Page 33 – ivetriedthat

10 Things Sellers Could Learn from Dropshipping Horror Stories

Last Updated:January 31, 2018

Dropshipping can be a lucrative ecommerce model for sellers who don’t have much capital to start a business from scratch. What makes this model different than traditional online stores is that sellers don’t have to stock products in a rented warehouse, handle inventory, and process shipments. Sounds easy, right?

Dropshipping is actually not easy, which is why many people fail thinking that this ecommerce model can work with a “set-and-forget” method. Fortunately, many dropshipping stores do perform pretty well, despite having fierce competition. If you’re planning to open an online dropshipping store, here are 10 things you can learn from dropshipping horror stories:

1. eBay and Amazon Can Ban You Anytime

If you’re planning to sell products of a dropshipper/wholesaler/distributor via Amazon, eBay, or any other platforms, you don’t have much control about their policies. This means if a buyer reports you, or you receive negative feedback, the platform could ban your account anytime… and you can’t do anything about it. Some sellers even report disputing issues for months to years, but to no avail.

Solution:

Get a domain name, hosting provider, and build your own store. This isn’t the easiest solution, since you’ll be starting from scratch and there’s a ton of work involved, from uploading products to attracting site visitors, but it is worth it because you have 100% control over your store.

2. PayPal Shuts Your Account Down

PayPal is the most popular payment gateway, but it can be a nightmare once it decides you’re selling fraudulent items or that your activity is “unusual” (receiving $5,000, after weeks of just $200/day). When this happens, PayPal holds payment for up to 21 days “to make sure you’d have enough funds to cover for future refunds/claims.”

Solution:

Unfortunately, no payment gateway supports dropshipping. PayPal tolerates it, but others (like Stripe) ban it completely. Many store owners who have had success in dropshipping recommend not telling PayPal or Stripe that your store follows a dropshipping model. You do have to make sure your suppliers have prompt delivery, which in turn, lets you avoid chargebacks and keep your PayPal account in good standing.

3. Not-as-Described or Damaged Items

This can be potentially damaging to the reputation of your online store, since damaged or not-as-described items usually lead to negative reviews or refunds.

Solution:

Not-as-described items shouldn’t have been a problem if you bought samples of products you’re selling during product research. However, if the issue presents itself, there’s nothing left to do but to apologize and make it right. If the buyer really wants the item and is willing to wait, you need to check with your supplier and ask them to ship out a replacement. If not, send a refund immediately.

4. Shipping Delays

Most dropshipping horror stories are about delays in shipment. Because you don’t have control over inventory and shipping methods, you are at the mercy of your supplier and the potential wrath of your customer who is awaiting the delivery of his/her product.

Solution:

When shopping around for suppliers, it is important that you try out for yourself how fast they process orders and ship items out. Learn everything you can about their fulfillment, handling and delivery processes. Most suppliers process orders within 24 hours. The only way to avoid this problem is to find reliable suppliers with reliable delivery options.

5. Problematic Order Fulfillment and Returns

Sometimes, your customers may receive the wrong item or wrong quantity. If this happens, you can’t pass the blame to your supplier. You will always be responsible for communication with both the supplier and your customer. Your store’s reputation will always be the one to suffer from problematic orders.

Solution:

One surefire way of avoiding fulfillment issues is to order your top 5 selling products in advance so you could store them and ship items out locally. If capital is a problem, you can be upfront with your target market and declare that you source products from overseas and returns could take weeks. This way, customers wouldn’t feel trapped when order errors occur, or an item can’t be replaced quickly.

6. Bad Dropshipping Partners

The most important aspect of any dropshipping business model is having reliable partners. After all, the dropshipper stocks and ships the product you’re selling. If you partnered with unreliable dropshippers, you could lose money with refunds, chargebacks, or a ban on the platform you’re using. Such is the case of Vanessa, whose highly-rated eBay store got affected by a single customer after orders were delayed for weeks.

Solution:

Dig deep in finding reputable dropshipping partners. Sometimes, smaller obscure wholesalers take customer service more seriously than those that are widely-known. When choosing dropshipping partners, check if they offer:

• Access to real-time feed of their inventory
• Fair return and warranty policies
• Multiple shipping providers
• Tracking codes of shipment
• English-speaking customer representatives
• Sample orders (so you could check fulfillment speed)

In addition, work with multiple dropshipping partners, so you have an option to streamline order routing.

7. My Dropshipping Store Doesn’t Have Visitors

The problem with creating a store from scratch is the work involved in directing traffic to the site. It isn’t easy, but it’s possible. As such, don’t expect to make a sale at the launch of your store; you need to give months of leeway for organic traffic to pour in.

Solution:

Don’t be fooled by the “set-and-forget” statements you see when people encourage others to use the dropshipping business model. While passive income is definitely possible with a dropshipping store, you have to work on search engine optimization, automation of fulfillment, and other tasks involved in running the online store.

Proper training will go a long way as well. Proven Amazon Course has been my go-to recommendation on how to leverage the power of Amazon to build a successful dropshipping business.

8. Angry E-mail from Customers

Those new to the ecommerce business can be discouraged by complaints and angry emails from customers. Unfortunately, this is normal in this industry. You can’t please every one of your customers.

Solution:

If the customer is angry about delays, wrong item received, or other issues that is clearly your supplier’s fault, apologize and try to fix the problem by either a refund, replacement, or acquiring the item from another source. However, if the customer is at fault, learn how you could protect your store. Check how this eBay seller stood her ground when a customer wanted a refund from a damaged item, but didn’t want to ship it back.

9. Out-of-Stock Items

Suppliers run out-of-stock or items get discontinued completely and you’re left scrambling where to find a particular item your customer just ordered. This happens a lot in the dropshipping business and it is often beyond your control.

Solution:

Call your customer about the item’s status. Even if it is harder for you, customers would appreciate calls than e-mails. If you could source an item from another supplier, check availability of that item. Sometimes, customers may agree to alternatives, so research a similar product from your suppliers and recommend it to your customer. Know that if you don’t communicate these issues with your customer, it could lead to negative ratings or worse, chargebacks from the payment gateway your customer used.

10. Selling for a loss

Many people enter this industry aware that dropshipping businesses have a low profit margin, but selling for a loss is problematic, since you’ve built this business to earn money (and not lose more). Unfortunately, these things happen more commonly to online stores that follow the dropshipping model. The main reason for this is due to the number of hands products go through before it reaches the customer.

Solution:

You can either sell products that are priced above $100, or scale up your business to sell more items (even they’re all priced below $10). This is one of the most important decisions of a dropshipping store because you don’t have the luxury of competing on price. In addition, you’d have to be hands-on with customer service – ensure that products they receive are as-described, in good condition, packaged well, and arrived on time – to earn their trust and increase repeat business.

The Bottom Line

Like any other type of ecommerce, dropshipping is not an easy business. It has the potential to be huge, but you’ll need comprehensive research to find multiple reliable suppliers. Doing your due diligence avoids a lot of headaches and financial losses in the future.

50 Ways to Start Your Own Business and Operate Completely Online

Written By:Steve Wrzeszczynski

Published On: January 31, 2018

The internet has paved the way for people to conduct businesses completely online. What’s interesting is that even if it may seem that all ideas have already been tried and tested in recent years, it’s never too late to start a business online and even go head-to-head with older businesses. With the right idea, proper implementation and enough hard work, you can become an online business owner even without a huge capital.

Start a Website

The simplest and cheapest way to start an online biz is through a website. Plus, you can set-up a website as quickly as under an hour with this free training and get the support and training you need to start making money from it. The secret of a successful online business is to focus on your strength, so depending on your skills, here are some types of websites you could build:

1) Travel blog – Those who love to travel can blog about their adventures and earn money through several channels. Aside from displaying ads, travel bloggers can also earn through sponsorships. The most successful travel bloggers no longer pay for most of their trips – they are invited by hotels or resorts, and given two-way tickets, accommodation, food and other freebies in exchange for writing their experience on the blog.

2) Photography site – If you don’t have a knack for words, but can take a stunning picture any time, you can have a future with a photography site. Focus on something you love. Take for example Japanese miniature maker Tatsuya Tanaka and his impressive works of art on http://miniature-calendar.com/. Don’t forget to join Instagram and feature some of your photographs there too – it’s quicker to make your posts viral through social media.

3) Review site – For true blue consumers who love buying stuff and reviewing them online, it’s about time you stop doing it for free on Amazon. By using your blog as a review site, not only will you get a chance for brands to send products directly to you, you’ll also never run out of topics to write. You have two ways to earn from a review site – affiliate marketing commissions or direct payment (ideal when your blog has a lot more following).

The cool thing about affiliate marketing is that you only need to post the link of the product you’re promoting and you can earn from anything your readers buy right after clicking that link. Yes, even if they bought a different product, or even if they bought something 3 days after clicking through your link.

4) Info Site – An info site, or niche site, talks about a very specific subject. For example, an espresso machine info site will review every new model that comes out in the market. Other topics may include tips for the perfect cup, cleaning techniques, accessories and more. Earnings from these types of sites may come from ads (like Google AdSense), affiliate commissions, or private ad networks. You can keep it small to below 20 pages, or grow it out into an authority site.

5) News Site – The best thing about news sites is that you can choose the topics you want to focus on. If you’re a movie fan, you can skip all the serious news and discuss only entertainment, film, and other relevant news. Fan of Apple products? You can write about nothing else but iPhones, iMacs, iPads and other Apple news. You don’t need to be a journalist to do this, as long as you stick with the facts.

6) Coupon and Group-buying sites – If you can’t commit to crafting long posts and photos regularly, a coupon site or group-buying site like Groupon offers a simpler business model. By setting up these kinds of sites, you offer people with discounts, deals, and group-buying vouchers. It’s a win-win: you develop a successful site, while people get to save money from deals you publish.

7) Job boards – While the initial set-up may be more complicated than ordinary blogs, a job board can bring in multiple sources of income. You may ask payments from job posters, plaster ads throughout the site, or even sell ad slots. The benefit of job boards is that owners don’t have to think about updating its content, since job posters will do this for you.

