Gambling affiliates programs are notorious for their strict terms which allow them to change to aspects of affiliate contracts at any point in time. Reduction in Revenue Ladders, Negative Carry-Over, Minimum Activity Quotas, these are just some of the results of programs having the power to add new rules to their contracts. For a long time now, small affiliates have been taking the brunt of these rulesets, and this has sparked talks within the affiliate community about forming unions to protect their rights. However, not until recently has anything come out of these talks, and smaller affiliates were still getting undermined by certain gambling programs.

The reason why most attempts at forming a union have failed, is that they tried to limit who an affiliate can work for. This only spells disaster, seeing as how most affiliates have differing opinions on what good or bad affiliate programs are. The website thepogg.com is trying out a different approach, and in their opinion, affiliate programs shouldn’t set boundaries on which programs its members can work for.

The way that they’ve envisioned it, the union would have very simple guidelines. Other than not limiting the affiliates in terms of which programs they can work with, the union would also give its members the ability to present an issue to the rest of its members. After all members have reviewed the case, a vote would be issued regarding what steps the union should take. Each affiliate, no matter the size, would be given one vote, and a majority of 55% would be needed to go forward with an action.

The usual action would simply be to publicize the wrongdoings of a certain program. This would be the case if a program made minor to medium offenses against an affiliate. After passing the 55% mark, all of those who’ve voted in favor of the motion would then publish a statement on their websites. Those who have voted against could chose not to go through with publishing a statement.

When an affiliate has suffered substantial losses because of the actions of a program, the resulting action would end up in a legal framework. If a majority decision is reached and the union sought to acquire legal advice, then all members will have to cover the costs. This means both those who have voted for, and those who have voted against the motion. After legal advice has been acquired and forwarded to all members, another vote would take place to decide whether the union should act on the legal advice. If the majority votes for the motion, the costs will again be split amongst all members. If at any point new substantial information is discovered, the union will have to vote on whether or not to move forward.

In this regard, a big enough gambling focused affiliate union could be a major game-changer in the world of affiliate marketing. Potential negative publications of bad actors in programs would be more than enough to provide a deterrent against the aforementioned malicious affiliate contract changes. Legal frameworks would also end up being much easier to handle when the costs are split amongst all members.

thepogg.com is currently holding open discussions about this topic, and they are looking for interested affiliates so that the Affiliate Union can finally come to fruition. This would mark the end of the era where nothing but forums could hold a potential solution to a problem that an affiliate might have. A union of affiliates would be much more effective, and would see significant results. If affiliates came together, then maybe legal challenges like this one, would have more weight behind it with less risk of a single affiliate having to endure a large legal bill.