To the casual observer making money from online poker might seem like a far-fetched fantasy. But hundreds if not thousands of people are. Most of whom do not own a poker site or work for them directly. Many of them may never have even visited a poker site. Dismissive persons may believe that such a program is just another of the Internets highly ineffective get rich quick schemes, but the truth is very different.
The affiliate industry is a way of for two parties to make serious money based on the success and skills of the others. A successful affiliate will draw in large numbers of visitors to their site and then pass them on to the poker company where they will hopefully choose to sign up. If the affiliate fails in their role of attracting visitors to the online poker forum they will receive no payments and therefore will not be maximising their profit capabilities. Therefore it is in the best interests of both parties that the affiliate does all they can to produce the fully signed up members to a poker site. The site gets their customers and the affiliate gets an income for the lifetime of that player. In return it is in the poker sites best interest to not only get new customers but to also keep them. By introducing bonuses, special games and other retaining ideas, the poker companies can keep a gamer interested for more time and therefore produce more money for the site. More money for the poker site also means more money for the affiliate, which makes almost everybody happy.
Most poker sites offer affiliate programs with varying offers and percentages of a player's lifetime value. Players create money for sites by entering tournaments, playing in hands with large rakes and by adding extra money to their account. So fundamentally all a player needs to do is play regularly to produce an income for the site. Therefore an affiliate can earn a cut of all this money made for the site. The percentage may range between 20 and 35% depending on the site and their individual affiliate plans. So when an affiliate can attract dozens or even hundreds of players and earn around 25% off of each ones money created, it is not hard to see how that money can soon add up to a fairly sizeable sum.
Once the affiliate has passed the player onto the respective poker site, their job is effectively done, for that player. They must then concentrate on attracting more and building on the initial success. There is no need for follow ups or extra work after finding a player, the job is done when the link is clicked on and a person signs up to a cash account. All the affiliate then needs to do is sit back and wait for the player to earn them some extra cash.