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The Rise and Fall of
Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs
were once a great source of online revenue, a savvy webmaster
with an eye for marketing could easily parley a site into a money
making machine with a little luck and effort. However, the evolution
and growth of the Internet has hampered the growth of fortune making
affiliate programs.
Constant search engine
algorithm changes, along with the search engine's clear distaste for
sites participating in affiliate programs; have made it a little
more difficult to earn a healthy affiliate revenue. An influx in
the use of software programs that terminate cookie tracking and privacy
programs that prevent webmasters from tracking referrers, have also
hindered the affiliate sales channel. While it is still possible
to make money through affiliate marketing, other alternatives
ought to be considered.
A Healthy Alternative
or Supplement
Google's Adsense program allows approved websites to dynamically serve
Google's pay-per-click AdWords results. This has become a popular
alternative and an effective revenue sharing program for webmasters.
Google's spider parses the adserving website and serves ads that relate
to the website's content. While the Google's AdSense program still has
some issues, they are making efforts to improve it.
The website maintenance
related to Adsense is very easy and requires very little effort.
Webmasters need only to insert JavaScript into the webpage or website
template. The JavaScript calls the ad from Google and will ensure that
ads are served each time a visitor goes to the webpage. If the visitor
clicks one of the Adsense ads served to the website, the website owner
is credited for the referral.
The implementation, while
simple, has its drawbacks. Google dictates the format of the ads.
Webmasters can select from a handful of preformatted text boxes that
lack creativity. A recent improvement allows webmasters to modify the ad
boxes to resemble the website's color scheme. Still, a far cry from some
of the creative ads webmasters are accustom to.
The example below
reflects how the color scheme can be modified to match the look of the
website, but the ads physically don't fit well into the overall website
design.
sample modified to match
sites color scheme:
http://www.hospital-software.com (scroll to the bottom)
Google determines the content of the ads that are shown/ Sometimes the
ads are poorly targeted, and of no interest to the website visitors.
sample of poorly targeted
ads:
http://www.real-estate-supply.com
Adwords can be a great addition to a website, and when well matched to
the content the revenue stream from Google is consistent and effortless.
sample of effective
Adsense program:
http://www.police-supplies.com (scroll to the bottom)
http://www.small-business-software.net (scroll to the bottom)
Not that the Google
Adsense program is not without its problems.as the reporting provided by
Google is lacking. Google has not implemented any way to track multiple
sites that serve ads; they simply show the number of ads served, the
percentage of clicks received, and the revenue earned each day. Google
does not disclose the amount of the revenue they share, what percentage
of the revenue they earn and what someone can expect to receive for each
click.
Webmasters with multiple
sites will have difficulty determining which websites are producing the
money in the AdSense program.
With affiliate
programs many webmasters implement a new browser launch with each
click off the site, AdSense removes the visitor from the website and
there is not currently an option to launch the visitor into another
browser.
Early on Google
implemented a filtering system that allowed webmasters to prevent a
specific domain's ads from being served on the website. Ad blocking
meant that webmasters could prevent their competitors ads from being
dynamically served on their website.
Overall, AdWords are
great supplements to websites where affiliate programs are either not
performing or when affiliate programs don't exist that target the sites
content.
Give it a Try
Implementing and maintaining Google AdSense program on a content
site requires very little effort and can often bring a steady stream of
additional revenue for webmasters. Consider supplementing content and
see what happens.
Recommended Readings:
-
Affiliate alternatives: Google
AdSense
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AdWords +
ClickBank breaks PROFIT records
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Ten tips
for affiliate marketers using Google AdWords
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Mastering
Google AdWords for profit
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How to set up a
successful Google AdWords campaign
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How to get higher
click-through rates (CTR) on your Google AdWords campaigns.
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How to cheat Google AdWords select - Parts 1 to 4
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