My Journey to $500/Day Using Shopify.

[magneticbucks]

Best of luck in your Journey. Watching your thread.

 

[247PVAservice]

Motivate Journey. But some investment need for it. In future i tried this way..

 

[llandrew]

Motivate Journey. But some investment need for it. In future i tried this way..

Bro - I started at $5/day then bumped it up to $20/day. I didn’t just go all out at first. I had monetary constraints when beginning myself.

 

[llandrew]

Just wanted to post an update to all those who’d been following the journey.

I successfully sold the website and am no longer working on that store. I got a very nice 6 figure all cash sale! Being it was the first time I actually sold a website for a substantial amount, the learning curve on what was needed in order to get the most possible for the store was at times tough. Like most others, my financials were all screwy, multiple credit card accounts being used, commingling of bank accounts etc etc. This becomes tough to explain to potential buyers so even though it’s tough, try very hard to keep neat financial records! It will greatly prolong your sale and could also scare buyers off.

At the end of the day, all of your hard work on developing your store needs to be worth the effort in the end. Yea, the daily cash flow is great and all, but what everyone should be working for who has a fairly successful store, is prepping it for a sale so you can get a big payday. EComm stores are currently getting around 1x net profit multiple. Don’t fool yourselves into thinking you’re going to get some 1.5x sales multiple. I’m going to be brutally honest with you all. The barriers to entry in all your stores is not hard, at all! So develop your social media followings well and build out your traffic. Most of that will be very attractive to a buyer. After all, if your store is generating $50,000 in net profit, you need to think of it from the buyers perspective. Should they just pay $40,000 - $60,000 to buy your developed business? Or could they build your exact same website on UpWork for $2000 and then dump $38,000 into ads? There’s inherent risk on there end in buying a store that will perform and actually do well. So believe me it does get dicey.

Also - hire a broker to handle the sale of your website if you’re trying to get anything above $30,000 in my opinion. Most brokers take a 15% commission fee. Dealflow, BizBuySell and Empire Flippers are all ones I have heard of and know do a pretty good job. There’s an Empire Flippers Rep floating in the forums too I believe who seems to offer very candid and straight forward advice.

Don’t give up on the websites you’re all pursuing. They take hard work and continual learning/tweaking. Make smart money moves with it and don’t stop you’re education process on the ads portion. It’s your bread and butter in most cases. Additionally guys, know when to pull the plug on a floundering website. You should know when you’re throwing good money after bad. I just recently had a big flop myself lol. It happens. But learn to recognize your flops (both in new websites and ads) and cut your losses when you recognize them. I think it’s safe to say a ton of us in these forums are all ‘tinkering’ with different methods and niches we think might make some dough. They’re not all going to be winners but you will have some. Recognize the winners and allocate more time to them. Don’t spread yourself thin working on 6 flops and 2 winners. Develop your winner, build it out, play with different traffic sources (FB, Pinterest, IG, Tumblr, Google, Bing etc) and keep making daily progress. Measure yourself at the end of each week or month. Get a nice pay day and then have more $ to adequately throw at some of your projects that may be flopping due to budgetary issues. Or use that $ to start different new online ventures you have a good feeling about. Then, just rinse and repeat.

#SecureTheBag

 

[UNKUT]

Thanks for this thread ! Really inspiring.
I don't know if you still reply to questions,
Im working with Shopify.. I can make up to $200 per day.. But as soon as i try to scale my budget, with the same ad, it will give soooo bad results
Im sure you've faced to that when you started
if you have something for me i would appreciate
thanks

 

[llandrew]

Thanks for this thread ! Really inspiring.
I don't know if you still reply to questions,
Im working with Shopify.. I can make up to $200 per day.. But as soon as i try to scale my budget, with the same ad, it will give soooo bad results
Im sure you've faced to that when you started
if you have something for me i would appreciate
thanks

