As an affiliate you will obviously be targeting certain markets and demographics. For example you may create a site based on low limit ring games, and will be targeting beginner players with smaller bankrolls. However sometimes a target market will be dropped right in your lap, and you better be prepared for them. And if you are planning to promote any private tournaments or freerolls, then you better be prepared because you’ll soon be inundated with a large target market composed of freeroll whores…..
First let me explain what exactly “freeroll whores” are for those who don’t know, and I will explain by example. You start your site entitled Joes Poker. It’s a generic site with some poker room reviews and bonuses advertised. You decide that to get interest in your site you’re going to run a $100 freeroll. This is going to be held at Poker.com. So set up for the weekend in the private tournaments tab is “Joes Poker Freeroll”, with the $100 prize pool listed. While this is listed in the private tournaments section, it’s available to everyone to see; the only private part about it is that it is password protected so you can only let players in that you want to let in.
This is where the freeroll whores come in.
There is a large community of poker players who generally don’t have bankrolls nor pay attention to bankroll management. I won’t go into the specific demographics of this type of player, however they spend their time playing poker online for free, by entering freeroll tournaments. However, smart enough to realize how much a waste of time those $100 freerolls ran by poker rooms with 3000 participants are, they instead seek out private freerolls, usually with small prize pools, by running the poker rooms they have installed on their computer, and checking the private tournament lobby on a daily basis. I would like to note that this isn’t the only method freeroll whores use; however it remains the most popular.
After that, they use the wonderful search engines like Google & MSN to track down the freeroll. Most poker rooms won’t allow you to put your URL in the tournament name, however if you name your freeroll, for example, “Joes Poker Tournament”, then you’re going to use that exact same text somewhere on your website or forum. Freeroll whores will search for that term, and eventually come across your website, at which point they will first see if you have posted the password anywhere, and failing that, will e-mail you to ask for the password. You can spot freeroll whores right away, as they usually throw in a compliment about your website. Here are some actual examples of e-mails I have received:
“Hi, great site I just signed up and will visit it often. Is it possible to play in the freeroll you’re running?”
“Love your site, bookmarked it, will sign up for poker rooms through your site. Whats the password for the freeroll?”
“Hi its my birthday, and the best birthday present I could have would be to play in your poker tournament. Could you send me the password please?”
That last e-mail is sadly 100% real.
Now here’s the funny thing; most affiliates hate this. I’ve read many forum posts from people asking how to “get rid” or “stop” freeroll whores. I mean I can understand the negativity; affiliates are concerned that they are sending players to this site, and then the prize pool may be taken by players not even under their affiliate tracking code, meaning they won’t profit from any revenue they generate. However unless you’re really careless with your password, this really really should not happen.
However what affiliates should be doing is embracing these people, especially in your early days, because not only are they one of the easiest markets to target to, but they are a very easy way to start generating revenue early in your affiliate career…..
