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Hi everyone;
Is this a pattern you too are starting to see all-too-often?
start new affs out without shaving them and then a few months later start in.
It would explain a lot.
And if that is the case; then it puts a whole new light on what kind of income we should be expecting to see month in and month out.
Because how many people will see a new program start out like gang-busters only to fizzle to being so bad we take them down off our sites?
I know that it has been credited to the fact that we are exposing our surfers to something new; therefore the stats are going to be much better.
and I agree with that completely to a certain degree; and then I disagree. Ask the regular money makers what they make at the sponsors they trust month in and month out; and they’ll tell you “at least what I made the month before” <- this excludes the expected occaisonal month where there are winners they may have spikes in income where they did “Very well” that month; and they may have months where there wasn’t quite as much activity, such as the summer months; but basically there is an expected amount every month from these more trusted sponsors. that “expected amount” increases every month by a little bit because we add to our player base. Now taking all that into consideration; it allows for a good idea of how a program should be doing for you even from the start.
In other words; if Sponsor X made me $10 when we first started off; and then dropped to making me $8 a month; that is expected; but if after another 3 months they are still making me $8; or worse; less, then I’ve got to figure something is up.because by now what I lost in extra income brought on by the “newness” of the casinos to my players; should have been made up for in the added players to my player base.
does that make sense to anybody else besides me?
All to true … after some mailings and etc besides good spots on site if they are still taking a dive I ace the bastads … Often never to trust again …
Guys I moved this to the private area so we could discuss it openly without worrying about being politically correct or pissing off the aff managers we work with and getting shaved even worse out of spite.
I have talked privately with a few of you about a theory I have that was actually presented to me by a former affiliate manager who claimed it went on with his previous employer… Its called Front Loading.
The way this particular shaving arrangement works is the program actually INFLATES your start up earnings for the first few months. This causes the affiliate to do several desirable things:
1) The Affiliate assumes they have a hot program which is converting well so they give it front page and pop up exposure. They also promote it more heavily in their mailings and newsletters. This is an Affiliate Managers Dream and maximizes their penetration to any existing player base you have.
2) By front loading a few key affiliates (larger Ones AND high profile or vocal ones) the word quickly spreads via the grape vine and message boards that this is the Hot Program Du Jour this maximizes exposure across the board. The casino gets a flood of traffic and branding because suddenly it’s everywhere.
3) After two successful months of front loading you have stimulated a “Loyalty” response from affiliates when you back off on commissions they won’t immediately reduce your exposure. You can coast on the “Gee, they are just having a slow month, but I did good with them before” effect.
4) Fast Forward – Psychological effect #2 People remember the positive, even six months later affiliates will remember those big initial paychecks and continue medium exposure in hopes of hitting another big month with the program.
Front Loading is the MOST EFFECTIVE form of shaving on the planet. I am sure program managers justify the practice as a “Promotional Launch” expense to the casinos. It produces the maximum bang for their shaving buck too.
Think about it, if you shave everyone coming out of the chute you will quickly get a bad rep and no one will promote you, but make a minor investment up front and you are guaranteed up to a year of residual goodwill and featured promotion within the affiliate sector….
Front loading also Fits with the selective shaving model by rewarding the high profile or vocal.
Shaving 101
This is what happens to me a lot lately.
And it makes me madder than hell.
Nice description Professor – and entirely possible.
Unfortunately, for most of these programs – the instant they slow down, they are taken down on my site. I don’t have the patience, the need, or the space, to give programs which aren’t performing another chance.
The only time these programs get back on is when I need to do a bit of testing – and I turn them on for a few days – and if there isn’t a sudden boost, off they go again.
Right now, I am closely watching 5 programs which are producing – which quite frankly is more than any site ever needs. Why should I give the time of day to programs which either players don’t like (yeah, right) or else are trying to further reduce my already meager income?
No matter that some of these programs are the biggest and most reputable on the Net – the 5 I monitor I also trust. And since I know all of the major affiliate operators, I can’t possibly support them all anyhow.
Quote:
People remember the positive, even six months later affiliates will remember those big initial paychecks and continue medium exposure in hopes of hitting another big month with the program.
This is so true … the psychological denial mechanism kicks in
and says to you ” nahh … must be a slow month … I’m sure the
turnaround will be worth the wait ” meanwhile the shave
cuts deeper and deeper until you bleed.Excellent post Professor …
I believe Front Loading is closer to practice than theory.
