The TopRanked.io Weekly Digest: What’s Hot in Affiliate Marketing [Gambling Affiliation]

Quick Disclosure: We’re about to tell you how Gambling Affiliation is pretty great. And we really mean it. Just know that if you click on a Gambling Affiliation link, we may earn a small commission. Your choice.

Valentine’s Day is coming.

And that means millions of lonely singles will soon be partnering up with whoever they can in a desperate attempt to not be alone.

Of course, this isn’t without its risks.

Affiliating yourself with random strangers can always be a bit of a gamble.

So if you’re gonna partner up, play it safe.

TopRanked.io Affiliate Partner Program of the Week — Gambling Affiliation

While you shouldn’t gamble with your affiliations, that doesn’t mean you should affiliate with Gambling Affiliation.

And before you shout “but that doesn’t even make any sense”, let me introduce you to this week’s affiliate program of the week: Gambling Affiliation.

Here’s what you need to know.

Any Guesses What Gambling Affiliation Is All About?

So, who wants to take a stab at guessing what Gambling Affiliation is all about? (PS: If you want to cheat, click this link.)

Got your answer?

Good. I bet you only got it half right (unless you cliked on the Gambling Affiliation link I gave you before).

You see, while Gambling Affiliation is absolutely a place where you can go for iGaming and sportsbook offers, there’s also a bunch of other stuff too.

For example, Gambling Affiliation currently has an “Amazon Prime – Pass Ligue 1” campaign available in France.

Gambling Affiliation also has a bunch of offers from Kraken, Binance, and a few other crypto exchanges right now, too. And there’s even some more traditional financy stuff that’s not crypto, like payment solutions from Skrill, Neteller, and PaysafeCard.

Basically, Gambling Affiliation is your one-stop shop for all things affiliate offers.

And, yes, there are plenty of gambling offers, too. Including plenty of big names you probably already know and love, like Betway, 22Bet, 1xBet, Betclic, Betwinner, 888, etc., etc., you get the point…

Gambling Affiliation Comissions

Usually, it’s right about here that we like to detail the commissions you’ll be earning with our affiliate program of the week. But, with Gambling Affiliation, that’s gonna be kinda complicated… and really long.

If you read the above, then it should be obvious why — Gambling Affiliation is a giant network with literally undereds of offers from dozens of brands. And that means there’s a bunch of deals (CPA, Rev Share, Hybrid) paying at a bunch of different rates.

So, instead, I’m gonna cut this section short and simply say that, generally, the commissions at Gambling Affiliation are pretty competitive. And, if you account for the convenience of having everything all in one place and not having to sign up with a bunch of different affiliate programs, then Gambling Affiliation is actually really attractive.

And it also helps that you’ll only have one minimum payout threshold to hit (which is just 100 euros). 

Gambling Affiliation will pay this via bank wire, Skrill, Neteller, Paypal and Cryptocurrencies. Your choice.

Affiliate With Gambling Affiliation Here

That sums up the most important stuff to know. If you wanna know more, then head over to TopRanked.io for our full Gambling Affiliation affiliate program review.

Or, if you’re as impatient as me, just go direct to the source and sign up with Gambling Affiliation here.

News Takeaways

The Tay Tay Effect

Chances are, you’ve seen the name Taylor Swift around a lot lately.

And, if you haven’t seen the name, then you’ve probably seen the nudes, which have already whipped lawmakers into a frenzy… such is Tay Tay’s influence.

And it’s not just deepfakes either. (PS: Take note of the NFL connection in the above picture — it’s important later.)

Take the latest fiasco in the enshittification of TikTok, for example.

For background, TikTok and Universal Music Group (UMG) were supposed negotiate for a new deal. UMG didn’t like TikTok’s terms, so they pulled their catalog from the platform in a giant hissy fit.

And today, #SwiftTok makes front page news because, well… she’s apparently the only thing in music that matters right now.

But all of the above is besides the point.

If you want to jerk… I mean… “Shake it Off” to a Tay Tay deepfake, that’s totally your choice. Here, we’re more interested in how TS is gonna make us money.

Let’s Make Hay With Tay Tay

As it turns out, the Tay Tay influence is making waves in other industries, too. And this is where you can make some money.

Take this Morning Consult Pro survey that came out yesterday, for example. Here’s a copy-paste of the takeaways:

• Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Gen Z and millennial women held a favorable view of the NFL in December, an all-time high in Morning Consult tracking among that demographic. 
• Women’s interest in the NFL has been on the uptick for years, but notable growth in recent months coincides with the start of a public relationship between pop superstar Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
• The NFL should capitalize on this momentum — beyond just game-shots of Swift — and the very girl-forward climate on the internet right now, by creating conversations that women want to engage with around the game.

