The Poker Affiliate Blog

So its 5am and I’m still awake. Had one late night mid week and that’s thrown me completley off sync. I’ve been going to sleep at 1 in the afternoon and getting up at 6pm and don’t feel to great about it. So hopefully a bit of writing will help me nod off and get up around 10 tommorow (5 hours pfft).

I deposited some money onto PKR to check it out and overall I don’t feel the softness of games outweigh the lack of volume / rakeback which you can find elsewhere. I just can’t multi table. So I just have withdrawn $1.2k now which is not bad for a days work. Bit of a hit and run on the site. Although because the money has been transferred in and out of my account in $ I’m sure it will earn HSBC a nice £20. Always good to do my bit for them. I guess on PKR there are too many distractions for the fish / donks to spew their money off optimally. They’re getting distracted by all the little gizmos. It just hasn’t really done it for me. I prefer SkyPoker when it comes to uber soft sites.

I’ve been doing some research into some new shares to buy. Well more like thinking not much research. There just seem to be some certain undeniable truths in the west at the moment. Consumerism overall will grow, people are becoming more money oriented, lazier and our world is becoming more driven by technology. I don’t mean I’m going to go out buy HP or Sony shares because they’re too widely spread and just because tech is on the grow in the longterm doesn’t mean Sony will be. I was thinking a company involved in nano-technology.

The other company in general I quite like is Mcdonalds. Are their sales going to go down anytime soon ? Who is realisitically going to challenge them ? They just seem to have it nailed down, although maybe their price reflects this. Another company would be Nike. I just find it hard to see how their actual business isn’t going to grow. There aren’t many legitimate competitors and the market for trainers, sports clothing, fashion etc is on the up and up. The population of the world isn’t going to buy less trainers in 2010 than it did in ’09. I mean I don’t have any facts whatsoever its just hard to see. Obviously, the company can have a fundamental flaw and regardless of what market its in it just won’t enjoy the same growth.

Onto something I know more about…
I guess a few readers will have followed the ipokervip legality debate on 2+2. My guess is playtech haven’t made a firm decision and now Titan are at it.

It was suggested to me that my thread was removed from affiiates/rb forum because of the word rakeback in the forum name. My site has no mention of RB anywhere and I categorically don’t offer it. Whereas RTR and friends seem to get off with it. I guess I can live with that but, now Titan are using the word Rake and Rakeback consistently in their ad campaign. I guess it might be good for the network and at the end of the day what they’re offerring doesn’t compare to me so it has its positives but, it just goes to show how having it in with the owner of the network can do wonders for you ! Or just being the same person altogether.

As you can see on the right I’ve got players on Titan and don’t have anything against them. If you have an advantage, I guess push it as far as you can. The fact remains a lot of other skins would be afraid of doing something as bold.

Cynics will come along and say I effectivley did the same thing with iPokerVIP and I guess the difference is a) In my honest opinion I didn’t think the methodology of my offers were different b) As a business I represent myself. Playtech are a PLC and the owner owns Titan. Whereas I just want to showcase the best offers I can find and don’t want to do anything apart from give players the best. Anyway, its nothing against Titan I’d do the same in their shoes. Its going to be an interesting next few months because I’d be suprised if their was no reaction to this.

New offers should be up this week along with the support thread. May is going to be a really big month on iPoker so its defo a better time to kick off compared to August or something.

Tags: iPoker News, iPokerVIP.net, online, Playtech, titan, VC, VIP Deals

I feel a lot more positive about things. I kept on saying how the negative press from competitors just meant that ipokervip was such a threat but, didn’t really appreciate.

I got a bit too emotional at the weekend about the whole thing and kinda regret some of my posts and their bad spelling ! I was doing this on no sleep just trying to give almost instant rebuttle so that a pile of neg stuff didn’t come up.

I’m feeling a ton more positive mainly thanks to VC being behind me 100% which is really awesome. Although this issue is much bigger than ipokervip for them its really refreshing and certainly not something that they need to do.

A ton of new offers are coming on tommorow and I’ll be getting together some statements for 2+2. From there its up to them whether they will get behind the support thread and at least confirm they have emails from the right people that confirm the legality of the offers.

Hopefully, the new support thread should be up soon with the banners – I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve said this.

