The TopRanked.io Weekly Digest: What’s Hot in Affiliate Marketing [++ Ole777 Affiliates Review]

Quick Disclosure: We’re about to tell you the Ole777 afiliate program is pretty great. And we really mean it. Just know that if you click on an Ole777 affiliate program link, we may earn a small commission. Your choice.

It’s that time of the year again when the Christmas movies start doing the rounds.

And, if you’re anything like me, it’s all a little nostalgia-inducing and makes you want to resurface other things you haven’t seen in a while.

Like this:

Or how about a category of affiliate program that we haven’t covered in the TopRanked affiliate digest for a while?

Sounds good?

Topranked.io Affiliate Program of the Week — Ole777

Okay, so maybe we have covered a casino and sports book semi-recently (one month ago, to be precise when we covered Bovada).

But, in the world we live in, a month is a long time.

Plus, that Merrymen song made me think of another great casino affiliate program that we’ve never covered here.

That casino is, of course, none other than Ole, Ole… Ole, Ole777.

Okay, the name’s just Ole777. But I couldn’t resist.

Now for the serious stuff.

Ole777 — A Crypto Casino That People Will Love

While casinos are a dime a dozen these days, good crypto casinos that people will actually love are still not that common.

Fortunately, Ole777 answers the call.

Ole777 also accepts players from most countries (United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and the Philippines are restricted… everything else is fair game), and they can deposit in either Bitcoin BTC, Ethereum ETH, Tether USDT, USDC, or BUSD.

As for the games on offer, there are too many to list here, so how about I just list the providers Ole777 works with instead?

• Pragmatic Play
• Asia Gaming
• Evolution Gaming
• Sexy Casino
• IM Sports
• IM E-Sports
• Pinnacle Sports

And hopefully, that also gives you a pretty good idea about the sorts of stuff you can promote when working with Ole777 (it’s way more than just slots).

Ole777 — A Crypto Casino That Affiliates Will Love

When it comes to rewarding affiliates, Ole777 operates on what’s called a Net Gaming Revenue basis.

This is basically to say that Ole777 calculates your commission based on the “net” revenue you bring in for the company rather than the “gross” revenue. (e.g., if a player deposits $100 but then wins back $100, your net revenue would be zero). Also, Ole777 has “negative carry” (if your players result in a net loss for Ole777 in any given month, that loss is carried over to the next month).

Now, that might sound like a rough deal (it’s not… it’s pretty standard). But, before you make up your mind about Ole777, take a look at the commission structure.

Number of active players	Net Gaming Revenue (NGR)for the month (USDT)	Commission %
3	100	35%
8	50,000	45%
20	100,000	50%

Those are some pretty healthy commissions.

Ole777 — A Crypto Casino That TopRanked.io Loves

When evaluating affiliate programs, one of the things we like to look out for is the programs that have “gotchas”.

And that means we usually end up reading the stuff no one else will, like the T&Cs.

Lucky for us, Ole777 gets another tick in the plus column here, with one of the shortest, most polite T&Cs we’ve ever seen.

I mean, how many times can you get through a T&Cs page in one sitting?

And how many times do you see the word “please” in a company’s legal documents?

Well, I just got through the Ole777 T&Cs in one sitting. And I even saw the word “please”.

Oh, and by the way, there isn’t anything we wouldn’t expect to see in any other affiliate program’s T&Cs, so Ole777 passes on that front, too.

Ole777 — Learn More, or Sign Up Here

If you want a bit more information on Ole777, take a look at TopRanked.io for our full Ole777 Affiliates review.

Or, to get started now, head to the Ole777 affiliate site here.

Affiliate News Takeaways

“Dangerous” Disinformation Ramping Up — Here’s How You Can Profit

For a long time now, we’ve been hearing about the threat of “dangerous” AI-generated “misinformation” at hyper-scale in the upcoming election.

Now it looks like it’s finally here.

This week, the NYT did a giant exposé on a “group [that] traffics freely in misinformation, artificial intelligence and digital forgeries known as deepfakes.”

This group in question here is none other than the Dilley Meme Team. And, if the NYT is to be believed, the situation is “ominous” given that memes are “Cheap to make… free to distribute, [and] are largely unconstrained by regulations about accuracy, fairness and transparency that apply to television and radio advertising.”

Sounds dangerous, doesn’t it?

Now, I will admit that the “ominous” part wasn’t actually said by the NYT. It was a quote included in the article.

