One of the best ways to learn and grow is to surround yourself with like-minded people.
And even if you can’t spend time with them in person, the glorious World Wide Web helps to close those physical gaps for you.
That’s what this ebook is all about: helping to connect aspiring and growing dropshippers to the knowledge, ideas, and resources they need to flourish – from people who have been there before.
We interviewed 19 dropshipping entrepreneurs who have absolutely killed it with their stores. Some of them are seasoned, while others had the savvy, determination, and opportunity to hit gold on their first shot.
We’re going to pull out their shining gems of advice and reflection to give you a wealth of insights for your own efforts.
In this ebook, we’ll see what the Dropshipping Masters have to say about:
- How to choose products
- How to run Facebook ads
- How to make sales without Facebook ads
- What they’d do with $500 to spend on marketing
- The biggest mistakes they’ve made
- Advice and inspiration for first-timers
Let’s start by introducing the successful dropshippers you’ll be learning from.
Ashley Banks
As a UK-based web developer who’s built dozens of ecommerce stores, Ashley learned how to start dropshipping for himself in 2017.
He started in the coffee niche and eventually came across a penguin thermos that went viral and made £4,713.38 (or $5,925.65) in three months.
Since then, he’s decided on starting a dropshipping business that’s more in line with his passion of martial arts.
Karolis Rimkus
Tired of his 9-to-5, Karolis began dropshipping as a side-hustle to fund a three-month trip around the world with his wife.
Turns out that his running apparel store scored them enough funds to extend their trip to eight months and 12 countries.
Over ten months, the store brought in $14,960, allowing him to live the digital nomad lifestyle of working while he travels.
Now, he uses the Instagram marketing skills he learned to run a social media business for his clients.
Tim Vangsness
Tim Vangsness is a serial entrepreneur from Australia. He first got into online marketing over six years ago when he launched a BMX website and spent hours learning how to drive traffic to it with SEO and Google Ads.
After that, he got hooked on dropshipping. Tim has started multiple dropshipping stores selling all kinds of things from t-shirts and sunglasses to watches and selfie lights.
Read Tim’s advice for starting a dropshipping store for $500.
Jenny Lei
After seven failed attempts, Jenny started a handbag store that went on to earn an incredible $680,532 in eight months – $1,000 of which was from her first day!
The secret to her swift success was that she had been running a recipe Instagram page that had 800,000 followers, where she was able to test her audience before transitioning to Facebook ads.
This millennial entrepreneur posted a handbag to Instagram in May 2018 and the rest was history.
Yuanda Wang
As a young entrepreneur, Yuanda started his first venture in affiliate marketing when he was just 15 years old.
He learned how to start dropshipping in late 2017, experimenting with several product niches before he found success selling phone accessories.
Fast forward four months, and he had already made $18,359.
Now, he’s at university studying psychology, which doubles in value as it helps make his dropshipping game even stronger.
Harry Coleman
Harry is one of those ecommerce millionaires and serial entrepreneurs you hear stories about.
After many years and many different approaches to entrepreneurship, he now has three stores. Two of them, which are both branded online general stores, combined to generate an eye-popping $5,045,515 in 2018.
That’s right. $5 million. Since starting a dropshipping business in 2016.
Today, he manages a team of up to 10 employees to help run his empire, and runs a YouTube channel called The Beast of Ecom.
Andreas Koenig and Alexander Pecka
These Austrian entrepreneurs were friends for six years before deciding to go into business together in early 2018.
Their first store, which sold an automatic toothpaste dispenser, earned them a whopping one sale. Their second store, a general store, also failed.
But their third store in the pet products niche generated $144,110 in less than four months.
Read more about Andreas and Alexander here.
Matt Riley
Matt was a 9-to-5 customer service agent at a protein powder company in California when he realized that he wasn’t quite fulfilled by his career.
He learned how to start dropshipping and opened several stores, building and tweaking until a handful became profitable. In 2018, his stores collectively generated $370,000.
And his winning store in the fashion niche started earning him more than $100,000 a month in revenue.
Needless to say, he’s quit his office job and hasn’t looked back.
