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This might be long so take a seat.
Year 2019
I had initially hoped to secure a job at a nearby coffee shop, mostly as an excuse to spend time with my girlfriend at the time. Unfortunately, my parents objected, fearing that it would hamper my academic pursuits. Given that I was due to sit my A-levels this year and commence university studies next year, their concerns were not entirely unfounded.
As a result, I turned to the internet and searched for ways to earn money online. This led me to discover the concept of dropshipping, which I'm sure many of you are familiar with. However, before I could start my venture, I faced a major obstacle: my bank account was completely empty, and I had no knowledge of this online community. Therefore, I had to come up with a strategy to raise the necessary capital.
Start Capital.
Generating some income with zero funds in your bank account is not as challenging as you may think. In my case, I turned to eBay dropshipping, which proved to be an effective way to earn a decent amount of money. I sold sand filtering towels and imitation AirPods, which generated approximately £1,200 ($1,500) in sales. After deducting eBay and PayPal fees, my profit was around $500.
This method can be highly lucrative, provided that the shipping time is reasonable. Despite eBay's opposition to dropshippers, I managed to circumvent this issue by misleadingly setting the item location to the US on my eBay listing. To avoid any hiccups, I sourced all my products from US-based suppliers on AliExpress who offered FedEx or USPS shipping options.
It is crucial to upload your tracking numbers to the eBay orders, as this minimizes the chances of PayPal holding your funds. The beauty of this strategy is that it doesn't require any initial investment. I discovered a reliable eBay viewbot for Mac, which enhanced my listings and eliminated the need for extra promotion expenses. I have provided the link to this tool here. However, you will have to figure out how to use it on your own, which shouldn't take long. And, of course, it's free! Link: https://github.com/washedgram/ebay-view-bot
Actual start in dropshipping 2019 mid year.
If you read my previous thread, you would know that it took me fifty stores before making my first sale. While this was a double-edged sword, it did have some advantages. I continuously questioned the trustworthiness of my sites and kept posting them on r/reviewmyshopify and other forums, including the Shopify community, to gather boatloads of feedback. By the time I realized that marketing was the second crucial piece of the puzzle, my stores looked better than 80% of dropshipping ones out there.
To put it simply, the issue wasn't with my stores themselves, but rather with my lack of knowledge regarding marketing. In my experience, a mediocre store with great traffic is more profitable than a great store with poor traffic.
Regarding my strategy, I watched a lot of YouTubers and mixed their tactics together. Unfortunately, this approach failed miserably, and I became increasingly disheartened with every loss. The key is to choose a single channel that you enjoy and stick with it.
Additionally, it's important to maintain good relationships with Google and Facebook. I fell out of their good books for a long time, and it made my path to success much more arduous. The time spent trying to figure out the best way to churn and burn could be better spent improving your business and learning proper Facebook and Google strategies.
While I could go into the failures and successes of each of my fifty stores, it would take forever. Therefore, I will list my failures and their solutions at the bottom of this post.
Minor Success - End of the year 2019.
After months of attempting to create new ad accounts on the same IP for Facebook and Google without success (I'll explain how I circumvented this below), I realized that it was a fruitless endeavor. I then opted to explore influencer marketing on Instagram.
I had a page and store that sold Halloween masks, and I'll be selling them again this year. If you're just starting out, I recommend creating a store to sell these masks now.
Here's the main storefront I used for the mask store. I wish the store was still open, but hopefully this will help someone.
I operated another store that sold imitation AirPods, while the Instagram page for the Halloween mask store is no longer available. However, I can provide you with the Instagram page for the fake AirPods store.
www.instagram.com
I sold my eBay store after it attained $1,000 in sales, fetching around $700, in early December. Unfortunately, it seems that the new owner has taken the store down.
I also have a note on my influencer marketing approach on Instagram, which I wrote in December of last year. Although it was written a while back, the strategy still applies if you're interested in making some money.
While the strategy I used for making money through influencer marketing is fairly simple and may not generate a significant amount of income, it's an excellent place to begin. My approach involved creating ads that combined a Trending Topic with a Meme and a Funny Product.
During that time, 6ix9ine was being ridiculed for being a snitch, so I created an ad that played on this theme. While this approach is not groundbreaking, it helped me get started on my journey to making money through influencer marketing.
