unless otherwise approved. Many new affiliates never read the T&C’s. Obv iggnorance is not an excuse but in the same token advocating this rule a little stronger could prevent it more people from thinking they were screwed.
November 20th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
If affiliates offering the free money really believed that their players were going to be valuable to the rooms then why not be on a rev share deal?
I don\’t feel a bit sorry for affiliates that get their accounts frozen for running promotions like this.
Who cares what the fine print says about FPP\’s or raked hands. These guys are exploiting the programs and ruining good cpa\’s for the rest of us.
November 20th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Well than wouldn’t a solution be a probationary period for new affiliates before they can go on a CPA plan. If its an established site they AM’s know and will make an exception but for a new affiliate a 3-6 month wait before requesting CPA would be a good idea. If the affiliate has an issue with waiting it out so be it, but anyone who wants to work with a room shouldnt
November 20th, 2007 at 8:57 pm
I guess I was lucky enough not to get sucked into many CPA programs except on Bodog which worked out well. I don’t understand why they even still allow CPA except for well established site (PSO, Poker Listing, PAW) - It seems to me that they are setting up some people to fail and still get the added players they send.
November 20th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
I knew this would be a hot topic. I’m actually surprised one of the free 50 guys hasn’t tore me up yet.
The principal of CPA is that you get a commission up front for future action. In return for the up front cash, you may be giving up some money in potential revenue share.
The problem is when affiliates promote to players “Just play X amount of hands” or “dude make sure you collect X amount of FPP’s”
The poker sites don’t pay CPA’s so they can get tons of players depositing $25, then playing to the affiliates CPA requirements and withdrawing. This is not the partnership rooms have in mind when offering CPA.
It just amazes me when an affiliate can send 100 playes that have collectively deposited $2500, raked around $1000 (all playing minimum FPP’s)……….and then the affiliate in all seriousness wants to collect $17,500 in CPA at the end of the month.
November 21st, 2007 at 10:52 am
It’s always entertaining reading some long posts at PAW by people losing $15 000+ when they thought they were going to be getting rich by bringing in fraud players!
November 21st, 2007 at 2:57 pm
“I knew this would be a hot topic. I’m actually surprised one of the free 50 guys hasn’t tore me up yet.”
LOL…I have been waiting for this also. I guess he saw he was outnumbered
I think the majority of people are honest, but anytime something looks too good to be true, scammers will always try to take advantage of it.
November 21st, 2007 at 4:09 pm
I think when it’s laid out like that Jeremy, “they” know they are bending the rules, but because it doesn’t say they can’t send shitty players they are silly enough to expect their money.
I agree with Kaus and Graham. They should put all new affiliate on a mgr system for a trial period to avoid all this. If after that time they prove to be sending good players, let them adjust their account if they want..
November 22nd, 2007 at 10:09 am
I completely missed Cheryle’s comment… yes, I agree that is a great idea!
November 28th, 2007 at 5:15 pm
Cheryle = Kaus? If so, I agree too. I don’t have the years of experience that you all do, but if it’s not working- fix it!
November 30th, 2007 at 7:51 am
Yes… Cheryle = Kaus