Well, it sounds like you’ve found a decent product. Find adjacent products and test them with ads. Duplicate your current ad (but not to where it competes with itself) and try and do some different targeting of your demographic + their locations. Tweak your site and try and improve your ATC & Purchase conversion rates. Add an upsell. Use MailChimp to add them to an automated marketing sequence to give them maybe 2-4 emails (spread out over 3-4 days) to see if they’ll buy. Are you doing retargeting ADs? Because it’s much easier to sell to warm traffic VS. cold traffic. Retargeting ADs will scoop up an additional probably 10-20% of people who didn’t buy. There’s no easy format to scaling but sometimes you just have to do multiple ads and start having 10-20 ads that are on fire. Not just 1-2. If you can’t get past your hump then just run similar ads at the same budget to LLA’s. Try video ads on IG. Try Pinterest (but start slowly). There’s tons you can still be doing.

 

[UNKUT]

Well, it sounds like you’ve found a decent product. Find adjacent products and test them with ads. Duplicate your current ad (but not to where it competes with itself) and try and do some different targeting of your demographic + their locations. Tweak your site and try and improve your ATC & Purchase conversion rates. Add an upsell. Use MailChimp to add them to an automated marketing sequence to give them maybe 2-4 emails (spread out over 3-4 days) to see if they’ll buy. Are you doing retargeting ADs? Because it’s much easier to sell to warm traffic VS. cold traffic. Retargeting ADs will scoop up an additional probably 10-20% of people who didn’t buy. There’s no easy format to scaling but sometimes you just have to do multiple ads and start having 10-20 ads that are on fire. Not just 1-2. If you can’t get past your hump then just run similar ads at the same budget to LLA’s. Try video ads on IG. Try Pinterest (but start slowly). There’s tons you can still be doing.

Wow Thanks a lot man, I really appreciate !
I Will do everything you recommended me, let's reach those $500 a day !
I wish you the best for the future

 

[Dhwanit]

I have a 200k facebook page related to anime, the engagement with the memes/images is p good but I haven't tried selling anything on it yet as I would have to create my own custom design to not get a copyright strike... What's your view on it? Should I try making a design and sell t-shirts off it like using shopify or teespring? I would be happy with even 30$ per day lol (P.S. - nearly 70k are US fans)

 

[llandrew]

Wow Thanks a lot man, I really appreciate !
I Will do everything you recommended me, let's reach those $500 a day !
I wish you the best for the future

No problem. Keep testing and learning from those tests. Research your ass off and ask questions. It’s not a mistake some of us fall into profitable websites.

 

[llandrew]

I have a 200k facebook page related to anime, the engagement with the memes/images is p good but I haven't tried selling anything on it yet as I would have to create my own custom design to not get a copyright strike... What's your view on it? Should I try making a design and sell t-shirts off it like using shopify or teespring? I would be happy with even 30$ per day lol (P.S. - nearly 70k are US fans)

Lol and you’re running a page with 200K Likes because....?

Good God get off your ass and monetize already lol. I can’t answer your question in total just b/c I don’t know your audience that well. Yes, stay away from the trademarked stuff, it’s enevitable you’ll receive a C&D + those anime ppl are a weird group lol. They’re hyper-sensitive on their hobby...BIG TIME. Last thing you need is 500 nerds beating down your door because you sold them a Pokémon product that was made in Japan and not in Hong Kong (I’m just making this up to make a point). The anime crowd is truly a loyal and passionate group. They’ll roast your a** and go out of their way to make sure you suffer. So just avoid all that mess.

Now, for how to monetize. If it was me, this is what I would do.


Step 1: Create a separate link to an opt-in newsletter (click funnels is pretty good).

Step 2: Link it to your MailChimp account and link to a list you create titled (Newsletter).