8) Podcasting Sites – If you’ve always dreamt of having your own radio show, a podcasting site can be the solution you’ve been waiting for. Like Steli Efti and Hiten Shah’s podcasting site “The Startup Chat” that discusses business and startup concerns, you still need to be an expert in something for your podcast site to work and have followers. However, once you do earn enough followers, only then will you get to try out several monetization options suitable for podcasting sites.

9) Video Sites – Videos are preferred by people because they’re easier to digest, even if you watch them continuously at hours on end. And since videos are perfect for entertainment, just as they are for teaching, you can build a video site with the content you prefer.

10) Forums or other types of online community – One of the easiest ways to produce user-generated content is to build a site that can serve as people’s hangout. Encourage them to spend as much time on the site by adding sub-categories and assigning special roles to members. There can be multiple income streams on online communities, but it depends largely on the size of your community.

11) Auction sites – Here’s one type of marketplace that doesn’t require you to sell anything. Auction sites like eBay and Facebook marketplace host users who either buy or sell items from the site. Your auction site can be as specific as “Siamese cat accessories” or as general as “cat accessories.” It’s entirely up to you. But you’ll be able to earn either through commissions with every sale, membership fees of users, or ads.

Start an eCommerce Store

Traditionalists who are on the fence of going through with an online business should take the ecommerce route. Because ecommerce is more like a brick-and-mortar business that operates with goods or services as product, starting a product-backed online biz wouldn’t be such a huge leap.

If you want to get started in ecommerce, look no further than Proven Amazon Course. Jim Cockrum will teach you how to leverage the power of Amazon to build a six figure ecommerce business from the comfort of your own home.

If you’re looking for ideas, here are common ecommerce stores you could check out:

12) Craft store – You don’t need a production plant, or a ton of employees to operate a craft store. You can join art-loving communities like Etsy and ArtFire, where you can open up an online store there and sell handmade items, such as beaded jewelry, crocheted blankets, or anything your mind can create. Building a craft store has low startup cost, which makes it highly attractive to work-at-home entrepreneurs.

13) Branded merchandise (white label products) – Look no further than the store of National Geographic or your favorite online magazine to see how white labeling and branding makes a whole lot of difference when it comes to selling products. Because you can get readily-produced items and simply add your branding to products you choose, this technique works well for websites and online brands with an active following. You won’t have to spend money on equipment or extra labor required in product manufacturing, since technically, a third-party company will handle it for you.

14) T-shirts – The t-shirt biz will continue to be one of the most stable markets online. It’s a simple business concept, since you can double your capital regardless of how popular your brand is or not. You have numerous options on how to start a t-shirt company. If you have the talent for the design, you can join print-on-demand sites and wait for people to order a shirt from your catalog. If your goal is to double your capital as quickly as possible, you can be a white label provider by ordering plain shirts on bulk and marketing your products for other companies to add their branding onto.

15) Food – You don’t have to hold copyright over a specific type of food to get in on the food business online. But you can be a bit creative and find a way to enter the market. For example, target bakers and offer a monthly subscription box of the most “hard-to-find baking ingredients” or “cookie dough month.” This idea can even extend to drinks (alcoholic or not), preserves, snacks, or other pantry staples like “coffee.”

16) Affiliate marketing – If you don’t want to deal with inventory, one way to join the ecommerce industry is through affiliate marketing. In this business model, your job is only to promote other products you believe in. You can even do this without a website (stick with social media or perform e-mail marketing), whichever way you feel comfortable. To earn from affiliate marketing, you’ll need to setup an affiliate account from platforms like Amazon and Commission Junction (among others), where you’ll be collecting commissions based off customers you’ve sent their way.

17) Drop shipping – Like affiliate marketing wherein your business model doesn’t involve producing your own products, drop shipping can also be a cost-effective online business. The main difference of affiliate marketing and drop shipping is that you communicate directly with “dropshippers” and has a bit of control over pricing. To start a drop shipping store, you’ll have to choose a niche, find products to sell, check availability of dropshippers in that specific niche, and open an online shop selling products. In this scenario, you don’t have a warehouse for storage or even the products on hand. Instead, you forward a customer’s order to the dropshipper and they will take care of packaging, handling, and shipping the product for you.

18) Monthly Subscription Services – Crate boxes are heaven-sent for consumers who want shopping easy and stress-free, particularly for basic needs such as shaving or coffee. Dollar Shave Club and Misto Box are great examples of crate boxes. This type of packaged product even works with items that doesn’t necessarily fall under “basic needs,” such as movie memorabilia (lootcrate.com), food from all over the world (trytheworld.com), or the popular professional makeup/beauty kit… beautyfix). Because they’re subscription-based and often paid up front, there is less risks involved in starting this kind of business. However, you do need a good following for people to subscribe to what you’re offering.

19) Go for trendy – The problem with product-based ecommerce stores is that consumers spend according to various factors such as season, need, budget, and more. If you’re worried about these factors and want to offer something that’s guaranteed to sell, be on the lookout for trendy items and only offer those on your store. The advantage of this route is you’ll always be on-trend and selling the item like hotcakes during its peak. On the flip side though, it can be hard to determine what product sells way ahead everyone else. Plus, the risks of selling trendy items are higher compared to regular products that may be on-demand for a given period throughout a calendar year.

20) Customized Products – A store that gives its customers plenty of customization control over the items they wish to buy is always a great marketing pitch no matter the type of product you’re selling. It can be as simple as options for color or material, or as personalized as adding your own print, choosing your own style, or other advanced customization.

Provide a Service

Globalization has given entrepreneurs a cost-effective way of connecting with clients from all around the world. And since a service provider can perform his/her job even located from almost anywhere, he/she can build a service-based company and conduct business even with just a single employee.

You can be the boss and employee of your company. But the coolest thing about trying to expand your home-based company is that the overhead costs would still be lower than traditional companies.

Not sure if your skill set can build an entire company? Here are the most in-demand services that you can provide even when on-the-go:

21) SEO consultant – Many entrepreneurs and small companies that conduct their business online will need help with SEO (search engine optimization) at some point. Whether it’s for developing a long-term SEO campaign or just quick help with setting up Google Analytics, SEO skills are one of the most sought-after services online because any business benefits from a well-ranked website.

22) PPC expert – PPC ads are the most effective type of advertising online, but it can be tricky to understand the ins and outs of pay-per-click advertising. To ensure businesses and entrepreneurs don’t waste money; PPC experts help them “buy visitors” to their websites via PPC effectively.

23) Business coach – As a business coach, your goal is to help build or improve the profit of a company. It doesn’t matter if the business is a startup or established one. Your job is to assess competition, evaluate business operations, and find opportunities to earn more money or keep up with demand. Of course, extensive business experience is needed, so you can perform the work remotely.

24) Virtual assistant services – A virtual assistant (VA) is a modern-day secretary who performs mostly online-based tasks, such as checking e-mails, scheduling meetings, and performing a wide range of day-to-day tasks involved in the operations of a client’s business. The responsibilities and job requirements of a VA varies depending on the needs of a client.

25) Content marketing – Any kind of website requires a sufficient amount of content to build inbound traffic organically. As a content marketer, you’ll lead a group of writers in crafting engaging and relevant content for a site. This job requires advanced internet marketing knowledge and SEO skills.

26) Web design services – Probably one of the oldest type of service sought by clients online, web design continues to be an in-demand service since entrepreneurs and companies (both small and huge) still build websites to this day. Putting up a web design company may seem futile due to the number of web design services available online, but if you got the skills and can bring something new to the table, it will be easy for you to compete with existing web design companies.

27) Tech support – Online companies are able to conduct business over the internet, but if technical problems occur, one common issue is that these companies do not have in-house IT support. If you have the skills to provide tech support services remotely, whether as on-call basis or full-time, you’re in the best field since home-based tech support has amazing outlook in the next 5 years.

28) Social media consultancy – Social media has been proven a cost-effective marketing technique for any kind of businesses. A company that has no online presence would hire social media experts to create a customized marketing plan. It’s much cheaper to hire a social media guy or team than for companies to make mistakes in implementing social media strategy, so if you’re pretty savvy with social media and mastered the best tactics for maximum online exposure, take advantage of your skills and offer them to any individual or company that would bite.

29) App development – Apps have taken the world by storm and it’s not stopping anytime soon. As an app developer, you’ll cater to both individuals and companies getting into the app world. Coding skills is definitely one of the most in-demand skills today, so if you’ve been making apps for a while now, you can always start your own app development company from the comforts of your own home.

30) Video Editing Services – Video is the content of the future and it is expected to fill up about 90% of internet traffic by 2019. If you tinker with Adobe Premiere, Avid or Final Cut and consider yourself an expert in video editing, this business can become very lucrative if you target the right market. If you have no idea where to start, check out Wipster.

31) Bookkeeping – Online companies mostly survive with only a handful of employees. To ensure these businesses keep legalities checked and taxes paid appropriately, professionals like bookkeepers or accountants ensure the company’s cash flow is well documented. If you’re a certified bookkeeper with experience, you can balance books from home using accounting software like Quickbooks, Xero or Sole Trader.

32) HR services – One of the most amazing things with globalization is that even office-based tasks like job interviews can now be done remotely. As such, those with extensive experience in human resources could open up shop online and find third-party companies the right employees. Providing HR services can go beyond employment… and extend to other tasks such as developing talent programs or updating employment policies based on current laws.

33) Lead generation – Finding leads can be frustrating or confusing to many new online entrepreneurs or companies. It’s a special kind of skill that only experts in internet marketing or SEO can provide. The cool thing about lead generation is that the job is often localized, which means there will be fewer competition if you’re interested in opening a lead generation company. Plus, you can still conduct business completely online.

34) Customer Support Services – Companies that rely on paying customers shouldn’t just focus on getting new leads; they should also maintain these leads by taking care of their customers. An effective customer support program can do this for any company, especially online businesses with only a few employees. The program can involve traditional inbound/outbound phone support, or other methods like online chat, HelpDesk, e-mail and more.

