Product Creators vs. Affiliate Marketers

I have a product/service that I offer to other website owners and online marketers. So in that way I'm a business owner and not an affiliate marketer. This is the path that was most successful for me.

I haven't done any product creation. I am strictly an affiliate marketer at this point. I do, however, sell MRR & PLR products on JVZoo and that has helped me to build quite a big buyers list.

I'm big into list building and I have just found it easier to let others do the hard work and then just promote their products to my list for a cut of the profits! Guess I'm a little lazy but it's worked really well for me.

Creating my own original product is a goal of mine, however. I wouldn't do it myself, though. I would outsource the entire thing I think.

I'm an Affiliate Marketer myself now and wish to create my own products soon.
For newbies, I highly recommend them to start off doing affiliate marketing earning commissions. The income might not be a lot but what you're doing is building your own lists. This is the most important part of making money online!

It doesn't matter whether you are a product creator or affiliate marketer. All the businesses has their own strategy. You have to follow those strategy which successful marketer doing here and there. And stick with that strategy on regular basis. Hope this will help

I was an Affiliate marketer before i met my mentor from here Clarke Hanna and now i have launched 2 products on Click Bank. It was the best decision creating a product and without the right guidance i would still be losing money. Now i also make money promoting to my list .

I'm a lousy affiliate marketer. Only once, several years ago, did I make any real money promoting someone else's product. So I prefer and do better at product creation.

Hmmm I'm not a 'product creator' in the general sense but I have a blog that's makes me $x,xxx per month. I've also been an affiliate for a whole year and have made quite a lot doing so.

I think, if you have the right networks and connections, you can leverage off these to get a good launch on your product.

Started as an affiliate marketer - think this is a great way to learn the ropes of lead generation, customer acquisition, upselling, list management (basically all aspects of marketing).

Quickly evolved into product creation though for a few main reasons:

1) Leverage - instead of you being the one spending time and money marketing someone else's product, you can leverage the effort of thousands of others to market your product for you. This can be quite powerful and scales very well if you have a hot product

2) Control and multiple streams of income - I am in business of course to make profit, but I also became an entrepreneur so that I control as much of my business as I can myself. Having my own line of products in different niches is one way that I maintain control (nobody can change the affiliate rules, change their terms, pull their product, etc... and effectively cut off your line of income overnight. Anyone in affiliate marketing who sais this can't happen is not being truthful). I have also licensed my products in the past for very specific use (Ex to private membership site owners) that can bring in a very nice revenue boost. You can re-purpose your content anytime you want (it's yours) meaning you can take an ebook and turn it into a seminar moving you from a $27 product to a $197, $597 or $997 product in a short period of time...again this is YOUR content.

3) Bond with your market. I have found that having my own products gives me an edge in my markets - you get your hands dirty working with your customers which gives you immediate "inside" feedback on future products, improvements, etc...which feeds the entire product creation and profit system. Getting your first product to market in a given niche is the toughest, once you have that, other product ideas and follow-on products become much simpler.

Oddly enough, when I moved to creating my own products MANY years ago, the trust and credibility boost in my markets also resulted in more affiliate marketing opportunities - so I still do both, but the real catalyst is my own products.

Jeff

I do both. My affiliate program of choice is Amazon and I do very well with it. I also sell an entire suite of my own products and services in the IM space.

Hi,

I do both!

I must say personally that I find it much easier as a regular product creator
to attract affiliates of my own that send me a steady flow of buyers into
my business.

Rather than having to continuously find fresh leads for my lists and then
promote affiliate products to them.

Plus you're building a much more solid business selling your own products
rather than just trying to be an affiliate.

Of course others may disagree.

But I'm speaking from my own personal experiences.

For those that are sitting on the fence with product creation then I say
just take the plunge and see for yourself.

You have to think LONG TERM more than trying to just make a quick
buck when it comes to creating your own products too.

Building HUGE buyers lists of your own is the way to go for me.

Personally much more success as an affiliate and publisher then product owner - but only because I made a conscious decision to fly under the radar and just make money instead of selling how I made money selling how to make money products to people looking to make money online. (thats how i started at least.)

