Question about product creation affiliate marketing

I'm not sure if it really matters which comes first. Plenty of people start out building a list and only promoting affiliate offers, and have no product of their own.

Having your own product will definitely put you in a different tier - so if you have an idea - go for it - starting now!

You can actually do both simultaneously - start with your outline, start creating...meanwhile create a free giveaway that'll be closely related to your product so you can start building your list and getting a potential audience for when you launch. (If you don't have your own list to launch to you'll have to rely on affiliates to promote to their lists for you.)

But once thing that struck me that I wanted to point out: You kept mentioning something about your subscribers/buyers getting to know you/getting insight into you. Now, I'm not 100% sure what you meant, but all I want to say is that it's totally irrelevant.

You are probably a wonderful person and all, but no one really cares about who you are and what you do - in most cases.
They're more interested in how you can help them and solve their problems.

Keep yourself focused only on your (potential) customers. The only time you should talk about yourself is to establish credibility (and even then don't overdo it).

Your main focus when you are new is to learn how to effectively market online.

You want to see what works for you and what doesn't.

Start small with paid ads and see what is working really well for you. Once you know how to bring in consistent leads and sales, then you can create your own product and hopefully recruit affiliates to promote for you.

Of course its a great idea to build your product first. But until you test it and people accepts it, it has no value. So first allow your audience to get the product.

I think creating your own product is overrated. There are plenty of people "killing it" with affiliate products, earning 70-70% per sale. With that percentage of the sale, why bother researching for a product, writing it, and then paying at least $5,000 for a professional copywriter to write you a sales page? In that time, and with considerably less money, you could promote 2-3 affiliate products. And you don't have to answer customer questions, comply with regulations, etc.

Affiliate marketing is much easier for the newcomer, and perhaps even more profitable for the savvy marketer. There are people here who promote over 30 CB products that sell well. How many people here have created 30 products that still sell, and sell well?

If you want to sell products from your website or blog you will be faced with the decision of creating your own products to sell or acting as an affiliate to promote other people’s products. Both provide excellent opportunities, but there are some unique pros and cons that should be considered. In this article we’ll take a look at these pros and cons, and hopefully this can help you to decide which path is right for you.

With affiliate marketing you are promoting products created and sold by others. You don’t have any responsibility except to refer potential buyers to the sales page of the product, and if a visitor that you referred makes a purchase you will be paid a commission. So let’s take a look at the pros and cons of affiliate marketing.

I would recommend doing so.

It goes hand in hand with affiliate marketing...

Since you'll be building a list of customers in the process.

How are you going to build a list of targeted prospects if that is your first order of business?

Don't you have to create a niche and position your business in a marketplace so that you have a "home" online?

The very first thing to do is establish a niche within a marketplace that you will be addressing and you do that through research that will uncover a specific area of demand. You are looking for an audience that will become prospects for your business. Don't start with a product - you are only guessing that it is top quality, marketable, and will be profitable.

Begin by finding demand first. Find out what the audience will buy. Otherwise, you stand to lose time and money on something that nobody wants.

Steve

Hi, why not combine your own product and affiliate marketing in one funnel.

Here's my suggestion:

1) Find a money trend. Meaning, find out what is selling right now. Just browse through the forum for a few ideas.

2) Prepare 2 reports. One is a bribe for people to opt-in into your squeeze page. Another is what you sell at a low prize immediately after your prospect opt-in. This will cover your advertising costs.

3) You could also prepare a 3rd report as an upsell / downsell.

4) Prepare 2 set of email series. One is for those who bought your paid report (The 1st paid report and also the upsell / downsell). This is your buyers list. And the other email series is for the non-buyers list.

5) Sell affiliate stuffs in your paid report and also in your email series.

And remember, stick with one single niche in one sales funnel.

All the best and take care.