Q: If I were to monetize my blog, it is better to use affiliate methods rather than Adsense,or should I use both methods?  If I use both methods, would my affiliate income suffer? Thanks.

A: Both absolutely. Adsense is all about numbers. The more traffic you have, the easier it is to get clicks. The same argument could be said of affiliate programs, but I personally believe affiliate programs have a better long run pay off even with lower traffic volume, especially when you have mechanisms to bring people back to your blog like an email list and invite people to subscribe to your feed.

For me, affiliate recommendations have been more rewarding. But don’t just slap an affiliate banner up there and think people will buy. ‘Sell’ it by blogging about it. Why do you like it and why do you recommend it? What exactly has the product help you achieve? Make references to it once in a while too.

Adsense and affiliate incomes are not mutually exclusive. Think about Adsense as a fall through. A last minute effort to extract something from your content especially when you aren’t blogging about an affiliate recommendation. Then brush up your skills to subtly recommend or suggest affiliate products.