Drop shipping and affiliate marketing, as similar as the two programs are, they are quite different in what they have to offer you.
Affiliate marketing usually requires a bit more front-end work, but once the commissions start coming, the maintenance is fairly minimal.
As for dropshipping, you can get set-up and going relatively quickly. With superstores like eBay and Amazon, dropshipping requires no custom landing pages and minimal promotion. This, however, requires a little more work throughout the existence of the campaign. The per-sale-action ultimately requires more work in the long run. Both work very well, but it is up to you to choose which one works best…maybe it is both!
The advantages of dropshipping over affiliate marketing are:
1)Control of the final landing page and how the product is presented.
2) Less competition
3)Ability to set your own price and earnings
4)Ability to track your sales to completion
5)Less time required (in some cases) creating an avenue to sell the products (through eBay and Amazon, for example)
6) Potential higher earnings per sale (relative to affiliate marketing)
unfortunately, the disadvantages of dropshipping over affiliate marketing are:
1)You are now required the action of purchasing each product after a sale
2)Setting up payment methods (though companies like Paypal make this pretty easy…they just take a percentage of the sales)
3)Direct contact with the customer
4)Finding the right product at the right price with the right dropshipper can take some time and negotiating.
5)Higher risk of fraud and poor dropshipping companies.
In summary, the closest program to affiliate marketing that reduces or eliminates the affiliate marketing issues is dropshipping. With dropshipping, you are actually selling the product; you are no longer the middle man. This is similar to buying wholesale and marking up the price for each product, but with a little twist! With dropshipping, you only purchase the product AFTER someone purchases the product from you. In addition, the product is never in your hands; it is shipped directly to the end customer.