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In the past, I have been a big user of Google Adsense. But lately (for obvious reasons) I have been trying a few more experiments with the Amazon Associates program among other things.
It's just good diversification.
Both can be great ways to monetize your site, they just serve slightly different segments. Â
The Amazon Associates program tends to work well on product based sites. While Google Adsense tends to work well with information based sites.
However, the reality is that the topic of many niche sites can be a blend of both information and product based information.Â
So what should you use, Amazon or Adsense?
Amazon? Adsense?
The answer is that you can use both if you want to. I have been asked several times by people wondering: “Can I have Amazon and Adsense on my sites?” Yes, yes you can.
There's nothing in either the Google Adsense policies or Amazon's TOS that you can't use both on the same site.
In fact it's good diversification.
You get money from affiliate sales of actual products made through the Amazon links. Then you get paid for Google AdSense ads that are clicked on. Or occasionally even just for the page vies.
You can see sites that use both methods are all over the web. In particular, if you want to see it in action visit Hubpages.com. Lots of different “hubs” have both Amazon and Adsense placed on them (along with eBay affiliate links and others).
You can use this to boost your site's income and help your site's asset value.
Diversified sites are safer, tend to earn more, and tend to sell for more. If you're ever planning on selling your site, I recommend diversifying early so your future buyer feels more secure buying the site.
When they feel more secure, they're willing to pay you more 🙂
How To Implement Amazon and Adsense
Here are some guidelines of how I would recommend implementing the 2 ad networks if you decide to try this out. First, Amazon tends to work better as text links within your content rather than banner ads.Â
So, don't put a big 300×250 Amazon Associates banner ad in your content. It's typically less effective.
And it just doesn't look that great.
Instead, link the text within your content to Amazon any time you mention the product or product related phrases.Â
Also have a call to action near the end asking the reader to read more about the product, or check out the pricing of the product, or any other call to action that will encourage them to click on the link and view the product in Amazon.
Google Adsense on the other hand does work well as Ad units. I have discussed a few times in the past some of the best Google Adsense ad placements here.Â
In general, the ads that are in the content and above the fold will perform the best. I usually recommend a medium or large rectangle unit just below the title either right or left justified.Â
This is going to be your highest click through rate for your text ads most of the time.
[su_note] Update:  I now use a free ad tester called Ezoic which makes testing different Adsense placements very simple. Click here to try it out. [/su_note]I recommend using Amazon on your “buying intent” keywords. These are keywords with words like “best” or “review.”
Amazon can help you convert these visitors into buyers at a much higher earnings per thousand visitors than ads.
And then to become the authority in your niche, I recommend that you publish a bunch of informational content as well. “How to” guides, questions, etc.
A blend of content gives you the best chance of making the most money. Whether through Google's Adsense, alternatives like Ezoic, Amazon affiliate links, or any other type of ad.Â
How To Increase Earnings With Amazon & Adsense
You will need to monitor your earnings to make sure that adding Amazon or Adsense does not decrease your overall revenue. If having Amazon on your site takes away more from your Adsense earnings than it adds, then don't do it.Â
But the more likely problem is that ads will take away from your Amazon earnings.
I had this problem on my Niche Site Project 4. I put so many ads on page that my buying intent content wasn't converting as well.
Obviously, you will need to test and monitor your earnings over a few months to determine what works best.Â
In addition, you should always be willing to test out different layouts to see what gives you the highest click through rate and earnings.
If you don't want to spend a bunch of time testing your layouts, I recommend an ad network called Ezoic. Ezoic runs a continual split test on your site to help you earn more from your ads. I got my earnings up to $17.05 per thousands visitors at one point (a HUGE number)!
You can click here to use Ezoic on your site for free.
Try Ezoic and boost your ad revenue.This is how you can increase your earnings. I've personally found that for the most part, its niche specific as mentioned before. Some keywords will just earn more with Adsense and some may perform better with Amazon.
