The problem with AM is that there are too many variables you have no control over (e.g. the network, the offer, the product's quality, the FTC's ever changing stance, etc...) which is why even affiliates that make a lot of money are always jumping from offer to offer. How many super affiliates do you know that have been promoting the same thing since 2010? When you launch a business with your own product or service, you have more control and your success will mostly depend on your ability to compete. No one is standing between you and your money.
Affiliate marketing is NOT just about being an affiliate.
As long as your business model involves any kind of commission reward for a sale/referral, then that's effectively "affiliate marketing".
When you are a "vendor", as Clickbank calls it, meaning you have your own product and if you have an affiliate program (in-house or 3rd party, makes no difference), then you are still involved in affiliate marketing, because you've got affiliates who promote your business for a financial reward.
Another example would be if you had a service (SEO, article writing or anything else) with an affiliate program, then again the same thing would apply.
Bloggers with REAL blogs who do it for a living could be referred as "affiliate marketers", because they often promote products for a commission, but normally affiliate sales are not their sole income...
All of the above are examples where you are in a position that you actually have a solid base BEFORE you begin recruiting affiliates or promoting offers yourself, so it's a much better and "safer" place to be than compared to when you have 500 automated Wordpress blogs with Scrapebox content on them and you're going through all the latest "Links & SEO" threads trying to get those blogs ranked...
That's where a lot of "affiliate marketers" are stuck, when they have nothing in terms real value, but they want to get all the traffic in the world and they want it FAST.
I think many of us start there initially and that's normal, but you have to learn to move on and build something that would actually benefit people. Once you've got that basic factor right, then the traffic, sales and the rest will come with time.