Mandie and Aubrey
These Utah-based moms stand out from the other dropshipping success stories.
They started with a Facebook group to sell various household, beauty, and kids products with a slight markup. It really caught on, so they decided to build a dropshipping store.
They launched the store in April 2018 and earned more than $100,000 in six months.
The real kicker is that they’ve never spent a dollar on advertising!
Read more about Mandie and Aubrey here.
Jordan Bourque
With no prior experience – or even much research! – Jordan succeeded at starting a dropshipping business in his first shot.
Living in a small town in Canada, he used various Facebook dropshipping groups to connect with other entrepreneurs to share ideas and keep learning.
And it paid off.
His outdoor hobby store raked in 10,000 orders and $100,000 in revenue within a year – $20,000 of which he earned in a single month.
Marc Popov and Noah Seibert
Marc and Noah are Berlin-based entrepreneurs and besties. They were just 17 when they started their first ecommerce dropshipping store in December 2017.
Their first store Simon and Nikolay was moderately profitable, but has now evolved into more of a fashion magazine.
In their second store, they tested several items until they found a winner in the electronics and gadgets niche.
They marvel at how an ad they wrote in five minutes went on to generate $30,000 in sales.
Read more about Marc and Noah here.
Ryan Carroll
Ryan started his women’s swimsuit business in 2016, fresh out of high school.
Two months into it, he really got the hang of it. His sales started doubling every month and he made $60,000 in four months.
He sold the store to invest in another venture. When it failed, he got right back up, building as many as 25 stores in every imaginable niche.
In the end, he’s back to swimwear. His store Bali Babe made more than $300,000 in 2018.
Vasco San-Payo
Vasco quit his design job at a Lisbon advertising agency after starting a dropshipping business.
He sold dropshipped men’s fashion accessories as well as custom branding print-on-demand products in his store, The Lion Chain.
His creative talents also came in handy for designing his full brand, complete with ads and collateral.
The Lion Chain earned him $170,000 in its first year, allowing him to pack up and live the digital nomad life in Bali.
Ross Madden
Hailing from Ireland, Ross started his first dropshipping business as a way to make some extra cash while studying at university.
His first two stores flopped, but the third store generated 30,000 orders for his charcoal beauty products.
In January 2018, he hit his monthly sales record of €40,000 (or $45,150). In a year, he made almost €200,000 ($225,750).
Yuliya Chernykhovskaya and Mike Pavlou
New Jersey natives Yuliya and Mike are one of the many dropshipping success stories of entrepreneurs who made a fortune in their first year.
In this case, $200,000 in a year, to be exact.
They had prior experience in entrepreneurship: Yuliya worked as a health coach and business consultant, and they both ran a subscription box brand called NeuroBox.
They credit part of the success to their experience in branding, customer service, and building customer loyalty.
Read more about Yuliya and Mike here.
Jacky Chou and Albert Liu
Jacky and Albert took $5,000 dollars and turned it into $700,000 in revenue in just eight months.
Their home decor store started as an experiment – they intended to use it as a case study to get more clients for their marketing consultant business.
As they got more and more sales, they decided to invest more time and resources into following their top-performing product.
As you can see, that strategy paid off for these top dropshippers. Literally.
Read more about Jacky and Albert here.
Jeffrey Ho
Jeffrey was living the stereotypical 9-to-5 dream with a good banking job in Vancouver. Except it wasn’t his dream.
So he learned how to start dropshipping. At first, he went through a lot of initial trial and error, not seeing the results he wanted for the first few months.
He kept pushing, and in his first year, his women’s fashion store went on to earn $57,686 in sales.
John Robb
John was destined to be among the top dropshippers. We know this because he started his first online business when he was just 12 years old.
He ran multiple comedy meme Instagram accounts, and began to get approached from brands to run shoutouts.
Instead of agreeing, he decided to cut out the middleman and sell his own products.
During his winter break from high school, he made a cool $50,000.
Now that you’ve gotten to know our Dropshipping Masters and a glimpse into their dropshipping success stories, let’s get to the good stuff.
Next up: a primer on how to choose products for your store.
