Back then, a lot of people could care less about google and instead concentrated on PPC engines. And that was a quagmire of it's own, you would have competitors clicking your listings until you ran out of money and had nothing to show for it. It was just as hard for newcomers then as it is now. Just with different types of issues.
On the positive side, there was a finite number of programs and a finite number of affiliates. The majority of people knew each other, if not in person, then through lots of exposure online.
Still, there were some very ugly fights being carried out on winneronline. Some of it was so silly that it was hilarious, some of it was outright character asassination.
Even though all this was going on, affiliates pulled together when there were issues with programs. CAP fixed countless issues with terms changes and such back in the day.
Since the affiliate programs were pretty much established and everyone promoted them, infractions by programs were very clear to see and usually everyone agreed.
Now we have tens of thousands of affiliates out there, and the programs and their rules change all the time. Many Brick and Mortar Casinos came online and brought a whole different outlook with them. One that is not usually favorable to affiliates. It's hard to keep track of it all, and that's why we have the affiiate guard dog constantly scanning terms and conditions.
No message board or individual has access to all the affiliates out there. Most never know that their colleagues are crying foul concerning a specific program, or a practice that is sneeking into the market and bad for affiliates.
Then, you have people with completely different experiences with the same programs. You have people with personal axes to grind, and people who completely depend on certain programs to put dinner on the table for their families. You have people who have had no issues, and people who cry foul regarding any specific program. The bag is very mixed.
Rogue programs can thrive for years in this climate, there are always affiliates who have never heard of their reputation and will happily promote them. Good programs can have their character assasinated by just one very vocal person with an axe to grind. It is difficult to make sense of it all anymore.
So it all boils down to avoiding emotional responses and looking only at cold, hard proof. Trust yourself and your own judgement. Enlist the help of other affs and message boards if you are sure you have been hurt and can prove it.
Sometimes you are up a creek with no paddle. Like Grand Prive settled with everyone who made a claim but me. Why? Because they owed me a large chunk of money. I wasn't about to accept hundreds of dollars in place of tens of thousands and took offense at the offer. That immediately broke the trust and negotiations went nowhere.
Which brings us to a crucial point - trust. Can you trust all the programs to do right by you? No. Can you trust all affiliates to tell the truth? No.
So, the playing field has changed enormously. Just the vast numbers of programs and affiliates make any effective communication impossible. Any small groups of affiliates boycotting a program has very limited effect. The days when we could communally blacklist a program and outrank it on it's own terms are gone. That was one way to get the message across to new affiliates, to have it displayed on google. But, with affiliates splintered every which way, and the majority never even visiting any affiliate board, this is impossible now.
Plus, most times people yell foul, there is no real proof. It's up to us as business people to make informed decisions, believing or not believing something really shouldn't figure into it, we need cold hard facts. And these are often hard to come by.
So we go by personal experience until and unless either party or better yet, both parties present us with concrete, provable facts.
So, keep track of things, take screenshots when something looks odd. And remember, everyone has "off months" when things are just not as profitable as in previous months, with any program.
Also, think about your target customers. Why is a certain program not performing for you? Is your site about free play and the bonuses are match bonuses? Not going to work as well as if you had freebie bonuses, that's what your visitors are looking for. Is the promo targeting mostly women in their 40s who play slots, but you have small print and the colors don't contrast clearly? Your customers can't read it, eyes go bad around 40 but no one wants to wear glasses yet... Just two examples here, there are many, many reasons why a program may not perform well on your site, but do perfectly well on someone else's site.
So, try to find possible other reasons for bad performance before you cry foul. Research the program, how many complaints are there from different people? If all the complaints come from one person, it may still be true, but maybe that person has an axe to grind.
Times are not the way they used to be, and they will never go back. The web is ever evolving, and we constantly have to look for new solutions to old problems.
PPC is pretty much gone and google rules. We don't know each other well anymore. The people we do know are but a tiny fraction of all the affiliates and programs out there. With the huge growth in numbers, communication between affiliates has fallen by the wayside.
So we all need to grow up, we can't function just on trust anymore, we need indisputable facts.
Programs need to prove themselves, affiliates need solid proof for allegations.
What else would be useful is cooperation between the major message boards when there are issues affecting all affiliates. Maybe one day we will get there.
Anyway, I am rambling here. I could likely write a book about the gambling affiliate industry back in the the day and all the way up to now.
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