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Spoony's eCommerce Progress Thread

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Spoony

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Just realized a huge screw-up I have been doing with my project this entire time :banghead:

Happy that I caught it, however!

With that said, once finals and everything are over at my university, I am ready to go full throttle on this thing during my winter break!
 
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Spoony

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Nothing significant to note other than that I am still heavily plugging away!
 

Sharilli

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Learn to embrace the weather... Get the right clothes in and get out in it. I have walked my dogs and ice formed on my eyelashes and also had summers where I hosed down a shaded wall of my house and steam came off. No such thing as bad weather. Change that paradigm and you will be so much better off


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Only Positive Thoughts will lead you on the right path. F*ck excuses.
 

Spoony

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I just got the program followliker to use alongside facebook ads.

I wish I had gotten this sooner, as I am very impressed with it!

With the specific niche I am focusing on, growing an instagram following will be huge for me.
 
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Spoony

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Got a VPS at the beginning of last week that is allowing me to run followliker 24/7... and it is awesome!

I am quite surprised how quickly followliker has been able to grow all my accounts.
 

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Keep up the hustle buddy. Two years ago I started off just like you (was 20 at the time). I started my PL adventure on amazon. Now I have 3 best sellers in relatively large markets.

Mind me asking, is there a reason you're not selling on amazon (maybe I missed it on page 1)? I would encourage all e-commerce sellers to test the waters on amazon. They already have done all the marketing for you - billions of people waiting to buy your product.
 

Spoony

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Keep up the hustle buddy. Two years ago I started off just like you (was 20 at the time). I started my PL adventure on amazon. Now I have 3 best sellers in relatively large markets.

Mind me asking, is there a reason you're not selling on amazon (maybe I missed it on page 1)? I would encourage all e-commerce sellers to test the waters on amazon. They already have done all the marketing for you - billions of people waiting to buy your product.

You know it has honestly never occurred to me to sell on amazon. For whatever reason I was always set on taking the shopify route.

Any recommendations for getting started in that area?

Thank you for mentioning it.
 

Spoony

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I plan to do a major update soon on how everything is going but have not had quite enough time to sit down and write out the post just yet

I am just checking in for now, and everything is still going great.
 
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JSM

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I plan to do a major update soon on how everything is going but have not had quite enough time to sit down and write out the post just yet

I am just checking in for now, and everything is still going great.
How many followers have you gained with followliker? What settings are you using?
 

Spoony

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How many followers have you gained with followliker? What settings are you using?

Pinterest
  • Scrape user/pin limit: 40
  • Following
    • Limit: 10-20
    • Daily: 35-75
    • Delay: 70-122
  • Unfollowing
    • Days: 3
    • Limit: 10-20
    • Daily: 35-75
    • Delay: 80-125
  • Liking
    • Limit: 10-20
    • Daily: 25-45
    • Delay: 60-142
  • Repinning
    • Limit: 25-50
    • Daily: 460-500
    • Delay: 15-20
  • Comments
    • Limit: 1-1
    • Daily: 5-10
    • Delay: 15-20

Twitter
  • Following
    • Limit: 10-20
    • Daily: 35-75
    • Delay: 70-122
  • Unfollowing
    • Days: 3
    • Limit: 10-20
    • Daily: 35-75
    • Delay: 80-125
  • Liking
    • Limit: 10-20
    • Daily: 25-45
    • Delay: 60-142

Instagram
  • Following
    • Limit: 5-10
    • Daily: 200-300
    • Delay: 70-100
  • Unfollowing
    • Days: 3
    • Limit: 10-20
    • Daily: 100-200
    • Delay: 80-125
  • Liking
    • Limit: 5-10
    • Daily: 150-200
    • Delay: 30-50
  • Comments
    • Limit: 2-3
    • Daily: 25-70
    • Delay: 80-120

Tumblr
  • Following
    • Limit: 10-20
    • Daily: 35-75
    • Delay: 70-122
  • Unfollowing
    • Days: 3
    • Limit: 10-20
    • Daily: 35-75
    • Delay: 80-125
  • Liking
    • Limit: 10-20
    • Daily: 25-45
    • Delay: 60-142
I have all of these run monday-saturday with sundays off, and only 6AM-11:59PM

Also, with pinterest I have the boards made in secret mode, otherwise I'm sure it would pick up on how much my account is being blasted.
 

Spoony

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In terms of followers gained:

Instagram ~600.
Twitter ~150
Tumblr ~40
Pinterest ~170

These accounts have been running for about 4 weeks, so I'm not entirely sure if these are good results? Likewise I am playing it as safe as possible with this particular niche.

