Should a newbie start with affiliate marketing or adsense?

The answer you get will depend on who's posting it.

I would say to skip adsense altogether, and start with affiliate marketing & CPA.

Affiliate marketing has much faster payouts, some networks even pay instant commission directly to your paypal. The ones I'm posting below are some of them.

With CPA, you are paid per action - for example, when someone submits their email & zip code, they convert and you get paid. Simple email/zip submits are really easy to convert if you know how to target your traffic properly.

They typically pay around $1.30-$2.00 per email/zip that you bring in.

So - for affiliate programs, check out:

JVZoo.com - Instant Commission Platform for Sellers and Affiliates
DigiResults — Work Less, Sell More
RAP Bank*Instant Commissions Vault
iDavi - THE Digital Product Marketplace

For CPA, start with PeerFly :: We Have an Offer for That since you are new. They accept pretty much everyone.

Just be honest with your application, dont try to lie about your experience. If you're new, say so.

And so you know, vertical = niche/category in CPA terms.

Good luck!

OH - And for the love of god, START BUILDING A LIST!

I wish I'd done that when I first started IM, but I didnt.. So now I'm telling you!

You have to pick a method that you like. A method that you will stick with for 3 months and not get bored and distracted by the next shiny object. Pick one and just do it. Whatever method you choose will require "Work".

With adsense sites, you have to remember that google is always changing and with one update you could have all your hard work go down the drain. With affiliate marketing, you can at least build a list and still mail to them.

I agree with who's that guru! while adsense is good way to start earning, the returns for your work and effort are minmal! therefore affiliate marketing is far superior and easier to earn your first money, and once you make your first sale then that will motivate you to ramp up your efforts!

AdSense is *much* easier to implement especially for a newbie, it takes a little experience to know what affiliate programs will perform.

You can make some pretty decent money with adsense with putting in lesser effort, but like everyone said here, google's constant changes can easily flush all your work down the drain.

I was making a decent amount off adsense until I got banned for a competitor clickbombing my ads.

I've started a list as an affiliate marketer and now I make exponentially far more money than I ever made with adsense.

For me, adsense is a long shot and more complicated than affiliate marketing. I suggest start with CPA little by little. You have so many program options. Good luck

As a newbie, I am setting up some amazon sites that can be left after building some revenue and then move into another like affiliate sites or maybe CPA, but that can be costly if you don't know what your doing. I think it's a safe start with amazon or other affiliate sites and continues to bring in cash to use so you don't go in debt.

Hey man,

I would start with product creation, affiliate marketing or services. Something related to selling units of something.

Adsense is really an SEO game so unless you're prepared to really master SEO which by the way seems to be changing every freakin' day these days lol then I'd definitely get into one of the things I mentioned above.

Service's would probably be the fastest way to earn money. Everybody hates doing the techy stuff lol. Just master Wordpress and then go sell your services.

You know what...

If I were you I wouldn't care about either the adsense or the affiliate marketing. I'd look at what specific market you want to get into and then decide which is going to be the best way to monetize it.

Might be adsense or it might be affiliate marketing.

And my real goal would be to become a master of getting traffic to that site and getting clicks (the buying kind) on those links.

Affiliate marketing is what you should start with man. When I first started back in june 2009 I was trying to make money with adsense with a hip-hop blog. Back then I didn't know anything about SEO and the only traffic I was getting was from my friends on Facebook. A bad niche to get into if you want to make money with adsense. If I were you first place I would head straight into is video marketing via Youtube.

I made majority of my money with YouTube, out of every 30-40 videos you make at
least one of them will go viral. It's all about the right keywords and if you provide
great content which your viewers and if think it's worthy enough to share with their friends. That should be your #1 goal.

You can do both, but you will learn a lot more from affiliate marketing (which is a bit harder as well) but if done right, much more profitable!

Question: What skill do you want to learn first?

Copywriting and PPC ... Affiliate Marketing

SEO optimized content / websites ... Adsense

The reason is simple. If you want to earn money with adsense you will never promote it with paid traffic ... either it isn't allowed, or it makes no sense. So you have to get good in SEO!

