Body
My friend,
I don't know you, and you may not yet know me. And still, given you're lurking on this sub, I'm almost certain: your ecom journey is either at its very beginning — or at least challenging.
Today I bear both good news — and not-so-good.
But before I even get started, let me set your expectations about your next 5 to 10 minutes of reading the post.
We, as people, are quite social animals. And quality of our lives directly depends on our environment. If we live in a city with toxic air, we get sick. If we are surrounded by people greedy and angry, we become no better than them. If they are kind, compassionate and generous, we strive to be nothing less but this.
There is even a term for this social phenomenon, it's called homophily. Wikipedia explains it as "*tendency for individuals to associate with others of similar economic status*". Meaning, you are on average a reflection of what your environment is — whether it's friends, family or hood.
Who are those people around you? Answer yourself honestly as this is the only way to actually move the needle. You can't cure illness if you keep saying "everything is alright". You gotta be realistic with yourself.
I care about people around me. I care who I share my thoughts and experience with. I don't want to share it with ungrateful people, thus my posts are usually long and all those golden nuggets are hidden in between the lines. Personally, I strive to have an intelligent community around. Smart and kind people. Those who know to GIVE, not only TAKE.
And what I noticed, I really don't know smart people who never read.
That is the reason why most will skip this post — and get **NOTHING**. Because it's going to be long. Those who do read it, will maybe learn something valuable. And even if thoughts I share are already familiar to you, well, maybe you my friend will find yourself resonating with the community around this way of thinking.
So, "where did you first hear about dropshipping?" — asked I in my [**post**](https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEcom/comments/1s7vu4j/are_you_still_buying_winning_products_bs/) two days ago.
Probably it was a YouTube or Tiktok video of some rich-ass wanna-be-millionaire another-ecom-success-story boy, flexing his fake Shopify screenshots and rented lambo. He poked your ego and fear of missing out, sold you a dream of "how easy ecom is", took your money for "mentorship" and his "courses" — or at least you spent hours watching his useless YT videos — just to realize at some point it was a complete dogshit.
He didn't actually show you any receipts. Any real proof. His business is not ecom even. It's you. He sold you a fucking dream of "freedom" through ecom and how easy it is to do. And then, after attempt to apply this knowledge, you ended up nowhere. Burnt your first money with ads / shitty product. And not knowing what to do.
Well, the good news is — you are still here. Meaning, you are real fighter. Even after the failure, you ended up here, trying to figure it out. Understand your next steps. Find likeminded people.
I shouldn't explain how losing the company of guru like that was a good riddance. Why would you want an environment from the very beginning built on deception, fake success stories where only goal was to sell you thin air for $499 per course + another couple hundreds for "being a part of their "community". Until you realize that you ended up in some broken theater.
Now, when you are smarter, you are stronger. The truth is — and you won't like it — nobody will tell you how to make your ecom journey successful. Nobody. There is no universal formula that works for everybody. But to my conviction, there IS universal formula for YOU PERSONALLY.
Your journey is exactly this: you are trying to find what works FOR YOU, combination of your skills and desire, multiplied by strengths and knowledge of own weaknesses. You get to know yourself better going through fire and pain. Fail, learn, adapt, rinse, repeat — until you're there.
So, neither me, nor anybody else can actually tell you "how to earn shitload money on ecom and retire your parents (fast)". A REAL community can merely offer you small tips, that even after you hear them will require your effort to apply them anyway YOUR OWN way to your own situation.
For example, do you think that Da Vinci wrote his masterpieces and crafted his inventions out of thin air? Most likely, he was surrounded by those who inspired him. Watching their paintings. Reading their poems. He didn't invent the wheel, yet he used the idea to build something on his own. And, obviously, he was reading a lot, so if you are still reading this line, you are already closer to Da Vinci than most people on the internet :)
Yes... This whole rant I was actually planning to lead with how you select your niche.
I remind you, my friend. These are my thoughts, my reasoning and you are free to disagree with it completely. But who knows — maybe the post will serve you as a wheel for your own invention?
My first store that worked didn't make me rich, yet was above water not by pure accident. I failed multiple times before I realized:
picking what you sell DOES NOT depend on demand as much as on your OWN understanding of the market. And that goes deeper than you think.
That store was selling small auto parts. Emblems, paint, scratch removers, glass tint and other auto gadgets. Actually, pretty boring stuff with no "crazy" demand no viral products. Demand right now is same like it was 8 years ago (and maybe even higher, because population grows, quantity of cars grows, but that's another story). Yet somehow, I managed to make it profitable. Why?
My father owned a really small auto service back in my home town. And while I was kid, I'd help with different small things. Growing up teen, I'd work for him (mostly for free lol) — sometimes managing autoparts orders or talking to clients at the station. I knew everything about cars, every small thing that was irritating both mechanics and clients, all problems which they were bringing to us.
