Comments on: Affiliate Marketing vs Product Creation

By: Isaac

Isaac — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 17:54:00 +0000

Thanks for your feedback. I’ve been doing the affiliate marketing thing unsucessfully for over a year now. I’ve set up a few presale websites but have not made any sales. I switched to CPA offers but my adspend consistently costs more than the money it generates. I’m staying on the grind though. I just need to focus on bulding (or outsourcing) high converting sites with strong calls to action and pretty graphics.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:07:22 +0000

Hi Isaac,

In general, I would say the startup cost for affiliate marketing is smaller. That’s what makes it attractive.

But it depends on several factors on case by case basis. It’s possible to create a product with the same or even less resources than doing affiliate promotions. And vice versa, you can spend a lot of money promoting affiliate products.

The main factors that influence the costs are:

* Whether you work alone or outsource parts or all of your project. Product creation is usually more expensive to outsource.
* How much you spend on traffic. If you pay for traffic, affiliate promotions are more expensive (while with your own products you can get affiliates to get you traffic for a commission).
* The customer care – can you do it yourself to begin with or do you have to hire staff right from the start? In affiliate marketing this issue is non-existent, but in product creation it can be costly depending on the product.

But if you’re considering which way to go – affiliate marketing or product creation – the startup cost is not the only thing to consider. As I mentioned in the post, true affiliate marketing is very competitive and I personally think that you have a better chance to succeed by creating a product with a good USP, even if it involves a larger startup cost.

By: Isaac

Isaac — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:41:31 +0000

Thanks for clearing up the affiliate marketing vs product creation issue for me. You explained it very well. I wonder if the average startup costs for product creation are much larger than the money you invest in promoting an affiliate offer.

By: Bob Kimball

Bob Kimball — Thu, 20 May 2010 13:38:24 +0000

Nice post. I agree that affiliate marketing is very cutthroat competition-wise. However, all the customer service is automatically “outsourced” to the vendor.

As you point out, that is the downside to product creation.