* VC Poker Olympics *

Here is some great news for all my VC players. The next events in the Poker Olympics will be based to a higher degree on rake meaning that the limit players cant take advantage anymore. I don’t have the full details yet but, this actually means some of my players might take the next events seriously !

So its all positive ! Feel like I’m still growing up at the moment getting huge mood swings… I’m a weirdo.

Jamie

Tags: Bet365, Deals, iPoker News, iPokerVIP.net, Rakeback, titan, vcpoker, vip

If anything merits a post on this blog its my support thread for iPokerVIP.net which has been live for about 48 hours. If you have half an hour give it a read. Its interesting for sure no matter how the debate ends.

Read The Thread Here

Firstly, I need to express my gratitude to all those who have supported me throughout the thread. It means a lot that people can understand my point of view and trust me as an affiliate. I will continue to give absolute best to all my players and anyone working with me. Thanks again !

The thread has affirmed my belief that iPokerVIP.net can be a genuine competitor when it comes to deals on the iPoker network. On the thread there are a series of extremely successfull affiliates all worth several million who feel the need to debunk my business. Regardless of what they’re saying or their tactics I’ve got respect for all these guys who are undoubtedly great entrepreuners. All starting successful companies from scratch. If any of them come accross this post I’d love to chat and learn from you sometime. No matter what is said on that thread or concerning the companies I have no ill feelings at all.

The basic argument running throughout the thread from the likes of PokerAddict, Karim and a few other affiliates hiding behind new accounts is that if the deals on iPokerVIP.net are legal why is nobody else doing it ? and as an after thought if they are they will come and crush me. I will have a small time advantage and its not as if my offers can’t outgo theirs.
PokerAddict actually used to own the affiliate site RakeRebateReview.com which you can view here (as it was seen in ’06 or whenever).

I think its a great idea and myself am working on: CompareTheRake.Com which I think has a lot of potential (one of these sites should take off right !?).

My argument for the legitimacy of the deals was simple. Deals working the exact same way already exist. They’re just not as aggressive.

The deal offered on iPokerVIP.net for VC poker is a simple VIP upgrade and a 1st deposit bonus. This coupled with The Poker Olympics and the fact its legal is a huge deal and will reward VC greatly.

Here is a link to RTR’s partner site PokerLoyaltyPrograms. For Circus Poker (An iPoker skin) they offer a first deposit bonus, reload bonus and VIP upgrade. The only problem is that the VC deal represents higher value.
The way that value manifests itself is identical.

If I’m told that iPokerVIP.net is illegal I will simply offer value in a way that is considered legal.
I’ll wire players $100 when they deposit $2k or more, huge deposit bonuses, monthly reload bonuses, races, a store on my site, a point system on my site.. the possibilities are endless. As a concept iPokerVIP.net is healthy and I’ve got great belief in it.

Karim also claimed that the Will Hill deal consisted of a race, first deposit bonus and the standard VIP program and is therefore nothing like my deal. Wheras my deal offers a VIP upgrade + a VIP points chase.

The PLP website clearly states “Exclusive PLP VIP status – Contact us for full details” (More)

Logically this can only mean 2 things; a) They are misrepresenting their deal on PLP b) They are lying about the nature of their deal with WH to cover their back.

Thankfully RTR have published a table concerning their rake race with screenames included.

Some noteable names on the leaderboards include;  WON2FREE4FIVE , burzen and Gurl2

Here are the standings in the WH race at the moment

The majority of this table is made up from serious rakeback grinders or winning players who would not settle for the combination of the WH program and race alone which would net them a pretty slim return compared to so many of the other accessible deals out there. Its just unbelieveable.

One thing for sure is that the thread has generated a ton of publicity which won’t be bad as long as the iPokerVIP.net’s legitimacy is recognised.

I’m asking myself why I did this now but, its just nature. Always want more and always try to be better. I want a career in this industry and a reputable company with above board deals. So I guess that’s the reason. A lot of people would have stayed quiet and I know of a few who are far more successful than me who are just happy to do the underground thing and keep quiet. Eventually that is going to have to stop and I want my business on paper. Maybe one day I’ll want to sell it, or merge with another company (If they’ll take me after this) and it would put me in a much stronger posistion.

I’ve been nailed a bit for the blog which in hindsight was an awful business decision. There is no point in having a blog if its not to be open and that’s come back to bite me a bit on the thread. In a way its good though becuase it means I have to be accountable for my decisions and previous opinions.

