i think many are misising the point?

[theticker]

Hi

Most seem to have read the book and seem to think they have grasped the "idea"

But then their fastlane idea is e-commerce, affiliate marketing, day trading....Aren't many breaking the commondments right avvay vvith that stuff? isn't that slovvlane?

 

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[dknise]

Hi

Most seem to have read the book and seem to think they have grasped the "idea"

But then their fastlane idea is e-commerce, affiliate marketing, day trading....Aren't many breaking the commondments right avvay vvith that stuff? isn't that slovvlane?

I completely agree with you... I just ignore those threads now haha. Even though a lot of people seem to think having a bs content site with greyhat and blackhat seo tactics to get ad revenue is "providing value," I'll stay on the path I'm on. ^_^

 

[1step]

What aspect of ecommerce violates the fastlane commandments?

I can see your point with the others and see what you are getting at but think you may be getting ecommerce confused with something else

 

[Skys]

Ecommerce is not slowlane.
Think of CENTS
Need: Do you sell a product that people need/want?
Entry: With dropshipping, you can enter ecommerce without capital. On the other hand, perhaps a lot of people are trying to get rich now trough e-commerce. I saw a commercial from a company selling e-commerce shops. It made me think of the saying 'whenever everybody is digging for gold, sell shovels.
Scale: Amazon, Ebay ships worldwide. You are on the internet. the WWW: WorldWideWeb
Time: Probably lots of hard work in the beginning but def. possible to set yourself loose
Control Can you own it?

 

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[dknise]

Ecommerce is not slowlane.
Think of CENTS
Need: Do you sell a product that people need/want?
Entry: With dropshipping, you can enter ecommerce without capital. On the other hand, perhaps a lot of people are trying to get rich now trough e-commerce. I saw a commercial from a company selling e-commerce shops. It made me think of the saying 'whenever everybody is digging for gold, sell shovels.
Scale: Amazon, Ebay ships worldwide. You are on the internet. the WWW: WorldWideWeb
Time: Probably lots of hard work in the beginning but def. possible to set yourself loose
Control Can you own it?

I think you should take the advice of sell shovels... My first entrepreneurial venture was when I was 12 years old dropshipping products on ebay. The reason why that business ended 10 years ago is the same reason why it's a terrible investment of time today, everyone figured out how to do it, and everyone is using the same dropshipper and the same outsourced template sites. No new value is being created.

You never hear about a "dropship bootstrapped e-commerce site" getting a fastlane liquidation sale, do you?

 

[Skys]

I think you should take the advice of sell shovels... My first entrepreneurial venture was when I was 12 years old dropshipping products on ebay. The reason why that business ended 10 years ago is the same reason why it's a terrible investment of time today, everyone figured out how to do it, and everyone is using the same dropshipper and the same outsourced template sites. No new value is being created.

You never hear about a "dropship bootstrapped e-commerce site" getting a fastlane liquidation sale, do you?

Zappos.

 

[rorschach]

Meh while I do agree with you, the other methods are good for learning the skills needed to get to bigger projects. Affiliate marketing is a good way to learn marketing without learning product creation as well. When you sell an affiliate product online it still gives you the rush of actually selling something online. It provides you with the motivation to keep learning. It's not perfect but at least you're doing something.
After that you can start building your own products and grow a true fastlane business. Maybe it's preference but I find it easier and way faster to learn one skill at the time instead of 10 all at once.

It's like learning how to walk before you can learn how to run.

and vvhats vvith the vveird vv's? It makez you zound like ze germanz

 

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[AllenCrawley]

I think you should take the advice of sell shovels... My first entrepreneurial venture was when I was 12 years old dropshipping products on ebay. The reason why that business ended 10 years ago is the same reason why it's a terrible investment of time today, everyone figured out how to do it, and everyone is using the same dropshipper and the same outsourced template sites. No new value is being created.

You never hear about a "dropship bootstrapped e-commerce site" getting a fastlane liquidation sale, do you?

I know several people from this forum right here that have ecommerce sites generating millions in annual revenues. One of which started at zero one year ago and has generated in excess of $20 million in revenues with approximately 30% margin.

Generally they started with the dropshipping model but grew to manufacturing and/or importing their own products. It's only a matter of time till they have a liquidation event if they so choose to have one.

I've also read and watched many interviews with people who started ecommerce stores generating millions in revenue. One of which was an interview with the founder of biketiresdirect.com. His interview is on Mixergy. He has received many offers to buy his store but chooses not to sell.

bizchair.com generates over $70 million a year in revenues. (Owner, Sean, was on an episode of Secret Millionaire)

I could go on and on.

