Affiliate Links Are Still Better Than Adsense (Most Of The Time)
- How To Make Money Without Selling Anything On Your Website
- Display Ad Alternatives & Additions To Google Adsense Income
- How Much Money Can You Make With Adsense?
- Don't Be Afraid To Risk Earnings For Gains: MediaVine Test
However, I just wanted to do a short PSA that affiliate links and affiliate marketing are still my preferred choice to monetize a website! True, there are many ways to make money from a website, and display ads like Adsense is one possible way.
However, a well placed affiliate link can go really, really far.
For example, you may remember my blog about One Post Makes Me $300 Per Month. Or this one about how I made $500 from forgotten affiliate links.
Did you see last week when someone made $100k+ from a single sale?
Or what about this one about a $3000 Dollar Sale?
That's not to say that every single sale you make is going to be so impressive. But the potential is huge!
It's very tough to scale a website from 1,000 visits per day to 10,000 visits per day. It's a lot easier to scale 1 sale to 100 sales!
Two Affiliate Commission Tips!
When researching products to promote for your website, I always look for two things:
- High ticket items
- Recurring commissions
I don't exclusively promote those types of products, but they are just two things I keep in mind during my research. It's easier to make 1 sale for $100 than 100 sales for $1.
On top of that, a recurring affiliate program can mean you make a single sale that repeats for several years. I have money coming in from affiliate programs from back in 2011! That's 7 years of recurring sales so far!
Do you prefer display ads or affiliate marketing?
Do you use one or both on your websites?
Recent Comments
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Thanks for the great information Nathaniel.
I know that I can also vouch for this as I have a couple of articles that drive hundreds of dollars to my site month after month.
Sometimes, it just comes down to creating the right kind of quality content with the perfect keyword to create a combination that is out of this world.
It's funny how when I have a money making article and I re-read it, I think, "Oh, that was a good piece of content. No wonder it ranks and earns." LOL
No kidding, right? It seems like it's always the one's that make the $ that we view as the best ones LOL.
Appreciate the insight you shared.
As a newbie still, learning more each day, yet finding it does take patience in understanding what can be done especially when you are still learning the basics.
The insight you have shared in your blogs has really helped. Thank you.
So I'm big proponent of multiple sources of revenue on a site. Because it covers the sensibilities of your audience. A smaller percentage of people will actually buy something on your site than people that will fill in a lead form. And with display ads on your site you cover everyone that visits your site. So when you employe affiliate links that pay you per sale and per lead you cover two sets of your audience. Then display will cover that set and people that will take no action at all. So for me it's all useful. I don't like leaving money on the table.
It's just a matter of trying to balance it out properly on your site.
That balance you're talking about was very hard for me to achieve in the early days of my site, but it seems to be coming together more nicely nowadays.
Trying to ramp up my "pay per lead" game this year (among other things) to try to add another stream of revenue to the site.
Well it is very hard because there is always these nagging fears we have. For instance I was terrified that adding one stream may take away from another. But then I had to realize that as it stands not everyone is going to take action on that one aspect. They're going to leave and I get nothing out of it.
But now I feel like I have everything covered and it's led to greater revenue. The pay per lead things has been my bread and butter since day 1. It amazes me how many people sleep on it and it provides so much income because the barrier of entry is so low for your users. So as long as you're doing effectively you can earn several extra thousands dollars per month with it and your users don't have to spend a dime for you to get paid. So it's definitely something to explore this year.
This is a noble piece of information we all need to know. If I may ask what do you mean by "high ticket items"?
Expensive stuff. Something that costs $500-$5000 or more. It's easier to make one sale of a big thing than tons of sales of small things (usually).
At least it'll mix in more diverse types of sales on your site, so you can make a big sale every couple of months, and small or medium sales consistently.
So true. I always prefer affiliate marketing because it works well for me over any other forms of monetization. Also sponsored ads bringing a good side income for one of my sites.
I haven't done any sponsored ads on any of my sites before, but I know that people are making money with them because I continue to see them on other blogs in my niche :)
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Thanks for this post Nathaniel
I would prefer to have Affiliate links on my site.
Adverts seem to make the site look messy and unserious
What do you think?
I agree. Ads look terrible, usually. It's hard to turn down $2k+ in income though, if the opportunity arises. You can always create a balance and use fewer ads, while still earning *some* income, but not overwhelming the site.
2k a month! Now that catches my attention!