Affiliate Marketing vs Product Owner

My opinion - you should do both.

However, you need some way to get people onto your list first - so that you can sell them affiliate products. The best way to do that is to have your own product line.

Thom

Agreed. Having your own product is a million times easier than being an affiliate. Just don't overthink product creation - identify your market, grab a PLR product, re-write it and add some audio/video and have a graphic designer build you a nice site, or just use Optimize Press and build it yourself.

Sell the low-priced version for $17 at a 100% affiliate commission, then get e-mail addresses when people buy. There, now you have your list of buyers (not browsers, buyers!). When those people buy, hit them with an OTO for the premium version of your product with audio and video for $37 - this money you keep.

That and Microcontinuity are the simplest ways to do it. You should be able to crank out a new product every 3-4 weeks at the absolute longest.

R

I suggest doing both definitely! I wrote an extensive pros and cons on both on my blog
http://howtobuildyouronlineempire.co...duct-creation/

hope it helps

JZ

If you have product,Try concentrating on that,Because Instead of getting some small comssion,Here you are also stand a chance to get big dollars

Sure... you can do both. A great way to go is create a couple of really good products of your own and price them in the no-brainer range (for your particular market). Get a bunch of proven, credit-card carrying, paypal signed-up, buyers on your list ... and then throw in a mix of affiliate & your other product promotions for your list. The best of both worlds... and a list of proven buyers which is GOLD.

As far as saying having a list just means affiliate marketing... that's not necessarily true. You can run promotions for just your own products no problem.

One of the really good email marketers I can think of that rarely promotes other people's products is Matt Furey. He gets people onto his list both online and offline selling his lower prices workout books in the $29 range. Then he cross promotes his other products several times a week. Many of them in the $97 - $297 range.

He does REALLY well for himself (and he's a good story-telling, email copywriter too... I study what he does all the time)

As a product owner, you have others build you list, drive
your traffic, and even grow your affiliate program.

Just offer a great product that actually takes care of
your affiliates' customers and they will happily promote.
If you set you affiliate program up to offer life-time
commissions, affiliates won't mind building your list
because your follow-up will make them money.

Just make it a win, win, win. Don't forget that that
third win is the customer (the end consumer).


Willie

I don't know idf you have heard of Ben steins book called Bunk House logic. Its a great book based on horse trading cowboy logic. Eesentiallly. Meaning do whatever needs doing when it needs done if you hae a product to sell, sell it, if you have a product to automate, automate it, IF you. Have a list to build build it........but by all means don't be the one waiting for the most perfect time to do something becuase it will never get done. You will be successful in life! Just do it.
.

You should start as an affiliate and then when you have a lot of respect and confidence from your subscribers, launch your product. Do not forget always the money is in the list!

It all depends if you want to put in the effort to create a product, and provide support.

If that's not your bag then stick to traffic generation and affiliate marketing.

I don't altogether see why. I'm an affiliate only, but I don't see why product owners shouldn't also be list-builders (and I know many who are).

For me, just off the top of my head, the ten main advantages of being an affiliate - in no particular order - are:-

(i) I can build a solid business based on real, appreciating assets (my niche websites and my lists), which to a large degree develop some real residual income (I can "walk away" for extended periods, and have done, just by loading up my autoresponders in advance, and it barely affects my income)

(ii) I have complete flexibility about what I sell/promote, without being tied to "stuff I've produced myself"

(iii) The bookkeeping/management are a little easier (Clickbank handles the money for me reliably, right up to the point of paying my pre-tax earnings into the bank)

(iv) It's much easier for me to be able to offer my customers and potential customers a wide range of products at different prices (very helpful)

(v) It's much easier for me be able to offer my customers and potential customers a wide range of different types/formats/styles of products without having to produce them myself - just "bigger choice", in short

(vi) My business isn't dependent on the success/failure of an individual product: if something disappears on me, or flops, I can quickly and easily replace it with something else from stuff that's already available

(viii) I don't really have to provide support (this is a big one!)

(ix) For me, there's a lot less outsourcing involved in being an affiliate than there would be in being a vendor (that's partly because of my own limited skill-set, of course)

(x) I suspect it's easier to attract customers than it is to attract affiliates.

In many former, similar, threads here on these compare/contrast lines, it's always struck me that most of the things vendors habitually mention as "advantages of being a vendor" are actually similarly advantages of being an affiliate, too!

You can, of course, do both, but it's better just to choose one and run with it than it is to be indecisive: both are perfectly viable business models in their own right.

It's definitely not as black and white as what you're saying. You can build a great buyers list as a product owner, and that list is going to be far more responsive than people who just opt in for a free report or gift.

Also, if your product is in the IM niche, be forewarned that it's not exactly going to be easy to acquire affiliates, especially if you're new to the marketplace and don't have many established contacts.

If your product is in the IM niche, you can do one of two things. You can either sell it in a less competitive marketplace first with built-in traffic (such as in this forum as a WSO) to test it and build up a reputation and relationships with prospective affiliates. The huge launches you see on Clickbank are all a result of extensive relationship building and massive JVs with the power players in the market. That's where the majority of the traffic comes from, and without that you're probably not going to get very far with your product.

Your second choice is to just start with affiliate marketing for now, with a focus on building your list and also establishing relationships with the major players in your niche.

Focus on what you are best in because it will happen naturally. I do both, and they are completely different animals.

If you still aren't sure, go with product. As an affiliate, if you are good, you learn to market like no other, but your margins are less, you don't have access to the back end data to remarket, and you don't really have much if any leverage. You have to make something that converts though.

Ultimately, it works on the popularity of the brand name. For that, you need your own product.

go with you own product. it's what you mentioned first, you want to do it, so do it.