Make Money as a Big Fish Games Affiliate on Squidoo

Big Fish Games is the top place to play free online games and to download casual games. They are based in Seattle and work with over 500 game developers in order to bring out "A New Game Everyday." In addition to being one of the largest online game distributors, they have also created many blockbuster hits themselves including Mystery Case Files and Azada. They have a huge selection of games. Games that may come out exclusively on another website eventually makes it to Big Fish Games because BFG has a huge distribution network.

As a gamer, I certainly appreciate the enormous variety of downloadable games available. In addition to downloadable games, there's also a ton of completely free online games to play. However, perhaps the BEST thing about Big Fish Games is the price of the games. Sure, you can pay the full price of $19.99 for a casual game at some other site, but why would you?? All games on Big Fish are only $6.99!! This was a huge announcement that came out May 14, 2009. In fact, they got rid of their tiered membership system so everyone can get a game at the cheapest price with no future obligations.

Big Fish has the best customer service around. They respond promptly and are both knowledgeable and friendly. If you take a look in the forums, you will find a lot of people praising customer service at Big Fish.

If you want to take advantage of live chat help and getting tomorrow's game today, you should join Game Club. With Game Club, you automatically get a game credit every month for $6.99. Other member benefits will be announced soon.

There are two major ways to make money through Big Fish Games. Of course, it all comes down to selling games for the company. BUT, what makes BFG's affiliate program different from other programs is that you can also earn commission from the games that the new member you referred also sells. So, for example, you are Person A. You get Person B to join and buy a game. You get a 25% commission on that game. Now, Person B gets Person C to buy a game. You also get 25% of Person B's commission on that game! Both of the following programs are COMPLETELY FREE to join.

My Game Space
My Game Space is the consumer offering for affiliates. Meaning, if you want to be an affiliate but you don't have a website, you can use this premade site. For example, you can see my personal My Game Space. On My Game Space, you can send quick invites to your friends to invite them to make their own game space or just to buy a game you think is cool. You can customize the webpage with your favorite games, change text here and there, write reviews and so on. If you went over to my page, you'll see I really didn't do much with it. Hidden in the "My Game Space" tab once you've logged in is a place to get links to other games with your affiliate code. You can use these links anywhere, such as on Squidoo pages. But, if you're savvy enough to put these links onto another webpage, I say, don't rely on My Game Space and instead, go with....

Principle Network Partner
PNP is just like My Game Space except it's geared towards people with their own websites. It's what they call the "business" offering of the affiliate program. Here, you get access to some bonus features such as XML feeds in addition to the game links. You can also track your earnings on a daily basis and quickly compile some charts of your statistics. If you sign up for My Game Space, you can already log into the Principle Network Partner website. Again, it is free to join and it essentially gives you all the earning power of the My Game Space.

The biggest reason for moving to Principle Network Partner status from My Game Space is the ability to make your own webpage! Okay, well, you have to be able to make your own webpage first, but PNP offers many tools that are fantastic for publishers with their own web platform. So, if you're on Squidoo, there are a bunch of tools that you can use in combination with Squidoo to make sales.

Not on Squidoo? Join Squidoo today! It's free.

As a Squidoo lensmaster, here are the tools and feature that I use regularly.

• Links and Banners: The ones I use the most are the game links. You can get graphics of the game title or game screenshots for any game in the Big Fish library. The graphics are catchy and super easy to use. Just copy the HTML straight into your Squidoo module.
• RSS Feeds: Squidoo has an RSS module. You can put the Big Fish New Releases feed into that module so you'll have a self-updating module in your lens.
• XML: Unfortunately, Squidoo doesn't allow you to use the cool iframes. However, if you have another website, you can definitely use these tools as well. I sell all my games on Squidoo so I don't use this special content.
• Charts: I check the charts often to see how many people have joined my network and how much I've earned so far. I also have my email settings on so that I get an email every time I make earnings. It's such a thrill to see the You've earned rewards email. :)

In short, if you're on Squidoo, you should take advantage of the easy to use graphics and links to help support the Squidoo game page you're designing. While being a PNP doesn't give you the best tools out there in terms of affiliate marketing tools, it is much more flexible than My Game Space. If you really like casual games and think you could make a little extra money promoting your favorite games, I highly recommend becoming a PNP!

Let's just say that I'm no super affiliate marketer. In fact, I Squidoo in the evenings in my spare time, and I download free trials to play games here and there, and sometimes I buy games. I definitely can't quit my day job, but at the very least, I feel like I can use the game earnings to buy games for myself without guilt! Your experience will probably not be exactly like mine but here's what it's been like for me. I started in October 2008. I will update these graphs periodically.

No tracking
I know this is a huge deal for affiliate marketers. The best affiliate marketers are people who are able to optimize their marketing based on statistics from testing their campaigns. The Big Fish Games Principle Network Partner is supposed to get tracking eventually, so they say. Until then, the fact that I'm not a Super Affiliate means that I can live with the lack of tracking. It's just a bummer that I don't know what kind of game page I make on Squidoo is the most profitable.

No idea what game people bought
This one I think it kind of a biggie. We all know that one of the reasons for Amazon's success is the recommended products section. Well, I know what games I personally like and those tend to be the games I feature on my pages. However, who knows how many people out there like exactly the same games I like? If I could know what games my network customers tend to buy, I would be able to make better recommendations on my Squidoo pages. I personally emailed PNP about this feature and they said they are working on it.

I am also an affiliate on PlayFirst because they are another major player in the casual game sector. While they claim the ability to track your links, I can't figure out how to read the reports. I just can't find it! However, PlayFirst does tell me exactly what games people are buying.