Will AdSense eat up Affiliate Marketing

[crazymarketer]

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AdSense - Is it the easiest online money making method?
With Google improving its algo, LSI, contextual ads etc., it seems that AdSense might just be a better way to make money online. In the case of AdSense, all one needs to do is create a content website, signup for AdSense and place the code in the appropriate places - that's pretty much it. If you know what's selling hot, and you can write good about it - you've clicked. You don't even need to change the content that frequently.

Whereas for an affiliate website to do well, it takes a lot of effort - writing product reviews, careful selection of merchants, and products, appropriate display of products (comparison, sorting, priority).

Given the hasslefree nature of AdSense - no interaction with merchants or customers, no worries of data feeds, easy website creation - AdSense appears stronger than Affiliate Marketing.

The Other Side of the Story
It's not really that easy - AdSense websites are totally dependent on Search Engines - a slight change in the algo and the traffic will fall majorly. You don't control the ads showing up on your website - so you may get much fewer clicks than you expect. AdSense business is not really a long term thing, but Affiliate Marketing is - prominent, successful affiliates have created loyal customers - leading to referral traffic, revisits etc.

Gain from both!
Build an affiliate website - write good about the merchant products you are going to promote - add the feeds - add AdSense code (at very few places) - make money from both! However, you will have to be a little careful while placing AdSense ads - they may impact your affiliate conversion - so you will need to experiment with the positioning a little bit before you strike the right note.

So.. let's make more money!

[Sambernard]

Very good idea.

But as Adsense is growing and getting popular for its clean and clear presentation, affiliate marketing surely has a huge competition coming in front.

[drivetowin]

Anyone who thinks they can build a long term business around Adsense alone needs their head examined.

Bear in mind that

a) Google determines which ads are shown
b) Google determines what share of the revenue for that ad it will give to you (and can, and does, vary that share on a daily if not hourly basis)
c) Google can and does shut down your account with zero notice and you forfeit any balance up to that point.

Adsense and affiliate marketing can make a good combination, but Adsense on its own is just too risky.

[aotagain]

Well, given that the Adsense ads. on our website have:
(a) been becoming more like nonsense ads. as each month passes and
(b) the revenue has halved in a year and
(c) every time we replace a strip of Adsense ads. with a few relevant affiliate links it only takes one purchase a month to triple the revenue we were getting with the Adsense ads...and
(d) we've turned off content for Adwords on all but a few of our Adwords accounts...

I would say no. But I could be biased. I guess if you can get a few people a week clicking on car insurance Adsense ads. then its probably a reasonable income. For a site with very little content or usefulness then a click away is probably all that's going to happen anyway.

For a serious site with repeat visitors, several commission sales a week at £30 a go is going to beat Adsense hands down.

[Azam.net]

Well, given that the Adsense ads. on our website have:
(a) been becoming more like nonsense ads. as each month passes and
(b) the revenue has halved in a year and
(c) every time we replace a strip of Adsense ads. with a few relevant affiliate links it only takes one purchase a month to triple the revenue we were getting with the Adsense ads...and
(d) we've turned off content for Adwords on all but a few of our Adwords accounts...

Try using Yahoo adverts served by OMG. Depends on the keywords I imagine, but our earnings have gone up.

Serving contextual ads from other providers also gets around Keith's very valid point about being dependent on one company.

[shyguy0507]

I would agree with not basing a site totally around adwords, one site which only revenue comes from adsense has earnt $4.23 in the last 7 days.

The only reason I use it is that I don't have any other way to make money from the site, affiliate ads are running but only as banners to make the site look more complete (looks like a very dreary site without them lol).

[beejeebers]

Adsense is joke. I'm sure the google guys giggle everytime somebody signs up for it. Why in the hell would you build a site in a niche, write tons of useful content about it, get good rankings and then slap adsense ads on it?

Just go directly to a merchant or two and make 100 times more money for yourself.

Adsense requires tons of traffic and you could point that traffic somewhere far more profitable then back to google.

[crazymarketer]

I think that the primary reason Google's promoting AdSense is to increase their already dominant visibility on the internet. I know it's crazy! That's why don't hate it! .

Anyways, starters in the field of online marketing generally tend to do a lot AdSense nonsense... hopeful to earn easy money.. but as rightly said:

a) Google determines which ads are shown
b) Google determines what share of the revenue for that ad it will give to you (and can, and does, vary that share on a daily if not hourly basis)
c) Google can and does shut down your account with zero notice and you forfeit any balance up to that point.

We all know that affiliate marketing is the best way to get a good ROI, and that it requires effort as well... but if you look at the world today, every tom, dick n harry wants to make money online - and AdSense jumps in as 'The Tool' for them... so until all people in this world become sensible - AdSense will grow - Google will mint money.

As for Yahoo and MSN - they don't really seem to have any unique ideas. All they do is 'imitate' Google in a 'unique way'.

[axod]

Adsense works pretty well for me. Given the choice of a 'link bar', or an affiliate link/banner ad, the link bar will outperform every time for me. It takes up next to no space on the website, and works.

Standard adsense content units are getting tired and less and less people click on them now, but the link bar still performs.

There are sites that make hundreds of thousands just off adsense and nothing else, and that's pretty simple if you have the traffic. It's best to have a few other revenue streams though.

It'll be really interesting to see what happens when google launches the CPA model.

[essdeekay]

In the 12 month since I started my site I have noticed that not one sale has come from skyscrapers running down the right-hand side.

I have now changed most to Adsense and there is money coming in - not much - but more than sufficient to cover my hosting and the time it took me to change the skyscrapers to adsense.

Si

[DomainsUnlimited]

essdeekay
The rich media formats that currently convert best are MPU's (those little rectangle ads put in the middle of your content). Ad Sense ads can be skys, banners or half banners and even MPUs. Try varying the position of your ads so they look more part of the content (ie text links). There was a post recently showing the Hot Spots of which AdSense content unit convert best on sites...

Whilst on G...Anyone having great success with the Referral Ads 2.0?

[Hero]

all one needs to do is create a content website

something anyone can do within a couple of hours

[Max_Bush]

Simple. No.

[Cyanide]

I can't help but think Adsense is a joke. I received 3 clicks on one of my sites yesterday, and receieved $0.09! About 4p total - just over 1p/click! Almost any half related affiliate program is going to have a EPC which is a lot higher. I might place my Adsense banners in a rubbish place, but I know affiliate banners in the same position would perform a hell of a lot better!

[axod]

Anyone who thinks they can build a long term business around Adsense alone needs their head examined.

plentyoffish.com?

Small Companies & Google Adsense is the future « The Paradigm Shift

At the end of the day it doesn't really matter. Google adsense is just affiliate marketing with the selection of adverts outsourced to google, for their cut. Sure you could make more money doing it all yourself, but adsense works, and is a reliable, easy income stream once you have traffic.