Affiliate marketing is often a recommended way for new marketers to get started. Of course, the number one task for any marketing is to get traffic to the sales page.  That can take some time, work, and learning how to master the different types of traffic – SEO, articles, blog posts, list building…

Along came pay per click advertising, and Google Cash. A way for affiliates to get almost instant traffic and make commissions. Since Google  Cash first came out,. there have been countless courses, articles, software, and membership sites that have shown how to profit by selling affiliate products using PPC.

Apparently, it’s getting a lot more difficult for affiliates to even keep their accounts, let alone make any profits. It looks like Google has been cracking down on affiliate marketers who use PPC. They are taking a close look at what is on the landing page of the ad, and if it is nothing more than a page with a link to an affiliate offer, then the ad is likely to be rejected.

I found out about this from a post on the Perry Marshall blog, and then I did a little research for myself. I came across a thread at webmastersworld.com that explains what is happening over at Google. Click here to read it. What I found surprising is that there are a few people who are actually glad that affiliates are having their accounts banned. Some people do not like affiliates who use adwords.

Does this mean affiliate marketing is dead? Not at all. What this does is point out an important point about online marketing in general. You should never rely on any one source of traffic. If you’re an affiliate who only uses adwords, your business could be in trouble. It also means that if you use PPC you should keep a close eye on your ad campaigns to make sure that you’re not spending more money than you’re making.

The Internet keeps changing all of the time. What works today may not be effective a few weeks or months from now. Remember when free classified ads and Free For All Links sites were the hot thing? Not anymore. Should you avoid PPC? Not at all. It just means that you need to do your homework, follow Google’s guidelines, be ready to adapt where necessary, test and track what works and stop doing what doesn’t work.

Because PPC is changing, it’s really important to make sure any information you get is current. A guide you purchased a couple of years ago may have some advice that can get you in trouble now. So do your research by going to forums, reading the current guidelines, and reading blogs that are about PPC. And don’t rely on one source of traffic.