As my sites get more and more search engine traffic, I am faced with trying to figure out how to best monetize my traffic. I am currently using mainly Google Adsense ads, but since I have added more affiliate programs to pages that are getting traffic I am noticing a very nice increase in my monthly income.
I have read in many places that affiliate ads that are prominently displayed will take away from your adsense income. I must agree that on sites where my affiliate programs are simply generally related to my site as a whole, my affiliate income is almost non-existent. However lately I have been studying my traffic logs closely and looking at the search phrases people have been using to find my pages.
Once I have determined the key phrase, I then narrow it down to the page they found when they typed in that phrase. Once this is established I search high and low for an affiliate product that matches "that page" and "that key phrase". Once this golden affiliate program has been found, I add it prominently to the page.
On the two sites I have used this method, not only have my adsense income remained almost unchanged but last month but my affiliate income doubled as well.
My advice is, do what works for "your site", all sites are unique and react differently, but you may want to give this combination a try it has really worked wonders for me.
