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From failure to success

A detailed account of a Fastlane process...

Lambo-Hunter

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Jul 14, 2017
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About Me:
I'm 19 years old from Sweden, I've been "studying" entrepreneurship for the past year, although I never took action. My focus was always on the forex market where I've managed to do OK.
My real inner fire started this summer when I was working construction, listening to.. you guessed it, "the millionaire fastlane ".
I had an open job offer to start working construction full-time in another city, everyone was telling me it was the right thing to do but it just didn't feel right, after reading a certain book I decided to say No. I took a shitty part-time job working weekends so that I could focus on doing real work.

My First Store
That brings me to about a month ago when I started my first dropshipping store, I had decided to sell watches with the free + shipping method (I know..). This was my first mistake,

2. I don't care about watches

3. Instead of looking at the numbers I went with my ego, thinking I was creating the next "Daniel Wellington"

4. I was dropshipping a watch that cost me $4.05 for a shipping fee of $6.99, yup an amazing $2.94 profit, or wait? do I actually have to pay for Facebook ads? by the time I had learned how Facebook ads worked I was already $800 in the dark from just throwing money into the fire, thinking a Lamborghini would suddenly appear out of luck.

Essentially my margins where horrible/nonexistent and I didn't even know what the back-end was..
After 3 weeks of trying to save my store I decided it was time to say farewell. I have learned a lot filling almost 2 notebooks and even though this project failed miserably I'm not giving up.

The past 3 weeks have been the most productive weeks of my life, I've risen at 7.30 am, working from 8am untill i fall asleep pretty much (except for 2ish hours for food and gym).

I don't think I will be doing another shopify store next, my focus will be on creating an affiliate site without any payed traffic. I believe I've found a good niche that has room for some major scaling altough further research is required. One of the things i've learned from these 3 weeks of trying to save my store is how important the back-end is, which is why it will be my main focus for this project.

My goals for the next week will be;
  • finding a good place to outsource article writing
  • researching back links/SEO
  • growing instagram account for niche (currently at 1873 followers)
  • getting the site up, along with 3 articles
  • deciding which digital affiliate course to promote and which physical products
  • (personal goal) keep on learning java script
  • keeping this thread going
I've never done SEO before so it will be interesting to see how fast I can rank the site, I will keep you posted, mainly because I need to practice my writing, and I think keeping this progress thread running will be a good way to clear my thoughts.

Sorry if the text is unreadable I am in fact, very Swedish..
 
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Lambo-Hunter

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Jul 14, 2017
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Back again with a new update,
I want to begin by thanking everyone who messaged me with tips. I've changed my mindset a little and thought I'd go over it here.

This week i've really focused on learning web-dev and i've begun to outline plans for a subscription service online, but more on that in a later post.
After a friendly forum member messaged me a video explaining that affiliate marketing/dropshipping is where 90% of the competition is, I decided to change my direction and goals.

I planned on creating a niche affiliate site, but the numbers for the niche I hade in mind wasnt very good so I moved on from that idea. and I've created a blog where I write about things I've learned in business/web-dev, I don't really care for making money on this site altough I have some affiliate links there just in case ;)
I've written 2 articles and will keep posting 1-2 articles a week to practice my writing in english, dont know if it's ok to post a link to my site here so I wont.

I've put in around 5 hours every day studing web-dev and more on creating sites, I bought this really good course on udemy that i'm following. I'm really focusing on building this skill so that in January I can sell my first site, this will be a good way to make money outside my part time job. I currently work weekends to stay alive while I'm learning. I really like the idea of acquiring a skill and knowing that no mather what I can pick up the phone, cold calling potential clients, landing deals and making money, hopefully this will be enough to quit my shitty job which I highly dislike. Also this skill will directly help me create my "fastlane business" which means I wont have to hire a developer in the beginning.

If you have any tips/advice feel free to message me or comment, otherwise i'll see you all in the next post.
 

Lambo-Hunter

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So i've been listening to unscripted on my morning walk to the gym, once again MJ is kicking my a$$..

In my attempts to make some quick cash, either from shopify dropshipping or affiliate marketing. I've gotten so focused on ME that i've forgotten about the customer, sure I made sales selling my shitty watches with 1 month shipping times but i kinda felt like a scumbag doing it.. why? because it wasnt fair, i knew the watches weren't worth what i was charging and i wasn’t providing any real value either. I was simply one of many selling shitty, overpriced crap from china.

I’m currently working part time on weekends, I really dislike waking up at 4:30am just to drive to work every single saturday and sunday. I’m making it my main goal to use my web development skills that i’m learning to get away from it and in to freelance.

I do realise that freelance web development is just creating another job for myself however i do think it’s one step above my current employment.

My goal in the first quarter of 2018 is to have an idea for a subscription based service tested and ready to launch(preferably B2B), this will be my fastlane business while web-dev will be what keeps me afloat.

I will no longer be a money chaser, I will be a value giver.
 

Lambo-Hunter

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Doubt anyone will read this but i just found my old entrys and got a good laugh.

2 months ago I quit my job and it was the best feeling ever, altough the 1 month notice was the slowest month in history lol.

Like i wrote in my previous entry i learned web development and was able to sell a few sites to get some start up capital. I took this money and started selling on amazon.

