I used to be successful.. This is my story

[WBSS]

Hi everyone!

A couple of years ago I wanted to make money online but I didn't know-how.

After some time I stumbled upon dropshipping and I started to follow some courses and with a great plan It worked out for me with less than 100 euro investment. I left my job and I was financially free for 1,5 years.

But to be completely honest with you guys, in that timeframe I was not happy at all!
Dropshipping was really stressful, dealing with customers, dealing with bad suppliers, and so on.

I had a gut feeling that this wasn't something I could do long-term.

So I decided to sell my business that was currently making me a 5k profit a month on Google Shopping. I sold it at a low price to a guy with an intention to make another store and make even more profit and save up for buying in bulk and doing it the right way.

Well.. after I sold my business I took a month off and enjoyed the freedom.
After that, I found a great product with high margins and a great supplier.

I made the store and set everything up in Merchant Center and Google Ads and after a couple of days of waiting for my products to get approved, I noticed that I got suspended for misrepresentation.

I'm suspended until this day, for what? Nothing.

I tried countless times to contact support, but they just don't care and give you automated replies.
Months go by and I realized that I made someone financially free and I just lost my income.

After 7 months I ran out of money and had to look for a job.

I found one that I could do from home and earn the minimum wage which so below my potential and in the meantime I would look for opportunities to make money online again.

So I found affiliate marketing and I thought by myself this is way better than dropshipping and started to learn everything about it.
I made around $2500 in a couple of weeks on Clickbank with Bing Ads but I broke even because everyone is promoting the same offers on Bing.

So that was a waste of time.

I tried Push ads, then I realized that there are lots of bots but I managed to get 1 sale with a loss of $300
I tried Native Ads for around $1000 lost it all with 0 conversions.

Today I realized maybe I should invest in proxies and virtual browsers to make a new Google Ads account but that would be another $500 spending.
I'm so sick of it man.

This is something I have never told anyone because I'm ashamed of myself for making this mistake. I was successful and I'm broke now.

I want to continue with affiliate marketing but nothing seems to work out for me.

Any advice?

 

[PaidPoints]

Hi everyone!

A couple of years ago I wanted to make money online but I didn't know-how.

After some time I stumbled upon dropshipping and I started to follow some courses and with a great plan It worked out for me with less than 100 euro investment. I left my job and I was financially free for 1,5 years.

But to be completely honest with you guys, in that timeframe I was not happy at all!
Dropshipping was really stressful, dealing with customers, dealing with bad suppliers, and so on.

I had a gut feeling that this wasn't something I could do long-term.

So I decided to sell my business that was currently making me a 5k profit a month on Google Shopping. I sold it at a low price to a guy with an intention to make another store and make even more profit and save up for buying in bulk and doing it the right way.

Well.. after I sold my business I took a month off and enjoyed the freedom.
After that, I found a great product with high margins and a great supplier.

I made the store and set everything up in Merchant Center and Google Ads and after a couple of days of waiting for my products to get approved, I noticed that I got suspended for misrepresentation.

I'm suspended until this day, for what? Nothing.

I tried countless times to contact support, but they just don't care and give you automated replies.
Months go by and I realized that I made someone financially free and I just lost my income.

After 7 months I ran out of money and had to look for a job.

I found one that I could do from home and earn the minimum wage which so below my potential and in the meantime I would look for opportunities to make money online again.

So I found affiliate marketing and I thought by myself this is way better than dropshipping and started to learn everything about it.
I made around $2500 in a couple of weeks on Clickbank with Bing Ads but I broke even because everyone is promoting the same offers on Bing.

So that was a waste of time.

I tried Push ads, then I realized that there are lots of bots but I managed to get 1 sale with a loss of $300
I tried Native Ads for around $1000 lost it all with 0 conversions.

Today I realized maybe I should invest in proxies and virtual browsers to make a new Google Ads account but that would be another $500 spending.
I'm so sick of it man.

This is something I have never told anyone because I'm ashamed of myself for making this mistake. I was successful and I'm broke now.

I want to continue with affiliate marketing but nothing seems to work out for me.

Any advice?

keep pushing...

Might wanna check this post, literally on the home page right now. See if you can find any tips from there.

(BLOG ARTICLE) See how these three simple steps has helped me succeed in affiliate marketing

Don't anyone worry about this post. Apparently, I violated the policy.

www.affiliatefix.com

 

[makingofkira]

You should do what you are best at. You already know drop-shipping business, why not start it again and at the same time try to learn affiliate marketing. Don't expect to learn anything in one year. I started affiliate marketing in December, and I'm struggling to make $100 a month even after 7 months.

