Drop shipping and ecommerce training
Posted by Jason in Uncategorized on April 19th, 2010
Since we started this drop shipping business back in 08 we have changed our concept many times. One of the greatest things a company must do is change to conform to what the public wants, or needs to be successful. We are no exception to this rule. When we first started the PSU we were merely a drop ship directory with a small support forum. We outgrew that forum rather quickly, and moved to a larger system that we have in place today.
One of the biggest changes we made was adding e-commerce website design to our line up. The only reason we did that was to help out our members as we got to know these people, as people instead of numbers we found that many of them were being ripped off by these so called designers they had found via the internet, or some type of seminar.
Then we added the search engine optimization consulting, as it is crucial to a websites success. Although we do offer two web design plans, one with seo, and one without it, unless you know how to properly optimize a website, you are much better off if you let us do it.
Our web design program has become a great feature, and so now we are expanding to include one on one training/coaching classes. We have spoke with so many people through the years that have gotten involved with different types of consulting programs, some of which have been successful, most people though have not been that lucky.
We build businesses, but with that has also came many good friendships, and so we hope that the newest aspect of our company will be a success as well, not only for us, but for the people trusting us to train them the correct way.
How to make multiple drop shipping sales
Posted by Jason in Uncategorized on April 15th, 2010
I posted this on our members drop shipping forum this morning and thought I would share it with our blog readers too.
One thing to always think about when deciding on drop shipping product lines is Retail stores they spend millions a yr on market research to see what is selling, and what does not. This morning I went into Wal mart to pick up some sunscreen for the kids, I told myself, that is all I am getting, BUT before I left I had also picked up a bag of grass seed, a shovel, some potting soil, flowers (which will probably die out there in my car), and a few tomato plants. Now this could be because I always park in the garden section no traffic, or long lines, but it is also because it those are the popular things right now, so that is their focus.
Now if you had a website it’s a little different people are finding you through Google, and millions of people are Googling stuff every day, but on eBay a lot of times people are still looking for the popular stuff, they just get it on eBay because it’s cheaper.
Another thing to take notice of, is what I bought I found some flowers that my wife would love to have, so in the cart they went, but I had to have some potting soil to put the flowers in so off to that section I went, then I remembered I loaned my shovel out to some traveling tree planters last yr, and wouldn’t ya know they never returned it, so I needed that too. While all of this was going on I thought, well let me grab some tomatoes as well. (Why not I already have the shovel, and soil).
My point is here, it’s chain reaction shopping!
If I had not bought the flowers I would not have needed any of the other stuff, and not spent 30.00 I would have just spent the 3.00 on sunscreen, and left.
Well the same is true when your selling drop shipping on eBay, or a web site. Instead of having one item that someone needs maybe have one or 2 big items, and then everything to go with those items.
Creating a chain is the real secret to all of this. Turn one sale into 5, then your profit goes from 10.00 to 50.00.
Drop shipping helps to boost e-commerce sales during holiday season
Posted by Jason in Uncategorized on December 5th, 2009
I have been asked 1000’s of times how drop shipping , and e-commerce are doing during this recession, and my opinions on this holiday season. I generally don’t like to make predictions , but with this one it was a no brainer. My prediction was that e-commerce would boom this year , and I was correct.
According to the New York Post their was over 900 million dollars worth of merchandise sold online on Cyber Monday alone, and I will personally guarantee you a large portion of that came from drop shipping.
One of the best things we have done as a company is to form relationships with our suppliers. They have been more than helpful to us, and our members so in return we have respect for all of them. I had the opportunity to speak with some of them today, and their sales were up 25% or more depending on the area.
They deserve it, and our members that have worked themselves to death the last few weeks preparing for this season deserves it too. Daily people ask us what type of “work” is involved in e-commerce, as their are still so many untrustworthy places that make this seem so easy. Well here’s a few of the things our members have been doing.
1. Checking stock with their drop shippers—– You can’t sell it if it’s sold out !
2. Price matching/comparing—–Everyone wants the best price !
3. Creating sales—— Well it is the holidays ! I think eBAY has sent me a spam email everyday about some sort of special ha ha.
4.Fine tuning their websites—–Adding new products, holiday images, sales, specials etc.
I could keep going but I think you get the picture !
