Mixing Affiliate Programs and AdSense

When Google relaxed its rules recently about allowing competitive ad programs to co-exist with AdSense on the same pages — the only restriction is that the other ads can't look like or be confused with the AdSense ads — it gave many AdSense publishers a reason to go exploring and see what other kinds of content monetization programs they could come up with. A few of these, like Chitika eMiniMalls, are pay-per-click (PPC) programs like AdSense, but most are in fact pay-per-action (PPA) programs. Affiliate programs are the classic PPA example — you don't get paid unless the person you referred actually buys/joins — but they're not the only type. I get asked occasionally for recommendations as to which program to join, but beyond joining ClickBank and Amazon Associates I really can't make specific recommendations — there are just too many to keep track of!

Take, for example, this iPod resale program a friend of mine is involved with. I had no idea that there was a large market for used iPods, but apparently there is, and that's what Beyond the Pod is all about: you tell them about your iPod, they give you a price they'll pay you for it, you ship it to them, they send you cash once they've verified that the device works and is what you claimed it to be. (As far as PPA programs go, this one is definitely strong on the “action” side!) But I guess it saves the iPod owner the hassle of listing it on eBay. If you've got a lot of music listeners visiting your site, you can join their affiliate program and make the occasional buck that way.

Or if your audience is keen for low-priced ebooks, the $7 Offers site now offers an easy way to create AdSense-like text and image ads that promote ebooks and software being sold using the $7 Secrets model.

Most of these programs, though, should be seen as complementary to your AdSense earnings. It's good to have another source of income, but it'll take some work on your part to find a steady income source that outperforms the AdSense ads. Not that these don't exist — far from it — but finding the right program that converts and pays well is non-trivial.

What about using then as alternate ads for those times when AdSense won't show any ads? That's a good plan, but I must admit that in the last year or so I don't recall ever seeing any public service ads (PSAs) showing up on my sites and so I wouldn't expect to see a lot of money from that use. The AdWords ad inventory (which is where the AdSense ads come from) is large and varied enough to handle almost any kind of site these days. And if you do see PSAs, some tweaking is usually all you need to make them disappear.

For pure content monetization, it's really hard to beat AdSense. Maybe the Yahoo Publisher Network will become a worthy competitor, but they need to improve their ad targeting before they become a real threat.