and the Gaffg Awards Winners 2018 are ...

Presenting the 2018 winners of the Gaffg Awards is, nobody!

That is right after 8 years I have decided to stop doing the awards for multiple reasons.

• Gaffg shift in focus on reviews
• Too many awards
• Keeping the awards credible
• Gaffg Awards summary
• Focus on StatsDrone

Gaffg shift in focus on reviews

Gaffg does affiliate program reviews but those reviews would often include a status of recommended or not recommended and in the past few years that would include a rating. The ratings were influenced by feedback from a few affiliates in either checking their ratings or simply networking. Our ratings tried to reflect this as much as possible but we are now allowing affiliates to directly rate and review affiliate programs they like or don’t like.

Too Many Awards

By no means is this post meant to target the credibility of all other awards but there are simply too many. For me, I care to hear from my peers directly on their experience with the program and that is how I decide how much I want to work with a program or not.

Keeping the awards credible

I’ve lost track of how many awards exists these days for affiliate programs and gambling operators. As much as I see how some companies that host their own awards attempt to be transparent and make them fair and credible, it is fairly difficult to keep them credible. I do think affiliates should be the ones that are more responsible for which affiliate program deserves to win an award but this process can always be criticized. For example if only one program can win out of hundreds of competitors, doesn’t 2nd place mean anything? Also does campaigning of an affiliate program help that program win?

I think in order to get an accurate set of awards, we would need as many affiliates participating and this is simply never going to happen.

Gaffg Awards Summary

Over the years, I don’t feel the Gaffg awards have ever been compromised but always felt that risks always exists.

• Don’t get enough affiliates voting, the results can be skewed and the credibility questioned.
• Make it a bigger deal and risk having programs doing aggressive campaigning to try to get as many votes as possible and having the awards compromised in that manner

I’m happy with the results and winners over the years but I have to admit, year after year I always worried that a program would come out of nowhere and get a lot of votes because they campaigned too hard.

Previous Awards Winners

• Gaffg Awards Winners 2017
• Gaffg Awards Winners 2016
• Gaffg Awards Winners 2015
• Gaffg Awards Winners 2014
• Gaffg Awards Winners 2013
• Gaffg Awards Winners 2012
• Gaffg Awards Winners 2011

A voice for affiliates

Overall we don’t work with all programs ourselves so it should always be up to affiliates to share programs that they do like and trust. Even though our awards were decided by affiliates, the awards comes off as if Gaffg was the one giving those ratings and recommendations. Instead we will simply allow affiliates to rate and review affiliate programs and rather than announcing which programs are the best, we are giving affiliates a means of learning from each with peer reviews.

Focus on StatsDrone

Last but not least my main focus for this year and beyond will be on building the StatsDrone app for webmasters. Gaffg will still exist and provide affiliate program reviews, but the ratings and reviews will be left to affiliates. StatsDrone is finally launching in beta version and I will be more focused on software tools for webmasters like this one.