What Is Dropshipping?
The idea of Dropshipping is brilliant…
It’s basically a simplified version of eCommerce (selling “stuff” online).
Here’s where dropshipping is really clever…
Where most stores (eCom or brick and mortar) have to buy inventory ahead of time, and then make a profit once they sell it on again…
With dropshipping, you buy from a supplier ONLY when your customer pays you.
And better still?
Your supplier ships directly to your customer…
Which means you take your cut of the profits…
Without dealing with the messy, untidy, expensive business of pre-paying, storing, managing, or holding the items for sale.
Heck, you don’t even have to arrange delivery!
In short, dropshipping is a stripped down version of the world’s oldest business model:
Trade.
Of course, you still need all the infrastructure for selling…
Like having a store your customers can buy through…
Having a system to take your customer’s order and pass it directly to your supplier(s)…
And being able to stand out on the internet (which a lot of people now say is the world’s most crowded marketplace)…
But with dropshipping, a lot of the more expensive and higher-commitment elements of running a store are removed.
In short, dropshipping lets you sell online without holding any stock…
Without having to manage or store that stock…
Without having to buy the stock up front…
And without having to arrange delivery logistics.
All this means you can get started without the fixed costs that comes with traditional eCom…
And that makes dropshipping A LOT more accessible for beginners…
Whether you’re a 16 year old kid starting a business for the first time…
Or you’re approaching retirement and you’re looking to make some extra cash.
You can see why, on paper, this simplified version of eCommerce is pretty attractive!
We’ve covered “What’s Dropshipping”…
Now, let’s talk about why it might be the best model for you to start earning online.
Benefits of Dropshipping
Let’s get to the point…
Why would you want to start dropshipping?
In short, dropshipping makes it easy to start an ecommerce business.
Even a few years ago, if you wanted to sell online you’d have to:
- Find a supplier…
- Invest your own money (or take a line of credit) to buy stock…
- Find a premises (be it a warehouse, or your own home/garage) to house all that stock…
- Process orders manually…
- Pack everything yourself for shipping…
- Drive to a post office and mail all your orders out…
…All in addition to the “regular” day-to-day running of your business.
With dropshipping, the fulfillment side of your eCom business is taken care of by someone else…
So all you have to do is make the sale (through your website) and pass the order across to a partner who will arrange everything else.
In theory, that means you get all the benefits of running a successful eCommerce store…
Without having to deal with the moving parts, and the parts of the business that create the biggest headaches and carry the biggest costs.
Sounds pretty good, right?!
The Basics of Dropshipping
So now you know how Dropshipping works…
Let’s take a look at how you can make money with it.
To start dropshipping you only really need 3 things:
- A eCommerce store
- A fulfillment partner
- An ad account
That’s it!
The best part here?
If you look at those 3 things…
Every one of them is a platform or service that stands to profit from you getting started…
So you can quickly and easily set all of them up!
Of course, even using a drag-n-drop builder it’s going to take you a few weeks to make an eCom store that looks legit enough for people to buy from…
Or set you back $3,000 – $5,000 MINIMUM to have a store built by experts…
But that’s still peanuts compared to the investment you’d need to get started with traditional eCommerce, right?!
As for fulfillment partners, there are dozens if not hundreds of companies – basically based out of China – who offer dropshipping services…
It’s really just about choosing a supplier you think you can trust, who sells the products you’re looking for.
And when it comes to ad accounts?
Well, it all boils down to the old marketer’s saying…
“Where do your customers hang out?”
For most dropshippers, this is going to mean getting started with Tiktok or Facebook ads.
You can see why dropshipping can sound so appealing, when all the tools you need are super accessible!
#1 Thing About Dropshipping Nobody’s Talking About
One thing I’ve noticed nobody talking about is this:
Dropshipping is NOT a “passive” business!
In fact, you wear more hats than the average business owner would…
Only you don’t have a physical office or warehouse!
Think about it…
When you’re running your dropshipping business, you have to learn how to (or pay someone else for):
- Marketing
- Website development
- Paid and organic traffic
- Content creation
- Customer service
- Accounts/finance
- Supplier management
And a whole lot more!
When it comes to spending time on the beach or by the pool, I sure as heck wouldn’t want to be taking my laptop with me everyday!
Of course, you’re already switched on when it comes to what’s needed to run this business…
So let’s take a look at the different approaches you can take to dropshipping.