Step 3: Create an automated marketing sequence in MailChimp for everyone who opts in. Comprise the sequence of 4 separate emails. 1 that sends out immediately. 1 that sends out after 8 hours. 1 that sends out after 24 hours. 1 that sends out after 48 hours. Offer in these emails, some sort of great discount to get them to buy (maybe 20-40% off something). The first email should introduce them to the offer + thank them for joining. The 2nd could be some sort of “free - just pay shipping” offer. 3rd email lets them know their discount expires in 48 hours. 4th email lets them know they have 24 hours left to redeem their code.

Step 4: Create a giveaway on Facebook that’s actually free and worth a damn. So you’re now going to make a post and tell them all that you’re doing your first big giveaway. All they have to do is LIKE your post and opt-in to the newsletter to be eligible to win. Lay out the date you’re picking a winner too. Put your link to your newsletter in the post along with a good looking photo.

Step 5: Now pin that post to the top of your Facebook page.

Step 6: Run a FB engagement campaign for that post to target anime fans. Set whatever budget you’re comfortable with daily and run it for 1 month.

Step 7: Also run a boosted post on FB for 1 month to also reach your audience who has liked your actual page.


Then just sit and wait to see how your FB audience actually works out for you. This should give you a ton of data, sales + a growing email list to now play around with. Your total cost may be around $600-$1000 for this little exercise. Granted though, I’m telling you to do all this under the impression you have a website already setup where you’re selling stuff...right? If you don’t even have that then hold off on doing all this until you’ve actually got a website. Your email sequence should be working automatically trying to get you sales from all that traffic etc. If you’re looking for a product(s) just go to Fiverr, have someone do some designs that look similar to brands that’s exist in your niche but are funny. Example: Pokemon. You could have a shirt that says ‘Fukndone’ that looks like their logo and have the new emoji that has its hand on its head in embarrassment as the Pokémon ball thing. That’s one idea and terrible at that; but it’s just to give you an example. Use the Shopify App: CustomCat and upload that design to some shirts etc. It’s a really easy process and they do all the printing and shipping for you. You just get the sales. That’s an example for you though, I’m not doing everything for you.

Good luck.

 

[AppSally]

Good luck on your goals! What's your most effective channel?

 

[llandrew]

Good luck on your goals! What's your most effective channel?

Thanks.

My most effective? Probably FB + IG. It’s different for everyone and what everyone is offering though. I honestly want to get a lot better at Pinterest.

Also, there was a story in Barron’s today regarding Snapchats new self-serve platform and how the cost of ads are likely to get very very low for marketers in hopes it will draw more advertisers to their platform. Just as FB did back in the day (until they really got their advertising platform dialed in) ADs are always cheap on platforms that are new to offering advertising to marketers. When enough people get on, talk about how much they’re making from Snapchat ADs, more will flock and then you’ll see it all over and the costs will go up and up. But at the time being, cheap is the word ;-)

Here’s the article for more info on it I read today:
http://www.barrons.com/articles/snap-is-slowly-growing-up-1506021937

 

[desma]

Congrats OP! great share, some serious gold nuggets in the last posts.
Just a couple of questions:
1- Which shopify app do you recommend for upsells? I'm not offering anything from my thank you page and I think I'm losing some $$$
2- Regarding FB ads, I'm doing at the time Conversion ads, Add to cart objective, always with lookalike audience AND interest, without expanding, 5$ budgets, +100,000 audience. My ads usually start killing it, $0.50/0.80 per cart add, but as days pass by, the ads perform worst and worst, up to $2 per add to cart. I have heard ads should perform better with time! but apparently is not my case. What should I do?
3- Regarding copyright, some instagram dude told me he is going to start legal actions against my store because I was selling a product with his pet image (a decorative item) unless we can "resolve this issue with a reasonable compensation". He also placed a DMCA Takedown Notice through Shopify.
Of course I removed the product (it was in my store for just 1 day), but can he actually sue me or is just a bleff to make some cash?
Thanks!