Now none of this is (physically) hard work. Time consuming? Yes in the beginning it is, and challenging you have to have a real desire to be successful, and tired of searching for the next best thing. I don’t make promises, but I will say that if you really want this to work it will ! Another question I hear quite often is “how many hrs a day does this take” My answer is always been. ” That’s up to you with anything in life you will get back what you put in to this.” It will take a bit longer in the beginning as your getting used to everything, but once you do get used to everything a couple hrs a day should be plenty. Just remember Rome wasn’t built in a day !
Websites and profit with drop shipping
Posted by Jason in Uncategorized on September 19th, 2009
Their are a lot of websites who will try and sell you the idea that having your own web site, and drop shipping yourself to riches is an easy thing to do. We disagree, it is no where near easy. It is time consuming, and it takes from you dedication, a willingness to learn, and work hard. I personally think that if you don’t have at least 3 of the four things I just mentioned then forget about it it’s not right for you. I have told several people that through the yrs, and just wanted to stress it again here. You can always go to the next website who is going to tell you all of the things you want to hear, and throw your money away if you want to, but just know that’s what you will be doing. Their is nothing easy about drop shipping, and that is one of the first things that a consumer should think about, if you go to a site, and they make this seem like an automated set it and forget it type process, I will guarantee you it’s a scam.
DEDICATION: I have a member that’s been with us for about a yr and a half, and she had been taken for a ride by another company that I am not gonna mention right now(that’s another story, but I bet you can guess who it was.) Anyway her husband was going to be laid off, and they knew it so we helped them to get their site built, and to find drop shippers. Their site was finished on a Friday afternoon at about 2pm they had owned a similar site in the past so they had a bit of knowledge on how to operate the site, but we always do a walk through after the site is finished to show them how to use it, and help with any questions that someone may have. I did the walk through of the site with them, and they had their suppliers already set up so all they had to do was add their products, and put in their seo tags, and they would be off to the races.
The next Monday I came in to the office with an email to look at their site, I thought something must be wrong with their site, but to my surprise their was nothing wrong these 2 had spent the entire weekend adding products, and not just 50, or 100 products, but 4000 products. FYI It takes my guy 3 days to add about 400 products. I immediately called to find out their secret, (and to see if they wanted a job adding products to sites for me Ha ha) Well come to find out the couple did not add all of the products themselves, but what they did was they called all of their children, and grand children to come over, they all brought their laptops, and went at it. They worked on their site daily, fine tuned it, and today I can proudly say they make about 1000.00 a week. They never gave up, and used some other creative methods to draw in traffic, and turn that traffic into sales.
TIME: How long does it take for my site to get on the 1st page? When will I start making sales?
Those are a few of the daily questions we receive, and here is my answer. The only person that knows what Google will do is Google, I have seen sites get put on the 1st page after a week, and I have seen it take a yr no one knows but if you follow our seo guides you will get there eventually. As far as sales go, the more people that come to your site, the more sales you will get, so your main focus should be your seo, and marketing that’s it. 100s of people have asked me” what should I sell ?” My answer has always been what ever you want to sell, your products don’t make you the money the seo does.
Their are billions of people online shopping daily, and it does not matter if your selling a box of rocks, as long as you have 1000s of people looking for rocks coming to your site to buy it you will make a sale. On the other hand, you could sell brand new computers on your website for 1.00 and never make a sale if you don’t have people coming to your website.
WILLINGNESS TO LEARN : Ok so this is not rocket science, and it’s not hard to learn this stuff, but it does take a week or two of reading to get a common knowledge of things . One questions we normally get is what is the difference in a drop shipping wholesaler , and a distributor, or manufacturer? We have a few great articles on that in the PSU, as well as one of the best seo/ e-commerce forums their are online, and a full time telephone support team to help our members as well for free. A standard membership to the PSU is 62.00, and we have no extra fees for support, or nothing like that.
You can be successful in this industry, but we want you to understand that E commerce is not any type of overnight, automated, solution. Our members are successful only because of their dedication, and hardwork. Our job is to be a support system, to provide suppliers, and to build sites. We are not responsible for their success only they are.
So whats the catch ?
