Google AdSense vs. Affiliate Marketing Programs

For most people trying to make money online with their websites, they are looking for the easiest solution that will reward them with the highest payout. This usually means that they will implement Google AdSense or a combination of affiliate marketing programs. But which is more effective, and which should you choose for your website?
Google AdSense
Many webmasters, especially those who are familiar with Google’s other products, start with Google AdSense. AdSense is a contextual advertising solution and is popular because it is:

    * easy to sign up. There are very few approval requirements.
    * easy to use. To get started with AdSense, you only need to add some simple JavaScript code to a web page, and voila, relevant ads are displayed.
    * maintenance free. When you change your content, you don’t need to update your ads, they will also change without requiring any maintenance.

But there are some drawbacks, the biggest of which is the payout.For most ads, AdSense works on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis. What this means is that when a visitor to your website clicks on an AdSense advertisement you will get paid a portion of the amount that advertisers pay for the click. Unfortunately, as the Google AdSense ocumentation states, they "don’t disclose the exact revenue share".
So you don’t really have a clear idea of how much you can expect to make.But worst of all, the per-click rate is fairly low. So unless you have a significant amount of traffic, you cannot expect to make a descent income with AdSense ads.
Affiliate Marketing Programs
As a result of the low payouts from AdSense, many webmasters turn to affiliate marketing programs. Like AdSense, these programs enable you to make money by adding code to your website, but there are three key differences:
  1. more flexibility to choose ads. Most affiliate marketing programs enable you to select ads for specific brands or products. This works very well if you link to a product or service that you have written about in an article.
   2. higher payouts: commission-based, lead-based, or click-based revenue structure. With most affiliate marketing programs, there are a variety of different ways that advertisers will pay you. The most common is with a commission. (If a visitor from your website purchases something at the website that you have promoted, then you get a commission for that sale.) Additionally, click-based earnings are typically greater. So these programs give you greater ability to make more money.
   3. well-defined commission/payment amounts. One of the most useful features is that you always know how much you will get if you make a sale, generate a lead, or refer someone via a click. When you sign up for a program, you will get a well outlined document which states the commission or monetary payout that you will receive per action.

But of course, there are drawbacks to affiliate marketing programs as well. First, there are more eligibility requirements for acceptance to a program. Some affiliate marketing programs, for example, require an acceptable website to be within a certain industry, maintain a high level of traffic, or achieve a specified minimum Google PageRank.

And second, affiliate marketing programs typically require regular maintenance. For example, you will need to update your ads if they outdated or if you want to freshen up your promotions.
So Which Should You Choose for Your Website?

To achieve the highest possible revenue from your website, you should probably choose affiliate marketing. It is an ideal choice because it can be profitable whether or not you have a lot of traffic. However, if you don’t have the technical know-how to update your ads on a semi-regular basis (or as needed) and/or cannot get accepted to affiliate marketing programs, AdSense will be a more appropriate solution.

Source:http://www.velvetblues.com/web-development-blog/google-adsense-vs-affiliate-marketing-programs/

Ways to build a good and sound affiliate marketing income

If you are committed to this business, read on and learn.

1. Identifying a practical market niche. Try to identify the niche market you want to focus on. While there are a lot of those out there, not all are easy to infiltrate. More often than not, you will end up losing more money than gaining some in the first place.

2. Find a stable affiliate program that offers the niche market you want. Search over the internet for this program. Make sure that you find the company that helps their affiliates through advices and tools needed for affiliate marketing. These are the types who wants your success over anything else.

3. Have your own site and create a newsletter with content-rich information that focuses on your niche market. A website is necessary in affiliate marketing. This is where people will go when they find what your offering interesting. This is also where you can tell them about other features of your business.

4. Make sure your target audience gets to your site and get them to sign up for your newsletter. You can do this by trying to differ from the way other people are advertising their affiliate marketing. Be unique. Think of creative ways to make people go to your site and check you out.

5. Get them to buy from you. The ones going to your affiliate site should be ready to buy from you. Present them with an offer they will find tempting so they will not be able to resist.

There are a lot of sites you can look into that are offering affiliate programs. Take note that some of them are good and some are not. Do your research so you can distinguish which ones will be best for you. If not, you are just wasting your time.

Below are some tips in finding a program that will give you the profit you have always dreamed of.

1. Look for one that is targeting your chosen niche market.

If your niche is about beauty products, you may want to give them tutorials on how to take care of their skin or body. Your products or services must be related to maintaining and preserving beauty.
It is also better if you can present testimonials from people who have used your products. This will give credibility to what is being presented.

2. Consider the commission you will be getting.

Sending an email to your list will cost you. Think of it this way. When you send an email, you send out a recommendation on some of the products offered. This is basically called an opportunity cost. So if you try to compute all that you have sent, that will be the cost you incurred.

