MrSavage - 8:36 pm on Aug 9, 2012 (gmt 0)

I don't think I summarized my point clearly enough.

In my opinion, clicks are getting more and more scrutinized by Adsense. The increased click competition may cause Google to set the bar a bit higher so that advertisers don't have to pay nearly as much for traffic that clicks, but doesn't really result in an action.

Ironically, I see this as a good thing. If I'm getting big clicks or good Adsense results, then obviously my traffic is gold. I can use my Adsense to judge whether my traffic is converting high, medium or low. The point is that if I am seeing big clicks etc, then the reality is that I'm resorting for the lowest possible return on those clicks (Adsense). If the traffic is so good that I'm sending, then frankly a smart person would start looking at the best paying options for that gold star traffic. Get it? If clicks are cashing out well in Adsense in 2012 and beyond that should be telling you that those same clicks would be butter for converting via affiliate links instead.

I see this more as a trend rather than so much today. I'm talking about the trend of getting better Adsesne cheques and bigger higher paying clicks. If I get a huge click now, I can't help but think that I missed a chance at making 10x or greater via an affiliate link instead. The better Google makes it for the advertisers they are going to be slowly adding to that often heard sediment about what happened to those big payouts.

Obviously affiliate links pay out much less often than a click. It's life. The better something is, the harder it is to acquire. I would suggest that most people reading this haven't had the courage to even experiment outside of the comfort of Adsense or at least a experiment with offering a greater mix of affiliate links and Adsense on the same page.

Oh yes I forgot. It's so much work having to add those affiliate links and get people to convert. Really? If you're not passionate enough about the subject of your site then yeah you won't convince anyone about anything. I suppose I could think of a site that couldn't utilize affiliate links but that's time wasted. I'm just thinking I would really ahve to struggle to come up with a website/topic in which I couldn't use both Adsense and affiliate links together.