Posted by Jason in Uncategorized on August 19th, 2009
I have been asked this several times since we have started the e-commerce website design / drop shipping directory package. So I figured I would answer this question once and for all. Everyone wants to know how we can build these seoe’d websites so cheap when other places are charging three or four thousand dollars for an e-commerce website, and another $1000.00 for seo. The answer is quite simple. In the retail world prices are pretty much set, and their is an expected price. Take for instance you know when you go to the store to buy a laptop that they run anywhere from $300.00 to $1000.00 depending on which model you get.
However online things are different the internet is still pretty new so most people don’t have an expected price range because they just don’t know how much these type of things should cost. It’s the same with drop shipping before we came along people were under the impression they were supposed to pay $50.00 a month and so called drop shipping fees or $350.00 just to access a reputable directory.
The reality is that while building a website is time consuming it is far from the rocket science that people have been lead to believe.
The bad part is talking to someone and listening to all the stories out there from people that have been ripped off by these scam artists. I spoke with a man the other day from Texas, and he had fell victim to one of these type places they promised him this awesome e-commerce coaching package, a website, eBay training, seo and all sorts of other great stuff for $8000.00 and he is a smart guy, BUT he just did’nt know how much this type of stuff really costs. (Although with that place they not only over charged him they also never built his website, and after he paid them they told him he had actually paid to use their website builder program which happened to be a free program anyone can find online.)
So now were in the process of building his coffee website, and you will be able to see it on our newest sites soon. The point is this. It does not have to cost an arm and a leg to have a website built, and the same thing with drop shipping . Their should NEVER be any monthly fees accociated with drop shipping. I don’t care what they tell you. If a company charges you a monthly fee they are middlemen plain and simple. We can give you the exact same products for less, and without any so called fees.
I started as a website designer years ago, and migrated into drop shipping I have built roughly 500 websites in my life time and I can honestly say it should not cost more than 1000.00 for an e-commerce website . Don’t get me wrong their are exceptions to every rule, and their are options, and features that can cost more sure, but the guys that are running around charging outrageous prices for this type stuff are not including those options in their over priced websites and seo.
So to answer the question ‘whats the catch ?” Their is no catch, and were not cheap. If you would rather pay thousands for a website go right ahead. In the meantime we will keep on building websites for our members.
Drop shipping & Owning a e commerce website
Posted by Jason in Uncategorized on July 19th, 2009
Well as most people know we are more than a drop shipping company. We try to have all different types of e-commerce support for our members. We decided to add the building of e commerce websites for our members as well, and the reason we did this as some of you know was to help our members to keep from getting ripped off by these idiots online that were charging them $2000.00 for a store, and half the time not even building anything at all. When I wrote our partners page and showed the world what we were doing, and how much we were charging I had no idea how good the response would be, nor how many people I would come in contact with that had been ripped off by website companies. I have spoke with more than 100 people this month, most of them with the same story. They got involved with a particular drop shipping company, they tried selling on Ebay, and couldn’t make any money so they decided they wanted to start their own e commerce website. That’s when the wolves came looking for blood. Here is some tips and our thoughts on the myths associated with owning a e commerce website below to help you decide if this is right for you.
1.”Building a website is difficult.” The biggest misconception that it is like rocket science and should cost 1000’s of dollar’s to have one built. That is what some of these companies want you to believe. The truth is yeah it’s a little complicated, but after you have built the first one they only get easier.
2. “You need several websites to really make a profit.” The hit and miss theory; some companies use this as a reason to get you to buy two or three websites from them claiming that one website is not enough. I personally think for a person who is just getting started online that one website is plenty. Their is a lot of stuff to keep up with like your drop shipping inventory, clients, pricing, seo, marketing, and shipping. Trying to do this for two or three different websites could potentially wear a person out.
3.” The search engines will list your site immediately.” Well they may, but without seo “search engine optimization” your going to be on pg 20. One of the things we do for our members is optimize their websites for free, and teach them how to keep their website optimized.
4.”Automated websites work.” Their are a ton of drop shipping companies who have these automated website schemes going on. They make it seem like if you get one of these sites they will magically bring you in 1000s of dollars. I have never in 11 yrs of working online seen anyone make a dime from an automated website. One of the biggest reasons is because the search engines will not list them for any high ranking keywords.
5.”Owning a website is profitable.” This one is actually correct. Owning a website and drop shipping can be very profitable if done correctly. You need to realize that in order to have a website that “makes it” their is work that has to be done, and that it takes time and dedication. Some of our most successful clients became successful because they were dedicated and patient.