Overall, there is no reason why you can have both Google Adsense and Amazon on your site at the same time. You may find that it increases your overall earnings, so test it out!
What are you thoughts? Have you tested using both ad networks on your sites before?Â
I'd be interested in hearing your experience.
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29 Comments
Conversation
Hi Spencer,
Great question. I’m going to start testing out different layouts that combine the two. One option is to set up the adsense ads as sources of info/reviews for the product.
I’ll report back in a couple months 🙂
-Danny
Sounds good.
Hey Danny,
Have you thought of list building as a form of monetization?
It’s likely that collecting the email address will decrease CTR and earnings in the short term, however, once you capture the email address, you can either draw that traffic back to your site on demand, or send an affiliate offer whenever you like.
Plus, with a list, you aren’t solely dependent on search (Google) for traffic.
I’ve experimented with this in the past on my howtocleananything.com niche site and the list grew very quickly. I’m about to do it again as soon as the new eBook that I’ve had created is ready.
Re getting the optin, I just interviewed the owner of fitnessblackbook.com (Rusty Moore) and he told me that the method he’s using is converting 5x better than anything he’s ever tested.
The plugin he’s using is called Covert Messenger and he’s got the pro version of it. If you google it, you’ll find the page to purchase it. (no, I don’t make the plugin).
Cheers,
Trent
Great Post Spencer, I have couple of niche sites when I am using both but I definitely need to do it in more sites.
From my experience I see Amazon sales only on sites with no AdSense on but I need to test both more.
Spencer,
Very true. I too have had success combining the two, but more often than not – Less is More.
The temptation for those new to the game is to put too many ads and conversions suffer.
Testing is paramount once a site starts getting consistent traffic.
Jack
Very true.
Spencer,
Great advice, and certainly a great question to answer. It’s a perfect way to “diversify income” when it comes to various money makers for websites.
All the best,
-Alex
Nice post Spencer! Are you planning on making a significant portion of your new niche sites product-related since your AdSense is banned or is Media.net (and any others) doing well enough for you that you would still make some information-specific sites?
Thomas
There are alot of options for information sites out there, so I definitely will still building these in addition to product based sites.
Hey, Spencer.
Great post here, it answers a common questions that many people have. I do agree that you can use both forms of monetization on a website. As with anything else, it is always important to test everything. Personally, I always use affiliate links,whether they are for Amazon or another program, because they seem to make me more money than Adsense.
I believe your profit potential depends on what niche your website is in, of course. On a large authority website, I believe Adsense and Amazon can work together fruitfully. You can place Adsense code on your information-based pages, and amazon affiliate links within the content on your product/review pages.
Taking your advice, you could even add Amazon and Adsense on product/review pages to see if that increases your overall earnings for that page.
Oliver
Testing is always important. Its hard to predict what combination will produce the highest returns. Using just Amazon or just Adsense may perform best as well.
I just added Amazon to my two beginner niche sites last weekend. I decided to go with a 3-column layout with a vertical Adsense skyscraper in the left sidebar, a large Adsense rectangle left justified within the content and a vertical Amazon box with images in the right sidebar. I actually like the look that the images add to my pages.
My one site is mostly informational, but does include a recipe for a certain something. Within my Amazon box I have some ingredients and even a mixing bowl and measuring cups. You never know! Plus, if somebody gets to Amazon through your link and ends up shopping around and buying something else, you get a commission!
Sounds good! That is the nice thing about Amazon – no matter what they purchase, you still get credit.
I still use both Amazon and Adsense on my websites, however, I’m starting to make more by selling products on Amazon via their Fulfillment by Amazon program.
I’m loving it, and look forward to writing more income updates about that way of making money.
I read a pretty good book called “Barcode Booty” and others that touched on the FBA process. Honestly, it’s made me more than Amazon Associates earnings this month!
Very interesting Paula…
I actually have one site that i’m experimenting with that utilizes both. I have adsense on floated left of the content at the very top and I have another one on the side bar.