But, that quote was selected for a reason. And, just in case anyone thinks I’m leaving vital context out, here’s the quote in full as it appears in the NYT:

“It’s ominous.”

Okay, that still sounds just as bad.

But that’s fine.

As I once heard an unnamed election official say, “When there’s an ominous threat to the democratic electoral system, it’s time to start making money.”

(Okay, I just made that one up… but read on, there is money to be made.)

What’s under the hood of this “ominous” misinformation movement?

If you poke around under the hood of this “ominous” threat group that’s spinning up hyper-scale misinformation with AI and deep fakes, the threat suddenly becomes a lot softer.

As it turns out, they really are just meme-ing.

And hilariously so.

Take this running “AOC farts” joke, for example.

Wow, now we know why AOC wants to Tax The Rich.
🌬️🔊 pic.twitter.com/GfVlgATM44

— drefanzor memes (@drefanzor) October 20, 2023

Here’s another one:

'BREAKING' NEWS: Eric Swalwell comments on authenticity of #AOCFartGate : https://t.co/fB9myWPOp8 pic.twitter.com/AKArxN6ieq

— drefanzor memes (@drefanzor) October 13, 2023

And here’s a random tangent that’ll teach you something

Personally, I think what the “ominous” meme army is up to is hilarious. Sadly, however, I don’t think the NYT would agree. Not that I’m suggesting their editors can’t appreciate a good fart.

You see, the current scientific theory of what makes something funny (and yes, there are people who research this stuff) is that a “joke” must meet two criteria:

1. There is an expectancy violation.
2. The violation occurs in a benign situation.

Now, the AOC fart joke certainly violates our expectations of AOC.

But, if you believe this sort of memeing constitutes dangerous misinformation, as I’m sure the NYT does, then I guess the situation isn’t so benign.

And that, in itself, is almost a hilarious situation.

Why almost?

Well, when someone says with a straight face that a bunch of trolls making potty-humor deep fakes is an “ominous” situation, that certainly violates my expectations.

After all, shouldn’t that whole “would a reasonable person believe this is a verifiable fact” principle that applies to a bunch of stuff (e.g., defamation laws) also apply here?

I think it does.

But, unfortunately, following NYT’s logic, meme’s like this are now dangerous misinformation.

And, as such, the expectancy violation condition — condition #1 for humor — has been met.

As for the other half of the humor equation… well, that’s where the lulz stop.

I’m sure, if there’s one thing folks on all sides of the political spectrum can agree on, creating a climate of FUD is never a good thing for democracy.

Especially when that FUD is over a bunch of kids making fart jokes.

And that makes this sort of reporting… shall we say, “ominous”.

Benign conditions — condition #2 for humor — not met.

Oh, and as for why we’re performing this humor analysis here, that’s because… marketing.

Sometimes, understanding the baser human instincts is helpful if you’re trying to sell something.

And now that you understand the fundamental principles of humor — violate expectations, but keep it benign — you hopefully have another tool to use when you want to sell more stuff.

(You can learn more about this theory “theory of humor” here. And you can put it into practice by analyzing the Kimmy J meme above.)

Takeaway

So, the kids are making “AOC farts” memes, and the NYT would like to imply that’s dangerous. That’s the story.

What’s this got to do with affiliate marketing?

Honestly, probably not much (unless you want to try some political memeing to get some traffic).

But, seeing as you’re reading this, I can assume that your interests also include making money. And, if that’s the case, then maybe you might see the upcoming year-long storm of election memes as a chance to spin up some print-on-demand viral merch.

Follow what memes are trending, create some mockups, promote, print, ka-ching.

Apple Vision Pro to Launch

As you might have caught wind of back in September when Apple announced it, the Apple Vision Pro — Apple’s VR headset — is on the way.

Now, as 2024 approaches, so does its launch (early 2024). And that means, the hype is growing (if the amount of news reporting being dedicated to it is a good indication).

For now, a lot of that reporting is about things like first “hands-on experiences” with “spatial video”. or Apple Story staff getting special training for this “high-stakes endeavor.”

And then there’s the meta-reporting, like this captivating headline from MacRumors: “Journalists Detail Seeing Their Own Spatial Videos on Apple Vision Pro.”

Cool. An article reporting about reporting. (Oh, wait, hold on… isn’t that what this entire news section is about? Well, hey, at least we’re telling you how to use the news to make money.)