Below is the revenue generated by my store, Stealthpods. This store served as my first minor success and helped me realize that the concept could work for me:
Although the profit I earned from this store for the month was around $300 (£240), it was a monumental amount of money for me at that time. This success proved to be a significant motivator for me to continue working on my business.
My bigger, but still small success in mid 2020
I owe a debt of gratitude to Henry for helping me achieve one of my most significant breakthroughs. Although we only collaborated for a brief period, his Reddit front page service was instrumental in almost getting my 53rd store to its first $1,000 day. Needless to say, I was overjoyed with the results. If you're encountering problems with Facebook and Google ads due to a limited budget, I highly recommend reaching out to him. In my experience, it's more efficient to invest your time and money in him or Instagram influencers rather than doing what I did, which was spend months attempting to address the Google and Facebook issues without any money to find an actual solution.
While I didn't use any Instagram influencers for this store, I did create a noteworthy IG page for it. You can take some branding tips from it to improve your own branding.
www.instagram.com
Regrettably, the store had to be closed down due to supplier issues caused by COVID-19. It was a frustrating situation, particularly since I was beginning to gain some momentum. Nonetheless, I didn't let this setback stop me from continuing to pursue my entrepreneurial ambitions.
Before the store's closure, it generated approximately $3,000 in sales. This success marked a turning point for me, as I was finally able to experience some consistent progress. However, I still hadn't delved into Facebook or Google advertising to a great extent.
What I learn from this store?
The key takeaway from my experience is that alternative traffic sources can be just as valuable as Facebook and Google, particularly for beginners who may not have the budget to invest in these platforms right away. While I'm currently focusing on Google and Facebook, I recommend that beginners concentrate on less expensive traffic sources to avoid completely exhausting their budget from the start.
THE BIG BANG - AUGUST
With the closure of school in the UK, I no longer had to wake up at 5 am to get to the library four hours before classes began. This gave me more time to focus solely on my business, which resulted in the fastest progress I had experienced thus far. While I won't be sharing all of my strategies for two reasons:
How I found the product?
Contrary to popular belief, there is no "winning product" that will guarantee success. While some products may be more profitable than others, 90% of what you see for sale will likely sell, which is why China invests so much time and resources into producing them.
My approach was to search through the Alibaba manufacturer directory until I found a product that piqued my interest. I then cross-checked the product with relevant keywords on Google using a free tool called KW Surfer. Once I found a product with a sufficient search volume (50,000+ searches per month for the main keyword), I began researching my competitors' stores and using Google search filters to identify their best-selling products.
chrome.google.com
That's the fundamental outline of how my method works. After about three days, I was able to find my current winning product.
How I make pages and what apps I use?
I don't rely on many apps in my business. For the most part, I use:
Here's a page that has a similar layout to mine (created by someone who took the same course):
livinshape.com
Their store has achieved a staggering $90k in a month, which is substantially higher than my sales. It's an excellent template to use as a basis for creating your store.
How did I market and stratgize?
Here's where many people make mistakes when starting out. This is what you should do:
I won't go into the full strategy, but this is how I was able to scale up to around $50k this month.
How covid effect me?
One major concern I had when starting this project was the slow shipping time. When I reached around $10k in sales, my Shopify payments were shut down. This was when I realized the need to buy the product in bulk and send it to a warehouse in the US. I use MintFulfill for this purpose, and it's the best way to go.
However, only consider this option if you get consistent profitable sales every day for at least 10 days in a row with Google. After this, you can either risk dropshipping your existing orders or refund them (there is no negative impact on your merchant account if you refund, as long as there is no chargeback). Then, pause ads, set the product to out of stock, and wait for the bulk shipment to arrive at the warehouse.
After this relatively risky period (which could get your merchant account shut down if handled incorrectly), it will be smooth sailing for the most part. As for customer service, Upwork or Onlinejobs.ph are both excellent options.
What mistakes I made in this long journey?
Here are some of my failures in no particular order:
Future Plans!?
If you're located outside the US, I would highly recommend opening a multi-currency bank account to receive payments, pay for ads, and purchase products in the same currency. Accumulated currency losses can be substantial over time.
Personally, I do not engage in churn and burn accounts or farmed Facebook accounts. Instead, I focus on retrieving my account or obtaining a new device to create a new account, with the intention of keeping it for the long term to maximize its benefits.
