Web Design and Development
Google AdSense vs. Affiliate Marketing Programs
For most people trying to make money online with their websites, they are looking for the easiest solution that will reward them with the highest payout. This usually means that they will implement Google AdSense or a combination of affiliate marketing programs. But which is more effective, and which should you choose for your website?
Google AdSense
Many webmasters, especially those who are familiar with Google’s other products, start with Google AdSense. AdSense is a contextual advertising solution and is popular because it is:
- easy to sign up. There are very few approval requirements.
- easy to use. To get started with AdSense, you only need to add some simple JavaScript code to a web page, and voila, relevant ads are displayed.
- maintenance free. When you change your content, you don’t need to update your ads, they will also change without requiring any maintenance.
But there are some drawbacks, the biggest of which is the payout.
For most ads, AdSense works on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis. What this means is that when a visitor to your website clicks on an AdSense advertisement you will get paid a portion of the amount that advertisers pay for the click. Unfortunately, as the Google AdSense documentation states, they don’t disclose the exact revenue share
. So you don’t really have a clear idea of how much you can expect to make.
But worst of all, the per-click rate is fairly low. So unless you have a significant amount of traffic, you cannot expect to make a descent income with AdSense ads.
Affiliate Marketing Programs
As a result of the low payouts from AdSense, many webmasters turn to affiliate marketing programs. Like AdSense, these programs enable you to make money by adding code to your website, but there are three key differences:
- more flexibility to choose ads. Most affiliate marketing programs enable you to select ads for specific brands or products. This works very well if you link to a product or service that you have written about in an article.
- higher payouts: commission-based, lead-based, or click-based revenue structure. With most affiliate marketing programs, there are a variety of different ways that advertisers will pay you. The most common is with a commission. (If a visitor from your website purchases something at the website that you have promoted, then you get a commission for that sale.) Additionally, click-based earnings are typically greater. So these programs give you greater ability to make more money.
- well-defined commission/payment amounts. One of the most useful features is that you always know how much you will get if you make a sale, generate a lead, or refer someone via a click. When you sign up for a program, you will get a well outlined document which states the commission or monetary payout that you will receive per action.
But of course, there are drawbacks to affiliate marketing programs as well. First, there are more eligibility requirements for acceptance to a program. Some affiliate marketing programs, for example, require an acceptable website to be within a certain industry, maintain a high level of traffic, or achieve a specified minimum Google PageRank.
And second, affiliate marketing programs typically require regular maintenance. For example, you will need to update your ads if they become outdated or if you want to freshen up your promotions.
So Which Should You Choose for Your Website?
To achieve the highest possible revenue from your website, you should probably choose affiliate marketing. It is an ideal choice because it can be profitable whether or not you have a lot of traffic. However, if you don’t have the technical know-how to update your ads on a semi-regular basis (or as needed) and/or cannot get accepted to affiliate marketing programs, AdSense will be a more appropriate solution.
Tags: affiliate advertising, Google AdSense, leads41 Responses to “Google AdSense vs. Affiliate Marketing Programs”
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Well whatever the case, these two shouldn’t exist together on a site or blog!
Ben Pei’s last blog post..4 Crucial Things You Need To Do To Build your List
@Ben: Interesting… Why would you say that, and use an exclamation point?!
I’ve seen plenty websites which actually use a mixture of both, depending on the page or subject matter. (ie. If they can’t find a relevant affiliate ad.)
I tried affiliate marketing some time ago but it take some time and work to get some decent income. I no more do it due to lack of free time.. maybe later i’ll come back to it. For now i mostly use adsense for a side income only… well a sort of additional pocket money as am still a student.
I am also curious why Ben says they shouldn’t be used together. I don’t know much about earning money in this manner but when reading your article my initial impulse was to say use a mix of the two.
