[Journey] Make my first $400 for my Dad

[Captaintj]

Today has been the most emotionally sad day for me. With lots of emotional ups and downs.

Something about me so far.

I had been trying to make money online since October 2018 with my dropshipping store. After spending more than $500 of my savings on facebook/instagram ads, I gave up with making money via Ads and tried doing it via free to least amount of money spent.

I'll be honest, I am not horrible in it, I had some success here and there. But due to continuous fees of Shopify + trying to learn via courses that I thought were good didn't work out for me.

I didn't have much success and I have been unemployed for the last 2 months so it has been tough.

2 day ago I asked my dad for $400 because I needed to pay for my exams tuition + hopefully use a bit of the money to start it with my online money making journey.

I am originally from India and my dad works in Thailand to make money for the family to send it back home to run the family.

I was visiting him for 2 months just now, but since I made a stupid mistake of mixing my flight dates. I am stuck in Laos for one night till tomorrow.

And me being stupid, the costs that I had to pay for my visa fees came down to $400. When I told my dad about this, he started to get sad and cry.

When I asked him what happened, he said "When I gave you that money I wished that it would help you, that it could be a changing point for you, where you can start off."

We spoke about it, and I got to know things had been tough financially. That he never told me about, since he always said everything was well.

I checked he only had $1800 in his bank account from which he gave me the $400. I feel like a bad person for taking something, when he didn't even have much with himself. He didn't even think once before giving me that.

He works day and night late hours and I couldn't see what he has been going through.

(I don't live in Thailand. I had spent 6 months in Germany in Summer to gain some money, but due to visa problems, I had to come back to India/Thailand. I get another start in March to work there again for full time.)

I finally got a job offer and I start working in 1 and a half months. Till then I want to be a better son and earn my dad the money back. And hopefully start saving to help him run the house for my sisters education.

I am right now spending $50 a month on Instagram growth service and hoping after 3 months it starts to bring regular sales.

Other than that, I have a shopify store, I cannot give the exact name here for copy reason, but if anyone knows anything about getting traffic/sales, I am willing to pay 70% or more of the profit if anyone can help me with this. I just need to start making, doesn't matter if its less.

I am new to online money making, so i don't really know much else other than a bit dropshipping or a bit of instagram.

If anyone can suggest me anything, please let me know. Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated.

I will put in the work for every day and night. And hopefully soon pay my dad the money back and help him after that with running our family.

Sorry for the long post. I guess this journey is my way today to make amends and start today to fix my life.

Tj

02/07/2019

Earnings $0 - $400

 

[TheVigilante]

Don't worry you will make your dad proud

 

[Captaintj]

Don't worry you will make your dad proud

Yes, thats my goal now

 

[MisterF]

Yes, thats my goal now

Work hard, stay focused and earn that money and send it to your dad. Then when you make your next $1k, send him another $100 as a thankyou.

Your parents have invested so much time and money raising you and they will want you to do well for yourself.

As for the flights mix up, people do make mistakes it's one of those things.

 

[wilsjac1]

Not to get you off track, but you said you had done dropshipping so you must know how to setup Shopify stores. There are 100's of shopify groups on Facebook you can join and reply to people needing help, or simply let people know you do Shopify store setups and if anyone needs it done to let you know. You can easily charge $50-$100 for a store setup and a lot more if you are good at it and can design a store well. You will be surprised how many people will take you up on your offer if you say you will set up their Shopify store and do a basic design for $50 - $100. it will only take you a few hours to complete each project. That is going to make you money much quicker than growing your Instagram accounts will not saying dump the Instagram project but focus on something that will bring you in money now rather than later. Be persistent and spend 2 - 3 hours a day helping people in the Shopify groups with questions they may have and just make sure to let them know if they ever need help setting anything up on their store that you offer those services and are cheap. if you do this you can easily make $50 - $100/day and potentially a lot more if you get good and aquire more skills such as email marketing services, and help them grow their Instagram accounts. The only thing you need is a Paypal account you don't even need your own website or anything to get started just start talking to people and get the word out that you are looking for work. Good Luck!

