Make Money with Google Affiliate Network

Google launches affiliate programme
Google has introduced a new way web publishers could make money online with their websites and it is quite different from Google Adsense. Ordinarily Google adsense pays publishers for very valid ppc they get on their sites but with Google Affiliate Network, a wider door has been opened that is meant to help you make more money from the network.
The last time I heard about anything affiliate from Google, it was the referrals which actually helped a lot of popular bloggers make money especially with the $1 commission for every referral that downloads and uses the firefox browser. Later on Google announced that they were retiring referrals. However, I am not yet certain about this new affiliate programme Google has re-introduced to website owners. Will it be more successful than adsense or will it go down the same line as the referrals did?
It appears that with this new affiliate network, Google will be able to connect affiliates with advertisers who will pay you when a sale has been made.
Benefits of using Google's affiliate system:
- One good thing about using the system is that even with a repeat audience, the publisher still has the opportunity of showing the same ads to users and this can help make a sale unlike with Google adsense where different ads show at different times
- Secondly, the commission per sale could be as high as $5 and as low as $0.5 depending on the product

Disadvantages:
- It would be hard competing with renown online retailers like amazon who offer a much more extensive affiliate network
- Earnings from affiliate sales are not as consistent as Google adsense and may not bring much income to publishers

Getting started with Google Affiliate program:
To start making money with this new affiliate program, one need to go to http://www.google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork/ and sign up with your Google account
Then, search for advertisers and see the details each programme comes with. Select the ones you want to promote and you would receive an email when the advertiser approves and you can start promoting the product.

Challenges
To get successful with this kind of programme, I'm guessing one needs to have a large buying audience and not just one looking for information. It can be hard succeeding in this programme when you just focus on a small audience. I think one will need to capture repeat traffic from a global buying audience to succeed in this programme.