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Ads, affiliate or your own product - which earns most per 1,000 visitors?

17 October 2026

Our earlier posts worked out how much traffic it takes to earn $100 and $1,000 a month from ads, how long traffic takes to grow, what a returning visitor is worth, what a bounce costs, what a slow page costs, how many posts it takes before Google sends traffic and whether an email subscriber beats a search visit. This one asks the question underneath all of them: for the visitors you already have, is display advertising even the best way to earn?

Three ways to earn from the same visitor

The fair comparison is what each model makes from the same 1,000 visitors:

• Ads = pages per visit x page RPM. You earn on every page view, without selling anything, but very little each time.
• Affiliate links = visitors who click a link x clicks that buy x order value x commission. You earn only when someone clicks through and buys.
• Your own product = visitors who buy x price x margin you keep. You keep almost the whole price, but you have to make the product first.

The benchmarks the calculator starts from:

• A $5 page RPM - ad earnings per 1,000 page views - is the midpoint of the travel, food and home tier (Aditude, 23 July 2025). Mediavine's own worked example of its session RPM is $12 per 1,000 sessions.
• Amazon Associates (US) pays 3% to 4.5% commission on most physical goods; the calculator uses 4%.
• About 0.5% to 3% of affiliate clicks turn into a sale in network and vendor figures (a ClickZ survey of affiliates; Webtonic's 2026 network compilation puts the average at 0.8%). The calculator uses 2% - none of these is an audited industry figure.

At 2 pages a visit and a $5 RPM, ads earn $10 per 1,000 visitors. If 5% of visitors click an affiliate link, 2% of those buy a $60 order and you get 4%, affiliate links earn $2.40. If 0.3% of visitors buy a $29 e-book or template and you keep 90% after fees, your own product earns $78.30.

Work out your own split

Type your visits a month and pages per visit from your counter, your ad RPM, your affiliate click and sales rates, the price and margin of a product, how long it would take to make and what it would cost, and your traffic growth. The calculator shows what each model earns per 1,000 visitors and over 24 months - with a chart.

Prefer a full page? Open the ads vs affiliate vs own product calculator on CalcSA. To see how many page views your ad income needs, the page views calculator covers that.

Worked example: the calculator's defaults

A site with 10,000 visits a month growing 3% a month, 2 pages a visit, a $5 RPM, 5% of visitors clicking an affiliate link, 2% of those buying a $60 order at 4% commission - or a $29 product of your own bought by 0.3% of visitors, 90% margin, 3 months and $1,000 to make it.

• Ads earn $100 in the first month and about $3,440 over 24 months from about 344,000 visits.
• Affiliate links earn $24 in the first month and about $830 over 24 months - with no set-up cost and no waiting.
• Your own product starts $1,000 in the red and sells nothing for 3 months, then earns about $856 in its first month on sale.
• By month 5 it is ahead of both - $737 in total against $531 from ads - and reaches about $23,500 by month 24.

Three more cases, same defaults except the one shown:

• Only 0.1% of visitors buy your product: it earns $26.10 per 1,000 visitors and about $7,180 over 24 months - still twice what ads make.
• A finance or tech site at a $12.50 RPM (Aditude's high-value tier midpoint): ads earn $25 per 1,000 visitors and about $8,610 over 24 months - closer, but the product still earns nearly three times as much.
• A review site where 15% click, 3% buy and commission is 4.5%: affiliate links earn $12.15 per 1,000 visitors and about $4,180 over 24 months - ahead of ads at $5 RPM.

Estimates. The 10,000 visits, 2 pages a visit, 3% growth, 5% clicking an affiliate link, $60 order, 0.3% of visitors buying, $29 price, 90% margin, 3 months and $1,000 to make the product are assumptions, as in the calculator. The 0.3% is the number that decides everything: cold visitors from Google buy far less than email subscribers, and a product nobody wants sells nothing at any traffic level. Rates on South African traffic are usually lower than US benchmarks.

Three models over two years

Same site, defaults, earnings added up month by month:

• Ads and affiliate links start earning at once; the product has to be paid for before it pays you.
• Once it sells, the product line climbs about 8 times faster than ads, because each buyer pays $26 where a visit to an ad page pays 1 cent.
• The three are not either-or. Most sites that earn well run ads and affiliate links on their content pages and point their best readers at a product of their own.

Reading your counter for this

Your WebCounter counter gives you the two numbers every model starts from, so you can replace the calculator's guesses with your own. No counter yet? Get your free WebCounter counter - it takes a minute.

• Visits a month on your free WebCounter report is the "visits a month" box - divide by 1,000 and multiply by each model's figure to see your monthly income from each.
• Pages per visit is page views divided by visits on your report - it moves your ad income directly, but does nothing for affiliate or product income.
• The pages list shows where to sell. Your most-visited pages are where an affiliate link or a link to your product will be seen most.
• Test before you build. Put a "coming soon" link to your product idea on a busy page and count the clicks for a month; if almost nobody clicks, almost nobody will buy.
• Watch the trend, not one month. The 24-month result depends heavily on growth - your counter's month-on-month visits tell you whether 3% is realistic for you.

Sources

• Aditude, "RPM for Publishers" (23 July 2025) - $5 page RPM midpoint for travel, food and home; $12.50 for finance, tech, health and business. Not re-checked at the original on 17 October 2026; as cited in the CalcSA calculator.
• Mediavine, "Mediavine RPM" (mediavine.com) - worked example of $12 per 1,000 sessions. Not re-checked at the original on 17 October 2026; as cited in the CalcSA calculator.
• Amazon Associates (US), Standard Commission Income Statement - 3% to 4.5% on most physical goods. Not re-checked at the original on 17 October 2026; as cited in the CalcSA calculator.
• ClickZ affiliate survey (48% of affiliates converting 1% to 5% of clicks) and Webtonic's 2026 affiliate network compilation (0.8% average) - not audited figures. Not re-checked at the original on 17 October 2026; as cited in the CalcSA calculator.
• Calculator: CalcSA, Ads vs affiliate vs own product.

Estimates only. What each model earns depends on your niche, your audience's country and what you sell; your own ad, affiliate and sales dashboards beat any average.