How To Build A Dropshipping Website With No Money


If there is someone that tells you that you can build a dropshipping website with no money, you better stay away from him or her. This is like going to the Pasar Malam or shopping centre selling products and asking the landlord if you can don’t pay rent. However, it is still possible to bootstrap your dropshipping website with little money but compensate it with a massive amount of time and effort. There are successful drop shippers that focus just on free organic traffic like search engine optimisation or youtube channel without spending a dime on paid ads.

People always misunderstood that the most beautifully designed dropshipping website will have the most sales. The fact is that the most successful drop shippers are able to drive massive traffic to their site while keeping their cost per acquisition of the customer as low as possible. Of course, having more marketing dollars will help to generate results faster than someone with little or no money to burn.

How Can I Start Dropshipping With No Money

This will be a really important step if you are really broke now. The best way to get around this is just borrowing interest-free money from your friends or family.  For this example, I will assume that you are able to beg and gather USD300 which should be the bare minimum required.

I would just not recommend you to use a credit card or any form of credit lines as it will put a lot of pressure for you to be successful for your first store and chances of success is really not guaranteed. If you were to add in the compounded interest, it may make you more broke then before.

How Do I Start Dropshipping Right Now

There are many ways to start dropshipping and if you will like to create a brand, you may need to decide to own your domain name and self-host it with a third party web hosting company. The most common and popular eCommerce platform most people uses is Shopify. However, I just wouldn’t suggest you start with it due to the cost involved.

Source: Shopify

You can see that for the most basic plan it will actually cost you $29USD/month. If based on the USD300 you have raised, you will be left with USD10 after 10 months. Do note that if you pay for a domain in Shopify, it will cost you a min of USD11/year. Of course, the good thing about Shopify is the convenience it provides but you will only have 10 months to make sure your dropshipping store is a roaring success. They are also offering a free trial to test them out at zero cost which you can sign up here.

Another way which I prefer is a more DIY cost-effective route using WordPress to create your own website. If you are bootstrapping and is a beginner, just go for a reputable hosting company like Bluehost which provide you with a free domain name for the first year and they charge you USD11.99/year for renewal.

Do not spend too much time on this and just go for a short and brandable name which is easier for your customers to remember. For example, in the pet niche you can just go for Rarapets.com or Shinzdogs.com etc. Do not choose domains like bestdogchain.com which may sound abit spammy nowadays. Always go for .com domain if possible. For convenience sake. you can use the tool below to search for available domain names.

 

Source:Bluehost

Sign up for Bluehost [use this link to get the discount and free domain]

Do remember to uncheck everything below and only purchase the 3-year hosting plan. You can only secure the price of USD3.95 monthly if you buy the 3-year plan.

Total Damage So Far:

Domain 1st year free, 2nd and 3rd year = USD11.99 x 2 = USD23.98

Bluehost shared hosting                            = USD142.20

Balance                                                          = USD300 – USD23.98 – USD142.20 = USD133.82

Install WordPress

It is really simple to launch a WordPress website nowadays even if you do not have any technical experience. However, it can still be intimidating if it is your first time doing it. The video below will be a great help to help you launch your WordPress site.

Listing Products and integrating Payment gateways

Obviously, now your WordPress site is up and running, you will need to list items quickly and integrate payment gateways so you can start collecting money from your customers. For simplicity sake, just use paypal which is easiest to setup. You can check out how to set it up here and alternative payment gateways supported.

I wouldn’t want to waste too much time finding free plugins and listing the items one by one as this will not help you generate any sales from the start. The simplest way I can find so far is using Alidropship plugin. What I like is It is only a one-time payment for USD89 to use it forever on your site. Check out the following videos on how to install the plugin and start to import the products from Aliexpress in minutes.

Sign up for Alidropship [use GETPLUGIN25 to get 25% off if you sign up using this link]

If you are not sure how to research and choose the best selling products for your niche, check out How To Choose The Best Items To Dropship. Please do not get excited and start to spam thousands of products. This will actually slow down your website and affect the user experience to your site. For a start, just stick to 50 hot selling products and slowly add them more in the future.

Total Damage So Far:

Domain 1st year free, 2nd and 3rd year = USD11.99 x 2 = USD23.98

Bluehost shared hosting                            = USD142.20

Aliplugin                                                       = USD89 USD66.75

Balance                                                          = USD300 – USD23.98 – USD142.20 – USD 66.75 = USD67.07

How To Drive Traffic To Your Ecommerce Store Free

As we are having limited resources here, it will be almost impossible for us to use google ads , facebook ads or other form of paid ads. The good thing is you will still have around USD67 to test out on marketing for your site.

However, here are some free organic ways to drive endless traffic to your dropshipping site for years to come. Please note that you may only start to see results after at least 6 months of hardwork. It is important not to give up before you can start seeing the fruits of your efforts.

Writing Best Articles For Low Competition Keywords For Your Niche

This will be the best way to rank in google search engine and get organic traffic for your site. The free but time-consuming way will be researching on google in a new incognito window or Ctrl + Shift + N. You may need to use a VPN if you are researching for specific traffic like for USA.

This will allow you to do keyword research without google showing results due to your past search history. Let’s say you are focusing on pet dog niche items like a dog harness. When you type in best dog harness, google will show you some auto suggestions where people are searching for.

I will take the above information and starting writing product review articles and link them to the individual items I have added in my WordPress store. I would recommend writing at least 10 review articles and 20 informational articles for a start. Another alternative is to consider using keyword research tool like kwfinder. Check out the video below on how to use it effectively.

Sign up for Kwfinder [use this link so I can continue to sustain this site]

Increase eCommerce Traffic By Using Pinterest

If you have not used them before, Pinterest is one of the most useful sites to drive free traffic to your website. I would suggest creating a business account and claim your website for a start. Start creating a few boards in different categories and create at least a few pins daily that will link to the website articles that you have written above. I would normally use a free tool like Canva to create my Pinterest image.

One of the software I find very useful is tailwind. Their free version will be quite useful for a start. You can schedule your pins daily at different time in the day. For the premium version, they will even show you data one which time slots does your pins perform best and also have access to tribes that will help you share your pins and make it go viral in Pinterest.

Increase eCommerce Traffic By Using Instagram

Another channel that we shouldn’t neglect will be Instagram. We all wanted our bio to match our brand. It is important for you to share lots of content and look at what works and generate the most interest. The biggest hassle I face is having too little time to post consistent content.  Look at how other Instagram influencers use tailwind and turn their Instagram bio into a stream of free leads to convert. You can sign up for free here and integrate with your instagram business account straight away.

Increase eCommerce Traffic By Using Youtube

The last channel you definitely have to utilise is creating a Youtube channel for your site. Youtube is currently the 2nd highest traffic source besides google search engine and any video content you have created will be driving traffic to your site for years to come.

However, to take note that the videos you create must provide value, entertaining and helps to build your eCommerce store brand name over the long run. Always be consistent in uploading content in your youtube channel as youtube likes activity.

For new channels, a good suggestion will be doing multiple videos in a day and do scheduled publishing at least one video a day. Once you have certain number of videos in your channels, you can choose to slow down the uploading of content.  If you are keen to find out the secret of getting more Subscribers And Website Traffic Guaranteed, check out the video below.

 

Jayden Tan

In 2019, Jayden bought his first website and flipped it 10 months later for a small profit. Later on, he learned blogging and content sites can be turned into a great business. Ever since he has been an investor & researcher in the digital space while helping others build financial independence through the internet.

Recent Posts