Dropshipping Strategies
When it comes to dropshipping, there are really only two strategies…
You can try to sell expensive products to make more profit on each one…
Or you can try to sell a lot of cheap products, to make up your income with a lot of small margin sales.
(There’s also Amazon FBA which is a kind of dropshipping, but we’re not going into that in this article…
You can read more about Amazon FBA businesses here)
There are pros and cons to both approaches here.
Of course, on paper it’s easier to sell 5 units and make $100 on each one…
Rather than selling 1,000 units and making 50 cents on each.
The trouble with this approach is, to make a $100 margin (after fees, supplier charges, taxes and business costs) you need a product that’s selling for at least $1,000…
Maybe more in a lot of markets.
Now, let me ask you…
If you’re spending $1,000+ on something, are you going to do your research?
If you’re anything like me, you sure are!
You’re gonna be checking product quality, store reviews, product reviews…
You’re gonna know that product inside and out before you hand over your cash…
And your customers will be just the same!
That means your store has to be completely legit to seal the sale…
Or much cheaper than anyone else!
That gives you 2 options…
You can either slash your margins to make less…
Or you go back to the traditional eCom route of buying stock, so you can cut out the fees fulfillment partners charge you for doing all the work.
For most dropshipping newbies?
The only answer is to cut your margins.
Now, you’re working twice as hard to make the profit you want…
While you’re still paying out on ads…
You’ve still got your $3k – $5k store build to pay off…
And you’re still not making any money for yourself.
Is it any surprise you’re not making money yet?
So, let’s switch gears and talk about the opposite approach…
Selling high volumes at low margin.
The problem here?
You simply can’t compete with companies doing the same thing in China, or other poorer foreign countries.
The fulfillment partner you’re paying premiums to for warehousing, delivery, management, etc?
They can buy products cheaper than you…
Deliver cheaper than they charge you…
And there’s nothing stopping them selling direct to YOUR customers!
Don’t get me wrong here…
I do think dropshipping is a valid business model for beginners…
It’s very easy to get started…
But it’s VERY HARD to get established.
Maybe this is why so many people give up on dropshipping after spending months trying to make sales, with nothing to show for their efforts.
Can dropshipping work?
Yes.
But is it one of the hardest, most competitive spaces to break into?
Also yes.
Dropshipping Advice for Beginners
The dropshipping model makes it super easy for anyone to get started.
In fact, you can break down the process ino 5 simple steps:
1 – Pick A Niche
OK, so maybe you don’t HAVE to pick a niche…
But it’ll sure make it easier for you to target your audience with ads online.
When you’re starting out, you want to make your path to profit as simple, straight, and fast as possible…
So you can figure out the bare minimum requirements to start making money ASAP.
Picking ONE NICHE makes it easier to create a brand around your products, research your market and start running ads…
So you can get traffic (AKA customers ready to pay) to your store and start making sales!
2 – Find A Reliable Partner
You might have someone else taking care of fulfillment, but it still has to be done right.
In 2024, it’s never been easier for companies around the world to set up and call themselves fulfillment partners…
But if you want your store to last (and make any real money), you have to look after your customers.
That means you MUST find a partner you can trust to deliver quality products quickly, and in good condition.
The trouble, with the gurus being paid by suppliers to recommend them to their students, how do you know who to trust?
I don’t have a deadset answer for you here, but make sure you do some serious research before you commit.
3 – Build Your Store
Now you’ve got products to sell, you need a way for your customers to give you their money!
That means it’s time to build a store!
Now, I’m no tech wizard so I’m out of my depth with this one…
But there’s a ton of platforms you can use to build and host your store…
And loads of payment processors you can link in too, so you can create a working eCommerce store within a few weeks.
Or, you can pay an expert to build a clean, professional site for $3,000 – $5,000 dollars (plus whatever costs to maintain and update).
Either way, you’re only a few weeks (or a few thousand dollars) away from being ready to sell!
4 – Learn To Run Ads (Or Get Started wWith Organic Marketing)
So you’ve picked your niche…
You’ve found a supplier you can trust…
And you’ve built or bought a store…
It’s time to throw open your “digital doors” and welcome your first customers!
… And that means you need traffic.
Now, don’t be put off by the fact that EVERYONE struggles with traffic…
You just need to pick a strategy and stick with it.
A lot of people say the internet – especially the eCom space 0 is just too crowded for new stores now unless you’ve got DEEP DEEP POCKETS to advertise with…
But I don’t think that’s true.