To say ecommerce doesn't fit Fastlane is ignorance.

 

[DennisD]

Honestly, anything can be fastlane with the correct business model.

Also, not everything you do has to start as fastlane. You can build a site that profits strictly off of affiliate sales and adsense while you develop your product targeted towards the same audience. Then you switch out the affiliate links for product links and you just went from an affiliate marketer to someone with a complete and comprehensive business.

You never know where the road will take you. Sometimes those first steps, while not perfect, lead somewhere much more lucrative down the road.

 

[johnp]

Who cares? I would focus on making money first so you can eat another day. When i started, if I had not been working, then I would have lasted 1 month before eating my shoes. That's no way to live. I don't really think it matters how you do it, as long as you create something of value and make money in some way, even if it violates some of the FL rules. Figure out the rest as you scale.

I see this with tech startups all of the time. There is one startup that I can think of off the top of my head. They went into beta last year and got very big. Then they recevied an investment and decided to redo the entire site. They have had a 'coming soon' landing page up for over a year now. Meanwhile, I'm watching the team do stupid shit on Facebook. They go out for Icecream, give speeches about being successful, go to the zoo, eat lunch out all of the time. Their startup is innovative, it meets most of the rules, but I bet that they won't be around in the next 5 years.

 

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[theticker]

ok....I gree in a way....

My huge problem with it is it can be copied too easily. You find a great new product to import from China..3 months later every man and his dog is importing it as well.

Still money is money I guess. Doesn't matter how you make that $5m+ just make it!

in a I know several people from this forum right here that have ecommerce sites generating millions in annual revenues. One of which started at zero one year ago and has generated in excess of $20 million in revenues with approximately 30% margin.

Generally they started with the dropshipping model but grew to manufacturing and/or importing their own products. It's only a matter of time till they have a liquidation event if they so choose to have one.

I've also read and watched many interviews with people who started ecommerce stores generating millions in revenue. One of which was an interview with the founder of biketiresdirect.com. His interview is on Mixergy. He has received many offers to buy his store but chooses not to sell.

bizchair.com generates over $70 million a year in revenues. (Owner, Sean, was on an episode of Secret Millionaire)

I could go on and on.

To say ecommerce doesn't fit Fastlane is ignorance.

 

[AllenCrawley]

My huge problem with it is it can be copied too easily. You find a great new product to import from China..3 months later every man and his dog is importing it as well.

This is why branding is vital. We have a member here selling products that are imported and can be imported and sold by anyone wanting to do so but he has garnered great success, in part, because he has branded his products while no one does.

 

[theticker]

good discussion sometimes but i do not like how this forum is run. More of a cult than a business forum. So goodbye. Good luck.

 

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[biggeemac]

I agree....most of the forum members are made up of the SAME folks......what f'ing bandwagon can I jump on and make some cash quick and easy and without having to know anything about what I am selling? And if I cant have that, then MJ DeMarco and TMF is a scam ! Lol, what a joke.

 

[1step]

good discussion sometimes but i do not like how this forum is run. More of a cult than a business forum. So goodbye. Good luck.

Are you seriously mad people questioned your view of ecommerce as not fastlane?

 

[Vick]

good discussion sometimes but i do not like how this forum is run. More of a cult than a business forum. So goodbye. Good luck.

dude you just got here. jeez

there's a lot of great info on this forum.

let's here your idea.

 

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[RBefort]

He got a little antsy in another post of MJ's saying stock market wasn't fastlane (I think?) On a serious note, ticker, why do you feel the way you do about these views? Is it just the copying aspect? Not everyone can create a big, successful business like Facebook off the bat. An ecommerce store might be the way to get their feet wet and learn; and then scale up bigger later to other projects. I don't really see how making money should affect the way you do business, in certain ways. What i mean is that obviously selling drugs and making 10 million is out of the question vs how you obtain sales revenue from importing some good (that can easily be copied) from china and make 10 million. Shit, as long as people buy it, it's legal, and you're making money, why not? You're obviously adding value in some way, no matter how dumb it is (an irrational purchase ppl think will make them happy, a want vs need, etc).

 

[dknise]

Generally they started with the dropshipping model but grew to manufacturing and/or importing their own products. It's only a matter of time till they have a liquidation event if they so choose to have one.

To say ecommerce doesn't fit Fastlane is ignorance.

Keyword there: started.

