Dropshipping?

[Yvv]

I feel that I should feel ashamed for venturing into dropshipping because all this oversaturation things i hear, but I've tried affiliated marketing, coding, applied for data entry jobs, and got a technical AAS degree and nothing.

I went into dropshipping because its supposed to be the lowest investment in a business compared to other business models. I already spent 1500 this yr in 2 months and 800 near December last year trying to get everything right yet this too nothing.

Is still worth it?
Its clothing for the youth. Its a niche that im knowledgeable about because im also into it.

 

[mj22]

The free Digital Crash Course Journal thread on this forum should point you in the correct direction. If that dont help then i dont know what to tell you. find what works for you and scale, doesnt matter if ecomm or affiliate marketing ect.

 

[Yvv]

I think im in the paid ads parts
Im doing FB not getting anything but views or subscribers. I saw there were alot PPC alternatives to google bing and yahoo. But the thread is in 2016. Has much changed since then?

 

[GNews]

Personally.

As I told you. I like ranking my sites in search vs paying for ads.

I wonder however, how does everyone see ads?

Is that a shorter term solution than SEO ranking?

I feel most i see in the forum personally try to rank their pages and store vs ads.

 

[Ryuzaki]

I wonder however, how does everyone see ads? Is that a shorter term solution than SEO ranking?

It's an active spend for active income. If you can fund it and optimize your campaigns, there's no reason not to do paid ads. It's literally printing money if you can float through the payment periods (ex. net 30). It's a sure thing, you'll get some social shares and links out of it too. You'd think SEO was long term and it can be, but it's extremely volatile. I say to always take advantage of it, but as soon as you can move past it while still including it, you're in a much better boat and starting to have a real brand.

But the thread is in 2016. Has much changed since then?

For the most part, the only thing that changes is the bidding pressure driving up the costs. That's why people will bounce to the new thing as soon as it's available in order to get cheaper traffic. TikTok is about to release the kraken on ads and you'll start hearing about that soon.

I went into dropshipping because its supposed to be the lowest investment in a business compared to other business models. I already spent 1500 this yr in 2 months and 800 near December last year trying to get everything right yet this too nothing.

How do you figure drop shipping and spending $2300 is cheaper than spending $10 on a domain for a year and $5 a month for a cruddy shared server and writing some content yourself? I applaud you for taking a shot at drop shipping and not being scared to spend some money, but if your goal is to get into the game cheaply, it can be done for less than $10 a month or even for free with free blog hosting sites like Blogger and Wordpress.

I'm not saying you should follow their model, though you could, but have you looked into the fashion bloggers, especially the female side of the game in the "mommy blogger" world? They're crushing it and they don't drop ship a thing. They display ads and get affiliate commissions on clothing sales. They could introduce stores into their sites, but they don't. (And if I did I wouldn't drop ship a thing, I'd order product and have it in a fulfillment center).

My point is, if you're into youth clothing, there's a lot of ways to make money in that niche. Everything is a trend, and you can provide information that points users in the direction on how to get in on the trend or upcoming trend and/or just let the display ads point the way, or both. And you never have to have an inventory or take an order.

By the way, saturated is fine. It means there's gobs of money and customers, a huge pie that you only need a little slice from. There's also "flooded" as opposed to saturated. When that's the case, the best move is usually to come at it from a different angle, especially when there's gate keepers (like blogs telling people what's cool or not, and designers and brands that have to pick your designs up). You can skip all that and just become a gate keeper yourself, for instance.

 

[ToffeeLa]

Its clothing for the youth. Its a niche that im knowledgeable about because im also into it.

Hmm.
'Clothing for the Youth'

Are we talking relaxed clothing for climbers and boulderers when they hang out after a session?
Or maybe the leisurewear trends in far right German circles?
Or stuff that you would wear out at a weekend when you visit your favourite LGBT nightclub?
Or customers that want all their gear to be made in an environmentally-friendly fashion?
Or plus-size technical skiing gear for the overweight winter fanatic?
Or a monthly box club for sock fans?

See where I'm going with this?

 

[GNews]

^ do not tell people your direct secrets on this board or any other board @Yvv

People will reverse engineer your store/product if you're successful. Stay as 'blank' as possible when giving details.

 

[ToffeeLa]

^ do not tell people your direct secrets on this board or any other board @Yvv

People will reverse engineer your store/product if you're successful. Stay as 'blank' as possible when giving details.

I was trying to make the point that there are vast amounts of very different niches within youth fashion. And since he is very much a newbie and was not having any success he might not be as aware of them as he needed to be.

It's also one of the last things I would possibly be interested in given my age versus the rest of the board, but many thanks for warning him about me. I'll know to wind my neck in and keep any information and advice to myself in future.

 

[Potatoe]

I'll know to wind my neck in and keep any information and advice to myself in future.

Please don't, you have great insights.

 

[GNews]

I was trying to make the point that there are vast amounts of very different niches within youth fashion. And since he is very much a newbie and was not having any success he might not be as aware of them as he needed to be.

