Content sites versus Pay Per Click (PPC)

There are two very different main streams that you can follow in the Affiliate Internet Marketing game. It comes down to this: Do your affiliate links get FREE or PAID traffic? Free traffic requires that you create large, content rich sites that are filled with text and links that will earn you a higher search engine ranking score. Your site ranking is very important if you hope to get traffic to your site (and to your affiliate links).

The down side is that content sites take a huge amount of time to build so make it a labor of love. If you are not interested in the subject, chances are you will lose interest and the site will fail. There is another way...

You could also go the pay per click route.

Pay Per Click (PPC)
If I could give a $20 bill for every $10 bill you give me, you'd be giving me a lot of $10 bills wouldn't you?
That's what ppc is all about.

PPC is a relatively new affiliate marketing tool. In many cases, the PPC affiliate (you) does not even need a Web site. All that you need to do is create PPC search engine (like Google AdWords) campaigns that include your affiliate link to your carefully selected merchant. When your add is displayed, and clicked, you pay a small fee. You hope that the visitor who clicked your add will actually buy something at your merchants site (and make you $$$).

Landing Pages

There is no right or wrong - just make sure that what you are doing is working.

Some affiliates do go through the exercise of creating "landing pages" that will pre-sell the merchants product or service. This is a little more risky because you are banking that you can convert (make the visitor click on your links) better than the merchant site - before the surfer even gets to the merchant site. In my opinion, the fewer clicks to the check-out, the better.

Of course this is not the rule. If you have a super-informative site that gets a visitor convinced that they need "Widget X" then, that is a good pre-sell and the landing page will make the merchant site convert (make a sale) more often. The visitor will even notice the additional click to get out of your site.

Content Sites
The content site is hoping to do the exact same thing as the PPC landing page - that is, make the visitor convert to a sale. What ever you do, make sure that you keep your pages simple and fast loading. You may want to set up a PPC campaign first - because it takes little time to place a few ads and it is a great way to get you feet wet working with the Networks and merchants. After you have a little income coming in, then take the time to build a good, rich content site. It will take months to get the search engine to rank your site so most of all, be patient - your turn will come!

Remember, there is no right or wrong - just make sure that what you are doing is working. Check and recheck your statistics to see what ads are working, what links convert the best and which merchants convert and pay the best.