Why people choose affiliate marketing instead of product creation?

Some folks just aren't cut out to create products, and they're smart enough to recognize where their strengths lie.

Others are afraid of flopping with a product they have a personal investment in.

One popular model is to create a product and get affiliates to sell it.

At 50% commission, the payment platform gets 5%-10% and the owner and the affiliate split the rest. The affiliate pockets his share and goes on his merry way. The owner has his share, along with all of the fulfillment and support issues.

Different people excel in different ways.

Personally I agree with you, having your own product has some great benefits.

Because they do not have the strength to create their own product, they have to do marketing to other sellers. To create an ebook product requires real-world experience in a niche. Or create software that needs other advanced skills. Affiliate marketing is simple to make money online.

From the long run,I suggest have real product is prospective.

Good points you raised up and I totally agreed with you

But I do have 2 questions for you if you don't mind.

If any of the affiliate programs you recommend in your autoresponder follow-up series shut down for one reason or another, what will you do?

Most importantly, how do you ensure your subscribers are potentially customers buying from you eventually instead of just being on your list for free gifts?

The point I am trying to make is that while it is great to be promoting someone else's products as an affiliate with no overheads, it is even better to be building your own buyers list.

Rather than subscribers list.

And the best way of doing so is by having your own information products in place.

This is what I learnt from Omar Martin and John Thornhill as members of his My Unfair Advantage and Partnership To Success coaching programs.

Because some people are better at marketing than product creation. It's a completely different set of skills. A lot of people who create products actually hire or contract people to market it. Some professional marketers make more money selling other people's products than making their own.

Not sure that a person has to choose affiliate marketing instead of product creation...


I think most would say to build your own product and then you will be able to be more effective at affiliate marketing...


Some might just turn out products and never be an affiliate...


Others might just not be able to create or just plain do not want to...


Different strokes for different folks...


There was one statement in this thread about having to have real world experience before you can write a book, or make your own product ... that is not the case you can research how something is suppose to be done, and use proof from others experience to make a product...


That product may not be as effective as your own experience but still has value...

Thank you for all your responses. I guess if you are strictly doing affiliate marketing for other peoples products you have less responsibility too.

Hello kimberly,

I would like to answer the question There's a marketing maxim that states:

It's better to find products for your customers than customers for your products.

Affiliate marketing usually works best when you have a receptive audience. So the product is secondary to the market you're reaching.

So first focus on who can you serve and then the product that matches his buying behaviors.

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Daniel
Techtiq Solutions

Well, take it or leave it. This advice comes from the late Jim Straw, a fellow Warrior and a long time success who created scores of his own products over a 50 year business career.

He was well known in Mail Order circles before he came online. Once here, he discovered affiliate MARKETING, and within one year, he was generating over SIX FIGURES A MONTH with his affiliate programs.

He shut down his printed products, his "paper and ink" publishing company and stated if he were just starting out, knowing what he knew from a 50 year career, he would focus on AFFILIATE MARKETING. However, he acknowledged the need for some people (himself included) to create their own products. He left a legacy of a lifetime of value to his customers, over 500,000 of them, and some great food for thought for the world at large.

Create if you must, but if making money is the goal, then it is hard to beat the entry to affiliate marketing and the leverage available.

Best book on "MIND CONTROL" is Jim's MUSTARD SEEDS, SHOVELS & MOUNTAINS, practical guide to getting everything you want.

Most Warriors don't reach 6 figures in a year, let alone a month, so choose your teachers wisely.

GordonJ

As an affiliate marketer you'll have very little invested into the specific products that you promote. That means if a better option arises you can start promoting a new product any time you want. Maybe a competitor is offering you a higher percentage to promote their product instead. Maybe you've found a better quality product that would would rather promote. Or maybe the product you're promoting just isn't converting well and you want to try a competing product instead. Whatever the reason, as an affiliate you have the flexibility to do this.

Kimberly,

You're comparing apples to oranges here.

Product creation is not a form of marketing - it is something altogether different.

Once a product is created it still must be marketed (either by the creator, or her affiliates, or someone else).

Product creation is creative expression on a particular subject and typically focuses on providing information that is valuable to the buyer of the product. This process of "creation" has nothing to do with marketing the product once it's ready for publication.

BTW, I agree with those that have said that product creation takes a certain skill set and persistence that many marketers don't have.

How much money can be made creating vs. selling as an affiliate is completely up to individual circumstances. Both can be lucrative and both can be non-revenue generating. No one can say which it will be for you until you try both and come to your own conclusions.

Two things I like about product creation are (1) leverage (create something once and sell it over and over and over again; and (2) you have an asset when you're finished - you can sell this asset when you leave the marketplace or want to move on to something else.

The best to you,

Steve

Gordon, it's a good thing everyone didn't follow Jim's advice.

After all, if there were no product creators, what would affiliates sell?

There is no reason you can't do both.

Assuming you want to create your own product you could initially market it. Those that don't buy withing in a set time, you could promote affiliate offers in the same niche.

