Most Basic, getting started question

[Garynut123]

I haven't even started out yet - just have a basic question.

I have read that affiliates can get up to 20% commission per sale. Compared to getting pennies for PPC, that could be a huge difference.

So my basic question is, why would people not primarily go with the commission route over PPC?

I see from reading here a little some folks are using PPC to get traffic for their affiliate sites. That seems to make sense - does it pay off? Still though, just browsing around the web I seem to see a ton more pure PPC than affiliate marketing - or is that just a misperception?

Thank you

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Garynut123,

Welcome to 5 Star. You raise some good questions.

"I have read that affiliates can get up to 20% commission per sale. Compared to getting pennies for PPC, that could be a huge difference."

Obviously I'm very pro-affiliate marketing, but I also like to be realistic and give the facts. Like most things in life it's a numbers game. (BTW some programs pay 50 - 75%, some even pay 120% and some like computers only pay 2%.)

When you get paid by click, you get paid for each click. Pay per sale depends on price of product, commission rate and especially CONVERSION rate. You could send 500 clicks to a merchant and never make a dime, but if you were getting 10 cents per click you would have made 50. Then again if it was high priced product with high commission and good conversion rates you could have made 200 off those same 500 clicks.

The way I see it PPC is more solid and dependable but typically you make much less. Affiliate programs there is a stronger upside potential, but more variables, more learning, skill and work is required, as well as more risk because there is no guarantee you'll make any money.

Many affiliates use PPC to drive traffic to affiliate offers, but then again it's risky and a numbers game. You have to be sure the numbers work or you can lose money. There are some really big affiliates that make 100,000 a month doing PPC affiliate marketing. Most of them are probably spending 60,000 or so to make that 100K though. On the flip side many affiliates that try PPC lose too much money and quit before they ever make a profit.

I definitely think PPC is a good strategy AFTER you learn everything you need to about affiliate marketing and PPC. I don't think it's a good place to start for most people.

To learn some of the best ways to get started with affiliate marketing and learn lots of great tips, read all the stickies in our newbie forum. Then ask questions if you have any. We're always happy to try to help!

 

[Niche48]

Totally agree with Linda. Affiliate marketing is the way to go

The advantage of monetizing your site using an ad revenue program like adsense is your visitor does not have to buy anything for you to get paid for the click

You earn everytime they click on the adsense ads on your pages whether they make a purchase or not

 

[Madman340]

I thought with Adsense they need to be on the page for 10 seconds or so?

 

[Niche48]

Never heard of that one before
Is it in the google adsense TOS?

 

[Madman340]

I don't know, but on a site I made a little while ago, I had gotten a few clicks that didn't produce any revenue... So I just assumed that.

 

[Larwee]

Madman340, I have never heard or seen anything about the 10 seconds you mentioned, and over the years I have read the AdSense Terms of Service dozens of times. The most likely thing would have been invalid clicks. You don't earn anything for invalid clicks. According to Google:

Invalid click activity consists of any clicks or impressions that may artificially inflate an advertiser's costs or a publisher's earnings, and for which we decide not to charge the advertiser. This includes, but is not limited to, clicks or impressions generated by a publisher clicking on his own ads, a publisher encouraging clicks on his ads, automated clicking tools or traffic sources, robots, or other deceptive software.

Google has more about this at this link https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=16737

 

[Madman340]

I'll be honest, I did click my own ads once, but other than that wasn't me... Oh well.

Also, one click got me around $2.00, was that supposed to happen?

 

[Larwee]

One big problem some people have with AdSense is the same problem they have with affiliate programs. They are thinking too much about trying to make money with their site or blog rather than concentrating on having a great site for their visitors.

The most important thing to do is to make your site or blog the very best that it can possibly be. Think about your visitors. Make it so they will love what you have done and want to come back. Make it so there will be many people who will like it so much that they will want to tell others. Make it so that there will be people who will like it so much that they will want to link to it so that their visitors will be able to go to your site or blog.

Those are the things that happen when you have the visitors in mind rather than only trying to make money. When those thing happen you will be able to make money.

AdSense works well with content. If you have plenty of good content that is attracting traffic, then you have improved your chances of good AdSense earnings.

You need to remember to do the things you are suppose to do if you are an AdSense publisher and don't do the things you shouldn't do so that you won't get kicked out. Here is a thread that will help with that http://affiliate-marketing-forums.5.../2547-how-avoid-being-kicked-out-adsense.html

A lot of the people who are critical of AdSens are people who are strong supporters of affiliate marketing and often say you will only earn pennies with AdSense.

It is expected that the total commission paid by ALL of the affiliate programs combined will be 3 billion dollars this year. The amount paid in commissions to Google AdSense publishers this year is expected to be more than 6 billion dollars.

Yes, some of the clicks are for small amounts, but they all aren't. Yes, there are clicks that pay more than $2.00. But even with the small amounts, they add up. If you have lots of traffic, and you get lots of valid clicks, then you are going to have some good AdSense earnings because you get paid for each one of those clicks.

Under the right circumstances it isn't unusual to have some very good click through rates with AdSense.

Keep in mind that you can use both affiliate marketing and AdSense. That is what many people do.

There are a lot of people who are doing very well with affiliate marketing and there are many success stories. There are also AdSense success stories, and here is a link to some of them https://www.google.com/adsense/stat...ceid=asos&subid=ww-ww-et-left_nav&medium=link

Often a lot of people who do well with affiliate marketing will feel better about it than they do about AdSense and will devote more attention to affiliate marketing.

Many people who do well with AdSense with have better feeling about it than they do about affiliate marketing and will give more attention to AdSense.

There are people who will say you can't make much money with affiliate marketing and there are people who will say you can't make much money with AdSense. Neither of those statements is true. Never forget, what happens with any particular person doesn't mean that is what is going to happen to you.

Someone might only be making a dollar a month or less with affiliate marketing or with AdSense. Other person might be making thousands of dollars a month with affiliate marketing or AdSense. Neither of those is an indication of what will happen to you.

Put your efforts into creating the best possible site and/or blog that you can. Learn how to generate traffic. Don't do anything sneaky. Learn as much as you can about affiliate marketing and AdSense. There is potential for you to be able to do very well with both of them.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Whoa Larry, great post with some very important advice. Really glad you brought that up! And it's so true... if you think about the customer or your visitor and generate the kind of content they would be interested in and content that adds value, you'll always be farther ahead.

I also like that fact you mentioned it does not have to be either or. Many use both. I recommend using both and testing initially to see which performs better. Then usually if you have a good affiliate program that converts put that in the prime ad spots and maybe have a bank of Adsense at the bottom of the page so if they don't click the affiliate link, at least maybe they'll click and Adsense ad before they leave your site.

Also as far as how much you can make per click with Adsense. It depends a lot on your niche and the type of advertisers that would be a match and how much those advertisers pay to be listed. So if your site is about green widgets which only sell for $5 and there aren't many advertisers therefor they only have to pay 5c a click - you'll only make a couple pennies. If your site is about real estate or Insurance or travel where there are lot of advertisers paying high cost per click you can make more. BUT those markets are competitive so much harder to succeed in.