Earn $50 by June 31st. Budget $350

[JoeB]

What am I going to do TODAY about it:

• Keep on procrastinating for today.

Until tomorrow.

Write a list of specific tasks you are going to do tomorrow. Not generalisations like "research products" but "sign up for an amazon account" etc.

Thinking it is going to take a year is making you put it off and makes it seem overwhelming.

Tomorrow do 3 things
The day after do 4
Keep building it up
See how much you can achieve in 1 month

Not many things take a year to see results.

 

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[eTox]

I do not understand why I have not thought of this earlier....

LOL.

I can just dropship via Aliexpress.

Steps:

• Create a financial plan for accumulating wealth (long term)
• Create a strategy for using drop shipping and Aliexpress
• Take action
  • Research audience
  • Target them a product

PS: Procrastinating for that day really helped. I got my mind back on track and I am ready to take action.

PPS: FK. 8 days left and I am $0. Time to hustle.

Until later.

 

[eTox]

Ok, well, the steps didn't play out so well. I screwed up with planning after reading them and feeling like vomiting from the constant inflow of information and having taken no action. So I skipped straight to action.

Did DO

• Came up with a new generic brand
• Created and set up Shopify website and a template (product listings needed)
• Created email and Aliexpress account

This was easy and took an hour as I have done this before. Except, the logo and few tidbits of customization took another few hours LOL

Now TODO (extremely hard part): Create a process by which I will IDENTIFY an AUDIENCE that has a NEED for some PRODUCT and sell it to them.

I honestly do not know where to start ----->

 

[AubreyJ]

Ok, well, the steps didn't play out so well. I screwed up with planning after reading them and feeling like vomiting from the constant inflow of information and having taken no action. So I skipped straight to action.

Did DO

• Came up with a new generic brand
• Created and set up Shopify website and a template (product listings needed)
• Created email and Aliexpress account

This was easy and took an hour as I have done this before. Except, the logo and few tidbits of customization took another few hours LOL

Now TODO (extremely hard part): Create a process by which I will IDENTIFY an AUDIENCE that has a NEED for some PRODUCT and sell it to them.

I honestly do not know where to start ----->

Goodluck with your venture!

One piece of advice, I think you are jumping around a lot. You need to create a plan, find your niche/product, execute, and stick to it.

Also, like someone else said- start making to-do lists
In my office, pinned to the wall above my computer I have a to-do list. every-single night before I go to bed I sit down and write down the things I need to accomplish the next day and the general time of day I need to accomplish them at. I can't sit at at my desk without having that list glare at me, and it keeps me on track. I suggest you do something similar to keep you on track and motivated- it's a shitty feeling when you are about to go to bed and you stare at the list and see you still have a handful of tasks to complete, but once you cross them all off you know you've had a productive day. Just my two cents.

 

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[GMJimmy]

Very nice learning progress.

Don't worry that you have no results yet, I think the timelines were pretty tight, considering that you are importing from China. When I started reading your thread, I expected that you order something during the first few days with risking poor quality, then you wait for the shipment, and in the meantime set up the ads and all the necessary stuff.
This goal was a big challenge and involved a significant amount of luck factor.
In my experience, both the time and money was just barely enough. You have mentioned that you want $10 revenue and estimate about $25 end price? With the budget you could only buy 2-3 different product, maximum 5-10 pieces of each. Then you need to sell at least 5 in the last few days (because shipping takes a long time). But now you have experienced it yourself that it takes time and money to import products, and not to mention selling it.

This is the right way, learning by doing, and improving on the way.

And when I only read the title before the post, the first thing that came to my mind was the following. If I had to make $50 profit in about a month with the given budget, I would pick the low hanging fruits. Quickly make or buy a product, preferably digital, then start marketing as hell. Let's say I will go with ebooks, birthday cards, whatever. Spend 2-3 days creating some products, preferably a product line, and most importantly a cheaper and a more expensive version. List those in all relevant platforms, maybe create a website, landing page, facebook etc to start collecting traffic. $350 is very generous to start with, if you only aim for $50 profit. You can even buy some tools such as followliker etc. Once done, keep on fine tuning and get more traffic every day. After the month, you may not only have reached your target, but you could have a running system that is continuously dripping money to you.

