Stop Blowing Your Poker Affiliate Income!

by mitchell posted Dec 28th 2005 at 14:00PM

http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&url=http://www.pokeraffiliateworld.com/affiliate-resources/stop-blowing-your-poker-affiliate-income&title=Stop Blowing Your Poker Affiliate Income!

Becoming a full-time poker affiliate and a Super Affiliate. People often ask me what the key is behind becoming a Super Affiliate or making this your full-time job is. I will start by saying I was inspired to write this article because one of my subs lost his entire monthly paycheck by moving his funds into his poker account and subsequently losing them.....well and by a post in the affiliate forums . The first thing I always say is "What defines a Super Affiliate" To some people if they could make $50K a year in affiliate income, they would consider themselves Super Affiliates. To others if they only made $50K they would feel like they were in poverty. What it really comes down to is looking at where you are at in your affiliate career and deciding what you need to earn in order to make a decent living. Notice I use the word earn versus make......no one simply makes money.....we earn it!

Well first off I am going to make this a brutally honest article, let me state that. Most poker affiliates get into this business because they are not profitable poker players and they realize there is much more money to be made promoting this game than there is playing it..............and they are 100% right. You can read all the posts on RGP and 2+2 until your eyes hurt. After reading all these posts it is easy to think that everyone is winning, but at the end of the day there is a very small percentage of people actually making a living or let alone a profit playing poker online. Many of the rooms I speak with on a daily basis will tell me that 85%+ of online poker players are losers. If you are one of those guys making a living reading this, then congratulations and more power to you because you are a great poker player. Personally I used to make money playing but lately I make enough as an affiliate and in other business ventures that I don't take the game as serious. Hence I had a losing year. (Holy Cow.......I am an online poker player that will actually admit to having a bad year!!!!!) It was my own fault though. I played in some games I had no business being in and I played in limits that I shouldn't of been at. I could care less about the money because damnit....I almost broke even. I think I was down a few thousand in 2005. But it just goes to show you as a player if you don't take every session serious that you will be in that 85%. Bottom line though is that I didn't donk off my affiliate money every month. I had a steady bankroll that went up and down (with 3 or 4 reloads) that remained the same regardless of my affiliate checks.

Trust me my net worth is still strong :) The reality though is that most people play outside their bankroll and constantly go bust in a single session wondering "What Happened" or " Online Poker is Rigged". I attribute a great deal of this to people playing the new hot trend No Limit Hold'Em. Ask most online pro's and they will tell you that they play multiple tables of Limit Poker. That is how they grind it out and make a living. Let's just be honest here, you can't blow your entire bankroll of $1000 playing 1-2 limit hold-em in one night, where as you can donk off $1000 in 10 minutes playing 2-4 NL Hold Em. And make no mistake many players do this all the time.

But now getting back on topic, if you enter into the affiliate business as a professional, you need to learn to separate your bankroll from your affiliate income. Believe me I know it is tough, especially when you can have those funds deposited right to your players account the same day. Sure I will still leave some money at the bigger sites I promote when I cash out every month, but I'm certainly not going to gamble my entire income at the tables. Think of it this way, if you received a paycheck from your traditional job once a month, would you say WTF, I'll let it ride tonight and play some cards with the entire amount? Hell no you wouldn't. And you have to think about that when you get paid from these programs. It's great that they give us the option to deposit our entire paycheck back into the card room, but at the same time it is also crippling for some affiliates. Again keep in mind that 90% of online players are losers. Why would you gamble with your entire monthly income regardless of it's $100 or $20,000.

I write this article because I see it happen way too much with my sub-affiliates or friends that are making a decent amount of money, working hard all month and then giving it all back in one night. I cannot stress enough, you need to treat this like a business! Every month I place on an excel spreadsheet what I have made at individual poker sites. I then cash out the funds and let my CPA tell me what I have after taxes. If I gamble with those funds so be it, that is my money. But if you are going to make it in this business you have to separate your playing money from your affiliate money. They are not just one in the same........period. Make yourself a spreadsheet so you can track your affiliate income. I do this for both my poker affiliate income as well as my poker bankroll.

I know this article may come off a bit harsh, but it is reality in this business especially for new affiliates. If you treat this like a business you will be thousands ahead in a twelve month period than if your just using your affiliate income to supplement your bankroll. Don't get me wrong fellas, I still have a few programs that my monthly income is play money and goes straight to the tables, but your big checks need to be going in your pocket before they hit any online card room.

Jeremy