Kim Woodbridge’s last blog post..How to Remove “Says” From WordPress 2.7 Threaded Comments
I did try using adsense and affiliate marketing on the same site before but I wouldn’t really say that it cannot be mix. My reason being affiliate marketing promotion should not be appearing too often in blogs thus it will affect your income on days that you do not get any sales/promote products.
Adsense could act as an alternative income source to cover part of the income in affiliate marketing. Would be interested to hear what Ben thinks about this?
Wei Liang
Wei Liang | Earn Money Online’s last blog post..Lesson 26: Affiliate Marketing (Part 3)
I haven’t tried affiliate marketing programs. I am happy with adsense.
BTW, why your blog is not monetized with google adsense?
Nihar’s last blog post..January 2009 Blog Traffic & Income statistics
@Kurt: Yes, affiliate advertising does require a larger time investment.
@Kim: Yeh, I’d mix them just because they can work rather well together. And for those people that think that Google favors AdSense websites, they have a leg up.
Although, I have only found evidence that AdSense could hurt websites…
@Wei Liang: Ben is famous for one-liners that leave you wanting more.
Hopefully he’ll come back and elaborate.
And you are right. With affiliate marketing, it seems like it’s either feast or famine; you either make the big sale or you don’t sell anything. So AdSense can help to supplement that.
@Nihar: I have used AdSense on other blogs in the past, but the payout is very low when compared to well-picked affiliate programs.
And with this blog, the focus is not to make money from it. So the 1 or 2 ads that you will see here are just to cover the cost of the hosting and other website-related expenses (memberships, promotions, etc…).
Also, in your case, you could easily make more with affiliate programs… For example, I just checked out your income for January. And you have a 50K Alexa rank. So there is a lot of traffic. Yet, your monthly income is only about $20 more than our monthly income.
No offense intended, I promise.
I’ve never understood why some marketers consider Adsense and Affiliate products to be an or/or situation; with a very select few exceptions, both are fine in moderation and well placed.
Exceptions…
1. MFA (made for adsense) niche blogs where you throw up 10-20 articles, optimize, monetize, and let it marinate are well suited for Adsense only; that’s their purpose.
Notice I did NOT say MFA websites
2. One page mini-sites/niche blogs thrown up to promote 1 or 2 affiliate products each are suited for affiliates only.
3. Physical product e-commerce sites are NOT suited for either. I dunno how many times I’ve talked myself blue about that one.
Other then that, I don’t really see why both can’t be implemented with care.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Twitter Gone!
Oops, I didn’t I created a little commotion here. Because if you’re dead serious about promoting an affiliate product, adsense could distract your potential buyers from actually looking deep into your product.
Yes you may get about $0.20 from an adsense click but you lose a $47 commission when that potential lead strays away.
P.S: Shirley, do you mean I always leave pointless one line comments? Hehe..
Ben Pei’s last blog post..Leaked Chapter Is Ready For Download
@Dennis: Very good point of view. You are right, there are indeed websites that are built for just one type of program. And then there are the websites which should not have any supplementary advertising, if they are selling on of their own products. But assuming that you have chosen to monetize your website via advertising, it might be ok to use both, but separately depending on the topic and/or affiliate programs you use.
@Ben: Whoa! If you didn’t create a commotion already, that last comment might! lol. Thanks for the elaboration, that’s a good point. The two programs can compete with one another. And I think we’d all prefer to have a few dollars than a few cents!!!
I guess a lot of people use AdSense and Amazon affiliate program together. It can work well.
However, for affiliate links, one should do a lot of optimizing and insert them in relevant parts of the post/pages etc. AdSense can be blindly put at default places as Google will take care of the context.
Ajith Edassery’s last blog post..SEO – Link Building Series: Internal Link Building and Optimization
@Ajith: Yes, it takes a lot of work to successfully uses an affiliate program, whereas AdSense can be integrated in a jiffy. But I still say affiliate programs are worth it.
Will adsense and affiliate products work together on a site with a fitness niche? Say building muscle or fat loss.
