A couple of weeks back I was thinking of laucnhing a campaign to promote business class only airline ’silverjet’ however a few back news was released that they failed to get much needed funding of around £12.7 million and today they have ceased all operations as of immediately.

Luckily I got out before I started although it wasn’t really a good idea to get involved anyway since Maxjet and Eos have rescently gone leaving no budget business class airlines flying at these prices.

Silverjet offered tickets at a 1/3rd the prices of it’s competitors (about £1,000 for a business class flight from london to Dubai)

Since it has suspended operations Virgin have announced heavily discounted flights for customers who have booked flights with silverjet (so any affiliates promoting silverjet get your Virgin Atlantic links up now )

Just read the following article, basiclly online gambling has been completely legalised in South Africa, a nation which reportedly gambles more than any other. If only the USA would follow suit!

Online gambling to be regulated and licensed in South Africa

Starting the week off in positive vein comes the news that the South African Parliament has at last approved a new Internet gambling law to strictly regulate and licence operators. The approved bill will now go to President Thabo Mbeki for signing into law.

A memorandum attached to the National Gambling Amendment Bill said the interactive gambling industry in Africa’s biggest economy was currently unregulated and “generally plagued” by crime. “This situation has resulted in a considerable loss of revenue to the national fiscus and compromises the country’s reputation as a responsible global citizen,” a spokesman said.

Reporting on the passage of the bill, Reuters said that it addresses the negative socio-economic effects associated with gambling and deals specifically with issues of problem gambling, player protection, licensing, taxation and advertising. Other media reports suggest that the legislation allows both Internet and cellphone gambling, as well as limited advertising for e-interactive gambling as approved by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, but this has not yet been confirmed.

In terms of the law every online player must be registered with a properly licensed interactive gambling provider who has been reviewed and approved, and affidavits will be required to ensure players who register are older than 18 years.

“The purpose of this Act is to ensure that all gambling activities are conducted responsibly, fairly and honestly to protect minors and other vulnerable persons from the negative effects of gambling,” a government statement said. Measures to obviate prolem or underage gambling include electronic monitoring systems.

Once signed by the President, the new law will be policed by South Africa’s National Gambling Board.

The National Gambling Amendment Bill has had a long and difficult passage through legislators despite an exhaustive study of the global Internet gambling industry commissioned by the government some years ago (see previous InfoPowa reports). The Bill has been the subject of heated and frequent debate before the Trade and Industry Portfolio Committee until it was finally agreed in the National Assembly that licensing and regulation was a better course than prohibition.

After the massive debate last year wether Absolute poker were allowing super user accounts (account where certain players can see all opponnents hands) it has become apparant that a similar issue has occured with UltimtaeBet Checkout the thread on 2+2. If this is true then it’s obviously another major blow to the genuine online poker companies. Ultimate bet has reportedly ripped players off for several million $

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=208114

Yet another cashback site has been launched, but this time by one of the big boys.

Users can use the Microsoft live search engine to search for products, and see instantly how much cashback they will recieve. Advertisers can list products and set cashback rates giving microsoft their slice of commission too, thus cutting  out the risk of using PPC methods to achieve sales.

Imagine if this eventually spread to google? advertisers wouldn’t need to use PPC, google would still get their commission and users wouldn’t bother visiting any other sites if they can get cashback just by using their favourite search engine.
Certainly makes the future a bit more scarier for affiliate marketers sending traffic to merchants for specific products.

See the Microsoft live cashback site here

Just recieved my 3rd email this week about another affiliate program closure (this time on affiliate window)

Affiliate Window regret to inform you that the above Affiliate Programme is now closed. Please remove all existing links immediately.

Thank you for your efforts in promoting this Merchant.

We apologise for the lack-of-notice regarding this closure but this is only ever done to protect you as an affiliate, and us as a network.

We suggest the following list of merchants in this category that you can swap your links to:

thankfully I don’t promote this program heavily, but why was I not notified of this before, giving someone 0 time to remove all links is a bit unfair, someone at some point must have known in advanace this program would be closing soon.

Also remember the apprentice tonight, 9pm :), the teams travel to Marrakesh to bargain with some of the toughest bargainers on the planet, looks set for a cracking episode

What I’m Drink - Water it’s been a hot day

Here are a list of my top gambling affiliate programs (their are no affiliate links this is my honest opinion)

Ladbrokes Affiliates
A well respected brand name with fantastic reporting tools. Payments are prompt and commissions generous (up to 35% of net loss) There are 4 products to promote (poker, casino, sportsbook and bingo)
http://www.ladbrokes.com/aff_man

Referback
Offering up to 35% on net loss, Payments done within 12 days of the next month. Great range of casinos to promote and good reporting software. They also regularly keep in touch with affiliates offering new deals and incentives. Great program if your mainly involved with online casinos
http://referback.com/

Virgin Games
Virgin have always been a weel respected brand name in my eyes, as both an AM and a consumer. Virgin Games offer affiliate the chance to promote their Casino, Poker Room and Bingo Room. They payout 35% of net profit and have very good communication with their affiliates
http://www.virginggames.com/affiliates

32red Affiliates
32red Casino was probably the first casino I ever played on and still do to this day, so it comes as no surprise that I would want to promote them, as a player they offer me good loyalty bonuses and friendly customer support which is why I would recommend them to my visitors. They offer a couple of online casinos and poker rooms to promote paying 35% net revenue (40% on poker room rakes for a limited time)
http://www.32redaffiliates.com

Casino Rewards
MY favourite thing with this program is the fantastic stats system, most programs only seem to show the amount of traffic you have sent and the revenue generated where as casinorewards display much more in depth stats such as the players age/sex/country as well as the sort of games they like to play, this helps to target your advertising a lot more.
http://www.casinorewards.com

Party Partners
Home to one of the biggest online poker rooms - Party Poker. Party Partners are without a doubt one of the fastest paying affiliate programs around (paying on the 4th of each month) and some good tracking options (such as offline tracking so you can advertise poker rooms on posters with your promotional code) They have recently launched a sports betting site and a casino to go along side their array of party gaming sites.
http://www.partypartners.com

Vegas Affiliates
Probably the most controversial in the list. Over the last 6 months or so communication between affiliates and vegas affiliates has been poor and even non-existant. Also payments can take over 1 month. However they have the best player retention over any other program I have worked with. Some of my players still play 3 years on, and they are big players! Although payments take longer than a majority of program they do still pay without fail.
http://www.vegasaffiliates.com

What I’m drinking now - “A free bottle of wine from iPoints”