Adsense or Affliate Marketing - which is best for you?

Although I'm a big AdSense fan, I also realize that there are
other ways to make money online. Readers often ask me which
is better, AdSense or affiliate selling, and so here are my
thoughts on this very interesting question.

The short answer is "it depends". Now, you might think that's
a cop-out, but it's not. Let's go back to the fundamentals.

What is AdSense? It's an online billboard rental program, that's
what it is. Say you have (as Monty Python put it) "HUGE tracts
and tracts of ... land", except of course that the "land" is the
set of web pages that you control on your various sites. Along
comes Google who says "Hey, we'd like to put some billboards on
your land. We'll then go find some advertisers who'll display
their ads on the billboards and give you a cut of the money we
make by renting out the billboards. And don't worry, we'll take
care of finding and billing the advertisers -- all you do is sit
back and rake in the cash." You get to say where the billboards
are placed on your land (though Google is happy to give you some
suggestions based on what they know works for other land owners)
and how big they are, but you have no specific control over what
goes on the billboards. Overall the program sounds pretty good to
you, because it lets you spend your time and effort on other
things, such as acquiring more land. It's passive income to the
extreme.