Affiliate Programs stink--or is that AdSense?

[newsguy]

I've been told by some that Affiliate Programs don't make any money and to stick with AdSense. Others say that Affiliate Programs are the only way to make real money on the internet.

I have more experience with AdSense than affiliate programs, so I wanted to get your opinions about which is true and which is not--if either.

Thanks!

[Mike_Merz]

Hey, NewsGuy ..;)

Yes, you can make money with affiliate programs.

How much depends on how much you put into the promotion.

Slap a banner or text link on a site (and that's it) ... and you're in for a rude awakening, unless the affiliated products and services you represent are dead on targeted to the market your site caters to ... and you get a reasonable amount of traffic.

Even then, your income will be greatly limited in comparison to building a seperate campaign (unique sales page, email capture, etc.) with it's own USP for each one ... or a couple that compliment each other.

I'd use Adsense on content rich, non selling pages to get the most out of it (IMHO).

Regards,

Mike "you sure get around, NewsGuy" Merz

[Sir Jake]

I've had clicks on everything but no sales from any of those clicks. So far, after 6 months adsense is the only one that pays on clicks alone, the rest need a sale.