WARNING: This copy is edgy. On purpose. I’m making no friends saying what I say here. But right, wrong, or indifferent, it’s stuff that I feel needs to be said.

It’s like Gambling

True story…

Not long ago, I was looking to diversify my online businesses by adding another income stream.

I own and co-run 3 online businesses; a consulting business, a coaching business and a services business.

I’d been pondering getting involved with the CPA Affiliate Marketing scene for some years.

But for some reason, I’d never gotten into it much.

I knew the basics.

The ins and outs but had never really given it a shot.

Anyhoo, I signed up with a few affiliate networks and started promoting mainstream & adult type offers…

The way 90%+ of media buyers promote CPA affiliate offers.

I was having ok days like this:

But more often than not, my days were like this:

Even worse than the losses was that at unease feeling I was having because I felt I was leaving too much money on the table…(more on that a bit later).

Plus the offers I was promoting were some really low ball-hypey ones. Only perceived value like utility type offers.

Just to be clear on what I was doing…

I was a Transactional affiliate.

I was exchanging money for traffic to get a sale (conversion).


I was buying and sending traffic I didn’t own nor controlled (paid traffic) straight to an offer’s page (direct linking) I didn’t own nor controlled either.

When you’re a Transactional Affiliate…

You are hoping the traffic source will send you good, bot-free, traffic.

You also rely on the affiliate network to “capture” your traffic properly.

That is to count the clicks you send and any conversions your traffic has made to that advertiser’s offer.

And many affiliate marketers keep doing that.

Hoping to get conversions as soon as possible.

If it works, they keep at it.

If not, they find another offer.

And start the transactional process all over again.

A great media buyer and friend had this to say on the subect….

”…It’s the Instant ROI (Return On Investment) potential. It can have an effect on you (instant wins – dopamine hits –  It’s just like gambling,

I was gambling

That’s kinda sad.

But such is the pull of our natural bias towards the easy and quick and shortcuts and “just point and click” solutions.

We tend to gravitate towards the secrets, the loopholes and the sexy tactics, over fundamental strategies.

The pull towards the promise of easy and fast over the hard and slow.

But the thing with these tactics is that eventually, the Instant Wins stop working – if they ever began (for most) to work in the first place.

leaving money on the table

Let me give it to you straight …

If you’re ALWAYS ONLY sending paid traffic directly to an affiliate offer, you’re a Transactional Affiliate.

You’re also relying your livelihood in this business, on traffic sources and affiliate networks, that don’t always play nice to keep their businesses afloat.

In other words…

You’re Gambling!

And what’s even worse, you’re leaving so much money on the table