Sorry for the off topic, I have no intention to tell you what to do, it was just an idea that came to my mind when I read the title.

 

[eTox]

Very nice learning progress.

Don't worry that you have no results yet, I think the timelines were pretty tight, considering that you are importing from China. When I started reading your thread, I expected that you order something during the first few days with risking poor quality, then you wait for the shipment, and in the meantime set up the ads and all the necessary stuff.
This goal was a big challenge and involved a significant amount of luck factor.
In my experience, both the time and money was just barely enough. You have mentioned that you want $10 revenue and estimate about $25 end price? With the budget you could only buy 2-3 different product, maximum 5-10 pieces of each. Then you need to sell at least 5 in the last few days (because shipping takes a long time). But now you have experienced it yourself that it takes time and money to import products, and not to mention selling it.

This is the right way, learning by doing, and improving on the way.

And when I only read the title before the post, the first thing that came to my mind was the following. If I had to make $50 profit in about a month with the given budget, I would pick the low hanging fruits. Quickly make or buy a product, preferably digital, then start marketing as hell. Let's say I will go with ebooks, birthday cards, whatever. Spend 2-3 days creating some products, preferably a product line, and most importantly a cheaper and a more expensive version. List those in all relevant platforms, maybe create a website, landing page, facebook etc to start collecting traffic. $350 is very generous to start with, if you only aim for $50 profit. You can even buy some tools such as followliker etc. Once done, keep on fine tuning and get more traffic every day. After the month, you may not only have reached your target, but you could have a running system that is continuously dripping money to you.

Sorry for the off topic, I have no intention to tell you what to do, it was just an idea that came to my mind when I read the title.

Thank you for you kind suggestion Learning through taking action is much more rewarding than by drooling over other's success stories

 

[eTox]

Goodluck with your venture!

One piece of advice, I think you are jumping around a lot. You need to create a plan, find your niche/product, execute, and stick to it.

Also, like someone else said- start making to-do lists
In my office, pinned to the wall above my computer I have a to-do list. every-single night before I go to bed I sit down and write down the things I need to accomplish the next day and the general time of day I need to accomplish them at. I can't sit at at my desk without having that list glare at me, and it keeps me on track. I suggest you do something similar to keep you on track and motivated- it's a shitty feeling when you are about to go to bed and you stare at the list and see you still have a handful of tasks to complete, but once you cross them all off you know you've had a productive day. Just my two cents.

I absolutely needed that Trello.com from the GSD thread really worked for me! I was more productive in 1 hour than I was in the past 2 weeks combined. Wow.

Basically a bunch of items on a TODO list in an organized fashion in terms of urgency and importance

 

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[ZCP]

How about making 'sell one' your goal and not sleeping / eating / taking a break / doing anything else until that is done.

 

[eTox]

How about making 'sell one' your goal and not sleeping / eating / taking a break / doing anything else until that is done.

What a great way to put it I like it.

Although, 6 days left...

I procrastinated yesterday mostly, but was active for ONE HOUR. Fantastic.

• It hit me hard what "find an audience first, and then sell them a product" means. I found a cool product and then realized few people can be reached who might like it.

Now I am at ground 0 again, and I need to find a "passionate audience" to sell a niche product.

Challenge?

I am still confused how to find an audience first!!!

@Sanj Modha what do you mean and how would you go about finding a passionate audience? Is it possible for you to guide me in the direction to go about it?



Thank you

 

[eTox]

Morning,

• Found a new generic item, listed on the website
• Created a FB page for the website
• Started a FB ad campaign for 2 days, we will see how it goes

 

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[eTox]

Today,

I launched a new product on the store and am waiting for a facebook campaign approval. I don't know why but it kept on bothering me with "Your ad appears to use language not allowed in Facebook Ads." I eventually gave up fighting with the language where there was clearly nothing wrong with it and submited it. We will see what happens.

I burned through $20 of ads and got 8 website visits and 0 in sale. Pitty. I will continue for another day ($10).

Everything seems so upsetting, but I know that's the cost of success.

Until then.

 

[eTox]

Well, it's July. My ambitions failed me.

I am stuck at square one, but with a backpack of concrete knowledge bricks that hit me hard in the empty skull along the way.

