Giving it a shot

[Eric S.]

@eric , you have spent a lot of time and made a great effort to get this alidropship to work, however it seems your efforts are in vain, personally i think that getting ranked in the search engines is the way to go.

I think the plugin is great for building the shop but Yaros has been a bit over enthusiastic with the marketing techniques he proposes to get sales and infact after doing some research , sem rush, websta etc you will see the truth that his websites have hundreds of keywords ranked in the search engines and this is where the buying traffic is coming from.

I understand your position @nick I know you have had a rough start which could be from any number of reasons. A dose of reality is good once in a while. I agree search engine results are powerful, in fact one of my few sales came via organic search. I've done my due diligence with keyword research and on-page SEO. I also plan on adding a blog and other content to help. I'm no good at building backlinks and don't trust many in that business. My hope is I can generate enough revenue to invest in a proper backlinking strategy. But as others mention, that is a longer term thing.

I don't agree with the assessment of Yaros and what he has presented. He happened to find a process that worked well for his particular niche and was kind enough to share. Every niche is unique and it's up to each of us to analyze what marketing methods will work for us.

On the contrary Nick, SEO will take a very long time and even then you are at the mercy of Googles algorithms. I think the business model is laid out perfectly. I never would have thought that having a brand new store around 3 weeks old would have generated upwards of $800 in revenue already. I imagine your probably having issues with the niche you selected not the actual business model.

If you have ever tried to build and rank a website (I have many times) you will understand how frustrating it is to have google sandbox you and there is not a single thing you can do about it. Of course im not saying to neglect SEO entirely but if you want sales NOW then social media is the way to go supplementing that with white hat SEO for the future is really the best course of action.

Totally agree @Matt on the SEO front. Social might not have the same conversion rate of SEO or even PPC, but it has a much lower cost of entry to at least get some cash flow going. I'm glad you've had a good start and hope things keep growing. Please keep updating your journey and I'll do the same.

I'm agree with Matt. It is the niche selection that takes the most important part when starting an online business. If you have very good niche with high potential customers, thousand sales in few weeks is not an impossible thing. For me, I think impossible is not a fact, it was just an opinion. Keep focusing on your niche @Eric S. and build some enough audiences. When you think it is too tough, it is still not to late to change your niche. There's always an opportunity behind an error.

Thanks for the encouragement @Glady It is mostly about the niche for sure. Despite all the niche research it's always a bit of a gamble as to whether you can build an audience without spending a ton. I cheated and basically used a niche from one that Yaros already did a lot of the hard work. I think my niche has potential, but what I ran into is the shout out cost for my niche is much higher than what others have been able to do. Rather than giving up or quickly changing my niche, I'm experimenting with other techniques as well. I've had a slow and discouraging few days, but that's part of the game and hopefully some perseverance will pay off.

One thing I think we all need to remember is this tool and community is still very new. Yes there are bugs and issues, but that's the price of getting in on the ground floor of an idea. We each have our own threshold of what we are willing to give in time, effort and funds and many will likely fail for any number of reasons. I could very easily be one of them. In the meantime I'm glad to find you all here and willing to share your experience as that increases everyone's chance of success.

 

[nick]

@Matt and Glady, ok well you two are the experts so you should go work for some multinational media company and show them how its done. nothing wrong with my niches its has a massive audience,

worldofharry 1.6k keywords ranking in googles search engine database
ksort 425 keywords ranking

thats just two of Yaros sites,

800 in revenue , after costs? not much

And social media traffic does not convert i will say it again and again,, because its fact.

 

[Matt]

@nick If social media doesn't convert then why do so many companies advertise on this platform, for the hell of it? Furthermore if social media doesn't work for advertising then please explain Facebooks over 350 billion dollar valuation.

Im not sure why you are getting defensive but im only telling you my experience. I haven't done the calculations of my profit but itd be around the $300 mark. Now considering im in my first month still it isnt that bad....the alternative would be waiting a very long time for googles organic searches to find me in which point I would have lost interest (that doesn't mean im neglecting it I just cant utilize it right now).

Yes Yaros websites are probably ranking for searches but he has put in alot of work into them, it didn't start that way though. I imagine what is helping worldofharry alot is all of the forums and promotion of alidropship and not him specifically trying to do that himself.

Anyway we will have to agree to disagree.

 

[Neil]

@Eric S. I just had a look at your store, it's really great to see what other people are doing.. how is your store going now? I noticed that your Instagram following is going quite well, do you have any tips for getting more followers? what is your strategy?

