I see sites that make great income from providing services, but dont have income from affiliate or advertisement, then I see sites that are the opposite.
Why can’t websites generate profits from all of the following at the same time :
Advertising Sales
Product or Service Sales
Affiliate Income
Folks who do affiliate income have no services or products to sell, so they do affiliate.
Folks who have a product or service, want to make money off of it. Usings ads or affiliate income can take away from this big time. Not only that, it looks a bit unprofessional or unbusinesslike to do, so those who are serious about their businesses won’t do it. It’s kind of like being Kmart advertising for Walmart.
THere is nothing stopping anyone from doing them all, though. Companies do use affiliate/partnership programs, but it’s done in such a way that the user really doesn’t pick up on it.
You can have a website that offers both but I believe there is 1 major reason why you don’t many sites this way.
One, affiliate marketing takes time until you start to see good results – this is why providing a service is a quick way to earn money in the begging.
Once you start to master affiliate marketing though – your income can be exponentially greater, so there really is no reason to offer a service. Also most of your time will be spent marketing your site, creating products, or adding content to help grow your business.
So in short once you start start earning as an affiliate, you will be making much more then you did when you were offering a service.