Fans of the popular poker training site CardRunners can rejoice. Now, CardRunners, one of the training industry’s leaders, has introduced a full-fledged affiliate program designed to grow its user base even further. No affiliate program had existed on the site for the past six months.
CardRunners’ Lana Maier told Poker News Daily why she’s looking forward to growing the affiliate program and, consequently, the site’s membership: “CardRunners and Truly Free Poker Training are valuable tools for poker players of all stakes and games and we’re thrilled to pass some of that value along to affiliates. If you’re a site that’s in any way affiliated with poker, there’s no downside to joining our program. Not only will visitors to your site reap huge benefits, but as an affiliate, you can also be compensated.”
Speaking of compensation, CardRunners’ one-size-fits-all affiliate program awards $75 to an affiliate if a player signs up for a membership. The flat fee is paid when users click through banners that CardRunners provides and the marketing tools come in the most popular sizes. Text links are also available for websites that don’t employ heavy banner advertising.
The folks at CardRunners are also the masterminds behind Truly Free Poker Training, which launched back in January 2009. The program, which originally offered free training on CardRunners and StoxPoker, now focuses wholly on the former. Players who rack up 5,500 Full Tilt Points (FTPs) can receive a one month CardRunners membership. In addition, 25% incremental memberships are available. No points are taken out of a person’s Full Tilt Poker account to redeem free training; rather, FTPs are merely a way to keep track of a player’s activity.
In addition to offering up a referral fee to affiliates whose members sign up for poker training, CardRunners is doling out a bounty for new Truly Free Poker Training customers. Text found in the affiliate backend of CardRunners explains, “As an affiliate, you will receive $6.25 per week that a referral earns a week of free poker training with Truly Free Poker Training. Each referral is capped at $25.”
In the past, CardRunners had forged different affiliate arrangements with each partner, creating a patchwork group of promoters. Now, every old partner must reapply in order to become an affiliate. Each applicant is fully vetted by CardRunners officials and the new program, despite its infancy, has caught on like wildfire. In fact, Maier told Poker News Daily that CardRunners had quadrupled the number of affiliates since launching the revamped program. Referring sites are paid out on the first of every month via PayPal.
In other news from CardRunners, the site is preparing to announce the finalists in its Video Challenge, which panned out in June. One finalist per day will be revealed, with the final one coming on Friday. Then, CardRunners members will be able to begin voting on who they think should be crowned the contest’s champion, a distinction that comes with a $5,000 cash reward.
On Monday, Jason “Nikachu” Zaczek’s inaugural poker video was the first finalist to be introduced. Today, Bryce Paradis’ $5/$10 Six-Max Limit Hold’em video, which runs for 45 minutes, was introduced as the second finalist. One video per day will be announced on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday before voting begins. Each video can be viewed in its entirety on CardRunnersVideoChallenge.com.
The second place submission in the video contest will receive $2,500, while third place will take home $1,000. The fourth place video’s creator will bank $500, while the final video will net someone a deluxe poker chip set valued at $175.