Though I did blow the $350

• Purchased a custom theme $150
• Purchased shopify basic plan $30
• Few other plugins
• Some other crap

So now I am on the journey of dropshipping through aliexpress. What I need to do is

• Find several products that would sell.
• Populate the website with information.

To be honest I did not know that finding a product is so hard. It is not really hard, its just I do not know what to pick, because I think everything will not sell because everyone else is selling. I feel like I am selling the same ol sht that everyone else. Without any difference or added value. Oh well, time to learn copy and stating out benefits.

Until later.

PS

Time to hustle, I have 2 months left until I burn through my savings. Not so pleasing. Though it does make my a$$ burn so that I take more action.

 

[rogen]

why you purchased custom theme not trying to rain on your parade but that could have been +150

 

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[eTox]

why you purchased custom theme not trying to rain on your parade but that could have been +150

:joyful: I wanted to be unique and stand out

I am hoping it will pay off , if not I'll swallow the lesson and hopefully not throw up

 

[AustinS28]

Hey man, if you spent $350 bucks and learned a lot, although it didn't lead to a profit, id say it's money well spent. I've spent a lot more than that on projects that didn't produce the results I was looking for.

At the time I was upset at myself. "What a waste," I would say.

But in the long run its almost like all these projects that didn't go according to plan were meant to be. While I am still exploring ecommerce and make all of my money through my service business, I am fully confident that once I find my product/create a product to fit my niche, I can effectively sell it in a short period of time.

I can confidently make a beautiful Wordpress/shopify website. I can effectively drive traffic with Facebook and google Adwords campaigns. I've sourced and purchased wholesale products from overseas. I can use photoshop. I know the cheapest ways to get stock photos.

The list goes on. The point is, I don't have my product yet. I'm looking for it in two niche areas I'm involved in. My service business and my network of high networth individuals, but when I find it, I will be able to get things rolling 100x faster than if I never messed up so many times. The older I get the more I realize how much "failure" is also a learning experience and how all these past projects weren't actually failures if I created and perfected certain skills.

The last order of product I purchased, I bought 2000 units and didn't do any math. I had no room to advertise without taking a loss and after shipping was just doing better than breaking even. Because of this I still have over 1800 of this product sitting at home almost a year later. Failure? Maybe some would say that, but to me, I won't cluelessly buy something ever again without factoring in all the elements to making it profitable.

Anyways man, you might not have hit your goal and that may happen more often than not. Just stick with it all, you can't fail if you keep trying.

 

[eTox]

Hey man, if you spent $350 bucks and learned a lot, although it didn't lead to a profit, id say it's money well spent. I've spent a lot more than that on projects that didn't produce the results I was looking for.

At the time I was upset at myself. "What a waste," I would say.

But in the long run its almost like all these projects that didn't go according to plan were meant to be. While I am still exploring ecommerce and make all of my money through my service business, I am fully confident that once I find my product/create a product to fit my niche, I can effectively sell it in a short period of time.

I can confidently make a beautiful Wordpress/shopify website. I can effectively drive traffic with Facebook and google Adwords campaigns. I've sourced and purchased wholesale products from overseas. I can use photoshop. I know the cheapest ways to get stock photos.

The list goes on. The point is, I don't have my product yet. I'm looking for it in two niche areas I'm involved in. My service business and my network of high networth individuals, but when I find it, I will be able to get things rolling 100x faster than if I never messed up so many times. The older I get the more I realize how much "failure" is also a learning experience and how all these past projects weren't actually failures if I created and perfected certain skills.

The last order of product I purchased, I bought 2000 units and didn't do any math. I had no room to advertise without taking a loss and after shipping was just doing better than breaking even. Because of this I still have over 1800 of this product sitting at home almost a year later. Failure? Maybe some would say that, but to me, I won't cluelessly buy something ever again without factoring in all the elements to making it profitable.

Anyways man, you might not have hit your goal and that may happen more often than not. Just stick with it all, you can't fail if you keep trying.