That being said, it’s important you have realistic expectations when you get started.
Organic (non-paid) strategies to get customers can take months to start working…
And you should expect to spend money testing different ad strategies and angles to find the one that works for you, your audience, and the product(s) you’re selling.
The truth is, Rome wasn’t built in a day…
So if you’ve already invested thousands of dollars into stores, ads, and possibly even a course, you just need to wait to get established and start getting sales.
Full disclosure here – this is actually one of the reasons I don’t recommend dropshipping…
For me, the perfect online business should have high-income potential, be quick to start and grow, and have a really solid, baked in group of people with money to pay you.
That’s why THIS model is my #1 recommendation for anyone starting an online business in 2025.
Weird Thing I Discovered About Dropshipping (Is This Legit? You Decide)
So, I thought it was kinda weird that so many dropshipping gurus are literally giving away their courses…
Or selling them for just a few bucks…
So, I did some digging…
And what I discovered really shocked me.
I’m no private detective…
But it sure looks like these gurus are making their money off the platforms you need to run a dropshipping business…
Instead of the actual business model itself.
That includes platforms like Shopify, which you need to build an online store…
And judging by the way these “coaches” and gurus are recommending very particular fulfillment partners…
It kinda smells to me like the gurus are getting paid a kickback there too.
Here’s the big question I’m asking:
If these gurus are making so much money dropshipping…
Why do they need to give away their courses, just to make a few bucks as affiliates?
Take Shopify for example…
When I checked out their affiliate program, they say the average payout is $58 for every signup…
So you’re telling me the guru is selling 1 million dollars plus in products every month…
But they’re making so little, they still need to squeeze 60 bucks out of little old me to learn their system?
Now, call me silly…
But something smells off to me.
Know what I mean?
The Risks of Dropshipping
Dropshipping is a legitimate online business.
It’s easy to get started…
But it is very hard to establish yourself, in order to create a business that’ll last.
Because what’s the point in starting an online business, if you have to throw in the towel and do something different in a year or two anyway?
The big risks involved in dropshipping are not only the start-up cost, the time to start making any money back, and the effort needed to build a store…
But the ongoing cost of running traffic (and paying for ads) to get people onto your site in the first place.
For me, the big danger is that you invest thousands of dollars and hundreds (if not thousands) of hours into your dropshipping business…
Only to be forced to give up, without ever making your investment back.
But, here’s why that’s really a problem…
MONEY is replaceable…
You can always make more, somehow.
But the effects on your own confidence, enthusiasm, and self worth from putting your all into an online business, only to fail?
That’s soul destroying, and it can take years to recover from.
Your online business is supposed to be the vehicle that’s going to deliver your financial freedom…
It’s too important to be allowed to fail.
This is the #1 reason I wouldn’t recommend dropshipping…
Because there are much better ways to make a living online.
Why Choose Dropshipping?
Before you commit to Dropshipping, or any other online business, it’s important to pause and ask yourself:
What do you want from Dropshipping?
Of course, everyone wants to start a profitable business…
Where they can do a few hours of work per week, and spend the rest of the time “living it up”…
But the truth is, very few people live this reality.
In fact, most people living that “playboy” lifestyle were born into crazy wealth…
And that’s just not an option for most of us.
So, if we set aside the crazy unrealistic expectations that we’ll get to work 3 hours per week from the beach…
What do you really want from Dropshipping, or a different online business?
If you’re anything like me, it’s NOT all about getting super-rich overnight…
The goal is to earn enough money to live comfortably…
Afford some of the finer things, like booking trips or expensive meals without having to worry about the price tag…
And do all this while keeping control of your time…
So you can spend your life how you want, with an income that you can fit around the people and pastimes that really matter to you.
Well, there’s a much better way to achieve all that than starting up a super-complicated online business like Dropshipping.
For me, Dropshipping is no different to running a physical store…
Where you’ve saved some cash by not having premises, but taken on a ton more headaches by having to coordinate all the different arms of your business remotely, and all over the world.
So if Dropshipping doesn’t live up to the hype…
What’s The Best Way To Make Money Online?
So, I’ve personally tried all of the major online business models:
- I’ve traded crypto & purchased a bunch of fancy “insider stock tip” newsletters
- I’ve sold fidget spinners through Amazon FBA
- I’ve drop-shipped a toilet bowl putting green on Shopify
- I’ve sold women’s health supplements with affiliate marketing
And I actually did make money with all of them…
So you can trust me when I say:
There is no “perfect” online business model.