It's also one of the last things I would possibly be interested in given my age versus the rest of the board, but many thanks for warning him about me. I'll know to wind my neck in and keep any information and advice to myself in future.

Didn't mean to offend you.

I was saying that because I know this user personally. Met them while traveling but they do not know such things as 'reverse engineering' just yet. I don't want them to blurt it by accident, trying to answer your questions. That's why I said "stay as blank as possible" in response

Apology if I did offend. Definitely keep helping others. You're making this a better place by doing so.

 

[Yvv]

Hmm.
'Clothing for the Youth'

Are we talking relaxed clothing for climbers and boulderers when they hang out after a session?
Or maybe the leisurewear trends in far right German circles?
Or stuff that you would wear out at a weekend when you visit your favourite LGBT nightclub?
Or customers that want all their gear to be made in an environmentally-friendly fashion?
Or plus-size technical skiing gear for the overweight winter fanatic?
Or a monthly box club for sock fans?

See where I'm going with this?

Yes its kinda of a mix. Kind of like the weekend one you mentioned, concerts, and to go out.

 

[ToffeeLa]

So are you marketing your stuff just with ads or do you already have a FB page with followers and an audience that you know appreciates the kind of music and nightlife and are more the kind of people that might like your fashion? If you are using FB ads, how involved are you already in FB activities in the niche?

If you don't have a FB with followers and a regular audience do you know how to build one?

 

[Yvv]

So are you marketing your stuff just with ads or do you already have a FB page with followers and an audience that you know appreciates the kind of music and nightlife and are more the kind of people that might like your fashion? If you are using FB ads, how involved are you already in FB activities in the niche?

If you don't have a FB with followers and a regular audience do you know how to build one?

Both FB and IG
As well just added content with help from a friend and just discovered metadata issues.

I have very little followers, but a good list of competitors. I'm not sure if I truly know how to build an audience. Gurus say to spend $5 a day on ads, others just jump straight into conversions, some create $1 to $3 a day ads etc..

I've done the $1 a day method with the reach campaign and got 2 followers. It is my only above average ad in ranking.

 

[ToffeeLa]

OK. (Disclaimer: I am not a FB expert by any means in ads or audience and I am sure there are many more people on here who could give you better advice. But...)

So you have a FB page but very few followers and no sales despite advertising.

Now let's do an experiment. Call it 'Educating Myself about My Facebook Niche' and budget $200 for two months.

Without revealing your particular niche, let us imagine that the kind of people that like your fashion are into house, for example. So, for the next two months, you are going to add a link post to your FB page which is relevant and interesting every other day.

These link posts will not be from your site or to do with your fashion line, but they will be about house music and events and news which might attract your target audience in their location.

And, for each link post, you write a come-on blurb ("Looks like DJ Sniffzalot is getting back in the groove on Fridays at Grungerama in downtown Plonkton..." - or something better that isn't written by someone like me generations too old!°!).

Now you go into your FB Ad Manager (or use Adespresso or something like that) and set up a custom audience. You are looking for post engagement and a duration of 2 days per post at $3 budget a day. Next you choose your parameters. So for house music, maybe 21-35 age, male or female or both (depending on your fashion line) and some locations where you think your fashion might be the most popular.

So, let's say you are based in Lille, France, and your fashion line is in French. So you can target France, French-speaking Belgium and French-speaking Switzerland for your audience. You probably want a potential audience of hundreds of thousands to just over a million. So if your audience is way too big you start narrowing it down by saying 'must like clubbing' and 'must like fashion' and 'must like house music' (or whatever the 'FB interests' say in your niche) until you have a size audience you are comfortable with. And probably restrict the placement to news feed as well at the start.

Set and forget for the two months. Make sure your FB link posts are relevant to house music in France, Valais and Belgique!

Now you are good to go. You are going to spend $3 a day for two months (because each ad is running for two days and you are publishing a new FB post every other day). Yes, you are publicising other people's content on your page but it doesn't matter because you are using their content to attract your audience and let you learn about them (and, if you are really bothered, you can let the other sites know you are publicising their stuff).

At the end of the two days for each post, click on the 'Likes' under the post and Invite to like your page (rather than just the post).

At the end of this experiment, you should be much more visible (branding) in your segment and have a much better idea about how your potential audience is reacting to information. Do they really like this type of post and really hate that type? Do guys tend to go for certain stuff and girls for other type of post? What times of day or week? What type of post builds my audience?

Now you know a lot more about how your potential audience behaves on FB and, if you have published interesting content on your page, you have a growing audience of people who like what you are posting. Once you start getting organic visits in the hundreds, you can start publishing the kind of information that your market likes but including your fashion line. (So, to take an example, if you found out that people like looking at photos of queues to get into certain nightclubs, get some of your friends to wear your stuff and stand in line, take photos, post it on your site and then do a FB link post about it.)

Apologies if this is sounding too basic or you are already doing all this with no success - it's difficult to know what you are actually doing or how much knowledge you have.

And, if anyone feels that I am talking crap about FB pages and audiences or has stuff to add, please feel free to jump right in. I'm as happy to learn as the next man or woman.