Working towards quitting my $400/week job..

Hey everyone! I'm semi-new to the site. I've been reading a lot and just recently started posting. I wasn't really sure where to post this on the forum but I figure the journeys section would be best.

So basically my journey towards quitting my low paying job that I hate has gone like this.
1. Started selling the stuff around my house that I didn't use/need anymore on ebay.
2. Took the money I made and invested it in some lotions which I then sold on ebay.
3. Took the money from that and invested it in branding my own products.
4. Posted to ebay and built an ecommerce site to sell them.
5. Paid $22 for facebook ads and got a little more than 1500 likes to my page.
6. Had business cards, t shirts, and brochures made to advertise locally and so I can try to get local stores to start carrying my products.

This is where I am currently at. I haven't gotten my brochures in yet but once I do then I will start going to local businesses and advertising locally. I plan on purchasing a few testimonial videos from fiverr as well as hr views, comments, likes, and subscribers as well as some link pyramids from fiverr to hopefully rank my videos on youtube and hopefully drive traffic to my site. I have a blog on my website that I post blogs to daily fully hand written. I have tried to do as much on page SEO as my abilities allow. My site is only a few weeks old and I believe what traffic I do have coming in is from my fb likes as I post twice a day to that (niche related pictures, videos, quotes, and so on). I understand I am in a competitive niche and hope anybody here can give me some pointers or advice on things I should be doing or looking into to drive traffic to my website and/or ebay listings. I have 100% positive feedback on ebay btw. However I am not a trs yet. Any advice? I'm all ears and open to suggestions. I've thought about dropshipping my products for people who are better at the marketing aspect of things than I am. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Sounds like a good start.

I wish you the best of luck. I'll be checking in here periodically to see how things are going.

Good start. I will keep this thread bookmarked and watch your progress. give me a shout if you have any questions.

That's a solid mindset! Just keep being positive even when in hard times and you'll succeed!
Good luck!

Thanks guys. I'm really hoping that I can make it happen. Luckily for me I don't have a high paying job so my goal to quit isn't astronomical lol. I'm glad you guys think I'm off to a good start. It's very reassuring to know I haven't left the gate messing up.

It seems like you have the one trait that most do not - passion. With what you have done so far, you will certainly see results. Ebay being a huge marketplace enables you to have a huge audience to promote to. If the profits are worth it, trying to add affiliates into the mix might help as well. If they get a tiny percentage and drive sales, it can help too.

Sounds like a good plan OP. I would suggest maybe forum posting too. Join some forums and become an active member. I say this because a lot of the beauty/ cosmetic products I purchase I hear about in forums that I am apart of and seems like lotions would fall under that catergory. PM me if you need some forum suggestions

You have a very solid start up. You built your business from the ground up and have took all the right steps so far. Keep investing in marketing whenever you can, that is my number one pointer for you. Also any marketing that you can do for yourself is wise because it keeps your money in your pocket. Keep participating in social media, create backlinks for your blogs and websites. Do more research here because there are many folks doing the same thing you are and they have put out many great tips. Direct mailers are great if you have the money to have them sent out in the mail. I've had success with them even though they are expensive. About 5 to 10% return 3000 sent out. The bay is tuff you do pay premium fees for being a seller on the site and must deal with major issues from time to time. I'm sure you are familiar with all the in's and outs with the bay by now. When I first started out I had the trunk of my car full the item I was selling, I would hangout at the beach and public place with my business t-shirt on and the item in my hand. I sold many right out of the rear of my old jalopy. Keep your head up and grind away, the payoff is worth it. Don't let anyone tell you different because when I started out, not even my friends or family had my back. A real job sucks and I'm never going back, it would kill me... I've lost my businesses in the past, and I'm currently back up on my feet doing what I love to do, "building it back up." Its what we do and that shall keep us strong!

Thanks guys. I don't currently sell lotions but I will get active on forums related to my niche. That's a very good idea. I know the fees on ebay are ridiculous and the babysitting by them is annoying but I hope to get customers through the bay and then try getting them to buy directly from my site (prices are 10% cheaper on my site than I have them listed for on ebay). Swagguru that was an awesome post. That's the kind of story that pumps me up. When I get my brochures in I plan on doing some area canvassing with them by leaving them in any store that will let us put up a rack with them near the register (a trick I learned when I was a recruiter for the army). I hope that will help build a local following/customer base which will help the businesses that do decide to carry my products and in turn help me build a better reputation locally and hopefully online as well.

goosefrabah said:

It seems like you have the one trait that most do not - passion. With what you have done so far, you will certainly see results. Ebay being a huge marketplace enables you to have a huge audience to promote to. If the profits are worth it, trying to add affiliates into the mix might help as well. If they get a tiny percentage and drive sales, it can help too.

Click to expand...

An affiliate program might be a good idea. How would I go about setting something like that up? Is there a guide on here possibly?

So, we just got our brochure designs in and they came out awesome, just have to get them tweaked a little and then they will be off to printing. I have inquired here about how to go about setting up an affiliate program, so hopefully I can get that going. I have been talking with a member here who is interested in us doing dropshipping for him. We have figured out who we want to do our testimonial video and wrote a script and I have asked someone here who does backlink pyramids if their service would be beneficial in ranking our video in youtube's search. I also created a nice professional logo reveal for the videos that we make ourselves. We are definitely moving forward!

So are you currently selling your own products or are you still reselling stuff (just not lotions)?

I am selling my own branded products

Looks like you are headed in the right direction... keep it up bro!

Thank you! As long as we're moving forward and not backwards I'm happy haha

When you are selling locally if you visit them directly it will build up.a significant amount of trust that would be very hard to build just through online interaction. Then use the local sales as case studies for the people you can't visit. May help but worked well for me in the past, good luck!

Yeah, our plan locally is to try to get ahold of the owner of the store via phone, set up a time we can show them our products, sell the heck out of them so they feel that they absolutely need our products on their shelves and hopefully close the deal. We have business cards and will have our tri fold brochures with us to leave with the owner if they they don't want to close immediately, that way they have something tangible to remember us by and hopefully want to follow up with us and carry our products (we obviously would follow up with them ourselves after a week or so if they haven't gotten in touch with us). I am open to suggestions on different techniques that have worked for you guys in closing a face to face deal like this before. Any knowledge is good knowledge.

Great start and best of luck for the future

Nice! A good way to start your journey and I wish you the best and goodluck.

Thanks for the support guys.