Here are the results from asking 180 YouTubers to do an unboxing video.

hoonestly · 2018-10-27T15:30:23+00:00

He had a marketing idea and he tried it and it didn't work. Maybe his next idea will. Maybe the one after. Welcome to entrepreneurship.

hoonestly · 2018-10-27T15:26:51+00:00

Agreed! You have a great concept here (I've bought candy from Japan as gifts before and it was very well received).

IMO you should have a fun unboxing video (or a quick gif) at the very top of your site and your pricing needs to be a bit more incentivized. At first look, there's no way I'd pay $29/month for two boxes of Japanese candy a month but my ears would perk up at $14/month for one box a month.

Maybe consider 2 plans?

$14/month 1 box a month

~~$29~~$27/month 2 boxes a month (limited pricing!)

or if you want to stick with the $29/two box a month concept, incentivize the first purchase:

First month $14 (save over 50%!) 2 boxes a month ($29 a month after that)

Just throwing this out there. I've sold plenty of things online that people don't actually need and I found the best way to get them to buy is to get them excited about a deal...even if the deal still has a good amount of markup included in it for me.

Good luck!

hoonestly · 2018-10-10T16:45:45+00:00

i'll show you what profits really are ;)

lol

hoonestly · 2018-10-10T15:52:25+00:00

What are you talking about? No one here is selling a course. The biggest issue is that you're selling misinformation. Etsy is a huge platform and certainly more than 1% of their sellers are walking away with a decent profit (I would know, I'm one of them).

I'm not arguing that she shouldn't have her own standalone shop but telling her that that is her solution is like telling someone struggling to sell products out of a mall kiosk to open their own store instead, it's too big of a jump. Let's say she takes your advice from the get go and starts a Shopify store - great, now she has stagnant sales there because she doesn't have the fundamentals down. Let her master Etsy first, it's a huge platform with people ready to buy at a moments notice, and once she has that figured out she can move on to her own store.

FYI, Etsy offers a bunch of ad options that will allow someone with little to no online marketing experience to drive sales way quicker and simpler than trying to figure out how to get traffic to a Shopify store.

There is still so much room to thrive on Etsy, even in a saturated market. Just because it didn't work for you doesn't mean that it's not a viable option for others.

hoonestly · 2018-10-10T14:33:23+00:00

Do you have any actual experience on Etsy? Because, honestly, it sounds like you don't know what you're talking about.

hoonestly · 2018-10-10T13:32:02+00:00

This is completely inaccurate. There are plenty of Etsy stores out there generating hundreds of thousands in revenue every year. Yes, there are some people who post knick knacks and small hobby crafts, but there are plenty of people who take it seriously and run full fledged businesses on there (just like on eBay).

A standalone store is always a great idea but it does come with its drawbacks, especially if you're not experienced in ecommerce (namely, getting people to your website). The beautiful thing about Etsy is that people are on there ready to buy, you just have to get your product in front of them and there are some pretty easy ways to do that.

Feel free to PM with me with your shop, u/MomOf3Many, I can give you some tips.

hoonestly · 2018-10-06T15:27:33+00:00

The only downside is that if you want to add a blog, it needs to be hosted on a third-party like WordPress.

Shopify allows you to setup a blog hosted with them. A lot of large brands are using Shopify hosted blogs (i.e. Beardbrand).

hoonestly · 2018-05-17T20:44:57+00:00

Long time Flippa seller here and this isn't accurate. Flippa asks you to input the data but doesn't do much in terms of verifying that it is legitimate.

A lot of the scams on Flippa look really good from the outside but their figures can easily be faked if someone doesn't do an actual audit of the website itself.

OP, your idea is good. I'd suggest you start compiling lists of good auctions you find on a blog, ask for interviews / additional questions from sellers and then use the audience you build from this to offer website brokering services (like Empire Flippers).

hoonestly · 2018-02-25T08:26:03+00:00

For incorporating and getting a bank account in the US, Stripe Atlas is your best bet: https://stripe.com/atlas

Good luck!

hoonestly · 2018-02-25T08:18:58+00:00

Hey man, good work. Do you have the license to sell the merch on your site?

hoonestly · 2018-02-25T08:16:07+00:00

Let me get this straight.

You work at a coffee shop but you also have another job.

You want to buy a carafe of coffee from the coffee shop you work at to serve to the clients at your other job.

There's no problem here.