I don't see amazon as a long term reliable income, but right now i'm making a lot of money from it and it's pretty passive which allows me to spend time on other projects.

I've always been inclined to design stuff and i really like designing new products. Right now i'm selling some pretty random stuff but i'm going to start building a real brand and use amazon as a launch pad.

Being able to support yourself without a boss makes you feel like a badass, and has skyrocketed my entrepreneurial drive.
 
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DrunkFish

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Doubt anyone will read this but i just found my old entrys and got a good laugh.

2 months ago I quit my job and it was the best feeling ever, altough the 1 month notice was the slowest month in history lol.

Like i wrote in my previous entry i learned web development and was able to sell a few sites to get some start up capital. I took this money and started selling on amazon.

I don't see amazon as a long term reliable income, but right now i'm making a lot of money from it and it's pretty passive which allows me to spend time on other projects.

I've always been inclined to design stuff and i really like designing new products. Right now i'm selling some pretty random stuff but i'm going to start building a real brand and use amazon as a launch pad.

Being able to support yourself without a boss makes you feel like a badass, and has skyrocketed my entrepreneurial drive.
Well, i always see people struggling for ecom and Amazon, would be cool to hear some story! You just came back, laughed at your old self, quit your job and mention you're making a lot of money online! Haha!
 

The Abundant Man

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Doubt anyone will read this but i just found my old entrys and got a good laugh.

2 months ago I quit my job and it was the best feeling ever, altough the 1 month notice was the slowest month in history lol.

Like i wrote in my previous entry i learned web development and was able to sell a few sites to get some start up capital. I took this money and started selling on amazon.

I don't see amazon as a long term reliable income, but right now i'm making a lot of money from it and it's pretty passive which allows me to spend time on other projects.

I've always been inclined to design stuff and i really like designing new products. Right now i'm selling some pretty random stuff but i'm going to start building a real brand and use amazon as a launch pad.

Being able to support yourself without a boss makes you feel like a badass, and has skyrocketed my entrepreneurial drive.
Any tips on selling?
 
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Lambo-Hunter

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Jul 14, 2017
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Any tips on selling?


Amazon is all about momentum, in order to reach the first page you will need to sell more units than the competitors for a certain duration(5-10 days). To aid you in this there are a few things you can do, but before that you need reviews as social proof.

I recommend getting at least 5-10 reviews before dumping money into ppc. The way i do this is by having “friends” leave reviews. It’s against amazon's ToS to ask for 5 star reviews although it’s a bit of a grey are if you ask me.

Once you’ve got your reviews a mix of “Giveaways” and a PPC campaign will get you to the first page. There are services that allow you to give away products at a 90% discount and amazon records this as a sale, you should do you own research on this before attempting it.

So the whole launch strategy should be formed around first getting some social proof and then using ppc and giveaways until you start getting enough organic sales to maintain your first page position.
 

Lambo-Hunter

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What i have done which isn't "conventional" is launching a product to an already established email list in the same niche
 

Lambo-Hunter

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Nice strategy. Seems so easy huh... wonder why all these other people are losing money

It does sound easy in theory but there is a lot of moving parts. For example if you don't know your numbers you can easely overspend on ppc and end up having to pay amazon.
 

sparechange

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Must be nice quitting a job, plan to do that in the near future ah..

Did construction before, probably one of the roughest jobs you could do
 

Lambo-Hunter

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Must be nice quitting a job, plan to do that in the near future ah..

Did construction before, probably one of the roughest jobs you could do

Yea, construction work will eat away from your soul lol. The hard work i don't mind but the negativity form the coworkers is crazy. Not saying all construction workers are negative but everyone i've worked with has been..

Glad i didn't take the "safe" job, would have been miserable.
 
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sparechange

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jon.M

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Doubt anyone will read this but i just found my old entrys and got a good laugh.

2 months ago I quit my job and it was the best feeling ever, altough the 1 month notice was the slowest month in history lol.

Like i wrote in my previous entry i learned web development and was able to sell a few sites to get some start up capital. I took this money and started selling on amazon.

I don't see amazon as a long term reliable income, but right now i'm making a lot of money from it and it's pretty passive which allows me to spend time on other projects.

I've always been inclined to design stuff and i really like designing new products. Right now i'm selling some pretty random stuff but i'm going to start building a real brand and use amazon as a launch pad.

Being able to support yourself without a boss makes you feel like a badass, and has skyrocketed my entrepreneurial drive.

Welcome back, @Lambo-Hunter. Congrats to your Amazon success, sure is a nice feeling to get that semi-passive income. Doesn't have to be a lot to make you feel free.

Happy to see another Swede in here, from what I've seen we're the most underrepresented of the Nordics on this board.

Yea, construction work will eat away from your soul lol. The hard work i don't mind but the negativity form the coworkers is crazy. Not saying all construction workers are negative but everyone i've worked with has been..
I worked in construction very briefly until I had to free up time for an ecom businesss we were building in Sweden. Scaffolding more specifically. I had the same experience as you. Hard work is endurable but the people can be really draining. Not exactly a nice work environment when the guy you work with is a wife-beating drug addict who violates most safety codes.
 

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