Affiliate Marketing Vs Amazon FBA: Which One is Better for You?

The popularity of affiliate marketing and Amazon FBA is at an all-time high.

Both are great business models, but unfortunately, both aren’t for everyone.

In this affiliate marketing vs Amazon FBA comparison, we’ll talk about:

- Benefits and drawbacks of both business models
- How to be a successful affiliate marketer
- How to start an FBA business
- Which one should you choose

Let’s start talking.

Affiliate Marketing Vs Amazon FBA: Everything You Need to Know

What is Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing refers to promoting products you don’t own.

As an affiliate marketer, you generate conversions for other brands.

In return, the brand or affiliate program gives you a pre-determined commission.

First, you need to apply to a brand’s affiliate program.

Once you’re approved, they’ll give you a personalized affiliate link.

You can then get people to take the desired action through your affiliate link.

Most affiliate programs have clear rules on where and how you can promote their affiliate links.

Not being able to stick with their rules can lead to account termination.

For instance, you can’t include your Amazon affiliate links directly in your emails.

In a bit, we’ll dive into how you can go about starting and building an affiliate business easily.

First, let’s talk about some amazing benefits of affiliate marketing and why you should consider doing it.

Pros of Affiliate Marketing

Low Start-up Cost

The upfront cost is an important thing to consider before starting any business.

After all, it’s all about making more than what goes out of your pocket.

Thankfully, affiliate marketing requires very little initial investment.

Businesses don’t have to spend anything to launch their affiliate program.

And affiliates don’t need more than a website or a YouTube channel to get going.

Blogging and YouTube are two of the most effective ways to promote affiliate offers.

You can use social media in conjunction with blogging or YouTube. But, it’s not a good idea to rely solely on social media for affiliate marketing.

As for the initial costs, creating a YouTube channel is free. But, you will have to spend a few bucks per month for a blog.

High ROI (Return on Investment)

As mentioned above, one of the best ways to promote affiliate offers is by building a blog.

Depending on the hosting service you choose, your initial investment can be anywhere from $10 to over $100 per month.

It’s important to pick the most cost-effective option when you’re just starting out.

Now, you don’t generally notice any results in the first few months of starting a blog.

So, you’ll have to bear the hosting costs for a few months.

But, even a couple of high-ticket affiliate sales can cover your initial costs.

Everything that comes after would be pure profit.

Flexibility

One of the most attractive things about affiliate marketing is that it offers the ultimate flexibility.

As an affiliate, you can choose your own time of the day to work on.

And since all you need is a computer and an internet connection, you can manage all your work from the comfort of your home.

In addition, you also have the option to work with any brand or products you like and avoid the ones you don’t.

And as an affiliate, you’re not answerable to anyone except yourself.

No Product Development

Product development typically requires a lot of initial investment and brainstorming.

And not every product that hits the market can be successful.

Affiliates make money by promoting established and successful products.

All you need to do is get the word out and convert more prospects.

Passive Income

High-quality blog posts and YouTube videos bring in consistent traffic and sales.

To rank your content on Google and YouTube, you won’t have to do the work more than once.

Content on the first page of search engines can generate affiliate sales passively.

The best part is there’s generally no cap on the amount of money you can make as an affiliate.

No Customer Support

Dealing with customers can be a pain sometimes, and it can consume a lot of your resources.

There’s no concept of customer support in affiliate marketing.

Your job is just to generate a sale; the rest is taken care of by the merchant or brand.

You never have to worry about any post-sale scenarios.

Cons of Affiliate Marketing

Requires Patience

If you want to build a sustainable affiliate marketing business, you need to put in the initial work.

As an affiliate, you need to provide a lot of value with your content before generating any affiliate sales.

The reason for that is two-fold:

- People don’t trust you when you spam them with affiliate links
- It takes time for Google to recognize you as an authority and start ranking your posts on its search engine

No Control Over the Product

Another drawback is that you don’t have any control over the quality of the affiliate products you’re promoting.

Plus, it’s normal for companies to close their affiliate programs.

High Competition

It’s pretty easy to get accepted into most affiliate programs.

Because the barrier to entry is super low in affiliate marketing, the competition is high.

This means you may find yourself competing against a lot of other affiliates for selling the same product.

Choosing the Right Product

While choosing an affiliate product or brand, you need to make sure of two things:

- The reputation of the brand and the quality of its products
- The existing competition in the market

It can be tricky to pick the right products to promote as an affiliate.

Outsourcing Affiliate Marketing

The cool thing about affiliate marketing is that it can be outsourced completely.

This includes keyword research, content creation, and social media promotion.

Recommended Affiliate Marketing Services on Legiit

Keyword Research: King Kong Keyword Research

Blog Post Writing: Write A 500 Word Blog

What is Amazon FBA

Amazon is, without a doubt, the most trusted name in the e-commerce industry.