If you go the Affiliate route you will have to get good in conversions ... learn copywriting and learn how to master paid traffic to keep a profit.

Answer the question above ... and everything should be clear!

affiliate marketing.
when I was a newbie, I start adsense earlier than clickbank
but, my adsense account gets banned and it hurts.
so,just directly focus to affilite marketing

Check out this post if you want to get into affiliate marketing:
Uber Affiliate Marketing Guide | Make Money Online with Uber

I've seen studies before of affiliate marketing vs adsense and the number are drastically in favor of affiliate marketing. That said, these were from 'professional' site builders and people who really know how to build a site and drive traffic to it - mainly from KWR.

I know someone who builds around 1 authority site per week (I have a hard time with one per month!) who mainly uses affiliate programs because they out perform adsense 3-1.

It obviously depends on the CPC, KWR and a number of other things.

One of the sh*tty things about adsense too is that you can lose your account for basically no reason at any time - whether you've had it for years or a few weeks.

I have a friend who made 12K / month passively off of adsense on his sites until they sent him the "unusual click activity" message - of which he had none - all his traffic was natural organic search traffic. 12K / month poof! Gone. So I wouldn't rely on it.

For a Beginner though, not a bad way to go if you can get traffic. Comes down to percentages and how optimized your site is for conversion.

Yes agreed with most people. Adsense is easy to implement but you do need a whole lotta content to make decent money.

I started with this and just made a few bucks.

If I was a newbie Affilaite marketing would be the way to go

I started with both and was successful with both. To me it all depends on the niche. Some niches are great for physical or digital products, while others are better for cpa or adsense. Just depends on the subject.

Benjamin

Another vote for affiliate marketing, and build a list while you're at it!

Make sure you check out the possibilities in your niche... what sells? physical or digital? possibility for amazon integration?

Adsense looks to be on its way out as far as popularity for internet marketers (which may be the best time to get in!) but Google is really clamping down on Adsense sites that provide no value to visitors and you never know when they will disable your accounting, crippling your income.

I think you've seen enough regarding the best pathway. Affiliate marketing is where all of the money is being made. It is safe and cost effective but you will need focus, direction and determination.

I definitely recommend affiliate marketing for newbies.

This most important element is to learn to build a list from day 1. This will ensure your long term sustainable IM success.

The single biggest IM mistake is to send people directly to the website or sales page without collecting their email address. I wish someone had told me this when I first started, but I had to learn it the hard way.

I spent 6 months working on my site and hiring a VA to help me along the way. Then I realized that my conversion rate was 0.05%. 99.5 out of 100 people left my site and I will never do business with them again.

That was when I realized the importance of capturing the leads with an opt-in page. it is better to have an opt-in than a sale in the long run, because with an opt-in you can sell to him/her over and over again.

I sincerely hope that you don't make the same mistake I made. Think big, think long term, build a list!

To your success,
David

when i started out over 4 years ago i tried clickbank but didnt really make much

the only way to really make anything worthwhile and long term is to build a list when promoting a clickbank product

because i wasnt experienced enough to build a list back then i got stuck into adsense and did well out of it

adsense is far easier in my opinion

with easyness first i would say:

adsense
amazon
clickbank
cpa
list building

what ever you do just make sure you stick at it untill your making money

paul

From all the experienced replies here, it seems as though Affiliate marketing makes a whole lot more than Adsense. Is there any room for Adsense marketing anymore then?

I had good experiences with affiliate marketing. You can make a lot of money when you know how to use the products!

Look, I've made money with BOTH of
them. 5-figures, 6-figures...

But here's the main takeaway.

You need to have a good grasp on
what "MARKETING" exactly is.

There's no "internet" marketing.
There's no "direct mail" marketing.
There's no "TV" marketing.
There's no "Radio" marketing.
There's no "social media" marketing.

Ask yourself this million-dollar
question...because it surprises me
when my students tell me they don't
know the answer:

Do you know what marketing really
means?

Here's what it means.

It means finding what people want,
and giving them what they want, in
exchange for money.

That's it.

Traffic is a small issue, because you'll
get it anywhere.

The big problem is - is there anyone
out there which wants your solution?

Are you being narcissistic? Are you
telling your customers...

