AdSense vs Affiliate Marketing

Many people want to make some additional income from their websites. One of the most common ways for people to start is to use Google Adsense ads. Google Adsense ads are a very easy monetization method to start earning money from your website. Simply setup your account, copy and paste some Javascript code into your website and you can start earning money from every click that you get.

The problem with Google Adsense is the payout per click can be low and it can take a considerable amount of time to make enough for Google to pay you when you only get a few clicks per day. You also have little to no control over the types of ads that Google displays. While they do a good job of displaying ads that relate to your content you can never be sure of all the ads. There is also the possibility that Google will, at their discretion, ban your account and you will never get paid. Not to mention the constant changes that they often make to their terms of service that require you to update your website privacy and disclosure policies.

That being said the ease of setup of Google Adsense can make it a great way to earn some additional income. Here is something to consider though, last month for every dollar I earned using Adsense I earned $449.00 in affiliate commissions! That sounds great doesn’t it! Now don’t expect to simply replace your Adsense ads with affiliate ads and your will be rolling in the dough. With affiliate marketing it is certainly possible to make more income than from Adsense but it can take a while to find the right affiliate program to promote with your website. This can leave you with little to no income while you experiment with different programs and networks. If you are currently not making any money from your website then this is not a big deal.

Make no mistake about it, making money from affiliate marketing will take a lot more work but the payoff can be well worth it when you find the right program(s) to promote. It can take a lot of trial and error to find the right affiliate program to promote on your website. Having a blog on your website can help because you can write posts on a number of topics to experiment.

If you are looking to monetize your website more Adsense is an easy way to start, but seriously consider affiliate marketing. Your website could go from making coffee money every month to making more than your regular pay check.