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Permalink Reply by OICUAM2 on June 4, 2009 at 8:51pm

You are right that each site is different.

Each model has its own pluses and minuses.

Affiliate business models will generally have bigger payouts, but it can be difficult to get traffic into websites designed for affiliate income. You either have to dip into the highly competitive and expensive (not to mention difficult) pay per click game, or you need to have a high traffic site (or a site with a lot of repeat visitors) where the traffic is funneled to specific sales pages with affiliate links.

The ad revenue model was very popular a few years ago, but has seen some reductions as people get "ad blindness" and stop clicking on ads like they used to. However, more money keeps coming online. There is money to be gained through an advertising model and I think the ad revenue will continue to grow through the next couple of decades.

The ad revenue model works best on sites where people are actively seeking information.

The affiliate model works best on sites where people are shopping and ready to make a purchase.

No matter what model you use, you have to realize that the smallest changes can lead to huge conversion rate increases. Test, test, and test some more. There are times when you need to give up, but give yourself a chance to think from the perspective of the visitor and make changes that will lead them to the desired action. Let enough traffic come through before you change the site again. If something works, stop making changes (even if it is the smallest change) or at least take a screen shot or write down the design that works so you will be able to come back to it.

Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by Tom McCann on June 6, 2009 at 11:59pm

Thanks - I like the idea that shoppers versus information seekers will do better or worse with these two business models. I had never thought of it like that before.

I did a test where I removed all of my affiliate links to see if this would increase ad revenue, but it didn't. The ad revenue stayed the same so I put all of the affiliate links back into the content of the page.

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Permalink Reply by OICUAM2 on July 16, 2009 at 7:35am

Have you tried removing all of the ad links to see if it would increase affiliate link clicks and commisions?

For me, I'm starting to focus more on sales.

Ad revenue is a tough game unless you have a lot of free or very low cost traffic visitng your site.

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Permalink Reply by James Scott on July 21, 2009 at 4:20pm

I think ad revenue is a tough game to play. You needs LOTS of traffic (which is often hard to get) and the ad rates are still pretty crappy.

For me, I'm looking for BUYERS on the web so I prefer an affiliate model to get commissions.

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Permalink Reply by OICUAM2 on September 12, 2009 at 1:11pm

That is a big problem for a lot of people. They are looking to generate affiliate commissions, but they focus on getting "traffic" instead of focusing on getting very targeted traffic... aka "buyers".

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Permalink Reply by lea on August 10, 2009 at 12:34am

I focus on sales. It allows me to know what it is that I am selling and it allows me to attract people who are there to do the thing I wan them to do. With ad revenue, it seems like your are trying to bring people to your site so they will stop reading your site and leave through an ad click. That just seems so lame to me as a business model. I don't want to make money when people decide they no longer want to be on my site. I want to make money when someone gets enough information from my site to take the action I want them to take which is making a purchase right then and there.

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