Thank you for sharing that

I seem to lean towards the same idea now. I also tend to feel upset at the moment of realization that I failed, but then I always say that it's still better than being afraid and thinking about it all day long without taking action. At least then I know it worked or it didn't

 

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[Andy Black]

A wise man once wrote this:

• One step at a time, dont rush it. Better to get little bit done, than be overwhelmed and not do anything.

.
.
.


I've not done importing and/or eCommerce. I'm curious why you chose that path rather than provide a service?

Could you make $50 this coming week by providing a service to local people/businesses? Or could you do so for people/businesses further afield (people you already know back in Canada for instance)?


Who can you help this coming week?

 

[eTox]

A wise man once wrote this:


.
.
.


I've not done importing and/or eCommerce. I'm curious why you chose that path rather than provide a service?

Could you make $50 this coming week by providing a service to local people/businesses? Or could you do so for people/businesses further afield (people you already know back in Canada for instance)?


Who can you help this coming week?

YEah, but that requires work and effort, plus it's a one time thing. I'm here for the easy dollars. You know, passive income, Andy! :joyful:

To be honest, in my near past I was trying out with offering a service, I looked at different options, a course, then programming, etc. Then I was into game development.

I don't want to go back. I hate providing service, especially interacting with people. I don't know, I am just that f*cked up, but I am fine with it. I feel right at home when I am looking into eCommerce. I feel like I can provide much more value to others when helping indirectly by offering a product (well I am yet to do so).

My problem right now is choosing a problem. So many options, and I can't figure out how find an audience with a need and a prodcut that is not oversold.

I thing the core of the problem lies in me having difficulty understanding how to target specific groups on facebook. I understand how to do it, I just cant seem to find exactly the people who may be interested in it. Maybe it's because I do not have a specific product, again.

 

[Andy Black]

YEah, but that requires work and effort, plus it's a one time thing. I'm here for the easy dollars. You know, passive income, Andy! :joyful:

To be honest, in my near past I was trying out with offering a service, I looked at different options, a course, then programming, etc. Then I was into game development.

I don't want to go back. I hate providing service, especially interacting with people. I don't know, I am just that f*cked up, but I am fine with it. I feel right at home when I am looking into eCommerce. I feel like I can provide much more value to others when helping indirectly by offering a product (well I am yet to do so).

My problem right now is choosing a problem. So many options, and I can't figure out how find an audience with a need and a prodcut that is not oversold.

I thing the core of the problem lies in me having difficulty understanding how to target specific groups on facebook. I understand how to do it, I just cant seem to find exactly the people who may be interested in it. Maybe it's because I do not have a specific product, again.

Do you know someone already selling a product? Can you help them sell their product online, or more of their product online? Not suggesting you provide this as a service forever, but could it be one way to help you get unstuck?

I help other businesses generate more sales via paid search. I get *paid* to learn their vertical and paid search, using *their* advertising budget.

It's just another way HOW to get to a destination.

 

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[eTox]

Do you know someone already selling a product? Can you help them sell their product online, or more of their product online? Not suggesting you provide this as a service forever, but could it be one way to help you get unstuck?

I help other businesses generate more sales via paid search. I get *paid* to learn their vertical and paid search, using *their* advertising budget.

It's just another way HOW to get to a destination.

OR I could get focused and find a product with a need on Aliexpress (that would be the same as selling someone elses product) and spend my own money on learning (I feel the knowledge sticks better when I fail harder esp with my own money).

TODO

Find 4 products and outline the reasons why they will sell

• To whom to sell
• Why they need it
• What benefits them

 

[Longinus]

you can't fail if you keep trying.

That's what this whole forum is about.

Rep +

 

[eTox]

Once again, I found a product. Now what. I am hit with the same wall... Again.

Well who am I going to sell it to? This goes against the notion of "Finding a passionate audience first".

Does anyone have an practical tips on how to reverse this? How does one go about coming up with a passionate audience. An audience that already wants something and then giving it to them?

 

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[Longinus]

I know the feeling and I think it's normal because you don't know yet what will work. I've gone from beach towels, electrical fly catchers, to snake cameras, oil paint, beer mugs and even F*cking pompoms. I think this is better than just jump on one product and be too confident about it. The product where you don't run away from is probably the right one.

