Affiliate marketing is all about getting people to buy products that you don’t own in exchange for a commission per sale.
It is a good way to make money online, since there are many affiliate marketing training courses and blogs that can teach you how to get started and show you various affiliate marketing promotion techniques.
Reseller marketing on the other hand is about selling a product you don’t own, but you market it to people as it is yours. This may sound like a violation to the original owner’s right, but it is NOT.
With products that are given resell rights you can sell them under your own brand without any violation of the owner’s rights.
There are many similarities between the two models, and the most prominent one being that you are selling something you didn’t create.
They differ however on level of control you have over the business, as a reseller you have almost 100% control over the whole business from how it is represented and run to how it is marketed and how the product is priced.
Start up Costs of Affiliate Business vs. Reseller Business
As an affiliate you can get your business up and running with budget as low as $100 which basically involves buying your website hosting account and a domain name.
Even if you don’t have a website you can still become an affiliate by running paid advertising campaigns to direct traffic to the product using your affiliate link.
You don’t need web design service; because you can start a blog and use any of the free themes available, and if you are a member of any affiliate marketing training courses out there then chances are they will offer you blog templates to use which eliminates the design costs.
Resellers on the other hand need a website to start promoting their product which could cost $100 in webhosting and domain costs.
You also add a minimum of $500 in website development and design costs, because blogs are not the best way to promote your reseller program so you need a dedicated website for whatever product you are selling.
There are also other costs involved like software used to manage the business (i.e. billing, helpdesk…etc) which could easily reach another $500
Work Load for Affiliates vs. Resellers
The affiliate’s main goal is to get as much traffic as they can to the product’s page, and whatever sales is generated from there he takes his commission and it ends at that.
If the buyer needs any customer or technical support then he contacts the original vendor directly and he will not contact the affiliate for any further support.
This relives the affiliate from any work involved in running the product’s business operations which allows the affiliate to focus entirely on marketing the product and generating sales for it.
Affiliates can work 5 hour a week and still earn profits without any obligations, he can even not work on promoting the product for 1 month and still be earning from his previous marketing efforts.
Resellers need to spend more time setting up their business which involves:
- Hiring and managing the required staff of web developers and designer
- Setting up their website and installing all the required software
- Constantly promoting their new brand
- Running the billing books because they direct receive payments from customers
All these tasks require at least 3 hours of daily work and can reach to 21 hours per week.
Since resellers are exactly like business owners, they have day to day business operations to run that require total dedication.
Learning Affiliate Marketing vs. Reseller Marketing
The amount of help that is available for affiliate marketers is substantial, be that from an affiliate marketing training or from other blogs.
This makes it easy for basically anyone with enough motivation to get started in affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing training and courses cover every aspect of the business, from how to find niches to compete in to finding products to promote and how to market them probably.
This is because affiliate marketing is the same for any product; the process is similar whether you are promoting product A or product B in any niche.
The only difference can be which type of affiliate marketing you involved in (I.e. pay per sale, cpa…etc), but that is a slight difference.
Resellers need to know the niche of the product they are involved in, not just that, they also have to understand the business itself to be able to run it.
For example, to be a reseller for web hosting company, you need to understand how servers work and how to address any technical problems that may arise, because the hosting company you are reseller for will not handle every technical and customer support you receive (although they might offer you advice if needed).
And there are no courses widely available that can take you step by step in running your own reseller business with all its details.
There might be courses that can guide you in a general way, but not in a niche and product specific way.
This makes it harder to become a reseller, and that’s why you should be very knowledgeable about the product you are promoting as a reseller.
Affiliate Marketing Niches vs. Reseller Niches
Affiliate marketers have access to pretty much any niche available online, you can become an affiliate for a weight loss product to travel affiliate programs. There are no restrictions.
You can become an affiliate for a digital product (software or e-book), online service or a physical product.
You can even become an affiliate in 3 or 4 niches at the same time, it may take you more time to promote them or even require you to outsource some of your work, but it is possible.
Any affiliate marketing training can help you find profitable niches and affiliate programs, even provide you with tools to automated the search.
Reseller marketing on the other hand is more common between service providers, like:
- Web hosting companies
- Services (writing, SEO…etc)
- Offline products & dropshipping
These niches are very profitable because some of them are recurring, so one client can earn you $100s every month. And the more you grow your brand the more profitable you become.
I advise you to go into affiliate marketing if you are limited in budget and resource, this way you can get more experience in the online business in general before you commit yourself to becoming a reseller.
Affiliate blogs and affiliate marketing training courses (like affset.com) can help you reach that level of experience needed.
Reseller marketing is more challenging but very rewarding, so don’t rush into starting it if you are not ready as it requires a higher level of commitment than that of affiliate marketing.