ND bonus vs. deposit vs. deposit 3rd party

pcz · #1 12-17-2007, 06:13 AM

Hi!

I have a poker site and I am mainly concentrating on no deposit bonuses. Some guys told me that I would get more money if I would concentrate on deposit bonuses.

IMO no deposit bonuses attract more players.

My question is: what is worth more promoting?

bahh · #2 12-17-2007, 07:04 AM

No deposit bonuses will only attract bonus whores and will give you bad player values IMO..

pokerforfree · #3 12-17-2007, 07:56 AM

In my case, "poker for free" I get a lot of players signing up for some kind of free poker cash, but I educate them

- how to become a real money player,
- how to make the most out of it when depositing,
- etc.

Through newsletters I try to keep them motivated and interested in other rooms.

The value in this players is initially very low, that's correct, but after a while even these players might turn into depositors.

I can say that now about 10% convert into RMP's and even a few that make significant deposits.

Then again, I saw a $200 Added being cancelled yesterday because only 13 players registered.

Cheers,

Giorgio

pcz · #4 12-20-2007, 10:19 AM

other opinions?

DealerDan · #5 12-20-2007, 12:28 PM

Basically just covering what has already been mentioned, but you'll be very lucky to get any good players(initially) from people that are looking for no deposit bonuses. Your demographics are either going to be super-cheap bonus whores, or new players. Neither of these two will usually make you any money, as the new players will lose it very fast, and the super-cheap bonus whores most probably will too, or work it up just enough to make a withdrawal and they'll move on. If you get lucky, you'll get a new player who while loses the money, gets hooked and keeps depositing, and if the poker room is a good one, via their marketing will stick around and play. But for every 1 of those players you'll get, 999 others will be useless.

As Giorgio said though - you can try to educate these players. If I was doing it I wouldn't be just saying "Hey heres some free cash", I'd be using the free cash as an addition to a site or guide. Like a step by step guide to get people to be better poker players, and once you've taught them the basics, introduce the free money sites. This is long-term though.

Jeremy · #6 12-20-2007, 02:35 PM

In a best case scenario you can negotiate a unique bonus and landing page with the room just for your site.

Otherwise it's usually O.K. just to use the standard bonus. I would stay as far away as possible to no deposit bonuses if you are on CPA. On MGR I guess it's ok, just don't expect your player values to be over a couple dollars a piece.

pokerforfree · #7 12-20-2007, 06:09 PM

I agree with Jeremy there, no deposit bonus = no CPA! Speaking about Revenue Share, even no deposit players can convert into players that bring in a decent amount of revenue.

For instance, I promote the VC Poker free cash deal (which is the only no deposit deal on my site). Instead of other sites with similar promotions, they let you earn a share on the money they give away before a player has deposited. That's great, and you will see some serious players as well since they give away some more money when players generate the required amount of points. I'm definitely not talking High Stakes here, but lots of Micro Stakes players together count too.

Besides no deposit bonuses, my site performs really well with instants bonuses. As I said in my earlier reply, it's all about educating your players not wasting their first deposit bonus by going solely for the free cash. I try to explain them to get the most out of their first deposit bonus at all times, and it seems to work.

If I would do it all over, I would not go for "Poker For Free" again, still I do believe that "even pro's might have learned the game by playing freerolls". In general, my players take some more time to convert into RMP's, but eventually the will and the conversion rate of 10% is comparable to most other sites.

So it's all about how you approach you players.

Cheers,

Giorgio

"People turn 18 every day, new poker players are born every day."

pcz · #8 12-21-2007, 03:27 AM

seem that most of you promote the deposit bonuses?
How much money do you earn this way? How many visits doyou get/day?

I make ~$600/month with my no deposit bonuses. I have 150-300 visits a day.

Aidan · #9 12-21-2007, 07:41 AM

The no deposit bonus is the most attracting bonus out of the 3 for inexperienced poker players. The only way I would offer this type of promotion is to big sites like FT, Stars, Party etc. Because most likely they will end up playing at those sites if they become a decent poker player. But these no deposit bonuses have never worked for me. Then again have never really tried using them.

The poopy thing about promoting the normal room poker bonus is that everyone else offers it and the player may feel he isn't getting anything special out of it. But this is definitely a better way to go, then the no deposit bonus.

The PAW/Freerolls are a great promo! However, its really hard to get the offer across. Peoples attention spams are so low that they probably won't even read the entire info of the offer. A lot of people do not know what freerolls are and might get discourage knowing they have to earn so many points. Although, they players that sign up under this promotion will most likely be of higher value then the no deposit bonus and the regular bonus.