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I am posting an email that I sent to affiliate manager Shane, at Referback on June 3, 2006. I have been an affiliate of ReferBack since May, 2001. Read the email and decide for yourself if there isn’t a problem here:
Hello Shane,
There is a point I need to make. My sites are portals that entice potential gamblers to click on casino banners. In this case ReferBack banners. Once the visitor clicks on a ReferBack banner they are no longer at my site — they are at your sites, be it Lucky Nugget, River Belle, etc. If and when a conversion takes place, it takes place at the your sites, not mine, and I am credited with the new active player. If the ReferBack brands are optimized to convert potential visitors into active players, and the four casinos you tout claim to be wildly successful and considered to be the best in the industry, why then has only one of the 7617 (since 01/06) visitors I sent to ReferBack signed on as an active player and 7616 walked away?
You claim it is my sites that are not properly optimized as being the reason I have no new active players, but when I send a visitor to a ReferBack casino I am fulfilling my side of the bargain as an affiliate, my sites have done what they are supposed to do and that is send potential gamblers to ReferBack casinos. I have sent you an average of 1500 per month. If and when a player opens an account it happens at the River Belle (etc.) site not from my site. My job is to send visitors to your sites.
So the real question is how could 7616 potential online gamblers walk away from the highly successful Lucky Nugget, River Belle, Jackpot City, and The Gaming Club online casinos without not one becoming an active player? The basic principles of marketing state a 1-3% conversion rate is normal on the Internet. That would mean I should have 70 new active players at the lowest — 1%.
Optimizing a site to bring in more traffic does not mean you will have more sales. As an affiliate my job is send traffic from my site to your casinos. The rest is up to you.
How do you account for 7616 visits to your sites and not one active player shows on my stats? This question demands to be answered.
Regards.
Where do you get your traffic?
Is it possible to see a sample site?
Without that kind of info it is hard to determine what is going on.
Due to “day job” related issues of late I need to keep domains out of this. I do get my traffiic from the SE’s, and I have the same type portals that most of you have.
That really doesn’t help me getting any sort of picture.
Who clicks on what is dependent on how things are presented and that in turn defines the type of possible customer.
Some visitors convert well and some lousy.
So to find the cause of the problem one needs to know just what type of visitor one is looking at.
I’m assuming you are talking about seo traffic from people looking up gambling related terms.
I had the same problem but not to the same extreme. It would take an average of 500 hits to get 1 new real depositor (other networks would get 1 out of 20)
I gave up on sending them traffic after getting 400 real depositors and earning less than $20 a month from those same players.
Antoine: Yes, traffic from the search engines using common gaming related terms. It wasn’t easy for me to post the email as I have promoted RB heavily for years and I have considered them a good affiliate partner, communication and commission wise. They have always treated me well but when you look at my current numbers, one has to question. I appreciate your comment and it makes feel a little better (certainly not financially) to know someone else has experienced a similar situation with RB.
Dominique: PM me and I’ll give you further.
Hi CBiscuit,
I’m in the same boat – over 13k visitors this year and over 500 this month alone. I haven’t purchased traffic in years.
So far this year, 195 downloads, not quite 2%, 26 new opened accts, 15% of the downloads, 3 new depositors which is almost 11% of the new opened accts, with 50 total accts contributing and my commissions made this year is only $102. If you knew what I made the first 6 months of last year, you would cry yourself to sleep every night. I averaged twice that $102 a day last year.
I sent an e mail a month ago to see if my whales are still playing but I haven’t heard anything back yet.
The only explanation I have is Referback, I believe has over 100k affiliates and I would venture a guess more internet users gambled online a couple years ago than today and the veteran gamblers are spending more now than they did 2 years ago. With so many affiliates and an average of 3% click thru ratio, only 3k affiliates are getting new sign ups. That’s the way it reads on paper anyway.
For the last 6 years, I made money every month from Referback, and 1k here and a k there every couple of months from a few other programs. But always enough from Referback to allow me to retire.
This year, only $102 from Referback, but I’m making money from an average of 12 other affiliate programs every month. Go figure. Unfortunately, those other 12 don’t add up on a monthly basis to what I’ve been accustomed to from Referback.
I know of affiliates that are now making more money than I do and they have a PR/0 and I’ve had a PR/3 for a long time.
I still remain confident though. I stood by them when I made money and it’s only good business to stand by them when I’m not. They’ve afforded me things when times were good and I can’t bail on them even though this year has been bad.
And if any of those hits had an account at any other Belle Rock Casino prior, then it won’t convert for you because the affiliate that had them at whichever first casino.. keeps them throughout the group.. isnt’ that right or am I confused?
(likely confused LOL)
Daera wrote:And if any of those hits had an account at any other Belle Rock Casino prior, then it won’t convert for you because the affiliate that had them at whichever first casino.. keeps them throughout the group.. isnt’ that right or am I confused?(likely confused LOL)
This is true.
Actually Referback let us vote on this issue some time back, and affiliates voted overwhelmingly for leaving players in the accounts of the orignal affliates for life, regardless of casino played.
The idea is to create a player base that is yours and that will bring you continued income. In my experience Referback retention is very good, and it pays in the long run to build up such a player base.
That means undoubtedly that some of the players clicking on your links will already belong to another affiliate. Especially if you target experienced players. But it also means that you get to build up a base of players that will continue to generate income for you.
I have players there that have played for years. I look at it positively because I am in this for the long run. If I wanted a quick buck and no matter the future, I’d go get some high CPA someplace.
IMO the older, established big programs such as Referback, Fortune, Casino Rewards, Casino Profitshare, Blasters etc. have the experience and track record that enables them to do well with retention. And while conversions undoubtedly matter, if you look at this business in the long run, retention rules. I much rather send more clicks for each player if the value of that player outweighs the extra clicks. And my player value per click with Referback is great.
I hope this makes sense.
Hi there everyone – apologies for the delay in posting, had to wait for my account to allow me the rights to do so.CBiscuit and I had a looong conversation last night *thanks for you time CB* and we finalised the details of a long term project/strategy which we have been working on for the past couple of weeks.
VooVoo – thanks for the support. I have taken this up with your affiliate manager and he will be pulling your player info and you should have it in your inbox as I type this post :clapper:
Daera – [Edited Original Post] Wow, nevermind my getting the long version of the rules Dom has given an awesome overview. Thanks Dom :bigsmile:
So ends my first CAP posting – not so scary after all :satisfied
Shane
Thanks Shane,
I appreciate it.
voovoo
VooVoo – Thanks for your comments. You make a good point about sticking with ReferBack. Over the years RB has had the best returns (commission wise) and player retention I have ever experienced with an affiliate program. I don’t plan on jumping ship, and Shane did contact me and we had a good conversation. To his credit he has always been responsive and really cares. We are going to work on a project to get the conversion thing resolved. I will keep you all posted on the results.
Thanks Dominique for your comments. You are exactly right — retention rules. I have had RB clients that have played for years, which means the world in our business. RB seems to have that unique quality.
Also Daera thanks for your comment. My reason for the post originally was to get this kind of great feedback from the forum members. I am optimistic that RB and I will resolve the matter and get me back on track. I will keep you all posted on the results.