"HEY! I made this, so you must crave
it!"

Instead of...

"You craved this, so I made this for
you!"

???????

Are you doing that? If you are, flip the
whole world around man.

Once you got that down, you'll easily
find out the best strategy to really
Get. The. Freaking. Sale!!!

It doesn't matter if it's an affiliate, as
long as you match your offer...

...to their EXACT craving!

That's what people outside want, and
that's what people are missing.

Think it through, and hopefully you'll
be able to make a rational decision
between the two.

Sincerely,
Winston Tian

None of them. Please try to make some real website where you get returning customers and higher profit margins (for example: drop shipping which has usually 30-40% profit margins). Anything else is wasting of time and money.

Affiliate marketing is something every newbie must start their internet marketing career with. Adsense won't make much money compared to what affiliate marketing will make you.

Ronak.

PS build a list.

Well, IMHO, a product review site for physical products (Amazon for example), is just as easy (if not easier) to create as an AdSense site or a Clickbank affiliate site. I'd say it's easier because the product page on Amazon typically includes everything you need to form an educated opinion on virtually any product.

Building an information site (AdSense) sometimes requires lots of research on a given subject if you want your site to be taken seriously.

You can do both but depend on a person who wants to start on it. Personally, i started as affiliate marketer and it was pretty good.

I vote for Affiliate Marketing...

Make money from Affiliate Marketing is much, much easier than Adsense.

And the easiest form of Affiliate Marketing is promoting WSOs through Warriorplus/ JVzoo.
You get instant commission, and it converts better and easier than Amazon, Clickbank products.

Yep - Affiliate Marketing all the way. Master the best methods of getting traffic to the niche in which you intend to promote Affiliate Offers - and then that's it. Even the learning curve is not at all overwhelming - just simple principles.

I have to agree with the others that recommend affiliate marketing and list building.

Whereas Adsense looks passive, all the work required to get sites and articles ranked in NOT PASSIVE. And Google's ongoing algorythm changes mean you can lose all of your invested time, as well as income in the blink of an eye.

If you build a list, you own it, it's yours, and no one can take it away from you.

Then, you have to treat the people on your list, like people, not numbers.. and things can go along quite well.

All the best
Patrick

A newbie should start offering services like writing content or translations in freelancer websites. By doing that a newbie can immediately feel how it is like to make money online. Then, a newbie can re-invest those money for building websites and joining affiliate programs.

Hi OP,

I would say the best place to start would be with a Plan. It may not be fancy, it may not that cool but taking the time out to brainstorm what is it that you actually want to achieve from your business? What are interested in? What would you like to do?

If you braindump all your idea's/goals down on paper and then organize them you will have a pretty good Blueprint of what you have to do.

Getting back to your initial question I would go for affiliate marketing (as I have no experience with adsense) but in order for you to make money off this and not waste 6 months jumping from one niche to another you'll have to sit down and do that Planning!

Best of luck with it... In the meantime have a search around the forum, you'll find loads of threads about this and learn from others.

You should start with affiliate marketing. It is by far the easiest way to collect commissions and start scaling up your business pretty quickly without you having to spend time creating products (which can take forever if you want to create a good one.)

Please don't go down the Adsense route. It is very time consuming and won't generate much income for you - only frustration (trust me I've been there!)

I have found it difficult to consistently make money online. I have some money I can put aside and am currently looking to buy a money making site. Though it will take some due diligence on my part, have found several scammers already, I am sure that I can find a good website that is making money consistently. May even find a decent one that has some upsides, that will some more work can bring in even more revenue. What ever you decide, stick with it and do not chase the next shiny object.

Todd

From my experience, either works. Because, both are
really affiliate marketing. However, sticking to just
Adsense is just suicidal. I've seen so many people
lose their Adsense accounts (Yes, plus their earnings)
overnight. 6-figures down the drain just like that.

On the other hand, you have higher leverage when
doing affiliate marketing through promotion of other
products. You can branch out and have more
opportunities. I suggest that you go to the broader
affiliate marketing route instead instead of sticking
to one medium like Adsense.

