Forum Moderators: skibum
was wondering if anyone had any dropshipping experience and would refer some reliable sources? thanks.. ;)
new age products (crystals, incense, etc)
I know CJ has a couple merchants that deal with this type of product and they have decent commission.
I will have a few affiliate links in my future store for individual companies, but not through CJ or Linkshare.
a. You have the ability to set the price, so profit is what you can make of it, not what is set.
b. It allows you to establish the presence with the customer as opposed to just handing them off to someone else.
c. Payments are immediate and handled by me and I have the ability to know for a fact what I'm making...
Which brings me back to affiliates. I'm not pointing fingers or stating fact but I know on a couple of my larger sites I have all my affiliate urls run through my own link tracking system before they get to theirs. And I find it VERY curious when I see my throughput numbers and then see my return. CJ and linkshare, I used them somewhat extensively on a couple sites and havent made a dam thing. In fact the only affiliates I've made anything from are places whom have their own private proprietary affiliate system in place. Which is what I'm implementing on all my future projects.
Some of them I've found to just be a total joke. CBClicks for example has this great pitch where they spread your stuff around to other sites. However in all reality if you do some quick follow through testing (not just check the initial outbound link that conveniently has your id in it to make you feel good) but actually do the full follow through, if you have for example their 6 ad skyscraper, than cbclicks is on the recieving end of atleast 4, usually five of the ads. Sometimes you arent on the recieving end of any of them which is ridiculous...
Needless to say I no longer use them for anything...
I've also found MANY that have a real knack for changing campaigns and voiding your original links every month or so and then giving you absolutely NO warning to this. So you end up having links on your sites that still go through the affiliates and get to the vendors, but you dont get you a dime on your end...
So be watchful for the shifty unethical tricks that tend to show up more often than they should. In short, you arent the only one that wants money from your endeavors. Remember it... thats my two cents...
Advise: Find the suppliers and bring your operation in house if you can! Start out small maybe only buy the bestsellers and fullfill those orders yourself! If its working keep adding products and you can grow at a safe rate while the rest of your orders can be sent to the dropshipper.