I’m going to try and remain as straight forward and up front when posting here and won’t be deleting the blog or editing any posts (lets face it. This thing was saved onto people’s hard drives hours ago !)

Jamie

Tags: iPoker News, ipoker vip, iPokerVIP.net

The support thread is live and I think its going pretty positivley although I can’t mention my site is iPokerVIP.net and not.com so I suspect I’m losing a ton of hits like that.

A link is here; http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/51/affiliates-rakeback/official-ipokervip-affiliate-support-thread-760802/

I think I’ll change the avatar and the OP maybe to something a bit more purposeful. Although the ads haven’t started yet the thread has been quite postitive with a ton of people supporting me which is always nice. I think a more informative OP will help things and as the thread progresses it will hopefully become less about trolls or people trying to lecture me and more about serving the players who are the reason its there in the 1st place.

Ads should be out soon and some new VIP deals on the site and then its just a question of waiting and seeing.

One time

Tags: Deals, iPoker News, iPokerVIP.net, Playtech, vip

Had a few days of doing very little affiliate stuff. Just a few hours here and there each day and I just feel more tired really. I can only compare it to like a treadmill and I’v been running and running and now I’m off it I realise how tired I am.

I’ve been seeing a few friends from school who are back from uni and that kinda thing which has been nice although describing stuff to them kinda makes me empathise with poker player’s whose fiends aren’t into it. That’s a healthy thng though for sure.

These ads on 2+2 are driving me around the bend just thinking about them. Sure it was easter and then things slowed down but… actually just had to delete my 2+2 rant in case anyone from the forum sees it or it got posted on my support thread or sth. But, I’m very much advertising there because there are no other competitve options. Not because I like the mods. A lot of the people heavily involved in it don’t seem like they would be capable of functioning with normal human beings. Probably couldn’t walk down a corridor either becuase their heads are too big.

Anyway, I can’t wait until the ads are up. I’m chuffed with the site, the banner ads are looking beautiful and everything is paid for so there is hopefully going to be a lottt of saving going on in the next few months which would be amazing.

I’d love to get away somewhere. Somethign ideal would be Amsterdam but, its probably not warm enough there yet. I was thinking San Remo for the EPT but, it would kinda take the buzz away unless I cashed. All my friends are doing exams (They’re unfortunatley also in the back of my mind) / kinda broke .

Hopefully I’ll go to Thailand meet some people after mine and maybe Argentina or something too. Who knows. But, I really want to go / live somewhere warm for a few months. Don’t really know why I bought the car then…

Til next time.

Tags: 2+2, Easter, iPokerVIP.net, online, poker

I kinda believe you get paid for your work 3 months ago when being an affiliate. In that case in July I should be Bill Gates !

Its actually completley ridiculous. Kinda realise how crazy it is when I could sit at my computer 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and be work intensivley for every minute.

So iPokerVIP has had any glitches ironed out, Noble went down, Paid 2+2, Banners got made, New players, new players , new players, new sub affiliates, new super affiliates and tons of other stuff. Been incredibly busy. Oh yeh and then paying all my subs which I’ve gta look forward to tonight !

On a more relaxed note I just got season 5 of the American Office through the post and had to get an American import (probably a step too far for the American office) because season 4 isn’t even out on DVD in the UK although season 6 is wrapping up on the TV in America. It works on my PS3 so pretty chuffed with that.

With the presence on 2+2 things aren’t going to get particuarly quieter so I’ll draft in a few of my mates to do some of the stuff and hopefully they don’t fuck it up too badly.

Tags: Deals, iPoker News, iPokerVIP.net, online, poker, vip

Saw a small article on pg6 of the financial times today about online poker and how NY State were going after Team FTP. Apart from all of them being in court a kinda funny image its a sign the future isn’t going to get any easier for ftp or stars.

Firstly, it stated the FBI had been collecting evidence about the company. Basically determining ownership. Secondly, the article claimed some investigatory body (I don’t think it was FBI though) established FTP was used to faciliatate money laundering.

It went on to point out NY state had successfully shutdown a payment processor, made another pay a fine and was looking to take a much harsher stance now evidence had been compiled.

So in a selfish sense as an affiliate who has nothing whatsoever to gain from FTP or Stars success I’m pretty happy.

Although the idea of FTP facing what will be (if implemented) strong reprecussions you should remind yourself the reason FTP and Stars have propspered for the last few years is because they decided to circumnavigate laws concerning payment processing and interpret the wire act and the UIGEA differentley to everyone else.