Consumers don’t think twice while buying anything from it, which helps businesses sell more of whatever they’re selling.

Plus, Amazon offers a fulfillment service for businesses called FBA, or fulfillment by Amazon.

Fulfillment by Amazon is a service offered by the e-commerce giant that allows businesses to store their products in Amazon’s warehouses.

Not only that, but Amazon picks, packs, and ships the ordered products to the customers on behalf of your business.

As an e-commerce business owner, this can be a huge time- and money-saver as you no longer have to worry about inventory, shipping, and customer service.

Pros of Amazon FBA

Minimum Hassle

As discussed earlier, FBA takes most of the responsibilities of running an e-commerce business off your shoulders.

Low-Cost Shipping

Because Amazon ships products in bulk, it keeps your shipping costs to a minimum.

This helps you earn more profit per sale.

Fast Shipping

Amazon offers next-day shipping to its Prime members, which is way faster than if you use a third-party service.

Safe Storage

Working with Amazon, you don’t have to worry about managing an inventory. While the platform does take a fee for this service, it’s far less than if you’d rent a space and hire employees.

It’s Your Own Product

As an e-commerce seller, you have full control over your product and brand image. Whereas in affiliate marketing, you have absolutely no control.

Higher Profits

Unlike affiliate marketing, you’re selling your own products in Amazon FBA. This means you get to keep all the profit yourself.  

Cons of Amazon FBA

High Initial Investment

Now, Amazon FBA may be more convenient than managing an e-commerce business on your own. But it does require a decent amount of initial investment.

Customer Management

As an affiliate, you’re not responsible for any post-sale service. But, an e-commerce business owner has to keep their customers happy. Even a few unhappy ones can put your brand reputation at stake.

Inventory Storage and Tracking

It can be hard to track your inventory when someone else is managing it for you.

Having said all that, both business models have their pros and cons, so ultimately, it depends on your initial budget and interests.

Up until now, we’ve covered the main benefits and drawbacks of affiliate marketing and Amazon FBA.

Let’s dive into how you can go about starting and growing both businesses.

How to Build an Affiliate Marketing Business from Scratch

As discussed earlier, starting an affiliate marketing business is easy, which is partly why there’s so much competition.

But, the good thing is if you follow the right strategies right from the word go, it’s easy to beat the competition.

Let’s look at the step-by-step process:

Pick a Niche

Picking a niche is inarguably the most important step when it comes to affiliate marketing or any content-based business.

A niche is a sub-section of any market.

For instance, “Golf” can be categorized as a niche of the “Sports” market.

And, the “Healthcare” market may have “Alternative medicine” as a niche.

Picking a niche is important to minimize the competition.

There are a few key things to consider when choosing an affiliate marketing niche.

First, you may want to choose a niche that you are passionate about or at least have some knowledge or experience in.

This will make it easier for you to continuously create content and promote related products in the long run.

Second, consider the profitability of the niche.

- Are there any products within that niche you can promote as an affiliate?
- Do the keywords you’ve chosen have enough monthly search volume to attract enough traffic?

Thirdly, you want to make sure the competition is low.

For niche ideas, explore Flippa, an online business selling/purchasing platform.

Take a look at what type of blogs are people buying and selling and get some inspiration.

You May Also Like: What is Niche Research & How to Do It

Keyword Research

Keyword research in marketing refers to finding search queries people are looking for on search engines.

But, the process is a little more complicated because you don’t want to find any keywords. You want to find “Profitable” keywords.

You can find these keywords by using keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner and Ahrefs.

But, since you’ll have to learn the delicacies of the process, a better idea would be to hire someone to do it for you.

For instance, here’s a keyword research service on Legiit.

SEO Content Creation

Once you have a list of low-competition keywords, it’s time to start creating content around them.

Remember, this doesn’t have to be blog posts only. You can also create YouTube videos, but the keyword research process may be a little different for video content.

Now, optimizing content for keywords is simple: Include the main keyword and its closest variations throughout your post.

But, to optimize a web page, you need to make sure every part of it is SEO-friendly.

The Title, Headings, and Meta Description

Include your main keyword in the title, meta description, and sub-headings. This will help search engines rank your web page for that particular keyword.

Make sure the URL isn’t too long. If your keyword is too long, use a shorter version to keep the URL short and sweet.

Review Affiliate Products

The best way to earn money with affiliate marketing is by reviewing affiliate products.

Start by reviewing the products you already have in your home.

If you’re not comfortable talking to the camera, write blog posts.

However, keep in mind that no one likes to be sold to, so you want to keep your reviews honest and non-salesy.

Plus, always understand the intent behind a keyword before creating content on it.

Write as You Speak

While creating content, keep your audience in mind. Nobody wants to read fancy words; people just want to know stuff as easily as possible.

Ideally, your content should sound like you’re directly speaking to the reader.

Use Visuals

Visuals add glamor to your content, making it easier to consume.

