Imagine starting a blog in a niche you know a lot about, and you’re ready to make money. You may wonder if you can use Google AdSense and Amazon Associates at the same time.
Fortunately, you can do so, but you need to know why and how so that you can increase your earning potential. Keep reading to learn more.
Why Use Google AdSense and Amazon Associates?
If you want to make money from your blog, you may compare Google AdSense and Amazon Associates. But before you choose one or the other, consider why you might want to use both.
Here are a few advantages of combining AdSense and affiliate marketing.
Higher Earning Potential
The more ways you monetize your blog, the more opportunities you’ll have to make money. That means you could make more revenue without needing a ton of page views.
You’ll still have to put in the work to create good content for your blog and promote it. But you may not have to wait as long before the blog starts to make at least a little bit of money.
Ads allow you to make a tiny amount (like maybe a cent or two) for every page view you get. Meanwhile, Amazon Associates can help you make more money when you refer readers to Amazon and they buy something.
Income Diversification
Not only can using Google AdSense and Amazon Associates help you earn more, but it can give you more revenue streams. That way, if one slips for a month, you can still bring in a decent amount of money.
Especially if you want to make your blog your business, you need to diversify how you make money. You’ll always have your high months and low months.
For example, I saw a big drop in income from December to January. But since Amazon pays out two months later, I still got to earn a bit more money from them since November and December resulted in higher earnings.
Monetize Informational Content
Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to earn money from your blog. But it’s more effective when you’re writing reviews, product roundups, and other buyer-intent content.
If you want to write a lot more articles about the what and why of your niche, you can include affiliate links. But you might find you’ll get fewer clicks since people aren’t actively looking to buy something.
Luckily, adding Google AdSense to your business model can help. You’ll be able to make money off ad impressions and clicks on all of your blog posts and pages.
Minimal Extra Work
When you start to use Google AdSense and Amazon Associates, there’s a decent amount of work involved. But after the fact, you don’t have to do much to keep them going.
AdSense just requires a one-time setup, and if you use WordPress, it’s pretty easy. Once you get the ads to start showing on your website, all you have to do is keep creating content.
Of course, Amazon Associates also doesn’t take much extra work to use either. All you have to do is create a text affiliate link to any product you mention in your blog posts.
Different Payout Thresholds
Another advantage of combining AdSense with Amazon is the fact that they have different payout minimums. With Amazon, you only need to reach $10 in commissions before they pay you.
On the other hand, you have to accumulate $100 in earnings to get paid from Google. When you first start your blog, that can take a long time. For me it took nine or 10 months.
Amazon makes it a lot easier to start getting paid more regularly. Sure, $10 isn’t a ton of money, but it’s better than nothing, and you can use it to offset your blog expenses.
How to Use Google AdSense and Amazon Associates
If you want to make more money from your blog, you should use Google AdSense and Amazon Associates. Here are my best tips for doing so and making the most of each income stream.
Start With Amazon Associates
Amazon Associates requires that you have an online presence to get started. But you don’t need to have a ton of followers or even dozens of blog posts.
That means you may be able to apply to Amazon Associates as soon as you start your blog. I can’t remember how it works, but it can be more flexible than AdSense.
If you want to start showing ads on your blog, you need to have a good amount of unique content. Google doesn’t specify how much, but I’d publish posts consistently for a few months before applying to AdSense.
Focus on Quality Content
Before and after you get into Google AdSense, you’ll need to publish unique, quality content. That’s one of the biggest requirements of getting into the program (or any other ad network).
You can publish as often or infrequently as you like, depending on your schedule. But if you want to start using AdSense sooner, you’ll want to publish new blog posts as much as possible.
Just don’t forget to prioritize quality just as much as quantity. That will increase the chances of you getting into AdSense the first time you apply.
Avoid Amazon Ads
One of the nice things about Amazon Associates is that you can use it to create ads to embed in your blog posts. However, if you want to combine that with Google AdSense, I wouldn’t use the ads.
Google can’t tell if you’re using another ad network on your site. So you could end up placing the Amazon ads right next to where Google automatically places its ads.
If you do that, you’ll end up with a ton of ads which can turn away readers. When that happens, you may start to lose traffic, and then you’ll start to lose money.
Follow Both Programs’ Rules
When you use Google AdSense and Amazon Associates, you have a ton of rules to follow. For Google Adsense, you can’t publish explicit content or click on your own ads.
If you get into Amazon Associates, you can’t buy stuff through your own affiliate links or ask your loved ones to. You also must disclose your affiliate links (that applies to any affiliate program you join).
Breaking any of the rules can get you kicked out of the respective program. Be sure you review the rules when joining and keep them in mind whenever you publish a new post.
When to Start Using Google AdSense
You may not be able to use AdSense on an absolutely new website. However, I’d apply as soon as you have a few dozen posts that are live and getting traffic.
Technically, you don’t need any minimum number of page views. But adding the display ads too early is kind of pointless because you make money based on traffic.
If you’re not getting any website views, it won’t matter if you have ads or not. You might lose out on a few cents, so I’d focus on getting traffic to your website before applying to Google AdSense.
When to Start Using Amazon Associates
When starting your first website, you may need to wait a few months before applying to Amazon Associates. You may want to add a few blog posts to your site, and you can always edit those posts to include affiliate links later.
If you’re starting your second or third blog, you can add affiliate links right away. Unlike with AdSense, you don’t have to reapply to Amazon Associates with each new website.
I’d start adding affiliate links with the first post, and that’s what I’ve done with subsequent blogs that I’ve started. Like ads, you may not make money right away, but then you won’t have to worry about adding the links later.
Final Thoughts
If you want to make more money with your blog, you should use Google AdSense and Amazon Associates together. The ads can help monetize all of your content, while affiliate links can pay off more per click or sale.
Just make sure you follow the rules for both programs to keep from getting kicked out.
If you want to learn more about how they compare, read this post.