PPC direct to affiliate campaign a failure?

[yougottakickalittle]

For the last month, I've been trying out a new strategy I read about for affiliate marketing.
This involves buying ads in programs like MSN Adcenter, Yahoo and Google Adsense and sending visitors directly to the affiliate site rather than to a landing page on my own site.

I'd read that many people have had success with this form of marketing, as long as the merchant permits direct linking.

I on the other hand have found it to be absolutely ineffective in a one-month test run.

I've sent more than 70 people directly to the Entertainment Book, Equifax, Hotels dot com and StubHub sites but have seen no conversions thusfar. Sure, I've risked almost no money in this effort. But still, I hoped to see perhaps a 2% to 4% conversion rate - just enough to make a very small profit.

Has anyone else experimented with this type of thing? Have you seen any success/profit in doing so? Or would it be wise to create a landing page for my traffic?

I'm not looking for a huge return on investment. Just enough to turn a small profit or even break even would be encouraging.

Thoughts?