Poker Affiliate Programs Overview

Fueled by the introduction of televised coverage, poker is currently enjoying a boom around the world. With 100’s of online poker sites competing for players, this has lead to the introduction of many ‘poker affiliate programs’ which offer incentives to those who refer new players to specific sites.

This article will introduce poker affiliate programs for those new to the industry. Explaining the basics of how they work, then looking at the main benefits and some of the common misunderstandings.

The central idea behind becoming a poker affiliate is simple – for each player that you refer (send) to a poker site you will be rewarded, either in the form of a one-off fee or with a percentage of the revenue that your players generate for the site. The referral process involves players clicking on special links on your website, or using a ‘bonus code’ assigned to you by the poker site.

Poker Affiliate programs allow individuals the opportunity to build substantial income with a relatively low initial outlay. Different poker sites will pay different fees – ranging from $75 to $200 for one-off payments (known as ‘Cost Per Acquisition’ or ‘CPA’) and from 20% to 40% share of the profits generated by a player (known as ‘Revenue Share’). The revenue share payment model will usually bring in a slightly larger amount of money over the lifetime of a player. However, poker affiliates will often mix this with the CPA model, at least initially, in order to generate immediate cash-flow.

A website is the starting point for most poker affiliates. Starting with a simple design and some well written content need not cost the earth – offering a low initial entry cost to this highly lucrative business. Your next step will be to get visitors to your site, some basic search-engine optimization (SEO) will be required here, in order to begin ranking in the search engines.

With such a lucrative industry, poker affiliate programs are a competitive field. This means that you will need to differentiate your website in some way to ‘stand out from the crowd’. This can be achieved in several ways such as choosing a particular niche or group of players to target. Simply putting up a page of banner advertisements along with a few generic strategy articles is very unlikely to generate any revenue at all.

An alternative way of being involved in the poker affiliate programs industry does not require a website at all. An ‘off-line’ affiliate uses flyers or business cards which include their ‘bonus code’. While this method may be suitable in certain situations (for example college campuses) it does not have the longevity of a quality poker website.

A common misunderstanding about poker affiliate programs is that this is a way to ‘get rich quick’. As with all businesses, both online and off, this is simply not the case. Those willing to put in the effort to create an online business will find poker affiliation a rewarding long-term business. Those expecting to throw up a website and then sit back to watch the revenue roll in will be quickly disappointed.

To summarize, poker affiliate programs are a mechanism by which the poker sites reward you for sending them new players. Payments are in the form of a one-off fee or share of your player’s profits. A website is the usual starting place for poker affiliates, quality content focusing on a niche area of poker is considered the best starting point for those new to the poker affiliate programs business.