 

[WBSS]

keep pushing...

Might wanna check this post, literally on the home page right now. See if you can find any tips from there.

Thanks man! I will look into it.

 

[WBSS]

You should do what you are best at. You already know drop-shipping business, why not start it again and at the same time try to learn affiliate marketing. Don't expect to learn anything in one year. I started affiliate marketing in December, and I'm struggling to make $100 a month even after 7 months.

I'm based in Europe and at the moment it is harder to do dropshipping because they have included tax when you buy from China and you pay tax in my country, so I need to pay tax twice.

I was thinking about it for a while do it all over again but there are not many opportunities. I could drop ship to the US but the cost to acquire a customer is 5x higher in the US than in Europe.

I have looked around and I see that there are some networks out there that have e-commerce products and If I could promote that through Google Ads + Facebook then that would be great.

But I have to invest in proxies and software to make brand new accounts.

The only thing I don't like about affiliate marketing is that you are at the mercy of those networks, there is a chance they don't pay you out. The only network I trust at the moment is Clickbank and they paid me.

The second thing is anyone that who has done dropshipping in the past with Shopify had everything in one place.

So you connect your domain, you build your website, place the pixel and see real-time tracking and everything is just in one spot which is amazing.

But I haven't really found something for affiliate marketing that does the same thing and is at a reasonable price.

I really want to make affiliate marketing work for me because it is less stressful and you can enjoy your life and time with your family without dealing with customers and suppliers.

 

[PureLander]

I advice you to try Drop shipping again, since you already know how it works, and at the same time, try to learn affiliate marketing .. Because this later won't give you a sure win at once.. Most ppl who try it fail..
not because it doesn't work, it's usually because they don't know how to do it..

And you can share your questions if you had a mess starting your journey with it ..

- Samira

 

[PaidPoints]

I'm based in Europe and at the moment it is harder to do dropshipping because they have included tax when you buy from China and you pay tax in my country, so I need to pay tax twice.

I was thinking about it for a while do it all over again but there are not many opportunities. I could drop ship to the US but the cost to acquire a customer is 5x higher in the US than in Europe.

I have looked around and I see that there are some networks out there that have e-commerce products and If I could promote that through Google Ads + Facebook then that would be great.

But I have to invest in proxies and software to make brand new accounts.

The only thing I don't like about affiliate marketing is that you are at the mercy of those networks, there is a chance they don't pay you out. The only network I trust at the moment is Clickbank and they paid me.

The second thing is anyone that who has done dropshipping in the past with Shopify had everything in one place.

So you connect your domain, you build your website, place the pixel and see real-time tracking and everything is just in one spot which is amazing.

But I haven't really found something for affiliate marketing that does the same thing and is at a reasonable price.

I really want to make affiliate marketing work for me because it is less stressful and you can enjoy your life and time with your family without dealing with customers and suppliers.

I was about to support the advice others gave above about continuing with dropshipping and restarting afresh in it since you already know how to do it, but seeing the last sentence you made here, I see reasons to agree with your change from drop shipping to affiliate marketing. That is really true if you succeed with it.

Like I said before, keep pushing. One thing that is very common about affiliate marketing and drop shipping is that they all need targeted traffic. I'm sure you can apply some strategies you learnt in the dropshippping field to affiliate marketing and make it work for you.

Honestly if I had success with drop shipping, it wouldn't take me much time to kick it off with affiliate marketing.

 

[GriD]

I'm based in Europe and at the moment it is harder to do dropshipping because they have included tax when you buy from China and you pay tax in my country, so I need to pay tax twice.

Also based in the EU, I left the dropshipping scene a while ago, VAT always has been an issue, most dropshippers didn't do it right before the new VAT rules...
Unfortunately massively exploiting the weaknesses in the system resulted in the EU implementing the new VAT rules...
I will not go into detail as it would take too long but if you are correctly set up you will not pay VAT twice... Talk to your accountant, it's not that hard...

I have looked around and I see that there are some networks out there that have e-commerce products and If I could promote that through Google Ads + Facebook then that would be great.

Yes, you can, just look at the offer restrictions individually...

The only thing I don't like about affiliate marketing is that you are at the mercy of those networks, there is a chance they don't pay you out. The only network I trust at the moment is Clickbank and they paid me.

Go with the networks that are endorsed here... Chances are slim they will mess with their affiliates...

