Casino affiliate websites have the potential to be extremely helpful or misleading in equally strong measures. It all comes down to the purpose, the approach and the general responsibility of the affiliate website in question – some standing head and shoulders above all others.
What’s important to remember is that when it comes to taking heed of professional recommendations, honesty and transparency are what matter more than anything else. Which is why it’s a good thing that these are the two primary values upon which Casino Papa was founded!
What Are Affiliate Websites?
In the simplest of terms, affiliate websites are sites that do not actually host or offer any of the casino games themselves, but instead divert traffic to the actual casinos. They are in many respects purely promotional websites and exist in a wide variety of forms across almost every modern industry and sector. Where there is a business website of any type, you can usually be sure to find affiliate websites working to improve its exposure.
In the sense of the online casino affiliate website, it works a little bit like this:
- A customer would like to find a high quality online casino to play with
- They carry out a search online and summarily find themselves at an affiliate website
- The affiliate website lists a wide variety of available casinos
- Each casino will usually be accompanied by a rating, a review or details of its bonus offers
- The customer clicks the link of their choosing and is transported to the casino website
- The casino then pays the affiliate a predetermined amount of money
Exactly how much money is paid to the affiliate will be determined by how many customers they direct to the online casino, how many actually sign up and ultimately how much they spend.
Affiliate Payment Programs
In the vast majority of instances, the agreement established between the affiliate of the casino site itself will fall into one of three primary payment programs, which are:
- Cost Per Activity – CPA refers to a predetermined payment or agreed level of commission that is paid when any customer referred by the affiliate completes a specific action. This could mean when they sign up and open an account in the first place, when they first credit their account with a deposit above a certain minimum amount or if they remain an active member for an agreed period of time.
- Revenue Share – In this kind of agreement, the affiliate takes a cut of the profits made from any customer that was sent away on the online casino after visiting the affiliate website. Exactly how much is taken by the affiliate can vary significantly, but generally tends to fall between 10% and 40% of the total profit the casino makes from them.
- Hybrid – As the name to quite rightly gives away, hybrid agreements bring together elements of the above two affiliate payment agreements. This in turn means that as well as receiving a predetermined payment when the customer completes a certain action, the affiliate will also receive on-going income by way of a percentage of the profits the casino makes from them.
Why and How?
A good affiliate website has the potential to be an extraordinarily powerful marketing platform for the contemporary online casino. It is a way of significantly boosting exposure and focusing marketing budgets on sources that can guarantee web traffic with a proven interest in what they have to offer. And of course, given the fact that they only have to pay affiliate websites if new customers are successfully brought their way guarantees a healthy ROI.
In terms of how to spot affiliate websites, it is usually pretty easy and shouldn’t be the cause of any real confusion.
Just keep a lookout for the following indicators and you will know who you are dealing with:
- Games – First of all, the biggest and most obvious indicator of an affiliate website as when the site does not feature any casino games. Affiliate websites are purely in place for recommendations and marketing.
- Brands – There isn’t a casino service provider in the world that would happily advertise the services of rival brands on its own website. As such, when you come across a site that advertises multiple brands and offers, it is most likely an affiliate website.
- Bonuses – Most affiliate sites focus on the kinds of bonuses that are extremely effective in persuading new customers to sign up with casinos. If the focus appears to be largely on bonuses, it is probably an affiliate site.
Are Affiliates Useful?
The biggest and most important question of all – should you use or buy into the advice of affiliate websites?
Well, the simple answer is that it all depends on exactly which affiliate website you are talking about. The problem is that over recent years, so many affiliate websites have been set up on the part of specific casino service providers to both manipulate traffic and tarnish the reputations of their rivals. It’s technically very easy to set up a rudimentary site and say what you want about who you want, in accordance with who is paying you to do so.
Nevertheless, a great many modern affiliates are concentrating their efforts on bringing about a complete 180-degree turnaround. This can only be accomplished by offering high quality content, honest and transparent reviews and recommendations, commitment to customer care and not being afraid to tell the truth – regardless of who it might offend.
Suffice to say, all boxes ticked in huge measures by Casino Papa!
The Benefits of Affiliates
In terms of the actual benefits of using affiliate websites, there are certain advantages that go over and above simply relying on Google and Co. to find a quality casino.
These include:
- It is not uncommon to find a great many online casinos offering special deals and discounts that are exclusive to those who sign up after visiting affiliate websites.
- In the instances of the best quality affiliate sites on the web, it isn’t only about directing traffic the way of casino service providers. Instead, helpful advice and educational resources of 100% objective nature may also be provided for the benefit of online gamers. Any responsible affiliate website should be making its own efforts to encourage and nurture responsible gambling.
- Last but not least, comparing the market becomes exponentially easier when working with affiliate websites. Instead of carrying out dozens of web searches and visiting endless websites to find out which casino you should be playing with, one reputable and responsible affiliate website can do all the hard work on your behalf. And the more information you have access to, the higher the likelihood you’ll make the best possible decision.
Spotting the Duds
Of course, there’s really no escaping the fact that the market will always be crammed with low-quality affiliate websites that exist only for the purposes of misleading customers and making money.
Which is why it is a good idea to keep an eye out for any apparent warning signs, which include:
- Ad Overload – If it becomes apparent to you that the entire website is absolutely stuffed to bursting point with thousands of ads and banners, chances are you are looking at a low quality affiliate. In all instances, the primary focus should be on quality gaming and responsible gambling.
- Amateurish Sites – These days, it really isn’t particularly difficult to produce and launch a website that looks professional and polished. Therefore, if you come across an affiliate website that appears to have been thrown together in a matter of minutes…well, it probably has – and not for your benefit, either.
- One-Sided Reviews – One of the biggest signs you are dealing with a shoddy affiliate site is the presence of reviews that are clearly one-sided. The simple fact of the matter is that while negative reviews are not exactly known to result in a great deal of traffic being sent the way of the provider in question, honesty and transparency are of critical importance. So if every single casino seems to be getting a positive review, it probably isn’t the whole truth.
So What’s the Deal with Casino Papa?
As you may or may not have read in our ‘About Us’ section, Casino Papa was established to be an affiliate with a difference. Yes, we are affiliate website, but at the same time we have absolutely no second thoughts whatsoever when it comes to telling the truth. Not only this, but we go so much further than simple casino reviews and marketing to produce high quality educational resources with responsible gambling in mind.
Even if it means we step on a few toes along the way, we absolutely guarantee that the information you come across here is as honest and impartial as it gets.