But, as much as a lot of the news is really only interesting for Apple fanboys and tech nerds, there have been a couple of interesting things crop up.

• Low-end estimates suggest Apple could sell 400k units in year one. (source)
• Other companies have already started announcing accessories they’ll be creating for the headset. (source)

And that, to me, smells like money.

Takeaway

There are a couple of opportunities here.

The first is to start promoting Apple Vision Pro accessories. I’m sure you’ll find a bunch of affiliate programs around as the ecosystem grows. And, if you don’t find a bunch of programs, I’m sure you’ll at least find a bunch of products on Amazon Associates for something like that.

The other way to make money off of this is to start targeting other products at the (potential) 400k Apple Vision Pro users that are about to appear over the next year.

As an example of what I mean here, let’s consider what someone does once they have their headset.

Presumably, they’re gonna wanna do stuff with it, like, I don’t know, watch porn and gamble money. That means they’re gonna need someone to tell them the best way to do this.

And that means you can inform them that Ole777 has some pretty immersive live dealer gaming experiences (yeah, there’s no VR, but just leave that part out and up in lots of adjectives about immersion). Put the right spin on it, and maybe you’ll snare a few Apple Vision Pro users away from the hyper-competitive “best online casino” niches.

Google to Phase Out 3rd Party Cookies

Speaking of things that are happening in early 2024, the humble third-party cookie is about to take its final breath.

Well, okay, maybe not in early 2024.

But, Google will begin the initial rollout for Chrome in Q1 (starting with just 1% of users), with the full phase-out to begin mid-Q3.

Here’s the timeline straight from the G itself.

Now, as for what this phase-out means for you, an affiliate, the answer is “probably not much.”

And as for what it means for big ad tech companies, again, the answer is “probably not much.” (Tracking users is like skinning cats — there’s more than one way to do it.)

And as for what this means for those annoying “cookie” notices, again, the answer is “probably not much.” (Despite people calling the GDPR/CPRA/etc. “cookie laws”, they cover a lot more than just cookies — remember that thing about dropping cats and skinning cookies…)

So then, if the net effect of third-party cookies going the way of the dodo is “probably not much”, then what’s the point of telling you about it?

Well, you didn’t think Google would let the phase-out pass by without bringing us some new ad-targeting tech, did you?

Of course they wouldn’t.

Meet the Topics API.

In a nutshell, the Topics API is a little hook in Chrome browsers that allows websites (yes, any website) to retrieve a list of interests from the user. And that list is created (and stored) by the user’s Chrome installation based on the websites they browse.

Takeaway

The Topics API means that you, the humble affiliate, now have the sort of power that used to only belong to giant ad networks and data brokers. And that power is, quite literally, just a couple of lines of javascript away.

Now, of course, what you do with the data once you have it might need a bit more work. But this is the kinda work that could very well pay off.

For example, the entire sports category has 32 individual “taxonomies” including everything from cheerleading to cricket (along with more familiar ones like baseball, American football, etc.).

That would allow you to serve up custom creatives on, let’s say, a site dedicated to sports betting. Match the image in the banner to the user’s interest, and you might just get a bunch more clicks.

Let’s see what else we can do with these interest group “taxonomies”. (The full list is available here.)

Maybe laser-targeted creatives across 32 subcategories sounds like too much work. So how about something simpler?

Take Ole777, for example. They’ve got four simple categories — slots, eSports, live casino, and sports.

Think you can handle four? Good.

Now imagine someone lands on your Ole777 review page with these interests showing up in their Topics API.

• /Games/Computer & Video Games/Casual Games
• /Hobbies & Leisure/Fiber & Textile Arts
• /People & Society/Family & Relationships/Ancestry & Genealogy

This is someone who’s probably more likely to be tempted by some Ole777 slot action than eSports betting.

And now you know what to do (serve them up some Ole777 creatives featuring slots).

Threads Launches in EU

Speaking of things that everyone knows about but not everyone uses, let’s talk about Threads.

Yesterday, Zuck announced Threads is coming to the EU.

Post by @zuck

View on Threads

Oh, and it also now apparently has 100 million monthly users. (That news is a couple of weeks old, but we never mentioned it before).

And Zuck also announced that Threads is finally rolling into the Fediverse.

Post by @zuck

View on Threads

Oh, and as for what this means for the future of X, who knows?

We do know, however, that Musk recently predicted the advertiser boycott’s “going to kill the company.” But that prediction came literally one minute after he told advertisers to go f*** themselves, so maybe he’s not that concerned.

