AdWords to promote Affiliate programs?

is it practical these days?

[limitup]

You see so many ebooks being promoted touting how easy and profitable it is to just join a bunch of affiliate programs and promote your affiliate links via AdWords. I'm not so sure this is very realistic in the overwhelming majority of cases. What does everyone else think? I know of at least a few people who have 1000s of keywords for each product/site they promote, and I'm sure there are tons of others who do the same. The CPCs are just getting way up there it seems. The ebooks say its as easy as finding obscure keywords that most people don't bid on, but even in a semi-competitive arena that just doesn't fly because enough people DO bid on those terms to run up the CPCs high enough where most people can't compete (except in the rare case where you're promoting a digital product and getting 50-75% commission etc). Am I way off base here, or does this seem to be the case? It seems as each day passes, the only ones who really benefit from the adwords/cpc/affiliate craze are the people who run the affiliate programs - after all their affiliate programs are risk-free profit producers for them.

[skibum]

The eBooks are created to make money for those who write them.:) and sometimes their affiliates.

The ebooks say its as easy as finding obscure keywords that most people don't bid on

That is how its done. Easy, yes. Time consuming, very

Myth: CPCs are to high. You set your own CPC on AdWords. It doesn't matter what everyone else does. A click is still a click whether its from the #1 spot or the 4th page of results.

The belief that it is necessary to be in the top-3 spots or on the first page of ad listings is the fastest way to lose a fortune especially as an affiliate.

except in the rare case where you're promoting a digital product and getting 50-75% commission etc

Definitely helps if you can find programs like that but the commission doesn't need to be that high.

after all their affiliate programs are risk-free profit producers for them.

Not necessarily, when you consider the chunk CJ takes or other associated management expenses, monitoring affiliates, cracking down on abuse, there are some affiliate programs that run on CJ that have got to be very close to break even or operate at a loss. Repeat sales may make them profitable but if the customer the affiliate sends never buys again or renews, the merchant is gaining "branding value" but not making money directly on the affiliate program.

[Teshka]

It's not so much that you can't make money that way, it's that you can make better money and be self-sufficient doing something else. Spending your money to advertise for someome else is kind of self-defeating. You're helping them, and you're getting crumbs, if that. Better to invest your time and money for your own interests, whether that be a product you sell or a website you own.

[MrSpeed]

It can still be done but it takes a little work and some common sense. As an affiliate Adwords is probably not the best way to go if you only make $1.50 commission/sale. You can however squeek out a profit on higher commission items.

You need to track the ROI carefully and most importantly know when to pull the plug. There is no sense in making a lot of sales at no profit for you.

[Essex_boy]

Teshka, thats exactly the conclusion I came to. Set your own site up and promote that, its much more pleasing.

[skibum]

There are some benefits to using straigh PPC at first. Sometimes you can make a lot more money much faster than with a site. Also, if you start with CPC and know what is converting, when you move on to building sites, you have a much better idea of what terms to target, the language to use in the copy, and just how much firepower it will take to get the rankings necessary to compete.