The long awaited click tracking feature is coming soon to the PAS network. Soon you will be able to track all of the clicks on your rakeback, CPA, and rev-share campaigns. Want to find out more?

Checkout this thread in the PAS forum for more information.

Happy marketing

Google made the biggest change to their search engine in recent memory. Search results will now be displayed instantly as you type your keywords into the search box. For an example please watch the video below.

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Why is Google doing this? Well, for starters you will now save approximately 2-5 seconds per search, finding your results faster than ever before. From a business standpoint this change is huge. Google Ad words results will now see a massive increase in impressions, and theoretically clicks.

What does this mean to the affiliate marketer? Its all speculation right now, but if I had to guess we will see a massive decrease in the use of longtail keyword searches. People will find the result they are looking for within the first 3 terms they search, negating the need to keep typing.

Will this lead to webmasters adding spelling errors in attempts to rank for half written words? I don't know if anything THAT drastic will happen, but let me give you something to think about. The keyword search Poker will return 4 different results if you type it in slowly. Here are the #1 results when typing in Poker.

P - Pandora
PO - Powerball
POK - Pokermon
POKE - Pokermon
POKER - Poker.com

Feel free to start a thread in our Poker SEO forum.

Tony sat down with Bill Rini to discuss his days working for Party Gaming, and his life as an affiliate. You can checkout his blog at http://www.billrini.com/

1. When planning your marketing efforts, do you take a different approach as an affiliate than you would as an operator? If so, how?

I'm not sure if I take a different approach but the amount of information, money, and resources are completely different. For instance, an operator can target promotions at $2/$4 limit players in order to increase liquidity in those games. An affiliate simply doesn't have the data to run such targeted promotions nor are they necessarily concerned with influencing liquidity.

So it's not that I would approach the marketing efforts differently but as an affiliate I have different goals and different limitations. But at the end of the day you reward player behavior that helps you accomplish your goals so the fundamental theory remains the same.


2. Obviously you see a future in being an affiliate yourself. That being said, with some of the poker rooms having enormous marketing budgets, why do you think the rooms still need affiliates to drive traffic?

Poker rooms tend to have a very narrow view of the world. I've written about this before on my blog but they tend to lag behind on social media and other emerging technologies and trends. Most of the people working in marketing for poker rooms aren't poker players. They're marketing guys (and women) who know how to buy print and other media but don't necessarily understand the guerilla level marketing that affiliates are good at. There are a handful of poker rooms who get it but most don't. That's where the opportunities for affiliates come in.


3. After working for two of the biggest operators in the industry you started promoting rakeback offers. Why did you choose to go the rakeback route?

Well actually, I promote both rakeback and non-rakeback. But because the site I'm the most well known for has an audience that is mainly poker industry people or very serious players it seemed that promoting rakeback would yield the biggest return.

At a bigger level I feel that there is a fundamental flaw in the way affiliates are compensated. Most affiliates just slap a banner ad on their site and start writing mediocre poker content and expect a lifetime payout for their efforts. But, in general, I think the larger poker rooms are starting to recognize that some affiliates provide ongoing value by helping retain players and they're struggling to find a way to put a better dollar figure on what those players are worth.



4. You have one week to live. You can bring all of your friends and family with you. Would you spend that week in Thailand, the United States, Malta, or Gibraltar?

Wow, that one isn't even close. Thailand wins hands down. Being in American the US is a close second only because it's the country I love as my homeland. Gibraltar and Malta have their appeal but it's not exactly like you're going to see an elephant walking down the middle of the street like you would in Thailand.

The migration of Victory Poker to the Cake Poker Network is now complete. PAS publishers double check your signup links as they have changed. If you are promoting Victory Poker on a PAS rakeback website no update will be necessary. PAS Publishers will continue to earn the same margin on their rakeback players. There will be no lost commissions due to this network change.
As anticipated, players will now get 33% rakeback on Victory Poker in addition to a 110% up to $600 sign-up bonus. Players can also take advantage of the large selection of standard promotions such as the Gold Stacks Rewards program (the in-house VIP program), Gold Chips, Gold Cards and other special promotions. For example, this month they are offering Turbo Gold Cards.

So even though players are moving from 40% rakeback to 33%, all is not lost. The extra promotions, not including the sign-up bonus, should allow players to come very close or greatly exceed 40% rakeback equivalent, depending on how much they play. Our PAS exclusive $10,450 monthly rake chase is also still running. Any players that are upset about moving can easily switch over to Minted Poker to receive all the benefits they previously enjoyed at Victory Poker on the Everleaf Network.
If you are looking for a great brand name on the Cake Poker network look no further than Victory Poker.