AdSense versus Affiliate Programs - which earns more?

[avalon37]

So one of my sites looks like a pretty standard e-commerce site, but with a lot of content as well. But I do direct link to many actual product pages on 100's of websites. Just straight links - no affiliate association or tracking. To date, I've earned all my revenue through AdSense. I have a very high click rate seeing as how most of the advertisements on each page are for the brand of the page I built. For example, I have a page about brand Z and Brand Z is display advertiser whose ads are appearing on my brand Z page.

I've started to wonder if I made all the product links affiliate links how much would I earn? I know the typical e-commerce conversion rates and the commission %'s and I'm pretty confident I am making much with AdSense given how high my CTR is.

Has anyone ever tested which makes you more money; AdSense or Affiliate revenue? I know I could do both....but frankly I don't really want to the affiliate links on my site for fear of disrupting my SEO results.

[netmeg]

The affiliate links aren't going to screw up your SEO as long as you're adding value in some way. That's not easy if its something that a bunch of other people are selling, but its necessary.

I usually don't think of AdSense or affiliate income as one being replacement for the other. They really are different, and the psychology behind them is different too. Whether either or both are appropriate for your site depends on the nature of your site. I have sites that are mostly AdSense and sites that are mostly affiliate; I've never had a site where the two were interchangeable.

AdSense works well on my event sites because it's a set-it-and-forget-it solution, basically - I just place the code and bring in tons of diverse traffic. Very occasionally an opportunity arises where I can put in an affiliate ad and maybe write a page for it, but it's rare.

Whereas with my affiliate sites, I actually have to do some selling to make them pay off. The pages (or the site) will be designed around the affiliate offer, and I have to come up with a way to add value to it. I will review a product, or demonstrate how I use a product, or compare products - and if I can't figure out a way to add value that is unique, then I usually don't bother. There are fewer conversions with affiliate ads, but each one tends to pay way more than AdSense. Of course the best kind are recurring payments - if you can promote some kind of a subscription service, and then get a piece of that subscription every month as long the user stays signed up. My personal favorite.

The exception, in my experience is Amazon - you can put Amazon ads almost anywhere and someone will hit them; in fact even if they don't purchase from your ad, if they buy within 24 hours (and don't click on anyone else's Amazon ad in that time) you still get credit for it as they use a 24 hour cookie. Amazon has tons of ads appealing to specific products or genres, or times of the year, and I can almost always find some ad that appeals to the audience of any of my sites. Heck, I got an $18 commission on the sale of an Amazon gift card yesterday because I was running an ad for Amazon gift cards on a site where that was the only ad.

So by all means, try affiliate marketing, but personally, I wouldn't look at it as a direct replacement for AdSense. I have tried for over ten years and hundreds of millions of pageviews to just "set-it-and-forget-it" with affiliate ads, and I've made tens of dollars off it. It really only works if you can spend some time and space actually *selling* the offer.

[avalon37]

Appreciate the shared knowledge netmeg. That's how I feel about Affiliates - it's quite a bit of work and personally I feel for my site I'd get a better ROI investing in SEO and AdSense.

Amazon I've always been curious about. I'm assuming it's pretty easy to get accepted into their affiliate program and they pay decent commissions? I'm leaning more towards testing them first versus actually tagging pages with the affiliates I am already approved for on Ratuken/Linkshare. I can't believe that many sites are reducing commissions on Rakuten - seems like a bad business decision IMO.

[netmeg]

I never got much going with Ratuken (actually the last time I used it it was still Linkshare) You might want to take a look at Shareasale; that's my favorite network. Everything else I do are pretty much one-offs.

Amazon is easy to get into (as long as you don't reside in one of the states they've dropped because of the nexus/tax stuff) I would not say they pay particularly well unless you do a large quantity of transactions. But they work for me on heavy traffic sites with a diverse user base, because, well, they're Amazon.

[eek2121]

Amazon was the easiest to get for one of my sites. As long as you add value to the user while they are on your site, it won't be an issue. Having both Adsense as well as affiliate income is awesome. We have an average of a 3% conversion rate on the affiliate links. On top of that, people sometimes buy MORE then what you are selling them. We've had users click a link for $35 item and end up buying $3,000 worth of stuff after they went to Amazon. Note that you get paid commission for ALL the stuff they buy. We earned a couple hundred dollars from that one click.

