From Affiliate Marketing To Importing And Ecommerce

[hughjasle]

Been about a year since I started on this path so it's time for an update.

I learned A LOT this year. It was kinda like going back to the school of hard knocks. My overall income dipped because of this vs just hitting affiliate marketing like I had been, but the payoff is well worth it for me.

Few key take aways:

1. There are scumbags in ecommerce just like in affiliate marketing. You try and help people, show them your funnels and products to help them out (yes guys on this forum are no exception) and find out 1 month later they stole your exact funnels and products and are trying to compete. I will destroy anyone because I put in the time to build top notch service for my customers, but it just pisses you off.
2. There is a massive wave of drop shippers hitting right now. They all sell crap products. They scale like mad to get up to $25k a day, only to burn out in a month when paypal freezes their accounts, FB bans them, and customers are charging back their orders because of shipping issues/piss poor customer service/and terrible quality products that are usually rip offs of patented products. Idiots. These are the money chasers. Don't be one of them. Be a wealth creator. Don't get sucked into the crazy money they "seem" to make.
3. Doing things correctly takes TIME. Lots of time. Don't expect to make a ton of money overnight if you don't have $$ in the bank to hold a ton of inventory and a pay a team of people to help you provide customer service to all those orders.
4. Selling on FB is good and all, but you need more sources if you want your business to really be sellable at fun multiples.
5. Working with the right people is crucial. From who you partner with (if you partner) to who you hire to help as well as who you go with for fulfillment. These are all SO IMPORTANT. I finally have a good fulfillment center that i'm extremely happy with. It makes a night and day difference. Customer service issues are cut literally by 90% just by getting a fulfillment center that cares. It amazes me the crappy service and high fees these guys charge because - that's what they all do.

I'm very excited for the next 12 months and all the years to come. I am excited to be in this space. Coming up with new products and introducing the world to them just excites me. May next year bring massive learning and incredible experiences to everyone

 

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[Andy Black]

Working with the right people is crucial.

Isn't it just.

People > Processes > Technology (in that order)

 

[hughjasle]

Isn't it just.

People > Processes > Technology (in that order)

Idk if there is an order or not. I have yet a lot to learn

But those are definitely the three pieces. In my case the technology is not my end product, it is part of my process and thus product is my third pillar. Same thing. Just different wording as I don't want to confuse all these young Americans.

During the course of this thread I have received many PMs and I learned that people take what is said wayyyy to literally. While I do give some specifics in here, the vast majority of the information here is loosely given. It is meant to convey the idea of e-commerce and selling via FB. Every case is different but the idea should be roughly the same.

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

 

[jfny]

@hughjasle Great thread. Came across it an hour or so ago. Read the whole thing.

What tips/pointers would you give to someone who is struggling to find a product?
What are some attributes you think a product must have in order for it to pass the cut / even get considered?

I've researched this before but want to hear your thoughts on it because you make it seem pretty easy.

 

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[hughjasle]

What tips/pointers would you give to someone who is struggling to find a product?
What are some attributes you think a product must have in order for it to pass the cut / even get considered?

There are different trains of thought here really.

There is the toss it up and see what sticks method if you really have no clue of what to sell

Or there is the, I know what these people want and I'm going to make it for them.

Or the, constant keeping your eyes open for new products and ideas and seeing things that are brilliant, but not many people know it exists or hasn't been applied to different problem.

My personal qualifications are very general. I just want products that are of quality, they actually do what I say they do, they are 100% legal in every aspect, there is enough margin to make it work.

I know the constant question is always "how much margin?" so i'll just address it.

I have products that I sell for under $5 and I've had products over $100. They both worked and made a lot of money. That said, I like the higher priced stuff wayyyy more as it was less headache. A $1 increase in CPA or CPM could be make or break on those low dollar products, and not even affect the high dollar ones.