Adding visuals to your blog posts is important to keep the reader hooked to your content.

The longer they stay on your page, the higher the probability that they’ll convert.

Plus, it can help your blog’s overall dwell time (Time spent on site), which is a positive SEO signal.

Images are a great addition as they’re typically lightweight and load fast.

Don’t forget to use appropriate ALT text for image SEO.

Link Internally

Internal linking your blog posts helps Google understand your site structure.

This can help the search engine crawl and rank your site faster.

How to Promote Affiliate Products

Blogging and YouTube aren’t the only ways to promote affiliate offers.

Social media can be incredibly powerful if you know how to use it.

Of course, you don’t want to spam users’ feeds with your affiliate links.

Nobody is going to buy that way and you’ll damage your reputation.

Plus, most credible affiliate programs don’t allow direct link sharing on social media.

To be on the safe side, always share your affiliate blog posts or YouTube videos on your social channels.

Some popular social platforms where you should share your affiliate posts are:

- Pinterest
- Facebook
- Quora

Build Your Email List

Unfortunately, a lot of visitors don’t take the desired action on their first interaction with your content.

So, if you’re letting them go away, you’re leaving a lot of potential affiliate sales on the table.

Email marketing is a perfect way to remarket these visitors.

You can even promote other products to your one-time buyers when you have their email addresses.

You May Also Like: How to Build Your Email List

Be Patient

Because you’re using organic content to generate affiliate sales, you need to be a little patient.

Create high-quality content consistently without expecting anything in the beginning.

Affiliate marketing does take time, especially when you’re taking the SEO route. But, it can also be an incredibly rewarding passive income source.

How to Build an Amazon FBA Business from Scratch

Now, starting an Amazon FBA business isn’t as simple as starting an affiliate marketing business.

But, if you want to sell your own e-commerce products online, there’s nothing better than Amazon FBA.

Let’s take a look at the steps involved in starting an FBA business.

Step 1: Pick Your Product

The first step is probably going to be the most time-consuming and tricky if you don’t already have a product to sell.

It’s super important to pick the right product because your product selection can make or break your venture.

Pick a Niche Product

Before picking a product, think about your passions and interests. If you already have a social following, brainstorm ideas in your niche.

For instance, as a hiking lover, it could be a new lightweight yet spacious hiking backpack.

Research the Market

To make sure there’s enough demand for your product in the market, use keyword tools like MerchantWords.

Plus, avoid competing with already established brands on Amazon.

Once you’ve narrowed your choices down to a particular category or a few products, find out the FBA fees associated with the product.

Step 2: Product Sourcing

Once you choose your first FBA product, it’s time to figure out a way to get it to Amazon’s warehouse.

Since cost is a major factor here, you want to source products from outside the US.

A lot of e-commerce businesses source their products from Alibaba since it’s more cost-effective.

Step 3: Optimizing Product Listing

As soon as your product lands in Amazon’s warehouse, start the marketing process.

The first step is to write an optimized product description so that consumers can find it on Amazon easily.

You’ll want to include your main keyword throughout your product page on Amazon, including the title and product description.  

Your description should have clear and easy-to-read bullet points explaining all the features and benefits of the product.

In addition, you’d want to upload clear images of your product from all angles. This is where hiring a graphic designer would be helpful.

Step 4: Gather Positive Reviews

Getting the first few 5-star reviews for your product can be hard.

But, you need them to build trust and convert visitors.

One way to get your first few reviews is by sending your product to a content creator and getting them to review it.

Step 5: Market Your Product

There are a few different ways to promote your Amazon products.

The first one is Amazon’s own PPC (Pay per click) ads.

Using Amazon PPC, you can put your product at the top of the search page on Amazon.

These appear as “Sponsored products” when someone searches for a term you’re bidding on, for instance, “Hiking backpack under $200”.

Google PPC ads and Facebook Ads can also help you get traffic to your product pages quickly.

Outsourcing Your Amazon FBA Business

An E-commerce business has a lot of moving parts; You simply can’t manage everything yourself.

Thankfully, you don’t have to. In fact, you’re better off outsourcing the technical aspects of your FBA business.

Here are some recommended FBA services on Legiit:

Virtual Assistance: Amazon Wholesale Virtual Assistant Expert

Product Photo Editing: Product Image Design for Amazon

Product Descriptions: Write Up Product Descriptions

Affiliate Marketing Vs Amazon FBA: Which One Should You Choose?

If you’ve read this affiliate marketing vs Amazon FBA guide, you know the differences between the two business models.

But, which business model is a better fit for you?

It mainly depends on how much you’re willing to risk. Typically, the bigger the risk, the higher the reward.

An Amazon FBA business requires some initial investment. Plus, your success depends a lot on what product you choose.

It’s a high-risk business, but also a highly profitable one.

On the flip side, affiliates only have to sell established products and there’s very little initial investment involved.