There are tons of Euro sites who decided not to operate in the USA and the reprecussions possibly faced by FTP and Stars are simply an eventually they certainly factored into their business plan.

That being said its going to be a while before anything happens. My guess is that more payment processors will be shut down and that will lead to a small dent in traffic in the short term.

Who knows

Tags: ftp, full tilt poker, Howard Lederer, legislation, online, poker, Pokerstars, UIGEA

Noble poker recently announced that it was ceasing to give ‘loyalty’ payments. This just means rakeback. I’ve actually forgotton the reasons behind it but there were a few of them something like; Win/Loss ratio and the fact Noble is owned by Party and they felt Noble was actually kind of hurting Party. Anyway it obviously wasn’t +ev for them.

Although I can’t offer under the table deals publically its pretty incredible the amount of people that come to find me after this happens. I mean there are a not of new players looking around for deals and its amazing they manage to find new deals especially completley unadvertised ones such as mine.

It got me thinking that keeping stuff quite when it comes to under the table deals and hoping the skins I work with don’t cease them anytime soon is really the way forward. There is no real rush on that front, so long as I stay consistent the players will all eventually end up under me in someway or another.

On top of the new players a skin like Noble going down also presents a bigger opportunity. All their affiliates will be scrabbling about hoping this source of income doesn’t vanish into thin air. I can help them, set them up with a deal (possibly better than they had at Noble) within 24 hours, get a beautiful looking email out to all their players with the details and tracking link and help save their business. I’ve got 3 different Noble affiliates contact details who I will hopefully contact and propose this to. At the end of the day 1 of them is going to be an extra $1k a month minimum in my back burner so its really a worthwhile process.

What is more important than the cashflow is my power or assets and I really feel this is overlooked a lot. If I bring hundreds of players and several affiliates and am effectivley responsible for a good amount of MGR my posistion as an affiliate is so much stronger. I can negotiate better %s, move about and really have a lot of pulling power. For me its not all about the cashflow maybe one day I’ll want to sell the business. I don’t think I will becuase I’d be like a lost puppy but, who knows how I’ll feel in a year. I mean I’ve made a lot of friends through being an affiliate and obviously I want them to have the best – which I think is me :p and keep chatting to them so yeh maybe selling doesn’t look like an option yet.

Tags: affiliate, Cashback, iPoker News, Noble, Noble Poker, Online Poker, rake, Rakeback, RB, Skin

This is pretty much aimed at the banks. I’m not sure about other countries but, Friday and Monday with no banks is a complete disgrace. I know its always been like this and the majority of people just don’t care which is fine but, its really the principle behind it.

The whole world is slowed down or cannot work as optimally because of a Christian holiday. I’ve got nothing against Christians but, it is forcing Christianity on you in a way. This post isn’t meant in a disrespectful way but, religion is not about imposing your beliefs on other people. Well I don’t think it should be anyway I’m sure there are some crazy interpretations out there.

Aside from the fact not everyone is Christian and those who are Muslim or Sikh or whatever are forced to stop while this holiday goes on . Who thought not working and a complete decline in productivity (In the UK anwyays) is a great way to worship God ? Its the most retarded way to worship someone ever. When does gratefulness / worship ever manifest itself through inactivity ?

The on top of all of this you’ve got the real Christians who actually care about wht Easter stands for having their holiday hijacked by corporations. I’m not really sure of the financial incentive for banks, if a Bank stayed open the same hours as a supermarket I’m sure the benefits would outweigh the cost (Although why have they not done it yet ? ) I’d definitely sign up the day it opened. I mean the easy answer is to say the banks keep money for longer but, they also don’t receive money so if everyone changed to being open at decent times whats the difference ? Salaries I guess but, it is honestly just ridiculous.

Anyway, the reason I’m particularly anti-bank at the moment is that my ad money can’t get out to 2+2 until Tuesday and obviously its an international transfer so who knows when its getting there.

Its really my fault for not planning ahead and reminding myself banks are a law unto themselves and greedy twats. Its a huge industry and I guess because its turned into a cartel in a way when it comes to opening hours. Its not like there is a better option.

Christianity isn’t even a religion that has anything against banking, charging interest or even gambling so I don’t see why the banks shutting in particular is a mark of respect.

End Rant /