Now, have those persons you emailed bought from you? If they did, then it was worth the advertising sent. But if not, that will be deducted from you.

Be certain that the commission offered to you justifies and makes up for the cost of advertising you went through. You would not want to be spending more on advertising than the amount of commission you are receiving. Make sure that it is fair enough.

3. Inspect the product yourself. Do not start recommending something you are not certain about. Try to least examine them to know if they are any good and worth recommending to others.

How will you make your customers believe in your product when you yourself do not? Put yourself in their place and see if you would be interested in availing one of your product or service.

LinkSharing in Affiliate Marketing

Online affiliate marketing is one of the most effective, cheapest and fastest ways to promote merchandise. With millions of people getting access to the Internet everyday, there’s a great chance for a merchant to introduce his products and services to a wider market, thereby, maximizing his revenue.
Likewise, affiliate marketing is an excellent way to generate full-time income for a home-based affiliate marketer. For someone who is jaded of going through a grueling eight-hour work routine, affiliate marketing offers a great opportunity to earn big without wearing himself out—physically, mentally and emotionally.
In affiliate marketing, both parties are benefited since as the merchant earns from each item sold, the marketer likewise earns a commission.
If you are interested in affiliate marketing but are finding it hard to look for affiliate programs, affiliates or merchants, you can start by checking sites of various affiliate networks. Many affiliate programs in the Internet are being offered through an affiliate program network, which acts as a link between the merchants and individual affiliates.
Among the most popular is LinkShare, it is through it that merchants and affiliates meet. LinkShare maintains and manages affiliate marketing programs for a great number of merchants with various kinds of businesses, products and services. It also has over 6,000 affiliate site members in its network. It gains profit from the set-up fees, monthly account maintenance fees and commissions.
Joining networks like LinkShare can be of great help in establishing your online marketing business. Whether you are a merchant or an affiliate marketer, you need to research well on your partners in order to choose the best for you.
LinkShare provides the facility of acquiring access to a large network of advertisers (merchants) who offer their affiliate programs to publishers (affiliates) who are willing to promote their products. In the same manner, it gives the merchants access to a large network of affiliates who are searching for affiliate marketing opportunities.
LinkShare is especially beneficial for an affiliate in choosing his partners since he can find his options all in one location. It would be easier for him to compare products, commission rates and other benefits given by the merchant. The merchant usually just waits for interested affiliates to sign up in his affiliate marketing program but being in the network increases his chance to promote his products to a larger market, thus, maximizing his potential to gain huge profit.
To help you decide whether to use large affiliate networks such as LinkShare or not, let us try to look deeper into its positive and negative sides. The primary advantage of LinkShare to you as an affiliate is convenience.
As earlier mentioned, you find different pieces of information about your choices simultaneously all in a single location, so you save time and effort looking for affiliate programs or merchants.
It’s also easier to track your business partner’s performance through monthly reports and statements, as well as its sales and commission rates, so you know whether the affiliate program is still worth continuing. If you have signed up for several affiliate programs, you can check all your statistics for each merchandiser you are affiliated with by logging in just once.
LinkShare helps you manage and maintain all records of your visitors’ click-throughs and sales transaction. It takes care of your commissions and gives it to you monthly in lump sum. Especially when you have more than one merchant partner, it would be easier for you to manage your accounts and track your earnings when you are affiliated through a marketing program network. Furthermore, every information you get is accurate and secured, so you are protected from all the risk you might encounter. Above all, you can enjoy LinkShare’s benefits for free. You just have to go to their site and register your website. Instantly, you get access to a great variety of affiliate programs available for you.
So, what’s on the negative side? Although, it is indeed helpful to join affiliate marketing networks such as LinkShare, there are some disadvantages, too.
For one, merchants offer lower commissions to affiliates who partner with them through the third party program network. This because they still have to pay for the use of service and the technology provided by LinkShare.
Direct partnership with the merchant cuts costs of advertising through the network and so the affiliate has bigger potential to earn more. Moreover, it is possible that your payment may be delayed for a month or more since program networks would pay you only after the advertiser or the merchant has paid them. Do you need to use LinkShare or other networks? It depends, actually. You can opt for direct partnership with the merchant, but this choice is not applicable all the time. There are a lot of merchandisers who offer their affiliate program only through affiliate program networks and thus, you have no choice other than joining the network to get into the affiliate marketing program.
So you are faced with “take it or leave it” situation. But LinkShare and other program networks are not that disadvantageous. After all, whether you join it or not, earning big would depend more on your promotional strategies and persistence.
Malik