The second thing is anyone that who has done dropshipping in the past with Shopify had everything in one place.

So you connect your domain, you build your website, place the pixel and see real-time tracking and everything is just in one spot which is amazing.

But I haven't really found something for affiliate marketing that does the same thing and is at a reasonable price.

Not so much of a difference, you can still track your Facebook ads performance on Facebook, you can build your website on a hosting platform (or a VPS, or a funnel builder, etc...). And you get your payout from the affiliate network, no fighting about your money with Paypal, Stripe, etc...
It sounds like you are overcomplicating, I know how things are... I've been there too...

 

[GriD]

I advice you to try Drop shipping again, since you already know how it works...

True but I seem to read that you made up your mind about moving into affiliate marketing... You should know the basics if you were successful at dropshipping...

Honestly if I had success with drop shipping, it wouldn't take me much time to kick it off with affiliate marketing.

I second that... The marketing part is incorporated in the dropshipping process...

The other way around, I believe a successful affiliate marketer will have no trouble starting a dropshipping business as the hardest part is getting things sold... You, on the other hand, have a learning curve ahead but you have a solid base

 

[WBSS]

I advice you to try Drop shipping again, since you already know how it works, and at the same time, try to learn affiliate marketing .. Because this later won't give you a sure win at once.. Most ppl who try it fail..
not because it doesn't work, it's usually because they don't know how to do it..

And you can share your questions if you had a mess starting your journey with it ..

- Samira

If I could find a great opportunity maybe I would try dropshipping again, but I think It is better for me to just focus on learning affiliate marketing. I have also heard great things about Purelander maybe I would buy it because I need to learn how to make landing pages fast.

 

[WBSS]

I was about to support the advice others gave above about continuing with dropshipping and restarting afresh in it since you already know how to do it, but seeing the last sentence you made here, I see reasons to agree with your change from drop shipping to affiliate marketing. That is really true if you succeed with it.

Like I said before, keep pushing. One thing that is very common about affiliate marketing and drop shipping is that they all need targeted traffic. I'm sure you can apply some strategies you learnt in the dropshippping field to affiliate marketing and make it work for you.

Honestly if I had success with drop shipping, it wouldn't take me much time to kick it off with affiliate marketing.

Well, I got lucky with my product.

I found a product that has a decent amount of volume on Google with low CPC, I build a store and I list it on Google Shopping.
Instant success.

I relied on Google too much and when I lost it all I didn't know other ways do to it again. I tried Facebook Ads and I made some money with that too profitably, but it wasn't sustainable and consistent like with Google.

It is all about good strategy and having everything in place.

What I did with dropshipping is for example:

Build a landing page + reviews + money back guarantee + high quality images with great description and benefits + having a domain related to the product that I'm selling, i.e I let people think I'm the owner of the product.

And that converted really well.

As for affiliate marketing, I found it harder to promote the product because they will be redirected to another domain.

Maybe I'm overthinking this. I need to learn a lot.

 

[WBSS]

Also based in the EU, I left the dropshipping scene a while ago, VAT always has been an issue, most dropshippers didn't do it right before the new VAT rules...
Unfortunately massively exploiting the weaknesses in the system resulted in the EU implementing the new VAT rules...
I will not go into detail as it would take too long but if you are correctly set up you will not pay VAT twice... Talk to your accountant, it's not that hard...

Yes, you can, just look at the offer restrictions individually...

Go with the networks that are endorsed here... Chances are slim they will mess with their affiliates...

Not so much of a difference, you can still track your Facebook ads performance on Facebook, you can build your website on a hosting platform (or a VPS, or a funnel builder, etc...). And you get your payout from the affiliate network, no fighting about your money with Paypal, Stripe, etc...
It sounds like you are overcomplicating, I know how things are... I've been there too...

Yes, maybe I'm overcomplicating things.. I like to have structure.
But I noticed that it is more technical.

I'm happy that I joined affiliatefix, I'm a lonely entrepreneur.

One day I'll start a journey here.

 

[Graybeard]

WELCOME ABOARD ...

━━━●──────────────
Make some lists:

What worked | What didn't​

We all struggle with the cost of acquisition of either a sale or a customer.
There is ROI, ROMI and return on capital
I think you need to organize your thinking better and adopt Strategy A and Plan B
--then decide your tactics.

 

[PureLander]

If I could find a great opportunity maybe I would try dropshipping again, but I think It is better for me to just focus on learning affiliate marketing. I have also heard great things about Purelander maybe I would buy it because I need to learn how to make landing pages fast.

