What gets the most revenue - adsense or affiliate ads

I have been blogging for a few years now, with the generation of income being my primary motivation. So it would be fair to say that the question of what makes more income, Adsense or affiliate ads, is one which I wanted answered as soon as possible.



I have been blogging for a few years now, with the generation of income being my primary motivation. So it would be fair to say that the question of what makes more income, Adsense or affiliate ads, is one which I wanted answered as soon as possible.



I have read debates on this subject from several forums, involving people who were, at the time at least, substantially more experienced than me. All that I was able to grasp from these was that the Adsense paid not very much and affiliates mostly seemed to pay a lot more. To a young and inexperienced blogger, this seemed to be a no contest answer. Surely affiliate ads were the way to go?



I heard one experienced blogger point out that Adsense will pay you pennies per click yet affiliates pay you dollars. I was hooked on affiliates from that point on and went completely overboard on my affiliate ads and text links.



The trouble with affiliate links is that in order fro anyone to accept what you say about a product, there has to be an element of trust. The readers of your blog need to trust and accept what you say about the products you are pushing. If your blog is nothing but a series of adverts promoting affiliate links, then no one is going to believe you and click on your links, let alone buy anything on your recommendation.



Adsense ads however are clearly marked as Google suggestions based on the content that you are writing about. Most readers know that the links that they provide are not your suggestion but that of Google. This is the fundamental difference between Adsense and affiliate links – affiliate links rely on your site being deemed trust worthy, Google Adsense adverts use the reputation of Google.



So technically yes, affiliates pay more than Google Adsense, but you will only be able to effectively utilise the affiliate links if your site is well established and above all, trust worthy.