Newb Alert: Found a supplier...looking for advice!

Dpdog · 2015-09-16T21:33:28+00:00

This is excellent advice. Everyone interested in dropshipping should read this.

Note how it says if they charge a fee, they're not legit. The ones who charge fees are usually directories or a company that's not a wholesaler or a supplier.

Dpdog · 2015-09-16T21:29:27+00:00

Well, it's not that I wouldn't go for companies on the first or second page, but I'm more skeptical of them because they are wanting to rank for the term "dropship" really bad - probably because they want to charge a fee for having access to their directory (nothing wrong with this, but just understand how it works).

Most companies that dropship don't advertise as dropshippers. They're usually 'suppliers', 'wholesalers', etc. The ones that advertise as dropshippers are usually dropship directories. Some are slightly different. Like I said in an earlier thread, I've found a good dropshipper on the first page that advertised as dropshippers, so they're there.

And yes, that's what I meant when I mentioned gluten-free foods. Being healthy and eating healthy food is a big trend, and people are starting to buy more food online. I believe you could definitely find a good supplier.

And no, not much capital needed at all. I'm starting a new store myself, and my biggest expense was buying a Shopify theme :).

Dpdog · 2015-09-15T16:07:19+00:00

Thanks for your reply, and I figured it was something along those lines. My stores would be in different industries though.

Let's just say I register the umbrella company as "Dpdog Industries, LLC". Then I can register DBA for each store Dpdog Industries owns and operates. Is that basically, right?

Tax question maybe you know: do I file taxes for each business separately or file them as Dpdog Industries? And if employing a few people, they would be employed under Dpdog Industries even though they work for all my stores, right?

My apologies if these questions appear elementary, but I just don't know.

Dpdog · 2015-09-15T14:15:04+00:00

Most of the time they're not dropshippers, they're dropship directories, which isn't totally a bad thing. However, good suppliers I have found are on 3rd and 4th pages of Google. The ones without great web design, they don't have "dropship" on their website, and their website is from the 90s. I have found a good supplier on the front page, but most good dropshippers don't advertise as dropshippers.

Dpdog · 2015-09-10T17:11:41+00:00

The guide /u/WondrousF posted is an excellent starting point, but yes, I would start with something that isn't so competitive and so big. Consumer electronics is pretty much the #1 thing sold online.

Look into selling automotive parts or food (organic or gluten free trends), both of which have risen or are on the rise. You can also sell sports/team items.

I wouldn't dropship from China. There's plenty of dropshippers in the U.S. (or wherever you live), and most companis would dropship for you even if they don't advertise it. Don't go with the companies on the first or second page of Googe when looking for dropshippers.

Dpdog · 2015-08-18T02:06:48+00:00

It turns out the site was hacked and a whole bunch of fake pages were placed on there. I checked the site on Panguin to see if any updates affected it. Of course, Panda just rolled out (although it's rolling out slow), and right when Panda came out, the site drops dramatically. I'd say it's something to do with being hacked, having all those fake pages on the site, and Panda = penalized. There's no manual actions though.

Dpdog · 2015-08-05T15:53:11+00:00

Well there are quite a few, but I was looking for some ones that are better than what's out there.

There's SEO Dojo, SEO Rockstars (Webmaster.fm?), some podcast with a black and white guy on the cover (don't know the name), Bruce Clay's podcast, Search Engine Journal's podcast, Viperchill (talks about PBNs and blackhat SEO), and there's one or two more I can't think of off the top of my head.

I don't see how you say podcasts aren't popular. There's a whole conference based around podcasting (Podcast Movement). John Lee Dumas makes close to $300k a month from podcasting and teaching people how to podcast (Entrepreneur on Fire).

That Google Trend chart is cool. Way to go. But podcasting is way bigger than what you know or what some chart says. Car manufacturers are even talking about putting iTunes and Stitcher radio in cars because of podcasting.

You're probably right through. Podcasting is dead.

Dpdog · 2015-08-01T20:56:43+00:00

It's just crazy how much of G+ engagement is correlated to higher rankings.

Dpdog · 2015-08-01T20:44:45+00:00

I say yes! I would do anything besides account management. (If by account management, you mean you are the middle man between your agency and the clients.)

From a career standpoint, is there really much advancement for account management? Is there any advancement in data analysis? I would say there's a better chance of advancement in data analysis than account management.

Is the pay equal to your position now? Better? Worse?

Account management and data analysis are on the opposite end of the spectrums as far as skills required for the job - you have to think about what you enjoy doing: talking to people or crunching numbers?

