From Affiliate Marketing To Importing And Ecommerce

[hughjasle]

Are you going from page post > hard sell landing page > offer on Shopify

No. As stated earlier it is AD>Shopify product page.

Can you reveal anymore about your flow leading up to the transaction?

Seriously I feel like ya'll are overthinking this. Could be that I'm just exaughsted and should have gone to bed hours ago but affiliate summit is going on right now so I'm wired on red bull.

Here is an example I found. My page is similar to this. Just WAY less text/info lol. http://hakshop.myshopify.com/collec...cts/usb-rubber-ducky-deluxe?variant=353378649

My site doesn't even have any other accessable pages. Just that one page and the checkout pages/stuff that appears after you click on checkout/buy.

 

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[hughjasle]

I mean, until your cost of conversion and sale price is still good enough to get a decent profit.

I'm gonna rephrase that for you to what I think you are saying so you can correct me if I'm wrong:

"Keep running until the profit margin is so small that it's not worth it to run anymore."

If that's what you are saying then yea, that's the idea. At least that was my idea when I started. I have 1k of them to sell of now so I gotta sell em anyways. I'll see how they do. If all the numbers are basically the same as the last batch then I'll go forward with all this and hire someone to deal with the stuff like making sure I always have inventory, deal with shipwire, test a batch with FBA, get the products listed on Amazon, etc.

To me all that is just like data entry, super boring and drawn out. I don't enjoy doing it. I have more fun coming up with products and creating ads to sell them.

 

[BrandonWise]

I'm new here and have a lot of stuff to learn yet I find this amazing and will be following the thread closely, thank you so much for sharing your experience HughJasle

What is your opinion/experience with other payment processor, maybe an offshore or "high risk" merchant account instead of using Shopify/Paypal?

 

[hughjasle]

What is your opinion/experience with other payment processor, maybe an offshore or "high risk" merchant account instead of using Shopify/Paypal?

TBH i haven't looked into this at all. Not sure why I'd need it.

 

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[BrandonWise]

TBH i haven't looked into this at all. Not sure why I'd need it.

I may be mistaken but I think that such processors are less of a bitch regarding freezing your funds' accounts, ive read many Paypal horror stories, a recent article in which a company got frozen by PayPal $20,000 as a "surety bond" due to their operational risk, creating a liquidity crisis for them and, at the same time, they got offered a loan by them for $20,000. Article from two days ago (1/8/2016)
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/254846
Startup Founder Claims PayPal Froze $20,000 in Funds, Then Offered Him a Business Loan

 

[marklov]

I may be mistaken but I think that such processors are less of a bitch regarding freezing your funds' accounts, ive read many Paypal horror stories, a recent article in which a company got frozen by PayPal $20,000 as a "surety bond" due to their operational risk, creating a liquidity crisis for them and, at the same time, they got offered a loan by them for $20,000. Article from two days ago (1/8/2016)
Startup Founder Claims PayPal Froze $20,000 in Funds, Then Offered Him a Business Loan

Most of the people who get money frozen/horror stories are those who are using personal accounts to do business, get tons of chargebacks from dissatisfied customers( especially SEO Guys) and even confusion by not setting up proper invoices and contracts with clients/customers.

Look at it from paypal's perspective...... Hackers paradise + people traveling the world +collecting money = can you really blame paypal.

Speaking from experience, best thing to do is this.....

Call into paypal and discuss with a rep what you are using your account for, the amount ranges you can expect per transaction and ask them to tag this info to your account so whenever you might have a problem the future customer care rep can have this to go off of.

Things go along a lot smoother and faster.

 

[hughjasle]

Good to know and thanks guys. But for me, Shopify payments is working just fine for me now that I got it all working properly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

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[kamaleon]

Great post, loving it so far...

Do you mind sharing how you test your products on Facebook?

 

[Tweeve11]

Hey hughjasle thanks so much for the thread and contributing. Its been very helpful to me so far.

I am also interested in the testing and product selection part of the process. I understand how you run ads to checkout page to track conversions but how complicated is the refund process after they have made the purchase?

I am also lost on how you pick products to test. I know small is key as well as high retail prices ($100-$300) but i feel like that is millions of different types of widgets. How do you do research to find a need in the market that isn't being satisfied?

 

[hughjasle]

Do you mind sharing how you test your products on Facebook?

What part of how I tested exactly are you looking for? How I created the ads? Otherwise the general idea of what I did I covered in the first few posts. If you have more specific questions ask away. Just don't know what part you want to know more about.

I understand how you run ads to checkout page to track conversions but how complicated is the refund process after they have made the purchase?