And that alone gave me enough data to learn for the rest of my life — how to hit the right pain point and where it is.
You see, there are no winning products in dropshipping (if you still think there are — read [this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEcom/comments/1s7vu4j/are_you_still_buying_winning_products_bs/) for the love of God), but there are *definitely* winning ad angles. Most of gurus out there would tell you: *"just test it bro".* Run hundreds of ads with different angles, and maybe one will work. Or not. He doesn't give a fuck actually what works for you, he already extracted what he wanted. He suggests you to play fucking casino.
If you know what EXACTLY bothers your audience, you don't need to test more than 3-4 angles. You simply DON'T. Because you feel them already. And your copy NATURALLY resonates with their pain.
I believe, you already might guess where I am leading with that. You should pick one specific niche YOU understand. Not just "trendy", "fun", "nice" or "viral". Something you are well familiar with. And focus on it.
If you know shit about cooking, don't sell kitchen appliances. If you don't have a pet, don't sell pet accessories. And so on.
But there is more to it actually. There is another HUGE reason why you should pick ONE SPECIFIC NICHE.
And it is built into economics of long game deeper than you might think.
Imagine this. You've got two guys. They've got same budget on start. Enough to test 5 different products.
One guy is trying to catch trend. This week he tests fucking posture corrector. Next week he tries to sell portable lawn mower. Then, why not to try baby strollers. Another day he's already selling some face cream. And so on. He burns through his budget and get one big fucking nothing. Maybe at some point he hits the nail. But can't repeat the success.
Why?
Because he is obviously not a guy who knows too much about chiropractic, cosmetology, gardening and child care at the same time. And even if he does, he is not able to compound valuable resources he got during the tests. Burnt budget on failed products is simply gone.
Now, imagine another guy. He is fan of cats. He knows everything about them. First, he tries some cat scratching post. Not many sales. High CAC. Failed. Next, he thinks — okay, let's try some runaway toy for cats. Still nothing. Maybe found clients. Got clicks. But margin kills him. Another day, another attempt — automatic cat feeder — he himself frequently leaves for 3 days for a business trip. He crafts a creative where speaks in voice of someone who really feels the pain — "I'm all the time stressed about my cat when leave for business trips, leave him a lot of food — he overeates, leave not enough — he dies ... " lol and so on. You got the idea. And this is how he's gonna fucking end up hitting the nerve of other guys just like him. Because he speaks through own pain, he KNOWS it.
**Moreover.** You know, what smart guy would also do?
He would use ALL his data from Pixel that he collected from PREVIOUS failed ads and feed it back to Meta for retargeting — that would speed the fuck up learning of Meta algo SIGNIFICANTLY, reducing customer acquisition cost for his new products. And he can do that only because niche is essentially the same. His customersa are still connected by the same interests and pain.
He would also reach out to his existing customers and suggest them special discount on new cool product he brings — and wouldn't pay even a fucking dime, because he already owns these customers and their contact. He already sold them and has their trust.
That's how his burnt budget became an asset that paid off in the long run.
Draw your own conclusions. You do you, of course.
Compound effect is pure math. Put all odds in your favor. Or gamble the fuck out of your budget, your call.
And yes, no winning angle save you from shitty unit economics. If you think you're going to earn on some posture corrector — even with good angle, right targeting/audience, etc and you sell it for $20, while your COGS -$5, fees -$2.2, shipping -$4.50 and CAC is -$17, you are either newbie — or should fundamentally reconsider whether you really want to continue in ecom. Because it may be not for you.
Guys, ecom is not a fucking casino. Don't expect something to work out by pure luck. Ecom is a real business, with its caveats, data to analyze and work to do. Chances of you hitting jackpot by just finding some "winning product" on **braindead** ad spy tool, launching it on Shopify for $29 and running ads without analyzing shit are essentially **ZERO**. This is monkey business.
And if you're lazy, I don't feel sorry for you. People get what they deserve. Put no effort, get no result.
For those who fight — and I believe YOU are, because you finished this read, there is a reward. Just don't give up. For your own sake.
Thank you for putting effort and showing your colors, my friend.
I actually have a small task for you. Share with me your questions or struggles. In comments or privately. Your questions are what actually brings me ideas of what to write about next. I can't answer everything. But I promise, I read it all.
This post is one of the last posts I'm going to write in this sub, so if you wanna keep reading my rants and be surrounded by likeminded brothers, you will find me at r/RealEcom
Now, pat yourself on shoulder. Good job on reading it through. You are true champ.
For now, over and out. Best of luck in your ecom journey.
But who needs luck, when you have data?
\- MindShaped