Blizzard beta tests are much anticipated and sought after. All of Blizzard’s major expansions and Starcraft II have had popular and large scale beta test periods. Even Blizzard’s initial launch of World of Warcraft consisted of a closed beta test, an open stress test and then another closed test which included some of the fastest levelers in the stress test. Unfortunately, Blizzard has made it somewhat more difficult to acquire access to their beta tests, but we’ll look at a decent list of ways you can get into the beta test below.

1. The first and admittedly the most obvious way to get into the Diablo 3 beta test is to opt in on all of your accounts. This includes accounts that are not activated for any particular game. I received beta access to Cataclysm with an inactive account. This is likely possible with other betas as well.
2. Register a beta profile with unique and old hardware. I have heard a lot of people report that they are ‘always included in betas’ because of their ‘crappy computers.’ I can’t say that this is true or false, but if you have more than one Blizzard Battle.net account it’s worth using a wide range of computer setups to register beta profiles.
3. Log into all your accounts once a week and check for beta access. Even if you receive beta access, don’t count on receiving an e-mail telling you that you did. I didn’t receive a single e-mail during Cataclysm’s beta even though I received access on every account. I use GMail so it’s likely that their spam filter hid the message from me. To find out if you’re in the beta, load up your Battle.net accounts and check the list of games. If you’re in the beta you will see a way to download the client and play.
4. Ebay and Craigslist have never been reliable or legal ways to find Blizzard beta access. But if you do decide to use them, make sure you get to know the person really well. I don’t recommend this way to get beta access.
5. There are dozens of contests and promotions around at various sites that give away beta access. Keep an eye out for these and participate whenever possible. While your chances are never great to win one of these keys, it probably won’t hurt to join their contest.
6. Ask friends on social networking sites and in guild chat. As a final act of desperation, or maybe as an initial request, see if anyone has access that you know. Don’t ask for someone to give you access, just find out who has access and who doesn’t. Once you find out who does, take notice of how often they play the beta and if they aren’t actively playing, ask privately if you can give it a shot. You better be a trust worthy person though, otherwise it’s not even worth asking. If you’re trustworthy, this is probably the best way to get access that you didn’t receive by luck yourself.

For Future Betas

If you buy the annual pass from Blizzard to receive Diablo 3 for free, which many players already have, you will receive Mists of Pandaria beta access. This doesn’t mean you’ll be one of the first players allowed to play but it does guarantee early-access according to Blizzard.

Blizzard has mentioned in the past that they have a list of ‘good beta testers’ who ‘reliably report numerous bugs.’ The quality of a beta tester could be measured by playtime and by the number of quality bugs they report.

Important: Many of the strategies and tips I share here were originally inspired by the people at the Diablo 3 Gold Secrets Forum. If you're serious about making the big bucks in Diablo 3, or just being the best players, you need to signup ASAP.