I have to make a choice: eCommerce vs. Aff. Marketing (3)
Hi there!
I've been thinking a lot lately about how to continue on all this "making money online" stuff. At a very basic level I see that my options are:
- eCommerce: I already have two niches, I have contacted the manufacturers and I have a quote for one of the products. Total price in house for all the stock will be roughly 1500$ so not an expensive lesson if I fail.
- Affiliate Marketing: I've re-started YTZ at the end of the past month and it always happens the same, it starts really good and then it is going up and down everytime. One solution to this is running sweepstakes offers directly. I've a guy who is a really good designer and is willing to cooperate with me ripping and creating landers/banners.
Thing is that I want to focus on one thing and put an honest 100% effort, this is the pros/cons I see with each model:
- eCommerce (+): long term asset, Finch Sells and johnaff got me thinking about Facebook and Adwords as the "Holy Grail" in paid traffic so to speak. Things go slower and the stuff you learn can be used in a paid job as a consultant or stuff like that. You own a real asset that can be sold later.
- eCommerce (-): it has some barriers of entry (not sure if bad), you have to spend some money upfront and end up with piled stock, it is "slower", you have to deal with customers (and they're a pain), you have to deal with shipping & handling stuff.
- Aff. Marketing (+): fast money (not to be confused with easy money), no product creation, no stockage deals, everything is "digital", low barriers of entry, fast and cheap testing/failing.
- Aff. Marketing (-): it is very fast paced, it changes so much, one winning campaign can be loosing/capped/kicked out. Traffic quality can change over time, great traffic sources like FB and Adwords can't be used that easily.
I'm leaning towards eCommerce but I have experienced the power of affiliate marketing too and going from 0$ to low XXX$ in profit in a matter of a week (only to go again to 0$ a few week laters but you get my point).
Not sure if anyone actually read this but it sure helps to write down stuff and re-read it 
Best,
Bimoca.
I was looking into e-commerce as well before I decided to join STM/pursue affiliate marketing. Checked out Ezra Firestone's Brown Box course and also have some friends with their own e-commerce stores.
I think some things you should take into consideration for e-commerce is the fact that competition, like affiliate marketing, keeps growing. One of my friends has e-commerce stores in 2 niches: beauty products and import car parts.
Just last year, he was making over 6 figures easily. This year, his income is 60 or 70k. He cited this was due to increased competition (and he's been in business for 10 years).
Another one of my friends is in the vaping niche. He recently moved to another state because there is simply too much competition in California (he does offline sales as well). Keep in mind, this guy has literally been working on his business every single day for the past 3-4 years. I know he has money, but I don't think he's even close to making his first million.
One thing that stuck out in Ezra's course was the fact that he did so much research before even attempting to penetrate a particular market. To me, it sounds like making money in e-commerce is really about getting into the right niche before saturation, building it up properly, and then selling it for a big payday.
IMO anything involving sales via the internet (e-commerce/affiliate marketing/internet marketing) is all becoming more and more saturated since the internet is quickly becoming a utility in everyday life. The business model you choose is really up to your own preference; what are the most important factors to you? I think a lot of your questions/concerns regarding affiliate marketing can be answered through this forum via the search tool.
If you're still unsure, try putting your decision into matrix form, like the one this website uses: http://www.helpmydecision.com/matrix-1.php
You've hit most of the points I would consider when deciding between the two.
A few other thoughts:
What do you want to learn? eCommerce and AM teach very different skill sets. If you want to improve your advertising ability fast, I'd say AM is absolutely the place to be. IMO, it's the best way to learn copywriting and advertising in the world. On the other hand, if you want to develop a more rounded business skillset, probably slower, and with less single focus, then ecommerce is the way to go.
Do you have a niche you're passionate about? Passion isn't as important in AM, but in ecommerce it'll really help if you have deep knowledge of and passion for a niche.
Finally, I ran across this neat hack for decision-making recently, and since then I've been using it heavily. Hope it helps - http://time.com/3772262/billionaire-...for-decisions/
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