Winston Tian

Adsense banned my account few days ago , I'll not recommend you to use adsense . Use other affiliate programmes like amazon,clickbank .

Adsense should be a part you your income. I know a guy that doing $11,000 a month with it. You just need to know what to do to create a good income from it.

I start using Jim's tips and I double income with it already and I am looking forward to even better earns after I complete his course. There's a link under here to my review if you wish to read up a little.

Jim also is a warrior member and his course is the real thing, NO Bull Crap, Just Facts that work

Adsense is the easy to make money online but you can be banned for no reason..

pick a sub market and work on that. u can always change how you menotize it once u have traffic and conversions. adsense is a numbers game. once u build 10 or 50 sites each month (or each week) than u will start see good money. but u have to start with one site.

I started with both Adsense and Affilliate but Adsense earned me a lot of money and dribs from affiliate but that was lack of knowledge.

I now wish I had invested in learning from people here and focusing on some of the Affiliate WSO's get gain knowledge.

I also need to revisit Adsense and see where I'm now going wrong by not moving with the times and keeping up with the changes.

My advice is this; no matter what you choose or road to take. Stay here and keep dipping into WSO's but acton on them because more WSO's are bough and left on the back burner than actually put into action.

Hi,
I can only speak from experience, but I started out with afilliate marketing of digital products. I cant say eitherway as to Adsense as I have never tried it, but I would suggest you stay clear of physical product! Too messy, and you can find your cash tied up in stock that your are frantically trying to sell.

Digital afilliate products have always worked for me, but you still need to do your homework as there are just as many bad ones out there as good, and when it's YOU that's recommending them to your propects, it's YOUR reputation on the line!

But don't let that put you off buddy. Even though I am now producing my own products, I can still attribute a good 40% of my income to afilliate sales. So it does work!
Just make sure you check out what you intend to promote. Look at the EPC ratings, and a good thing to do is look at any reviews of the product here in the forum, as many warriors get advance copies to check em out, so you know it's not a doctored review by someone who is ALREADY selling it.

And PLEASE PLEASE dont even think about skipping the List Building process! This should be an integral part of your sales funnel if you want any longevity to your new online business!

Hope that helps and all the best!

Andy

I think adsense is the best way to start. Doing some microniche sites wont cost much and ranking shouldnt be hard. Getting first dollars will motivate you like hell.

Starting with affiliate marketing is good.
I woudnt wanna go into adsense if I were you.
If you wanna get good results with affiliate marketing,
you should consider starting a mailing list.
With that you can continue to promote affiliate products
to your list and achieve better results.

Affiliate Marketing is a great way to start making money as a newbie. Don't jump in head first without doing many many hours of research first though, and see if you can get into coaching or find a mentor as well.

Hello! I say, your best bet would be CPA and affiliate marketing. As they're both easy source of being paid.

I would definitely recommend adsense as a starting point. Affiliate Marketing is fine but with some investment you could earn more. So in the meantime make some money from adsense and invest with it.

The combination of both makes a lot for you, if you do it effectively. I used both of them and making some bucks from it.

The most important thing is method.

If you set goals and have a method, you'll be able to test what works and what doesn't. Income is relative: there's money to be made everywhere.

Indeed, you just need to dedicate yourself 100%, test regularly and understand what has potential.



Best of luck to you!

Finding a good product that is proven to convert. Step 1. Something with good E.P C's or earnings per click. If you can't find them contact the vendor. If they don't share then don't promote them.

After you find a proven product then you need to seperate yourself from the masses. Today if you don't do that your there is a 99% chance your going to fail. Its a good think. It means there is so much traffic out there.

Give people a reason to do business with you and not one of the other 10,000 other affiliate pitching the same products.

Id go into affiliate marketing myself if it was info products id go with clickbank.

If u want to go real products amazon is the way. But i feel digital is more appealing.

Stay away from adsense man. Youll have to build hundreds of sites and maintain threm and rank them to get anything worthwhile from adsense.

Just my 2 cents. Wanna get next level? Get into product licensing. Affiliate marketing on fire

Hi, I'm Kevin.
Building a list is simple as long as you have your set up. The problem is nobody wants to teach you how to get your set up started without charging you a arm a leg.
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