my answer to "How do you actually find products that sell?" — or another attempt to fix what people think ecom and dropshipping is.

Okay so the more I spend time in ecom subreddits, the more I realize that "just test it bro" gurus and "find winning products" tools basically invented some form of operators brain cancer. This post is natural continuation (and even partially synthesis) of my first one here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/dropshipping/comments/1rs2ice/one\_long\_ecom\_post\_because\_i\_got\_tired\_of/](https://www.reddit.com/r/dropshipping/comments/1rs2ice/one_long_ecom_post_because_i_got_tired_of/), you don't necessarily need to read it, but you may WANT to do so. Today, I'd like to address one more focused issue our people face when they're getting into dropshipping. Altho, knowing how I write, you can expect pretty long introduction. That is intentional, that is the filter. Intelligent people read. They invest time. There will be no "quick wins" and "money button". You are only rewarded with proper knowledge if you read it in full. If you came here for "get rich quick" — you can close the page, lazy people are not worthy of what's about to be shared. If you are already seasoned ecom op, you may skip this post at all – I doubt you'll find anything new or useful for you. Except maybe — check TL;DR. Or if you just enjoy reading something that was not written by fking AI — welcome! I know how rare it is now :) So, my dear friend. For some reason, you decided to get into ecom. Either your mom told about son of her friend who bought lambo selling iphone case with a pocket for dogshit bags, or maybe you always dreamt about starting something on your own and don't have big capital... or maybe you are just a victim of marketing, either way, I am bearing bad news today. Dropshipping/ecom is not fucking easy. Maybe it was. 10 years ago. When Facebook CPM was $2. Not anymore. Today, it is a grind. Rules of the game change every few weeks. If I would describe the requirements to enter this market and get a chance to win here, it would be: \* pain tolerance — there will be a lot of pain. there WILL be failures. your balance WILL get negative at some point. you WILL feel discouraged and frustrated. \* budget — yeah, most likely you are not going to earn anything with $500 budget. How much you need I won't tell you. It can be a stretch. But aim at least to have $3-5 thousands and it must be fck it money. Not your bread&butter. Not rent money. Money that you are READY to lose FULLY. \* persistence — are you ready to fail? because you will. like all of us did. even if — by some means — you will get your first product right, will manage to create offer that converts, ad that get clicks... there is no guarantee that after it saturates, you will be able to repeat this success right away. you must be ready for it. \* a lot of effort — all these rich-(rented)-lambo r3tards advertising dropshipping/ecom as easy money. IT IS NOT. It is YOU who is easy money for them, when they will sell you their no-value course. Every step you do in ecom, you HAVE TO analyze. You must study every outcome you get and know why it happened. What exactly led to it. For this, you need both log, analyze what you do and adjust. No random jerks. Still here? Well, congrats then. If you are ready to embrace it and ready for the long run, if you really want to achieve that ecom dream of freedom and still didnt shit your pants and got completely discouraged, I've got some good news for you. In ecom, there is no LUCK factor (except you hit it accidentally). It is not crypto. There are no black swan events. Right, there can be some shit like Europe is going to put 3eur on all incoming parcels soon, but that's still totally solvable. If something did not work, you can disassemble whole process and understand what exactly was the reason for it to fail. Example, I'll just copy one of my recent comments here on reddit: Question was: "How do you actually find products that sell? Is it more about data, trends, or just luck?". My answer was: >If you treat it as “luck”, we’re talking gambling here. Everything in life is a research if you are willing to see the data. Analyze first, at what point of funnel you are losing customers. Low CTR? Your ad is shit. High CTR, high bounce? Your landing is shit — look into trust. It trust copy is alright — your offer sucks. High add to carts, low purchases? Check if you are not slapping user with some extra payment he didn’t expect (shipping, box fee, etc). \[...