Even if they don't click your affiliate links, they'll still click the ads. Think of Adsense and affiliate marketing as going hand in hand.

[wa desert rat]

I have had poor luck with Amazon ads. Mostly because I've done it all wrong, of course. I think that the secret is to find Amazon products that tie in with your content. Then visitors drawn to the content will be more likely to click on the Amazon ads that are relevant and BINGO! you get a check.

Just as an example. My wife and I are interested in RVing as a retirement lifestyle and we stumbled onto a site written by a retired teacher who, along with her two aging terriers, travels the west in an SUV towing a 17-foot trailer. Her writing style is interesting and readable and her subject attracts a lot of dedicated readers (I'm one).

What Sue does that is different from what an Adsense publisher does in that she actually touts her Amazon ads. If she buys sandals from Amazon and likes them, you'll see an Amazon ad for those sandals and maybe a tidbit now and then in the content. Google, of course, strictly forbids that we direct readers to ads but Amazon has no such restriction.

Sue writes something almost every day and, amazingly, manages to keep it fresh. I have no idea how much money she makes but she is clearly getting some money out of it and even a gas tank fillup a couple times a month is probably incentive enough for her.

But it takes quite a bit of work and dedication. Sue allows comments and replies to all of them. And her web site has a big "THANK YOU" to all visitors who have bought from Amazon via her ads.

[netmeg]

Right, as opposed to AdSense, you can point out Amazon stuff. That's the best way to use it.

[IanCP]

Well over the years I've known friends who have made, and continue to make very serious money with quality affiliate programmes. Obviously including Amazon and CJ.

Curiously, the results from AdSense on their sites are quite disappointing for them - they simply retain it only as supplementary pin money [their words].

I've always put it down to not comparing apples with oranges.

[piatkow]

And her web site has a big "THANK YOU" to all visitors who have bought from Amazon via her ads.

If readers actually feel involved in your site you will find some supporting you by routing Amazon purchases through you rather than going direct.

[Swanny007]

I don't use Amazon much, but I do include my affiliate link at the top of the pages in the forums, so in the event people are buying I hope they use my link. The comparison of earnings using that sort of link is there is no comparison. My Amazon earnings is peanuts compared to my AdSense earnings, and the effort is also not comparable.

To make money on Amazon, it's possible but you need the right audience, the right content, and you generally need to do more work. For an existing site, AdSense would generally be the way to go as it's much easier to integrate and profit from.

[webcentric]

I'm in total agreement that this is an apples and oranges issue. Affiliate marketing is more akin to selling your own products in many ways which generally requires a more sophisticated and detailed marketing approach. Theoritically, adsense targets your audience and content, as is. It's the advertisers job to do the bulk of the marketing. With affiliate marketing, your primary job is targeting a specific audience and shaping the information and user experience in a way that motivates the user to move father into the purchasing funnel. You're taking on a much larger role in the the marketing process.

[EditorialGuy]

On our editorial site, we've always earned quite a bit more from affiliate links than from advertising (including AdSense).

BUT: It takes time to figure out which affiliate programs will work with any given topic, site, and audience. I've tried programs that seemed perfect for our audience but earned almost nothing. If you're looking for a quick "set and forget" solution, AdSense is likely to be your most practical option.

[piatkow]

I've tried programs that seemed perfect for our audience but earned almost nothing.

Same here, with adsense you can get on with running your website.

[EditorialGuy]

Same here, with adsense you can get on with running your website.

On the other hand, once you find an affiliate program that works well with your site, you can earn good money from it for years.

Like netmeg, I prefer a mix of affiliate links and advertising. (One nice thing about AdSense is that it contributes to a smooth cash flow: The ads run, and you get paid soon afterwards. That isn't always true in the case of affiliate programs. Hotels are a good example: If someone books a hotel for next October, you may not get your commission until December, and there's always the possibility that the customer may cancel between now and next fall.)