In order to reduce your financial exposure, it’s crucial to have a thorough plan in place and to evaluate what you’re currently doing to protect your business from experiencing payment issues.
You’ll also want to learn how to structure your commission with cost-effective marketing methods and develop an effective strategy for market diversification. Lastly, you’ll also want to identify the best method for fraud detection.
Read on for ways to implement these four solutions so that you can minimize financial exposure for your gaming affiliate business.
Solution 1: Find Out How To Get Your Affiliate Payments Safely And What To Do When A Payment Is Missed
Take the right steps to protect your business from experiencing payment issues. Operators should live up to their end of the agreement, and you should hold them to it as such. Your commissions are essentially a credit line that you’ve have extended and there are many other fish in the sea who want your business if your current operators aren’t holding up their end of the bargain. Follow this checklist to make sure you’ll receive payments safely and that you understand the costs associated with payments.
- Understand what your payment options are: Wiring is the best way to go, but checks, PayPal and e-wallets are other alternatives. Some things to think about: do your research, as some U.S. e-wallets are unreliable. Also, U.S. affiliates should consider having their funds wired to a Euro checking account.
- Evaluate the operator’s payment program to ensure it meets your safety requirements: Determine whether the operator is regualted by a regulatory body such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDCI) or European Supervisory Authorities (EBA). Also make sure funds are sent securely. If the company is publicly traded, you’ll have an extra boost in safety– just make sure to double check their balance sheets.
- Know how to resolve missed payments: Stay on top of your payment dates and verify you have received funds on or before the set dates. Always look for and communication that may have been delivered regarding a payment delay. If problems do arise, contact your Affiliate Manager and warn others through Forums as needed but always remain professional. Should you need to use arbitration services, know that there are helpful mediation processes through neutral third parties that are available. CAP is one entity that offers this service.
Solution 2: Learn How to Structure Your Commission Model with Costly Marketing Methods
Solution 3: Develop an Effective Strategy for Market Diversification
- Research: Know the legal climate. If a territory is regulated, is there a possibility it could it un-regulate? Stay in the know.
- Keywords: Don’t assume that the native translation of your target term is what actually gets searched. For example, in the UK users search for “fruit machines” instead of “slot machines.” It might also be wise to partner with a native speaker to fully understand the proper terms.
- Demographics: Know your players, in terms of their age range, economics, etc. What are players doing in terms of offline games? You want to promote what people are doing. For example, you would not promote U.S. Football in Europe.
- Domain Name: Use a local domain name, unless you have a VERY strong core .com domain name (in terms of domain authority and inbound links). Keep in mind that you can use sub-domains such as http://fr.domain.com for France. Domain name regulations could change, though. Have a backup plan in case the DOJ starts seizing major portals—look at .eu, .com, .pa or .ag. It would also be in your best interest to get a local hosting account.
Solution 4: Identify the Best Method for Fraud Protection
In order to protect yourself from fraud, you’ll need to know how to detect shaving. Non-gaming affiliates are really good at catching advertiser fraud and shaving by implementing their own tracking pixels. Gaming affiliates remain helpless and leave the trust 100% in the operator’s hand and assume that they are tracking accurately. There are solutions you can implement to ensure you’re properly tracking, also.
- Pixels: Pixels are a form of secondary tracking and provide you with a way to validate your numbers coming in. They serve as a backup and provide clarity and verification of transactions. They come in the form of 1×1 images and can be obtained through Java Script, or iFrame– which are three of the most popular. Still, pixels are not 100% reliable because of blocked site images, cookie issues, etc.
- The following three resources are the biggest, and most trusted, for pixel tracking: Link Trust; Has Offers; and, Tracking 202.
This article is an excerpt from “How to Minimize Your Financial Exposure,” an affiliate learning session conducted by Affiliate Media’s Business Development Manager, Brooke Cole. Brooke conducted the session at the Barcelona Affiliate Conference in September.