It's always a good idea to have a backup payment provider to reduce stress and minimize ad downtime in case your primary processor fails. If you're based in the US, you might want to consider using ecprocessing on Instagram, although I haven't tried it myself.
Currently, I'm in the process of researching high-ticket dropshipping from Alibaba. I find that Alibaba suppliers have faster response times and better quality control than those on AliExpress. I'll keep you updated on my progress in the coming months.
That's pretty much my journey so far. Although it may not be the most organized thread, I hope you find some value in it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to include everything.
Year 2019
I had initially hoped to secure a job at a nearby coffee shop, mostly as an excuse to spend time with my girlfriend at the time. Unfortunately, my parents objected, fearing that it would hamper my academic pursuits. Given that I was due to sit my A-levels this year and commence university studies next year, their concerns were not entirely unfounded.
As a result, I turned to the internet and searched for ways to earn money online. This led me to discover the concept of dropshipping, which I'm sure many of you are familiar with. However, before I could start my venture, I faced a major obstacle: my bank account was completely empty, and I had no knowledge of this online community. Therefore, I had to come up with a strategy to raise the necessary capital.
Start Capital.
Generating some income with zero funds in your bank account is not as challenging as you may think. In my case, I turned to eBay dropshipping, which proved to be an effective way to earn a decent amount of money. I sold sand filtering towels and imitation AirPods, which generated approximately £1,200 ($1,500) in sales. After deducting eBay and PayPal fees, my profit was around $500.
This method can be highly lucrative, provided that the shipping time is reasonable. Despite eBay's opposition to dropshippers, I managed to circumvent this issue by misleadingly setting the item location to the US on my eBay listing. To avoid any hiccups, I sourced all my products from US-based suppliers on AliExpress who offered FedEx or USPS shipping options.
It is crucial to upload your tracking numbers to the eBay orders, as this minimizes the chances of PayPal holding your funds. The beauty of this strategy is that it doesn't require any initial investment. I discovered a reliable eBay viewbot for Mac, which enhanced my listings and eliminated the need for extra promotion expenses. I have provided the link to this tool here. However, you will have to figure out how to use it on your own, which shouldn't take long. And, of course, it's free! Link: https://github.com/washedgram/ebay-view-bot
Actual start in dropshipping 2019 mid year.
If you read my previous thread, you would know that it took me fifty stores before making my first sale. While this was a double-edged sword, it did have some advantages. I continuously questioned the trustworthiness of my sites and kept posting them on r/reviewmyshopify and other forums, including the Shopify community, to gather boatloads of feedback. By the time I realized that marketing was the second crucial piece of the puzzle, my stores looked better than 80% of dropshipping ones out there.
To put it simply, the issue wasn't with my stores themselves, but rather with my lack of knowledge regarding marketing. In my experience, a mediocre store with great traffic is more profitable than a great store with poor traffic.
Regarding my strategy, I watched a lot of YouTubers and mixed their tactics together. Unfortunately, this approach failed miserably, and I became increasingly disheartened with every loss. The key is to choose a single channel that you enjoy and stick with it.
Additionally, it's important to maintain good relationships with Google and Facebook. I fell out of their good books for a long time, and it made my path to success much more arduous. The time spent trying to figure out the best way to churn and burn could be better spent improving your business and learning proper Facebook and Google strategies.
While I could go into the failures and successes of each of my fifty stores, it would take forever. Therefore, I will list my failures and their solutions at the bottom of this post.
Minor Success - End of the year 2019.
After months of attempting to create new ad accounts on the same IP for Facebook and Google without success (I'll explain how I circumvented this below), I realized that it was a fruitless endeavor. I then opted to explore influencer marketing on Instagram.
I had a page and store that sold Halloween masks, and I'll be selling them again this year. If you're just starting out, I recommend creating a store to sell these masks now.
Here's the main storefront I used for the mask store. I wish the store was still open, but hopefully this will help someone.
I operated another store that sold imitation AirPods, while the Instagram page for the Halloween mask store is no longer available. However, I can provide you with the Instagram page for the fake AirPods store.
