Quote:
Originally Posted by walkby
I would be surprised if a poker site could get $1 per 1000 ad views for showing ads, which is a common metric for online ad revenue. On table ads would probably pay much lower. Also players probably wouldn't like products being shoved down their throats while playing poker, this is a reasonable attitude and (I think) would likely extend to any cross product monetization a site might think of.
Why do this when you can just follow the industry standard of raking pots and buy-ins?
I'd like to focus on the bolded part of your post (emphasis mine). I don't buy this argument. Do you think people generally liked having products 'shoved down their throats' when tv or radio first came out? Well, probably not, but that doesn't mean that the concept wasn't successful.
And I wouldn't do basic ads; not enough money in it. I would go with highly targeted stuff. More ideas (just ideas, I'm not saying all of them will work):
Do full commercial breaks for the entire site, so everyone playing is watching the same thing at the same time. Make them interactive and rewards based.
Sign up for newsletter, gain access to special freeroll. Agree to watch a 30 minute sales pitch via Skype, get rakeback for a week. Buy a product, get xyz. Give players chance to become affiliates. Make rewards based on chance to mitigate cost. For example, bet on your next flop and if 7 hits you get reward, if not you get whammy.
Let players buy and sell rewards. Let players play for rewards and the house rakes a portion.
Have sponsor funded tournaments with the condition of cash out to be to get a phone call from a sales rep.
Have cash outs forced to go through interactive video prior to getting funds with the opportunity to spend some of the funds on products (I guarantee this would be very valuable for almost any company to participate in). Reward the buyers accordingly.