\] Either way, it’s all about data and it’s not as easy as upload product to shopify and run ads. But that's only to put you into perspective. Today I actually wanted to talk about something more basic. Baby steps of new dropshipper. The same question basically. # "How do you actually find products that sell? After 11 years in retail, I could start philosophize about how product doesn't matter. If you know how to sell, you'll sell even a thin air. And this is not wrong. But in order to get to "how to create offer" part, you definitely need to know the difference between complete shit and shit that has some capacity for selling. "Shit" I used here twice intentionally, because most products I earned money on (and later made a brand from it) are not some shiny toys. They are boring as fuk, yet yield more than any fidget toy you see in your tiktok feed. Here I draw a line between dropshipping and serious ecom. Real Ecom is when you take some boring product, with stable demand, with existing, non-emotional market, build differentiator / credibility / brand and steadily grow it. It's heavy, serious, big machine with very slow cash flow at the beginning, but if done right — it is exactly where you want to get. 8-9+ figures in rev are made here. Dropshipping is about quick flips. If you're just starting or you just want your comfortable $10-25k per month (AT SOME POINT), you may want to focus on this. But you will still need to learn SHITLOAD to get even to $1k, so once again — if you expect quick money, abandon it. Abandon actually everything, except if you are not planning to sell people or drugs (don't) — but even that has its price. So choose which price you want to pay. Your honest effort or your own ass? So, with dropshipping your process looks straightforward on the surface: you're gonna find some product, you'll make a store on shopify, you'll engineer offer and will be squeezing selling potential until other guys pick your idea up and enter the market, inflating your CPM and as a result CAC — until your margin's gone. You are basically searching items with a small demand that has positive trend slope, slowly crawling up. If the trend going up hard, you're already late to the party. But that's market research phase, other topic. Another thin I want you to remember, forever: **VIRAL ITEMS WILL NOT HAVE MARGIN.** This is the exact reason why aaaall those ad spy tools and other bs is absolute garbage. They show you what is ALREADY popular, meaning, what is ALREADY saturated (if "was" is not even better word to use) I even know a fulfillment company founded by the same person who created one of the most popular ad spy tools on the market. Of course, they run dropshipping at full scale and whenever people are tired seeing their current product pick, they push this item (with a small markup ofc) to the main page of their own ad spy (they own the algo, remember!) and then sell these leftovers to own customers-dropshippers. Not only data, but inventory itself even! Evil, right? But business is business. What can I say. That is the reason why your research have to be mostly manual. # Ok, so where do I start? Listen, in my honest opinion, first thing is — focus on ONE niche. If you do something for garden and know shitload about it, do garden. From lawn care tools and irrigation systems to outdoor decor and pest control. Go deep, not wide. When you stick to one niche, you understand the customer better, you know the problems, the seasonality, the angles, the creatives, the upsells. It’s way easier to build authority and actually scale instead of jumping from product to product like everyone else. Because remember, you WILL fail. But it's way easier to start over with next product, when you have database with emails of people who are already interested in shit in your niche. # Where do I source? Not much places out there. If you are starting, Alibaba, AliExpress — that works. Because sourcing from suppliers etc is overhead you really don't want at the beginning. Most of them will anyway want min order. Markup on aliexpress is not critical for you. Later, when you scale, you will look into reducing COGS and increasing margin. But not now. # How do I know the product is shit or worth my attention? After 11 years, I have system for every part of the process in my business. And this is what you should aim to build, too. I usually start with pen and paper. I write questions that I ask myself every time when I notice I work something repetitive. For every step. Sourcing, offer engineering, selling, setting up store, talking to supplier, etc. For EVERY small step. So I don't waste cognitive energy on shit that is not worth it. For product research, here is my checklist: # I. The "Thumb-Stop" Stress Test (3-Sec Rule) If a stranger scrolling their feed doesn't get it in 3 seconds, your CPA will be 40 crazy dollars. All three should check. \[ \] **Mute-Proof Clarity:** Can I communicate value prop instantly without sound? \[ \] **High-Contrast Transformation:** Is there a clear "Before vs. After" (Messy / Clean, Dark / Bright, Pain / Relief)? \[ \] **Wow Factor:** Can I make a visual demo triggering an instant "I need that" or "How tf it works?" reaction? # II. Angle Depth (Scale & Longevity) If you wanna run product and squeeze it in full, you MUST have multiple creative angles — otherwise you're gonna