35) Photo Editing – If you’re running a serious business, having a go-to person perform photo editing or manipulation can do wonders for your website, social media, or overall online presence. Those who have an eye for details will surely succeed in this field. Of course, you’ll need advanced skills in Adobe Photoshop, GIMP or other similar photo editing software, too! Setting up a photo editing business online is easy, since you only have to offer a list of services, prove your worth, and let the reviews of past clients do the talking.

36) Content Writing – Content will never fade away, no matter how much videos, photos, infographics and other types of media become popular. Whether a business relies on blog posts, product descriptions, daily news clips, ebooks, or other types of content, you’ll never run out of clients in need of stuff to publish on their websites. Writing isn’t easy, so you should have extensive writing experience and knowledge of keywords, LSI, and writing for the web.

37) Translation Services – If you can write or speak two or more languages with 100% accuracy, then you can offer translation services as your online business. The market for translators extends across different industries from publishing to IT, education, web development, and more. As long as there are clients looking for experts in a local dialect or foreign language that you know, your translation company will flourish even if you’re conducting the entire business from home.

38) Transcription – Transcribing documents may seem easy, but when you try it once, you’ll know that the precision, accuracy and speed involved in transcription can’t be done by just anyone. And if you have special transcribing skills with the ability to listen to any accent or language with ease, you can turn your talent into a full-blown company.

39) Language tutorial – If you’re good at teaching and are proficient in any foreign language, starting up a language tutorial business is definitely a natural progression from tutoring. English remains the most popular language, especially from students in Asian countries, but other languages like Russian, Japanese, Arabic, Spanish, German, and Chinese also have plenty of demand. Plus, you can start this business with just a couple of computers with microphone, headset, and a quiet space.

40) Life Coaching – Coaching people with their business, jobs, schooling, relationships, and other aspects of their lives can be good money for the right people. If you’re naturally helpful, wise beyond your years, and have the ability to see things outside the box, you can turn your side gig into a working company once you’ve taken in more than two clients at a time. You’d have to perform plenty of research with a life coaching business, but the rewards of helping people reach their goals can be absolutely satisfying.

41) Research – You’d be amazed at the amount of jobs available for researchers these days. Ironically, in the modern world where search engines have become advanced, the need for researchers remains as more information is uploaded online on a day-to-day basis. You can even start a research company that specializes in super-specific categories, such as collectibles (searching for antique dolls, etc.), go for consumer research, or develop your own niche in the research field.

42) Travel Agency – Building a travel-related business online depends largely on your interests and effort you’re willing to put in. For instance, if you’re excellent at creating travel itineraries with budget and customized recommendations, you can make a killing as an itinerary planner. If you worked as a travel agent for years and you wish to expand your career, you can also open up a full-scale travel agency from home, but this would entail more capital, equipment and effort.

43) Blog/Website Management – Managing and keeping a website updated can be a huge task, even for professional bloggers or small companies with a growing website portfolio. If you’re an expert in WordPress and other CMS platforms, online marketing, advanced on-page SEO, and daily tasks of publishing content and other media, you can be a website manager for other people. If you’re a web content writer already offering your writing services, you can bundle your service to include blog management as well. In some cases, like in an online store, you might need to update product information or process orders as well.

44) Graphics Design – If your creative skills go beyond photo editing, and you can easily create a poster, marketing banner, advertising material, infographic, logo, and other types of graphics, you’ll find a huge market in need of up-to-date visuals for their websites. The coolest thing about setting up a graphics design company is that you can start without any other staff member and expand your business by just relying on your own skills.

45) PR Agency – Who would have thought that an industry known for networking with professional contacts face-to-face can now be conducted remotely? If you have experience with helping businesses grow through tried-and-tested techniques involving media and public relations, you should build a PR agency and operate it online. It’s a competitive business, but if you choose to market your public relations services to a specific industry, a breakthrough in the field is still a possibility.

Find a Specialty

Here are 5 more business ideas that you might be interested in:

46) Online Courses – If you’re an expert at something you think people would want to read, watch, or listen to, you could build a business around this expertise by writing a book, producing videos, or recording podcasts. As long as you have valuable information that many will be willing to pay for, selling online courses or subscriptions can be lucrative to the right person.

47) Forex Trading – The stock market is open to anyone with internet access, so you don’t need to hire a broker to play the stock market. Because of this, people have turned Forex trading into a lucrative business. It does require tons of experience, trading knowledge, and practice, but if you’re confident with your trading skills, this business may be the right choice for you.

48) SaaS (Software as a Service) – SaaS is any online program that is designed to solve a problem of an individual or company. The users often pay subscription fees (either monthly or yearly) in order to continue using the online tool. A great example of this is Dropbox, so if you have an idea of a one-of-a-kind SaaS business, turn it into a reality and join the competitive SaaS community.

49) Flipping Websites – If you’ve ever heard of house flipping in real estate before, this concept has been adapted into websites. It means that you can buy a domain name, create a website, improve it, rank it, and promote it for traffic, then sell the website for profit. This business involves a lot of work, but if you’re up for the challenge and you have skills in web development, graphics design, and writing, you’ve got flipping websites in the bag.

50) 3D printing Services – 3D printing is one of the hottest trends today, so it’s understandable why you should check it out if you’re interested in building an online business from scratch. Of course, this business would require you to purchase expensive 3D printers, but since virtually no ordinary person will have a 3D printer at home, your business can produce 3D blueprints, prototypes, documents, and other projects that no other company can.

The Bottom Line

Starting an online business is easy, but deciding what kind of business to invest in is hard. If you’re planning to set up a business from the comforts of your own home, but want to make sure you’ve checked out every idea available before diving in head first, this list will help you discover what kinds of businesses are already out there online and hopefully guide you to the right kind of online business that’s perfect for your situation, interest, or skills set.

Please Give Us a Share

If you found this article useful and you know of someone who is looking for a work at home job, please do us a favor and help us spread the word!

Free Directory of Ways to Make Money from Home

Written By:Steve Wrzeszczynski

Last Updated:January 26, 2018

At least two or three times a day, I receive requests for more information on ways you can make money online. True information of this sort is hard to come by as this niche is riddled with scams. I’ve compiled a few lists of ways to make money online, but this is going to be the biggest, most comprehensive list I’ve created yet. I’ll continually update and add to this directory as I come across more legitimate opportunities of making money online.

If you have any opportunities you think I should add to the list, please send me an email!

Now tracking 115 legitimate positions.

SwagBucks
Stop what you’re doing and create your free SwagBucks account right now. It’s 100% free to join and will help you make some extra money doing things you already do online. Seriously. I’ve made over $890 since joining!
Click here and create your account now!

Blogging Positions
Blogging is by far the best and easiest way to make money online. If you’re looking to make extra money using the internet, blogging is the answer. Look here first.
View 9 available blogging positions.

Customer Service Jobs
As a customer service representative from home, you may find yourself answering support calls, doing market research, or even some (gasp) telemarketing. You should expect to find yourself on the phone nearly the entire time while you are working. Great communication skills are a must.
View 17 available customer service positions.

Data Entry/Transcription Work
Data entry positions are incredibly rare. Even if you do happen to land a data entry job, the pay will be so little it will be worthless. Combine that with the incalculable number of data entry scams out there, and you have quite possibly the worst thing to ever happen to working at home. Still interested? You can’t say I didn’t warn you.
View 14 available data entry and transcription positions.

Freelance Writing
Freelance writing allows you to write articles or reviews on pretty much anything and get paid for it. You may not think of yourself as much of a writer, but like everything in life, practice makes perfect. Try freelance writing and you’ll be surprised with the results.
View 20 available freelance writing positions.

“Get Paid To…” Opportunities
This category is for all those “Get Paid To…” ways of making money. Use one or use them all. Either way, I’ve tested them, I’ve tried them, and I’m currently using them to supplement my income.
View 8 “Get Paid To…” ways to make money.

Miscellaneous Opportunities
These job sites didn’t really fit into any other category and there weren’t enough of them to be categorized into their own posts. So, sift through them and see if there’s anything that might interest you.
View 8 miscellaneous ways to make money online.

Paid Surveys
Paid surveys are a great way of giving your opinion and getting paid. A lot of survey companies have taken to the Internet in the past few years and are now willing to pay you to complete surveys online.
View 15 available paid survey positions.

Sell Stock Photography
Get paid to take pictures. Is it really that easy? Of course not, but the following list of sites will help you get started with selling your photography and turn your hobby into an extra bit of side cash.
View 8 available ways to sell stock photography online.

Start a Website
One of the best ways to make money online is through running your own website. Overhead costs are low, profits can quickly start to roll in, and the entire process is a lot of fun. Interested? Well, you should be.
Click here for more information.

Transamerica, WFG, Primerica: What Do These Businesses Have in Common?

Written By:Halina Zakowicz

Last Updated:January 26, 2018

If you’re looking to become your own boss and earn as much as $60K in your first year, then I have the perfect business opportunity for you.

This opportunity involves no door-to-door or high-pressure sales tactics or cold calls. You can also keep your current job, earning up to $5K per month for part-time work that you do in your spare time.

Have I piqued your interest yet- or your skepticism?

Welcome to the convoluted world of MLM financial services

Welcome to the world of multi-level marketing (MLM) financial services, as operated by groups like the Transamerica Financial Group Division, World Financial Group (owned by AEGON) and Primerica. Some of these groups are spin-offs of their business “parents” (e.g., Transamerica) and thus carry their prestigious names; however, their business models are completely different.

To begin with, the financial advisors, or agents, in these groups do not earn a salary. Instead, the agents affiliated with these groups operate their own individual businesses and sell products such as insurance policies, mutual funds, credit monitoring, retirement and college savings plans, etc. They also recruit and train other financial advisors- or in MLM parlance, “grow their downline.”

