Sourcing the Product (MKT 250 W03 Reflection)

 

This week I learned about finding a wholesale distributor for selling items on the web and affiliate marketing vs drop shipping. It seems like ever since I looked up “web-based business” on Google I’ve been advertised to by experts who are trying to get me to start a drop shipping company and claiming that I could make $10,000 a day.  I once watched a webinar of someone who was sharing her secrets to this business, but in order to really get the secrets, I would need to pay her to “coach” me. The cost was just under $1000. I believe that is the way she makes her money, by selling her course, and not actually drop shipping. Anyway, that is one lesson I learned, that drop shipping may be a legitimate business, but I don’t think it’s as easy as these experts claim it to be. From what I read it takes a long time to work up to making a significant amount of money. I would say that if it really is as easy as they say, everyone would be doing it.

I learned more about affiliate marketing this week too. To me, it’s basically just being an exceptional blogger with advertising on your site. I guess I’ve seen YouTubers have affiliate links on the products they use in their videos, so it not just blogging. What I’ve come to understand is that you have to have a huge following to make any kind of money being an affiliate and that takes a long time. I think it would be difficult to come up with content and drive traffic to your site. This would not be a good fit for me.

Dropshipping on the other hand seems like it could be a good business. There are a lot of companies who help you set up a site (with fees attached, of course) but I think if someone worked at this business model it could be a nice supplemental income. But with either of these business models, a person would have to choose their hard, because they both seem like it would be difficult to break into the market, to find the exact right niche, and to make enough money for it to be worth it. Although I’m not choosing one of these methods for my business, in different circumstances I would choose drop shipping just to try it and see how it goes.

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