What there is, however, is a business that’s perfectly suited to people like me…
Who want to reliably earn $10,000 – $40,000 per month…
Without giving up their freedom…
And while making a real difference in the world.
That means dropshipping plastic junk from China is out.
That’s why, whenever anyone asks me about the business model I’d choose if I was starting out all over again…
I always say the Digital Rental Method is the business I’d pick.
The reasons I recommend this are simple:
1 – Time
If you’ve got a spare hour or two each day, you can make money with the Digital Rental Method.
If you want to drop everything and go all-in, you can do it even faster.
More time obviously means faster results…
But even putting in a few hours per day is enough to see real success.
That means you can start earning pretty soon after starting…
And once the income starts, it’s recurring…
So you can take a month off…
Travel the country…
Pursue a passion project…
Chill on the beach…
Or even charter a boat across the world…
And your online business will keep doing its thing and earning you money, with no attention needed.
The key to this lifestyle though?
Creating an income stream that doesn’t require YOU to be there all day, every day.
Dropshipping gives you no choice but to wear a ton of hats and work a dozen different roles …
And there’s no chance you can have sales, customer service, web dev, marketing, and logistics all go on vacation at the same time!
2 – You Stay In Control
With dropshipping, you’re always reacting to what someone else has done…
Customer orders, supplier logistics, deliver mistakes…
You’re constantly reacting to the current situation…
And that’s why it’s so hard to switch off and leave work behind when you’re dropshipping.
With the Digital Rental Method, you’re literally creating assets that you control…
And that means you get to run your online business on your own terms.
3 – It’s Basically Copy-Paste (Without Being a Total Rip-Off!)
With the Digital Rental Method, you’re working to a proven formula.
You don’t need super creativity or tons of great ideas to earn money using their program…
You just follow their processes and fill in the blanks to create digital assets that are worth anywhere from $500 – $2,000+ every month!
It almost sounds too good to be true, but it really works.
4 – It’s Easy To Grow
Because most of the Digital Rental Method lets you create passive income, it’s easy to grow your income.
In fact, because you’re creating digital assets from tried-and-tested templates, you can take the assets you already made and duplicate them in just a few clicks…
And after a few tweaks and changes, you’ve got yourself another asset worth $500 – $2,000+ per month!
As a total beginner, you just doubled your income potential in an afternoon.
When you compare doubling your income with the Digital Rental Method to doubling your income with Dropshipping, it couldn’t be more different.
You’d need to make twice as many sales…
Double your coordination and correspondence with suppliers and couriers…
Or double your profit on each sale (and still convince people to buy!).
That’s a whole lot harder than a few clicks & a phone call!
5 – Make Money Helping Real People
This is my favorite part of the Digital Rental Method…
…Better than the profitability, simplicity, and freedom combined!
When you sell products, you’re not really making a difference to anyone’s life…
You’re just passing goods and cash back and forth like a market trader.
But with the Digital Rental Method, you’re solving REAL problems that are keeping honest, hard-working business owners awake at night.
Small businesses are the backbone of every major world economy.
There’s over 30 million of them in the USA alone…
And they all need one thing to not only survive, but thrive…
More customers!
In a way that makes perfect sense for those businesses to pay you $500 – $2,000 for your help!
Without customers, those businesses can’t survive.
By providing those customers though?
You’re helping a struggling mother or father put FOOD on the table for their families…
Put their kids through college…
Create more jobs in their local communities to give other folks a fair shot…
And you let those business owners live life a little bit more comfortably.
You can’t tell me that having an impact like this on the world doesn’t get you excited?!
Heck, it gives me goosebumps thinking about it!!
What Next?
If you’re looking for a way to make a living online…
You’ve got two options here.
You could keep researching for the next few months (or few years)…
Trying to find the magical unicorn business that ticks all your boxes…
While time keeps passing, and the months keep ticking by.
OR…
You can be decisive…
And take positive action to create the reality you’re dreaming of.
Instead of researching around in circles, you can move forward and take a HUGE step towards the online business that’s going to deliver the freedom, wealth, and fulfillment you’ve been searching for…
And your first step should be to check out my #1 recommendation for making money online.
I’ve vetted hundreds of business models, and nothing else comes close to the earning potential, accessibility, and ease of the Digital Rental Method.
If you’re serious about earning online…
Tap here now and watch the Digital Rental Method explainer video.