Growing a downline is a critical part of the MLM business model because it is via new distributors, or recruits, that agents make a good portion of their income. The commissions that are made by distributors are “kicked” up to their recruiters, who in turn kick up a portion to their own recruiters. Thus, those agents sitting at the very top of this, dare I say, pyramid earn the most money via their downlines. Meanwhile, most distributors make just a small commission and do a majority of the client-chasing.

Are Trasamerica, WFG and Primerica a scam?

Many skeptics define all MLM business models to be pyramid schemes and therefore a scam. And most MLM-based operations do ignite the ire of the law, as noted by the example of the business A.L. Williams (which inevitably became Primerica). However, although the MLM business model does raise legal suspicions, it is not technically a scam or illegal.

Having said that, there are numerous examples where false promises are made to would-be distributors that MLM financial services is a job or can guarantee someone a given income per month or year. Here is an example of what one would-be Primerica distributor was told during her in-person “job interview”. Keep in mind that this person is a research scientist by training, not a manager or someone with a business degree. She was contacted by Primerica because her resume was posted online.

I am continuing to the third stage of interviewing with PRIMERICA. They are looking for an experienced trainer/teacher who is willing to teach middle class people how to manage their finances. If it is true that I can earn $60,000/year as a beginner, I will take it. They are also looking for office managers. They earn $300,000/year.

Promising a steady, yearly income for what is in essence a commission-only sales position is misleading at best, and outright lying at worst. However, many more such accounts exist from other job-seekers:

I was contacted by this company Tuesday 6/8/2010 by a Mr. Scott Eaton who said he saw my resume on Yahoo hot jobs. He said he wanted me to come in for an interview for a Supervisor position available and that there would be no sales involved. I have an appointment scheduled at their Brea office this Friday 6/11/2010.

As an “associate” I [was told I] would not be seeking out clientele, but rather they would be referred to me…leading me to believe that the job consists of me kicking back in an office where clients come to me for financial advice because they are “referred” while making a fat commission to the tune of $5,000 and up per month on a part-time basis.

They find your information from your resume posted online. Then they will call you for the interview and will tell the lie that they have [a] position available in whatever trade/profession you are looking [for]. Once you setup the interview…you receive a call and…will be talking to one of their financial advisers or his peer.

“We don’t need no education”

Given that many recruits don’t have the needed expertise and/or work experience to be financial advisors, do they at least receive training? Why yes- according to this published comment on Yelp, agents can get an entire two weeks of training, which should qualify them for managing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars:

I have absolutely zero background in finance. How am I supposed to help people make very important financial decisions and guide their financial futures with zero experience? They justify this by complying with laws and making you acquire what is called a “life license” that basically takes 2 weeks to get.

Personally, if I were a client, I would want a financial advisor that had more expertise and years of experience to understand the complexities and changes of the financial world and guide me in the right direction rather than some novice with no prior financial background and no education and very little training handling my money!

Several pro-Transamerica, WFG and Primerica agents have argued that, as a business owner, it is up to the individual financial advisor to take courses (often offered at a discount through the MLM business) and get up-to-speed on financial topics before taking on clients. However, there is no requirement set for such training, and all the costs of the training are fronted by the financial advisor.

The vapid inexperience of a majority of such “financial advisors” leads to major calamities, such as an Arizona court case that resulted in a $2 million judgement against World Marketing Alliance (now WFG). Likewise, Primerica ran afoul of the SEC for failing to supervise its agents, some of who “sold unregistered securities in a Ponzi scheme, [after which] all of the monies raised from investors was lost.”

In other words, if you’re a client with an MLM-based financial advisor, be very wary of what’s happening with your money.

I will be happy to take invest your money

Would you trust me to look at your bank accounts and invest your money for you? Why not? Could it be because I have zilch in terms of business education, no finance degree to my name, and my only trading experience comes from managing my own piddly stock portfolio? Yeah, I thought so too. And that’s why I’m not vying to become your financial advisor.

Now, as to why the above mentioned MLM businesses assume that other non-business folks can be turned into financial advisors that clients will entrust with their money is beyond me. However, if you do take this route, know that about 85% of such financial advisors do eventually close up shop because of failure to generate a commission.

Are you looking to generate extra income?

We here at I’ve Tried That have been helping people connect with real opportunities since 2007. The founder of this site, Steve, has created a completely free step-by-step guide on how to start generating some extra money. There are no fees to get started and you can learn legitimate ways to pull in more cash from home.

Click here to learn how to make more money from home.

Our Review of Bobbie Robinson’s Work at Home Institute

Written By:Steve Wrzeszczynski

Last Updated:January 26, 2018

Work at Home Institute (WAHI) has been online since 2013 and makes a very bold claim: By following this program, you can quit your job and make a “sizable income” from home.

What exactly are you doing to make this sizable income?

From unemployed single mother to millionaire

First, you get to read about the rags-to-riches story of Bobbie Robinson, a single mother who worked “really hard” and got laid off. Luckily, her daughter pushed her to not give up, and “soon after the nightmare began, I discovered the internet.”

Following along with Bobbie’s story, we learn that she eventually met a man who worked from home. This man told her how he managed to work part-time yet make a comfortable living. Bobbie applied to whatever site this man was working for, and just three months later, “I now had an easy work at home job that required 4 hours or less per day.” Best of all, “I make millions per year…I am able to buy what I want, take long vacations, and give my daughter the life she always deserved…”

What is this amazing work at home job that makes Bobbie millions per year for part-time work?

The ‘big secret’ is link posting.

Apparently, big companies don’t have the resources to hire additional employees to post online links for them, so they contract the work out.

Work At Home Institute

How does link posting make money for you? Here’s how WAHI explains it:

You log into your WAHI account and copy the link codes that are supplied to you.
You go to an area of your WAHI account where “customer records” are added and where you can post your copied links.
You fill out a “few simple details” and post your links.
You go see how much money you’re earning from your links.

WAHI’s sales page then shows you what a “typical account” would earn in a week:

Work At Home Institute1

As yet more “proof,” the WAHI sales page showcases Patricia Feeney, another work at home mother. WAHI also claims that this program has received national media attention.

wahinstitute

However, when you listen to the minute long report, you hear nothing regarding the WAHI program. The video is also heavily edited and just introduces the generic concept of working from home.

Likewise, the WAHI tries to make it appear that it’s been the subject of major news networks such as these:

This is a common tactic used by many work-at-home opportunity sites to make you think that they are legit. However, the sites that actually have been featured on the news include an actual link or story to that news network. Within the WAHI sales page, you can’t click on the news network sites and have no way of verifying what exactly was reported.

So, why else am I skeptical of WAHI’s claims?

The customer photos are fake.

WAHI showcases photos of customers along the right hand side of the sales page, along with their glowing testimonials. Some examples include these customers:

kyleh

testipic3

testipic5

testipic2

testipic4

However, when you do a Google image search of these individuals, you quickly learn that they are all stock photos.

fakephoto

fakephoto2

fakephoto1

The program availability is fake.

The WAHI sales page does what a lot of scam programs do when convincing you sign up- it creates fake program availability for your geographic area. Somehow, regardless of where you live or even if you input a fake zip code into the form, there are always just 3 positions left in your area:

Work At Home Institute2

These 3 positions never go down to zero, no matter how many times you refresh this page.

I should add that another programmed feature of this program is its instant price markdown when you try to leave the sales page. The program drops from $97 to $77, and then $47. This happens no matter how many times you leave the page or return to it.

Bobbie Robinson is fake.

The spokesperson for this program is portrayed on the sales page as a 20-something woman lying in front of her laptop. However, when you perform an image search on her, you learn that she also goes by the name of Michelle Withrow of Work at Home University and Stay at Home Revenue, among other work-at-home scams.

Oh, and the actual photo of Bobbie/Michelle? It’s actually a stock photo.

work_at_home_university_istock_image

Link posting isn’t exactly how affiliates make money.

WAHI tries to convince you that you can make lots of money by posting a few links a day and collecting huge referral commissions when people click on and buy products via those links. While link posting is one way that affiliate marketers earn money, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. True affiliate marketing involves creating websites and filling them with valuable content, emailing subscribers, blogging, creating informational products, publishing product reviews, etc.

True affiliate marketing can make money, but it won’t happen just by posting links, like Bobbie claims.

WAHI offers no real people who back up their claims.

The WAHI contact area is a generic 877 phone number that leads to an outsourced customer service line. You have no way of contacting the actual creators of this program and, as already mentioned, the spokesperson herself is fake. Should you run into any challenges along the way with the WAHI program, you are out on your own.

The WAHI program offers very generic information on who might even be around to help you. Supposedly, after you sign up for the program, you are matched with an “Internet expert.” But why would you need an Internet expert and not someone proficient in affiliate marketing?

Also, you supposedly gain access to a WAHI members area called Startup Freedom Club. There is no mention of how many members are in this club and if any of the program’s creators help answer questions, etc. A club made up of members is fairly useless if all those members also have no idea how to get started and make money through affiliate marketing.

The Bottom Line

Our team has done hundreds of reviews over the past 10 years here at I’ve Tried That. When we review programs, we focus on looking at the three core components that are needed to build a successful business online:

The online presence you create: What presence is the program helping you build? Typically you are given a website, store front, or blog.
The training you’re being taught: What do you do once you have that presence and are you given step-by-step instructions on what to build?
The support you’re being offered: How well will the product creator assist you in building your business and is there a community to turn to for discussion?

If you want to truly succeed online, you need a combination of those 3 things.

Work at Home Institute does not hit any of the three. You aren’t building a meaningful presence, the training is deceitful & will never work, and there is absolutely no support or customer service being offered. This is nothing more than an attempt to grab as much money from you as possible.

Do not fall for this one.

If you are truly interested in learning how to build a real business online, let us help you get started. This site was founded in 2007 and we’ve helped millions of our visitors find their way online. Click here to learn more.

Improve Your Visual Search Now and Reap the SEO Rewards

Written By:Steve Wrzeszczynski

Published On: December 22, 2017

In the past, Google bots only recognized text, even for its Image Search, which is why the responsibility of adding alt text, image description, meta tags, SEO-friendly file names, and creating image sitemaps fell on the shoulders of the website owner. Today, this has changed quite dramatically thanks to technological innovations such as image recognition (CamFind), reverse image search (TinEye), and more.

