PPC arbitrage v/s websites

There was this question posed on Shawn Collins' website by an affiliate on whether owning a website was more profitable than simply leveraging PPC arbitrage. Most professional affiliates have probably gone through this dilemma sometime in their affiliate marketing adventure; like many other questions, this probably doesn't have a black-and-white answer to it.

PPC arbitrage is akin to instant gratification; in many ways, capitalizing on PPC arbitrage is no different from a stock trader selling short. Undoubtedly, if you are good at it, the rewards can be great and immediate, but if you don't do it well there are direct risks as well as the risk of lost opportunity.

Nurturing a website is like a long-term investment in your most prized stocks-- you hold on to it through some periodic ups and downs and continue to invest in it and develop your portfolio.

The good thing is that both of these approaches aren't mutually exclusive; at the same time, both strategies don't have to be used simultaneously. Point is, each game is a new one...

Affiliate marketers, by the nature of our role as lead generators for others' wares, are bound to continuously face newer challenges --- be it restrictions on PPC, use of the methods we use, the unpredictable nature of how search engines view us and list us in their indexes etc.

In many ways, affiliate marketers face the 'damned if you do, damned if you don't syndrome; but it's not without its fun, thrill and rewards.

I doubt if you'll ever hear of serious affiliate marketers worrying about keeping their brain cells fertile; the exciting opportunities that keep coming up laced with newer constraints and challenges ensure there's always something interesting round the corner.

Until next time,

Ben Flux

posted by Ben Flux @ 2/27/2006 07:04:00 AM