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, leads49 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: 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.
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
I haven’t tried affiliate marketing programs. I am happy with adsense.
BTW, why your blog is not monetized with google adsense?
@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.
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..
@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: 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 …
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
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
I think Adsense has a place but I’d much rather make money from promoting affiliate products.
Karl
I like the mixture because you can change your affiliate ads or programs to correspond with your adsense ads.
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.
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!
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
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
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
Great Information. I have used a mix of adsense and affiliate programs and they work well together.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
I make a test of using them both( adsense and affiliate ) I created a new site last year and up to now they have both adsense and affiliate links. based on my test affiliate marketing makes me more money than adsense. Since the start of my website I already make more than $100 while on adsense just make less than $50.
At the start of september this year I am now going to kick off the adsense(after the payout cutoff)and will focus on affiliate marketing. Why? because based on my studies and tracking results there are more clicks made on affiliate links than in google adsense. I know this because i tracked them.
I think if your website topic is about news, celebrities, free downloads, keygens, free services then the google adsense might works well than in affiliate marketing. “BUT”, if your site is about a certain niche that resolve problems and passion of individuals then affiliate is better. Specially if your websites get’s a lot of traffic from search engine. People search on google or other search engine because they want a solution to their problems.
Adsense might work well in forum sites, social sites and other members site. But for sure most of them are blind in google adsense ads. Ask yourself, how many times you clicked adsense ads when you land to one website?
For me, Its affiliate marketing that can make me more money.
I have not seen much profits with Adsense but with affiliate marketing have seen sales come in. I do however do not mix the two together.
The little trick that I do now is when I building a new site is to use adsense in the begining.
I came to this site to find out if i can combine adsense with affiliate ads. It doesn’t appear that that is a problem. I think it is best to use both!
I recommend using both of the adsense and affiliate marketing specially if you are a newbie in the world of internet marketing.
But for sure those who are professional in earning money in affiliate world will not recommend putting adsense on your site because they said visitors to your site may goes to other sites.
So if you are newbie and learning how to get more visitors to your site you better use both. But if you are already professional in earning money in affiliate marketing then will work best is not putting adsense on your site. And one more thing to consider is your niche. If your site is just for information then adsense is profittable. if your site have a definite niche to target then affiliate marketing could be much profittable.
My adsense account got banned for the fraud click that I never done to my account. Today it is hard to register for adsense and google become very stict to approve the adsense account.
I have several websites in various niches. I recently took adsense off of them because I noticed that adsense would have ads for the same exact product that I already had an affiliate ad for. I would rather they click on my affiliate link/banner than the adsense link/banner because it’s only pennies with adsense instead of a commission.
Wow, really great comments on this one.
It’s a question I hear repeated a lot, and I think you really nailed it on the head.
AdSense is OK, especially if you are new or using AutoBlog systems.
But affiliate programs really perform better in the long run. While it’s true that they may take a bit more time to maintain, the benefits far outweigh the small amount of time it takes to keep them updated.
Thanks for the post and thanks to the comment makers for some great comments. I really enjoyed those.
It depends on you, if you are fine with affiliate marketing, then focus in it. What I did is monetizing using both method.
My blog basically has 2 type of posts, focus on 2 different goals. For reviews and promotions, I will not insert any adsense ads into it. For tips and random posts, I will add adsense ads manually into the posts and blend with the site. I think this is a good method without causing competition between adsense and affiliate marketing.