Creating a Digital Product vs Affiliate Marketing

If you want to make money as a marketer, then you really have two main options. 

One is to create a product and to sell that. 

Second is to sell some else's  product as an affiliate.

Neither of these is the ‘right’ option. The right option instead depends on what niche you’re in, what you enjoy doing, what you’re capable of doing and more.

So, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of each. 

With a digital product, you the advantage of keeping 100% of the profit. You also have the freedom and control and market your product however you like.  You can edit and update it should information change if you so wish. This also makes it easier for you to create a strong brand – especially if someone has received one of your products and enjoyed it. If this is the case,  there’s a good chance they as well as others would be interested in buying more of your products in future.

Of course, this means you’ll also need to actually create that product. This in turn means you need to invest a lot of time and effort – or money if you are planning to outsourcing the creation.

So,  what that means is that you can potentially end up out of pocket. If you invest lots of time and money into a product does not sell then it obvious you’ll be losing money in this process. Now, there are ways you can ‘evaluate’ a product to ensure there’s an audience is available for it, but ultimately you will always be taking a gamble.

Now on the other hand, if you choose an affiliate product that is already making lots of sales, then you’ll know for sure that it does sell so that leaves you only having to identify the right audience. In some cases, the marketing materials are already prepared for you by the product owner.

So now let us look at the profit potential.  Most affiliate products offer very nice commissions,   up to 75% in some cases. If you pick a more expensive item then, or sell multiple items, you can make just as much money as you can from having your own product.  

Simply put, there is not a right answer, because you don’t have to choose. Why not start with an affiliate product to increase your income and use that income to fund your own digital product creation.

Or better yet, why not use affiliate products to learn what works and what doesn’t, and then use that information to help you design the perfect product of your own!