posted by misenlai:
The difference is in conversion. Having contents on the same page and having products there: much higher conversion CTR, which is why dropshipping is better
This is specious logic, and would seem to be irrelevant in light of the original post, where it is clearly being said that the OP wanted to promote only and have the supplier handle processing and fulfillment (and even catalog population.)
If going with affiliate marketing, there is one stop in between. My website promoting the affiliating link -> the targeted site -> user buy vs. my site -> user buy.
But a test of conversion rates assumes otherwise equal factors. Price alone is generally enough to obviate any data in such a test, if an affiliate is promoting a well-known product available from major retailers, then chances are near to zero that any dropshipping company is going to come close to competing on price.
Additionally, the "fewer steps to payment = greater conversions" theory of cart design seems to fly in the face of reality. I can't buy anything from Amazon without being asked twice if I want to sign up for a trial of Amazon Prime, a service of which I've been a member since it was in beta. I can't renew a domain name without having to go through the whole song and dance about not wanting hosting, not wanting multi years or privacy protection or the same domain on the .etc extension. Almost any IM or ClickBank-type product won't let me pay without directing me to a newsletter signup, a one time offer, a tell-a-friend page etc.
So ... what you're saying sounds reasonable but I'm not sure there's actually any data to support it, especially in the context of an affiliate page vs. dropshipping page, when price and reputation are on the side of the affiliate.
Also, in general dropshipping probably have higher margin than doing affiliating marketing. This is not true for some niche. But overall, it is true.
I'd rather make 5% of $5,000 in sales than 25% of $1,000. Mind you, I'm not totally against dropshipping -- I'm just saying that, in the context of the original post, it seems a lot like what the OP would benefit from is a serious affiliate marketing focus rather than dropshipping.
Frank