Affiliate Marketing vs Dropshipping
You ever order a pizza and wonder who makes more money, the kid who takes your order over the phone or the delivery driver who actually brings it to you?
Kinda weird question, right? But stick with me.
That’s the core of what we’re talking about today. Affiliate Marketing vs Dropshipping. Two paths up the same mountain of making money online, but one has you taking orders and dealing with all the crap, and the other has you just pointing people to the best damn pizza place in town and getting a cut.
Let’s break it down, no BS.
What Are We Even Talking About?
Look, people love to complicate this stuff with fancy terms. It’s simple.
Affiliate marketing is promoting other people’s products. You are the trusted friend, the expert reviewer, the helpful guide. You write a blog post, make a YouTube video, build an email list… and you recommend a product. When someone clicks your special link and buys, you get a commission.
That’s it.
You don’t own the product. You don’t ship the product. You don’t handle returns or answer angry emails at 2 AM. You are a digital billboard, a really effective one.
Dropshipping, on the other hand, is where you set up your own storefront. You’re the boss. You pick the products from a supplier (usually from China via something like AliExpress or Zendrop), you mark up the price, and you sell it on your own Shopify store.
When you get an order, you pass it to your supplier, they ship it directly to the customer, and you pocket the difference.
You’re the middleman. You take all the risk, you handle all the customer service, but you also have more control over the pricing.
See the difference? One is pure marketing. The other is running a full-blown (but kinda fake) e-commerce store.
Let’s Talk Money: Profitability & Startup Costs
This is where people get stars in their eyes. They see some 19-year-old on TikTok flashing a Lambo he “bought with dropshipping” and they lose their minds.
Calm down. Let’s be real.
With dropshipping, your profit margins per sale are way higher. For sure. You might buy a widget for $5, pay $5 for an ad to sell it, and sell it for $30. Cool, you just made $20. Sounds great, right?
But what about the costs?
You have your Shopify subscription ($30+/month). You have apps to make your store work ($50-200+/month). And the big one… the monster under the bed… ad spend. You have to pour money into Facebook, TikTok, or Google ads just to get people to your store. Most dropshippers spend thousands, tens of thousands, just to find a “winning product.”
In fact, these days, there are many paid membership sites and communities made specifically for dropshippers to find hot products to promote. This is needed if you wanna stay ahead of the competition.
The point is… sure, dropshipping can work and it’s a great way to make money online, but it’s also one of the riskiest.
It’s a cash-heavy game. You need money to make money. Period.
Now, affiliate marketing. The commissions are smaller. Maybe you promote a $100 piece of software and get a 30% cut. That’s $30. It might not feel as sexy as a big markup.
But guess what?
Your startup cost is practically ZERO.
You can start a blog for less than $50 a year. A YouTube channel is free. An email list can be started for free, same for every social media network where you can get free traffic from. Your main investment is your time, your sweat. Its about building an audience that trusts you.
So yeah, lower margins per sale, but almost infinite profit potential because your overhead is a joke. You’re not gambling thousands on ads hoping something sticks. You’re building a real asset.
The Grind: What Your Day-to-Day Actually Looks Like
Forget the highlight reels. What’s the actual work like?
If you’re a dropshipper, your life is a spreadsheet. You’re hunting for products on AliExpress, spying on competitors’ ads, building new product pages, and tweaking your Facebook ad campaigns over and over and over.
Then the sales come in. Great. Now you’re dealing with customer service.
“Where’s my order?”
“This isn’t what I expected.”
“Why did this take 4 weeks to arrive from China?”
“I want a refund!”
It’s a constant cycle of finding products, running ads, and putting out fires. It’s a very active, high-stress job.
If you’re an affiliate marketer, your life is content. You’re writing a blog post about the “10 Best Running Shoes for Bad Knees.” You’re filming a YouTube review of the latest camera. You’re crafting an email to your list about a cool new software you found.
The grind is creating valuable stuff. For real.
The headache? Getting traffic. SEO, social media, building that email list… it takes time. It’s not an overnight thing. But the work you do today can pay you for years. That blog post you write in 2025 could still be earning you commissions in 2028.
Try that with a dropshipping ad.
Scaling Up: From Side Hustle to Empire
So what happens when you start succeeding?
Scaling a dropshipping store is a nightmare. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it. More sales means more orders to manage, more shipping issues, and way more customer service tickets. You have to hire a team of VAs just to handle the support emails. Your ad spend goes through the roof. Your payment processor might freeze your account because of a spike in sales or chargebacks.
It’s a house of cards. The bigger it gets, the easier it is to fall.
Scaling an affiliate marketing business is… well, it’s beautiful.
How do you scale? You just create more content. You target more keywords. You build a bigger email list.
Your costs don’t really go up. You can hire a writer to help you produce more articles, or a video editor. But the core business model doesn’t change, it just gets bigger. You’re building a true digital asset, a machine that works for you even when you’re sleeping. I have articles I wrote 5 years ago that still bring in cash every single month.
It’s the closest thing to “passive income” that actually exists (and even then it takes a ton of upfront work).
Pros and Cons, The No BS Version
Let’s just lay it all out. No fluff.
Affiliate Marketing
- Pros: Stupidly low startup cost. No inventory. No shipping. No customer service, ever. You build a real, sellable asset (your website/channel). Work from literally anywhere with a laptop.
- Cons: Can be slow to start. You don’t control the product or the commission rates. You need to be patient and consistent.
Dropshipping
Since you're reading this, why not subscribe to my super duper awesome newsletter and receive more insightful tips and latest news in the business? I only send an email once or twice a month so no spam. Subscribe for free.- Pros: Higher potential profit margin per sale. You control the branding and pricing (sort of). Can feel like you have a “real” business faster.
- Cons: You ARE the customer service. It’s your problem. Heavily reliant on paid ads (which is risky as hell). You’re dealing with shipping delays, angry customers, and payment processor BS. Low-quality products can kill your reputation.
So, Which One Should YOU Pick?
Look, I’m biased. I’ve done both. I choose affiliate marketing 10 times out of 10. But I’ll try to be fair. Ask yourself these questions. Be honest.
Do you have more time than money?
Go with affiliate marketing. You can grind it out with content.
Do you have a few thousand dollars you’re willing to burn on ads to learn the ropes?
Maybe dropshipping is for you.
Do you absolutely HATE the idea of dealing with angry customers and refund requests?
Choose affiliate marketing.
Do you want to build a long-term asset that can pay you for years with little maintenance? Affiliate marketing.
I’m gonna say it again cause nobody listens… affiliate marketing, and later build your own products.
Do you like the thrill of data, testing ads, and the high-risk, high-reward game?
Okay, you might be a dropshipper.
Ultimately, it comes down to this: Do you want to build a business based on trust and authority, or a business based on arbitrage and ad spend?
One is a marathon. The other is a sprint with a good chance of pulling a hamstring.
Your call.
Stay hustlin’,
Stephen