With Shopify it was as easy as clicking a button. No issues there.

am also lost on how you pick products to test. I know small is key as well as high retail prices ($100-$300) but i feel like that is millions of different types of widgets. How do you do research to find a need in the market that isn't being satisfied?

When I looked for products I didn't look for any "keys". Small, large, cheap expensive, didn't matter to me. I just looked for things that I know the end users could understand what it is just by looking at the ad (image or video) and wow them. I'm looking for impulse buyers.

 

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[kamaleon]

What part of how I tested exactly are you looking for? How I created the ads? Otherwise the general idea of what I did I covered in the first few posts. If you have more specific questions ask away. Just don't know what part you want to know more about.

What kind of ads you run for testing? Clicks to website? Ppe?

What budget?

Targeted audience or broad?

 

[hughjasle]

Clicks to website? Ppe?

Did both of those. Clicks to websites and page post engagements. Mainly just need any ad objective that works best with your ad that leads to your website/offer page.

What budget?

I originally spent $80 just testing the ad itself looking to see how many clicks I got and what kind of CPM I could get. Once I saw that was good is when I set up the Shopify page and all that and made a legit ad going to that page. I spent $100 on that test that yielded the 13 sales that I had to refund.

Targeted audience or broad?

I lightly targeted it to my audienced. Basically I just put in the generder for the product and someone the age. I was able to narrow down the age more after I had sales rolling in. But I started it pretty broad.

 

[kamaleon]

So you spent $80 * 6 + $100 = $580?

$580 in total for testing?

 

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[hughjasle]

$580 in total for testing?

Roughly. I don't have an exact number. Some ads you can tell quickly that they suck, some took the full $80.

The amount doesn't matter. What matters is that you know if that product can sell or not. It's just a cheap way of testing the waters before you dive in.

 

[kamaleon]

Roughly. I don't have an exact number. Some ads you can tell quickly that they suck, some took the full $80.

The amount doesn't matter. What matters is that you know if that product can sell or not. It's just a cheap way of testing the waters before you dive in.

You spent up to $80 because you have a big margin I suppose.

Why do you say the amount doesn't matter?

 

[nomeus]

You spent up to $80 because you have a big margin I suppose.

Why do you say the amount doesn't matter?

No. He spent 80$ because from 10-20$ it is really hard to tell if add is a success.

 

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[hughjasle]

You spent up to $80 because you have a big margin I suppose.

because from 10-20$ it is really hard to tell if add is a success.

^^ this. Or to be a little more clear, because I started seeing patterns of high click rates and good comments and wanted to get significant data to confirm that those patterns were statistically significant. Don't want to do the next step of work on small data is all.

Why do you say the amount doesn't matter?

I say it doesn't matter because other products might only need $20. Some product might need $20k. Nothing is a one thing fits all other than the process. The process is what's important.

1. Test a bunch of products to guage reaction to each. See which one performs the best and focus your energies there.
2. Create a site where you will actually sell your product and run some traffic to find out what your CPA will be to sell said product.
3. Order said product and set up all the backend.
4. Once it is all set up, turn your ads back on.
5. Optimize your ad/lp/etc.
6. Repeat 3-5
7. Repeat 1-6 to expand into new products.

The amount spent doesn't matter. Creating a process does.

 

[kamaleon]

I say it doesn't matter because other products might only need $20. Some product might need $20k. Nothing is a one thing fits all other than the process. The process is what's important.

1. Test a bunch of products to guage reaction to each. See which one performs the best and focus your energies there.
2. Create a site where you will actually sell your product and run some traffic to find out what your CPA will be to sell said product.
3. Order said product and set up all the backend.
4. Once it is all set up, turn your ads back on.
5. Optimize your ad/lp/etc.
6. Repeat 3-5
7. Repeat 1-6 to expand into new products.

The amount spent doesn't matter. Creating a process does.

How do you know how much money a product needs for testing?

 

[hughjasle]

How do you know how much money a product needs for testing?

You don't know until you start to see that 1.) you can get consistent sales for around $x or 2.) you haven't gotten a single sale for 3x the product sales price.

Really it's a judgement game. This is getting into the "art" side of marketing. After doing it for so long you just get a 'feel' for what is right. Much like a painter knows how to paint a masterpiece. There is the process to painting that anyone can use to make their own paitings, but there is the 'art' side of things that is created by each artist after years of practice.

 

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[nomeus]

1. Test a bunch of products to guage reaction to each. See which one performs the best and focus your energies there.

On step No.1, How do you determine if an ad is a success, if you don't have a page to send them to? Just by engagement? Likes, shares and comments? I think, most important thing is the clicks and conversions. You can still have bunch of likes, but zero clicks after you create a site to lead the traffic to.