I have another niche that I started 4 days ago that is doing phenomenally better, and on it's instagram account I have already gained 100 followers without even posting photos yet.

Both of these niches are connected to eCommerce stores, one being my primary focus, and the second one using a free+shipping drop ship model that I have just been toying with.
 
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Spoony

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Launching my new facebook ads campaign tomorrow!
 

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You know it has honestly never occurred to me to sell on amazon. For whatever reason I was always set on taking the shopify route.

Any recommendations for getting started in that area?

It appears that Shopify has a native Amazon connector here:

Sell on Amazon – Start Selling Your Products on Amazon Marketplace

There are many other companies that do this as well:
https://www.ecomdash.com/
https://www.nchannel.com/
...others... search for "amazon shoppify connector"

One of the best connectors in all ecommerce is the Magento extension m2epro connector. It connects Magento with Ebay, Amazon, Rakuten, Sears... and maybe Walmart? Not sure about Walmart. It is the most advanced connector I have seen in any ecommerce system, and, coincidentally one of the least expensive. I know you are not using Magento... this is informational only:)
 

Spoony

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It appears that Shopify has a native Amazon connector here:

Sell on Amazon – Start Selling Your Products on Amazon Marketplace

There are many other companies that do this as well:
https://www.ecomdash.com/
https://www.nchannel.com/
...others... search for "amazon shoppify connector"

One of the best connectors in all ecommerce is the Magento extension m2epro connector. It connects Magento with Ebay, Amazon, Rakuten, Sears... and maybe Walmart? Not sure about Walmart. It is the most advanced connector I have seen in any ecommerce system, and, coincidentally one of the least expensive. I know you are not using Magento... this is informational only:)

Thank you for this!

That is a boatload of information...

As for my weekly update:

I am currently contacting affiliates in mass--I have had 6 register so far :)

Likewise, I have finished building a spread sheet system so I can track all of my facebook ad data efficiently and effectively.

I currently have launched two recent ads to as tests to see if my new strategy will work--and it is!

This week, I will be launching around 5-10 ads as I begin heavily campaigning and collecting data.

Cheers
 
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New

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Hey, another person has asked this before, but apparently you forgot to answer this question.

I would really appreciate if you could tell me how did you know what product to sell?

How did you validate it before actually importing 50 or 100 pcs?

Or did you find multiple potential products, and then 1 out of X is the one that sold and pays for the rest?

Thank you

Also, if you decide to go the Shopify -> Amazon route,

Just letting you know that you can also go Shopify -> EBay, and kill 2 3 birds with one stone. Check the Shopify app "Inkfrog"

For me it was very useful, that's how I did Aliexpress to eBay (Ali -> Oberlo -> Inkfrog -> eBay).
 

Spoony

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Hey, another person has asked this before, but apparently you forgot to answer this question.

I would really appreciate if you could tell me how did you know what product to sell?

How did you validate it before actually importing 50 or 100 pcs?

Or did you find multiple potential products, and then 1 out of X is the one that sold and pays for the rest?

Thank you

Also, if you decide to go the Shopify -> Amazon route,

Just letting you know that you can also go Shopify -> EBay, and kill 2 3 birds with one stone. Check the Shopify app "Inkfrog"

For me it was very useful, that's how I did Aliexpress to eBay (Ali -> Oberlo -> Inkfrog -> eBay).

So the first thing I did was pick a niche that I knew was timeless, and that people will always buy from.

In order to figure out which products were currently selling, after failing a multitude of facebook campaigns I decided to try the free + shipping strategy.

It works quite well for several reasons.

First, you can advertise the cheaper products in your niche while running higher odds of making a purchase.

Second, and this is the key part here, your facebook pixel will acquire the data letting you know where your customers are for running a more retail focused campaign.

Third, you will ALSO be able to see what items your customers are adding to their cart as an upsell alongside the free + shipping items. So then you can go on to use those ones in your regular facebook ads.

So I would recommend taking this route if you are struggling. You will for sure make sells plus acquire the necessary data you need to turn your store full retail. Likewise, make sure you have a variety of items in your niche category so you can figure out what else your customers add to the cart with the free plus shipping items.

After doing this for a little bit, you will be in a MUCH better position to sell your retail items.

You will know where your customers are (from FB pixel) and what retail items they want (what else they looked at and added to cart with the free + shipping).

Does this make sense?

Let me know if you still have questions.

---------

Thanks for pointing that out, I've really been considering opening up those other doors.

