An Ecommerce Journey (Road to $10k+)

nextlvlig

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My Journey Thread

Background? I am 16 years old, stressed out with school, and my name is Ethan. I have been growing Instagram accounts for the past couple of years (even though my name says otherwise, I am no "pro" at Instagram) so I decided to take my Instagram knowledge to the next level - Monetization.

This thread is mostly for me. I wanted to organize my ideas, track my progress, and keep motivated by making this thread.

End Goal? Create a successful ($10k+ per month) ecommerce business.

Overview of steps to get to my goal:
1. Finish reading threads about ecommerce
2. Set up products for shop (I will be designing products)
3. Set up Shopify store and find people that are willing to do affiliate marketing for my store
4. Profit
5. Use profit to grow social media accounts exponentially

A very basic plan but I have a more detailed one in my journal.

What do I currently have? Well I have Instagram knowledge, an Instagram account with 30k followers, and $110 on paypal.

How will I get traffic to my site? Main Instagram account and other Instagram accounts using affiliate links

What website am I using to create my own products? I am currently looking at printful.

What application will I be using for affiliate marketing? Affiliatly - it's a shopify app and doesn't cost much

If I make enough money, how will I grow my Instagram account? I will be using the child parent method. I am debating whether to do it myself (If I have enough time) or if I will hire someone else who is willing to do it for me.

I will probably update weekly or every 2 weeks. The first few months are going to be a grind since I'll be juggling school, this, and other activities so hopefully I won't peter out.

If you guys have advice, concerns, or anything you'd like to say, feel free to leave it below. Thanks for reading!
 
UPDATE:

Alright so I've finished reading threads and preparing for the next stages. I have decided that instead of creating my own products, I will just find other products that are already doing well. I will be using products from aliexpress and plan on using a country based warehouse to store and ship products in a reasonable time (hopefully under a week). Once I start making sales, I plan on creating my own product but that will be in the far future.

I will start creating my shopify store now and make it look appealing.

Thanks for reading!
 
UPDATE:

Wanted to make a quick update. I am currently making my website, designing my products (Decided that some of my products will be from ali while majority will be new designs), and building the amount of affiliates I will have for my store.

Expenses so far: $105 - used this for designing products
Total followers of all of my affiliates on IG so far - 1.4 mil
 
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Good luck..so, which app you're using to find products from AliExpress? You're sourcing products directly or looking for sellers with USA warehouse?
 
Good luck..so, which app you're using to find products from AliExpress? You're sourcing products directly or looking for sellers with USA warehouse?

I am not using any apps. I have manually searched through Aliexpress to find my products. Unfortunately in the beginning, I am sourcing these products directly from China so the shipping times are horrible.

Majority of my store will be using POD in the US so shipping times for those products are a lot better but it costs a ton.

Once I understand what my audience likes most, I will buy the products from Aliexpress in bulk and ship it to a fulfillment warehouse to improve shipping times. I will also do a bulk order on Alibaba for customizable designs for phone cases and send it to the same fulfillment warehouse which would increase the profit margins.
 
Cool, I am working in starting a journey myself like yours doing fan child with Shopify (+ my own web design agency) so I will keep an eye here. Good luck!
 
Best to you, what method are you using to discover and build your affiliates?
I am just using the 30k account ive built to dm other accounts in the same niche with 10k+ followers.

In my message I do a quick intro on what I am doing and tell them to respond if they are interested. If they respond, I go into a lot more details about being an affiliate. I state all of their benefits and how they can profit by being one (I show them potential numbers they can make if they are an affiliate for my store). Also I point out the potential negatives of being an affiliate for any store. Then I state why these negatives won't be an issue for my store.

Cool, I am working in starting a journey myself like yours doing fan child with Shopify (+ my own web design agency) so I will keep an eye here. Good luck!
Best of luck!
 
UPDATE:

Wanted to make a quick update. I am currently making my website, designing my products (Decided that some of my products will be from ali while majority will be new designs), and building the amount of affiliates I will have for my store.

Expenses so far: $105 - used this for designing products
Total followers of all of my affiliates on IG so far - 1.4 mil
So you are still building your Website but got already 1,4mil affiliates on IG? Or do you mean just optimizing more?
 
So you are still building your Website but got already 1,4mil affiliates on IG? Or do you mean just optimizing more?
Yep. I have affiliates with followers ranging from 10k-250k followers and the total amount of their followers add up to 1.4 mil. I'm just building a list of people that would like to be an affiliate for my upcoming store.

I let them know that I won't opening up shop now, but in a few weeks.
 
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