When you first considered joining a poker affiliate program, these are most likely the first types of promotion that came to your mind. We'll touch on them briefly, but also give you a few tips on what to avoid.

Your friends and family
If you have poker players in your family or among your friends, you may be able to get a good start just by referring people you know. Some of them may already be playing online. If so, you won't be able to recruit them for any of the sites where they already play, but ask them what they are looking for in a new site, then shop through our programs on the previous page. Are they looking for a big bonus? Are they looking for a game that isn't offered where they are currently playing? Put yourself in a position to solve their problems and meet their needs.

AVOID: Don't be pushy with the people you love. If they're not interested, they're not interested. No one likes a pushy salesman, and you will put your friends and family in a difficult position if you're constantly hounding them. You want to make money, but not at the expense of your relationships.

Also, some sites have specific prohibitions against refering certain family members. Before you ask your brother to sign up under you, make sure the site will allow it.

Email
What could be easier than email? Type a brief letter, slap in your link, press send and wait for the results. Simple. Or is it?

AVOID: Do not spam! Not only is it utterly uncool, but it is growing increasingly illegal. We've all heard about the recent case where one spammer got nine years in prison. He was making plenty of money, but he lost his freedom.

There is a thin line between legitimately soliciting business and spam. If you currently maintain a mailing list of some sort, you can feel free to slap an ad for your poker affiliate program somewhere in it. What you cannot do is send blatant advertising to hordes of unknown people.

The key thing to remember is that if you are already mailing to people, or if you have previously done business with them before in some regard, then you can legitimately solicit them. But be aware that there are many people who are highly sensitive to receiving any form of advertising in their email and have strong negative reactions to it. If you send them poker ads, not only will they not sign up under you, you also risk offending them and losing their other business.

If you do not already have a large list of email addresses to solicit, the easiest, safest way to utilize the power of email is to create an "opt-in" mailing list. Basically, this is a newsletter created by you, offering some type of information people want, which they have to sign up to receive. The key is that they must sign up to receive it. If you send it to them without their prior permission, then it's spam.

Of course, you might be asking yourself what type of newsletter you could send out. Well, what are you a specialist in? Can you offer to send results from poker tournaments at your local casino? Perhaps you have some firsthand information about your local sports or golf scene. Or you could even set up a list for poker players in your area, which could include announcements about tournaments or home games. No matter who you are or what you do, you're sure to be able to offer something that other people are interested in reading more about. Then, in the course of sending your regular newsletter, include an advertisement for your poker affiliate program. For example: "This edition of Kentucky Poker News is brought to you by Cake Poker. Like playing online poker but hate the rake? Get a 100 percent welcome bonus when you sign up a new account. Click here to sign up, or use bonus code TASTY."

One thing to remember is that your newsletter should appeal to poker players. It doesn't necessarily have to be about poker or gambling, but it should be about a subject which a large number of poker players are interested in. Since most poker players are men, sports is almost always a safe bet. And chess and backgammon utilize many of the same skills that poker does. But if you're sending quilting tips to all the local old ladies, don't expect a very big response to your poker ad.

If you're not very computer savvy and don't have the first idea about how to set up a mailing list, visit http://groups.yahoo.com. There you can create, for free, an online group about any subject you want, and it includes a mailing list feature so that you can type one email and send it to every member of the group with one click of a button.

Your website
If you already maintain your own website, then you have a prime location for ads. All you have to do is put ads for your poker affiliate program(s) on your website.

If you do not already have a website, there are many ways to create one, even if you don't know the first thing about it, and many of them are free. Geocities is one such place where you can get a free site which has plenty of templates and tools for helping you get up and running.

Or consider start a blog. A blog (short for "web log") is sort of like an online diary. Usually you can just go to a page your blog host provides, type in what you have to say, press a button to post your message and then it's there for everyone to see. The most popular blog provider is Blogger, which is free and easy.

AVOID: Don't just set up a page with links to your poker affiliate programs and nothing else. There are many pages like that and nobody reads them. If you want to attract customers, you must have something to offer, something people want to read, something that will bring them back again and again. Just like we spoke about in the section on email, find one of your interests and turn it into a web page or blog. Who knows ... in the process of finding somewhere to put your ads, you just might find a new hobby you enjoy!

2. Offline marketing

BONUS CODES: One of the most underused methods of promoting online poker is offline promotion. One reason for this is because not every poker site offers the most effective means of offline promotion — bonus codes. Among the 15 poker sites we list, you will find only two that do — Absolute Poker and Cake Poker.

Bonus codes work much the same way that coded links do, in that they let the poker site know who referred a new player when that player enters the bonus code. Basically, it works like this. Let's say that during the course of your day, you meet somebody and find out that he likes to play poker. Eventually, you tell him about a site he might like to try. Let's assume for this example that it is Cake Poker. He seems interested, but how are you going to get credit for referring him? Well, you could tell him to get out a pen and paper and write down http://cakepoker.com/?t=702 but that's not very convenient. However, if you tell him to just go to cakepoker.com and be sure to enter the Bonus Code TASTY (or better yet, write it down on a piece of paper for him) to get his bonus, you'll have much better results. Then, once he enters your bonus code, Poker Champs will recognize that you referred him and you will get credit for it.

