Affiliate Managers with their own websites

[Aff_G]

It would appear you calling them out here had some effect. Do you think that apology would have come had you not mentioned it? Probably as others have said, they realised that it's not always as easy as copying an idea. Least affiliates have had a heads up to be careful if dealing with Comeon. The other HOA mentioned in the thread would appear to be a serial plagiarist, lots of badly written reviews so taking the moonlighting to a new level. As previously stated it's good that others are aware of the underhand behaviour of the individuals working for these so called good casinos.

Honestly no. I don't think the apology or actions would have been taken unless I had said something publicly.

I guess the best thing to do if you feel someone/affiliate manager is copying ideas or concepts is just to call them out on it and see what they say.

I still would never work with ComeOn again.

 

[Brian]

Honestly no. I don't think the apology or actions would have been taken unless I had said something publicly.

I guess the best thing to do if you feel someone/affiliate manager is copying ideas or concepts is just to call them out on it and see what they say.

I still would never work with ComeOn again.

Yes the excuse he gave you there was about as good as my dog ate my homework. Agree totally with you, it was the reason I started this thread so if there were any issues out there affiliates could mention it.

 

[preditor]

Many of Comeons brands have SEO text in their footers and some links even point to other sites, that must be their own.
Not so long time ago, i found one of their sites linking to a full casinolisting page. Its not comeonbetting*com but something similar to that.

Since they have staff writing reviews and creating content, its not a wonder if they make something for them self also.

 

[Brian]

Many of Comeons brands have SEO text in their footers and some links even point to other sites, that must be their own.
Not so long time ago, i found one of their sites linking to a full casinolisting page. Its not comeonbetting*com but something similar to that.

Since they have staff writing reviews and creating content, its not a wonder if they make something for them self also.

I believe that was the case with L & L Europe as well. Some of the casinos in the footer have linked to the HOA website. As concluded throughout the post both very questionable brands with awful people working for them.

 

[Joonas]

New to the site and was wondering what everybody's take was on affiliate managers that also operate their own websites. Is this not a conflict of interest? Would affiliates be happy that their competitors had instant access to they stats and earnings, perhaps without them even knowing they were a competitor.

I was actually amazed when I found out that this went on. The industry has somewhat of a tarnished reputation at best, but would affiliates be happy to keep working with any casinos that were involved in these kind of practices?

In my view, it's perfectly okay as long as one is transparent towards the casino owners that they also run affiliate sites.

It might even be a bonus for affiliate managers to have a background in affiliation.

I was many years in the operator side before jumping to affiliation.

 

[LA-Martyn]

Depending on how this is done, running an affiliate site can be a benefit to an aff manager. However, that being said, where do they find the time!!?

I tried it when I first got into the industry, back then it was easy with banner farms in existence and small chunks of content. But once you dip deeper into it then you soon realise the time and effort required to keep your site afloat. I wasn't pushing the brand I worked at though. It also gave me a valuable understanding into the affiliate model and what is required from all parties. Understanding some of the technical side, at least on a basic level is also valuable to the affiliate manager. It helped me for sure but there is definitely no time for that anymore.

Flipping this on its head a little and playing devils advocate, what about those affiliates that run casinos to? There are plenty of them out there. My view of this is the same, it provides them with the insight into what is required to run a casino or group of casinos, the struggles, the problems and the costs! I've no issue with it, even though in some cases I lose some traffic as they lean more towards being a full time operator. It's progression.

 

[Brian]

In my view, it's perfectly okay as long as one is transparent towards the casino owners that they also run affiliate sites.

It might even be a bonus for affiliate managers to have a background in affiliation.

I was many years in the operator side before jumping to affiliation.

So ok that they can potentially see their competitors stats without the competitor even knowing?. With additional info that's available online you could soon gauge your business against theirs with having the financial info at hand as well.

It would appear that the aff manager at Comeon obviously felt some heat, or didn't want any by contacting the user who posted on here. It's a huge abuse of position, and although you say as long as the casino are ok with it, I wonder how many affiliates would be happy in still working with brands when they are in direct competition with their staff. It's a tough enough industry as it is.

Fair enough seeing that affs make good money and they want a part of it, go be an aff. It's just the classic Wild West industry where they will do both and nobody says a thing. But L & L and Comeon showing their true colours it would seem.

 

[Brian]

Depending on how this is done, running an affiliate site can be a benefit to an aff manager. However, that being said, where do they find the time!!?

I tried it when I first got into the industry, back then it was easy with banner farms in existence and small chunks of content. But once you dip deeper into it then you soon realise the time and effort required to keep your site afloat. I wasn't pushing the brand I worked at though. It also gave me a valuable understanding into the affiliate model and what is required from all parties. Understanding some of the technical side, at least on a basic level is also valuable to the affiliate manager. It helped me for sure but there is definitely no time for that anymore.

Flipping this on its head a little and playing devils advocate, what about those affiliates that run casinos to? There are plenty of them out there. My view of this is the same, it provides them with the insight into what is required to run a casino or group of casinos, the struggles, the problems and the costs! I've no issue with it, even though in some cases I lose some traffic as they lean more towards being a full time operator. It's progression.

The answer to that is scraping content. Takes no time at all.

 

[LA-Martyn]

The answer to that is scraping content. Takes no time at all.

Scraping content is never OK.

 

[Brian]

Scraping content is never OK.

Well that's how they do it. I'd estimate that there's very few affiliates that actually genuinely review a game themselves. It's a race to get it published, with a handful of sites doing it the right way and the rest scraping that content.

 

[David Arutinyan]

I think, depends on the casino. If the casino is newborn it's too hard to recruit a good affiliate manager who will work only for the casino, as a start a newborn casino can cooperate with experienced affiliate managers, even if they have their own projects. But for the big player, of course, it's better to have an affiliate manager who will be focused only on the particular brand.

 

[Brian]

I think, depends on the casino. If the casino is newborn it's too hard to recruit a good affiliate manager who will work only for the casino, as a start a newborn casino can cooperate with experienced affiliate managers, even if they have their own projects. But for the big player, of course, it's better to have an affiliate manager who will be focused only on the particular brand.

Serial plagiarists though the majority of them, not worth the dirt from the bottom of your shoe.

 

[Joonas]

I wonder how many affiliates would be happy in still working with brands when they are in direct competition with their staff

This is a good question. How many here would be okay with this?

Personally, I wouldn't mind if one of our casino partners at Bojoko would have staff from one of our key competitors. I would try to find out how we fare against them and where we could improve upon. The bigger issue here again is the lack of contractual security that affiliates have and what we're trying to fix with PGAA.