Within the content I have text links that go to amazon affiliate links and I also have an image and a carousel widget in the middle and end of the content.
Right now the earnings from this site are around 30 per month on Adsense and 10 per month from Amazon.
We’re not exactly making a killing with it, but I think it’s not bad 🙂
Thanks for the tips Josh.
Interesting post Spencer. I think putting both on is a great idea, but has to be a bit tricky to balance. Maybe in addition to in text links, images linked to Amazon that are not going to interfere with your adsense, may work too.
I think if you aim for a product oriented site that sells Amazon well, you’ll naturally pickup Adsense advertising clicks too. Going the reverse, setting up an informational (still somewhat product oriented), Adsense does not always translate well into Amazon sales.
As I see it, keyword search number thresholds are different for successful Adsense and Amazon sites. I think an Amazon site or sales page can thrive with less traffic (maybe 10%) as long as it is buyer keyword based.
What do you suggest for keywords on a combined site? Do you aim for the 1000 minimum Adsense and lose Amazon opportunities, or go with the lower search, low competition numbers that work for Amazon and just pick up a little adsense traffic?
I haven’t focused alot exclusively on Amazon sites, so I don’t have an exact search volume. However, I would also still stick with a minimum of 1000 exact match search volume, no matter what type of site.
Thanks for the tips Spencer. I like the idea of selling Amazon products using text links. This makes a lot more sense then the banners that don’t convert at all! I’ll test this on a few of my sites and see how it performs.
Thanks again.
I was considering this myself. As a noob I thought 2 forms of monetization would work well. I guess I’ll test and see. My plan was to have adsense on my home page- which will receive the traffic volume. Then create another page within my root domain with affiliate products through amazon. (As opposed to amazon ads- use products related to my LTKW) Anyone else doing this?
Hello Spencer,
Thank you for your this great post. really it’s very helpful post for me.
Thanks for the info. I’m building a large Authority type site and I definitely want to use good Affiliate offers but wasn’t sure about the adsense. I’ll have to see
Thanks
Spencer
Hi
I have a question. Unfortunately, I did not get any convincing answers when asked on Warrior Forum. If I have “Adblock Plus ” installed in my browser, then Amazon Ads are not visible. Do you have any solution to this problem? Or I do not have to worry about it.
Thanks
I always wanted to know both in combination – and here you have explained very well in details.
Shall try it out:)
Hi,
Thanks for the info, I have both adsense and Amazon on my site right now but im a bit unsure about that. Now I know thats good to go.
I try many difference layout but now I found one that give me a really good one.
Check http://vansaddict.com/ if you would like to.
I think what you said made a bunch of sense. However, think about this, what if you were to write a awesome post
title? I mean, I don’t want to tell you how to run your website, but suppose you added a post title that grabbed people’s attention?
I mean Can I Have Amazon and Adsense on My Site?
| Niche Pursuits is a little vanilla. You could look at Yahoo’s front page and note how they create article titles to get viewers interested. You might add a video or a related picture or two to grab people interested about everything’ve got to say.
In my opinion, it would bring your website a little livelier.
Old post I know, but here’s a scenario:
1. You have a website about survival knives (duh).
2. You have Amazon affiliate links within the content, and you have 1 or two AdSense ads per page.
3. User comes to your website looking for a certain survival knife.
4. Before he can click your affiliate link he sees the AdSense advertisement, which says “Cheap Survival Knives at Lowes.com” or something.
5. User clicks ad, buys the item at Lowes, you get paid $0.50 for his click. If he had clicked your Amazon link, you would have made $5.
I think that having both Amazon and Adsense on the same site is not always a good idea. My guess is that it is good for “info” and “how to” type of sites, but not for the sites where users come specifically looking to buy a product (“review,” “best” etc.)
Hi, I am using adsense on my site after reading this article and comments i am interested to join amazon program.Anyone please tell me which type of ads i can use on my site using amazon.
Thanks in advance