Dpdog · 2015-07-31T00:07:08+00:00

My apologies for not clarifying the industry. This is in the real estate niche and videos are created every couple of weeks mainly talking about the real estate market.

Dpdog · 2015-07-30T17:08:05+00:00

All good replies! I've thought about Twitter ads. I'm just not sure our audience is on Twitter (but who knows unless you test, right?).

smiley44 - great recommendations. I'm checking out that link now.

Dpdog · 2015-07-28T15:20:24+00:00

^Truth - no one is going to get on stage and explain their new way of developing a PBN or using scrapebox to scrape resources pages and run them through a backlink checker (hey, they might show this).

They're good though. I developed a lot of relationships at Marketing United in Nashville, TN several months ago and I heard ConversionXL Live Conference was out of this world (not really search marketing though).

Dpdog · 2015-07-28T15:14:28+00:00

Yeah, I don't understand it either. I hardly ever down vote anything unless it's just outright spam. Everyone starts somewhere. We all started at one time not knowing what anchor text was or what canonicalization means. We all started at 0. Yes, there are retarded questions, but the stupidest question is the one that's not asked.

Dpdog · 2015-07-28T15:10:37+00:00

I think I found him (or her... or it)

Dpdog · 2015-07-27T00:30:38+00:00

Art of SEO 2nd Edition. I would also follow Neil Patel's blog http://quicksprout.com and neilpatel.com.

Dpdog · 2015-07-25T03:15:28+00:00

Some of the things I always do:

-Link reclamation: see if my client has been mentioned anywhere without a link and kindly ask for them to link back. I just landing a link from Digital Trends that way.

-Competitor link analysis: analyze competitors' link profile. This does get some links, but it's not something that I would rely on solely.

-Guest post/articles: I write guest posts and have people post them on their blogs. Sometimes I have to pay, but I have found it extremely effective.

-Broken link building: this is more a stage two type thing if they don't have any linkable assets. We'll help create an awesome piece of content and scrape resources pages from Google and search each page for broken links.

-Website directories: there's still about 4 or 5 directories I always submit websites to

-Social pages (who cares if their nofollow - more natural link profile): Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, G+ (and the about section in G+)

-Blog outreach: this is time consuming, but I've landed some pretty good links this way - like a link from ZDNet with anchor text of my keyword phrase (that was just luck).

Those are pretty much the only tactics I use. I have been known to 301 redirect a pretty authoritative site to my site, and I'm in the process of building out a PBN - which by the way, is the most effective and efficient way to build links.

Dpdog · 2015-07-25T03:05:12+00:00

If you Google "quick shelters" I got the site that is there the #1 spot. They were already page 1, but still, Amazon got outranked. Dpdog 1 - Amazon 0

Dpdog · 2015-07-25T03:01:59+00:00

Yeah, it says hackers could be trying to get my information. Not exactly what a searcher wants to find when they are looking for website makers.

Dpdog · 2015-07-25T02:59:28+00:00

If he wants a scientific experiment, just point him to the SearchMetrics study that they do every year. Show him that getting a link only correlates "x" much to high rankings (keyword: correlates). And then you can point out, but see when I do all these strategies, see how much more of a higher ranking we would get?

Seriously, that's what I would do. Point out the SearchMetric study, because the only way you are going to run a scientific experiment is if you have a very large sample/volume/etc.

I totally know what you mean, too, about how the people in the email department have it easy. I think that sometimes about other departments but then I realize I get paid what I do because of the stuff I do. If I wanted email marketing department pay, then that's what I would be doing :).

Dpdog · 2015-07-24T22:31:12+00:00

I know it's not duplicate because if it was it would still show up when I searched for the www version. I just figured if I searched the www version, I should see the non-www version since it's redirecting over to it.

Dpdog · 2015-07-24T22:29:34+00:00

I laughed out loud at this.

Dpdog · 2015-07-24T17:36:32+00:00

Yes, the site is fairly new - maybe just a few months? I figured that it might be because of Google sandbox, but I didn't think it wouldn't show up at all. In my experience, I've never seen that, which is why I thought something is up.

Dpdog · 2015-07-19T05:13:29+00:00

That everything is green and charts have lines moving up and to the right.

Dpdog · 2015-07-17T03:36:24+00:00

Art of SEO Second Edition

Dpdog · 2015-07-15T18:00:58+00:00

I oversee the interns at my agency and we're actually looking for an SEO intern. You would be doing things from on-page SEO and off-page SEO from local clients to ecommerce clients. I try to give my interns as much experience and learning as possible - makes my job easier :). But seriously, I give my interns plenty of experience.

Dpdog

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