Alpha Affiliates vs Beta Affiliates – Why Some Affiliates Suck

I am a big Chuck Palahniuk fan. Well, maybe not so much his last couple books but that's a topic for another post on another blog. Many of you are familiar with the book or movie version of Fight Club. In the story, the narrator is basically working a dead end job, going through the motions of life until he meets Tyler Durden who is the exact opposite. Durden has no appreciation for ‘following the rules' and basically does whatever he wants. I thought this was a good example of an alpha and beta male. But what is an alpha or beta affiliate?

An alpha affiliate has these characteristics:

• Develops their own unique strategies and techniques to build and test campaigns
• Asks for a pay increase on an offer and plays the networks against each other for highest payout
• Not afraid to go direct with advertisers
• Not afraid to test anything
• Uses their knowledge of real world testing when talking about affiliate marketing

A beta affiliate would look more like this:

• Uses strategies copied from a book or website to build campaigns
• Takes whatever payout the networks gives him
• Sticks with the CPA network
• Waits to hear what the latest hot trend is in all the forums and blogs before promoting it
• Uses their theoretical knowledge from something they have read when talking about affiliate marketing

The affiliates who are successful, or are going to be successful, are the ones who come up with their own system for doing things. They don't blindly follow ‘the rules', they make their own.