It is basically the same thing, PPD files are usually locked with some CPA offer. If you do it by yourself then you're cutting out the middle and and your payout should probably be higher
I'm not talking about PPC. The offers are practically the same but the difference is download versus "content in the site". So I'm speaking about this from a point of view of optimizing the conversions.
You don't have to lock only (text) content, you can lock whatever you want. And PPC is something different of course.
Would you rather make 100 dollars a day with PPD or make 5000 dollars a day with the same amount of traffic with CPA?
Your Choice XD
whoever pay you more and you think you can make money from.
If you are a beginner i will recommend PPD.