If anyone continues to struggle for products, I suggest biophases amazon coaching. He has his own methods of finding products that rocks, plus you'll get to learn amazon with it

 

[jfny]

There is the toss it up and see what sticks method if you really have no clue of what to sell
Or there is the, I know what these people want and I'm going to make it for them.
Or the, constant keeping your eyes open for new products and ideas and seeing things that are brilliant, but not many people know it exists or hasn't been applied to different problem.
My personal qualifications are very general. I just want products that are of quality, they actually do what I say they do, they are 100% legal in every aspect, there is enough margin to make it work.
I know the constant question is always "how much margin?" so i'll just address it.
I have products that I sell for under $5 and I've had products over $100. They both worked and made a lot of money. That said, I like the higher priced stuff wayyyy more as it was less headache. A $1 increase in CPA or CPM could be make or break on those low dollar products, and not even affect the high dollar ones.
If anyone continues to struggle for products, I suggest biophases amazon coaching. He has his own methods of finding products that rocks, plus you'll get to learn amazon with it

Thanks for the advice. Especially the point of an increase of only a dollar in CPA can hurt a low margin product pretty bad. More of a reason to stay away from them.

Another question:

Do you use any tools such as JungleScout or ASINspector to give you more of an edge? If so, would be willing to run it against your own products and let me know if the revenue calculator is even remotely accurate? @biophase Do you use either of these tools as well? I know you're pretty big into Amazon.

Thanks.

 

[jfny]

Ignore this. Double post by accident. Something glitched.

 

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[hughjasle]

Do you use any tools such as JungleScout or ASINspector to give you more of an edge?

I don't sell on amazon at this time. So no, I do not use these tools.

 

[Scotch]

Let's reignite this gold-worthy thread.

(noob question incoming)

Couldn't you theoretically, and initially, do all of this with an affiliate product instead, save all the importing and fulfilment side of things and the endless headaches it brings?

Sure, you won't own the product at first, but it would be a lot quicker, less expensive and less frustrating to start up, with the potential to move onto your own products if the affiliate products show success.

 

[hughjasle]

Couldn't you theoretically, and initially, do all of this with an affiliate product instead, save all the importing and fulfilment side of things and the endless headaches it brings?

yes and no.

Yes - in its basic form, all this is is running paid traffic and learning to make it profitable. No in the sense that you typically can't make a cart, collect the money and then ship the product. In affiliate marketing you don't typically have any control once you send them to the page to checkout or whatever they are supposed to do.

A happy medium is to just drop ship. It's one of those hot topic things these days and all the rage for many guys who don't want to deal with the 'headaches' of importing and brand building.

The hard part with drop shipping is that you are relying on someone else (usually some chinese factory) to ship your product, make sure it good quality etc. That is a headache as well. To make things more fun, anyone can ship the exact same thing as you since it's just some chinese brand etc. There are ways to better do this, but takes more money and more risk and not for guys just starting. Dropshipping from aliexpress is notoriously bad and many companies including FB are trying to crack down it because customers typically hate it.

But back to your main point, yea you can cut those corners and dropship or do affiliate marketing to build your base and skills till you are ready to do things right. That's a personal decision really. But honestly it doesn't take much to do it right from the get go.

If I were to start over again today from scratch, I'd join Biophase's Amazon Coaching to get that side of things going as that helps prepare your mind for quality products and building an asset. I'd also grab Walter Hay's book on importing to start learning how to do it proper. That's a fantastic way to get started then just leaves you with learning how to properly advertise and build funnels that convert.

 

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[Jeremy Groover]

I have been following this thread for quite some time! This is truly an inspirational thread and has really impacted my way of thinking. I own a B&M company right now that is finally doing pretty well. I am getting ready to fire up another B&M company as a partnership that goes hand in hand with my other company. Once I am out of the start up phase of this new endeavor, my next step is going to start focusing on a keyboard business. I really want to get into amazon and have already tinkered with some of your tips and tricks on finding a product via shopify and FB with no luck quite yet. I have had a few good responses on 2 products but not great enough to commit to them. After finding a product, what would you say has been the best ways and worst ways of marketing the product? If you don't want to share all of your secrets, I completely understand or if you would be willing to talk further via PM it would be greatly appreciated. I think the hardest part would be actually selling the product, not actually finding it. I know you run FB ads, but is that all you do to market your product? I know you have collected an email list over time from AM, but are you just spamming the email list? How does that work? I see "junk emails" all the time in my inbox, and I don't think I have ever opened one that didn't come from a company that I purchase from regularly.

