Calling experienced drop shippers and fashion affiliates for helpful feedback!

691 followers

Updated 7 years ago

Hey everyone, it's my second day here at WA and I'm happy to be here, I've heard great things. I've been studying making money online for basically forever; I've just always failed to take and sustain action due to information overload. I've worked several E-commerce positions within the fashion industry in Manhattan over the last five years; my former titles have been assistant, customer service, buyer and most recently Jr. Operations Manager. Though I'm most familiar with the E-commerce model [of making money online], I feel like a smarter use of effort would be toward a less-maintenance model, like a custom landing page/squeeze page for a high quality Clickbank product with a good freebie and a knockout autoresponder sales sequence.

Anyway, browsing through Flippa yesterday I came across a cute 'Starter Site' and instantly fell in love. It's a hip hop style clothing site, pre-loaded with Ali Express items and ready for dropshipping. It's built on the OpenCart platform (yes, I wish it were Shopify, but it is not. I've decided to completely dump Ali Express as the supplier and instead convert the store to an Amazon Affiliate store.) It's definitely a 'Starter Site'-- it needs some work on the product selection, branding, merchandising, content and user friendliness. However, I'm totally confident in my abilities to bring this to the table and make the necessary adjustments. I bought the site at a very reasonable price, and I now own the store! There is a new addition to my family :)

Now again, although I am most professionally familiar with the E-commerce model, what turned me on most to internet marketing was the simpler, more sustainable concepts structured around generating passive income and 'rinsing and repeating' the process. However, you've got to start somewhere, and I thought revamping this eboutique on the dropship model would be a great way for me to launch the first site in my affiliate marketing portfolio.

This brings me to you, now, reading this blog. Are you an experienced drop shipper or fashion affiliate? This is a rough outline of how I foresee this business operating-- please jump in with any confirmations, rebuttals, insight or things you'd do differently if you started from scratch in either of these spaces:

I plan to:

-Write content myself- product descriptions, policies, about me, and informative content (styling how to's, tutorial's, top 10's, etc)

-Stock my store with products with high user reviews and good quality images

-Promote the store via a marketing mix of Instagram and Pinterest social media engagement, Facebook ads, and reasonably-cost influencer shoutouts,

-Get a prepaid cell phone for customer service inquiries, and handle the customer service emails personally. When inquiries grow, I'll consider outsourcing a VA when the budget allows.

-Analyze and refresh inventory against selling reports and trend forecasts

-Reinvest profits into more paid advertising and ultimately stocking best-sellers in house

Is that the gist of things guys? Does this sound like I'm headed on the right path?

I'm also on the fence about whether or not to follow up with email advertising. I know firsthand the time, money and attention to detail that go into stunning and intriguing fashion newsletters and I am in no shape to compete, financially or creatively. I instinctively feel Pinterest marketing and Facebook ads are gonna be the winning promotional strategies in this niche. Thoughts?

Thanks for reading guys, and please join in on the discussion! I'm really looking forward to insight from all of you amazing wealthy affiliates!

Best,

Quiana