How To Incorporate Adsense Into Your Affiliate Marketing

A lot of people are lured by affiliate marketing because it can be financially rewarding, even if you just stay at home. Affiliate marketing programs are best alternatives to those who are sick and tired of their arduous daily work just to climb up the venerated corporate ladder. You don’t need products to sell, you just have to market them in your own web site and you don’t have to worry about processing the customers’ payments and the shipment of the products. If you are already into affiliate marketing, probably you were thinking about these benefits, too, before deciding to join an affiliate program.
Of course you want earn huge amount of commission. Who would not want it anyway? Keep in mind, however, that affiliate marketing cannot guarantee you instant success if you don’t work on it. There are a lot of ways of maximizing your income. The Internet is a huge library of information, use it to learn of other opportunities and ways to increase your income. You can partner with several merchandisers and promote different products in your website; thereby, increasing your chance to earn a commission.
The easiest way for you to rev up your revenue potential is by incorporating Google AdSense into your marketing campaigns. What is Google AdSense? What are its advantages? How can it boost my revenues? These are some of the questions you might want to ask. Let’s try to probe into Google AdSense, so you would know how it could help you in your affiliate marketing program.
Merchants place their ads in Google, which is one of the most popular search engines or tools for locating various resources in the World Wide Web. Now the Google AdSense program allows you to display these ads in you website and when your visitors click through them, you earn. The advertiser, which is the merchant pays Google for every click-through made by the customer and you as a partner of Google, gets a share from that payment.
What’s great about the Google AdSense is that the ads are relevant to the content of your web page. Most likely, visitors of your web site are interested on the theme of your site and specifically, on the content of your web page. So, seeing ads related to their interest would definitely drive them to click through the link or the ad. Using state-of-the-art technology, Google scans your web site and matches the content of your pages to their large database of advertisers; this way, Google is able to find ads that are targeted by the users of your site. In addition, Google changes the ads in your site as you change the content of your pages, so you can always expect the ads to be relevant to your site.
Having Google ads in your website is also a way of convincing your users to return to your site. Repeat customers multiply your income without having to exert extra effort to convince them again to click through your links. And your potential to earn doesn’t depend on them alone. Since you already have their confidence, they can be your endorsers as well. They could refer your site to family and friends who probably share the same interests with them.
Advertisers in the Google AdSense program range from large international brands to small-time domestic and local businesses, so the targeted market for the ads can range as well. This adds variety to your site; thereby, attracting different kinds of users. As you attract more users, you increase your earning potential as well. If you are targeting a specific nationality for your site users, don’t worry because AdSense can be used in different languages.
In order to boost your revenues through Google AdSense, you must pay attention to making web pages of high value topics. Make contents related to high-paying ads, so you can earn more. Some ads pay only a few cents while some ads pay you dollars just for a single click. You would need to do a little research on this so you can come up with a more relevant content. Join affiliate marketing forums and get tips from experienced affiliate marketers.
Becoming an AdSense affiliate marketer is easy and fast. You just have to apply online and once your application is approved, you can instantly set up Google ads in your site. All you need to do is copy and paste some codes in your web pages and in no time the ads will appear in your site.
Strike while the iron is hot! Take advantage of the favorable circumstances the Internet is offering you. Make the most of your affiliate marketing opportunities, use Google AdSense!

Adsense Consultant - The Adsense Consultant - Part 2: One Of The Most Frequently Asked Questions Seems To Be.......#links

Adsense Consultant - The Adsense Consultant - Part 2: One Of The Most Frequently Asked Questions Seems To Be.......#links

