Volomike
12-10-2009, 07:42 AM
(I'm new here, so bear with me a little if I haven't caught on to the lingo yet and the protocol. I have read Timothy's book twice, three times in some areas.)
I'm an advanced PHP developer. I freelance from home and have been doing it successfully for two years. On FreelanceSwitch.com, they recommend that freelance designers and devs get some passive income online. This helps with dry periods and bad economies, which, well, is what I'm experiencing right now. Well, Timothy's concept of being a dropshipper seemed to be somewhat passive income if I can automate things, and that I can do.
I have this debt burden, see, of $30,000. If I manage to kill that debt burden, then my wife's salary alone will pay all our bills and that means we don't have to be so stressed all the time. I can still work, and can make quite a lot of money, but after that $30,000 is paid off I can actually begin to save money again -- something I haven't done in a long time.
Timothy went direct to a manufacturer and to a fulfillment place and got them to work together. He then became a retailer of vitamins in addition to the manufacturer's site. He found his niche through clever market research tricks and cheap advertising tricks.
Okay, fine, so now's my turn. How do I get a deal like Timothy did? I mean, I can't go with a dropshipping firm because those are for suckers or are scammy -- better to go direct to a manufacturer. The reason is that dropshippers make it too convenient for people to do their own dropshipping, and that low barrier to entry means that those product lines get flooded eventually with too much competition.
So how is this accomplished exactly to build a direct manufacturer relationship? And how can I find products that I can do this market research with? How can I avoid the scammers -- because from what I see the scammers have moved into the dropshipping arena and you have to be careful out there.
I'm an advanced PHP developer. I freelance from home and have been doing it successfully for two years. On FreelanceSwitch.com, they recommend that freelance designers and devs get some passive income online. This helps with dry periods and bad economies, which, well, is what I'm experiencing right now. Well, Timothy's concept of being a dropshipper seemed to be somewhat passive income if I can automate things, and that I can do.
I have this debt burden, see, of $30,000. If I manage to kill that debt burden, then my wife's salary alone will pay all our bills and that means we don't have to be so stressed all the time. I can still work, and can make quite a lot of money, but after that $30,000 is paid off I can actually begin to save money again -- something I haven't done in a long time.
Timothy went direct to a manufacturer and to a fulfillment place and got them to work together. He then became a retailer of vitamins in addition to the manufacturer's site. He found his niche through clever market research tricks and cheap advertising tricks.
Okay, fine, so now's my turn. How do I get a deal like Timothy did? I mean, I can't go with a dropshipping firm because those are for suckers or are scammy -- better to go direct to a manufacturer. The reason is that dropshippers make it too convenient for people to do their own dropshipping, and that low barrier to entry means that those product lines get flooded eventually with too much competition.
So how is this accomplished exactly to build a direct manufacturer relationship? And how can I find products that I can do this market research with? How can I avoid the scammers -- because from what I see the scammers have moved into the dropshipping arena and you have to be careful out there.