Q : Of the billions of sites online, what's the one thing just about every site has in common?



A : nearly every one is trying to make an additional buck off of advertising in some fashion.

I'm abashed to confess it, but many years back when affiliate programs looked inventive, I too attempted to cash in by linking to Amazon.com books and music. Did that actually work for anyone? Probabilities are most will say no. Failed to work for me either. Not only did I not make an additional buck, I did not even make an additional penny. In reality, even my site mrcgiguy.com (shameless plug), which receives around five hundred unique visitors a day does not produce particularly good results from affiliate marketing programs. The bottom line is, most affiliate marketing programmes will not work for most internet sites. Imprecise , I know. But from my experience, unless your audience is extraordinarily general, you may need to find affiliate marketing programmes that are very specific to your niche to provide even the smallest result. Though , nowadays, even well centered affiliate marketing programmes don't appear to produce much.

Now let me get to the point. Forget affiliate programs! Forget was really brooding about the ad networks ( or at least reduce them to being a secondary form of ad money ) ! Google's Adsense is where it's at! What was once offered only to the biggest of the web, is now available to those among us running smaller niche sites. And how could there be any type of advertising cooler than one that uses your own content to determine which advertisements to display? I mean, this is what we have all been waiting for. This is the answer. Highly targeted adverts, non-intrusive, typically shuffled to maintain freshness, and they pay well. And when I say pay well, I mean, the potential exists to make in twenty four hours what I had formerly been making in a whole month through FastClick. While, I'm not permitted to debate any particular figures (part of the agreement in using Adsense), I will say that it's not even been a month now, and I've already made more from Adsense then I made in the entire duration of running adverts for FastClick. Glaringly , I have waived bye bye to ad networks and affiliate programs.

Like myself, most modern day web developers have opted not to join affiliate programs and have instead turned to ad networks such as FastClick, TribalFusion, Burst, etc. I joined FastClick since it was said to have the highest CPM rates. And for a long while, I was pretty content with the results. I was able to make a breath-taking 50 cents a day. Yes, I was content with that. I wasn't expecting millions...reality sank in long ago...somewhere between the days of being an "Amazon affiliate" and having my job melted after the dotcom crash. So, fifty cents a day, or an approximate $15.00 a month was great. Every bit helps when you are self employed.

Don't misunderstand what I mean, Adsense is not perfect. There are some things that might definitely be done to improve the system. One of the biggest gripes I have, and I've noticed others with the same opinion, is the general shortage of tracking. It sure would be great to grasp which advertisements are being clicked and how much those ads are manufacturing. But at the same time, I should understand why that information might be counter productive for Google. The absence of control over the border colour and link colour is a bit undesirable too. All other factors aside, the purpose of the ads is to make some extra money. On this point, Google's Adsense are definitely successful and in my humble opinion should straight away replace any current 468x60 or skyscraper ads you are running via ad networks or affiliate programs.

The future for affiliate marketing programs and ad networks has become terribly dour. It may be really engaging to see how Adsense matures, as the first product is definitely way better than recounted competition.

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