Drop Ship Vs Affiliate Site

6 replies
Greetings,
I've been doing SEO and Websites for many years and I've been pondering whether or not I should get into either drop shipping or get back into affiliate marketing.

I ultimately want to build a site that I can market to sell various products.

From what I gather, each have their own pros and cons.

Affiliate Marketing
Pro: Set it and forget it. Orders are placed and filled without your involvement.
Con: Google doesnt like affiliate marketing sites and tries to keep you down.

Dropshipping
Pro: Great margins and profit potential
Con: You have to really monitor your sales, to then order from another site to have shipped to the customer. Major pain in the ass.

I was wondering what other pros and cons you may be aware of or provide advice on the ones I've listed.

I really just want to create a site I can market online and generate even $200 a day within a realistic time period.
#affiliate #drop #ship #site
  • Profile picture of the author eflorez
    Hello RealStateMarketer

    I would say there are more pros and cons to consider, and sure you are the one that need to pick (or not, as you could potentially do both?)

    For Dropshipping:

    Pros:
    1. You set your profit as you set your item's prices
    2. Once you find a killer product, you can scale your business
    3. You have the option to choose hundreds of markets. Giving you more freedom to choose something you like and can profit from
    4. It is an easy to understand business, as it is part of common life.
    5. You don't need to have any inventory
    6. Easy to explain it to others
    7. Needs to pay for store software or service, or to do maintenance of free store software
    8. You can build an email list of customers (and initiate email marketing with them).

    Cons:
    1. Sometimes takes long, with lots of trial and error, to find a killer product
    2. Profits might be low, depending on the price range you position your items
    3. Needs to control the fulfillment of the products (but can be outsourced)
    4. Needs to handle returns and non-delivered items
    5. Handle Providers relationships and customer relationships
    6. Normally you need to use paid marketing strategies to sell. Free strategies are limited.

    Affiliate:
    Pros:
    1. Profit points are, in general, high
    2. You can evaluate by facts what offer sells more or less before you do your selection
    3. You can make additional income with bonus and promotions from product vendors
    4. You can build your list of prospects and customers ( to initiate email marketing)
    5. You can have free marketing strategies as well as paid ones. You choose.
    6. It is very automated process, letting you have more time.

    Cons:
    1. It is not an easy to understand business.
    2. Can take long to master
    3. Need software or services for hosting funnels
    4. Need to collect several related products to build attractive funnels
    5. Market size might be smaller or much more competitive than on physical products.

    These are some the pros and cons I see on each. I have done both. I would say do not worry about google not accepting affiliate offers. You should always go to your page before you redirect people to the affiliate offer, as you need to capture lead emails. If you do not do that you are send to the garbage 80% of your future profits (if not more!)

    Elkin


    hav havWhat I would say is that they might be complementary.
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  • Profile picture of the author Don Mann
    With Drop Shipping, you work with companies. To get their products, to your customers. In hopes of getting a split ( percentage of the sale ) this is good, but. When dealing with 3rd parties ex. Amazon,etc, they can change a rule and cut you out, without notice and keep your profit.

    With Affiliate marketing its cut and dry. You bring the traffic or sell to your list. Then, wait for the money. As long as you follow their rules and not, use some sort of black hat or bot or fake fills. You should be good to go.
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  • Profile picture of the author Gambino
    Originally Posted by RealEstateMarketer View Post

    Affiliate Marketing
    Pro: Set it and forget it. Orders are placed and filled without your involvement.
    Con: Google doesnt like affiliate marketing sites and tries to keep you down.

    Dropshipping
    Pro: Great margins and profit potential
    Con: You have to really monitor your sales, to then order from another site to have shipped to the customer. Major pain in the ass.
    This is almost completely inaccurate.

    Affiliate market is not "set it and forget it". And Google doesn't dislike it, at least not to my knowledge. Drop shipping does not have "great margins" and you don't have to submit orders, if set up properly.
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  • Profile picture of the author hynds
    Originally Posted by RealEstateMarketer View Post

    I ultimately want to build a site that I can market to sell various products.
    The answer is really in your question. Go ahead with Dropshipping, this kind of site will suit your passion most.
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  • Profile picture of the author Upstager
    I'm loving these responses, and MAN, Warrior Forum got REALLY nice since I've been gone over the years. I used to read a lot of stuff here but honestly forgot about it for a while.

    I'm thinking about going with a Wordpress E-commerce site setup with Affiliate links on the Buy Now buttons and see how well I can get things ranking over a few months then decide on potentially switching to a drop shipping setup.
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  • Profile picture of the author unlimitedoptions
    Hi:
    If you are looking for the fastest road to sales then affiliate marketing is the first choice. Pick a niche, pick a platform (JVZoo, Clickbank, or several others), pick a product, pick a traffic source (free traffic or paid traffic) and start your campaign.

    Drop shipping is a better business model for long term success. It requires more work, but once set up it can be built into a large scale business that can be sold one day.

    Dan
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    Exactly What I am Doing to Easily Build Consistent Recurring Income.
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