Which is Best? Being an Affiliate or Being a Product/Service Creator/Provider?

Yes, while you are right, there are some things to consider though? Like for example, the challenges that come with creating your own product, i.e. the knowledge, the skills, the money required and the time, the real challenge creating a product that will sell, because it might not, and all of your time and effort goes down the drain. Which is where being an affiliate comes in, yours is to identify and move a product and earn, no headaches that comes with with operational issues, and they are many.

Not only that, you will need to know how to promote and market your product, and with competition stiff as it were, you really gotta be good at coming up with solutions not many people can come up with, or absolutely and passionately genius at marketing. To me, that is the biggest cause of online business failure.

One of my mentors said if you really want to be great at being a creator, first earn at least $100000 selling other people's products. I mean, unless you are looking for something else than earning a living, then by all means dabble your way to creating your own products with the hope that you would earn all the commissions. There is no better way to start a business online or at least earn money as a side hustle on the internet than selling other people's products. You learn, and you earn, and best part is it doesn't stop you from creating your own products if you ask me. Remember, it is said, you will never find a rich hermit :-)

I would still rank affiliate marketing and information products are the best entrant to the online business world, they are both easiest to start, got great ROI potential, and very scalable, you are only limited with your imagination, and this is something average people don't get, I would wager to say Network marketing even, without it, the learning curve will be long and frustrating or expensive, in fact, I would gone on to say you haven't done business just yet. Information products with the aim of creating your own asap, you can tap into PLR (Public Label Rights) here, or better still, WL (White label). After years of looking and seeing what's possible, I have jumped at a few shiny objects and they all worked like magic, but I didn't, I didn't do what I was suppose to have done, again, another common problem with mentees, always want to experiment rather than have out hand held.

You, know, the case of knowing what needs to be done and not doing it for one reason or the other, anyway, after all that, I have decided on White Label, it's powerful, you won't have issues with product creation ever, or stress with running your business to generate leads and all that. So that's what I would recommend, it beats everything in mu opinion. Have a good budget to start you off, and find the right White Label company, because not all White Label companies are equal, fining a mentor will go a long way, and I am there for you if you so choose, here to help, and to learn. I can make myself available for a chat.

Great question, and it got some great responses. That's my 2p, I could go on, but I will stop here. Hope I made sense, and that it helps someone.

Good thinking.

I wonder if Cocoa Puffs has an affiliate program?

John

I get what you are saying...I personally would do the exact opposite. Lets say you bake bread at home and use a bread maker machine. I would be looking for these on facebook marketplace on garage sales and selling them on eBay.

In that process I would be using each of the machines and writing content and taking photos - to be used to the sell said items as an affiliate - in this case as an Amazon affiliate ( most likely )

The same would hold true for me in the case of an info product. You as an example...the product you are currently writing is a collection of all of the materials you have read and the experience you have gained...Im not discounting there being a ton of information that is derived from experience alone... but you are then turning that product into a thing... and exchanging buyer lists and in effect becoming an affiliate with other people in the same market vertical.

You a buyer of books with a V A S T collection on a specific topic...could indeed be a classic example of someone that could would and are a trusted individual with Authority, that could have a site that sells books on Amazon as an affiliate - Product to Affiliate.

Of course you are right Jason, but I want to do some parsing (analyzing syntax?)...and I want to say the two approaches have different processes.

Interestingly enough, for deep word divers, both Philosophy and problems are triggers to subconscious neural paths, a subject for another day.

Maybe like a PROS and CONS list, when one is thinking about choosing between these two, which are often the most prevalent choices by new to IM types.

And I would argue, that Jason has given the forum a simple guideline to begin with...one which he has hammered on for the last decade.

Offer. TRAFFIC. CONVERSIONS.

And it may facilitate the choice by considering TRAFFIC first thing, the WHO is going to buy whatever it is you offer. Who and where, Then WHEN, and the how to of it all.

Traffic might be the real 'problem' in both of these methods. Affiliates get paid to bring fresh eyeballs to offers. Yet, most beginners start to fish in the same small ponds where only the minnows remain...it has been fished out.

My assertion begins BEFORE there are these two choices laid out on the table, and that during an assessment phase, which most often gets overlooked and never done.

In order to choose which one may be BEST, the newbie must know WHY? We see a lot of desperation starts here at WF, followed by a lot of failure, or years of struggle.

One way to assess the choices, is via the process involved in getting the conversion (or sale, the final call to action which is TAKEN). The TRANSACTION takes place. And it is fairly easy to backward chain that event, and the steps a buyer takes to get there.

By looking at it this way, one might uncover some hidden slop and mess (problems) of both processes.

Again, for the record, I don't think one is the BEST, certainly we can find successful examples of both, right here and across the Internet. But there probably is a better fit, and this where taking a breath before deciding is a good idea, to match up skills, knowledge, TIME, preferences...and I would say, BACKWARD CHAIN both (or any) money making activity to identify the steps necessary to get the moolah from them to you.

GordonJ



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Thanks Jason, I'll try to connect the dots and make my thoughts click...not sure that is possible, but, I'll try.

My first response to the OP's very binary, either/or choice and which is best...and I stand by the idea of 'best' being subjective, so in order to determine which of these TWO choices is best for any given Warrior depends on WHAT the Warrior or person already has, and wants.

And my conclusion in that post was/is, there is an abundance of anecdotal evidence that both work, both can be best. In the follow up post, where I quoted you, and the idea of keeping it simple; THINK: Offer. Traffic. Conversion.