 

[HidanFi]

Good luck bro

 

[llandrew]

Congrats OP! great share, some serious gold nuggets in the last posts.
Just a couple of questions:
1- Which shopify app do you recommend for upsells? I'm not offering anything from my thank you page and I think I'm losing some $$$
2- Regarding FB ads, I'm doing at the time Conversion ads, Add to cart objective, always with lookalike audience AND interest, without expanding, 5$ budgets, +100,000 audience. My ads usually start killing it, $0.50/0.80 per cart add, but as days pass by, the ads perform worst and worst, up to $2 per add to cart. I have heard ads should perform better with time! but apparently is not my case. What should I do?
3- Regarding copyright, some instagram dude told me he is going to start legal actions against my store because I was selling a product with his pet image (a decorative item) unless we can "resolve this issue with a reasonable compensation". He also placed a DMCA Takedown Notice through Shopify.
Of course I removed the product (it was in my store for just 1 day), but can he actually sue me or is just a bleff to make some cash?
Thanks!

Hey, thanks man. Hopefully it’ll help others in some aspects.

1.) I think the app I used to use was InCart Upsell but to be 100% honest with you my upsells sucked and I never spent a lot of time
with them. Could’ve earned more but just didn’t, never did it and was too busy putting out other fires constantly.

2.) How come you’re doing ATC objectives? Do you not end up getting purchases when running PURCHASE ads? Sometimes it is necessary to go higher in the sales funnel but it doesn’t seem like you have to. Facebook front loads a lot of ads when you begin them. Sounds like you need a larger target audience. I usually stick with audiences that are 1M - 3M. They can run longer at that point. If your reach is only 100K then at some point your ads are going to go up in cost due to the frequency rising + ad nausea. Consider shutting the ad down or creating a duplicate ad when your frequency hits 3-4. You should also be aiming to hit a relevancy score of no less than 8. Any relevancy score less than 8 will begin losing at some point. Facebook does their own optimization but if you can hit a 9-10 relevancy score and your conversion ad is getting you at least 25 conversions per 7 days then you should be doing well when it comes to the ad. Now, whether or not people actually complete a checkout is a whole other subject. Facebook ads can only do so much if you have a product or website that’s just terrible at converting.

3.) Instagram troll. Tell em to go f*** himself. Guys just tryin to hit a lick off you. You removed the item and you’ve done your part. Block him and keep it moving. If you’ve removed the item prior to receiving a DMCA you’re good man. I’ve received plenty of C&D’s and a couple of DMCA notices. While I don’t pay attn to them too much, I always take them seriously and comply. I don’t ever offer up much information to the requester and NEVER open your books to anyone. They asked you to remove, you complied. Case closed. The people who get screwed are the people who receive C&D’s and DMCA’s and ignore them. Can he sue you? Sure. I can also sue a rock, doesn’t mean I’ll win. For this guy to file suit against you without knowing what you have is absurd. It costs anywhere from $5,000-$10,000 to file suit in Federal court. And keep in mind, this is before anything is even won. He would pay that + understand that he may get nothing from you. You may have $10 in annual sales and he just wasted all that cash. He won’t do it and his threats are weak. Does he really expect you to be like “Ok. How much is it going to take to make this go away?” lol. Tell him you have a beach house in Nebraska that you’d hate to lose due to being sued

 

[llandrew]

Hello all, just wanted to let you all know who followed and liked this journey, that I am starting a new journey towards $10,000/day.

I started this new journey here on another thread. Thanks for everyone who supportive in helping, giving me tips or just flat out being positive and encouraging. Entrepreneurship is a lonely job where no one hears about our wins and losses.

 

[LordCameltoe]

Well I just read this whole thread! Congrats on the good work my man!

I have 2 questions:

1- How did you handle packaging? Did you pre-order a bunch of boxes of various sizes, slap on your logos, put some bubble wrap in them and ship them out? Did the shipping eat into your profits much?
2 - How much inventory would you hold? Did you make any bulk deals for good selling items or did you always order 1 item at a time, ship it to your office in the US, package it then ship it out to the customer?

Cheers!