I'm relatively new to the whole affiliate marketing thing and am currently trying to decide whether to pursue paid traffic affiliate marketing or Ecommerce. Once I decide on one or the other I want to give it my undivided time and attention.
I find both "disciplines" appealing in different ways but I've been umming and ahhing for way too long now, at this point, I almost feel like letting a coin decide, I just want to get started. Before I do, I was hoping to get some feedback from more experienced and successful STM members who have knowledge in one or both areas as to what they think would be a better fit for my situation and skillset.
My Situation
In January 2017 I quit my job as a corporate lawyer and decided to work as a freelance copywriter, it was the best decision I ever made. For the past 7 months I've been working as a freelance copywriter (predominantly on Upwork). Initially it was simply enough to escape the drudgery of the corporate grind, but in these past seven months I've come to realize that while my life is vastly better than it was, I'm still exchanging my time for money and there are more efficient ways to use my time and energy to make a buck.
My Strengths and Weaknesses
Sales writing, creative thinking and organization are my strengths. I'd say my greatest weakness is "following through", as I often drop one thing to pursue something else. In the end if I'm not careful I'll be a jack of all trades and a master of none. That being said, I feel I've been moving in the right direction to get to this point and both affiliate marketing and Ecommerce tick all of my boxes when it comes to work -- you can leverage your time/it's not connected to your earning potential, you can work from any location, both have huge earning potential and both will be challenging.
After reading a ton of information on each, here are the pros and cons on each as I see them:
Ecommerce pros
- more predictable income stream
- you may be able to sell the store for a profit at a later time
- less hands on once everything is set up and running smoothly -- some people say they work on their store as little as 1-2 hours a day
- you can automate/outsource much of the process
- this is an industry that will see incredible growth over at least the next decade as billions of people become a part of the online economy
- I've made a good living writing product descriptions, email autoresponders and facebook ads for paying customers, so I know it is something I could do well for my own store
Ecommerce cons
- compared to the rush of launching a successful affiliate campaign running an Ecommerce store might be dull
- it takes longer to set up and "go live"
- greater investment of time and energy to set up so less flexibility to pivot to other opportunities
Affiliate marketing pros
- the rush of crushing it. I've had a few (very small) successes and damn it feels good to see those conversions rolling in. I can only imagine the rush of a $1000+ day...
- short setup times
- better flexibility to pursue opportunities as they arise
- writing up and designing high converting landing pages/websites is something I already do
Affiliate marketing cons
- a less predictable income stream?
- no tangible asset to sell at the end of it
- you are only as good as your last campaign
- it might be harder to automate/pay people to do less important tasks?
After reading the above (thanks for reading BTW!), does anyone with more knowledge and experience have any suggestions or advice? Also, do the pros and cons sound correct, or do you disagree?
Looks like you have everything pretty well covered and thought out here.
One big con of ecomm you may have missed, which I particularly mention because it's also a pro if you're good at dealing with it: you have to deal with actual customers.
For a lot of people, that's hugely offputting. But if you're good at working with people and being diplomatic, it's also a huge pro, because you can gain a lot of loyalty, traction, and money just by being nice and competent at people.
Also, I'd say it's not particularly tougher to hire people for affiliate marketing or ecomm tasks - they're about as hard as each other to find good people for.
Other than that, I'd say you're pretty much on the money. If you really can't decide, then that just means you have two good options - at that point, the "toss a coin" approach is a perfectly solid one!
Whichever one you choose, do start a Follow-Along after you've chosen it! That'll keep you accountable to yourself, reducing the chance of shiny object syndrome, and also get you lots of help and advice.
Looking forward to your next update!
Awesome, thanks so much caurmen! After reading your post I've decided to go with affiliate marketing for now -- I can always check out Ecommerce at a later stage, it's not going anywhere and many of the skills are transferable.
A follow-along is a great idea, I'll be sure to start one soon -- it will definitely keep my shiny-object syndrome at bay!
Cool, looking forward to it!
Awesome question, I'm in the same boat as far as skill set and deciding between the two...your post and caurmens answer definitely gave me the needed push to choose aff marketing for now.
Are you starting w/ mobile by any chance?
Lookin forward to the follow-along!
Hi, I actually went into e-commerce in the end! I realized shortly after my post that my overall skillset was better suited to running an online business. We go live this Wednesday, so I'll be sure to post a follow-along in the coming days. Good luck with aff marketing my friend.