So you want to make money online but you are not sure whether you want to be a reseller or an affiliate. In fact you don't even know the difference. Well after this article you will feel more confident to make a decision that will suit your needs.

A reseller is somebody that takes a product and resells it. Simple - well yes and no. Consider a regular shop retailer selling tangible products. A retailer buys a product for a price then has the right to sell that product and make a profit. This profit will vary according to the product and what the wholesaler regulates the resale price to be.

When you resell online you are reselling a digital product. This is usually an ebook, audio book, software, music or video. Whatever the case it is a product that the buyer has instant access to by downloading immediately. However, if you are a reseller of that product you will have purchased that product originally with full resale rights. These resale rights are provided in a document packaged with your purchase so you know clearly what you are allowed to do. Mostly you are NOT allowed to take ownership of the product just resell it and make 100% profit each and every time you make a sale.

As a reseller you will purchase your digital products individually as a retail price - not very cost effective or you will have a membership with a digital wholesaler that allows you to download whatever you like and resell it. Memberships are a very lucrative way of being a reseller.

The downside of being a reseller is you do have to have a little bit of knowledge of the web. However you don't have to create websites if you don't wish to. Firstly the websites are offered in the resellers package but secondly there are places you can sell for free and create your own online shop very fast.

An affiliate is much different. You don't make 100% profit. You sell a product on behalf of somebody else and they simply give you a percentage of the sale. This is very similar to consignment. For example if you are talking tangible products an artist will offer their works to a gallery to sell on their behalf. The gallery owner need not buy the product but when it does sell they must pay the artist the agreed percentage for the sale.

So as an affiliate promoting and selling digital products you do not have to have a website or create an online shop you just have a unique web address and you promote products for others and they look after everything for you.

The down side of being an affiliate is you don't have any control but the positive is you don't have any costs involved in development and the marketing of the products is generally quite cheap if not free. For example using email to market products is very lucrative and the affiliate payments can be very rewarding.

Many online business owners do both. This spreads their income and their online sales.