hit the wall in two weeks tops. At least three should be checked. \[ \] **Problem/Solution:** "Stop doing \[Pain Point\] the hard way." \[ \] **Convenience/Laziness:** "Never worry about \[Task\] again." \[ \] **Status/Identity:** "The modern way to handle \[Niche Activity\]." \[ \] **The Gift Angle:** "The perfect 'Useful' gift for \[Persona\] who has everything." \[ \] **FOMO/Social Proof:** "Why \[Niche Community\] is ditching \[Old Product\] for this." \[ \] **"How-the-fuk-did-I-live-without-this":** Pure lifestyle/aesthetic desire. Read more on direct response copywriting. Don't put some AI generated shit. It must come from your heart and empathy to resonate with people. We all feel AI slop! # III. Offer Engineering (AOV Buffer) Raw margins are for losers! Winners engineer the offer to survive the $15 Meta CPA. At least one have to be checked. \[ \] **The Multi-Pack Logic:** Is there a reason to buy 2 or 3? (e.g., "One for the car, one for the house.") \[ \] **Bundling Potential:** Can I add a $2-3 COGS accessory to justify +$15 to price? \[ \] **The "Premium" Bump:** Can I offer a "Pro/Deluxe" version for a higher anchor price? \[ \] **AOV Target:** Does the offer stack plausibly reach a **$45–$55 AOV**? # IV. Emotional Button Mapping People buy with feelings and justify with logic. Which r u hitting? At least one to be checked. \[ \] **Frustration Relief:** Does it eliminate a daily, nagging annoyance? \[ \] **Peace of Mind:** Does it reduce anxiety or provide "just in case" security? \[ \] **Identity Reinforcement:** Does buying this make them feel like a "Pro," a "Prepared Parent," or a "Tech-Savvy Homeowner"? \[ \] **Guilt Reduction:** Is this a "thoughtful" purchase for someone else? # V. The "Operator’s Danger Flags" (Anti-checklist, Red Flags) If two of these check, your customer support and refund rate will kill you, \[ \] **Ad Policy Risk:** Does it look like a weapon, medical device, "get rich" scheme? (Meta is going to ban you) \[ \] **High Sizing/Compatibility Risk:** Does it require a "perfect fit" or specific tech firmware? (high return risk). \[ \] **Fragility:** Is it glass, liquid, thin plastic likely to break in a 14-day shipping journey, etc? \[ \] **"Battery" Delay:** Does it contain lithium batteries that trigger customs "hazmat" delays? \[ \] **Commodity Check:** can the customer find **exact** same thing at their local Walmart / Amazon Prime for 40% less? # VI. Final Execution All must check \[ \] **Supplier Vetting:** Does the vendor have 95%+ positive feedback and high order volume? \[ \] **Creative Inventory:** Do I have enough raw footage to cut at least 3 completely different video ads? \[ \] **Landing Page Story:** Does the page follow the ad's specific angle, or is it just a generic product description? \[ \] **Shipping Logic:** Can I honestly promise (and deliver) a timeline that doesn't result in chargebacks? \[ \] **The Net Profit Reality:** After product cost, shipping, and a $15 CPA, is there at least $XX of "real" profit left? (you ofc decide for yourself how much, the more experienced you are, the easier it is for you to sell thin air) This is basic checklist, as you might guess. After prefiltering, there comes market research, competitor research and more. But in order to pick your first product not randomly or out of "I like it"... with this checklist, you're good to go. I told you, this is not going to be simple. And yes, these checks they take time. Most people dont do it because it feels like WORK. Well, guess what? It is! # TL;DR and final word No, you don’t find “winning products” with some braindead tool and print money. Your only way — research, analyze, collect data, THINK! Pick a niche, understand the customer, and filter products with no mercy: does it stop the scroll, does it have multiple angles, can you engineer the offer, does it hit an emotion, and does it avoid refund/ban/commodity hell, etc. If it fails those checks, it’s probably trash and your ad spend will die with it. You cannot afford being lazy about product research. This is **your money** we're talking about. And yes — **this takes time**. Most people will not do it, and this is exactly the reason why they're going to fail. Most people want a money button, not a business. That’s exactly why they keep losing. Follow the checklist. Don't be lazy. Don't gamble. If you're serious about this or just want to save shitload of time, you must build your own systems. For product validation step, I already have mine — fully automated, takes me \~30 seconds now. If you want it, let me know and I’ll share with you. Or find it in my profile. Otherwise, use the checklist I provided and put in the work. Checklist is more than sufficient for start. Wish you best of luck. But who needs luck, when they have data? Next my post you can read here -> [How to Engineer High-Margin Offer](https://www.reddit.com/r/dropshipping/comments/1rwb3tp/but_how_you_do_i_actually_make_money_with_one/)