But bonus codes are not just for word-of-mouth advertising. You can make up flyers or business cards with your bonus code on them, or even put a bonus code in a newspaper advertisement. In short, you want to use bonus codes anytime you are not able to solicit business electronically.

CDs: Another method of offline marketing is to create CDs with the poker software imbedded with your tracking code. That might sound complex, but it really isn't. Unfortunately, the sites which used to offer the ability to download the software in order to make your own CDs no longer allow U.S. players, and therefore are not very profitable to promote.

However, some sites will create CDs imbedded with your tracking code and ship them to you for a nominal fee. If you find their cost to be too expensive for your budget, you can always order a minimal number, then be sure to keep one in order to make your own copies later.

3. Advanced tactics

If you need further proof that poker affiliate programs can be a fantastic opportunity to make money, you need only look at some of the people who are already promoting online poker. Because many of these people are competing against each other for the same narrow group of players, many of them have resorted to offering deals in order to lure players. Such deals range from offering a free set of poker chips to giving away as much as $100. That's right, these people are doing so well with their affiliate programs that they can actually pay people to sign up with them!

We do not recommend this practice for three reasons. First and foremost, we do not believe the market for new players has been saturated to the point that it is necessary to offer additional incentives at this point in time. Certainly, certain segments of the market are reaching saturation, particularly among the hardcore players who frequent newsgroups such as rec.gambling.poker or message boards such as the 2+2 Forums. However, we firmly believe that there are many more potential new players in other segments, so that you don't have to follow the crowd and compete for the same players. If you take the time to find the players no one else is reaching, you will be far more profitable in the long run.

Secondly, such giveaways are an invitation to fraud. By offering lucrative deals for players to sign up new accounts, some poor players who have busted out from a site might be tempted to try to sign up again with a different account in order to get the freebie. While the poker sites are willing to spend between $200 and $300 for each new player they get, they are not willing to pay that amount to the same player over and over again. Should someone who already has an account sign up another account under your name and play for awhile before getting caught, that player would obviously be banned, locking you out of future profits from them (perhaps before you made back your initial investment in them). But there would be some indirect negative consequences for you, in that the poker site would seek to recoup the profits you made from that player. In the event this happens, you don't need to worry about suddenly facing a bill from the poker site. What will happen is they will charge your affiliate account the amount of that player's profits, thereby reducing the profits you receive. If the amount is large enough, it could put you in a negative balance. Again, you won't get a bill for this. However, you would have to wait until your other players generate enough profits to offset the chargeback before you would start getting paid again.

Finally, even if you still are interested in pursuing such recruiting methods, we do not recommend it for anyone who is just starting out in the poker affiliate business. If you are not careful, your initial outlay to recruit players could exceed the amount of revenue you initially receive. You don't want to end up spending more money that you are bringing in! You should first concentrate on recruiting a core of players and developing a steady income stream. If you still wish to pursue some type of incentive program after you are bringing in a steady monthly income from your affiliate programs, do so with our warnings mind.

With all of that being said, here are some of the most common types of incentive programs currently being offered:

GIVEAWAYS: This was the first type of incentive program that popped up on the scene. All this is is an offer to give somebody something of value in exchange for signing up at a poker site through your affiliate program. Of the two methods, this one is the most expensive in the beginning because it requires you to spend money to recruit players before you make any income from them. In the long run, however, it would be the most profitable because, once you've made back your initial investment, everything else is profit. At first, the most common giveaway was to offer a free poker chip set. The way it initially started was to offer someone a 300 pc. chip set in exchange for signing up with one or sometimes two sites. Of course, the initial success led to many imitators and eventually a lot of oneupmanship. As chip prices fell and more "free chip" offers appeared on the scene, someone raised the bar to offering a 500 pc. chip set. Then someone else changed it to a poker table top. And eventually that led to affiliates offering free money to new signups. That number also grew, starting around $10 or $20, then to $50, and now to $100 and sometimes more. But after awhile, a wise consumer base caught on to the fact that if these affiliates could offer such giveaways, there must be more money to offer and that led to ...

RAKEBACK: This program offers to give new players a portion of the rake they pay back to them. This is not possible with all affiliate programs because not all of them offer statistics that let you see how much you are making from each individual player. If you do decide to offer something like this in the future, make sure you do it with a program that will allow you to keep accurate statistics. If you decide to offer an incentive program, this method would be the easiest to startup because it requires no initial outlay. However, in the long run, it will also prove to be the most costly because you are in essence splitting your profits with your customers, indefinitely.

4. Guerilla tactics

Of all promotion methods, these are our favorite because they allow you to put your imagination to work. And once you stumble across a good idea, it truly is one of those "light bulb" moments you can be proud of, and you have the additional satisfaction of getting paid for your creativity.