Although Google has tried to make worthy changes in visual search, from its Google Goggles in 2010 and its own reverse image search in 2011, it was only within the last year that we saw product images and details launched on search results, similar item recommendations and style ideas.

Despite Google’s continuous development of its visual search technology, the search engine giant isn’t the one leading this particular innovation (for now). It’s interesting, really. Particularly since Pinterest and Bing have been aggresively developing their modern visual search modes for the past year, ahead of Google’s announcement of its mobile-based image search Google Lens in mid-2017.

But you know Google is deep in development in this space, since its own company DeepMind (under the Google banner) is at the forefront of visual search innovation. Google Lens will reportedly be linked to both Google search and Google Maps.

What is Visual Search Exactly?

Visual search has been around for many years, but it had relied on text-based query to find the best picture to match the user’s request. With the modern visual search, everything will be based on images (you input an image, you get images as output) thanks to complicated algorithms, a combination of schema and multi-step networks that rely on patterns to identify images.

The technology has been hard to incorporate into search engine algorithms, simply because unlike the human brain, machines require multiple tests in order to identify objects based on size, color, shape, and other factors. There’s no human intervention with visual search (no human assisting the machine which factor to prioritize when identifying objects), which is why Google, Bing, and other leaders in this field have been mastering their version for quite a while now.

Facebook has used some kind of visual search technology with its tagging feature, which is why it could recognize a friend’s face immediately when you upload a photo. But it can still fall short sometimes.

In terms of accuracy of visual search results, Pinterest Lens has been making impressive progress with its app’s newest tools and partnerships from ShopStyle, Refinery29, Olapic, Curalate and Project September. By uploading a picture, users can now “shop the look” straight off Pinterest from brands like Target, Macy’s, Amazon and more.

Bing is also making a bit of noise in this space since it relaunched its visual search in July 2017. It’s available on desktop and provides accurate object recognition. Plus, Bing is open to advertisers using its visual search for product placement.

Visual search in 2018 will continue, as companies strive to bring user experience to the next level. And while huge companies like Google and Bing works on becoming the go-to visually-focused search engine, anyone with a website should take notice and find a way to get in on this trend.

2018 SEO Strategy for Visually-Focused Content

For ecommerce websites, it is now the best time to work on rich visuals and engaging content. But beyond adding photos to your site, you’ll need to optimize these visually-focused contents for SEO and reap the rewards in 2018. How do you do it?

First, you need to understand that like text-based search results, visual search results are also algorithmically ranked, which means an authoritative site that features the particular product being searched will rank higher than other sites. Of course, Google may also prioritize a particular product type over others when ranking for visual search.

If you’re selling a product online, working on SEO for visual search should be your priority. Even if visual search on Google, Bing, Pinterest and other search engines are still being improved, you can already work on these 10 things:

1) Don’t forget Meta Data Description

Meta data goes beyond a proper image file name. It should also include important keywords and additional relevant details, such as price, availability, currency, and more. Since search engines are still going to give you some points with a complete meta data description of your images, there’s no harm in going through this tried-and-tested SEO technique.

2) Post Tags and Keywords Help with Visual Search

With proper keyword research, you’ll be able to use keywords throughout your site not only to help with regular web search results, but also with visual search. Aside from squeezing in keywords into a photo’s meta data, you should also incorporate them on post tags. Don’t forget to use synonyms and similar phrases that your target audience may be using for search.

3) Continue Adding Alt Text and Captions

Alt text tags (HTML codes included in image descriptions) that help search engines with “understanding” what a picture contains. Captions provide the specifics (names of people, locations, brands, and so on). Both alt text tags and captions also help visually-impaired users who may be using screen readers to search through your site.

4) Go for High-quality and Appropriately-sized Photos

Make sure you seek balance when re-sizing your photos. Make it too big, which can affect your page load speed. Make it too small, but it could prevent search engine bots to recognize patterns and shapes. Finding the right balance will help your photos rank on search engines. This is also a good SEO practice in general.

When it comes to picture quality, experts like MarketGoo marketing manager Larissa Murillo advises on keeping pictures simple without noisy backgrounds. Avoid blurry subjects, focus on products (if you’re selling a product), and use all-white background whenever appropriate. This is because visual search algorithm is increasingly capable of “recognizing” shapes based on an object’s edges and categorizes this object into similarly-shaped objects. Keeping your photos clean help search engines determine your photos’ content.

5) Photo Placement is also important

You may have added meta data, keywords, and alt-text tags successfully, but if this isn’t enough to rank your photos, you could check photo placement throughout your site. When you place a photo near text that describes that particular photo, it helps search engines identify additional details about the photo.

For example, your photo of a Lenovo tablet has the proper Lenovo-modelnumber-tablet.jpg file name with captions and meta data description. But if you placed it near your content that describes the size as “small,” color as “yellow,” or category as “kid-friendly,” your photo might be selected as one of visual search results for those looking for a kid-friendly yellow Lenovo tablet.

6) Implement Schema markup properly

If you want your product images featured on visual search results, you have to make sure that schema markup is properly implemented. This pertains to file category related to your site, may it be for products, recipes, thumbnail images of videos, or any other multimedia content.

You can check if you’ve implemented it successfully and included SEO-friendly information with Google’s Structured Data Testing Tool. Note that depending on the search engine, it could take about a week for bots to crawl a particular site. In addition, creating a schema markup doesn’t guarantee that your items will be displayed on visual search results. But Google does give you credit if you’ve implemented a quality markup.

There’s another way to check if Google has indexed your images. You can perform a YourSite.com query on your mobile browser (mobile should be your priority instead of desktop) and see if images included in your markup appears on the results. If not, you might have implementation issues and need to repeat the process.

7) Take Advantage of Google Maps and Geo-tagging

Geo-tagging your images based on a particular location can provide users performing local searches with relevant query results. Google and Pinterest both have search engines that can filter out results based on location. While this may not be appropriate for every picture, it’s beneficial to include it with your site’s “photo guidelines” for instances where it fits.

Those with brick-and-mortar stores should also take advantage of Google Maps and pin their locations on the platform. Upload relevant photos and list down company information, contact numbers, and other important details as well.

8) Infographics are the most shareable multimedia content

The best thing about creating infographics is that people love this kind of content. They love it so much that if your infographic ends up in the visual search results, there a good chance that they’ll visit your site for more. Which means you’ll have more visitors and possibility of a sale.

9) Add Open Graph Tags on Your Images

The open graph tag is an HTML code that lets you control how your content is shared on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other websites. Adding this tag creates a dedicated image, which ensures that your chosen image will be featured whenever someone shares your content on third-party sites.

10) Pinterest Isn’t Just For Personal Use

Don’t leave Pinterest out of the picture of your SEO efforts. What used to be a platform for hobbyists to pin their dream homes, craft projects, recipes, and other to-do lists, Pinterest has now been turned into an image-centric platform where businesses can post their entire product inventory without charge. And reap SEO juice from it.

The most interesting tidbit about adding photos on Pinterest is that the social media network has one of the most advanced visual search programs today.

The Bottom Line

The future of visual search is here and the applications to them in the ecommerce world are far and promising. Search engines may not have perfected the algorithms yet, but you can be sure that Google, Bing, Pinterest, and other sites will crack it soon. It wouldn’t harm you to get ahead with the SEO planning and testing to give your photos a real chance at ranking on visually-focused search results.

Monetizing Artistic Skills: How to Make Money Online with Your Cartoons

Written By:Steve Wrzeszczynski

Published On: December 12, 2017

Many cartoonists have tried to earn cash online through YouTube in the late 2000s and found the hard way that the platform isn’t too friendly with creators. While YouTube still provides them with a wider reach for new audience, YouTube isn’t the best monetization option for cartoonists. Today, more and more money-making options are becoming available to cartoonists worldwide, and they could earn straight from the comforts of their own studio.

What do Cyanide & Happiness (a group of artists), The Oatmeal (Matthew Inman), Awkward Yeti (Nick Seluk), Planet Prudence (Prudence Geerts), Fowl Language (Brian Gordon) and other successful cartoonists have in common? They treated their artwork as a business and have earned through multiple income streams by doing what they love – create web comics and one-off cartoons.

If you have a talent in comics and are wondering how to monetize your passion, here are several tried-and-tested ways to turn it into a full-blown, money-making online business:

1) Create a website and earn side hustle with greeting cards and stock or clipart sites – The first thing most of these artists did were create their own websites. Next was to bring in traffic and readers, which can take a bit of time depending on your invested effort. During this time, you’ll need to create as much content as possible for your site.

Unfortunately, building a website doesn’t convert to money instantly. This is especially true since many artists with a newly-built site only rely on ads like AdSense for income.

So if you’re in need of cash at the early stages of your website, you can earn money online with part-time gigs like creating greeting cards for Oatmeal Studios, or direct client work. For something more passive, join online stock art companies like iStockphotos.com or CartoonStock.com where you can display your cartoons, retain copyright, but still earn cash from licensing them.

2) Sell an eBook/book – Making a book or eBook would take time, but it is one of the most effective ways of earning from cartoons, especially for those who don’t have much capital except for their talents. Artists can either find one-off projects and sell copyright of their work for a client’s book, or host the eBook and self-license to earn money from royalty fees. You can also submit your eBook to Amazon and other eBook marketplaces.

eBooks have been widely accepted in recent years and they cost much less than good old traditional books, so selling your artwork through eBooks allow you to connect to a wider audience and gather new followers without having to worry about publishing, and other processes involved in traditional book marketing.

3) Join Print On-Demand (PoD) Sites – The cool thing about today’s internet is that it allows individuals with no brick-and-mortar stores or plenty of cash to create and sell products that they wouldn’t be able to otherwise. Print On-Demand sites are great for cartoonists because they have their artwork frame, sold and delivered without the hassles of finding suppliers, shipping the items or finding buyers.