That's our honor to hear that ..
feel free to contact us if you have any question about it

- Samira

 

[MichaelNguyenIn]

Hi everyone!

A couple of years ago I wanted to make money online but I didn't know-how.

After some time I stumbled upon dropshipping and I started to follow some courses and with a great plan It worked out for me with less than 100 euro investment. I left my job and I was financially free for 1,5 years.

But to be completely honest with you guys, in that timeframe I was not happy at all!
Dropshipping was really stressful, dealing with customers, dealing with bad suppliers, and so on.

I had a gut feeling that this wasn't something I could do long-term.

So I decided to sell my business that was currently making me a 5k profit a month on Google Shopping. I sold it at a low price to a guy with an intention to make another store and make even more profit and save up for buying in bulk and doing it the right way.

Well.. after I sold my business I took a month off and enjoyed the freedom.
After that, I found a great product with high margins and a great supplier.

I made the store and set everything up in Merchant Center and Google Ads and after a couple of days of waiting for my products to get approved, I noticed that I got suspended for misrepresentation.

I'm suspended until this day, for what? Nothing.

I tried countless times to contact support, but they just don't care and give you automated replies.
Months go by and I realized that I made someone financially free and I just lost my income.

After 7 months I ran out of money and had to look for a job.

I found one that I could do from home and earn the minimum wage which so below my potential and in the meantime I would look for opportunities to make money online again.

So I found affiliate marketing and I thought by myself this is way better than dropshipping and started to learn everything about it.
I made around $2500 in a couple of weeks on Clickbank with Bing Ads but I broke even because everyone is promoting the same offers on Bing.

So that was a waste of time.

I tried Push ads, then I realized that there are lots of bots but I managed to get 1 sale with a loss of $300
I tried Native Ads for around $1000 lost it all with 0 conversions.

Today I realized maybe I should invest in proxies and virtual browsers to make a new Google Ads account but that would be another $500 spending.
I'm so sick of it man.

This is something I have never told anyone because I'm ashamed of myself for making this mistake. I was successful and I'm broke now.

I want to continue with affiliate marketing but nothing seems to work out for me.

Any advice?

Affiliate is a great way. If you made money with Clickbank already, I think you can continue with that. No ads Accounts? You can use Instagram or Pinterest or Youtube or Tiktok platform for free traffic. You need time to build it but the results will be realistic after some months. When have money and more experience, think about paid traffics again.

 

[williamrs]

@WBSS - Don't be hard on yourself for making a mistake. We all make mistakes as it's part of learning. I have made some really big mistakes in my business and have lost a lot of money because of them, but I have also made a lot of momney with what I learned from them.

On a more pratical side, I think the person above who suggested you to do dropshipping again gave you a good advice. You know how to do it and can probably get to the same level where you were with less effort than in the first time.

If you're having trouble with regulations in your area, a possibility you can consider is to have an offshore company. I live in Brazil and that turned out to be a great solution for me. If you are interested, you can PM me and I'll refer you to someone who's absolutely trustworthy and can assist you with learning more about it.

I think that, now that you know how to do dropshipping, you should get to the level where you were before. Once you're there, you can think about other possibilities such as scaling that model, testing other models or flipping your stores and actually repeating what you have done the first time (perhaps for a better price).

Keep your mind open for other possibilities such as affiliate marketing, but don't throw away the knowlege you have already conquered.

Another thing to keep in mind is that having an online business has many benefits, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you won't have many headaches along the way. The problems you mentioned with dropshipping didn't seem more scary than the ones I face with affiliate marketing.

I have faced a number of issues with government regulations (and still face some despite having an offshore company), have dealt with companies not paying me on time, offers that were shut down or had significant payout decreases when I was doing really well with them, etc... This is part of business. When you fire your boss, you gain freedom and pay its price, which is responsibility. All the problems become your problems and, as far as I know, there's no business model that has no problems.

Good luck in your journey!

 

[ThePopAds]

If I can find a good opportunity, I might try direct sales again, but I think I'd better focus on learning more about affiliate marketing. I have also heard a lot about Purelander, maybe I will buy it because I need to learn how to do it. Quickly create a landing page.

 

[CLICKLEAD]

Bro, the main thing is to never stop and keep looking for new ways to earn money

 

[towhidzaman]

Hi everyone!

A couple of years ago I wanted to make money online but I didn't know-how.

