From Dropshipping Back to Affiliate Marketing

byCoachGom777

3.2K followers

Updated 4 years ago

It's been awhile since my last blog post here. I got so busy with another business that I almost got no time blogging and doing affiliate marketing. Now, I'm back, from dropshipping to affiliate marketing.

This doesn't mean that I will no longer work in my dropshipping business. It's just that I realized that I should put affiliate marketing higher than dropshipping in my list of priorities. When you feel like you're running out of time for your goals because you're not getting any younger, you are forced to prioritize things in their order.

Dropshipping is also a good online business. In fact, you can choose it as your niche following the lessons here in Wealthy Affiliate. I still have my site for dropshipping actively operating and hosted here in WA.

For beginners, after reading our Online Entrepreneur Certification here in Wealthy Affiliate, you can apply the knowledge you leaned from here in putting up a dropshipping business.

But first, let me caution you about the realities in the business that newbies or beginners are not yet aware of. As a disclaimer, I am no expert in dropshipping and in fact, I got no impressive result to show.

But my short experience should orient you what it would be like in that business, and see why I preferred to go back focusing on affiliate marketing instead of dropshippping.

Dropshipping is Capital-intensive

Contrary to what some people would want beginners to believe, a dropshipping business requires a lot of money to operate.

In what way will it require a lot of money?

Yes, you don't have to put up inventory of the products you're selling in a dropshipping business. Products are being taken cared of by your partner company. But you have to prepare a lot of money in advertising!

In my case, my target audience is a local audience speaking Filipino language. Applying the knowledge that I learned from here, I realized that I getting enough customers via SEO isn't sufficient. I have to use Facebook ads.

Things got tough when I learned that with Facebook ads, advertising health supplements is not accepted, so people have to find a way around to get away with it. Instead of advertising my product landing page directly, I sent my audience to Messenger. We have to do the convincing or hire someone to do it for us. So, that's another cost!

(And don't forget your monthly cost with Shopify)

If you're starting out with a lot of budget for advertising, then no problem. But, if the reason why you're starting an online business is you're broke and you want money, then you're better off creating a free starter account with Wealthy Affiliate and work as an affiliate marketer for companies.

Dropshipping is Effort-intensive

All businesses require effort, right?

But comparing dropshipping to affiliate marketing, you will be required to continuously attend to your business taking orders and forwarding the orders to your partner companies.

I'm not sure if there are people out there who have figured out a way on how to skip this by letting their customers place order not in your site but directly to your shipper's site. But in my case, I am the one required to get customer orders and forward the orders myself.

Have you heard the phrase, "Work stop, income continue"?

There are businesses online that let you experience that kind of residual income. You can try affiliate marketing, you can try network marketing, or any kind of business that allow the creation of residual income. Income you earn again and again from a single effort done yesterday.

In affiliate marketing, if you're able to make a very good blog post, you can get paid over and over again from the sales generated through your affiliate links in that blog post without follow-up efforts on your part. That's the thing I miss doing my dropshipping business.

Some of my peers there skip that challenge by hiring staff to take and forward orders to our partner companies. But that's a luxury only enjoyed by entrepreneurs who are starting out with a good amount of money.

But what if you're starting out as a broke person? Isn't it because of that reason that many people go online looking for income opportunities?

When you don't have money to use for operations, you are forced to substitute it with EFFORTS.

The Easier Route to Personal Freedom

You probably have seen those ads online painting pictures of personal freedom. Someone is lying on a sandy beach, with laptop computer in his lap, and sipping a cold juice under the sun.

What a nice way to live your life, right?

That's only going to happen if you are able to create an ongoing residual income, income you earn even when you're on a vacation in a faraway tourist spot.

And that's only going to happen if you already have enough money to hire people to mind your business while you're away, taking orders and forwarding orders for your dropshipping business.

But assess where you are right now. Do you have that kind of money?

If you don't have it yet, then the ideal way to pursue is affiliate marketing. For in here, you can get started for free, or with a very small amount of money ($19 first month, then $47 the following month).

And don't forget, we got lessons here that are designed to lead you to affiliate marketing success. The lessons are applicable to all kinds of business including dropshipping, but honestly, they're more for affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Marketing - making money promoting other people's products online. Using free strategies of creating blog posts about products, and waiting for commissions/money to come in.