Jeremy

 

[hughjasle]

I know you have collected an email list over time from AM

Actually I didn't collect any emails from AM. Only emails I've collected have been for this e-commerce venture.

are you just spamming the email list? How does that work? I see "junk emails" all the time in my inbox, and I don't think I have ever opened one that didn't come from a company that I purchase from regularly.

I don't SPAM my customers no, and I'm still learning emails, but the trick to emails is just like everything else. Get a large enough pool of people and someone will buy. It's just a matter of making sure your costs to reach that pool of people doesn't exceed your net revenue. Emails are great for getting the people who do really like your brand, or are at least curious about it to buy from you, or buy from you again.

After finding a product, what would you say has been the best ways and worst ways of marketing the product?

There really is no right or wrong way to do it. Quitting the fight too early, or not arriving to the fight prepared is the worst that you can do. Even worse than doing nothing IMO.
And yes I still mainly do FB advertising, but I do have other sources now. Facebook however is still my largest by far.
Video ads do very well for me as do authentic product reviews and testimonials from real customers (customers who know how to do good quality videos is important here). People are slammed with bad quality products these days. They want to see that what you are pushing is good quality. Social proof does wonders to show that you are the real deal these days. I suspect it will be that way for a while till someone comes out with a service to mass produce fake reviews for companies online like they did on amazon reviews.

 

[Jeremy Groover]

I appreciate the input. I do have 1 more question. What is the average cost of "testing a product"? Lets say the product is selling for $50.00.

 

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[hughjasle]

What is the average cost of "testing a product"? Lets say the product is selling for $50.00.

The longer I do this the harder these questions become. I really thought it would be opposite that.

Here's the thing, are you looking make that product work? or are you working to find the easiest to sell product?

It can take $5-10k+ to make that product work, but go on to produce $5k profit a day for a year+ and sellable business. Whereas if you were just looking for the easiest product to sell you'd have most likely passed on this product and gone on to spend a small amount across a multitude of products to find a few that sell like hot cakes, but only for a few months till the flare is gone.

 

[quanttastic]

The longer I do this the harder these questions become. I really thought it would be opposite that.

Here's the thing, are you looking make that product work? or are you working to find the easiest to sell product?

It can take $5-10k+ to make that product work, but go on to produce $5k profit a day for a year+ and sellable business. Whereas if you were just looking for the easiest product to sell you'd have most likely passed on this product and gone on to spend a small amount across a multitude of products to find a few that sell like hot cakes, but only for a few months till the flare is gone.

First of all thanks again for all of the value you are providing here.

Lets say we have a product that we think provides value. And we are willing to spend the 5-10k to try to get the advertising right in order to "make it work."

What would be your recommended course of action for the 5-10k spend?

 

[hughjasle]

What would be your recommended course of action for the 5-10k spend?

• Get quality picture and videos of the product done. Professionally prefered unless you can do prof. quality yourself.
• Build a funnel or store (clickfunnels or shopify), again make it good and professional
• Make sure the copy is top notch but remember, people want to see more than they want to read. Keep copy short and too the point and do LOTS of imagery.
• Give out this product to a bunch of youtubers/instagramers. Get video reviews and testimonials. Load them up on your site
• Run traffic on FB
  • Test between broad and targeted.
  • Spend that money for both you and FB to figure out who your audience is
• Split test the funnel/site (i like Virtual Website Optimizer)
• Grow grow grow

I've found that a lot of the advertising comes down to the willingness to spend the money and making sure that you are sending that traffic to your store that is READY for them.

 

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[kd38]

Not too sure Spotify works so I just have a few questions.

When testing your products through Facebook ads (at the beginning as you said you don't use Shopify anymore) did you use basic Shopify, shopify or advanced shopify?

Do any of the accounts restrict you to only one URL? Or can you integrate shopify to multiple URLS with one account?


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[hughjasle]

Not too sure Spotify works so I just have a few questions

I use spotify all the time. Great place for music

use basic Shopify, shopify or advanced shopify

I used basic when I was first starting and just testing. And no, you cannot use multiple URL's I believe, but you can point multiple URL's to your store, not sure if that would be useful or not.