4) Sell Merchandise – This is where real money is made. For those without capital, print-on-demand sites would allow you to add your artwork and let customers choose which product to have it printed. These can be anything from clothes, caps, mugs, bags, posters, and more. If you reach the point where you have the financial freedom to find manufacturers and suppliers for your planned merchandises, then sell your merchandise directly from your site. This way, you’ll be able to keep 100% of the profit instead of just receiving royalties from PoD sites.

5) Seek Sponsors – If your cartoons are reaching more and more people every day and you’re building up a fan base, one of the easiest ways to sustain your business is to seek sponsorship. Pantreon was created solely for this purpose – to support an artist of your choosing on a monthly basis in exchange for some rewards. The rewards can be anything from early access to cartoons, character recommendations, free wallpaper monthly, exclusive daily cartoons, and other exclusives that the artist decides to offer.

6) Crowd-fund Your Work – Kickstarter isn’t just about the quirky product you won’t find anywhere else. With Kickstarter, cartoonists can crowd-fund their entire project, whether it’s for a new book, a plush toy of your famous characters, a board game based on your comics, or more.

You’d be surprised at the amount of support you can gather from Kickstarter. Like Pantreon, Kickstarter supporters choose a pledge amount based on the rewards they want. Artists have the freedom to dictate pledge amounts and rewards for every Kickstarter campaign they host.

The Bottom Line

If you’re serious about cashing in with your cartoons, make sure to hire an agent once you’ve made enough money. This is important if you’re planning to spread your income both online and offline.

Those new in the business could learn a thing or two by reading interviews of successful cartoonists. It’s never too late to shift careers and go back to your passion of creating funny, inspirational, controversial, or even heart-warming cartoons. Just look at The Oatmeal’s Matthew Inman, who was one of the co-founders of now-legendary SEOMoz and quit the SEO biz completely in 2009 to build his website. Look at where he is now.

As I mentioned earlier, the key to succeeding as a cartoonist online is to consider your art as a business. Of course, don’t let money-making be your priority – your art should still come first at all times. But having a business plan and goals won’t hurt either.

Blogging as a Business: 10 Ways to Earn Passive Income through Your Personal Blog

Written By:Steve Wrzeszczynski

Published On: December 8, 2017

Blogging has been around since the late 90s with the creation of free blogging platforms LiveJournal and Blogger, followed by WordPress in the early 2000s. At the time, blogs were used as an online diary of sorts with political views, and mostly personal stories shared to everyone. But when Google released the AdSense advertising platform in 2003, people saw the money-making potential of blogging and began taking blogs seriously.

By mid-2005, 50 million blogs have been created (compared to only 23 in 1999) and with about 23 million blog readers from the U.S. alone. Since then, individuals have been cashing in thousands of dollars monthly with their blogs. Popular ones like Mashable.com earns a whopping $2 million + a month, while many niche-specific bloggers earn anywhere from $5,000 to $150,000 a month. What’s their secret? Their blogs earn passive income.

What is Passive Income?

Passive income is income that comes from regular cash flow, which is obtained with minimal to no extra effort done by the recipient. In real world, the best example of passive income is monthly dues collected from rental properties.

When it comes to online earning, passive income follows the same concept, except there’s no brick-and-mortar business. If you’ve read popular blogging-focused blogs, you’ve probably read the term “making money in your sleep,” which is actually what passive income is all about. So if you’ve been working hard on your blog and want to earn money while you sleep, here are 10 tried-and-tested, passive income-generating methods you can try:

1) AdSense and other Contextual PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Ads

One of the easiest ways to earn from your blog is by placing ads for your readers to click on. Regardless of the ad network you choose, whether it’s Google AdSense, Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN), or any other network, you’ll only need to place a code for the ad to become visible on your site and that’s it. While you’ll only earn cents for every click on the ad, imagine if you had 10,000 readers. The amount will add up quickly.

Of course, you have to test ad placements and ad formats (size, color, font, etc.) regularly until you find the right one for your blog. Make sure to track these tests properly and one at a time, so you’ll know which one works and which one doesn’t.

2) Affiliate Marketing

If you look at income reports of many successful bloggers today, you’ll find out that the chunk of their passive income comes from commissions of products sold through affiliate marketing. If you’re not familiar with affiliate marketing, we’ve got a comprehensive guide about it here and an advanced guide to affiliate marketing here.

Simply put, affiliate marketing involves joining a marketplace like ClickBank, Amazon, or Commission Junction, among others. When you’re writing a blog post, you can find products on these marketplaces that fit your topic, and once you do, you include a link going to the sales page. Every time you direct a reader to the sales page and they buy from the marketplace (even after a week or so since they clicked the link), you earn a commission.

Commissions are small and depend on the marketplace you choose. For instance, Amazon pays roughly 5% to its affiliates. Like AdSense, these small commissions could add up pretty quick if you have a big audience.

The cool thing about affiliate marketing is that it is highly adaptable regardless of niche. For example, a cooking blogger can share a recipe and list down ingredients (with recommended products linked to Amazon), or a parenting blogger who’s reviewing a new toy.

3) CPM (cost per impression) Ads

When compared to AdSense and other pay-per-click ads wherein readers have to click on the ad for you to earn, CPM (or cost per impression) ads require no action from your readers. This means your readers don’t have to buy a product or click on a link; instead, they simply need to visit the page where you place the CPM ad and you’ll earn with every page view.

The main problem with CPM ads is that new bloggers can’t join CPM ad companies like Tribal Fusion so easily. Their blogs have to meet certain traffic requirements, such as 100k page views monthly, in order to display CPM ads. But if your blog is already established, send an application (that takes around a week to complete) and reap more passive income from CPM ads.

4) Sell eBooks

If you’ve been blogging for months consistently, creating an eBook would be a walk in the park. The main different between blog posts and an eBook is that eBooks are formatted similar to traditional books, so you’d have to think of your table of contents and write as comprehensively as possible. Because you’d be writing the eBook once and reaping from sales for months (or even years) to come, selling eBooks is a passive income technique you should try.

This may not work quite as well for new bloggers, but if you’re an authority within your niche, you can make a killing if you release an eBook to your loyal readers. A great example of this is ProBlogger’s Darren Rowse who cashed in $72k within a week of releasing his eBook.

5) Audiobooks

And while you’re at it, turn your eBooks into an audiobook and earn additional passive income. You may have to invest in an audiobook a bit more, especially if you’re going to hire a voice-over artist. But the future of audiobooks is bright, with more and more people embracing the technology and taking advantage of being able to finish a book while on-the-go.

If you host your audiobook on services like Audible, you’d receive commissions amounting to 10% to 20% of your ebook sales. Pretty good for a one-time effort, right?

6) Produce Courses for Paid Members

If you’re already an authority on a particular subject, there shouldn’t be anything stopping you from creating a course that would benefit your readers. The great thing about selling courses straight from your website is that you’ll skip fees you’d have been required to shell out if you hosted them on Udemy, Teachable and other sites that host and market courses in exchange for a cut.

When you offer 6-month or 8-week course on your website, you can make this available exclusively for your readers who are willing to pay. You are completely in control of the amount you want as membership fee, but consider factors such as number of visitors, complexity or uniqueness of the topics on your course, niche, and your expertise.

7) Create a Paid Private Forum

Like for-member-only courses, adding a private forum to your site gives you an additional source of income. Unlike courses that you only have to work on once, you’ll need to invest time sharing content on the forum. If this isn’t possible, you can always hire someone to man the forum for you, but make sure he/she is just as competent when answering questions on the forum. Remember that the reason people joined the forum, even with a month fee, is to pick your knowledge about issues they may face.

8) Add More Videos on Your Site

If you’re not making any videos for your blog, start producing them now. Not only does adding other types of multimedia content on your blog help with SEO (search engine optimization) or getting traffic to your site, it also gives your audience more reasons to stay.

Plus, you can join the YouTube Partner Program and monetize your videos. The only problem is that YouTube only lets you earn from your videos once your channel reaches 10k views collectively. (It’s a 2017 policy, so if you joined early on, good for you!) The money you make from every view isn’t a lot, but if it turns viral, or viewed by thousands of people, you’ll get to take home a nice passive income from years to come.

9) Extend Your Blog Money-Making Efforts to Social Media

Setting up an account on the major social media networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest) doesn’t take much time. You can even automate and schedule posting with a tool like Hootsuite.

You won’t be directly earning passive income by having an active presence on these networks, but sharing your blog posts across social media gives you additional audience who might be interested with your content, eBook, audiobook, private forum, and other money-generating techniques you use on the blog.

10) Find Partners

When you’ve proven your worth after a few years of blogging and have become an authority figure within your niche, it’s easy to partner with other companies that you wholeheartedly believe in. These partnerships work like affiliate marketing, except you only promote one company. A great example of this is Neil Patel’s partnership with Bluehost. Every time someone uses the Bluehost coupon he posts, Neil Patel earns a portion of the sale/subscription.

The Bottom Line

These 10 ways of earning passive income is easily achievable, especially if you’ve been blogging for years. If you’re new to the blog world, you can still join in on the fun with AdSense and affiliate marketing, but the longer you blog and bigger your audience, you’ll have more monetization options that will let you earn even while you sleep.

How to Earn Extra Money Online Translating Documents

Written By:Steve Wrzeszczynski

Published On: December 8, 2017

Globalization has made communication a priority in more languages beyond English, Spanish, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, German, French, and other major languages used in business. Today, even the most obscure languages are used in social media, business, and other industries in hopes of becoming more inclusive and reach more people as possible.

This provides unique opportunities for bilingual people (or even people native to a particular language) who are looking for a way to earn extra money online. Translating text from one language to another is becoming a fast-growing online profession. And the requirements are pretty easy too, so virtually anyone can become a translator part-time, or even full-time.

Translator Requirements

As a translator, you should have advanced reading, writing and comprehension skills. It doesn’t matter if you know only your native language or more than one language, but it’s important that you are well-versed with your expert language, which includes spelling, grammar, punctuation and other language rules. When you join online translation agencies like gengo.com and verbalizeit.com, you’ll have to follow style and formatting rules as well.

