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I made $600 with some friends on Amazon's affiliate program with a couple weeks worth of Facebook advertising, but I personally wouldn't recommend it as more th

I made $600 with some friends on Amazon's affiliate program with a couple weeks worth of Facebook advertising, but I personally wouldn't recommend it as more than a side business. It doesn't scale very well due to the massive number of conversions you need, it's hard to track performance since you can't cookie the potential buyer, any sales outside of your country is usually lost (you have to sign up for separate affiliate programs for each country to make money abroad) and of course you're at the mercy of Amazon's business decisions. It's better in the long term to set up your own store and build up lifetime value around your own brand, which is what I'm currently doing. You can start out that way dropshipping from AliExpress or with print on demand products. It's more work, but it's also more stable and of course scales a lot better. But an even better suggestion is to build SaaS products. It scales even more and not many people know how to do it.

baybal2 9y ago
Yep, Aliexpress rullz. They have an affiliate campaign of their own. As of today, they have no restrictions on getting affiliate cut on your own products
- sitkack 9y ago
  Why would they? A sale is a sale.
  - baybal2 9y ago
    I have no idea, but some marketplaces do have such restrictions.
  - JoblessWonder 9y ago
    I could see an argument for how it is double-dipping... I'm not sure I agree with it though.
seibelj 9y ago
Very experienced people have told me to sell my VPN routers[0] on amazon, and I never, ever will. I own the distribution, I own the content, I own the marketing. I'm probably leaving a good chunk of revenue on the table, but overall I think it's the better longterm solution. [0] https://easyvpnrouter.com/ https://easyvpnrouter.com/
- voltagex_ 9y ago
  Offtopic, but it says you use OpenWRT and LEDE so - is there a link to the source somewhere?
  - seibelj 9y ago
    I say it in the FAQ, but it's just vanilla LEDE, and the mobile app uses the JSON-RPC API to communicate. The mobile app isn't open source, but the everything on the device is in UCI, cron, and /etc/openvpn. The magic isn't in the device, it's in the flashing and configuring it for non-technical people.
    - voltagex_ 9y ago
      I'm pretty sure you still need to provide source to the version of LEDE you use, at least to your customers.
      - seibelj 9y ago
        opkg can give current release and package info. But I think you are missing the point here - people who are asking the questions you are asking aren't my typical customers. It's some random guy who has never heard the word "linux".
        gjjrfcbugxbhf 9y ago
        No the op's point is that to comply with the licence you need to provide the source to customers that ask for it. She's trying to save you some potential trouble.
paulcole 9y ago
>You can start out that way dropshipping from AliExpress or with print on demand products. But aren't you just selling junky products? That seems pretty unsustainable as well.
- just4themoney 9y ago
  Its also a saturated market.
- jameslk 9y ago
  You can find almost every generic product sold on Amazon through AliExpress or DHgate, and these are usually the same products. The difference is that it takes 2-4 weeks to ship but costs a fraction of the price. These products aren't junky anymore than they are on Amazon. They might not be iPhones, but they still fill needs. Print on demand is just designing your own t-shirts, mugs, shoes, pillows, jewelry, etc through services such as Zazzle, Teespring, Gearbubble. People have passions, such as for animals or hobbies, and love to signal it. As for sustainability, dropshipping will kill your credibility if you keep doing it. There's plenty of shared warehousing/fulfillment services now like ShipBob where once you've established yourself, you can gradually scale your fulfillment and start wholesaling. I would move away from generic dropshipped products quickly, which are the easiest to start selling, just due to competition. But print on demand and private labeling are solid choices since you own the brand and design.
petra 9y ago
>> your own brand What is this "brand" that you speak of ? do consumers even care ?
- jameslk 9y ago
  Brand matters a lot in the ecommerce world, as we've seen with the acquisitions of Zappos, Chewy, Bonobos and a long list of others over the years. If you aren't optimizing for customer loyalty, which is usually cheaper than customer acquisition, you're leaving money on the table and eliminating any competitive advantage.
  - petra 9y ago
    I get the impression that Bonobos had a unique product, and Zappos excelled in customer service(and i think they also cracked the formula of their market). Brand was a nice side-effect of that. But i don't understand what brand does a store that sells similar stuff to what you can find on Amazon can get.
    - jameslk 9y ago
      Zappos started out dropshipping too. The brand is associated with the curation. You'd be surprised how little others care to comparison shop once they're ready to make a purchase. As long as you seem trustworthy and your prices seem reasonable (or aren't very high in general). Once you've made them a happy customer, they're more likely to buy again if they're on your newsletter or being retargeted. It works for us and it seems to be working well for others like Wish.com[0]. 0. https://nytimes.com/2017/05/03/magazine/the-online-marketplace-thats-a-portal-to-the-future-of-capitalism.html https://nytimes.com/2017/05/03/magazine/the-online-marketpla...
    - libertine 9y ago
      Brand isn't a side effect. There's a whole discipline on it.

