There’s certainly still a good deal of work involved in affiliate marketing. After all you have to recruit those affiliates. But there’s a difference in recruiting people who want to make money and recruiting those you want to part with some. Since it’s the latter that many writer-types are uncomfortable with, an affiliate program might be an outstanding idea if they have products or services where it would work.

Regarding affiliates, I think affiliate marketing is a specialized kind of selling that requires just as much effort and focus as any other marketing campaign… unfortunately there’s not a “no work” option!

I’ve started a blog and I am hoping to create greater recognition through writing online articles and tutorials etc. My background is in photography, so all this writing is quite a departure! In truth I’d like to work with affiliates, but if possible build some kind of working relationship with sites that have good quantities of relevant traffic where we know each other and can work together. That way it’s just a bonus and I know what kind of marketing they are doing.

If you have a large enough audience or are able to market more aggressively than others would, it could very well be in your interest to skip the affiliate program. It’s going to vary from one niche to the next. If you’re writing in the “make money online” niche there are probably thousands of potential affiliates. For me, writing in the freelance writing niche, that kind of network just didn’t exist so it wasn’t worth it.

All the points you made are noteworthy but another factor I am interested in is the cart abandonment rate, since I have a strong suspicion that more buyers will complete their purchases using the e-junkie system and PayPal. Any thoughts? I’d love to see some cold hard data on conversion rates between the two systems.