Spanish is the most in-demand language, followed by French, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Aside from these major languages, you’ll discover that the more obscure the language, the higher the demand and fees.

Most translation jobs require text-based translation. In some cases wherein you’d be translating live, you’ll need Skype to join conference calls or conduct one-on-one translations with a client.

How Much Can You Earn?

Full-time translation jobs and extensive one-off projects are paid on an hourly basis. You can expect to earn around $12 an hour, but technical, legal or scientific content often pay up to $40/hour. Those with translation certification are given higher-paying jobs.

For smaller projects, such as brochures, lyrics, one-page document, slogans and the like, translation fees come on a per-word basis (around $.10 to $.20/word).

The language being translated to is also a huge factor when it comes to fees. If you check Gengo’s translator income “calculator,” you’ll see that different languages bag different fees. Chinese, German and Japanese translators can earn up to $500/month, while Greek, Russian and Bulgarian translators may earn up to $250 monthly.

Where to Find Translation Jobs

If you’re interested in this profession, check out the following translation agencies, job boards, directories and other resources:

Gengo – You’ll be e-mailed or notified on your dashboard when a job fits your expertise. You can then check out the deadlines, reward amount and other details of the jobs, and simply choose the one you want to work on.
Unbabel – This website provides a platform for translators and companies looking for professionals to meet. Payment for translators is $8/hour, paid via PayPal.
Translatorscafe.com – This is a free online directory of translators, where you can post your resume and apply directly to jobs posted by hiring companies.
TranslatorsTown.com– The translation jobs available in this website accommodates over 100 languages, which makes it a great resource for translators.
Translate.com – Tasks on this site range from translating short social media posts to more technical support tickets. You have to be quick to check through the jobs, since they are on a first come, first served basis. Payments can be requested via PayPal anytime.
OneHourTranslation.com – While you’ll need to undergo an application and exam to join the platform, OneHourTranslation has one of the widest options for payout. The company even has its own MasterCard, alongside wire transfer and PayPal.
Tethras – Ideal for the tech-savvy translators, this platform hosts a number of translation jobs focused on mobile apps. Payments are sent via PayPal.
Rev – This website pays 0.05 – $0.07 per word to translators who work on captions and other documents.
Translation Directory– This portal may look outdated, but it hosts plenty of translation jobs from across the world. There’s an annual membership fee amounting to almost $100 for both companies and translators.
TextMaster – This web content company hires two kinds of translators – semi-professionals (those native to a particular language) and professionals (those who hold translation certifications). You can earn up to €15¢ per word and paid via PayPal or Payoneer.
Translationdirectory.com– This massive online community (of over 300k language professionals) doesn’t just provide a job board for those looking for translation gigs, but also tons of tools and resources for anyone who want to take up this profession.
Lionbridge – Lionbridge has been helping brands from around the world with translation tasks for over 40 years. Today, the company accepts applications from both freelancers and translation agencies to become Lionbridge partners. It has its own software, the Unify Technology platform, where more than 2500 linguists use to fulfill translation jobs.
TRADUguide – This job board is translator-friendly, since linguists dictate pricing of posted jobs via a price quote.
Acclaro – Acclaro is a translation company aimed at helping businesses with over 60 languages. They always have available jobs for in-house translators and freelancers. You’ll need expertise in memoQ and other similar TM tools.
Languages Unlimited – This company recruits certified translators and interpreters from all over the world. It is home to over 13,000 freelance linguists. There’s an application process and you dictate your own rates for various tasks, such as document translation, on-site translation and video remote translation, among others.
WordExpress – If you’re in California, WordExpress continuously hires in-house language professionals (translators, interpreters, voice-over talent, etc.). There are also remote positions available for translation services of over 100 languages.
Linguistic Systems Inc. – Specializing in legal, IT, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and publishing industries, LSI is always looking for talented translators to join their 7000-strong team. You’ll need a Bachelor’s Degree, a minimum of 2 years translation experience, and pass a short test.
Aberdeen Languages Services – Canada-based Aberdeen provides round-the-clock translation services to businesses, which means jobs are available 24 hours a day. Application is a bit tough, since they require over 5 years of translator experience and a University-level degree.
American High-Tech Transcription and Reporting – This Florida-based company provides translation and transcription services to the government and law enforcement agencies, so expect to undergo background checks when you apply. There’s an opening for English to Spanish, but most jobs require English translation to other languages. Certified translators are preferred.
GlobaLink Translations Limited – GlobaLink is focused on medical and pharmaceutical research. The company is always looking for new translators and translation reviewers.

The Bottom Line

Translation jobs are also available on freelance websites like Guru.com, Fiverr.com, PeoplePerHour.com, Freelancer.com, UpWork.com, and more. Deadlines for these jobs are mostly tight, but since majority of translation jobs come from various parts of the world, you can work any time of the day or just skip a job when you feel you can’t make the deadline.

You can turn translation into a full-time career. However, like many freelance jobs, it depends largely on the time and effort you invest on this profession.

Trading ForEx Online: Is it a Viable Work-from-Home Job?

Written By:Steve Wrzeszczynski

Published On: December 6, 2017

Forex, or the foreign exchange market, used to be exclusive to banks, hedge funds, financial institutions, investment management firms and wealthy people who can afford to hire a private broker. Because of the internet, the forex market has become accessible to anyone from most countries. As long as they’re armed with forex knowledge and an online brokerage account, individuals can buy and sell currencies quickly with the click of a mouse under your own roof.

What is Forex?

FOREX is the largest financial market in the world, where people can exchange a specific currency for another in hopes of a profit in the future. And because the Forex market operates 24/7 (it doesn’t have a physical location), anyone can participate in forex trading any time of the day, no matter where you’re from.

Forex trading focuses on major currencies, like USD or Euro, which allows you to analyze the market more precisely instead of calculating risks for currencies from every country. This is the major difference between forex and stocks, which will confuse the hell out of a newbie trader when faced with thousands of stocks available for trading.

Currencies are traded and priced in pairs. For example, a quote for a EUR/USD pair of 1.2345 means the euro is the base currency (worth 1 unit) while the U.S. dollar is the quote currency (1.2345 in this example). The quote means that every 1 euro you have buys you 1.2345 U.S. dollars. If you invest €100,000 against USD with this rate, and the value of EUR goes up against the USD in the future to 1.5432, you collect a profit of $30,870 when you sell.

€100,000 x 1.5432 = 154,320

€100,000 x 1.2345 = 123,450

154,320 (future rate) – 123,450 (rate bought) = 30,870

In the same vein, if the EUR’s value depreciates and you decide to sell at that particular time, you’re going to lose money you’ve invested.

Seems easy, right? Yes, but not quite. Forex trading has its pros and cons, and it would be wise to learn about them before you invest your hard-earned cash.

Pros of Forex Trading

Hiring Brokers are Optional – In the past, you had to hire a personal broker to trade foreign exchange currencies. But with online access to trading platforms readily available, you’ll be able to waive very high broker fees completely. You still can hire a broker to do the job for you, but it’s no longer a requirement.
Trade Forex 24/7 – You’re also no longer tied to the trading floor and broker operating hours, since the forex market now operates round-the-clock.
Free training – Online trading platforms encourage beginners to trade forex, which is why many of them provide educational materials and access to a demo account, allowing anyone to “practice” trading and get used to how forex works.
Lower cost and entry amount – Back in the day, brokers require a “minimum” amount to be able to trade forex. These days, you can invest for as little or as much you want without constraints. There are still transaction fees involved though, which can be easily monitored and reduced by timing your investments properly.

Cons of Forex Trading

Risky and Volatile – Like all markets, the forex market can be volatile at times. If you don’t have experience in forex trading, the risk levels increase tenfold. And since you don’t have a personal broker to ask help from, there’s a chance that your trading strategies become unprofitable or even lead to huge losses.
Minimal regulation – Should anything go wrong with your transactions done from the trading platform of your choice, there is very minimal regulation or recourse you can take. This is because trading in the forex market isn’t carried out on a centralized exchange.
Go against Big Traders – Although the forex market has become accessible thanks to the internet, banks, financial institutions, hedge funds, and other organizations continue to be major players in this market. With over $5 trillion traded every day, these major players can influence price movements. As such, those with smaller amounts to trade may face some disadvantages if you don’t stay up-to-date with these price changes.

Can You Turn Forex Trading into a Full-Time, Work-from-Home Job?

Forex trading can be a lucrative source of investment, but only for the right people. While it has become accessible, it isn’t for everyone. Learning the ins and outs of the forex market is important, so you’ll be able to create an effective system that allows you to pinpoint risky pricing changes, sustain losses and maintain or profit from your investment despite market fluctuations.

Note that because of the volatility of the forex market, you shouldn’t rely on the potential profits of your forex trading as your income. This is particularly true if you’re just starting out. Many online trading platforms will encourage you to quit your job and trade full-time, but you shouldn’t give up your main source of income just yet.

Realistically, you should have enough capital to be able to maintain your lifestyle even if you quit your job in hopes of trading forex full time. If you really want to end your 8-to-5 job, make sure you’ve spent plenty of time trading forex live and have conducted trial-and-errors multiple times when creating your own trading system.

However, you should also know that you can always trade forex on the side and still become consistently profitable, even if you have a full-time job. You just have to be emotionally prepared, armed with trading knowledge, and are passionate at trading forex. Your success in the forex market will boil down to how much capital and effort you’re willing to invest with forex.

Ads Pro – A Slick But Flawed Advertising Plugin

Written By:Dean Robinson

Published On: December 4, 2017

Continuing with my advertising plugin for WordPress series, I’d like to talk to you about another effective advertising plugin called Ads Pro.

This plugin is only available on CodeCanyon and to my knowledge doesn’t have any free version to test, so it’s daunting to put money on the line when you’re not sure if it fits your needs or not.

As such let’s go through the plugin and see how it functions.

Ads Pro Setup

This plugin is pretty easy to set up. To begin with it’s a standard install with no other requirements – it’s self-contained unlike Advanced Ads which required Woocommerce.

