This is a big hurdle that many people face when entering the world of online marketing: Should I become an affiliate marketer or should I create and sell my own product?
Before we begin, let me quickly define the two business models so that we are clear about how money is generated with each.
• Affiliate Marketing - In this business model, you earn income by recommending someone else's product or service to customers. Basically, you will register with the provider as an affiliate and for every sale you generate, you will be paid a commission.
• Product creation: this business model is self explanatory; You will create a product and sell it on the market for 100% of the profits. In this example, we will assume that your product is an information product of some kind.
There are many marketers who will say that the easiest way to start making money online is affiliate marketing. Just for the simple fact that you can choose a vendor whose product you want to promote, sign up as an affiliate, start sending traffic to your affiliate sales page, and BOOM! You earn money. Sounds easy enough. You don't have to deal with creating a product, building websites, dealing with customers, etc.
At the same time, there are marketers who say that creating your own product is the easier and more profitable of the two and allows you to have more control of your business.
It really all depends on what your strengths and weaknesses are and what you are looking to achieve in your business.
Let me look at some of the pros and cons of each and put things in perspective so you can get a better idea of where you want to start.
Affiliate marketing
It's a strong argument that affiliate marketing is the easier of the two to get started, so it's recommended as a starting point for beginners.
Here are some of the advantages of affiliate marketing:
• Most of the affiliate providers / networks are free and very easy to join. Most of the time you will answer a few basic questions, set up a username and password, and get instant access to the affiliate members area in a few minutes.
• Marketing materials are provided. Once you set up your profile in the affiliate members area, you will have full access to all the necessary marketing materials to get started, such as banners, pre-written emails, etc. In the members area you will also be provided with a unique affiliate link that will take your potential customers to a complete sales page that has already been created for you. Armed with these materials, all you have to focus on is driving traffic to your affiliate site.
• All the websites are already created for you. As an affiliate, you don't have to deal with the headaches that can come with building a website. The provider has done this for you and as long as you use their affiliate link, your sales and commissions will be tracked through that link and paid to your account.
• You don't have to deal with customers. We all know how difficult it can be to deal with customers, but as an affiliate you don't have to worry about this problem. Once you make an affiliate sale, all you have to worry about is cashing your check and the customer passes on to the vendor.
As you can see, being an affiliate marketer definitely has its advantages. It's quick and easy to join a provider / network, all marketing materials and sales pages are provided, and you don't have to deal with customers. You can focus your time on generating traffic, making sales, and cashing checks!
Now let's take a look at some of the downsides of affiliate marketing and how you can overcome them.
• The competition. Although it can be argued that affiliate marketing is the easiest way to make money online, it can be strongly argued that it is the most difficult due to competition. There are hundreds of thousands of affiliate sellers that you have to compete with to make a sale. At the same time, many experienced marketers agree that most new affiliates don't know what they are doing as it is a very easy business to run.
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