Now, all of those points you should take note of,  with one exception — the third point about how “the NFL should capitalize on this momentum.”

Instead, you should modify that one to read “affiliate marketers should capitalize on this momentum…”. Once you’ve done that, you can then take note.

Takeaway

Now, in case you were asleep before, let’s recap.

Right now, Taylor Swift is big business.

And that’s making the NFL even bigger business with Gen Z and Millennial women.

And, in case you’ve been living under a rock, the Kansas City Chiefs are playing in this year’s Super Bowl.

And, in case you missed, Travis Kelce — Tay Tay’s boyfriend — plays for the Kansas City Chiefs.

That’s kinda sorta maybe a big opportunity… if only you had the right way to monetize it.

As for how you can monetize it, let’s get one thing straight — her fans aren’t exactly kids anymore. Or, at least, most of them aren’t — they’re Millenials and Gen Z. And half of Gen Z is over the age of 18 now.

That means a really strongly affiliated product like, let’s say, a sportsbook would be a great option.

Give some pitch about how fans can “support Tay Tay’s BF.” Then send them to one of the many Gambling Affiliation partner programs.

You Wouldn’t Steal a Car…

If you’ve been alive at any point in Hollywood’s time, then there’s a good chance you’ve noticed something — Hollywood is in a perpetual panic over piracy.

Kinda like that time when Universal Pictures sued Sony way back in the dark ages of the VHS vs Betamax wars. Their claim was that Sony, “by selling its Betamax VCR, was a party to copyright infringement.”

And, of course, this piracy panic has continued to rage on through the decades, perhaps most famously with the “You Wouldn’t Steal a Car” campaign that’s been a recurring meme since it first appeared in the mid-2000s.

Fast forward to today, and the latest panic is over illegal streaming services. You know, the “Put Lockers” and other assorted “value brand” streaming platforms of the world.

New Year, Same Old Problem

Now, of course, pirate streaming platforms aren’t exactly a new problem. What it is, however, is an old problem that’s getting reheated again for 2024.

Why?

Simple.

Apparently, piracy has been on a pretty steady rise since 2020.

This rise, according to the Motion Picture Association (MPA), is creating a market where the “pirates” are achieving “profit margins approaching 90%” in a market worth “$2 billion a year in ads and subscriber fees”.

Now, as for why the “piracy” market has been on the rise, that’s not so important here. But, for the sake of offering something, here’s a quick meme from 2019 — just before the uptick — that offers one explanation.

As for what is actually important here, that’s simple.

First, rewind back a little — back to that bit about “profit margins approaching 90%” in a market worth “$2 billion a year in ads and subscriber fees”.

And second, look at that nice little line-goes-up chart from before — piracy is a growing market.

That means two things. 1) There’s more traffic to be captured, and; 2) There’s money to be made off of that traffic.

And, if you have any idea what this weekly affiliate marketing digest is all about, then you also know those are two things that makes our ears perk up.

Now, obviously, I’m not about to suggest you should start up your own pirate streaming platform.

And I’m not saying that because of some sense of “moral duty” to not “steal residuals” from hardworking creatives. Hollywood’s shell games and accounting practices already do that for you (it’s called “Hollywood Accounting”), meaning the moral crime here is more akin to pickpocketing a bank robber than it is to stealing food from a starving child’s plate.

What I am saying, however, is that there are probably a dozen different ways you can capture and monetize traffic that’s looking for pirated content without actually pirating the content…

…and if you do want to go ahead and pirate Hollywood content, then no moral judgments from me. (But don’t expect the same leniency from Hollywood’s lawyers…)

Takeaway

Here’s what you need to take away:

1. Hollywood says piracy traffic is on the up.
2. Hollywood says this traffic is profitable.

As for how you target and monetize this traffic, that’s up to you.

But, in case you’re completely new to this affiliate marketing caper, let’s play out one scenario.

• Step 1: Create thousands of SEO-optimized pages targeting popular movies like, let’s say, “Rambo streaming online free”.
• Step 2: Advertise affiliate offers on your SEO-optimized pages.

And as for what you’ll use for step 2, one obvious tie-in are the dozens of movie-themed slot games available, most of which you’ll find available among the Gambling Affiliation network of iGaming brands.

Google Maps Gets LLMs

In the latest installment in Big G’s fight to catch up in the race to cram AI into every imaginable nook and cranny, we’re about to get a “new way to discover places with generative AI in Maps.”

Obviously, this shouldn’t need too much explanation by now. We all know the AI playbook — make a chat box, let people type something into said chatbox, have an LLM return something in response, and voila, you just revolutionized/reimagined the internet.

