Today we are going down the rabbit hole known as dropshipping. The YouTube videos and marketing materials make it all look so easy but how easy is it to make money? Grab your headgear and your water bottles kids because we are diving in!
What is dropshipping and how does it work?
The first question on Google is, “What is dropshipping, and how does it work?” The easiest way to explain it is to show you step-by-step.
- Pick a niche
- Research your audience in that niche
- Pick products that fit into your chosen niche
- Find a supplier
- Build a website to sell your products
- Market like a Mofo
- Once your product sells, order it from your supplier with the product delivered to the customer’s address
This all seems pretty easy, right? Streamlined and simple to follow? If you answered yes to both of these questions, you, my friend, need to keep reading this post. Nothing is easy, especially when you’re trying to make money. Steps 1-3 are self-explanatory, but probably the most important. Do not make the same mistake I did and jump in head first without research, say it with me “research”.
Steps 4 & 5 Finding a supplier and building a website
Now that we have skipped steps 1-3, but you didn’t if you are attempting this hustle, Let’s move on to suppliers and websites. If you are selling a physical product, there are so many suppliers to choose from. As a beginner, it is immensely overwhelming to sort through them all. Not to mention shipping woes and extra fees (tariffs) if you are shipping into the USA from China for instance. You don’t want to lose money on sales because you chose to use a supplier for their “cheap goods” but have to pay extra fees and taxes.
It is rare for me to recommend a product or service, and when I do, I firmly believe in it and use it myself. In this case, I have been a long-time member of Wholesale2b. I have used many of their different plans and have always broken even for what I invested. My problem is that I never researched products; I just went with it and was too broke to pay for ads. It’s tragic, but learn from my mistakes and be ready to invest money in marketing.
The reason I recommend Wholesale2b is because they do it all for you. You can have a website developed, you can have products imported in Shopify or any of the major shopping services. You can sell on Facebook, eBay, and a whole host of places with one of their plans. They make it super easy and now have training classes, they did not when I started way back when. You can have products in the USA, and UK, and have the option to work with Ali Express. All around they are newbie-friendly and very responsive with customer service.
If you are selling a digital product to be delivered instantly by email, you can bypass shipping costs but also have a plethora of providers to choose from, and so does all of the competition. Be wary of any digital supplier that includes MRR (master resale rights), this means that these products are also being sold by distributors who are not only slashing costs but training others to do the same. There are quite a few of these MRR sellers on social media sites selling the same course, ebook, etc, be sure you do not get caught in the cash grab.
Step 6 Market like a mofo
This step requires some money. To get your store seen, you will need to place ads on social media and Google. There is a lot of competition out there, so if you don’t place ads, you are shooting yourself in the foot. It has been suggested that you have at least 1k to start with paid ads.
Sure you can build organically, I am doing that with this blog. However, that will take a long time and much patience. I am not making money off of this blog, it isn’t my bread and butter so if it takes time, that’s ok. With dropshipping as a side hustle your goal should be to start earning money to keep investing while you build up, with the eventual goal of replacing your full-time income. Do you honestly want to pay monthly hosting fees with no sales for a year? Something to think about.
Writing ads is going to be a crash course for you, there are many YouTube videos and places to learn including Udemy. But if you don’t have the headspace to learn, or you aren’t doing an effective job, I would look at Fiverr or r/slavelabour on Reddit to hire someone who can get you on the map.
My best tip here is to pick 1 social media site to focus on. If you are trying to sell on Facebook post ads there. If you spread yourself too thin by trying to post paid ads on several social media platforms at once you will not only run out of money fast, but you will also not have a good idea of where your traffic and sales are coming from. Knowing what’s working and what isn’t is half the battle. You will need to make sure you are keeping a good eye on the ROI (return on investment) with paid ads.
So wrapping up..
What are your thoughts? Is dropshipping worth your time? Do you have something to add? Let me know!