Talk about your frequently asked questions. I get this one quite a lot:
Is it better to be an affiliate or a product vendor?
Because when you’re using Clickbank, or any similar online marketplace, you can choose to become one or the other.
What’s the difference?
Basically, a vendor sells their own products that they have created themselves, and an affiliate is someone who promotes other people’s products, and earns a commission for each sale.
Both are great.
But IMO, it’s better to be a product vendor.
Because by having your own product you automatically position yourself as an authority. You have something to back up your claims. And people are more likely to take you seriously. Plus you get 100% profits from selling your own stuff.
Affiliate marketing, however, is the fastest, easiest way to make money online.
That being said, I don’t see the problem of doing both at the same time.
There’s no hard and fast rule that you can only be a vendor and never an affiliate. Nor do you only have to be an affiliate and not a vendor.
Being An Affiliate
Pros
- Less time needed for initial setup
You can easily get traffic by promoting your affiliate link via social media, like Facebook or Twitter, or through your website, or ads.
- You can do multiple projects, or move from one to another
Some marketers, especially new marketers, have this condition called “Entrepreneurial ADD”, and being an affiliate marketer allows you to indulge that.
Cons
- It’s highly competitive
There are lots of affiliate marketers out there, all fighting for the same traffic. This makes it just that much more difficult to succeed. And if you have no competition for your traffic source, chances are it’s because you’re in a niche where there isn’t much money to be made.
- High failure rate
It’s either you have a system that works, or you don’t. You’ll either be very successful, or struggling to make any profit at all. Generally, the numbers are discouraging: 99% of affiliates don’t make any money, and only 1% are able to succeed and do very well for themselves.
- Short term income
This is not a long term method of making money. More often than not, your ad campaign will die off within a few months, or even weeks. You might even see your income disappear overnight. It can happen, unfortunately, even to me.
Being A Vendor
Pros
- Wide income distribution
Vendors are easily able to make $500 a month, or $50,000 a month, or $500,000 a month. Even newbies can become vendors and make between $1,000 – $5,000 a month. The competition isn’t as fierce, so you have a higher chance of succeeding.
- Long term income
You won’t have to worry about your income suddenly fading away.
- More stable
If you’re a vendor, basically you work, you get paid. You don’t have to worry about having the right system, or whether you’re doing things the right way or not like affiliates do. No luck or losing streaks to get you down.
Cons
- Longer startup time
You need to put in more effort up front than affiliates do. You have to create a product, a sales funnel, and provide affiliates with the tools they need to promote your product.
- It can seem more difficult
Most people are scared to become vendors. They think it’s harder, more work. But in truth, it’s just as difficult to be an affiliate, if not harder. Vendors just need to be better than the others in their niche. Affiliates have to compete with a lot of other expert affiliates on a global scale. They have a lot more to worry about than vendors do.
This is why, ultimately, it’s better to be a vendor than an affiliate. You’re the one with the product, and affiliates are the ones who have to do most of the work promoting it for you. You do have to work a little harder to get things set up, but in the long run, you’re in a much better position.