Now Just $29.99 (@stealthpodsofficial) • Instagram photos and videos
1,692 Followers, 0 Following, 10 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Now Just $29.99 (@stealthpodsofficial)
www.instagram.com
I sold my eBay store after it attained $1,000 in sales, fetching around $700, in early December. Unfortunately, it seems that the new owner has taken the store down.
I also have a note on my influencer marketing approach on Instagram, which I wrote in December of last year. Although it was written a while back, the strategy still applies if you're interested in making some money.
While the strategy I used for making money through influencer marketing is fairly simple and may not generate a significant amount of income, it's an excellent place to begin. My approach involved creating ads that combined a Trending Topic with a Meme and a Funny Product.
During that time, 6ix9ine was being ridiculed for being a snitch, so I created an ad that played on this theme. While this approach is not groundbreaking, it helped me get started on my journey to making money through influencer marketing.
Below is the revenue generated by my store, Stealthpods. This store served as my first minor success and helped me realize that the concept could work for me:
Although the profit I earned from this store for the month was around $300 (£240), it was a monumental amount of money for me at that time. This success proved to be a significant motivator for me to continue working on my business.
My bigger, but still small success in mid 2020
I owe a debt of gratitude to Henry for helping me achieve one of my most significant breakthroughs. Although we only collaborated for a brief period, his Reddit front page service was instrumental in almost getting my 53rd store to its first $1,000 day. Needless to say, I was overjoyed with the results. If you're encountering problems with Facebook and Google ads due to a limited budget, I highly recommend reaching out to him. In my experience, it's more efficient to invest your time and money in him or Instagram influencers rather than doing what I did, which was spend months attempting to address the Google and Facebook issues without any money to find an actual solution.
While I didn't use any Instagram influencers for this store, I did create a noteworthy IG page for it. You can take some branding tips from it to improve your own branding.
The Trinity Bag $34.99 (@thetrinitybag) • Instagram photos and videos
1,640 Followers, 9 Following, 9 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from The Trinity Bag $34.99 (@thetrinitybag)
www.instagram.com
Regrettably, the store had to be closed down due to supplier issues caused by COVID-19. It was a frustrating situation, particularly since I was beginning to gain some momentum. Nonetheless, I didn't let this setback stop me from continuing to pursue my entrepreneurial ambitions.
Before the store's closure, it generated approximately $3,000 in sales. This success marked a turning point for me, as I was finally able to experience some consistent progress. However, I still hadn't delved into Facebook or Google advertising to a great extent.
What I learn from this store?
The key takeaway from my experience is that alternative traffic sources can be just as valuable as Facebook and Google, particularly for beginners who may not have the budget to invest in these platforms right away. While I'm currently focusing on Google and Facebook, I recommend that beginners concentrate on less expensive traffic sources to avoid completely exhausting their budget from the start.
THE BIG BANG - AUGUST
With the closure of school in the UK, I no longer had to wake up at 5 am to get to the library four hours before classes began. This gave me more time to focus solely on my business, which resulted in the fastest progress I had experienced thus far. While I won't be sharing all of my strategies for two reasons:
- I had taken a course (from Charlie Brandt... for free) that helped me earn a substantial amount. While I won't divulge the contents of the course, I highly recommend seeking it out or paying for it yourself.
- It would be too time-consuming to discuss everything, but if you have a specific question, feel free to ask. As long as it's not "What is your product?" or "Do it for me," I'll be happy to provide an answer.
How I found the product?
Contrary to popular belief, there is no "winning product" that will guarantee success. While some products may be more profitable than others, 90% of what you see for sale will likely sell, which is why China invests so much time and resources into producing them.
My approach was to search through the Alibaba manufacturer directory until I found a product that piqued my interest. I then cross-checked the product with relevant keywords on Google using a free tool called KW Surfer. Once I found a product with a sufficient search volume (50,000+ searches per month for the main keyword), I began researching my competitors' stores and using Google search filters to identify their best-selling products.
Keyword Surfer
Keyword Surfer allows you to generate keyword ideas and see search volumes directly in Google search results.
chrome.google.com
That's the fundamental outline of how my method works. After about three days, I was able to find my current winning product.
How I make pages and what apps I use?
I don't rely on many apps in my business. For the most part, I use:
- DSERs: I prefer this over Oberlo since it offers direct bulk fulfillment with Aliexpress.
