Now that is a case study..awesome comeback story:)

~Clint
@cazoomi

Thank you!

They should get you sharing that story in prisons to inspire others to do the same :D

That is an amazing idea @ronniemckenzie your story is so inspirational it should be shared. It even gave me a few tips for my journey of starting my small business called Matching Family Stuff geared towards uplifting Dads with custom 100% cotton modern design t-shirts.
Like us on Facebook @Matching FamilyStuff or shop online at matchingfamilystuff@bigcartel.com

-Let's continue to spread positive vibes!

Any way you could help me be successful ive been thinking about business opportunities for a long time but I don't know where to start

A large part of it is planning, like he said. The other scary part is taking the leap and doing it. If you're not willing to do that, be willing to sacrifice your nights/weekends/free time running the business outside of your daily job until it is making enough money to warrant making it full time.

Hey Robert, any advice on the setting up an efficient return policy where both customers, manufactures, and yourself are happy? Thank you in advance!

Thanks for this. I'm having a bit of a rough time getting things going and your story and others like it help me keep focused on the ligjt at the end of the tunnel. Thanks again. @egothrift @rcl4rk

What an amazing story! Thank you for sharing your success. Karyn

Thank you Karyn.

Thank you so much for sharing; I think you are very inspirational. My company is still such a baby, it gives me encouragement to stick with it, even when return is so small. I can't wait to apply these principles to Redemption Market. I wish you the best!

Thank you for the kind words Rhonda!

Just checked out your store Rhonda and you have GREAT products & an awesome mission!!! I plan on shopping very soon., Checkout my store if you want ;) shopconsignmentcouture.com

What are you selling Rhonda?

Hey Rhonda, I visited your online store and there is no contact info for visitors or customers to give feedback regarding the products. Also, I think your homepage should include an excerpt from your About page so customers will know from the start that they are not only purchasing handmade products of good quality, they are also helping make a difference in the lives of others. I wish you much success!!

Thank you so much for your feedback; I will take it into consideration! - Rhonda

Hi Anitha,
I have a new Shopify store but unable to make any sales. Can you help me please.

Rhonda- Have you already explored the Etsy marketplace. Your store products look wonderful.

Thank you! Because my items are not handmade by me, I am unable to sell them on Etsy, but I am happy with Shopify, and slowly growing my customer base. I appreciate your kind words, Bharath.

Oh Rhonda. I can imagine. Now here is my other take. Have you tried selling on Amazon in US? If you have some decent stock levels, I'm authorized to sell in Amazon's handbags category and we could explore mutual synergies. I currently sell in Health, Beauty, Clothing and a couple of other categories on Amazon if you wish to explore possibilities. I'm Dallas, Texas based.

Thanks, but I'm not interested at this time.

@Bharath,
I might be interested in collaborating utilizing your Amazon access. I was very successful on Ebay but it became a hassle. I have several "closets" & am a Top 10% seller. I'm on Posh, Tradsey & TF. I'm working towards creating my own website but I'm horrible with technology & funds have been limited. I have items from 5.00- a few thousand...bags, clothes, shoes, accessories etc. I'm in AZ. On Posh I'm goforit13. ~ Stephanie

Stephanie Hight - I'm open to exploring synergies. Are these customer returns or used products. We aren't allowed to sell those on Amazon in the clothing category. It needs to be new and you need to have an appetite for high returns.

hello bharat.. wats your email .. i will like to use you as a dropship.. i sell on ebay and amazon ..

Hello Ibrah - I sell on Amaon and eBay too. So a synergy might not make too much sense for those marketplaces :)

But if you sell on your own and have a lot of traffic, then certainly would be interested in exploring synergies.

Ditto, I've been busting my butt last couple of months with all the pressures of a being a working single parent of two kids, but not seen any return yet. I'm selling T-Shirts on spreadshirt, I've done a lot of the things the gurus advise 19 visitors half of them friends and family. I know I've got to keep at it I've still got a mountain to climb. Massive learning curve. Everyone is out to sell you something unfortunately when you're starting out in my position you won't have the extra cash to make those purchases.