I will choose affiliate products as the main source but I’m wondering if having adsense ads on the site will take away profits from the products.
@Carl: For a niche site like that, I’d probably focus more on affiliate programs. But yes, they will work together. Just, be careful with your placement of them so that you aren’t promoting (or making it easier for users to see and click on) the AdSense programs over the affiliate programs.
For me it has always been about the affiliate sale, as you mention they pay more most often and generally today more and more people are becoming “adsense blind” …
I still do quite well with adsense as I have a large amount of sites that have adsense incorporated. However I usually build around affiliate programs.
Nice site by the way …
Brian @ Affiliate Funnel System’s last blog post..Just Who Are You Buying From?
I don’t quite get the folks saying they do not have free time to spend on their site.. How much time would you need for affiliate marketing.. come on not that much. And I think using both is better than using one or the other.
I have used both but try not to use too many ads on one page. So, I’ve found it’s best to rotate and see which is most profitable in the long run.
One more thing why people love adsense is because it keeps running your dollarmeter easily. Though if I make 4-5 sales in a month using affialite marketing. It pays me more then my adsense sales. Sometime I feel I should target affiliate sales but this can be done only if I will be using one single niche and that too targeted one.
So for now I will rather stick my loyalty to Adsense
Harsh Agrawal’s last blog post..How to redirect wordpress default RSS feeds to feedburner without any plugin
yeah…better make it simple without too much adsense on our site…i think 1 adsense is just enough for affiliate program website..affiliate pays more u know..;-)
I agree, but also there is another fact that when someone visits your site and notices Adsense on it, then the visitor might think, the owner is having a hard time making sales as an affiliate and there is a good chance nobody will be interested in whatever you promote. Just an opinion. Good day to you all !
Revenue from adsense depend on other people and I do not like to wait for others to click on my adsense. People who succeed in the Internet business does not rely on another company or other person who clicked the ads on their sites but they create new business and sold it so well that they have a very large profit
Dave´s last blog ..What is “Ethical Internet Marketing” Anyway?
I think Adsense has a place but I’d much rather make money from promoting affiliate products.
Karl
Karl ´s last blog ..Create A New Audio Product Every Single Month In Just A Few Clicks!
I like the mixture because you can change your affiliate ads or programs to correspond with your adsense ads.
Cyrus Peterkin´s last blog ..Affiliate Marketing Businesses VS Sole Ownership
I still love AdSense, it brings in a small amount, but it adds up!
Both are a good idea i think, although affiliate marketing definately has more earning potential.
Craig´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at
I think AdSense has some potential for most people. Even for someone as small as me I can still make a hundred bucks or so a year which is essentially free money and helps cover a few costs.
Will you become rich? Only if you get hundreds of thousands of hits a day on your web site and the truth is that’s rare. The majority of websites out there are lucky if they get dozens of hits a day. Strangely, people put up their own ads on Google to popularize their sites to try and generate more AdSense revenue. It’s kind of like a perpetual motion machine.
The real key to making money always goes back to the basics, create a brilliant site with excellent content and there’s a chance that over time you will build up an audience and start to make some money.
Good luck!
Constantin Voda´s last blog ..Prepared To Promote an Affiliate Residual Income Program?
I think they both as relevent to making money online as each other.Promoting both at the same time is so much easier,maybe because I’m just a Newbie trying to learn and to make money online
Nomusa´s last blog ..Affiliates Make Money Online Using Links,Google Adsense and PLR Content
I have seen a few websites that use both programs. But, like you said, it depends on the amount of traffic to the site as to how much money you will make.
I agree that they are better used seperately. If you have a blog promoting affiliate products in a targeted niche then I surely wouldn’t want them to easily click off to and adsense ad. I can see how you can make decent money with adsense, but I think the money is in affiliate marketing.
@Steve – I don’t know that I agree that a visitor might think you are stuggling with your affiliate sales because you have adsense. Maybe in the IM niche, but a visitor from any other niche probably wouldn’t think about that. Before I learned about IM I had no idea what Google adsense was.