I wasn't arguing against all ecommerce, just the majority of bs wordpress sites that pop up with some plugins and the same dropshipper that the majority of people go to.

I guess I'll ad this as an argument for dropshipping... I have a mentor who runs a very very very successful ecommerce site that is dropshipped, but he personally took a trip to China and setup the distribution method with the company from scratch. It created a path that no other person could by just logging online and clicking a few buttons.

 

[biggeemac]

My wife and I are getting a wordpress together right now....mainly at the request of the customers. But, as of today, nothing is outsourced. I think its a good thing because we have our hands in all aspects of the business. Plus, we get something right now that many online retails dont get....interraction face to face with the customers. We are hearing the complaints of our competition straight from the horses mouths and can adjust our business to capture those that wish to flee from our competitors. We are extremely small time right now, but because we are learning so much, we will be able to craft something that really makes people happy to come to us. I am happy to start small scale for now until I can create something that others will have a hard time competing with.

Let those that think they can throw together a wordpress and bury the competition keep ignorance alive.....that ignorance is ultimately what is cause US to be able to have success

PS, word of mouth and direct contact with customers is a great way to make "friends". Try doing that with your wordpress site alone.

 

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[Jonleehacker]

good discussion sometimes but i do not like how this forum is run. More of a cult than a business forum. So goodbye. Good luck.

Don't let the door hit you on the a$$ on the vvay out

 

[brainact]

Well, of course it was probably a good idea to found an e-commerce venture for 15, 20 or 25 years. But you can't point at Zappos and say at the same time, well see e-commerce is successul, let's start an e-commerce venture. Time changed and our environment is a completly different one.

In Sky's listing of CENTS you revealed, that entry is massive violated. And in fact, the core problem from "low entry barriers" is, that you will have high competiton and the the resulting problems. And if you have a small market and established competitiors at the same time, the opportunity doesn't look seductive.

However, in my opionion founding an 0815 e-commerce venture is a really bad idea. Additionally that has nothing to do with "entrepreneurship".

Edit: I mean, for nowadays of course. Of course we have now successful e-commerce companies, but they were founded in a different time. And in this time, founding an e-commerce store was highly "entrepreneurship". But i'm afraid, it isn't nowadays. At least, if they offer no additional value compared to all the other established e-commerce stores. But if you found such an e-commerce store, the command of "entry" no longer is violated.

 

[qewrtyass]

shovel in ecommerce term, such as blog theme, shopping cart plugins. is well sold. i count there are many popular themes make millions.

 

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[1step]

However, in my opionion founding an 0815 e-commerce venture is a really bad idea. Additionally that has nothing to do with "entrepreneurship".

Why are we still talking about this?

Ecommerce=selling something over the internet

Thats fastlane, end of story. If you want to talk about drop shipping or something similar than go ahead but everyone needs to stop mentioning "ecommerce", its clearly fastlane and its not really a debate.

 

[dknise]

You never hear about a "dropship bootstrapped e-commerce site" getting a fastlane liquidation sale, do you?

Zappos.

You must have mis-read my post, I said dropship bootstrapped e-commerce site. Zappos had a massive warehouse.

 

[theag]

You must have mis-read my post, I said dropship bootstrapped e-commerce site. Zappos had a massive warehouse.

Zappos started by taking pictures of shoes from a local retail shoe store and putting them on a website. When someone bought a shoe on their site they would go to the local store, buy the shoe there and ship it. Its doesnt get any more bootstrapped than this.

But this was 1999, so of course times have changed. Today you will have to do more than throw up a template store and put some dropshipped products on it. But there is a lot of information on this forum on what is required today. Just check out what the successful people like Vigilante do and you will see clearly that this is fastlane. Ecommerce is just a distribution channel, it isnt fastlane in itself. Create a product or service that solves a need and use ecommerce as your distribution channel with worldwide scalability and you're golden. It doesn't get more fastlane than this.

This discussion is really F*cking stupid.

 

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[JayKim]

good discussion sometimes but i do not like how this forum is run. More of a cult than a business forum. So goodbye. Good luck.

:fu:

 

[Skys]

Keyword there: started.

Do you think Amazon has all their books and stuff in a big warehouse?

 

[Vigilante]

Do you think Amazon has all their books and stuff in a big warehouse?

I think they might have it in the back of a very large station wagon.

 

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[mayana]

good discussion sometimes but i do not like how this forum is run. More of a cult than a business forum. So goodbye. Good luck.

G'bye!

 

[GuestUser8117]

G'bye!

Lol best forum on the internet and he leaves. You can learn a lot more here than school.