As always if you believe that anything that has to do with starting an online business is easy, automated, or simple this is not right for you. I have always went to great lengths to express that point, and I want people to understand that yes you can do awesome drop shipping products on an e commerce website, but make sure you know what your getting into before hand.
How do you say this ?
Posted by Jason in Uncategorized on June 11th, 2009
About 3 months ago I received an email from a woman she wanted to start an online business, she had already purchased a website and needed products. As most of my members know I like to talk to my members via telephone, or email. Don’t ask me how I can keep track with the amount of contacts that I do, but I pull it off. I am horrible with birthdays though.
The lady was a single mother of 2 she was unemployed and she wanted to sell products online to help support her children. I ask her where she got her website from, and how much she paid for it. Mainly out of curiosity as we were just about to start our e-commerce website program. What I hear next is unbelievable $12,000 . Yes that is twelve thousand dollars.
She actually got a crash course e-commerce training as well she proudly announced and 100 links for her website to “shoot it up the search engine”. In reality she got ripped off as the 100 links you can buy from a real seo company for all of $8.00 and the course was basic one on one questioning that we do for free. About a week later she comes to me and tells me that they did not even build her a website. They gave her a website builder and told her to do it herself. So for $12,000 dollars this single mother of 2 who saved her money for months received a few phone calls, a website builder, and 100 links.
I have now seen this same scenario 5 times this year. What do you tell these people ? I am sorry but you just threw away your life savings to a scam ? The credit card companies are not assisting these people either because they had to sign an agreement stating they fully understood what they were paying for. Don’t get me wrong some of the fault has to be placed on the consumer for not checking up on the company, and for doing it to begin with but this kind of garbage is what is wrong with the internet today as it is.
I fully believe that their has to be an e-commerce redesign, and a system set in place to fully monitor these companies, and every e-commerce website should have to register with them. From the drop shipping companies, wholesale companies, to the smaller e-commerce websites as well as the major ones. I believe if their is not a way to add trust to e-commerce it could very well self destruct.
I was reading a post the other day about how a website was ripping people off with a fake I phone scam and the Atty general of one state was trying to take down the website. The site was still up last I checked seems they were only taking Western Union payments and people were trying to buy these I phones. I have absolutely no idea why as the site appeared to have been made by a 4th grader, but needless to say it happened and it shouldn’t have . Their are quite a few things that a person can do to protect themselves from these type of things happening. I think the most important one is to Google the website and see if any bad stuff comes up. Also do a whois and look at the age of the website if it is less than a year old use your judgment wisely.
I will stress this as well just because their may be a complaint does not always mean they are bad. Take Ebay or Pay Pal for instance. Between the 2 of the companies they probably hold the worlds record for complaints, but they deal with millions of different people everyday. Some people love to find any reason they can to complain. I have worked with the public, in sales, and in customer service all my life, and it can be very difficult to please everyone. I have had people from the first second they sign up start cussing at me for no reason, and I will instantly end their memberhip, and send them a refund as that is just something we do not tolerate. As we are here to help people, not to be their stress release .
Luckily that has only happened twice since I have been online. I can honestly say that the members of The PowerSellers Union are some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. That is why I get so frustrated when I hear of good hard working people getting ripped off.
Drop shipping and wholesale suppliers The PowerSellers Union speaks out.
Posted by Jason in Uncategorized on May 24th, 2009
We decided to create this blog for a couple of reasons one being we wanted a place to vent frustrations we have toward other companies and two we wanted to set the record straight on drop shipping. Their are so many lies, and scam involving e-commerce that we felt it was time to set the record straight. It is not fair to the people who don’t know any better. Almost every person I have ever spoke with has the exact same story. They just want to earn some money online either because they were laid off, lost their job, or they want, and need to be home with their children. They came across some make money on Ebay info commercial or read about drop shipping some where on the internet and thought it was a great idea.
Usually when we get a new member at The PowerSellers Union they have already signed up for one or two of these so called drop shipping companies. The same thing happens every time they make absolutely no sales on Ebay and they end up losing hundreds and some thousands of dollars and it is not fair.