Take Care – Heidi
Heidi Passey´s last blog ..7 Simple Website Traffic Promotion Methods
I use both because I think they compliment each other especially if you have articles on different subjects.Its not like you have the same adverts shown over and over again
Nomusa Dlamini´s last blog ..Affiliates Make Money Online Using Links,Google Adsense and PLR Content
Great Information. I have used a mix of adsense and affiliate programs and they work well together.
Residual Income Affiliate´s last blog ..How Home Based Internet Businesses Give You The Money You Need.
I agree that both adsense and affiliate links will work separately and together depending on the type of niche and searchers buying habits online. Do they trust Google Adsense because of Google itself? Does the affiliate banner link engage the searchers needs exactly whilst on your site? There many variables when comes to serious marketing rather than shooting opinions. But I think what really works will be very different for different people within different niches so there no exact science when it comes to affiliate link and adsense. It’s really down to your traffic volume and what they doing on your site that matters.
Best of luck to you all
I receive commissions from twelve independent affiliate programs (including ClickBank, HD Publishing, TrialPay, Google Adsense, Commission Junction, GDI etc.) integrated into one system. It’s very cool.
affiliate residual income´s last undefined ..Response cached until Fri 23 @ 17:29 GMT (Refreshes in 23.98 Hours)
I say…use both…in moderation. Also place them in beneficial places on your website.
Since most people read left to right, top to bottom. The best place for your ads would be in the top left quadrant of your website.
More ads could be placed at the bottom of the page on either side.
They also need to blend with the style of your webpage.
Just my 2 cents.
I have an Adsense account, getting 20 to 30$/ month; I felt this is small amount iam getting from Adsense; I asked few persons who have Adsense account, they are earning 200 to 250$/month; I don’t know how to get more from Adsense; So i make turn in Affiliate marketing companies like Clickbank; I am new to affiliate marketing, i am learning more techniques to promote clickbank products now, till now only 1 sale generated. I asked few people about this, they given reply as promote with google Adwords. But this is Paid Advertising method; So i am continuing with Free adverting techniques. Let’s See
One way to get a little of both looks is to use Clickbanks adsense looking ads. they look like adsense but they have your affiliate link in them.
I find adsense very slow and affiliate offers ok. And i try not to mix the pages.
Jetpack´s last blog ..Who is AffiloJetPack for
I’d definitely say to use both, just depending on the circumstances.
I recently re-installed AdSense on my main Blog, but I still use affiliate programs for specific posts, especially when I do reviews.
-Paul
Paul Piotrowski´s last blog ..Better Blog SEO – Proper Category and Tag Structure
I think both have their place and both can be very effective, but i think to maximize both methods you shouldn’t mix them up.
Like Ben mentioned in his comment, I think if you are promoting a digital affiliate product through your website, then leave the adsense off. You don’t want to replace a potential $47 commission for a $0.50 adsense click.
But i do believe that when you make an adsense site, then add some Amazon promotions so it doesn’t look like a MFA site in Google’s eyes.
But you can make some good money with adsense. If you do your research you can find niches that will earn you several dollars per click…so if you can get some reasonable traffic to a site like that and it’s optimized well for adsense you can make a tidy little income from it.
Paul Hooper | Consumer Wealth System´s last blog ..An Honest Review of the Consumer Wealth System
Just read the post and decided i had to say something :If you are using a successful affiliate program do not distract from it with adsense. The mighty Google pays peanuts compared with a well tested good converting affiliate offer. Too many options and they will just click away.
norman´s last blog ..Welcome To Our Blog
Yeah, why not use both together? If you think about it AdSense IS an affiliate program. The difference being the payout compared to affiliate products and instead of promoting a product you promote a website. There both pretty well the same thing anyway.
RailCityBlogger´s last blog ..Turbo Profit Sniper Review- The Incredible New Money Making Software