FYI: even if you don't know exactly how to do everything you can easily learn with youtube and tutorials Fake it tell you make it.

 

[Captaintj]

Not to get you off track, but you said you had done dropshipping so you must know how to setup Shopify stores. There are 100's of shopify groups on Facebook you can join and reply to people needing help, or simply let people know you do Shopify store setups and if anyone needs it done to let you know. You can easily charge $50-$100 for a store setup and a lot more if you are good at it and can design a store well. You will be surprised how many people will take you up on your offer if you say you will set up their Shopify store and do a basic design for $50 - $100. it will only take you a few hours to complete each project. That is going to make you money much quicker than growing your Instagram accounts will not saying dump the Instagram project but focus on something that will bring you in money now rather than later. Be persistent and spend 2 - 3 hours a day helping people in the Shopify groups with questions they may have and just make sure to let them know if they ever need help setting anything up on their store that you offer those services and are cheap. if you do this you can easily make $50 - $100/day and potentially a lot more if you get good and aquire more skills such as email marketing services, and help them grow their Instagram accounts. The only thing you need is a Paypal account you don't even need your own website or anything to get started just start talking to people and get the word out that you are looking for work. Good Luck!

FYI: even if you don't know exactly how to do everything you can easily learn with youtube and tutorials Fake it tell you make it.

Thank you for the advise. I'll start with this. I am part of only 3 groups right now. I'll send a request to many and start helping others and in time hopefully get some money from it

 

[Paukerin]

In your case I would probably stay away from IG and dropshipping right now because it will most certainly cost you more money in the beginning.

Ever heard of Appen? https://appen.com/careers/ I worked for a project from October to December and made 2000$. It was a simple job, 4hrs a day, quite boring actually but it was good money I could use. You could take a look if you find something

 

[wilsjac1]

Thank you for the advise. I'll start with this. I am part of only 3 groups right now. I'll send a request to many and start helping others and in time hopefully get some money from it

If you are persistent and are willing to spend a few hours a day trying to find clients you should start to see money come in right away.

Make sure to tell people that you want 50% of the money upfront and the other 50% to be paid upon completion of the job. this is very standard in the industry and most people should have no issues with that.

 

[Captaintj]

Work hard, stay focused and earn that money and send it to your dad. Then when you make your next $1k, send him another $100 as a thankyou.

Your parents have invested so much time and money raising you and they will want you to do well for yourself.

As for the flights mix up, people do make mistakes it's one of those things.

Thank you MisterF for your kind words. I cannot change what happened, but I will make everyday better now

If you are persistent and are willing to spend a few hours a day trying to find clients you should start to see money come in right away.

Make sure to tell people that you want 50% of the money upfront and the other 50% to be paid upon completion of the job. this is very standard in the industry and most people should have no issues with that.

Already contacted two people who just made their stores.

I'll set-up my own store to look more professional, I have sent you the name via dm. Let me know your thoughts if its good enough for representation for the clients..

In your case I would probably stay away from IG and dropshipping right now because it will most certainly cost you more money in the beginning.

Ever heard of Appen? https://appen.com/careers/ I worked for a project from October to December and made 2000$. It was a simple job, 4hrs a day, quite boring actually but it was good money I could use. You could take a look if you find something

Hi, no I never heard from it. WIll check it out now. thanks

 

[rudrapada]

Hi, no I never heard from it. WIll check it out now. thanks

It is extremely hard to get accepted in Appen.(At least for me)
I advise you to apply but do get back to your own business,
As they take a lot of time to even reply.
Most of the times they don't accept.
tl;dr
Apply but don't expect.

