I have seen some people that have only one down as affiliate marketers and they are not making any attempt to make any improvement to that situation, this could be the reason why some people see affiliates as a waste of time.
I think you're on point to that considering being an affiliate means you need to have good connections across most industries. What I mean on across industries is that anywhere you'll find a gambler, they might not be seen on their physique but we have lots of gamblers. These days to be an affiliate means you need to try all platforms where you will need those links, you'll never know who you might end up convincing.
To keep referring people to the platform that we want to rwrn from need us to act like an influencer even though we are nit one. Getting referrals can be very difficult but those that knows how to go about there ways will not have a problem about earning from it. There might be other ways too that we can get referrals to bet on the casinos that we intended to earn some referrals from but it all depends on us how we intend to do that. If we have lots of friends, that wil make work more easier for us to achieve and earn from the casino.
It's not just about having lots of friends, its more about having lots of friends who share or are aligned with your activities, like you are a gambler, if you have lots of friends who are not interested in gambling, there is still no way such fiends will be of any benefit to you when it comes to trying to earn from a casino through their referral program..
I personally do not give attention to referral programs, because like you made mention of it, it's one of the hardest things for me, but then, it's sure easy for influencers with hundreds of thousands and millions of followers.
If so, then I have no chance because I am someone who will always be putting referral links on authorized sites, because Referral links are not well seen on social networks, in fact they are deleted, and sometimes they are also people who they do whatever it takes to get a few views and get them to enter and register under their link, apart from gambling sites they don't really like the referral option , it's Really Difficult , if there isn't a way like the influencers It is difficult to achieve something, I have already been exploring this topic and doing, because in the forum there are many who have passive income , I want it but it is seeming very difficult to me.