If you don't know what product you want to sell yet, I'd suggest going the general store route. If you at least know the niche you'd like to be in then you can do a general store in that specific niche.

For example, a completely general store could be something like "oddthings.tld" whereas a more niche specific store in say the pet space would be "prettypets.tld"

Then once you find what you want to do you can break away and build the site you want to do, or keep this and build from there, or have 2 separate sites and just use this one as a testing ground.

 

[Yockel]

phew just read it all

Impressive @hughjasle ! I'd like to be your apprentice

I'm just thinking how nowadays everything is mobile first and you see the kids go perma-crane-neck in the streets looking at their FB account getting run over by cars....FB is a good place to show ads. Also the landing pages you send people to could be optimized towards mobile first. Don't know if you know any coding and it doesn't matter really, but there are coding platforms optimized for mobile devices (e.g. bootstrap). I feel that you could streamline the mobile shopping experience even further by optimizing towards that. Saying all that I don't know...maybe your sites are already hyper mobile optimized.

You (and others) mentioned biophase' amazon course. Do you have link to that.

I'll dip my toes into this following your advice. Will see how it turns out.

Thanks again. Rep transfered

Edit: Really sad what you mentioned about people ripping your ideas/funnels...I hope "what goes around comes around" for them

 

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[hughjasle]

maybe your sites are already hyper mobile optimized.

yes everything is 100% mobile optimized. This is a must nowadays.

You (and others) mentioned biophase' amazon course. Do you have link to that.

It's here on the forum. Just search for it. I don't know for sure, but I'm pretty positive he's booked out at the moment as he only takes on a certain number at a time. Just keep and eye out and be prepared. Get started doing it on your own first.

 

[LPPC]

phew just read it all

Impressive @hughjasle ! I'd like to be your apprentice

I'm just thinking how nowadays everything is mobile first and you see the kids go perma-crane-neck in the streets looking at their FB account getting run over by cars....FB is a good place to show ads. Also the landing pages you send people to could be optimized towards mobile first. Don't know if you know any coding and it doesn't matter really, but there are coding platforms optimized for mobile devices (e.g. bootstrap). I feel that you could streamline the mobile shopping experience even further by optimizing towards that. Saying all that I don't know...maybe your sites are already hyper mobile optimized.

You (and others) mentioned biophase' amazon course. Do you have link to that.

I'll dip my toes into this following your advice. Will see how it turns out.

Thanks again. Rep transfered

Edit: Really sad what you mentioned about people ripping your ideas/funnels...I hope "what goes around comes around" for them

Biophase also has a GOLD thread somewhere on this forum where he explains his thought process when selecting products, you might want to check that too while waiting for him to take on new students for his coaching program. The title is something like Ask me Anything about Ecommerce 2015+.

 

[kd38]

I use spotify all the time. Great place for music
.

[emoji24][emoji24][emoji24] I'm pretty sure I edited all of those. Haha I prefer Apple Music.

In regards to your fulfilment Center, I live in the UK, do you recon it'll be really hard to get a trusted fulfilment Center in the US and have them check all the tick boxes without ever having to visit them?

Thanks for the reply @hughjasle I'm going to open the sHopify store today!!!!!!!!!!


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[hughjasle]

In regards to your fulfilment Center, I live in the UK, do you recon it'll be really hard to get a trusted fulfilment Center in the US and have them check all the tick boxes without ever having to visit them?

I don't think it's a common thing to visit fulfillment centers. I've only visited a couple and that was because they were local to me. Might be a good idea if you go that route.

I however ended up opening my own warehouse and fulfillment center after having too many issues with too many of the big guys in the space. So I figured I can do better and start with just my own shipments while opening it up to other businesses who were also fed up.

I found that they just don't care. They don't care to give quality service, to you or your customers. They are in business purely for the numbers and I wanted a personal touch. Someone with brains that knows I'm selling pre-filled water balloons and if they see one that is popped from the manufacturer, then to set it aside and let me know it is defective. Simple stuff like that and just communicate with me instead of waiting 1-3 days for a response. YMMV.

