I'll say you should create a product or service around what your skills are (or and area that you'll willing to research and learn). You can start small and then build up from there.
I would recommend doing this over CPA any day. At least with your own thing you can see what's going on in all around in your business, from the frontend to the backend. In something like CPA or affiliate marketing, you have no idea what's going on behind the scenes. There could be some dirty merchant or network sitting back smoking a cigar and getting rich off your efforts while you struggle like hell spending your precious time and money just trying to promote these programs and wondering why they're not converting like you want them to - and feel they should.
That's because oftentimes it's because there's so much dirt going on behind the scenes like shaving and scrubbing and nibbling off your leads and profits that you can never really win they way you should be winning.
Yes, you can make some money in CPA, but on the flipside you can lose more money than you could have made just doing your own thing. And the sad thing is that you may never even realize how much you're being robbed simply because you just can't see what you can't see. You can see what may be going on behind the scenes and the type of people that you're dealing with. CPA is a dirty game.
But hey, you can try both if you want to and then shift your time, energy and money in the area that works best for you. To each his own, but I'll still recommend creating your own product or service sooner than later, whether it be large or small, create something that your own that you have complete control over.
And yes, I have experience with both. And the same things that I did busting my ass just trying to market CPA and getting nowhere for years, I got results when I started launching my own products & services. Then I realized what I really suspected all along. It wasn't me; it wasn't that I didn't have the will or the skills. Itt was the dirt bag of CPA that I was dealing with that made a lot of things that should have worked, just not work for me (or a not as good as I knew they should). But once I started doing my own thing, it's like a steel wall opened up, light shined in, and the results started flowing. So now I say to hell with CPA and affiliate marketing and might only dabble in it on the side if at all.