Is the AdWords/Affiliates concept dead?

or can affiliates still make money with adwords

[arikgub]

Please help me to find an answer to the question in the title.

I started with adwords as an affiliate nearly a week before G introduced its quality score system. My first impression was that success with adwords is all about planning, research, etc. and I thought with a little due diligence I can make it. Meanwhile, I hardly break even and don't have a clue how to improve since for me the system lacks any logic and its behavior is absolutely unpredictable.

I would like to ask AdWords affiliates on this board: how did the recent QS change affect affiliate advertizers promoting others stuff for comission? Is it still possible to make money using googlecash method?

Many on this board have mentioned that the new system favors big advertizers. Are profit margins getting lower? This may eventually put googlecashers out of bussiness.

Thanks for answers. Need them to keep me going.

[edited by: skibum at 5:53 am (utc) on Sep. 13, 2005]

[DavidDeprice]

It's mostly dead. You can still make money with it, but you'll have to rely on contextual traffic (not search), and you have to pick expensive products.

[mlevenhagen]

Hi Arikgub,

I know a lot of AdWords affiliates that are still making VERY good money... and many of them rode out these last changes and are doing just as well if not better... I know guys make 10K and more per month using AdWords to promote affiliate programs...

Some of the principles laid out in some e-books are a little outdated, but they are still worth a read. It lays down the basics and groundwork you need to succeed at Adwords from an affiliate perspective.

I first got an e-book a year and a half ago and still use many of the principles to make money with
Adwords.

I have however adapted them and have my own way of doing things, but still it is a part of me and my method.

There are still 100s of thousands of niche markets out there to be tackled. It isn't as easy as it once was. It does invovle that 4 letter word... work.

I will say this though. Many the AdWords affiliates do realize the importance of building landing pages instead of just relying on direct to merchant...

And the hopefully know by now to survive long term in this business, one must be diversified as well...

Hope that helps.

[edited by: skibum at 5:56 am (utc) on Sep. 13, 2005]

[zeus]

Ask the 100.000 of scraper site owners, they are making HUGE profit on the google ignorence and adsense, so my best advice is buy a software to make scraper sites and link them all together and google will love you.

That was a pure money advice, personaly I would NEVER do that, because thats not why Im in this business.

[skibum]

Never read any of the e-books but the recent changes didn't have much effect, in fact some click prices are now lower so high volume search phrases that were not profitable at $.05 are now profitable at $0.03 or $0.02 per click. If you could find a good off-beat niche area a few years ago, there's a pretty good chance it is still working today through the last two AdWords changes.

Any of the AdWords books around will clue you in as to how AdWords works, there is even a free one from Google. Bottom line is it takes a lot of work, if you are just starting out, you better plan on "investing" money until you find something that clicks and turns a profit. In other words, you better have cash to burn for a while.

Chances are you'll have to spend a lot more than the cost of an e-book to have a chance at making anything worthwhile just buying AdWords traffic and making a margin as an affiliate.

note: Thread edited so as not to promote any specific book

[arikgub]

Thanks all for valuable advices!

arikgub

[mike schmitz]

I think it's more difficult.

I set up a new campaing and set a max CPC of $.10. I then got one impressions and one click. Great, right? A CTR of 100%!

Google disabled this keyword and set the minimum CPC at $5.00. Makes perfect sense. Great job, Google!