The real question is why do they think so short term instead
of building long term relationships ?:rolleyes:
:bigsmile: … more like The Familia at CAP will be taking care
of bizness.This practice is prevalant most among MG casinos as a rule it seems also … I see it much less in other brands of software. Though it does occur with others and sometimes often it is much less then MG casino software licensees anymore. I think part of it is backed by MG, as well there licensing fee’s ar much steeper then the other software licensing companies. It all adds up as whole, though I really like the software there is huge corruption from the government on down in that country … It reminds me of what I read about Nick Price saying in Novembers Golf Digest. He is a PGA pro from Zimbabwe he stated in the interview with him that if he makes a condecending comment about the Government their he puts his family members at risk for talking bad about the government. It could result in death so he basically said nothing to derogative out of fear though his immediate family now resides here that is also probably the reason that MG has had little effect on getting legislation going in the US. I really feel they do not care as to what is ok in this country or not.
Maybe eventually the jack asses will get it, but today I do not think that they care at all …. They just want more of the licensee’s money to keep furthering their software.
Notice as times have continued companies drop the MG software when MG puts the bigger crimps on them … Most will never return … I realize that it is not a huge number that have done this but it has been larger industry players in the past.
Iglobal is presently doing this shxx to me.
First month beyond all expectations, second lousy, really really lousy, third just started with a partial recovery – partial. I imagne to reach 1/4 of what the first month was, and will be told, look, it’s recovering. So then I get another bad month….
I lose money on them in the bad months. I’ll break even this month.
So, how many months do they think they can get out of me? How many do they usually get people to put in?
I think I may have a nice chat with some Indians tomorrow.
Dominique … they mastered the art of shaving
… don’t be surprised when they do this with poker.not if when
:rolleyes:
Dominique,
Aleph is right … I gotta ask did they approach you with there casinos ??? I was approached about 2 months ago by them again after not hearing a thing from them in a year when they used to email me all the time. As for them being the grandfathers of shave I had them do the same thing to me over 4 years ago now and they always do …
Dominique the sad part is that some operations (I’m not referring to any in particular) have shaved 1/2 the planet and they are now working hard on the other 1/2.
A concern I have is for the consumers in all this.
I think that if we want to participate in this business for many
more years we have to protect them as much as we can.I think that if the webmasters are getting stiffed,
the consumer is most likely getting robbed …
expecially if proprietary software is involved.If we stop helping these operations in any way
we will indirectly reward the more honest operations
which in turn will directly reward us more.Protecting the consumers, I think will help us get more
favorable legislation in the long run.:rolleyes:
They had sicked a roomful of sales people on me for a very long time, and I never answered any of their mail. Nor did I talk to them in Montreal.
Then I ran into someone happily playing at party poker in my tiny town, and it just got the name in my head.
So the next time Party Bingo solicited me I replied.
I ended up discussing it on the messenger with Saloni, who was apparently authorized to make me any deal I wanted.
I got a super deal, and my first month with them was great. At the same time as I was promoting Party Bingo, I promoted Bingo Liner and Geisha Bingo in exactly the same fashion. Identical.
That first month I gathered a few fun players at Liner and Geisha and only a couple new depositors (I already had a bunch of players there but made sure I kept proper track – their stats are very nice for that, you can id the player who deposited) Party Bingo performed out of this world.
The second month I also accepted Party Poker, encouraged by the Bingo results. Again I promoted it exactly the same way I promoted two other pokers – the two at Fortune.
Midmonth I let myself be talked into promoting Starluck Casino, but haven’t done anything with it yet. I was going to promote them and blackjack.com the same way, and was waiting to test BJ and pick up a third new casino.
So at the end of the second month I had lost money on Party Bingo and I had made money from the players acquired in the previous month at Geisha and Liner.
I had also made a little money at Fortune (my first month trying those two) and none at Party Poker.
I have this thing about trying out 3 things simultaneously with totally identical promotion. It gives me some comparison.
So what they have done is gotten me to promote three properties for the price of padding me once.
But –
– If I toss them next week, I will be ahead of the game.I imagine I will hear a lot from them about that.
P.S. When I say “I lost money” I mean to say that I spent ore than I made.
PPS. They also comped me money to test Starluck – real money – no strings attached. Darn, I never use comped money to try to win, I just run it into the ground. Should have stuck to BJ and cashed out…