Obviously I went the extreme route, but you will quickly see how most customer service issues are shipping related and having a solid shipping system in place solves A LOT of headaches. That and shipping is a huge expense. When paying that much money, I wanted it to feel like I was getting what I expected out of it.

 

[PedroG]

Great thread! About affiliate marketing...I thought ads for one-page sites for affiliate marketing wasn't allowed on Facebook. Or is it only google that has cracked down on them?

 

[hughjasle]

Great thread! About affiliate marketing...I thought ads for one-page sites for affiliate marketing wasn't allowed on Facebook. Or is it only google that has cracked down on them?

Well, this thread isn't about affiliate marketing. It's about eCommerce and my tradition from doing affiliate marketing to owning and running my own eCommerce businesses.

To answer your question, being just one page isn't what Facebook or Google hates. It's bridge pages that provide absolutely no value and exist just as a step from the ad to the offer or actual page. Affiliate marketing is very much alive and thriving all over g00g and FB.

 

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[kd38]

I found that they just don't care. They don't care to give quality service, to you or your customers. They are in business purely for the numbers and I wanted a personal touch. Someone with brains that knows I'm selling pre-filled water balloons and if they see one that is popped from the manufacturer, then to set it aside and let me know it is defective. Simple stuff like that and just communicate with me instead of waiting 1-3 days for a response. YMMV.
.

That's the problem.

Ideally I would like to be selling in the US as opposed to the UK.

Pros - much bigger market = more sales
Cons - can't run my own fulfilment the way I want it (I would like to incorporate stuff like.... Hand written thank you notes etc.)

That being the case. Do you think I should focus on selling only in the UK (where I live)

Or

Going for US and doing something via FBA.

Your responses are so detailed. I appreciate the time and effort you're putting into replying to my questions.


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[hughjasle]

Cons - can't run my own fulfilment the way I want it

Why can't you? Sure it's gonna be harder without you here, but it's still possible.

I think doing handwritten notes is going to be a challenge no matter what if you are the one physically doing it.

should focus on selling only in the UK (where I live) Or Going for US and doing something via FBA.

Why can't you do both?

I'm still very new to amazon. Mostly just listed the current products I'm running in my ecom stores. However, I do plan to focus more on Amazon this year as the little results have been amazing.

If you are doing amazon, i'm not sure you need a fulfillment center as amazon has plenty of advantages in just going with them.

Don't take this the wrong way, but you seem to be getting hung up on something that has lots of solutions. Do you have your product already selected, verified quality and function with samples etc.?

If not, then I'd focus on that first. If you have and you are honestly looking for the next step to start mass selling, then I'd start with just selling on amazon personally. Get your products into amazon and maximize that source first.

If I had to start from zero today, that's what I'd do. Start with Amazon, then move to FB ads/Google ads/etc. and selling outside of Amazon. The beauty of Amazon is that you don't need to constantly run traffic to make sells once you have something good. You can then leverage that cash into moving off Amazon where things get pricey and fast.

 

[PedroG]

Well, this thread isn't about affiliate marketing. It's about eCommerce and my tradition from doing affiliate marketing to owning and running my own eCommerce businesses.

To answer your question, being just one page isn't what Facebook or Google hates. It's bridge pages that provide absolutely no value and exist just as a step from the ad to the offer or actual page. Affiliate marketing is very much alive and thriving all over g00g and FB.

Thanks. Yeah I understand the thread is about importing. I was just curious because I had considered trying affiliate marketing just as a way to get better at making FB and Google ads, but I thought it had become much harder now. Thanks for clearing that up.

And thanks for all the info on importing. It's something I've been considering too, if my current software project doesn't end up working out.

 

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[hughjasle]

current software project

Not to derail the thread, but make that project work! I'm going to assume you already tested the market and found it was a needed software. Push and make it happen. Don't look for backups just yet. Affiliate marketing isn't going anywhere. Focus on making your project work. If you can learn to push through and make 1 project work, every project thereafter will be that much easier.

 

[Yussef]

Keep killing it. You gave me a good idea by the way.