However I own SYSTEMS that make me money as if I owned my own product.

WIth that said, I've lately been feeling like I'm not providing much value to my fellow marketers and have the itch to start putting some useful valuable content out into the world.

My first six years were strictly affiliate marketing. I didn't start creating products until I saw a need for products I had the expertise to create.

I would say both!!

But more affiliate marketing than product creation.

I've had more success as an affiliate marketer.

Both, and my own product work better than the affiliation as value. The number of product selled still more or less the same.

I started out doing Affiliate Marketing and Adsense but have settled on working on creating designs for Zazzle products because it is much more successful for me and I love being creative. I like that I am just designing and not taking the money and shipping.

I found affiliate marketing more difficult to make money. A lot of hard work and time is needed for success and hopefully, someday it will pay off for you. I wish you well.

I think most people start off as affiliates and after doing this for awhile decide on taking the leap to product creator. So in most cases people are both or just have not made the leap yet.

I've tried affiliate marketing and I think it's a great way to make money although it can be time consuming. It's all about finding the right people first 'a starving crowd' and then providing them with value so it doesn't look like you're 'selling' something but this can all take a while.

After taking the advice of a friend of mine I tried my hand at writing and publishing books on Amazon's Kindle (you can also create paperback books) and best thing is...it's totally free!

My very first book outsold my friends bestseller and I was making around $800 per month
Once the book is created and on Amazon it sells itself,this is one of the best ways I've found and
you can incorporate list building and affiliate marketing into it too.

So I suppose it's like being a vendor and an affiliate at the same time

Both...

For I've noticed that being a product creator makes being an affiliate that much easier

I am both, a product creator and I usually getting affiliates to promote for me and once people are on my list they get the affiliate promotions every now and then.

The advantage about being a product creator is that you are promoting YOUR name and not the other vendor.

Purely an affiliate marketer.

It is best to test the waters. You don't need a lot of money to start off with affiliate marketing.

Spending ample time with affiliate marketing will reduce your chances of creating a bogus product that fails miserably. I personally believe if you haven't done affiliate marketing for good couple of years, you can never be good at creating and selling your own product - my thoughts though.

Affiliate. I'm currently in the process of creating my own product but has nothing to do with internet marketing.

I am only do affiliate marketing.

I do affiliate marketing and my best results come from Amazon affiliate. Due to the brand popularity of Amazon its very easy to convert a visitor to customer.

Product creator is the best,because you can sell by taking 100% commission, but also many others and get commission without doing anything !!!

Affiliate marketing is much easier than selling your own product, because you don't need to sell anything, you just need to give buyers good information to help their buying decision, and if you do that you will make money. In my experience writing high quality product reports on specific products, with really informative comparison and alternatives, etc. is the most reliably method of making money in IM.

Selling your own products is much more difficult, because selling something is more difficult than giving free information. However, some people certainly do it successfully, so it is possible to learn.

Both methods can make big money . . . there are plenty of stories of 6 figure launches of products, and I have heard of someone doing relatively simple product/advertising arbitrage (which is similar to affiliate marketing) and making similar amounts of money.

Try both, keep learning, see what works best for you

If you want to improve your results then look for advice on specific aspects of what you are doing, such as getting more relevant visitors, and just keep learning.

Chris

I am doing affiliate marketing and quite enjoy it. Never Think about to create my own product.

I've been on both sides. Developing products has allowed me to build a targeted following, and I'm able to remarket to this following with affiliate products. It's hard to say which is 'better' as both have their pros and cons. I suppose it's really up to the marketer, and their own personal preference. Me.. I do a bit of both

I would say that marketing your own products is the best route to take.

Everyone has their own individual preference of what they want to do, but the reality is that having your own products gives you the most control over your income. Not to mention with affiliate products - you're never in control of the final customer once they go through your funnel.

Affiliate marketing is very lucrative, and I do it myself as well. But selling my own products is a far better source of income. Not to mention the people who buy my products are always asking me what else I have to offer in products and other high ticket offers.

To each their own, but I'd create my own products and sell them all day everyday (which I do).