I have come to conclusion that PPC ads (adsense/Yahoo's publisher) is FAR superior to lead based affiliate programs. And that affiliate programs, for the most part, tend to suck. I have tried the auction ads, the zip/email based CPA offers, maxbounty CPA, commision junction, and clickbank and the results have always been lackluster. The reason why Adsense os so popular is that is is so easy to get paid. All you need is a mere click and you get $$$. No need for visitors to fill out long forms or use creditcards. Also the advertiers screw over affilaites by making landing pages that don;t convert. Big waste of time
I believe in quite the opposite. With PPC, there is a larger amount of risk involved. With affiliate networks, you are guaranteed the sales and you only pay for what you get. It is, however, always different for every company and every industry. I prefer CPA over CPC though.
I'm talking about being a publisher, not an advertiser. The problem with lead based advertising versus click ads is that publishers get the short end of the stick. I know advertisers want conversions, but if the publishers can't make money they will stop promoting your stuff.
Oh. That also completely depends on the industry and the target audience, I think. I know some publishers earning mid $xx,xxx/mo via affiliate networks while on the other hand I also know publishers earning low-mid $xx,xxx/mo through adsense. It purely depends on how you implement it.
Affiliate programs are 1000x better when you have targetted traffic. Putting AdSense up for targetted traffic is like giving away 90% of your revenue. That's how I see it atleast.
I still feel it's industry-specific. I run a music-related website and affiliate programs are crap for it. I earn a lot more through adsense on it. really just depends, you need to try things and see what works.
There are quite a few landing pages in the Adsense ads from the CPA networks because people are making money from it. It takes a lot of time and testing to start making some money. Even if you test for a year you may not make money, it depends on how you also go about it.
Something to consider when wondering if adsense is better than affiliate marketing is this.....affiliates are buying adwords for CPA offers, and google is charging more than they pay you for the click, so google profits, the affiliate profits, the affiliate network profits, and the end company profits. you need to figure out where in the line you want to be, each step is going to be more work just be prepared for it if you want to be further in the chain.
Industry specific definitely, but we all have different skills and therefore what one finds easier the other may find more difficult and vice versa. Be prepared to learn and establish good relationships with others in your niche.