Yes. As to "why start the business at all?". I left the context of the OP's binary choice and addressed general Warriors, especially newbies. You, me and us all know there are a lot more than just the two choices when it comes to making money online.

So, YES, before making a choice between Affiliate Marketing and being a Product/Service Creator/Provider, see what else exists.

Just this week, on Warrior, we see discussions about flipping sites, agencies, coaching, solo ads, and on and on...pert near scores of ways to make money online other than Affiliate or Product/Service Creator?Provider, although I'm tempted to say...those concepts can cover almost anything else there is.

Why start THIS (or that) particular business, SHOULD be the first question.

Unless one is desperate.

One can always beg for money with some hard luck story of being in a hurricane, a flood, a tornado, a tsunami, a wild fire, or any of a million natural or man created disasters. It has worked for some Warriors in the past.

Short of begging, borrowing or stealing and assuming one wants to actually EARN their way out of desperation, then NEITHER affiliate marketing or the other thing is going to be of much use to them. So they have to look to fast. Quick. If one has months or years to dig out of desperation, I have to wonder how real the desperation was to begin with.

The desperate need action, actually TRANSACTIONS, and those can be done probably better, off line to start with.

If I were to talk to someone about backward chaining, I would ask them to tell me about their last few purchases. What did they buy? From whom? Many might say they just did a Black Friday deal and bought via Amazon Prime.

How did Amazon get your money? How was the transaction made? What happened before you placed the order? Was it spontaneous? Planned? What caught your attention or were you looking for something specific? And so on back.

Anyone, without knowledge, skill or even understanding can create a chain of events, and I advocate that if you do it from the TRANSACTION backwards, you will see the steps, challenges, problems, possible slop and mess involved. Too many Warriors BEGIN, as in affiliate marketing...not even thinking about where and when the transaction (conversion/sale) takes place, it is almost an after thought.

As to your point of the 7buck Clickatron example, isn't that what WSO's are all about? I can't criticize a Warrior who comes here, sees all those fantastic deals, and many are done for you things, it is how this platform was set up, and then wastes years trying to replicate the easy to do thing. And there is no shortage of these types of offers online is there?

What makes me sad...is thinking a Warrior needs to be told "You don't get paid for doing nothing". Or as you point out, a small sum will yield all the answers.

And some bias and personal ideas: I would never work with anyone who didn't understand the CONVERSION (TRANSACTION) IS job one of any business/money making venture. If you don't understand that, please don't knock on my door seeking help.

It should be absolutely obvious, beyond any doubt, that if no one buys whatever it is you have to offer: product, service, software, coaching, THING ...you won't make any money.

It makes me nauseous to even think that anyone coming here seeking to learn IM wouldn't know that basic human concept of exchange.

I will add more, but I don't want to lose this post.

As to the processes or PROBLEMS of any transactional event, (continuing to beat the horse into glue)...by laying out the money exchange from the end to the beginning, gives one a pretty clear picture of the process, and in so doing, may shine some light on potential problems.

Anyone here can become an affiliate in the next 15 minutes. And with some creativity, even use a low cost 5 dollar signature link to take them to a page where they DETAIL their journey with such and such product and then link to the sales page. I'm guessing that is about an hour or two of time. Will they get any conversions? Sales? I don't know, probably not, but they will have something in the market which has a potential of making some money, doesn't it?

The argument that a newbie doesn't know anything about either Affiliate/Self doesn't come into play for a Warrior who just goes ahead and does it. As described above, we can easily find a WarriorPlus offer, become an affiliate, write a review, post in sig file and have eyeballs within hours.

Likewise, investing 5 bux in a sig file here gives any Warrior a chance to put their own creation in front of eyeballs in short order.

As to the time to create? HA! I paid 3.77 to Warrior B. Ling for a "cheatsheet", a one page document loaded with useful links. Gladly would have paid 3 or 4 times that. Ling reported a profit of over 1,000 dollars in a couple of days selling a one page cheatsheet with links on it.

I paid another 17.00 dollars for a report on ONE PAGE PROFITS, where the author showed us how to create simple one page products and get them quickly into the market place.

In fact, one of my own reports, given away for free here, was all about free, and showed how using US Gov't publications along with public domain stuff allows anyone to create a product in a matter of minutes. And SURE, then it becomes a traffic/conversion problem.

But the idea that there is a massive LEARNING CURVE to get something online and making money, just doesn't hold water.

Using the OFFER-TRAFFIC-CONVERSION concept coupled with Savidge4's Title/Image/Price/Details has pretty much all the how to information one needs to get started.

What I mean is, there are 1001 ways to get started and making money online, but if you want to save a lot of time, maybe heartache and trial and error, spend more time in the ASSESSMENT stage at the beginning and match yourself with what is B E S T for you.

Thanks for asking.

GordonJ

And here is the tough question.

Idea to execution with a team that knows what they are doing and this takes days to weeks? someone with no previous skills and this takes?

I would suggest IM in the form of product creation or Affiliate offers is NOT the answer. An Offline side hussle maybe? cutting grass or painting street numbers on curbs or buying a 10 pack of pens at the dollar store and standing on a busy downtown corner selling them for $1.00 each? This is just short of instant... and requires minimal outlay of cash and time to execute.

The other method ( and sorry I am sounding like a broken record here ) is selling what you already have on a platform such as eBay or Facebook Marketplace.

I think the phrase is "Desperate times, require desperate measures"? execution of a multi step multi skill game plan, I would suggest is far from the minds of "Desperate"