Affiliate or your own product?

sniperhiga · 06-26-2007, 01:27 AM

I really believe that it is impossible to make on affiliate the same ammount of money like you sell your own products.

Jesse Vlasveld · 06-26-2007, 01:34 AM

Well, I think therefor you shouldn't just rely on affiliate income. You cannot guarantee that you will always make money that way.

sniperhiga · 06-26-2007, 01:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jesse Vlasveld

Well, I think therefor you shouldn't just rely on affiliate income. You cannot guarantee that you will always make money that way.

I used to make good money selling affiliate laptops... now it is gone. I don't trust affiliate after this at all.
Moreover, many of them don't pay or switch rules all the time. I remember i was sick to change links all the time.

Jesse Vlasveld · 06-26-2007, 05:14 AM

It certainly can be good money. However you cannot depend on making a living out of it every month.

Congratulations on your 1000th post by the way.

viswablr · 07-03-2007, 03:38 AM

Affiliate is mostly a one time money, per a new customer, per-a new product. Next time the customer will directly remember the URL of the vendor, and go there. So affiliates do not get any money.

If we sell our own product, it is mostly a repeat income, as a loyal customer is likely to stay forever, as long as we do a fair business.

So, IMHO, becoming a vendor makes a better business sense than be an affiliate.

DimlerJ · 07-06-2007, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by viswablr

Affiliate is mostly a one time money, per a new customer, per-a new product. Next time the customer will directly remember the URL of the vendor, and go there. So affiliates do not get any money.

There are websites that use a cookie or session to remember the affiliate when a visitor lands on their page. So even if the customer remembered the URL, the affiliate still gets paid.

css25 · 07-06-2007, 09:08 AM

Quote:

Affiliate or your own product?

1. My own produce - I will give high priority to my own product
2. Affiliate

RobbyMAC · 07-06-2007, 11:05 AM

Hi,*Sorry to bother y'all. I was wondering who the admin here is?
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PM me about -
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chicgeek · 07-06-2007, 11:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobbyMAC

Hi,*Sorry to bother y'all. I was wondering who the admin here is?
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PM me about -
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John Scott is the CEO and administrator. While he sleeps, can I help you with anything? I'm not sure what your inquiry has to do with this thread.

Also, we don't like link-dropping.

WagerX · 07-06-2007, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by viswablr

Affiliate is mostly a one time money, per a new customer, per-a new product. Next time the customer will directly remember the URL of the vendor, and go there. So affiliates do not get any money.

If we sell our own product, it is mostly a repeat income, as a loyal customer is likely to stay forever, as long as we do a fair business.

So, IMHO, becoming a vendor makes a better business sense than be an affiliate.

That's why I thinks it's important to get an affiliate program that has repeat sales AND a comission on every sale with bonuses for higher sales.

One thing I'd like as selling a product directly is the control you have over your product line. There's nothing more frustrating than pushing a product for a company who quite doesn't perform like you would.

just my two cents.

Cheers!

Webfu · 07-07-2007, 02:23 PM

Another option to discuss here is companies with products that offer drop shipping. I have a bird watching website that sells bird feeders. It would appear that I have my own products, and that they ship from my store, but the orders are actually fulfilled by a warehouse in another state.

Drop shipping programs are an option with affiliate marketing. Albeit you have to be very clever to set them up. With the same type of product if you drop shipped, you can make more money than you would with affiliate sales. Drop shipping also offers less over head of having to ship out your products everyday. Another bonus is you don't have to deal with customer service type work that could potentially last hours.

jquindlen · 07-07-2007, 05:11 PM

I've never really played the affiliate game. Pretty much have gone the AdSense route the last few years. However, there seems to be a higher profit margin with your own products, and as viswablr said, with your own products you're likely to get repeat customers if you conduct your business well. Unfortunately, many affiliate programs set cookies that expire after xx days.

noob_0001 · 07-07-2007, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Webfu

Another option to discuss here is companies with products that offer drop shipping. I have a bird watching website that sells bird feeders. It would appear that I have my own products, and that they ship from my store, but the orders are actually fulfilled by a warehouse in another state.

Drop shipping programs are an option with affiliate marketing. Albeit you have to be very clever to set them up. With the same type of product if you drop shipped, you can make more money than you would with affiliate sales. Drop shipping also offers less over head of having to ship out your products everyday. Another bonus is you don't have to deal with customer service type work that could potentially last hours.

Any good resources on how to get started drop shipping?

viswablr · 07-20-2007, 03:59 AM

CJ and linkshare also seem to have something similar to drop shipping. It is called as Smart zone. You copy/paste a code in your site, and all their products will apper in your site, as if you are selling them.

chloew · 07-21-2007, 06:50 AM

Why are some sites and directories so against sites that have affiliate material on them is it because of the possible duplicate content or there another reason.

viswablr · 07-22-2007, 11:42 PM

Another angle to the same problem:

Affiliate: More of a marketing business. Challenge is to find new customers and convince him/her to buy a product. Affiliate gets a commission for each sale/lead. An affiliate should concentrate on increasing his/her market penetration to increase his revenue.

Vendor: More of service/product business. Can have a marketing department of it's own or rely entirely on affiliates. Challenge here to provide a high quality service/product to customers and retain them. A vendor should concentrate on adding more product lines and providing quality to increase revenue.

So, going back to the question, who gets more money, IMHO, it really depends on how the business is done. Outside the web world, Walmart, after all is an affiliate for many products and it makes billions of dollars. So therotically it is possible even in web world ....

viswablr · 07-23-2007, 04:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chloew

Why are some sites and directories so against sites that have affiliate material on them is it because of the possible duplicate content or there another reason.

yeap, many sites/directories do that. It is unfair.

jmoe · 08-19-2007, 05:29 PM

Use affiliate marketing to get started, develop your own lists, and then market your own related higher priced products on the back end...

warner444 · 08-19-2007, 06:54 PM

I did a lot of research about dropship companies about a year ago to maybe put some stuff on eby and only found one central place worth working with: worldwidebrands.com (not an aff link)

They are a directory of dropship companies, they research every company they list.

other companies I saw, all of them, which was about 20, had prices that just would not work. Their claims of wholesale prices were false in my opinion. Some of them asked for sizable up front fees too.

While it is possible to approach individual companies someone may know and also find deals, that could be time consuming, and they may not have a well put together dropship program in place.

Sideways · 08-20-2007, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmoe

Use affiliate marketing to get started, develop your own lists, and then market your own related higher priced products on the back end...

That is a really good idea. Eventually after you break out of the sandbox for your terms you could switch to your own products.