Why I Use Affiliate Programs for Ads Instead of Google Adsence

Everyone wants to run ads on their blogs. There are so many options out there for running ads on your blog. There are companies like AdSense out there and now a lot of affiliate programs offer ad banners. The question is, which option is the best for you?

Most sites use AdSense. AdSense, if your aren't familiar, is a third party ad running company from Google. AdSense uses cookies to pull Ads from it's system and match them to the sites you have recently visited. 

You've probably see these ads on almost every site you visit. AdSense Ads are easy to spot. They have a little triangle symbol in the upper right corner for the ad.

A lot of people use this system as they see it as the best option since each visitor see a custom ad. I however am not a fan of AdSense, as a reader or blogger. 

I personally do not like to use AdSense because you have such little control over the ads being shown on your behalf. With AdSense you can only control where the ads go. You can't decide the size or style and you have know idea what is being advertised on your behalf. Each ad made by AdSense is tailored to the visitor based on their current browser history.

You also can't see the Ads made by AdSense. Google's way of making sure you can't kick on your own ads. So you can't even see if it's displaying correctly. Or how many ads Google has added to your blog.

I figured out I didn't want to use Adsense within 5 minutes of signing up. I hated how little control it was offering and that I couldn't see the ads to make sure they were working right and to make sure AdSense didn't add more than one ad to my blog. I don't want them everywhere and I wanted to limit how many ads where on my blog. Sites with ads everywhere make you want to click away as soon as the page loads without even reading anything on the page.

All of my ads, which I have very few, are generated by affiliate programs. At the time of writing this my ads are generated by Amazon Associates and iTunes Affiliates. 

Affiliate programs are programs offered by a lot of big companies where you sign up and if you are accepted you can link to products with a link made just for you and if someone orders the product you linked to you earn a commission. Most of the programs offer 4-7% commission at the start and some programs let you earn a higher percent based on how much you sell.

I have been an Amazon Affiliate for a little over a year. It is really easy to sign up to and really easy to be accepted. When I signed up I was getting less than 500 page views per month. I was so excited when I found out Amazon Associates offered Ads. There are a ton of them and a bunch of different size options. 

A lot of Amazon Ads offer a bounty as well. All the Ads for free trials sign-ups earn a flat rate commission for every sign up. This includes the Try Prime ad, Try Kindle Unlimited ad, Try Audible ad and more. You can see all of the bounty ads in your Amazon Affiliate dashboard under Promotions>Bounties.

 I just joined iTunes Affiliates but I was very excited to see that they offered ads as well. I love music so I was very excited to have a music ad on my blog. The one that Apple is currently running at the time I'm writing this is for a Apple Music 3 Month Free Trial. Pretty cool ad. Plus I can link to an digital content offered by apple and earn a commission.

iTunes affiliate was really easy to apply for too. I didn't even have to enter in any info about my blog other than the topics I usually cover. Nothing about page views or anything about my social media following. Which makes me believe it is very easy to be accepted.

iTunes and Amazon aren't the only affiliate programs out there. They are just the ones I have the most experience with. A few others I can think of off the top of my head are Target and Ulta. Ulta is super picky thought. I've applied twice. They like for you to have a ton of page views. If there is a company you'd like to be an affiliate with google it and see if they have a program. It can't hurt to apply.

You can click here to sign up for Amazon Associates and here to sign up for iTunes Affiliates. I recommend signing up even if you don't want to use their ads, you can link too practically anything on Amazon and iTunes and earn commission if someone buys through your link. 

If you are a blogger I strongly suggest applying to affiliate programs. Just make sure you put a disclaimer at the bottom of posts that use affiliate links!

Thanks for reading this post! I hope you enjoyed! If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to message me.

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**This post is not sponsored by Amazon or Apple/iTunes. I just wanted to write this post to explain why I don't like AdSense and to let other bloggers know that there are alternatives to AdSense.**