I don't know if you're targeting a specific niche as a whole or for individual items but the key is using Facebook ads just like Robert did. You need to really drill down on targeting the right interests - the sort of ones that 'fanatics' in the niche would only know.

For instance, if your niche was "golf" you wouldn't target Tiger Woods, he's too well known, but any of the top 20-50 would be a good bet.

Or if you're able to use Facebook's "AND" logic in Ads Manager, you target people who are interested in "Tiger Woods" (broad topic related interest) AND "Kevin Ha"

That kind of targeting will give you a high Clickthrough Rate, which FB will reward you with a lower CPC (which won't cost you as much) and a higher quality visitor.

Run lots of ads @ $2-3 a day with different targeting to see if anything generates any sales, then pause whatever doesn't work and gradually scale what does. Optimize for demographic and/or location. Rinse & repeat.

Obviously you need good t-shirts and an effective website but that's really 95% of the traffic stuff.

HTH

Impressive comeback story. Keep it up!

Thanks Scot!

Hi Robert, can you please share your Facebook page, I would like to follow and get some ideas.
Thanks for sharing your story, very inspiring

Inspiring post Robert. There are quite a few camping gears related ecommerce sites around. So what exactly about your ads struck a chord with the buyers? Did you go through a sales funnel or was it directly to products? Could you run through the Facebook ads strategy part?

Hey Anand. Thanks for reading my post. What makes the biggest difference is getting the right product in front of the right audience. That's all that really matters. What Facebook allowed me to do was get good products in front of people who were actually interested them. Once I identified the right product/audience match, it's was easy to scale. Hope that helps a little.

This is not an answer, are you paid by Facebook to write this crap?

Why do you have to be such a direct dick? I read your comments on other posts, and nearly all of them are finding something wrong with the articles. You come across as nocturnal troll that sleeps til 2pm and survives on frozen pizza and soft drinks.

What do my other posts have anything to do with the fact that this "article" is nothing more than an advertisement for Facebook ads.

It's not an article for FB ads lol, Robert is saying how he used them for growing his business, sheesh we business owners use FB to buy ads, we share this information with each other all the time. And FB has an internal team that sells their ads and it's not Robert, he's in one of my marketing groups.

Hi Laurie, what marketing group are you in? Can I join?

And the 'common sense' of an entry level day laborer. It's no wonder that 'A' students generally work for 'C' students, and 2% now all but 'feed' the majority of the other 98%. I've never liked FaceBook (mainly a waste of time, and global intel dragnet) however if it gains 'targeted traffic' and hence increases conversions (i.e. common sense) then I'll be doing so as well, soon enough. Can't wait to add 'funnels,' after finding a HOT item and the related (and 'pinned') 'upsells!'

No paid. Facebook can do alot. Just try and learn. So many people have made it through there. Thanks face book

Hello Robert. You are such an inspiration of where a person can be to what they can achieve - a pure choice!
I'm interested to know how you find the audience match you mention for a specific product.
i.e. I do skin care (brand new range) now need to design my page and then get it to the right audience.
I'm not very clued up on all this stuff. I would love to hear from you.

Very inspirational. I have been thinking about the ads because I have not had not one sale but this just made up my mind.

One piece of advice. start with small a small budget of $5-$10/day/ad until you know you are getting conversions. Good luck!

How do I get the $5 add.

really? what are you selling?

So "Guest" don't buy any Facebook ads and just go do your life. No one cares about your jaded and negative views anyway. Just write these to yourself from now on please.

Congrats Robert! That's wonderful that you decided that your past is just your past and your future is what you make of it. Wishing you lots and lots of sales!

Thank you Carole.

So inspiring. I'll take a serious look at FB advertising. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks you and good luck!

Congratulations Robert, this is truly amazing. I look forward to following your email campaign and National Park Depot's growth.