After some time I stumbled upon dropshipping and I started to follow some courses and with a great plan It worked out for me with less than 100 euro investment. I left my job and I was financially free for 1,5 years.

But to be completely honest with you guys, in that timeframe I was not happy at all!
Dropshipping was really stressful, dealing with customers, dealing with bad suppliers, and so on.

I had a gut feeling that this wasn't something I could do long-term.

So I decided to sell my business that was currently making me a 5k profit a month on Google Shopping. I sold it at a low price to a guy with an intention to make another store and make even more profit and save up for buying in bulk and doing it the right way.

Well.. after I sold my business I took a month off and enjoyed the freedom.
After that, I found a great product with high margins and a great supplier.

I made the store and set everything up in Merchant Center and Google Ads and after a couple of days of waiting for my products to get approved, I noticed that I got suspended for misrepresentation.

I'm suspended until this day, for what? Nothing.

I tried countless times to contact support, but they just don't care and give you automated replies.
Months go by and I realized that I made someone financially free and I just lost my income.

After 7 months I ran out of money and had to look for a job.

I found one that I could do from home and earn the minimum wage which so below my potential and in the meantime I would look for opportunities to make money online again.

So I found affiliate marketing and I thought by myself this is way better than dropshipping and started to learn everything about it.
I made around $2500 in a couple of weeks on Clickbank with Bing Ads but I broke even because everyone is promoting the same offers on Bing.

So that was a waste of time.

I tried Push ads, then I realized that there are lots of bots but I managed to get 1 sale with a loss of $300
I tried Native Ads for around $1000 lost it all with 0 conversions.

Today I realized maybe I should invest in proxies and virtual browsers to make a new Google Ads account but that would be another $500 spending.
I'm so sick of it man.

This is something I have never told anyone because I'm ashamed of myself for making this mistake. I was successful and I'm broke now.

I want to continue with affiliate marketing but nothing seems to work out for me.

Any advice?

Let me give you a suggestion I wish I got a decade ago. In life, one should play his strengths by sticking to doing what he's good at.

When you choose to challenge yourself, you will definitely meet challenges. For me that path was not the right choice. If given the same opportunity I would stick to what I am good at, while improving what I am not on the side, until I am. But never choosing what I am not good at, over what I am good at.

In your case, You should be focused on e-commerce and then on the side improve your marketing skill from trial and error. Most people struggle to even break even and you made a good profit. Look at other traffic sources. As long as you make sure all the other part of your business is running properly, I'm confident you can find customers.

Stop wasting time and energy learning something else especially when you're in a bad run because it can backfire in your face and take you to an even darker place.

 

[WBSS]

Let me give you a suggestion I wish I got a decade ago. In life, one should play his strengths by sticking to doing what he's good at.

When you choose to challenge yourself, you will definitely meet challenges. For me that path was not the right choice. If given the same opportunity I would stick to what I am good at, while improving what I am not on the side, until I am. But never choosing what I am not good at, over what I am good at.

In your case, You should be focused on e-commerce and then on the side improve your marketing skill from trial and error. Most people struggle to even break even and you made a good profit. Look at other traffic sources. As long as you make sure all the other part of your business is running properly, I'm confident you can find customers.

Stop wasting time and energy learning something else especially when you're in a bad run because it can backfire in your face and take you to an even darker place.

Thank you for this post. It gave me something to think about and reflect on what I'm doing right now.

Yesterday I thought about the past and how I used to make good money it kinda made me depressed about what kind of situation I'm in right now.

The thing I like about e-commerce is that you have control over everything. With affiliate marketing you don't have control over the payment, networks can ban you and you could lose the money you earned.

With e-commerce, you get paid directly to your bank account the next day and there is more feel to a '' legit '' business.

I've noticed with affiliate marketing there are lots of scammy offers. Nevertheless, both are great honestly and both have their cons.

I think I should get back to what I used to do and that is e-commerce and then later do affiliate marketing again. My biggest problem is at the moment marketing, and getting quality traffic.

That is what I used to get when I had my own e-commerce store with Google Ads. But now I'm banned at their platform for almost 1 year now, I need to find ways to get that back and start all over again and do it better this time.

 

[towhidzaman]

I think I should get back to what I used to do and that is e-commerce and then later do affiliate marketing again. My biggest problem is at the moment marketing, and getting quality traffic.

It's something that can be learned and master with time. You will face the same difficulty on any online business. At least with your past experience with e-commerce, you have the experience to go with.