 

[kamaleon]

On step No.1, How do you determine if an ad is a success, if you don't have a page to send them to? Just by engagement? Likes, shares and comments? I think, most important thing is the clicks and conversions. You can still have bunch of likes, but zero clicks after you create a site to lead the traffic to.

Check this post

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...to-importing-and-ecommerce.63750/#post-497561

He did refund them.

 

[hughjasle]

How do you determine if an ad is a success

Yes clicks is the main thing I am looking for, but I don't ignore things like the likes, comments, and shares. The ad CPM is right up there with clicks in what I look at AND the ad CPM is largely correlated with the ad engagement, which includes everything from the clicks, likes, comments, and shares.

Ultimately you are right when it all comes down to the conversions, but since I was just feeling the water for which product to start with, this was just a way I decided to use to try and find out which product would seem to have a better 'virality' <--(made up word) to it which would then mean more exposure and thus more sales.

Also as a side note for anyone reading - don't discount the comments and shares on an ad. Good comments, likes, and shares speak VOLUMES to you potential buyers. I know I pay more attention to something if someone I know gave a positive response to something...

 

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[kwodzilla]

Yes clicks is the main thing I am looking for, but I don't ignore things like the likes, comments, and shares. The ad CPM is right up there with clicks in what I look at AND the ad CPM is largely correlated with the ad engagement, which includes everything from the clicks, likes, comments, and shares.

Ultimately you are right when it all comes down to the conversions, but since I was just feeling the water for which product to start with, this was just a way I decided to use to try and find out which product would seem to have a better 'virality' <--(made up word) to it which would then mean more exposure and thus more sales.

Also as a side note for anyone reading - don't discount the comments and shares on an ad. Good comments, likes, and shares speak VOLUMES to you potential buyers. I know I pay more attention to something if someone I know gave a positive response to something...

I've been watching this thread for a while and I just wanted to thank you for essentially laying out a roadmap to a fastlane business.

 

[nomeus]

What product categories would you NOT explore? Or it doesn't matter for you? Are you looking at electronics too?

 

[hughjasle]

What product categories would you NOT explore? Or it doesn't matter for you? Are you looking at electronics too?

Right now the categories don't matter to me WITH THE EXCEPTION of anything that I personally just don't want to own or anything that Facebook will not allow. ie: adult products, weapons, drugs, pills/supplements, etc.

 

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[nomeus]

right this second the videos are doing the best on this product

One last question from me.
Did you made product videos yourself? If so, is it just like some random images of the product or real video that you filmed?

 

[Tweeve11]

So i feel like im a broken record, and Im really not trying to be, but I am just lost on the product selection.

I understand that there is obviously an "art" aspect to this. Thats why everyone isnt capable of doing that, but quite literally everything is in place for me to undertake something like this, I am just very lost of identifying a product that is considered "good"...

Maybe im overthinking, but ive been on amazon bestsellers and google trends and i feel like im getting no where...

 

[hughjasle]

Maybe im overthinking, but ive been on amazon bestsellers and google trends and i feel like im getting no where...

You are definitely over thinking. Stop trying to come up with something. Once you do that something will pop up right in front of you.

The product I went with, I wouldn't even use myself. I could care less for it.

You never know what products can do well and what wont.

Additionally, you don't have to reinvent any wheels here. If you don't want to customize a product but see one in the market already that you know could sell if people just knew about it, you can just slap your brand on the product and just market it better than everyone else.

 

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[kwodzilla]

How important would you say your affiliate marketing experience is in this business model? If you had no affiliate marketing experience and you wanted to build this business would you learn through affiliate marketing first or would you just focus on learning a smaller range of things such as Facebook marketing and setting up a store?

 

[hughjasle]

How important would you say your affiliate marketing experience is

Well, this business wouldn't exist if I weren't doing affiliate marketing. Facebook is all I use for Affiliate Marketing so I already knew the ropes and knew what it would take to find stuff that sells well, etc.

BUT

If you had no affiliate marketing experience and you wanted to build this business

It is definitely not needed. There are plenty of guys on this forum that have or had good businesses just like this one that didn't come from affiliate marketing. @theag and @JasonR are two off the top of my sleep deprived head.

So if my goal from the get go was to build a business such as this, I would skip AM all together and just learn the importing side of things and the basics of Facebook ads to get going and improve along the way.

There aren't many tricks to fb ads, a killer product will sell itself if you just put it in front of the masses.