The plugin is usable without the purchase code but some features are locked until you add it in, meaning use on a development site might potentially get tricky.

Other than that, the settings are straightforward for things like payments and notifications.

The settings also allow you to customize the look of things without needing to resort to CSS. This can be good for those with no or only rudimentary CSS skill but if you know CSS fairly well you may find the styling options limiting.

The plugin integrates with BBPress and BuddyPress so has appropriate options. It also has a “hooks” area where you can add advert shortcodes at specific points such as after the 4^th paragraph of content or after the content.

Ad Spaces

Before you can create adverts you need to add a Space. These are effectively groups and they cover everything from the cost of the advert to the number of adverts shown, order, devices etc.

Each space allows you to limit the number of adverts, which is great especially if you’re looking to sell advertising space.

This is also where you’ll be adding the style of advert, which I found odd, but you can select from a wide range of display types including:

Carousel – slide or fade
Top or Bottom Scroll Bars
Floating (4 options)
Pop-up
Corner Peel
Layer
Background
Exit pop-up
Link

It’s also here that you’ll define the template or dimensions of the adverts. There are a lot of standard sizes here such as 125×125 and 728×90 and so on.

A somewhat unintuitive feature is available to create custom sized templates. This Standard Ad Creator menu doesn’t appear at first and its wording didn’t tell me what it was. Still, you can create custom template sizes which is good.

Creating an Advert

Once a space has been defined creating adverts is really easy.

As you can see it is pretty much selecting the billing model (if you need that) and adding a URL and image.

The one thing I fell afoul of was image file size. The plugin doesn’t really state what to use and I noticed that larger image sizes got rejected and that rejection reset all the data I had added.

Displaying Adverts

If you’re not using the inbuilt hooks or the (very basic) widget then you can also display adverts by adding their shortcodes to locations in content or if you’re technically minded by adding a PHP snippet to theme templates.

Here’s my test advert after the 4th paragraph using an Amazon logo as my advert image.

Advert Analytics

Whilst pretty and effective I found the analytics area for Ads Pro to be messy and overwhelming and this is before I added any adverts!

I think it’s made worse by having sections for the extensions even though those extensions were not installed.

Overall though you do get the data that you need in order to see how the adverts are performing.

I also noticed that additional clicks/views per user account were not recorded which is usually a good thing.

Ads Pro also includes an A/B testing system for the adverts (though again this only becomes visible after you create an advert).

A/B testing is a great way to check how an advert is performing and is also a great selling point.

However, the A/B tests that Ads Pro provides are very flawed. Instead of what you would expect of one or the other advert being shown to see which advert performs best, Ads Pro basically just compares the data of the two adverts.

Really this is not an A/B test as both adverts are still shown at the same time!

Selling Adverts

Once you have some Spaces set up you can sell adverts to people. This is as easy as adding a shortcode to a page.

It’s a simple method to sell adverts that look professional. The only thing that seemed to be missing was how to provide more information and direction to potential customers for example about image sizes. Sure you can this to the Space title but that’s limited.

Geolocation

As well as being able to select certain pages/posts and categories to display ads, Ads Pro supports geolocation at the Space level.

This means that each space can be only shown or hidden for specific countries. You can even narrow it down to specific cities or zip codes.

Support

Support is done via Code Canyon and the author seems responsive enough, often answering within hours or a query.

There Are Extensions

The core plugin for Ads Pro is sufficient for most people’s needs, but it does have several extensions that you can buy to expand its feature set:

Ad Templates for Cornerstone

This extension adds integration for the Cornerstone builder plugin making it easy to insert adverts into those templates.

WordPress Affiliate Program

This extension allows you to leverage affiliates for generating more advertising leads.

WordPress Marketing Agency

Want to sell adverts on other people’s sites? Then this extension is for you as it allows you to become an advertising agency.

Is it Developer Friendly?

Can this plugin be easily extended? Well it depends on what you are trying to do. For minor things it should be fine as I found 16 action hooks and 15 filter hooks in the version I tested.

That being said, the use case I needed to modify the plugin for could not be done due to a lack of hooks in the right places, probably because 12 of the action hooks focus on content alone.

As such if you have a complicated use case then I would say there’s no decent way of extending this plugin.

The Bottom Line

Ads Pro is a great plugin but it has flaws. It looks great but seems to lack in certain areas and is quite unintuitive.

I was also dismayed by the completely wrong implementation of A/B testing! It’s effectively useless.

If you’re looking for an affordable advertising system for your own use then Ads Pro is definitely a contender. If you’re looking to sell adverts then the plugin is viable, and certainly looks the best out of all the plugins I’ve reviewed, but it’s not perfect.

As mentioned the A/B test is laughable and the inability to provide direction on a per Space basis is unfortunate.

Overall the plugin has great potential and if the developers decide to invest more time in the development, it could become a powerhouse in the WordPress advertising plugin market.

Right now, it’s average to good.

Pros and Cons of Using Shopify for Your Dropshipping Store

Written By:Steve Wrzeszczynski

Last Updated:November 22, 2017

A dropshipping store is like any other ecommerce store, except the business owner doesn’t have to rent a warehouse, pay for lease on a physical store, or stock the products. This means before you could “sell” products, you have to build an online store using one of the many ecommerce platforms available in the market today.

If you’re comparing ecommerce platforms for your dropshipping store, your options may include Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, YoKart, Shopify, Big Cartel, Open Cart, Zen Cart, Symphony Commerce, Drupal Commerce and a whole lot more. But if this is your first foray into the world of dropshipping and ecommerce, here’s why Shopify should be your top choice…

Why Choose Shopify?

The number one reason why over 350,000 online shops have chosen Shopify as their ecommerce platform is because there’s no need for programming, or web design knowledge to set-up a Shopify store. You can basically launch a new store in minutes.

Shopify is best for beginners because of these reasons:

1. Template availability – Shopify has a ton of free, ready-to-use themes to choose from. These themes are professionally made, mobile-ready, highly responsive, and designed with the customer in mind. There’s also option for paid templates, if you want better customization and more features.

2. Massive app store – Shopify has its own collection of extensions and plugins, which help expand the functionality of an online store. Example of tools available at the Shopify app store include tools on stock and inventory, reporting, shipping, customer service, store analytics, and social media, among others.

There are over 1,500 free and paid apps available, all of which are already compatible with Shopify and are easy to install. You can cherry-pick only those that would best fit your business, or experiment on new tools that could skyrocket your sales to newer heights.

Shopify even gives its members a way to connect to mobile app developers, who can customize their apps for you (for a fee, of course).

3. Quick-connect to Facebook and other Cross-Channel Selling Capability – One of the best things about Shopify is that it allows you to connect your store with a Facebook page, and sell directly from the largest social media network today via the Shopify Facebook App. You can also sell in other platforms like Pinterest, Houze, Twitter, and Wanelo for a wider reach of your target market.

4. Huge Community to Help – Even if Shopify is aimed at beginners and designed to set-up a store quickly, problems could still arise. What’s great with Shopify is that aside from its 24/7 livechat and phone support, the community forum is also home to many friendly and helpful people who are (or have been) on the same boat as you and are ready to guide you with Shopify questions you may have.

Shopify also publishes tutorial posts, case studies, and success stories regularly.

5. Built-in SEO Functions – Competition is fierce in ecommerce, which is why it’s a big plus that Shopify has SEO functionalities available. By taking advantage of these features, such as adding tags, editing meta tags, adding product descriptions, arranging collections, etc., your Shopify online store would be “seen” by search engine crawlers and indexed. This means that when someone searches the tags you used on search engine, your store could be one of the results listed.

Shopify Isn’t for Everyone

The benefits of using Shopify for your dropshipping store are numerous, but not everyone could succeed with this platform. Here’s why:

1. Shopify Payment – Members are basically forced to use Shopify Payment since every transaction made from your store would incur 2% transaction fees if you choose another payment gateway like PayPal. This is on top of the 5% transaction fee PayPal deducts from every payment you receive.

Unfortunately, you can’t just skip PayPal. It has been proven by multiple testing and testimonies that adding PayPal to an online store increases conversion rates for up to 30%. That’s a huge percentage to ignore.

2. Expenses Add Up – Shopify lets you try the platform for 14 days without charge, but if you decide to subscribe, you’ll have to pay monthly charges of $29/month (Basic), $79/month (Shopify Plan), $299/month (Advanced Shopify), or $2,000+/month (Shopify Plus). Other expenses could also add up, such as customization of themes and apps, and turnover fees (from between 0.5% and 2.0% of the product amount).

In addition, if Shopify decides to up their subscription plans in the future, you’ll have no choice but to continue, or move to another platform completely.

3. Limited CMS Capability – Shopify may seem like WordPress with its availability of themes and plugins, but the limits begin to show once you’re inside the Shopify platform. Content management systems (CMS) like WordPress are popular for a reason – the potential for development and customization are endless.

4. Shopify only lets you create two types of content – a blog post, or a page. It can be hard to create additional text fields for products, or link posts to products. The cheapest Shopify plan also doesn’t have the best search mechanism, and no advanced filtering for product searching available.

5. Scalability isn’t an Option – It’s good to start small, but if you plan to expand your dropshipping store in the future, it would be a pain financially and emotionally because:

Everything is hosted on Shopify. All customizations, uploads, and other content will be hard to export to a new host.
You’ll lose Google rankings. If you started with Shopify, but want to move to your own hosted site, the search engine rankings your Shopify store has earned will be all for nothing. Your new site would have to be re-indexed, causing your original site to lose traffic.
Exporting data is hard work. All customer data and order details are stored on Shopify. You’re able to export this data, but it is a lot of hassle to do so.

The Bottom Line

Shopify is a great choice for company online stores that house only limited items. If you’re planning to build a dropshipping business, you’d find more success buying a domain name, using a full-featured CMS like WordPress, and be in full control of your website.

Plus, since scalability is key to dominate the dropshipping model, your best bet is to learn how to build a store from scratch, and not be tempted with Shopify’s plug-and-play solution.