For some people they just don't want to bother with creating products, refunds, dealing with customers, payment disputes, drop shippers, serial refunders, managing customer databases, etc.

All of that is non-existent with affiliate marketing. Am I wrong?

New people chose affiliate marketing over product creation because they perceive it to be easier. If it is or not is going to depend on the individual. But regardless I personally strongly suggest people create products FIRST and then do affiliate marketing later.

When you create a product you build your email list for free and often get paid to build it. The affiliates do the work for you. When you are an affiliate you are building someone elses business.

my answer is:
the | SUPPORT | issues

It's not obvious that affiliate marketing is the best for someone with no money. Create your product and promote it the same way you'd promote your affiliate links and keep 100% of the revenue.

Affiliate Marketing is easier to make money with. Creating a product is cumbersome process. One needs to do market research, see what sort of content potential buyers are looking for, create the product, create landing pages, run ads , split test and modify before finally having the product ready.

Also, product owners need to take care of customer queries and refunds. So, may be that's why many marketers tend to avoid product creation and go for affiliate marketing.

Personally, I have some products (books) at Amazon and they are doing well. I also do affiliate marketing and some products are converting well.

If you're addicted to making money online, create a saas product and own a marketing team. Does it sound easy? nope!!

you can be an affiliate to 10+ top products and as they change so can you...

When you are the product/service it's much harder to change and takes much more time.

Some of the biggest companies in the world are platforms to sell other peoples things...think about it.

According to me, it totally depends on your interest. If you find your interest in affiliate marketing and can give your time & efforts on the internet then it will give you a good response to your career. People's chose affiliate marketing over product creation because they perceive it to be easier. Affiliate programs can earn an extra money and even a full-time income from home.

Why do so many people sell cars but never think of building one themselves?

Why do so many people sell wedding dresses but never create their own?

For some people creating a product is easy, fun, interesting. For some it's not.

I would rather shoot myself in the head than work a year in a bank's cash management department, for instance. Even as chief hancho. Even though they pay well.

Because it is faster to promote someone else's product. They have already taken care of developing it, bringing customer support and everything that's needed. If you already have an audience interested in that niche, then it is faster to set up a review page and get your commissions.

Of course, there is nothing like developing your own product and getting affiliates to promote it, but starting as an affiliate is perfect.

Love this thread! I was wondering a similar thing. Where does it stop being a pyramid scheme and turn into actual world-betterment?
Ideally you want affiliate marketing that gets you not just commission, but a coaching program as well. For instance, if your product is something like education for real estate investing, the market is already people who are looking to turn themselves into wealth-building machines. For these people, your product is an obvious choice, but there are so many gurus out there selling their secrets that it becomes inundated with empty promises and no real education.
Not to turn this into an opportunity to push my product, but if you check out my mentor, Chris White, you may find what I found:

Link Removed by Moderator

The good thing about this group is that in spite of us being focused on sales, (which are substantial by the way; 10K per commission) there's a real focus on developing successful real estate investor through the education program inside.

Affiliate marketing is so huge right now, but you're right. It is only a means to an end. Hopefully after the late adopters hop aboard, it doesn't just become another ponzi scheme that gives all the good guys a bad name!

Affiliate marketing is best useful method of making money on marketing platform, you can create your own prices and add the features to products.

Very simple the answer is people would rather sell a proven product collect their commission then to take the time and chance on creating a product or service that might not succeed or sell.

At least for me, its time. Most businesses fail. So would I rather spend months building a product, then months trying to market it and then fail.

I created a product. A video course for futures trading. I was a futures trader for 10 years, I put all the tips and tricks people used as professional traders. There is only 1 other course I have ever seen that teaches people to trade that isn't utterly useless and nothing to do with how people really trade. I spent 6 months building the course. Launched it and had no idea how to sell it. I sell a few from time to time but basically it was 6 months wasted.

Id have been better off just picking someone else's product that you know sells off the shelf and spending those 6 months trying to learn how to market it.

Once you learn how to sell on line, then id look to actually build something myself as its a huge time investment.

I generated most of my income from 1997 until...oh 2007-08 with affiliate marketing and things like Adsense while it was still easy.

As has been mentioned, you don't have to choose between the two...they kind of cross over naturally of you get good at marketing.

My only caution and my biggest lesson is that when you don't control the product, things can and do go wrong at some point.

Due diligence and mastery of traffic are the ways I found to mitigate the risks.

All things considered, it's down to preference and skillset.

Finding a winning product is easier than creating a winning product. The product you create not necessary can sell well.

Yes, you are right, but it's much easier to start with affiliate marketing rather then create your own product and market it

Product creation: required a lot of investment in terms of time, money.
Affiliate: Require less investment.

Product Creation allows you to be both a product seller and affiliate. It's tougher, but it's much more rewarding than just being an affiliate, I can tell you.

Product creation involves more expertise than promoting other product, in creation it.

So start with promoting other products is a good way, but in the end of course it's better starting building your own product.

It's simple. Affiliate marketing is less work and less hassle than creating your own products.


