Some Thoughts at the 3,000 Post Mark

I've been kicking some stuff around in my head that has no chance whatsoever of turning into a product, really, so I thought I'd just sort of bring it in here and dump it all over the place. It's not going to do anyone any good if I just sit over here not telling people about it, after all.

When you look at IM, everything is basically the same as any other retail supply chain. On one end, you have the person who creates a product, and on the other you have the person who buys it. And in between, you have all these other things that go on. You have the manufacture of the product, storage, shipping, delivery, display, there are all these people in the middle. And one fundamental rule holds true.

The closer you are to the product, the more money you make by selling it.

This is why all the gurus have their own products and do the big launches. Being the guy who created the product, they get the big bucks, and everyone else just takes a slice. Granted, it's a WHOPPING GREAT slice, but when you look at how much each individual person gets - the creator still has the biggest slice. While he may be giving out 80% commissions, that 80% is split among dozens of affiliates, and the creator's 20% cut beggars even the superaffiliates.

But what gets overlooked in the shuffle is the other end of the spectrum.

The closer you are to the customer, the more products you can sell him.

Think of a grocery store. Grocery store margins are razor-thin; single-digit percentages that make a newbie's Amazon commissions look downright generous. Hell, sometimes that single digit is on the wrong side of the decimal point.

But while the customer who buys a 35-cent can of soup has just given a lot more money to Campbell's than he did to the grocery store, that same customer bought another hundred items. And while each item gave more money to the manufacturer than it did to the grocery store, the grocery store still got more money than any individual manufacturer.

I've heard a lot of talk about how product creation is the best way to make it big in IM, and there's no denying that it is a very good way - indeed, it's the way I've chosen to follow.

But when you really look at it, and you really consider how the whole system works, there isn't any reason you can't be just as effective - or more effective - through affiliate marketing. I've been building an affiliate marketing product lately, and in the process of researching and testing it, I've been seriously impressed with the potential in affiliate marketing. I'd actually say it's on par with product creation... neither one appears dramatically superior to the other.

So while I'd certainly recommend people make and sell their own products, at the same time, don't be so quick to overlook or dismiss affiliate marketing as an also-ran in the IM world. There is plenty of potential there.