Alternative way to ecommerce - 6 year old shows the way (10)

There's more than Facebook and dropshipping when it comes to Ecommerce.

With this apporach, the key is to build your audience first.

The example here is Ryans toys channel (warning: highly annoying if your not the target audience: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChG...OOHvBB0Y4DOO_w)
Channel made millions last year in ads and has 15 mln subscribers.

Now the new move is a partnership with Walmart (link to article here)

Millions more will be made. And the kid is 6 years old...

But it's not too late for you. And it's not hard.

We get a lot of customers though our videos and some have only a few thousand views. And the subscriber count is 1K and 1.5K for each of the channels (different languages).
So you don't need to have the numbers that this kid has.

What you do need

A niche in which you are interested and can regularly produce videos for.

For example like this - close to 3 mln views:




But there are plenty of other examples like this guy with 6.5 mln subscribers for his mobile phone reviews.


You can go for a small niche and for a worldwide audience by using English. Or go for a big geo in languages like Spanish or Mandarin.
Or for a big niche in a smaller market.

Make logistics and technical limitations (such as 110 vs 220) part of the plan from the outset.

You don't need to worry about what you will sell under your private label or through a cooperation in the beginning.

All you need is to produce and engage with your audience and market. Focus on the process, not the outcome.
And execute.

The great part is that it doesn;t have to be expensive. The bad part is that you can't push things.
But once things start moving, it can scale up really quickly.

Hope this can serve as inspiration for a different approach in a way that's far from saturated and very low in competition.

And yes, some big successes have been used as an example, but this could be a great passive income stream as well. Especially when you add evergreen topics to the mix, such as "How to" videos.
Make them once, benefit for years and years...

Have fun!

I'm a regular MKBHD follower. The guy has a great mix of entertainment and information, plus has very high-quality videos now.

YouTube is quite untapped for affiliates I think and the quality of views there is ten-fold better than Facebook's - AT LEAST!

I'm planning on getting more active there too.

Also, as an add-on that might fit some niches: newsletter-as-a-service. Not that I've cracked the code with what I'm doing but it seriously has potential.

It's also this same idea, just in written emails instead of video:

@manu_adefy - Newsletters are very interesting. I have been thinking about an ecommerce one for a while, but wonder how you can keep a daily one going. Takes a great amount of prioritising (for me at least).

These days curation > information

There's some much info, but often it's all data or soundbites. Not many apply some critical thinking or go through great lengths to make an actual story. Or simply lack the experience that creates a filter of value.
The online publishing model which is views based doesn't reward that stuff.

Which makes a quality newsletter all the more valuable.

I am not sure if I would launch a free one in the hopes of converting to premium. I'd go for paid, less frequent from the outset. Indepth and 1 topic with maybe a few links.
I always liked this: . It's a blog, but combines original thought with plenty of links to explore.

But action > me typing forum posts, so let me know when you have cracked it :-))

There's value in informed curation from what I see so far.

The niche matters I think. You need to monetize through other means, not only e-commerce. It's more similar to MKBHD than to Ryan's Toys, haha.

So you gather an audience on a topic, then develop services or monetization strategies for them.

Even advertising can work, based on what MorningBrew and TheHustle do.

I think premium is tough when you simply curate. You must also create exclusive content imo. Or you are curating quality content for a very high value market like investing.

I agree, there should be some added value in the form of exclusive content

Another one for the newsletter!

Here are just some ideas for this type of videos:

-Comparison (between different models etc.)

-Unboxing (I could never understand why people like watching these...but they ARE popular!)

-Demonstration of product functions, features and benefits

-"Testing" (dropping from heights, setting to fire, immersing in water...anything spectacular that will make people gasp)



Amy

Hey @Pekadis - it's really interesting the difference between East/West on media/news when it comes to Ecommerce. I think the industry does need more professional curation.

Internationally, the Facebook Groups, Forums, and Software Providers are the main source of information. Everyone is trying to sell something, whether it's coaching, courses, etc.
It's always hard to tell whether the information is credible, and at a certain point the higher level ecommerce players will start to avoid the groups because of too many newbies clogging their news feeds with irrelevant posts.

In China, www.Cifnews.com is a monster media company focused totally on cross border ecommerce. They get between 5 and 10 million hits per month, and publish 80 articles a day. I think you'd find it interesting. You might need a China IP address through VPN to see it.

Their main revenue is from their own training courses and massive events (CCIE - 10k plus attendees, 4x a year)

Originally Posted by Zack

Hey @Pekadis - it's really interesting the difference between East/West on media/news when it comes to Ecommerce. I think the industry does need more professional curation.

Internationally, the Facebook Groups, Forums, and Software Providers are the main source of information. Everyone is trying to sell something, whether it's coaching, courses, etc.
It's always hard to tell whether the information is credible, and at a certain point the higher level ecommerce players will start to avoid the groups because of too many newbies clogging their news feeds with irrelevant posts.

In China, www.Cifnews.com is a monster media company focused totally on cross border ecommerce. They get between 5 and 10 million hits per month, and publish 80 articles a day. I think you'd find it interesting. You might need a China IP address through VPN to see it.

Their main revenue is from their own training courses and massive events (CCIE - 10k plus attendees, 4x a year)

@zack - very interesting - thank you.

CIF sounds like a monster (in an impressive way) and I had a look; some stuff is really interesting and it gives a different perspective from where we are (in Europe for me). So that's a big benefit.

And I totally agree with you on the fact that everyone is trying to sell something. There's this transition for just about everyone from giving out some advice to running "teaching" as a business.
Sad thing is that they wouldn't be able to replicate their success now, because it happened years ago and now they are applying their survivorship bias to create courses and such.

Just look at how some "gurus" call facebook ads the reason for their X growth. Then next month, it will be video. Then it will be messenger. Or bots. Wathever the flavour of the month is.

Yet everyone wants the big names, because that draws the crowds.
But the people really killing it aren't on stage. Nor do they have any incentive to share their info.

Only way would be to get to know these players / become friends and not be in a competing market.

Originally Posted by pekadis

There's more than Facebook and dropshipping when it comes to Ecommerce.

With this apporach, the key is to build your audience first.

The example here is Ryans toys channel (warning: highly annoying if your not the target audience: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChG...OOHvBB0Y4DOO_w)
Channel made millions last year in ads and has 15 mln subscribers.

Now the new move is a partnership with Walmart (link to article here)

Millions more will be made. And the kid is 6 years old...

But it's not too late for you. And it's not hard.

We get a lot of customers though our videos and some have only a few thousand views. And the subscriber count is 1K and 1.5K for each of the channels (different languages).
So you don't need to have the numbers that this kid has.

What you do need

A niche in which you are interested and can regularly produce videos for.

For example like this - close to 3 mln views:




But there are plenty of other examples like this guy with 6.5 mln subscribers for his mobile phone reviews.


You can go for a small niche and for a worldwide audience by using English. Or go for a big geo in languages like Spanish or Mandarin.
Or for a big niche in a smaller market.

Make logistics and technical limitations (such as 110 vs 220) part of the plan from the outset.

You don't need to worry about what you will sell under your private label or through a cooperation in the beginning.

All you need is to produce and engage with your audience and market. Focus on the process, not the outcome.
And execute.

The great part is that it doesn;t have to be expensive. The bad part is that you can't push things.
But once things start moving, it can scale up really quickly.

Hope this can serve as inspiration for a different approach in a way that's far from saturated and very low in competition.

And yes, some big successes have been used as an example, but this could be a great passive income stream as well. Especially when you add evergreen topics to the mix, such as "How to" videos.
Make them once, benefit for years and years...

Have fun!