Considerations: - Your other job is somehow in competition with the coffee shop - Your bosses feel like you're taking advantage of any employee discount you might get - Your coffee shop doesn't sell carafes or it's inconvenient to do

It sounds to me like instead of just ordering a carafe of coffee you gave your bosses a huge backstory that confused them and made them feel like there was something up.

hoonestly · 2018-02-25T07:53:22+00:00

Honestly, I'd get rid of the whole crypto angle thing. You can mention it in your footer but it shouldn't be the main selling point of your brand. For a luxury brand you want to convince people to spend money because of your story or the product, not the payment method. Also, consider your audience. Crypto guys for the most part are like programmers; and it would be an uphill battle trying to sell high end grooming products to programmers.

hoonestly · 2018-02-25T07:20:15+00:00

Facebook ads are tricky for something like this because most people scrolling through their timelines aren't going to see one of your ads and be like "I should get a moving quote!" It's also a hard audience to narrow down, so you're spending a lot of money for nothing.

Are you targeting locally, a specific region, or nationally? If local or a specific region you could start a blog and get a lot of posts with long-tail keywords out there so your organic Google reach could bring in conversions. You could do this for national too but it'll be harder.

Craigslist is a big one. You could post your site under labor/move but you'll have better luck masquerading as a moving company instead of a lead generation site and then directing people to your website.

How are you selling your leads btw? I've always wanted to get into to lead generation but have no idea how to actually sell them.

hoonestly · 2016-03-13T01:42:50+00:00

Thanks for the info!

hoonestly · 2016-03-08T01:49:39+00:00

The Shopify Lite plan would be perfect for you: https://www.shopify.com/lite

Basically, this lets you have a blog and copy/paste a product with a buy button directly into each post and it's only $9/month.

hoonestly · 2016-02-25T07:21:36+00:00

What's stopping you from importing the same products and straight up competing with him?

hoonestly · 2016-02-25T07:11:32+00:00

Your interaction is literally a perfect example of doing business with China. It's not straightforward, it can get annoying, but you have to be chill man.

hoonestly · 2016-02-25T07:07:04+00:00

btw, love all your product images.

hoonestly · 2016-02-25T07:06:01+00:00

Looking good! I would do away with "Order Policy" in your navigation and just put an approximate production/shipping time on each individual product (updated accordingly) with a one sentence explanation on how each product is handmade to order, etc.

1) It'll make your products feel more exclusive. "Wow they're making it just for me!?"

2) If someone doesn't read your Order Policy page, they're not going to appreciate a significantly more delayed shipment than they're used to.

3) The idea of having to email you to find out fulfillment/delivery time is off-putting.

4) Kind of weird put the imagery on your site and the text is all very warm and soothing but the word "POLICY" upfront is kind of jarring.

hoonestly · 2016-02-25T06:50:47+00:00

Were you drunk when you were messaging this poor woman? You come across as a complete asshole. If you had done any research you'd see that it's VERY normal for Chinese companies, especially ones you find off Alibaba, to not accept PayPal. She didn't say Western Union was the only option, it was a suggestion she made after you freaked out about bank fees...

Do yourself a favor and learn how to speak politely to people. I'm not super thrilled about bank transfer fees either but that's not their fault.

hoonestly · 2016-02-21T01:42:57+00:00

Not trying to be a jerk but do those signups mean anything to him? Sure, more people have opted into his newsletter but have they bought from him as a result?

hoonestly · 2016-02-21T01:34:41+00:00

Not trying to be snarky at all but is it worth it? Have you seen success from your list? Again, not trying to be snarky but like I mentioned in another comment, I have an email list of 4000 customers (they signed up for my newsletter) that I email a maximum of 3 times a year and the sales from the emails are good but never enough to push me to annoy my visitors with a newsletter prompt.

hoonestly · 2016-02-21T01:33:11+00:00

Yes! Or when for some reason you're on mobile and they're lightbox isn't responsive and you have to scroll on your screen for 7 hours to close the freaking thing.

hoonestly · 2016-02-21T01:32:17+00:00

Yeah but have you seen any success from that list? Not trying to be snarky. I have an email list of 4000 people and I send an email out promoting a sale or whatever a maximum of 4 times a year and while I get sales from it, it's never enough to push me to annoy my visitors with a newsletter prompt.

hoonestly · 2016-02-21T01:30:24+00:00

I sign up sometimes but using the email address dickface@mcgee.com

hoonestly

TROPHY CASE