 

[Eric S.]

@Eric S. I just had a look at your store, it's really great to see what other people are doing.. how is your store going now? I noticed that your Instagram following is going quite well, do you have any tips for getting more followers? what is your strategy?

It's been a rough week so far for orders despite some traffic (130+ sessions per day).

The IG following has been good and has come from a variety of sources. The couple shout-outs I've done helped. The FB ads I've been testing have been most successful on IG and many have followed from them. I've been using another tool similar to SocialRabbit, but won't mention it as SR is fine too. The biggest push has been from a giveaway hosted by an influencer. It helps to be in a niche popular with young women as they are very active on IG

 

[ZbigniewPL]

Nice, 48 posts and 1400 followers. Nice stats. Is it almost all thank to give away?

 

[Eric S.]

Nice, 48 posts and 1400 followers. Nice stats. Is it almost all thank to give away?

I don't know exact stats of course. I would say 600-700 from the giveaway. I got another 300-400 from two shout-outs. Another 100-200 from FB ads that did not get sales, but did get IG followers. The rest from automated following, liking and commenting like Social Rabbit does. I have two more giveaways lined up and several samples on order that eventually will get posted as reviews/shout-outs. Just have to wait for them to get there

The order drought finally broke today with two small ones. I think the rest of the year could be tough with most shopping being done for the holiday and our lead times are beyond that now. I''m focusing on building an audience and hoping orders pick up next month.

 

[Eric S.]

It was pointed out to me that I've been on the forum exactly one month, so I figured another quick update is in order.

I have ceased the FB ads for now and re-doubled my efforts in IG. I've sponsored two more giveaways through influencers and one more is scheduled. I'm nearing 2k followers and most of my traffic is via IG. The first of my 'product-for-shout-out' item should arrive this week, so we'll see how that goes. One thing I did not expect is the requests I'm now getting to collaborate, albeit from small players. I even had one resume submission via the contact page from someone looking for work

My first shout-out and real traffic started on Nov 22, so right at two weeks ago. I had a couple small sales today and now sit just under $250 in revenue. I've spent more than I had planned, but mostly on FB ad experimentation that I figure is the cost of learning about them. I will likely experiment more on those after the holidays.

All-in-all a mostly positive experience so far. There has been significant effort, but it's starting to feel like there may be some momentum. I think this month is not going to be a good indicator since the lead times extend past the holiday, so I'm tempering expectations until next month. By then, hopefully some of the proposed improvements continue to make it in to plug-in as it seems @Yaros and team seem intent on doing.

 

[Eric S.]

Well I finally got around to making up my tracking spreadsheet(s). So, as promised, I can share the details of where I currently sit. (drum roll)

I forgot to total up revenue before the screenshot, but it is at $313.84. My initial sales did not have the affiliate account set up yet which is why those cells don't have values.

It likely looks a little worse for me as I was willing to 'lose' about $100 on FB ads experimentation. I plan to take what I've learned and hopefully recoup that and more next month when normal buying patters resume (no more holiday).

I also had my first two deliveries yesterday that were not to me. One to a customer and one to an IG influencer for review. I sent emails as follow-up for feedback, so we'll see what they say.

While I have not shot out of the gate, I think I'm reasonably well positioned going forward. I'm up to 2600 followers on IG and smaller followings on the other social channels. My modest goal is to be 'in the black' by the end of January, but hopefully a little sooner. If I don't make that goal I will likely pivot and try a different niche.

All feedback welcome!

 

[Poni]

You will get there Eric! You got the right mindset to make this work.

I would probably mark up the cheapest notebooks a bit more tho, I think you are at exactly 2x, I do think 3-4x for less than $2 items is fine.

 

[dezigna]

You have the right mindset for sure. The problem is the niche you went with. Go for high ticket items with high perceived value where you make 25+ profit per sale with another brand and just get some seo done on this current site.

 

[Eric S.]

You will get there Eric! You got the right mindset to make this work.

I would probably mark up the cheapest notebooks a bit more tho, I think you are at exactly 2x, I do think 3-4x for less than $2 items is fine.

Thanks @Poni . I will likely bump up the lower end a little. The reason I'm keeping it low is 1) competition as cheap items are plentiful and 2) volume. These are items people often buy multiples of. A couple of my best sales were people ordering a bunch of inexpensive items.