Guerilla marketing refers to finding ways to advertise something in a nontraditional way. If you're a sports fan, or even if you're not, you probably remember watching a sporting event on TV and seeing some guy in a rainbow wig, holding a sign that said, "John 3:16." That guy was the original guerilla marketer. He would buy tickets to televised sporting events, especially the big ones, and carefully pick his tickets so that his seat would be directly in front of the television cameras. That way, he got plenty of free television advertising every time the camera was pointed his way. Of course, he wasn't selling anything; he was instead promoting his religion. However, the principle is the same and it can work just as well or even better than traditional methods of promotion.

The same could have been said at one time for product placement in movies and TV shows, where the advertiser pays for the lead character to conspicuously consume Pepsi or Doritos. However, product placement has become so common in movies and TV that it has graduated from guerilla status to now be a traditional form of advertising.

But in essence, guerilla marketing IS product placement, but in life, rather than movies or TV. Actually, you could maybe use TV, without paying for it, and that would be guerilla marketing. For instance, if you live in the New York area, you could drive down and stand outside the windows of NBC Studios during the taping of the "Today" show with a sign that reads "CakePoker.com — Bonus code TASTY." (In fact, since that's my bonus code, I really hope you do that.) But guerilla marketing all boils down to looking for situations to exploit. You are trying to find new ways of getting your message to people.

There is no possible way to list all of the methods you could employ in guerilla marketing, because the list would truly be endless. However, we will list a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing. You might even want to try a few if they seem like they would be good ideas for your particular situation. But the key to guerilla marketing is training your mind to look for new ways to market your poker affiliate program.

SIGNATURE LINES: This is a very quick way to get started promoting your poker affiliate program that is free and will continue to be seen long after you've forgotten about it. Most email programs and newsreaders allow you to attach a signature line at the end of each message. Some people put all of their contact info in the signature to keep from typing it every time they send an email, and others put in a funny or poignant quote. Why not use yours to make some money? Add blurb about whatever bonus you wish to promote and a link to your affiliate program and you're done. Then, every time you send an email or post a message, your ad is sent as well.

SCREEN NAMES: If you play online poker or belong to some message board where you can pick a screen name, you could always make your screen name the address for the website where you promote your affiliate programs. For example, since most of the time screen names are limited to letters and numbers, you could make your name something like "mysitedotcom" or "wwwMySitecom." Then, everyone who sees you at the poker table or reads one of your messages on a message board will see your address. Eventually, many of them will grow curious and check out your site.

PIGGY-BACKING: This one could get you in trouble wherever you attempt it, so be careful. You print up business cards or small flyers with your affiliate program information on them, for example, "Get back up to half your rake at CakePoker.com. Use bonus code TASTY." Then visit your local bookstore and slip one into every poker or gambling book they have in stock. Or head to a discount retailer or hobby store stick one in each box of poker chips and poker tables. When the customer finds it, they'll just assume it is a bonus that came with their purchase. However, if the store catches you doing this, they're probably going to be upset and ask you to leave.

MORE USES FOR BUSINESS CARDS: Here's a quick list of other ideas for using business cards:

• Leave them in the men's room, around the sink, in the stalls, even on the urinals.
• Some places have bulletin boards specifically for putting such messages. Utilize them.
• When you rent a movie or game, slip a card in the case before you return it. The downside to this is that the store staff might remove it when they see it.
• Ask to leave them on the counter of stores who visit regularly. If they're used to seeing you there every day, they might be willing to accommodate you to keep a regular customer happy. But if not, don't hold a grudge. Some business owners/managers just don't want something as unwholesome as gambling affiliated with their business.
• Leave them in the waiting areas of malls, on the benches at bus stops, in the common areas of dormitories ... in short, anywhere there's a lot of traffic.

T-SHIRTS: There are quite a few places where you can design custom t-shirts. There's probably a store that can do this in your community, or you could use an online service like CafePress.com. Whichever you choose, just design an attractive shirt that includes your advertisement, like your website address or "CakePoker.com — Bonus Code TASTY" (this is offline marketing, so you will definitely want to use a bonus code). Your shirt could be as simple as that, or you could have something funny or cool on the front and the message on the back. Have one made and wear it anytime you go to a casino or play in a tournament so that other players will see it, or anytime you're going to be around a large number of people, such as at the mall, at a ballgame or at an amusement park. Have more made and give them to your friends to spread the message even further. If you're able to come up with a really clever shirt you think others would like, you could even give them away to some of the players who sign up under you.

POKER TOOLS: If you are able to design something that either new or experienced poker players might like, find a way to imbed your link or bonus code in it. For instance, if you're a programmer, create a game or an odds calculator that includes a blurb for your poker affiliate program and freely distribute them. Or, if you're good with desktop publishing, create an odds sheet or list of optimum starting hands or something like that, making sure to add your bonus code at the bottom. Then you can save it as a PDF and share it over something like BitTorrent, or print them out and leave them around.

5. Fill in the blanks

Hopefully, this site has given you enough ideas to get you started. But this guide is not intended to be the final word on promoting online poker. If there has been one constant message, it has been to take our ideas to get started, but concentrate on developing new ideas of your own. Only you can guarantee your success!

Once you get started, we would love to hear from you. Feel free to send us email to let us know how your poker affiliate programs are working or share new marketing ideas of your own.

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