baybal2 9y ago

Yep, Aliexpress rullz. They have an affiliate campaign of their own. As of today, they have no restrictions on getting affiliate cut on your own products

sitkack 9y ago
Why would they? A sale is a sale.
- baybal2 9y ago
  I have no idea, but some marketplaces do have such restrictions.
- JoblessWonder 9y ago
  I could see an argument for how it is double-dipping... I'm not sure I agree with it though.

seibelj 9y ago

Very experienced people have told me to sell my VPN routers[0] on amazon, and I never, ever will. I own the distribution, I own the content, I own the marketing. I'm probably leaving a good chunk of revenue on the table, but overall I think it's the better longterm solution. [0] https://easyvpnrouter.com/ https://easyvpnrouter.com/

voltagex_ 9y ago
Offtopic, but it says you use OpenWRT and LEDE so - is there a link to the source somewhere?
- seibelj 9y ago
  I say it in the FAQ, but it's just vanilla LEDE, and the mobile app uses the JSON-RPC API to communicate. The mobile app isn't open source, but the everything on the device is in UCI, cron, and /etc/openvpn. The magic isn't in the device, it's in the flashing and configuring it for non-technical people.
  - voltagex_ 9y ago
    I'm pretty sure you still need to provide source to the version of LEDE you use, at least to your customers.
    - seibelj 9y ago
      opkg can give current release and package info. But I think you are missing the point here - people who are asking the questions you are asking aren't my typical customers. It's some random guy who has never heard the word "linux".
      - gjjrfcbugxbhf 9y ago
        No the op's point is that to comply with the licence you need to provide the source to customers that ask for it. She's trying to save you some potential trouble.

paulcole 9y ago

>You can start out that way dropshipping from AliExpress or with print on demand products. But aren't you just selling junky products? That seems pretty unsustainable as well.

just4themoney 9y ago
Its also a saturated market.
jameslk 9y ago
You can find almost every generic product sold on Amazon through AliExpress or DHgate, and these are usually the same products. The difference is that it takes 2-4 weeks to ship but costs a fraction of the price. These products aren't junky anymore than they are on Amazon. They might not be iPhones, but they still fill needs. Print on demand is just designing your own t-shirts, mugs, shoes, pillows, jewelry, etc through services such as Zazzle, Teespring, Gearbubble. People have passions, such as for animals or hobbies, and love to signal it. As for sustainability, dropshipping will kill your credibility if you keep doing it. There's plenty of shared warehousing/fulfillment services now like ShipBob where once you've established yourself, you can gradually scale your fulfillment and start wholesaling. I would move away from generic dropshipped products quickly, which are the easiest to start selling, just due to competition. But print on demand and private labeling are solid choices since you own the brand and design.

petra 9y ago

>> your own brand What is this "brand" that you speak of ? do consumers even care ?

jameslk 9y ago
Brand matters a lot in the ecommerce world, as we've seen with the acquisitions of Zappos, Chewy, Bonobos and a long list of others over the years. If you aren't optimizing for customer loyalty, which is usually cheaper than customer acquisition, you're leaving money on the table and eliminating any competitive advantage.
- petra 9y ago
  I get the impression that Bonobos had a unique product, and Zappos excelled in customer service(and i think they also cracked the formula of their market). Brand was a nice side-effect of that. But i don't understand what brand does a store that sells similar stuff to what you can find on Amazon can get.
  - jameslk 9y ago
    Zappos started out dropshipping too. The brand is associated with the curation. You'd be surprised how little others care to comparison shop once they're ready to make a purchase. As long as you seem trustworthy and your prices seem reasonable (or aren't very high in general). Once you've made them a happy customer, they're more likely to buy again if they're on your newsletter or being retargeted. It works for us and it seems to be working well for others like Wish.com[0]. 0. https://nytimes.com/2017/05/03/magazine/the-online-marketplace-thats-a-portal-to-the-future-of-capitalism.html https://nytimes.com/2017/05/03/magazine/the-online-marketpla...
  - libertine 9y ago
    Brand isn't a side effect. There's a whole discipline on it.