One thing will never change in the businessmen world….Greed! It never ceases to amaze me that some people/companies especially in the Rakeback market are driven not by providing value or great service, but cold hard cash. Now, don’t get me wrong we are all in the business to make money and grow our business. But like everything in life you have to be willing to give in order to get. We have all seen tons of 2+2 and other forums posts about some shady rakeback affiliate refusing to pay players or deciding to cut their rates, and obviously this is a destructive long term strategy.
As most of the readers of this site know, I joined the RakeUpdate.com Team about 6 months ago overseeing their marketing and development team. RakeUpdate has been around since before Rakeback was invested, dating all the way back to the first days of Party Poker and Empire. Over the years they built a solid foundation of players and sub-affiliate partners. Until I came aboard RU relied on player to player referrals and word of mouth, and exposure on our 2+2 Support forum which gives us great exposure to our player base and Partner base.
We have yet to actually launch a full marketing campaign as we are holding off until our new software comes out of beta, the down side is we have some of the slowest programmer known to man 
The positive thing is that because of my experience in the industry and the reputation of RU we get new Sub-Affiliate Partners every day, and 100% of them contact us first which is extraordinary! We are quickly growing our Partner Base once again by word of mouth only. The software will be out of beta soon and we will be launching a very nice marketing campaign that I’m super excited about.
Why RakeUpdate Works?
Recently I realized WHY RU has quickly becoming the Rakeback Provider of choice. Also to be clear this post in not intended as a sales pitch, more observations of a very different type of poker niche where competition is very fierce to the point where other companies take the competition very personal. The fact is RU works because we are not greedy and we want actual “Partners” instead of “Plain Subs”.
I actually got some hate mail from one of our competitors saying that we are giving “Affiliates Partners (Subs) too much money” and they think there should be a cap on how much affiliates can earn? <——- Erm What? Excuse me? Sorta greedy isn’t it?
RakeUpdate
- The Highest Sub-Affiliate Margins – Usually 3-5 Times that of the other companies
- Anytime Cashouts for Sub Affiliates and Player
- 5 Tier Referrals
- $150,000 In Monthly Promotions
- 24/7 Live support
- Design help, SEO Help
- We do whatever it takes to help our partners succeed!
Other Rakeback Providers
- Low Sub-Affiliate Margins – usually 5%-7% Which is very greedy and 3-5 Times less than RU
- Monthly Cashouts Only
- Email Support – Complaints of Delays
- Good Room Selection
- Good Software Solutions for New Subs
Greed Kills
As you can see above, the MOST important aspect of all of this is the $Money our Partners can make. Good Software can only get you so far, players and affiliates want to make the most money. So why are our competitors only giving them 1/3 of what they should be getting? The answer is simple, Greed drives them.
I’ve also been accused by our competitors of “poaching” sub-affiliates which simply isn’t true. The awesome fact is that we don’t need to do business that way, because after Affiliates realize they could have been making 3-5 Times the Profit they have been getting, they get pissed at the other guys and bail & never to look back. I’m sure it might be more comforting to think that some like me is “poaching” as they call it, isn’t it always easier to blame someone else for your shortcomings? We are in a business, and sub-affiliate partners want to make money.
Business Ethics 101
Having my ethics questioned is new to me. I do not have an extensive marketing background outside of the net, but as a company offering a service or product, should we not be pursuing potential clients? Isn’t that what happens in business every day? My theory is that if you are giving your customers the best rates, best service, best everything, then you have customers for life! If you are losing clients for any of those reasons, you need to take a serious look at your long term goals.
Once again just for the sake of humor, I have to point out that up to now, myself or anyone on my team has ever once contacted a potential customer or partner out of the blue. We simply have not had too. I am easy to find and get a hold of; I’m am online at least 18 hours a day and regularly give out my cell number. If I was our competition, I would be nervous because if their customers are jumping ship now, it will get ever worse when we ARE doing active marketing.
Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;