What is the difference between search arbitrage and affiliate marketing?
In affiliate marketing you are paid when the visitor you send buys or signs up, a commission per sale or lead. In search arbitrage you are paid when the visitor clicks a search ad, whether or not they later buy. Arbitrage pays less per event but far more often; affiliate pays more per event but needs a completed action.
Both are traffic arbitrage: buy visitors, earn more than they cost. The risk sits in different places. An affiliate carries conversion rate risk on a specific offer and is paid on CPA. A search arbitrageur is paid per monetised click across whatever advertisers the feed returns, so there is no offer to choose, but the payer can discount or claw back.
Skills overlap heavily: creative testing, tracking with a postback, reading EPC. Many buyers do both. The practical differences are access and cash. Affiliate networks are easier to join than feeds, while search arbitrage offers enormous breadth of topics. Both suffer when traffic quality is poor, through lead fraud chargebacks in one case and clawbacks in the other.