An opinion on why so many affiliate programs are unprofitable for the affiliate
My guess is that 80% of the "affiliate programs" listed on web sites are really just scams to get free traffic. This is due largely to the early days of the Dot Com boom when companies like B?F? (I will avoid mentioning names) found that they didn't have to actually pay affiliates anything, they could just make empty promises and people would join.
For many companies, the "affiliate program" is just a structured mechanism for allowing people to display their logo on a web site.
The sad truth is that you have to give an affiliate merchant roughly a 1000 clicks or 50,000 page views just to see if it is legitimate. This method does not capture bait and switch operators. It can take tens of thousands of clicks to uncover a bait and switch scam.
Legitimate company can get saturated with affiliates.
With the majority of affiliate programs just being clever ways to get free traffic, I am not surprised that so many people have had only bad experience with them.
Personally, I think affiliate marketing has more to offer in the long run since it establishes a direct relation between advertising dollar and revenue. Unfortunately, the only way to find good programs is to have direct connections with the firm. Something I do not. Diversionary tactics and dishonesty kill the mass affiliation industry.
PPC programs have the problem that companies soaking the system for all they can get drive the value of the clicks to zero. My experience with PPC programs is that they start with high rates, but have to lower the rates to the lowest common denominator of web sites in the program. Google has to be aggressive in tossing such companies out.
PS, I hope you calculate in the cost of wearing out your mouse and surgery for carpal tunnel syndrom as you proceed with you plans to milk Adsense for all its worth.
click, click, click, click (deep breath) click, click, click...(move to next computer in library)...click, click, click...
Sadly, internet commerce seems to be dominated by dishonest merchants battling dishonest webmasters.