Affiliates Are from Mars. Arbitragers Are from Venus.

Here’s a tough question to answer truthfully. If you met an advertiser, especially a newer advertiser (it could be one with items for sale or who is collecting leads), and you didn’t stand to earn money off them, would you recommend their first experience to third-party traffic be through CPA Networks? The networks help make DMConfidential possible. You can’t scan an inch without seeing an ad for one, so before we stick our foot in our mouth further, just know we aren’t looking to kill the golden goose here. We’re simply trying to address a truth. It’s the same reason that outsourced affiliate program managers may have a network of 1000 affiliates, but chances are not one overlaps with a top 20 publisher for a CPA network, unless it’s an email publisher, the odds are still unlikely. There are, although we don’t always admit, two distinct worlds of third-party, performance based advertising. We’ve all known for years that (insert CPA network name here) differs from Commission Junction or Linkshare. Both make the majority of their money off their cut of the actions driven by their affiliates / publishers, but just as they overlap very little on top publishers so too do they overlap little with their top advertisers. What once started as some minor differences has naturally evolved where the distinction is much greater, and ultimately, it’s a good thing. In the past, though, we used to think the advertisers drove the difference between CPA Networks and Affiliate Networks, but now, it seems the traffic is the better explanation.

Now, for an easier question, one that so many who work at CPA Networks have probably thought about with a few even acting on, and that is, "How hard can it really be?" If there is anything that the flog experience has shown it’s that the answer to that question is both "Not hard" and "Much harder than you’d think." The flog experience has also illustrated more clearly than anything not just the difference between CPA Networks and Affiliate Networks but the distinction between their sources of traffic – affiliates and arbitragers. It’s why we say, affiliates are from Mars, and arbitragers are from Venus. You’ll find some overlap, the rare ones that can cross into both worlds, but the same fine line exists between those in the adult world and those in mainstream. Affiliates and arbitragers both make their money through performance-based advertising, but one can afford to take their time, whereas the other loses money the longer they wait. An example is ourselves. Each week we write about the flogs but secretly envy the results. Yet, in so many ways, even if we wanted to try, we’ve missed our opportunity. Think what has changed let alone from the beginning but even in the last four to six weeks. Not only is Google almost off limits but for so many Facebook is too.

Let’s assume you are like the new advertiser, except in this case, you are the new publisher. You see some of the flogs being advertised and want to give it a try. You’ve probably heard about them not that long ago and have already spent some considerable time trying to gather your own collection of URLs. Your next challenge is two-fold – obtaining the offers and designing the site. For the links, if you know where to go, it saves time, but even at the least (assuming you don’t work at one of the companies already), add a week. As you go to sign-up, you’ll probably decide that you need to incorporate first. You don’t want to incur legal headaches should your little experiment go awry. Add two weeks there. For the site, the vast majority are designed in Word Press, so given your level of savvy, you could design it yourself but chances are you will pay someone who already has some familiarity. You will show them the sites, give them the wording you want to use, and the links. Again, using realistically quick expectations, you are looking at one to two weeks, especially assuming a relatively novice level of exposure to the arbitrage world. You will be using resources that you may know and/or have worked with before, but you won’t have that working dynamic. Add it up, and if done right (with corporate set-up), you’re looking at four to six weeks from when you first decided to do it. Done hastily, you might reduce that time to three to four weeks, this before you can ever even send traffic.

In that four week span, you might have even run into the situation of your entire site now being obsolete. You might have built a government grant site meant to run on Facebook because so many others were, but when you finally got yours ready, you no longer could. Take the experienced arbitrager on the other hand, and from decision to inception, it might take two to three days. If the hypothetical window for running is four weeks, they have an opportunity to use almost all of it. That sense of urgency and speed to action is perhaps their most distinguishing trait. There are no product meetings, no wondering whether to pull the trigger, and no hemming and hawing over the cost to build or test. Just action and getting it done because someone else is probably doing the same. And the CPA Networks have evolved to support this fast acting, higher risk taking behavior. They don’t charge advertisers a set up fee. They don’t have a one-size fits all product for any advertiser. They have demanding clients, and like their clients they watch the stats. Downtime isn’t measured in hours but in tens of thousands of dollars in lost opportunity. It’s collaborative, hands-on, and it attracts very specific personalities. It is why PubCon feels so different from Affiliate Summit and why both affiliates and arbitragers will succeed but the latter will find ways to succeed right now. If you want to take your time, it’s ok, but you might not want to try arbitrage.