This article would be about venturing to the world of online selling, such as print-on-demand and dropshipping that some of you may be thinking about venturing in. When you google or go to YouTube to search for such information, you would encounter tonnes of search results, niche sites and channels that promises how you can earn that 6 figure income by being an online seller, doing dropshipping, print-on-demand, etc.
In the previous post, I have shared about my own experience in attempting to sell online via Carousell and why I decided it was not for me. It may be worth a shot for businesses with regular inventory that they need to clear in order to enable for cash flow.
Check out the YouTube video by Coffeezilla. In the video below, Stephen from Coffeezilla highlights just how virtually impossible it is to make a full time income from being an online seller in Amazon.com. Bear in mind that Amazon.com is the world’s largest ecommerce sites and handles the bulk of ecommerce transactions in United States. And yet, from the statistic report that only 3 or 0.004% of Amazon FBA sellers make a nett profit of USD37500 in a year, equivalent of the salary of a minimum wage worker at McDonalds or Costco.
He basically uncover online scams, ponzi schemes and crap courses sold to unsuspecting people. He backs up his claims and findings with evidence and research.
In 2009 (more than 10 years ago), I myself have given it a shot at online via blogging where it was just picking up. Many people were able to make a full time income just by Adsense alone. Later affiliate marketing was just at its very conception. I took a paycut to give it a shot. The paycut job is to enable me to use less mental energy so that I am able to use my hours before and after work to work at my blogs. I tried, and I tried hard.
Did I earn money on my blog?
Yes I did earn money. But the earnings were a mere 25% of my paycut job! Definitely not enough for a full time living. For the time I invested in, it was just not worth it if I am in it for just the money. In 2010, I went back to the corporate world to work. My inner voice has been silenced. I have given my dream a try.
I agree with what Stephen from Coffeezilla said that a minimum wage job would earn more for most people. It is very true. The so-called gurus are either making money from courses or becoming affiliates where they recommend hosting, wordpress themes, software and related products to sell that ‘blogging dream’ to others. The rate for promoting software goes as high as 50%.
For example,, if I could convince you to sign up for hosting using my affiliate link, SiteGround would pay me about USD60 for each successful signup. Do you know how much of products that I need to get people to buy through my affiliate links in Amazon.com in order just to earn USD60? A few thousand dollars worth of product.
This is why online marketers find it more lucrative to promote digital products, hosting and software to bloggers. However the question remains that after you setup your site, buy a domain name, buy some plugins or software, would you be able to recover the money you have invested and turn your site into a full time income?
Therefore, yes, like everyone else I also promote affiliate links here and there. Because since I am going to write a post to talk about a product, I might as well make it as an affiliate link. But I don’t want to sell unrealistic dreams because I’ve been there, done that. Maybe it may work but over the years I have seen it is hard to sustain in making online income. Because the moment you start making money, the competition will move in for a piece of the pie. As we get older, we can no longer live on coffee and no sleep. We would slow down and the competition would figure out better ways to do things that we do.
It is different when we work in a job. We can move higher in the corporate ladder as our experience and skills increase. With higher position, comes higher pay. I have a friend who moved up through the corporate ladder at one of the top multinational company. The job is very stressful and demanding. But with her earnings, she is set to be able to retire in a few years time and still have money for her children to pursue tertiary education overseas. During weekends, she keep herself happy by giving herself time to work on hobbies that she like, which now is baking and cooking.