So you would recommend getting both the shopify amazon application alongside inkfrog which allows ebay integration?
 

Walter Hay

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Hey @Donna_Lee,

Yes, a skype number will ring if you someone calls you. It acts exactly how a normal phone does, just on your computer.

Checkout this link for how to set it up:
My Dropshipping Journey with AliExpress

Just scroll down in the thread and you'll see it.
Be careful about copying some of the ideas presented by the author of that thread. He is making a fortune selling a course and an app related to dropshipping with Aliexpress, but some of the success story figures he quotes are based on illegal import and resale of Intellectual Property. His replies to me show that he has absolutely nil regard for IP.

Search my AMA and you will read about the hundreds of recent cases in which people doing such illegal reselling are being sued by the brand owners and their websites (therefore their businesses) have been shut down.

Walter
 
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Spoony

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Be careful about copying some of the ideas presented by the author of that thread. He is making a fortune selling a course and an app related to dropshipping with Aliexpress, but some of the success story figures he quotes are based on illegal import and resale of Intellectual Property. His replies to me show that he has absolutely nil regard for IP.

Search my AMA and you will read about the hundreds of recent cases in which people doing such illegal reselling are being sued by the brand owners and their websites (therefore their businesses) have been shut down.

Walter

Thanks for pointing that out!

I will check out your AMA.

The guy sounds dodgey!
 

New

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So the first thing I did was pick a niche that I knew was timeless, and that people will always buy from.

In order to figure out which products were currently selling, after failing a multitude of facebook campaigns I decided to try the free + shipping strategy.

It works quite well for several reasons.

First, you can advertise the cheaper products in your niche while running higher odds of making a purchase.

Second, and this is the key part here, your facebook pixel will acquire the data letting you know where your customers are for running a more retail focused campaign.

Third, you will ALSO be able to see what items your customers are adding to their cart as an upsell alongside the free + shipping items. So then you can go on to use those ones in your regular facebook ads.

So I would recommend taking this route if you are struggling. You will for sure make sells plus acquire the necessary data you need to turn your store full retail. Likewise, make sure you have a variety of items in your niche category so you can figure out what else your customers add to the cart with the free plus shipping items.

After doing this for a little bit, you will be in a MUCH better position to sell your retail items.

You will know where your customers are (from FB pixel) and what retail items they want (what else they looked at and added to cart with the free + shipping).

Does this make sense?

Let me know if you still have questions.

---------

Thanks for pointing that out, I've really been considering opening up those other doors.

So you would recommend getting both the shopify amazon application alongside inkfrog which allows ebay integration?

Hello again,

Thank you a lot for the answer. Yes, it totally makes sense and it has really given me a clear insight.

I've just been selling on eBay until now (no Shopify + FB) so my conception of eCommerce was different from yours.

You'll see if you go Amazon/eBay way that since they are online marketplaces, your strategies should be different, you can't just dropship from China or sell products without actually having them stocked.

So a lot of time is spent on the actual research and making sure your products are not flops (after all if you order 50-100 pcs from China and you've messed up the demand part, that's a big amount of money going to waste). That's why the question.

Either way, I would say you can benefit from Amazon + eBay. I mean, you already have your products on Shopify, so why not? All you need to do is a few clicks.

I believe if you have best-sellers, products you know for sure will sell, it would be a good idea to private-label them. Branded items usually do way better on Amazon and eBay (they stand out from generically branded ones which are sold by 100s of vendors, including the manufacturers themselves). And if it doesn't go your way... you can always sell them through the usual Shopify route.

I don't know about the other guy's Amazon app, but either way Inkfrog app allows you to sync both with eBay and Amazon and the pricing is something like $10 a month, check it out.

Thanks again for all the advice
 

Spoony

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Hello again,

Thank you a lot for the answer. Yes, it totally makes sense and it has really given me a clear insight.

I've just been selling on eBay until now (no Shopify + FB) so my conception of eCommerce was different from yours.

You'll see if you go Amazon/eBay way that since they are online marketplaces, your strategies should be different, you can't just dropship from China or sell products without actually having them stocked.

So a lot of time is spent on the actual research and making sure your products are not flops (after all if you order 50-100 pcs from China and you've messed up the demand part, that's a big amount of money going to waste). That's why the question.

Either way, I would say you can benefit from Amazon + eBay. I mean, you already have your products on Shopify, so why not? All you need to do is a few clicks.