 

[Captaintj]

It is extremely hard to get accepted in Appen.(At least for me)
I advise you to apply but do get back to your own business,
As they take a lot of time to even reply.
Most of the times they don't accept.
tl;dr
Apply but don't expect.

I am still looking into the offers there. I am not the best candidate I feel. But ill send my application and hope for the best

By any chance are you in CPA methods? I was thinking of doing it on the sides also. But I haventh gotten any concrete answer how to get started

 

[rudrapada]

I am still looking into the offers there. I am not the best candidate I feel. But ill send my application and hope for the best

By any chance are you in CPA methods? I was thinking of doing it on the sides also. But I haventh gotten any concrete answer how to get started

Imo your best choice right now is providing services to people
Like a member said building Shopify stores to clients.
Do something that you feel comfortable in and you'll make it eventually.

And remember to multi-quote to reply

 

[jstarkseo]

Don't worry mate you will make your dad proud for sure

 

[Captaintj]

Imo your best choice right now is providing services to people
Like a member said building Shopify stores to clients.
Do something that you feel comfortable in and you'll make it eventually.

And remember to multi-quote to reply

Hi, thank you for the quote tip

I am already messaging new shopify website owners. Just learning what will make a person buy my services + improving my personal website for showcase for now

 

[Social God]

All these comments. I love BHW.

I wish you the best of luck bro! It’s tough to see your own father work. My dad has been working for 15 hours everyday for the last 3 weeks straight with no day off. It makes me want to cry. But if you look at these journey threads, the ones that make it all make it in the end because of the commitment, dedication, and sacrifices that they’ve put in. It’s a sacrifice and I know you will be able to help your dad in the end. You should take a look a Textbroker.com , maybe that might help you gather up some change. It’s tedious, but most definitely can get you at least $20 a day.

 

[Captaintj]

Don't worry mate you will make your dad proud for sure

Thank you @jstarkseo

I love your Pinterest Journey

All these comments. I love BHW.

I wish you the best of luck bro! It’s tough to see your own father work. My dad has been working for 15 hours everyday for the last 3 weeks straight with no day off. It makes me want to cry. But if you look at these journey threads, the ones that make it all make it in the end because of the commitment, dedication, and sacrifices that they’ve put in. It’s a sacrifice and I know you will be able to help your dad in the end. You should take a look a Textbroker.com , maybe that might help you gather up some change. It’s tedious, but most definitely can get you at least $20 a day.

Thank you @SocialGod

I am happy to have found the community here. It feels like it's our own small world

Yes, I understand what you might feel about your dad right now. I guess that's what drives people, to make things better

I'll look into this website you mentioned. Atm focusing on getting my first client for website building

 

[Captaintj]

Guys I have a question.

I contacted more than 20 people in a group.

But none of these people saw my messages. ItsI only showing open blue tick.

It's not even that I copied the messages, I wrote them speicifically for those people.

Plus these messages were in span of 2 days

Can anyone tell me if there's a system in facebook that my messages dont go to these people?

 

[iOptimize]

I wish you good luck on your journey. I would recommend you join the Shopify partner program to save on shopify fees. https://partners.shopify.com/ You can create unlimited stores for free and it costs nothing. I don't know if it's free up to 10 sales or 50 sales but I guess the minimum is 10. Also custom domain support is available. Good luck.

 

[Captaintj]

I wish you good luck on your journey. I would recommend you join the Shopify partner program to save on shopify fees. https://partners.shopify.com/ You can create unlimited stores for free and it costs nothing. I don't know if it's free up to 10 sales or 50 sales but I guess the minimum is 10. Also custom domain support is available. Good luck.

Thank you @hanesu

I am already using Shopify partner program. Got upto 20 sales in 4 months only

But still trying to work things out slowly

 

[jonsnow2019]

Nice journey with a noble goal!

+1 to offering services to people, freelancing jobs and setting up stores for others until you make some money. It might be better to cut the losses now and pause your dropshipping experiment until you have capital.