Q: Of the billions of sites on the Web, which is the only thing almost all sites have in common? A: Almost everyone tries to make a dollar off of advertising in a certain way. I am ashamed to admit it, but several years ago when affiliate programs seem innovative, I also tried to cash in the site of Amazon.com books and music. Does anyone work for? Chances are that most will not say anything. Does not work for me either. Not only do I not make a buck, I did not even make a penny. In fact, even mrcgiguy.com my site (shameless plug), which receives about 500 unique visitors per day does not produce particularly good affiliate programs. Ultimately, most affiliate programs does not work for most websites. Vague, I know. But from my experience, unless your audience is very general, you'll need to find affiliate programs that are very specific for you to produce any results. Although, these days, even well-targeted affiliate programs do not seem to produce much. Like me, most modern web developers have chosen not to join affiliate programs and have instead turned to ad networks such as FastClick, TribalFusion, Burst, etc. FastClick I joined because it has said to have the highest rate of CPM. And for a long time, I was quite pleased with the results. I could make a breathtaking 50 cents per day. Yes, I was happy. I did not expect millions flowed into reality ... long ago ... somewhere between the days of being an "Amazon affiliate" and my job dissolved after the dotcom crash. So, 50 cents per day, or about $ 15.00 per month has been great. Every bit helps when you are independent. Now, let me make the point. Forget about affiliate programs! Forget the ad networks (or at least reduce them to a secondary form of advertising revenue)! Google Adsense is where it happens! What was only available to the greater web, is now available for those of us running smaller specialized sites. And how could there be any form of advertising, colder than one that uses your own content to determine which ads to show? I mean, that's what we've all been waiting. This is the answer. Highly targeted ads, non-intrusive, mixed regularly to maintain freshness, and they pay well. And when I say pay, I mean, the possibility exists to do in one day what I had already done in a month by FastClick. Although I am not allowed to discuss any particular figures (part of the agreement using Adsense), I would say that it is not even been a month now and I've already done most of Adsense Then I made throughout the duration of ads for FastClick. Needless to say that I have waived bye bye ad networks and affiliate programs. Do not get me wrong, Adsense is not perfect. There are certainly things that could be done to improve the system. One of the biggest complaints I have, and I noticed others with the same opinion, is the lack of monitoring. It would be very sure of who clicks on ads are being and how these ads are in production. But at the same time, I can understand why the information in May to be against-productive for Google. The lack of control over the border, color and link color is a bit undesirable. All other factors aside, the purpose of advertising is to make a little money. On this point, Google Adsense is certainly a success and, in my humble opinion, should immediately replace any current skyscraper or 468x60 ads you run through ad networks or affiliate programs. The future of affiliate programs and advertising networks has become very dark. This will be very interesting to see how Adsense matures, as the first product is definitely much better than the competition said.