 

[eTox]

What I accomplished yesterday brought me to new insight. Having found four products I promised to find, I realized that I can upsell the customers with related products they may like. That way, when I am driving to the primary porduct, let's say the burger, I could offer fries and cola.

Another thing is I realized is that I need to stop worrying whether the chosen product will sell or not. Look, I just need to set a worry limit. Say I am willing to spend up to $60 on advertising for a product. I could come up with 3 ad sets and run them for 2 days at $10 each on facebook. This way I could test whether there is any demand. If I get no sales, then I could kill the product. Simple. All I loose is the time coming up with and researching the product and creating the product page and the copy with the ads.

One more thing to note is, I now note that the product type that I chose sells. I could see the demand on google trends, keyword search volumes, amazon sales, and aliexpress sales. That means there is a demand for that type of product, but is there demand for my SPECIFIC product? That is the whole point.

Until later.

 

[eTox]

A little update.

I am trying to overcome my fear of taking action. I seem to hit the same road block. I mentally understand that I need to do, to ACT in order to get results. EXECUTION is what gets RESULTS. But I feel afraid for some reason and fall back. It's like I purposely avoid action. I wold think big and all and then get disappointed. Wierd.

So in my quest to overcome my fears and taking responsibility. I found myself swimming in a cold pond. Later that day I was arrested for riding a bike with no helmet or drivers license. At that point I realized how f*cked up my thinking is. It's okay, I learned the local laws and ended up only getting a McDonald's order sized ticket (thanks for the cheap fines in this country) Plus it was weird. I was laughing with the cops as they were like "Pay within the next 10 days and get a 50% off on your fine. Offer ends soon." It just simply shows how Russia is F*cked by planning for a $50 oil prices for this year. They all seem like unicorns too me. High and on crack.

Nevertheless, the sales pitch reminded me of a copywriting challenge and I took the day 1 of it. So that day I tried helping my relatives with many things I could without expecting anything in return. In the end, it got me sitting down and analyzing my uncle's grocery farm business with the CENTS commandments. It proved that 4/5 points are holding strong however it heavily lacks Entry. We brainstormed how he could get competitive advantage over others in his area. I realized at that point that I am overconfident in my knowledge and that I assume I know too many things I don't.

I believe becoming humble and thankful is the next step in my character development. Thank you all for your participation in this forum. I have been lurking on the forum and stumbled across much gold.

Until later.

 

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[eTox]

Arrogance is killing me

My confidence is backed up by nothing more than a slimy pile of cat vomit

Is humble the way to ice cream?

 

[eTox]

YES!!!!

I landed my first gig on Upwork! I feel like Rakesh from India, but nonetheless, I believe this experience is invaluable!

Fk, I am pumped!

Bring it on, copywriting!

 

[eTox]

Yeppie!!!!!!!

Didn't get paid yet, but I earned my first $50!!!

Albeit freelancing with a copywriting gig, but who gives a schnitzel! I did it!



More Ice Cream more more more!

 

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[samsara]

Yeppie!!!!!!!

Didn't get paid yet, but I earned my first $50!!!

Albeit freelancing with a copywriting gig, but who gives a schnitzel! I did it!



More Ice Cream more more more!

You're doing great, continue the good work!

 

[eTox]

Well,

Nothing much useful to post except stating that I realized I am a true sidewalker. I understand I am burning forum's storage space with my shit... W.e. It helps me get over my problems and maybe someone else could relate.

Whatever, shit will get better. Burned through my budget really fast. $100 remaining (only because I got it from ads that were running on my games for over few years now).

Out of few dozen Upwork applications I got only 1 job so far. That's better than nothing, and considering the tendency with Upwork's clients wanting native english speakers who could professionally write copy for their product descriptions at a whopping $1-5 budget, it feels ridiculous.

W.e I am just tired of this shit. Lessons learned so far:

• Pull back your ego and stay humble.
• Learn as much as possible and be genuinely interested in the work.
• I am not trying hard enough to get clients and not doing my diligence proving to them the value of great copy. Probably I am not that skilled enough

Overall achievements so far: $60 Upwork + $75 direct through Paypal. Got myself into trading time for dollars, but at least I am building my vocabulary and some other things.

I think it's time to move on, soon.

Money's gonna end soon. Dark times are coming, so let's brighten them up.