I have taken a personal interest in this as I am a father, a husband, and a son. I meet these people, I talk for hours to these people on the phone, and it is always the same thing they either lost their money to some get rich quick plan or spent 1000s and got ripped off by some e-commerce website company . I fully intend on changing this if I can at least for the members of The PowerSellers Union . The main focus of The PowerSellers Union is to provide drop shipping companies that are legitimate. That’s the easy part I have spent the better part of 10 yrs compiling drop shippers.
As the company grew I found it a necessity to add more and more services due to the fact that my members were losing money left and right to each and every place they came across. For example e-commerce website design. Let me be very clear when I say this It should not cost 1000s of dollars to have a website built for you ! It should not cost another 1000 dollars to have your website properly seo’d . If you have spent this much for a simple e-commerce website you have unfortunately spent way too much money.
They make it sound so simple you get a pre loaded e-commerce website, their drop shipping products and you’ll be in the riches in no time. The thing about it they forget to tell you for one is those preloaded e-commerce websites can not be se0′d so basically the only traffic you will ever get is ppc traffic. A ppc campaign will roughly cost you .75c a click . That is $1.50 for every 2 people who comes to your website and the general average is 1 sale for every 100 visits which means your going to spend $75.00 to get a sale. The profit from most drop shipping companies is usually $10-25.00 a sale.
Congratulations you just lost $65.00. Oh I almost forgot you have to pay them a monthly fee, a drop shipping fee and a hosting fee. You just lost $75.00. You have to have a real website if you try to cut corners you will fail every time when it comes to starting an online business especially these days.
”They prey on peoples misfortune with schemes centered around the economy like lets beat the recession together”-Raenell Accetta, Marketing Director BELLISSIMO! GlASS.
So how do you make money selling products online ?
Their are 2 necessities to starting any type of e-commerce website or Ebay business .
- Profitable products.
- Traffic
We can help you to get the products and if you are selling on Ebay the traffic is already there. The biggest issue people have with Ebay is not fully understanding what Ebay is and how to truly make money on Ebay. Everyone thinks that Ebay is a retail website like Best Buy they are not. Ebay is a wholesale site in order to make money on Ebay you will have to have wholesale suppliers who will drop ship for you. I wrote out a full chart similar to this on The Power Sellers Union so I will vaguely touch on it here.
1. Manufacturer.— You can buy from them however you are going to need a business license and a ton of cash. We actually have 2 that will drop ship.
2. Wholesale Suppliers.—– They get the products from the manufacturer and break them down into wholesale orders and they will also drop ship for you.
3. Drop shipping Companies.—- They buy from the wholesalers in bulk and drop ship products for you.
4. Broker / Dealer—(They are all scammers ! The internet is filled with them).
A Broker / Dealer is a company who basically pretends to be a drop shipper. They get the products from the real wholesale suppliers and charge you a ton of fees. This is the reason you can find the same products for cheaper than you can get them.
5. Your website.
6. Customer.
Here is where everything gets so messed up. The reason being most people can not tell the difference between the wholesale suppliers and the Broker/Dealer. The broker dealer uses several methods to trick you into signing up with them. The biggest method is affiliates. They pay their affiliates big bucks to write fake testimonials, and deceive you. They also use the free trial method. You sign up for their free trial and decide to end your trial expecting to not be charged a dime and by the time you get your credit card or bank statement you have been charged two or three times, and it is nearly impossible to get your money back from pay pal or the credit card company because it is your word against theirs. Unfortunately their is nothing you can do but chalk it up as a loss.
Getting traffic to your website is the other step. We rolled out our website package on Friday, but we had already built one website for one of our members you can see it here http://www.homedecorativeitems.com
This was the first we built and had it online on Wednesday of last week. The owner has been a member of the PSU for almost a year now her main keyword is home decorative items. That keyword gets 20,000 hits a week . We actually had better luck than expected she is now number 3 for that keyword and already making sales. She is using our home decor drop shippers and will probably be so busy within the next few weeks that she won’t know what to do with herself.
It is all about numbers and seo (search engine optimization). Statistically you will make 1 sale for every 100 visits. Lets use that site above as an example 1 sale for every 100 visits by 20,000 = 200 sales a week. Lets say she makes only 5.00 a sale you have roughly $2000.00 a week. Can you do the same ? Yes absolutely as long as you do it the correct way using a real website, wholesale suppliers who will drop ship products for you and seo. If you would like to learn more visit us at
The PowerSellers Union and we will help you to get started.