I believe if you have best-sellers, products you know for sure will sell, it would be a good idea to private-label them. Branded items usually do way better on Amazon and eBay (they stand out from generically branded ones which are sold by 100s of vendors, including the manufacturers themselves). And if it doesn't go your way... you can always sell them through the usual Shopify route.

I don't know about the other guy's Amazon app, but either way Inkfrog app allows you to sync both with eBay and Amazon and the pricing is something like $10 a month, check it out.

Thanks again for all the advice

I didn't realize you were doing in house fulfillment!

My mistake.

Like you said, I plan to move into that route once I am more comfortable in my market and understand it--that why I won't order 100pcs of an item that no on wants--as you pointed out.

Thank you for all the information.

I plan to integrate on amazon and ebay very soon.
 
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Spoony

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All I am currently doing is launching Facebook Ads, collecting Facebook pixel data, and contacting affiliates in mass. I will do a larger update on this soon.
 

Spoony

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Still launching facebook ads

Very confident that I will have a few winners in this batch.

After reading TONS of articles, watching loads of webinars, and finishing Russel Brunson's DOTCOM Secrets I feel like I finally know what the hell is going on since I started.

February is going to be a good month for me.
 

Spoony

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I have been extremely busy recently and have forgotten to update this thread!

I have had huge AWESOME changes which I will update with when I get the time.

Stay tuned for a big update.
 
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I still don't have an whole lot of time to pound a huge report out, but here are my insights so far, and more detail into what how I am doing.

The first part of this post is more general--what I have learned so far, etc. The second part is the current status of my business.

I started this journey at 21 the summer before approaching my Senior Year of College. I realized I needed to start thinking about employment--but hated the idea of having a job as I never enjoyed my internships or part-time jobs. I went to r/entrepreneur at reddit, found a thread about dropshipping, and decided that I'd go for it. I knew close to nothing about business, eCommerce, and entrepreneurship. Initially I was planning to do standard order fulfillment in my house, but ultimately switched over to dropshipping. I am extremely satisfied with where I am at thus far.

What I have learned so far:

1) Dropshipping is not dead.

I have seen quite a few people say this--even in threads dating back to 2013--and it is far from the truth. Many people think dropshipping is some sort of get-rich-quick-scheme--it isn't. If that is your mindset, then yes, it is dead. The first key is remembering that this is a real business, and you need to be prepared to work your a$$ off so you can figure out what is going on. As I continue to build my brand I plan to move away from dropshipping.

2) The most important aspect of any business is execution.

I know now that ideas are nothing special and execution is everything. Don't reinvent the wheel. Pick something that works--like how I picked dropshipping and eCommerce--and go out and do it better than everyone else.

3) Never stop reading.

Right now I am currently clearing about 1 book/week. I have read all the top titles with respect to Internet Marketing, and in hindsight I was a total dumbass but not reading. This will accelerate your progress FAR FAR more than anything else. You can see the mistakes of the greats before you, and what they recommend. My favorite and most helpful titles so far: the millionaire fastlane (obviously), Click Millionaires, The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Advertising, DOTCOM secrets, Psycho Cybernetics (More mindset than business), and my all time favorites: 88 The Narrow Road and How to Get rich both by Felix Dennis.

Current Status of my business:

1) Facebook Ads

I was spinning my wheels FOR SO LONG before I could get this nailed down. It took several video courses, reading a couple books, and testing over and over before I could figure this out. Now that I understand how these work, I plan to expand into more niches as I grow my current one.

I will go into more detail in a later post on my exact strategy here, but I am now a firm believer in Facebook Ads. It just took me awhile before I "cracked the code," so to speak.

2) Followliker

Still working on how to perfect this.

3) Affiliates

I began using affiliality and have loved it! I have been contacting influencers over Instagram by DMing them and then shipping them a product.

I realize this is pretty brief and doesn't really cover a whole of my business itself, but I feel like I have made immense progress in the past 4 weeks.
 

Patrickg

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I have been trying to crack the facebook ads for my ecommerce niche... Yet, I haven't.

Just out of curiosity are you selling low ticket items or larger ticket items?
 
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Spoony

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I have been trying to crack the facebook ads for my ecommerce niche... Yet, I haven't.

Just out of curiosity are you selling low ticket items or larger ticket items?

Hey man,

I am selling items in the $15-$40 range.

I have refrained from updating this thread for awhile as I have a huge update coming pretty soon--My facebook ads strategy will be included.
 

Patrickg

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Well sounds good. I will watch for it. I am selling higher ticket items and haven't seen social work well yet... Not counting it out yet. But even with re-targeting etc. it doesn't seem to fit.
 

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