To demonstrate how quick and powerful pay-per-click advertising can be, I’ll offer myself as an example. I came into ‘let’s make money on Internet’ game late, and when I started I didn’t even have a website, and I barely knew what an ‘affiliate’ was.

The first month I cleared $1500 in profits, even though I barely knew what I was doing. For every one dollar I spent on pay-per-click, I got three dollars back in profits. And I was a total newbie, a ‘marketing virgin’. I didn’t have a website, I didn’t know how to conduct an email campaign, and I barely knew what a ‘tracking URL’ was. Does that wake anybody up to power of pay-per-click advertising?

However, don’t think it’s all wine and roses in pay-per-click field. The fact is, almost everyone who tries it fails, at least initially. I failed myself, by way. The first two days I netted over $50 in losses. And I still maintain those were most valuable two days of my entire pay-per-click experience, in terms of how much I learned, and how quickly I adapted to learning curve.

So don’t go into it with false expectations. Pay-per-click has a learning curve. But if you’re willing to demonstrate a little stick-to-it-ness, pay-per-click can be wildly profitable, and kick-start your affiliate sales business.

Oftentimes, those of us who play pay-per-click game get so in mindset of ‘quick money’ that we tend to dismiss those affiliate programs that have lower payouts without really considering what may be offered.

Which of two web-hosting services has better payout overall? We know that web host #1 pays out $90 per sale. That’s ‘quick money’, right away, and a lot of time it’s easy to think “a bird in hand…”

But suppose a customer buys web-hosting services from company #2. Presumably, if he is pleased with service, he’ll stay with it for a very long time, possibly rest of his life. So even though initial payout is only $10, potential return of this one sale is $10 per month, for rest of customer’s life! I think that kind of payout deserves a second look.

So which service is better to promote? The answer, of course, is both of them. Depending on how well each service converts to sales, and what click-through rate is on your ads, either or both of above services could be wrong for you to promote. But either or both could be very profitable.

The moral: Don’t dismiss low-paying payouts out of hand, especially if there is residual income involved.