Affiliate marketing vs ecommerce?

[OscarMike]

Hi guys, which would you recommend for a newbie to get started making money online with? Affiliate marketing or ecommerce?

I've always been interested in dropshipping, but I'd like to get your thoughts.

Thanks

 

[Graybeard]

1. The upside of dropshipping is that you now when a order exists because you order it and ship it. <transparency
2. Other upsides of dropshipping is you have a wider margin of profit; and,
3. direct contact with the buyers allowing you to market more efficiently long term. <repeat sale marketing that is accountable

1. Downsides are you will invest a lot more time setting dropshipping sites up along with the expenses involved.
2. Successfully sourcing products is not that easy.
3. Order fulfillment can be problematic also.
4. You also have a lot more exposure to the liability and the costs of returns and chargebacks.
5. As the end seller of goods you are responsible for collecting VAT and sales taxes,
   along with the accounting expense of remittance to governmental jurisdictions when you exceed the maximum annual revenue limits
   --that varies a lot jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

 

[Proffesor]

An Affiliate Marketing Website Costs Less. Creating an affiliate website is considerably cheaper than setting up an eCommerce store.

 

[Graybeard]

Probably the easiest dropshipping scheme is a PPC ad and a landing page --with a simple one page scroll "business identity" type website.

Keep it simple.

Test products for affinity with cheap RTB ad network traffic --try to filter out the low quality --first before spending real money on PPC (SEM/Facebook/other).

Dropshipping is not a free WordPress and a SEO prayer --not if you have capital and a plan. If you don't have capital and a plan behind you don't even try and just hope. Do something else.