Making use of Google Adwords to Drive Traffic to your Website

Making use of Google Adwords to Drive Traffic to your Website
Highly targeted traffic is one of the most important entities in the internet universe. Any website owner or administrator recognizes the importance of driving traffic to a website. The success of any website does not rely entirely on the site itself. You may have a terrific idea for a website, offer an excellent product or service, or have an exceptionally designed site with superb content, but if you do not use the right strategies to advertise, your site would not attract the high traffic you need. Attracting targeted traffic is a task that should be taken seriously for any site to succeed or make a profit. Fortunately, there are internet-marketing tools that help the website marketer to drive traffic to his website. One of the most significant, and effective, of these tools is Google's Adwords. Adwords is one of Google's advertising services.
How does Google Adwords work? Google is the largest search engine on the web receiving over 200 million queries each day through its various services. As Google is the most popular search engine today, webmasters are keen on having their websites achieve a higher ranking in the search engine results it provides. A high ranking can mean high traffic for that website. The search engine results page is also a great venue for advertisers to promote a product or service through ads and links. Consequently, Google launched its Adwords service, as a way for businesses to advertise products and services to a targeted audience. Google Adwords can guarantee instant traffic. In this service, Google displays relevant text based ads within its search engine results page termed as "Sponsored Links". Whenever a particular keyword is searched on, these relevant links appear in a separate section giving excellent exposure to the sites listed.
How do you use Google Adwords? First, you have to open an account with the Google Adwords Service. Then, you should indicate your target language and country. This is important because you would not want your products advertised in countries where your product or service cannot be sold. Afterwards, you should now create an ad group. This involves designing the ad, selecting keywords and determining maximum cost per click that you are willing to spend and defining bid amounts. The most important step in creating a successful Adwords campaign is selecting an effective title tag that will catch the attention of your target audience. The title tag, generally a short phrase, is the most important part of your Adwords campaign so make sure that it is attractive and catchy. You should describe the website clearly and accurately. The most effective advertising conveys a clear message to the target audience. With a clear message, you will be attracting qualified leads, which can eventually convert to sale. Thus, the importance of selecting the right keywords cannot be overemphasized.
There are keyword variations you can adapt to reach more prospects. Using these varieties, misspellings and derivatives can help increase the chance of your ads being served. Broad match is targeting keywords in a loosely defined manner. Here, the ads appear based on the keywords that have been queried by other users as opposed to exact match, which calls for the keyword to match the query exactly. Meanwhile, a keyword phrase set to phrase match will only appear when the exact phrase is searched on. A negative keyword is helpful in filtering unrelated pages.
After you have decided on what title tag to use in your ad, you must now define a budget in order to maximize exposure. Google Adwords recommend a daily budget for each campaign. However, you should determine a budget that is suitable and affordable. You should also determine the maximum cost per click. Google will offer a recommended cost per click, but you do not have to stick with this. Usually, a number one position is not ideal as it can also attract unwanted traffic and useless clicks. A number two position is more preferred as it can filter useless clicks and provide traffic with a higher conversion rate.
To conclude, Google Adwords is an excellent strategy and tool in giving your site maximum exposure. Nevertheless, Google Adwords should not be your sole advertising campaign. It will definitely help you find the all-important, highly targeted traffic you need.
Don Malik

Search Engine Optimization for Affiliate Marketers

Search Engine Optimization for Affiliate Marketers


There are no secrets on how to rank high with the major search engines because effective search engine optimizations are now immense. What is search engine optimization? Before we discuss that thing, you have to understand first how search engines work and a bit of know-how.

Search engines are into providing their users with the most relevant and up-to-date information to match the search term that was used. They are sophisticated pieces of technology which allow users to quickly find relevant websites by searching for a word or a phrase. Search engine results are useless to users if the information doesn’t relate to the search term, or if the results are old. People expect the most up-to-date and fresh information that is useful to them.

Updating your website everyday and adding some materials will help you get noticed by the search engines. So, if you are going to sell any type of product or service online, you have to optimize your website for the search engines, in order to boost traffic and sales. It is because over 90% of your business will likely come directly from search engine results. And for that reason, it is absolutely important to optimize your site for search engines for you to have the greatest deals in the entire world.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process by which webmasters or online business owners utilize strategic copy to augment their website’s status. It is certain that the internet has grown so fast over the years and the competition for the best search engine position has created an enormous market. Therefore, better understanding the fundamental elements of Search Engine Optimization is vital for an online business’ success.

Making use of effective search engine optimization techniques will improve the page rank of your website. There are many tricks that can be used to increase page rank; the most effective method is to provide high quality content consistently. This seems like a simple concept but there are many websites that fails to provide content that visitors find interesting. Sites which provide content that are interesting, well-written and regularly updated create highly engaged visitors who are more likely to return to the website in the coming days. So, if you can set your website apart from those boring, lifeless sites then do it. You’ll surely have a step closer to achieving high page rank through search engine optimization.

The next significant factor for an effective search engine optimization is to include keywords and phrases within your content. To make sure that you are properly targeting your market, you have to make sure that the keywords and phrases you have on your site are the keywords and phrase that your site is actually optimized for. The more keywords you use in your content, the more likely it is that online visitors will find your site when they do some research with those words. If you are unfailing with these techniques, then your overall search engine optimization will increase, boosting your page rank.

You should also have to develop a linking strategy as a part of your search engine optimization. Not only does this provide free advertising for your site, but it makes the impression that your site is imperative because of its affiliated links. For each link that you have pointing back to you, that is another chance for your potential customer to find you. The more inbound links that you have pointing to your site, the higher you will be ranked in the search engines.

Another is to develop a content stratagem. People who get to search from the internet are looking for information. The more information you provide for them and the more helpful it is, the more likely you will make the sale. Writing articles is the most effective way to build up content for your site. When writing articles to post on your site, make sure that you develop a clear means of arranging their content. You can do this by simply adding a new page to your site. This will allow room for extra articles to be added as you write them, and will allow you to build up an archive of articles which will maintain to draw online visitors. Make sure also that you have included your archived articles in a directory that is next to the root web of your site so that the search engines will catalog your online articles.

Always keep in mind that search engine optimization methods are important in developing your site’s status. With that thing in mind, make sure that you write high-quality, keyword rich content and link your site to and from a deliberate family of other sites. These things will help improve your site’s popularity and coerce increased business through your online business.

Malik