I do both myself and I can tell you that it's a lot easier to build an email list and simply promote affiliate products to it.


You don't have to worry about buyer complaints and refunds as an affiliate marketer as well as creating the product, creating the sells page, delivering the prdoduct..etc.

Without a doubt, affiliate websites are easier to manage than the other model. Even if you are using a fulfillment center or dropshiping, you have real customers you need to cater to. That means answering questions, dealing with returns, sending tracking information and other unanticipated problems. You also have to set up payment processing and deal with fraud in addition to finding/creating/purchasing the product.

There is zero risk with affiliate marketing, zero customer service and zero product devlopment/acquisition costs. You could be on vacation year round and never have to even read an email while still raking in money.

The real work is the marketing, content creation and SEO of the affiliate site - something that is no different with a site selling actual products. The real difference is in the potential profits but for some people, having zero responsibility and increased freedom outweighs extra income.

If you are able to create and market the product then there is no need for you be an affiliate promoting other companies.

They want fast money and they do not want to invest the time to design and create a product. Unfortunately, for the long term those who create the product are the real winners.

I think it depends on what are you looking for. For instance, I am using affiliate marketing.
With affiliate marketing, depending which program you choose, you can get monthly passive income and get high ticket commissions for great products or services promoted.
With a product, you have to brand it if you are serious about making an income, promote it, build some great sales funnels to increase lead conversions, etc.

Affiliate marketing is like elementary school math, teaches you the basics and how everything works.

Product creation is like high school math, you use the basics for sure, but its more advanced and requires more effort and time to pull off successfully.

Affiliate marketing versus product creation involves a trade-off.

With affiliate marketing, there is very low risk. That is, you don't own the product, so there's no time involved in creating a product that might not sell. If you're promoting an affiliate product and sales are poor, you can just switch to another product.

On the other hand, product creation often takes significant effort. As a result there is higher risk. After all, your new product might not sell.

However, the BIG advantage to product creation is that every time your product is sold, you make money. If you sell it, you make money. If dozens of affiliates are promoting it, you make money every time any of them makes a sale.

But, with affiliate products, you only get paid when you make a sale. Plus, you might find yourself competing against numerous other affiliates... with everyone focusing on the same keywords for PPC or SEO.

As I said... there's a trade-off involved. Choose the one that best aligns with your personal strengths, skills, and the type of risk you are willing to accept.

John

In my opinion, most people cannot and will not be able to create a product that will be successful. It really is not the easiest thing to do with all the competition.

I mean everyone can create a product, but the rest gets a little hard.

I also think people just don't want to put the time in creating a product, putting in the time and money and it failing. There is nothing wrong with this especially with all the other products out there to be an affiliate of.

However, if you have the creativity and drive, than this of course would be the next step. Your commissions are higher and will have the ability to add more products/services down the road.

Some people prefer to be more hands off. Affiliates don't have to worry about support emails from customers. Others are probably a little scared of putting their stuff out there, incase it bombs. Or maybe they feel they don't know enough, that they're not an expert. Of course, you don't need to be. You just need to know more than your potential customers. I think the saying goes, In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king.

Thanks Kimberly. For me selling an affiliate products is so much easier and faster than creating your own. Besides higher risks, you need to make sure your products can sell and meet people needs. Of course money is another matter whereby creating your own products need quite a heavy investment before you can sell. So focus on bringing in traffic and marketing rather than creating your own products.

if i sell other people's products I am simply in the game of lead generation.
No customer support, no fulfilling on the product etc. Much more of a system and gives you more freedom and the ability to run 3-4 offers at once.
The key is though is to find products that are not saturated.
The very best ones are where you actually strike up a joint venture with the owner and offer to sell his product/service for a % of profits.
Nothing worse then trying to promote something that another 10,000+ others are.
The other down side is a lack of control.
It's not perfect. Pro's and cons.

Asset Managers, Private bankers, Financial advisors are glorified affiliate salesman...
Some of the world biggest companies are...
So to say affiliate marketing is junior math and own products is the big league is complete tosh!
It's how you approach and run it that determines if you succeed or not.

Affiliate marketing is generally easier for people starting out. They don't need to know about sales copy, how to set up payments, and all of the more advanced stuff. All they need to know is how to drive targeted traffic.

Some folks like to make money in the background. Affiliate marketing is a lot more hassle-free if you really know how to make it work.

The income flows from the skills of the creator or marketer; not the channel itself. A skilled affiliate marketer can make as much as any product creator. Big difference though; branding. Product creators build stronger brands because the product is theirs, with their name on it, showing they know their stuff and distancing themselves from the crowd. Gotta have some skills to create your own valuable product.

Hi Kimberly

The main benefit and the main reason for creating your product is not to earn money from the product itself(although you can).

The main reason is to build a list of buyers. People that have opened their wallet and have proven that they will spend money to solve their problems.

You can then send them quailty affiliate offers.

That is how affiliate marketing is done.

I hope this helps.

-Mark

Most internet marketers may not be able to come up with a new product to promote to their list , so therefore , promote an affiliate offer to keep making the $$$