You have the right mindset for sure. The problem is the niche you went with. Go for high ticket items with high perceived value where you make 25+ profit per sale with another brand and just get some seo done on this current site.

I think I follow you @dezigna but please clarify. Do you mean focus on higher priced items in the same category? Or change to an entirely different niche?

Competition at higher price points could be tough as that seems to be a very 'name-brand' conscious market.

I know it needs SEO work, I just hate that part . I will definitely do that once I have a little more confidence I can compete in this niche.

Thanks to you both for the encouragement and advice.

 

[dezigna]

Notebooks are too general so yeah come with a different store around a passionate niche. Sell them high ticket items they are crazy about. Just make sure the product has good feedback elsewhere.

1. "Authentic Product Name", "Limited Edition Product Name", "Handcrafted Product Name" are some ways of naming.
2. Make sure to tell the customer the benefits to fix the problem in product description.
3. Moneyback guarantees etc with your trust logos

Here's a $4 million site built from scratch with FB ads around a passionate niche - http://www.bikerhelmets.com/

 

[Eric S.]

Notebooks are too general so yeah come with a different store around a passionate niche. Sell them high ticket items they are crazy about. Just make sure the product has good feedback elsewhere.

1. "Authentic Product Name", "Limited Edition Product Name", "Handcrafted Product Name" are some ways of naming.
2. Make sure to tell the customer the benefits to fix the problem in product description.
3. Moneyback guarantees etc with your trust logos

Gotcha. I have already started some research for my next niche. Just not quite ready to give up on this one. I think you advise to keep this site, but get some SEO done and not market it so much. Rather start to focus on site #2. Let me know if that's not what you meant.

Thanks for the input as it is very helpful.

 

[dezigna]

Yeah correct. Keep this site and research another niche where you can sell products for higher. Maybe get an seo guy to keep doing submissions and optimization for you plus updating FB/IG fan pages now and then.

Also stay away from trademarked items. Don't follow these people who are doing it. You can still do 7 figures without it.

 

[dezigna]

Here are some good FB ecom groups:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/196548380776886/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED
https://www.facebook.com/groups/kingpinning/?ref=bookmarks

Platform is centered on shopify but tons of good info.

 

[Eric S.]

Great info @dezigna. I was already in the kingpinning group and just joined the other. I had already determined to stay away from trademarked goods.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the helmets site is not dropshipping correct? Looks like they must warehouse the items based on the given lead times.

 

[dezigna]

Yeah helmets are inhouse but great business to get into. Only problem is they have to be approved by the Department of Transportation in case riders have an accident you can be held liable if the product is deemed to be defective. But this is a good example of providing premium items for a passionate niche. Bikers, truckers, survivalists and so on. They buy stuff like crazy. People love their pets, people are crazy about sports, tons of ideas.

Taboo stuff like Knights Templars, conservatives who believe you wanna take away their guns, believers in illuminati and free mason crap are all ripe pickings lol.

 

[otk]

Had a look at Your shop, i would do something with the free shipping icon - for my eye, it looks like it made in paint and saved in low quality. Its a bit blurry.

//More:
I don't know a thing about notebooks market, but i wouldn't sell a thing for less then $9 or so. If i were You, i would price them up and sell the notebooks as if they were some high-quality-premium-brand-notebooks-that-everyone-want.
Why? Because You can buy cheap notebooks from every store. Make them special!

 

[Eric S.]

Had a look at Your shop, i would do something with the free shipping icon - for my eye, it looks like it made in paint and saved in low quality. Its a bit blurry.

//More:
I don't know a thing about notebooks market, but i wouldn't sell a thing for less then $9 or so. If i were You, i would price them up and sell the notebooks as if they were some high-quality-premium-brand-notebooks-that-everyone-want.
Why? Because You can buy cheap notebooks from every store. Make them special!

Yes that icon was a botched color swap that I forgot to go back and fix. Thanks for that reminder.

I am going to bump the low end prices up some, but I'm afraid to go too high because it is a competitive market. My hope is the inexpensive items are a gateway to upsell the others. Plus I've already seen in some orders people 'stocking up' and buying multiples so the volume helps too. But I do get your point about making them 'special'.

On a side note, I find it fascinating to find the sub-markets within this niche. I'm finding lots of people fanatical about a variety of notebook based activities. Bullet journals, art journaling, happy planners, calligraphy and hand-lettering fountain pen lovers, even high school and college students into #studygram. It's nuts.