April 14, 2010 (CAP PR Wire) — On February 1, 2010, leading online casino and Internet poker affiliate marketing resource CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com (CAP) initiated a new community-oriented feature designed to give its audience of more than 10,000 affiliate members the power to certify the gambling affiliate programs featured on its website.
Now, after two successful rounds of affiliate voting and seven CAP Listed Programs approved by the community, the website is happy to report success. Not only are most affiliate programs submitted for affiliate voting receiving approval from the community, but the entire process is allowing for a more productive experience at CAP, whose advertising partners are now officially getting a nod of approval (or disapproval) from the affiliates whose revenues require the affiliate programs’ business processes to be efficient, transparent, and communicative.
“CAP Listed Programs” refers to the online gambling affiliate program partners who advertise on CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com. Since these operators pay a fee to appear on the site, CAP itself cannot offer an unbiased “certification” of the programs. Still, acknowledging the responsibility CAP holds to its members to promote programs that treat affiliates fairly, the site realized that some kind of certification process was necessary.
“It was important for us to make sure that the affiliates, who are the heart and soul of CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com, had more control over the status of the programs that advertise here on CAP,” stated Arjun Jolly, Product Manager for CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com. “With this positive start, we’re hoping to rally more industry support and get more people involved.”
The CAP Community Certification process is the first such affiliate-driven certification program in the online gaming affiliate program world. The status of certification is awarded to those programs that receive a minimum of an 80 percent approval rating from the community, which has one month to vote for each program. The programs awarded with certification receive an official seal to display on their websites, and are highlighted separately on the CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com website. (Programs that do not pass the community voting process are allowed to resubmit for certification at a later date.)
To be eligible for CAP Community Certification, online gambling affiliate programs must have been established as a CAP Listed Program for a minimum of six months, and must offer a dedicated affiliate manager who works with the CAP community.
The benefits are clear. For affiliates, who often trade stories and experiences both positive and negative about casino affiliate programs at the CAP Forum (a sub-section of the main CAP site that’s also the industry’s longest-running gambling affiliate forum), CAP Community Certification provides the opportunity to turn casual feedback into direct action. Thus, this process offers affiliates a direct voice in the reputation and success of some of the world’s largest online gambling brands.
For operators, CAP Community Certification also holds its advantages. It allows these programs to be rewarded for policies that treat affiliates fairly, while also letting them distinguish themselves from the handful of “rogue” operators who sometimes tarnish the larger industry with undesirable practices. And, best of all, it brings them more business, as such approval from the world’s largest casino affiliate community amounts to publicity that’s likely to inspire more sign-ups and hence bring in more traffic, through CAP’s site and through others.
“We are thrilled to earn a 96.88% approval rate via the CAP Community Certification initiative,” stated Jason Carter of Mainstreet Affiliates, upon the announcement of that program’s approval in the CAP Certification process. “This once again proves that Mainstreet Affiliates is well respected and trusted among online gaming affiliates.”
“We are delighted to have been given the vote of confidence from our affiliates — we’d like to thank everyone that went out of their way to vote for us,” said Shenaly Amin, Casino Affiliate Manager for PartnerLogic. “We will now strive twice as hard to maintain the level of service you’ve come to love!”
“On behalf of everyone at DoylesRoomAffiliates.com, I’d like to thank the CAP community for all the support we’ve received,” commented Marcela Jarquin, Account Manager for DoylesRoom. “We are continuously working to offer the best service and the most innovative marketing tools to all affiliates. The feedback we get from everyone is priceless and it motivates us to continue to enhance our program.”
And as for the benefits to CAP itself, the CAP Community Certification process means greater affiliate and operator engagement, as well as the chance to provide a more transparent online casino and Internet poker resource to the affiliates upon which the site relies. For an online casino affiliate marketing resource of CAP’s market global reach, that kind of community and industry approval is seen as essential.
To date, the CAP Listed Programs Casino Coins, DoylesRoom, EGO, Expekt, Mainstreet Affiliates, Pafpartners.com, and Partner Logic have each been CAP Community Certified after receiving the minimum of an 80 percent affiliate approval rate after a month of voting. As of the publication of this article, Revenue Giants, Gambling Affiliation, Tell Gaming, and Chipleader, the affiliate program for the popular CEREUS online poker rooms Absolute Poker and UB.com, were currently up for voting.
About CAP Community Certification
Launched on February 1, 2010, CAP Community Certification is the affiliate-driven certification program designed to empower CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com’s community of more than 10,000 members with more direct control over CAP’s roster of listed online gambling affiliate marketing partners. Each month, the affiliate marketing community at CAP votes on a limited number of CAP Listed Programs; only those programs that receive an approval rating of 80 percent or more are granted certified status. More details on CAP Community Certification can be found at www.casinoaffiliateprograms.com/certification.php.
About CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com
CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com is the Internet’s longest-running online gambling affiliate resource, featuring a geo-targeted directory of leading affiliate programs, an active community forum, exclusive commission deals for affiliates, industry news/articles, scam alerts, and many more tools designed to promote the success of online gambling affiliate programs. For more information, please visit www.casinoaffiliateprograms.com. Information on CAP’s parent company, Affiliate Media, can be found at www.affiliatemedia.com.