Are deposit bonuses relevant anymore?

[Georgia Poker]

While most sites still tout big deposit bonuses to find new players, PokerStars has stuck with a paltry $50.00 bonus. They're the largest poker site out there in spite of that.

With that in mind, how relevant do you feel deposit bonuses are? As an affiliate are you still highlighting them or do you focus more on the ancillary benefits (player base, loyalty programs, etc)?

Discuss.

[Trikkur]

I think the poker rooms history/marketing campaign is extremely important. This is why Stars and Full Tilt have the largest player database because they advertise so heavily.

After that though I think deposit bonuses are extremely important for players trying to get serious into online poker. Most people wouldn't bother signing up for a really small site that only gives a $50 bonus (unless it was cleared in like 5 hands or something)

Fortunately PokerStars is able to market themselves to the point where the bonus doesn't matter.

[Randy]

Deposit bonuses are a nice perk, but they're apparently not a necessity for signing up a lot of players. Branding seems to have worked wonders for PokerStars, and there's probably a lesson in there for affiliates.

Great topic - thanks for starting this thread.

[e-gamblingcity]

I don't care to bonus, most of times they just force you to play too much and you risk your own money just because you have to accomplish the requirements in a short timeframe