So how does starting an affiliate program differ from starting your own online store? Let's start by looking at the potential earnings, after all, the main reason everyone wants to start an internet business is for the money. When you sign up for a web site affiliate program, you will be paid a commission for each sale you refer to the online store. This commission can range from 5% to 15% for physical products, and possibly up to 50% or more for virtual products such as subscriptions and e-books.

On the other hand, if you start your own store, rather than an affiliate program, your profit can be much higher. For virtual products, your profit can be 100% of your selling price. An affiliate program is a great way to get quick success. After all, once the newsletter or e-book is created, you do not need to spend any more effort. When someone buys your e-book, they just download it from your website. If you are selling a physical product, your profit depends on whether you are manufacturing the product yourself, or buying from a wholesaler or shipping company. Your profit in this case could easily be more than 40% or 50%. So, if you only consider the potential earnings, starting your own business is more lucrative than joining a web site affiliate program. However, when you are starting your own internet business, there are a number of logistic issues you need to look at that you don't have with a web site affiliate program.

Here are a few things you would need to take care of while creating a web site affiliate program:

1. Create your website that will be the lead for the web site affiliate program
2. Design and create your product that ties in with the web site affiliate program
3. Create your product if you are selling new physical products, or any virtual products
4. Set up an online store with a merchant account or payment gateway for receiving payments from your web site affiliate program, as well as customers
5. Set up a warehouse or storage space for physical products
6. Have procedures and staff ready to fulfil orders
7. Set up a web site affiliate program to get others to market the products for you
7. Monitor the website and web site affiliate program for potential fraud

As they say, "No pain, no gain". Having your own store pays very well, but requires a substantial time investment from you. On the other hand, if you sign up for an affiliate program, all you need to do is set up a web site to promote the program. All the ads, banners, marketing text etc will be provided to you by the originator of the affiliate program. Your only responsibilities would be to get people to visit your website, and hopefully click on the affiliate links to buy the products that you are promoting.