Google AdSense is an Affiliate Program... How Does It and Others Honestly Work? (What is the Price You Pay?)

Working with affiliate programs are something that every online business needs to deal with. They can either choose to use them or not.. Since this is a business and we are here to either make money or promote our work, it is something we need to consider, which affiliate programs work for you? Which ones do not.

In this business the more important question is why?

Why do you think some affiliate programs work and some do not, is it because you personally have had no success or because you have? I find that most people will say Google is easy, but it is because they have made some money... whereas with others, such as the Amazon affiliate program, while not so much.

The most important aspect to affiliate programs such as Google AdSense is that you need to be a thinking business person, and frankly, if you spend 99% of your time complaining and not working, well then the affiliate programs have nothing to offer you.

You make money with affiliates by creating something people want to read, and then building from there: Now this might be counter intuitive, but really even with product reviews on the Internet, the more information that you offer the more likely you will have people who will click on the ads or buy products.

It is all about content, see most of the affiliate programs are based upon content, and then on traffic. I am almost of the belief that the sites with poor traffic often do not have great ads from any affiliate programs. I also believe that sites with better content and lower traffic probably make more than those whose traffic is in the thousands, but have poor content ( I am think of Google AdSense and others like with which are content based... not like amazon and eBay)

Again it is also about quality links, which increase traffic over time. A Bad link can mean a lot of problems, so do be careful to who and where you link to. Of course you do not have control over who links to your work (other than you!) so think quality.  You have control over your business, and you will need to consider all factors before your add links to your websites or hubs.

Promotion done correctly is key: First, the content you write must be of value, and then the links you have also need to generate traffic, and beyond that, you must learn to maximize your ability to "show" ads. This does not mean "fixing" the system, my ads are content based, and I also maximize my ads so that they have the most chance a good example ifd Google AdSense.

You don't have a lot of choice where to put your Google ads on hubpages, (or on Squidoo or wikinut or Bukisa for that matter!) but you can maximize how much can be shown. That huge rectangular ad at the top of a hub can be put there only by you, and only if you have written enough to get it there. (hence why a picture up at the top of a hub is not the best of ideas)

Amazon and eBay are the same. Want to get clicks? Then you have to maximize where you place the products and what you plan to sell to people. If the products is good then people will buy it.  But they need to be placed where people will see them. 

Also, if you promote a product do it correctly, do not ever tell people this is a great product when you have never used it, or when you really don't like it, but the sale might be big. You are only hurting your business.

So what are affiliate programs to me?

In the simplest terms this is the way you make money with hubpages and this is often the way people make money on the Internet (their blogs for example) of course, quality is a must, (as in content and writing and work ethic and everything that goes into building a business.) and as I said many time the 80/20 rules does apply.  The means that an affilaite program sich as Google AdSense, Amazon and eBay folow the same rules.

Then let's have an example, Say you are big on traffic and page rank and making money through an affiliate program (and this is possible, I've seen this) and you write a great hub and it gets over a year's time over ten thousand visits, and this hub gets a PageRank of 3 and then has great content and has links to it, now...

Do you think it is a good idea if you were the owner of this hub to promote it and to build it up to make money with it?

If you answered yes, then you are correct. So then this is the 80/20 rule, build around this hub, but also build up others to see if there are a few stars in there helping this hub make you money.

Again content content content and Google AdSense and other affiliate programs will make you money, not quickly but with time they will. See, over time, your affilaite marketing skills will grow and you will find that using keywords will improve your targeted traffic.

Affilaite programs need targeted traffic to make money online. A targeted traffic would be bsaed upon your topic or your actuall choice of keywords. These are the readers you want. They are also more likely to find use for the ads you produce on your hubs or websites.

Content and Content and Google and Amazon and eBay... or the Last Word: Some things will always work for you and some affiliate programs will not, but the point is that money will come to those who try hard and work hard, and are focused on things beyond just themselves.

This is why I'll say it gain you have poor content, or poor links you will get hurt long-term this is not to say you need to focus on this all the time, but it is more important to work with your writing and publishing to have a great hub, and to keep writing great hubs.

This Is a business and you have to put value in that business, and all of the affiliate programs look for value, and they all have ways of finding out if you are giving them value or not. Love what you do, and help others, and of course take care of your business.

To your success.