Takeaway

No big takeaways here, aside from saying that, if you think a Threads-type crowd in the EU would suit whatever you’re selling, now’s your chance to get an early-mover advantage and start building some clout.

As for the Fediverse front, we’ve done enough Fediverse coverage over the last year to keep you entertained for a while. Here’s a few articles:

• Our Seeking Alpha edition where we first announced Meta was coming to the Fediverse.
• Our StormGain edition where we gave a pretty broad overview of the Fediverse and what it means for social media.
• Our Cam Soda edition, where we covered WordPress entering the Fediverse.
• Our Textmagic edition where we cover Mozilla’s entry into the Fediverse, along with a bunch of other observations about the current state of social media.

And as for X, that’s gonna hang around for a while, don’t you worry.

And, just quietly, if you’re ever wondering about what you should test out in the Fediverse, my first recommendation would be something that’s also got “decentralized” vibes about it. Like, maybe something crypto-adjacent… like Ole777 (a crypto casino).

Covid Comeback

Oh, by the way, in case you missed it, Covid’s making a comeback.

Takeaway

So, this isn’t quite newsy news (as in, it’s been slowly making its comeback for a little while… but the FUD has spiked recently). And, I don’t usually like to suggest that making money off a pandemic is a good thing to do.

But then I thought, hey, that’s what pharmaceutical companies do. So why can’t we?

So take a look around. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of products whose sales will spike in the coming months. (So make sure you’re the one driving the clicks to places selling them.)

Alternatively, you could also start promoting to people who are self-isolating. After all, they need something to do when stuck at home, and I hear Ole777 fits the “something to do at home” criteria perfectly

Closing Thought

If you’ve ever spent much time in novelty stores or countryside markets in France, then there’s a good chance you would have seen one of these T-shirts (or one of several hundred “J’peux pas, j’ai…” variants).

As for what’s the meaning of these T-shirts, they basically translate to “I can’t [come to your thing], I have [something better to do]”. And that something better is usually something like video gaming or some other socially unacceptable excuse for backing out of something.

But that’s beside the point.

The real point is, if you’ve ever noticed these t-shirts are everywhere in markets and stores, then you probably also realized that you never actually saw anyone wearing them.

That’s something I noticed.

And, until thoughts of “Oh right, I have to buy people Christmas gifts soon” started popping into my head, that thought was a non-event.

But then I realized something.

The fact these t-shirts are everywhere and nowhere says something.

You see, clearly, these t-shirts must sell, or else people wouldn’t persist with selling them.

But if no one is wearing them, then who’s buying them?

Then it dawned on me.

Every year, there are a whole bunch of people who buy people unwanted presents. Birthdays, Christmas, bar/bat mitzvahs… the list goes on.

And, if my theory is correct, these t-shirts survive based on these sorts of sales alone — sales to, let’s say, little old ladies who think their 15-year-old grandson will think they’re hip because they gifted a gaming t-shirt with attitude.

And this makes me think — next time you’re creating a gift guide (if that’s something you do), consider this: instead of trying to match the gift to the recipient, maybe it would be more powerful (from a driving sales perspective) to match the gift to the image the giver wants to create for themselves in the recipient’s mind. Either that, or think about matching the gift to the givers’ biases and perceptions about what the receiver might like.

Either way, there are a thousand products whose existence wouldn’t be a thing if it weren’t for gifting, so it’s not always about selling to the audience that you’d think the product was intended for.

And this doesn’t just apply to novelty items either.

Take Ole777, for example.

Maybe slot-loving grandma doesn’t like online gaming. Maybe she only plays slots for the free drinks and in-person ambiance.

That doesn’t mean you can’t convince little Billy the kid grandson that Grandma wouldn’t love a fully-funded Ole777 account for Christmas.

__

(Featured image by SevenStorm JUHASZIMRUS via Pexels)

DISCLAIMER: This article was written by a third party contributor and does not reflect the opinion of Born2Invest, its management, staff or its associates. Please review our disclaimer for more information.

This article may include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words “believe,” “project,” “estimate,” “become,” “plan,” “will,” and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks as well as uncertainties, including those discussed in the following cautionary statements and elsewhere in this article and on this site. Although the Company may believe that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, the actual results that the Company may achieve may differ materially from any forward-looking statements, which reflect the opinions of the management of the Company only as of the date hereof. Additionally, please make sure to read these important disclosures.