T & C What are predatory terms

Predatory terms are written into a program’s Terms and Conditions. They are clauses that put you at a financial disadvantage in the long run. Some predatory terms give programs the right to steal from you. Maybe not today, but perhaps in the future.

One type of term that is highly predatory is the “minimum player referral” requirement. A program might require you deliver 3 players a month — if you fail to do so, they will close your account and KEEP all of the players you referred in the past.

Example: Say you normally refer a decent number of players a month. Now, say your site suffers a setback — maybe it’s dropped from the search engines for some reason. You’re still earning residual income from your old referrals. BUT — ah-HA! You aren’t delivering “new” players anymore. Program sees this as a perfect time to enforce their T&Cs. You didn’t deliver at least 3 players in a given month! “Gotcha!” Now your account is closed, and they don’t have to pay you commissions any longer. It’s like a 30% increase in profits for them.

This is highly unethical.

VIP Profits and Nine.com have something like this in their T&Cs. I believe they are looking at removing these clauses, though. Some programs claim that such T&Cs will never be enforced. I say, if that’s the case, they why not remove the clauses from the T&Cs and make it official?

Other things to look for when reviewing T&Cs:

– High minimum payouts. There is NO reason to have a minimum payout higher than $200.

– Negative carryover. While not a huge issue to some webmasters, this is important to me. If you have a winner at a program that carries over negative balances, you’ll earn nothing until the negative is paid off. On the other hand, if you promote a program that doesn’t carry over negatives, you can be back in the black the following month because the negative is erased at the end of the month.

– Bundling. If a program bundles your earnings, it means that the positives at one casino can be erased by a huge negative at another casino. If the program does *not* bundle, it means that a negative at one casino has no effect on the positive balance at the other casinos. It’s financially advantageous to promote programs that don’t bundle.

Those are the main things I look at when evaluating an affiliate program. I sometimes do work with programs that bundle and carry over negatives and have higher than usual minimum payouts, but I never work with a program that has minimum player referral requirements. The program wouldn’t even have those players if it wasn’t for me. To force me into sending a certain number of players every month is blackmail, plain and simple, and I refuse to be a part of it. I want lifetime residual income, with no strings attached.

Hope that helps…..

Excellent Post Engineer! That is EXACTLY what predatory terms are!

in shorter terms.

they all want the players you can offer, especially (of course) the big timers.

and of course they very much appreciate your sending those big money players …… that month. And perhaps the next or two.

what these predatory scum bag places seem to have is a faulty memory You send them a player that makes them thousands every month and just because you don’t send any further players in the months to follow … suddenly they think they earned that player all by themselves.

The very same player they’d have never seen if not for your site having recommended (thus sent) them the player in the first place.

I don’t care if you only send one player ever and its your aunt Fanny. If she earns that casino thousands every month YOU DESERVE THE COMMISSION PROMISED.

However … if you’re dumb enough to sign up with a program that has predatory T&Cs … they are not to blame. YOU ARE! Don’t be fooled by BS like … “we never plan on using that” or any such BS.

It don’t work that way. There are too many programs out there that offer a true commission (rev share) on a partnership basis to be signing up for programs that have such terms.

I probably as much as anybody or more …. have the sort of situation where i have some big players but not much traffic … in fact .. my two biggest sponsors see more downloads than they see clicks believe it or not.

I am in touch with many of my players and its likely I’d know if/when a whale is stolen from me. I have thru painstaking tried and learned situations found the few programs who I am 99% sure don’t steal these kind of players and believe me … I’d cry from the top of the nearest mountain if I ever found out different. (and have before).

But if I’d signed up with programs that had predatory terms … I’d have no leg to stand on because of the fact that my traffic is less and less as my advertising opportunities are continually cut back.

I keep looking (and find once in a while) new places of at least somewhat quality but just like this current time … it isn’t financially smart for me to advertise when times are so uncertain and no substantial ewallet deposit methods are available.

Does that mean I don’t deserve the commissions on the big players I have already signed?

I’ll leave that to the aff to answer.

Bottom line is that not one player you have sent to a program… would for sure be there if you hadn’t sent them.

Avoid predatory terms like the plague or you get what you deserve.

*okay, not shorter terms lol.