- Klaviyo
- Reconvert post-purchase upsell
- A review app
Here's a page that has a similar layout to mine (created by someone who took the same course):
livinshape.com
Their store has achieved a staggering $90k in a month, which is substantially higher than my sales. It's an excellent template to use as a basis for creating your store.
How did I market and stratgize?
Here's where many people make mistakes when starting out. This is what you should do:
- Use Google Shopping and search ads (SKAGs).
- Connect Google tracking code to your website.
- Connect Facebook Pixel to capture Google conversions.
- Track around 200 Google conversions on the Facebook Pixel.
- Use custom audiences with Facebook ads.
I won't go into the full strategy, but this is how I was able to scale up to around $50k this month.
How covid effect me?
One major concern I had when starting this project was the slow shipping time. When I reached around $10k in sales, my Shopify payments were shut down. This was when I realized the need to buy the product in bulk and send it to a warehouse in the US. I use MintFulfill for this purpose, and it's the best way to go.
However, only consider this option if you get consistent profitable sales every day for at least 10 days in a row with Google. After this, you can either risk dropshipping your existing orders or refund them (there is no negative impact on your merchant account if you refund, as long as there is no chargeback). Then, pause ads, set the product to out of stock, and wait for the bulk shipment to arrive at the warehouse.
After this relatively risky period (which could get your merchant account shut down if handled incorrectly), it will be smooth sailing for the most part. As for customer service, Upwork or Onlinejobs.ph are both excellent options.
What mistakes I made in this long journey?
Here are some of my failures in no particular order:
- I got IP banned by Facebook for violating their policies when I opened my second store. I tried creating more accounts on the same device and got banned every time. It took me eight months to start running ads on Facebook again. I bought a new device, used a fake profile picture, got a flip phone, and a free pay-as-you-go sim to get started again. Lesson learned: always read the policies carefully.
- Google Ads also got my IP suspended, and I had to apply for a new bank account on my street, use a new card on the new device, and create a new Google email. Lesson learned: never miss your payments with Google, and always have a backup payment method.
- My Shopify payments account got disabled when I was scaling my store. I had no idea my supplier was sending orders with 50-day shipping due to COVID-19. I got a lot of chargebacks as I scaled my store above its first $10k in revenue. Solution: I switched my store's location to France so that I could connect it to Stripe, and then switched it back to my own location. Solution to the supplier problem: I bought in bulk to a US warehouse using Mintfulfill, which offers 2-day FedEx delivery to any state for $9, regardless of weight.
- I got into massive PayPal debt because of slow shipping times from my supplier. PayPal threatened debt collectors. Solution: I paid off the debt as soon as I realized it was there and stopped using PayPal. Currently, my conversion rate with PayPal is 2.3%, recently climbing to near 3%.
- While my Shopify payments account had my money on hold, my bank account also got temporarily frozen as I started scaling my ads without notifying them. This resulted in me having to pause my ads for about two weeks and refunding a large number of orders.
- I started with literally no money in the bank. My parents didn't allow me to get a job, so during the first eight months, I dropshipped directly from AliExpress to eBay. Fortunately, this was before the COVID-19 pandemic, so shipping times were not an issue. I lost all the money I made on Google and Facebook ads back then because I had no idea what I was doing. I made around $1,200 in three months using this method.
- I tried mixing strategies from various YouTube gurus, but it didn't work, and I lost money. I learned to find someone I like and follow their strategy. I recommend Charlie Brandt.
Future Plans!?
If you're located outside the US, I would highly recommend opening a multi-currency bank account to receive payments, pay for ads, and purchase products in the same currency. Accumulated currency losses can be substantial over time.
Personally, I do not engage in churn and burn accounts or farmed Facebook accounts. Instead, I focus on retrieving my account or obtaining a new device to create a new account, with the intention of keeping it for the long term to maximize its benefits.
It's always a good idea to have a backup payment provider to reduce stress and minimize ad downtime in case your primary processor fails. If you're based in the US, you might want to consider using ecprocessing on Instagram, although I haven't tried it myself.
Currently, I'm in the process of researching high-ticket dropshipping from Alibaba. I find that Alibaba suppliers have faster response times and better quality control than those on AliExpress. I'll keep you updated on my progress in the coming months.
That's pretty much my journey so far. Although it may not be the most organized thread, I hope you find some value in it. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to include everything.
Last edited by a moderator:
