[Linda Buquet]

Hi Garynut123,

Welcome to 5 Star. You raise some good questions.

"I have read that affiliates can get up to 20% commission per sale. Compared to getting pennies for PPC, that could be a huge difference."

Obviously I'm very pro-affiliate marketing, but I also like to be realistic and give the facts. Like most things in life it's a numbers game. (BTW some programs pay 50 - 75%, some even pay 120% and some like computers only pay 2%.)

When you get paid by click, you get paid for each click. Pay per sale depends on price of product, commission rate and especially CONVERSION rate. You could send 500 clicks to a merchant and never make a dime, but if you were getting 10 cents per click you would have made 50. Then again if it was high priced product with high commission and good conversion rates you could have made 200 off those same 500 clicks.

The way I see it PPC is more solid and dependable but typically you make much less. Affiliate programs there is a stronger upside potential, but more variables, more learning, skill and work is required, as well as more risk because there is no guarantee you'll make any money.

Many affiliates use PPC to drive traffic to affiliate offers, but then again it's risky and a numbers game. You have to be sure the numbers work or you can lose money. There are some really big affiliates that make 100,000 a month doing PPC affiliate marketing. Most of them are probably spending 60,000 or so to make that 100K though. On the flip side many affiliates that try PPC lose too much money and quit before they ever make a profit.

I definitely think PPC is a good strategy AFTER you learn everything you need to about affiliate marketing and PPC. I don't think it's a good place to start for most people.

To learn some of the best ways to get started with affiliate marketing and learn lots of great tips, read all the stickies in our newbie forum. Then ask questions if you have any. We're always happy to try to help!