But, just in case you’re having trouble imagining how this will work, here’s the demo Google provided.

Now, at the moment, details of precisely what’s going on under the hood here are pretty sparse (Google just announced this feature today). That means, for now, the best we have to go on is this line:

“Our AI models will analyze Maps’ rich information about nearby businesses and places along with photos, ratings and reviews from the Maps community to give you trustworthy suggestions.”

Google also says the feature is limited to their “passionate community of Local Guides as [they] shape the future of Maps together.”

Which means, unless you’re a local guide, you’re gonna have to wait to start playing around with it.

What Should I Make of This?

I’m sure we’re all champing at the bit to let Big G take us on an LLM-guided tour around all the “places with a vintage vibe in SF.”

But, until then, there’s something I’m going to be focussing my attention on instead — AIO (AI optimization).

Now, when we first covered AIO (AI optimization) way back in the early days of ChatGPT mania, here’s how we described it:

“It will be just like SEO. But, instead of trying to rank on the first page of Google, you’ll be trying to rank in an AI chatbot’s top-six list of [insert companies/products/etc.] you should evaluate.”

As for how this is different from SEO, chances are it’s going to be a lot like keyword optimization, but without actually directly optimizing for that keyword.

To explain what I mean, take the “vintage vibe in SF” thing from above. That’s an example Google gave in its announcement. And it [Google] reckons a query like this will return things like “clothing stores, vinyl shops and flea markets”.

And I’m going to take a wild guess here and say these results will have little to do with the explicit existence of “vintage vibes” in any of the reviews/descriptions for any of the returned businesses. Instead, it will probably have more to do with the existence of words like “second hand clothing”, “classic records”, and other associated terms in the reviews/descriptions.

Takeaway

When we first introduced the idea of AIO (AI optimization), we said “trying to manipulate AI responses is going to be more the preserve of companies themselves. As an affiliate, there’s little interest here.”

And, today, one year later, I still stand by this.

But that’s not to say there isn’t an opportunity here.

You see, since then, the idea of AIO has kinda started to catch on — there’s plenty of content about it out there now. But there’s not a lot of specific content — it’s all “think pieces”. No one’s telling you “here’s how to optimize for Google Maps LLMs.”

Your job, then, is to tell people how to optimize their business for Google Maps LLMs. Then promote them a bunch of related tools with affiliate links, of course.

Now, of course, there are’t really any AIO tools around right now. But you could always put a spin on SEO tools, like Surfer SEO and sell that. (They’ve got a good affiliate program, click the link to see our review.)

Or, if you feel like getting really crazy, maybe start listing fake businesses/landmarks/etc. on Google Maps. Here’s how to do it for “missing places” on Android.

If you want to get really “creative”, maybe make up a “Taylor and Travis Tribute Statue”.

And make a website for it that you can link to.

Then monetize that website with, let’s say, a Gambling Affiliation partner that supports NFL betting. (Probably a bit of a strained idea, but hopefully it sets you in the right direction.)

Closing Thought

With Valentine’s Day closing in, I naturally did what every marketer does. I went looking for “insights”.

And then I found this.

Now, while interesting, knowing that women are more likely to be disappointed by Valentine’s Day than men isn’t all that useful on its own.

And, in the absence of answers from the survey itself, I did some more research, which led me to this: Key Findings: Male and Female Perception of Valentine’s Day.

And here is where men and women really differ.

When it comes to “perceived purpose”, men gave responses like how it’s an “obligation” or a “response to a commercial holiday.” And women skewed more towards response like “to be recognized”, “to develop closeness and intimacy”, etc.

Now, as for the takeaway here, I want to start with a strained theory here — maybe the Valentine’s “disappointment gap” has something to do with expectations vs reality.

On one side, some women are expecting Valentine’s Day will be all about “closeness” and “intimacy”. And on the other side, men are simply “responding to a commercial holiday.”

And as for how this theory relates to any sort of takeaway, it’s really kinda simple — it’s just a reminder that a bunch of platitudes we often hear might actually contain some measurable, data-backed truth to them.

For example:

• “Under promise, over deliver”
• “Stop relying on others for your own happiness”
• “Manage expectations…”
• Etc.

And as for how you can apply any of this to marketing, think about it like this.

If you’re promoting a program that’s got lifetime rev share, don’t set people up for too much disappointment.

How so?

Promise them just enough to entice, but not so much you disappoint.

That way, if you’re promoting on a rev share plan with a Gambling Affiliation brand, you’ll be more likely to drive referrals who stick around.

And that means more money for you.

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(Featured image by SevenStorm JUHASZIMRUS via Pexels)

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