Ep 62 | Is Free Plus Shipping For eCommerce And Shopify Dead?

David Lye said,

Hi Fred, I have been following your training all these while and I love what you’re teaching because every time you gave a lot a lot of values.

Thank you very much for acknowledging that. He goes on and say:

I remember that there is one tripwire method called free plus shipping for eCommerce for running Facebook ads. As Facebook getting stricter each day, I have heard that there are a number of cases people who use this tripwire method or having their Facebook Ads account disabled. Is free plus shipping method still allowed in Facebook ads now? If not using this method, any other effective methods that can bring in sales through Facebook for eCommerce.

The answer to your question is free plus shipping is NOT dead; however, there are people that will get their accounts disabled for many reasons : (1) They may be selling a trademark or copyright of products which I never EVER will suggest you or teach you to do that because you are going to get in yourself to a lot of legal troubles. (2) It may be because that product that you are basically advertising have some kind of claims in there and Facebook don’t like claims unless if you have some kind of study that back it up and you prove that the product is typical and every single person actually have the product will have that result number. (3) It may be because you are a new Facebook advertiser and all of a sudden you start spending a lot of money the account and Facebook is worrying that you’re using either a prepaid Visa card or you stole a credit card.

They just want to protect themselves and they would disable an account that get through security validation in order for you to advertise. These are really the 3 main things that will really affect your account getting disabled. Now the free plus shipping, now here’s the deal it is getting harder; however, it is not a strategy that Facebook is going against. As long as your ad or your landing page actually states that the customer have to pay for their shipping, then that’s absolutely going to be fine. You’re being upfront about it. You’re sharing about it, you’re telling people about it and that’s going to be absolutely fine.

Here’s the deal, thought yes it is getting harder only because Facebook’s inventory is starting to run out and the CPM start to increase and I have been sharing with you guys since from day one that free plus shipping plus tripwire, it’s a strategy for you to kickstart your store so you can see if the market is interested in the product that you have for sale. What you really want to do is to simply build a sales funnel to increase what we call the AOV (average order value) so that you can afford a much higher CPM. At the end of the day, I know that there’s a lot of people that are making 6–7 figures a year selling basically just tripwire products but if you want to continue to scale and really wipe out your competitor and give you the opportunity and giving you the ability to afford advertising and be more sustainable in your business, you want to look into building upsells, you want to basically have the profit multiplier, you want to have an emo strategy in place so that you can increase your average order value and that way that if Facebook is even getting more strict, you’re still going to be absolutely fine.

Free plus shipping is not dead. I’ve been using it there’s a lot of other people in other industries not just in woocommerce like people in fitness, people in the health and wellness base, skincare and everything they all still use free plus shipping. It’s a common thing and it’s a common strategy and it is not against any policy of Facebook. So, it’s not dead. Don’t worry, strategy that I’m teaching, still works until this day. People are making game buster money with that strategy.

Let’s move on to the second question by Quincy Zietek. Quincy said,

Hi, Fred! I’ve seen all your videos yet I am still having trouble finding a winning product. After a few sales and product tests, I haven’t been able to find an item that performs well. How do you pick your product? Thank you for your time have a good day.

This is a question that I got asked and stopped a lot on when I was at the 10x Growth Con. I can’t find a product, I know that I could get this to work because I’ve seen a lot of people doing it, they’re working really well but I just can’t seem to find a winning product. I have a really big talk with them and I go like listen here’s the deal right now you can literally sell any product, you can literally sell product that is an AliExpress , you can sell a necklace, you can sell a bracelet, you can sell a household product, you can sell a tech product but at the end of the day, in order for you to sell that product, you have to be in your market.

You got basically say well am I going to buy that product if I am that audience. If you are not in your market, you are absolutely not going to understand the person on the other side of the screen, what they want and how you position your product to having them click on your ad and pull up a credit card. It’s kind of like fitness, there’s so many people nowadays that are wanting to be as they say oh I want to set up a fitness store or I want to set up a store that simply just sells Fitness gears and the first question that I ask them and obviously the first thing that they told me is that it is not working out, I’m not getting a sale and the first thing that always ask them is – are you the person that wakes up at 5-6 AM in the morning and go work, go have a pre training, go work your butt off and have all these crazy muscles and a lot of easily said NO, I don’t go to the gym.

I was like well if you don’t go to the gym, then how are you able to sell a fitness product and convince the people that wake up at 5-6AM just to go to the gym to either build up their body, to either get fit. If you yourself were not doing it, how would you know what they want? They would just give me a quick AHA moment they’re like oh right that’s right. I don’t know what these people think. That’s the exact same thing, a lot of people are trying to crack into the household kitchen space and I simply ask them do you cook, they’re like no I don’t, I buy takeout.

I’d say if you don’t cook, then how are you able to convince the audience that are actually cooking what are you going to say in or copy, how are you to position your product in having them wanting to buy all these people that cook, stay-at-home mom or dads. How can you convince the way you don’t do it yourself? That’s a very important key that you have to understand is that when you are going the market – because again there are three variables that will affect your store especially in ads, the product selection, the targeting and the ad copy.

If you have either one of these incorrect, it will affect your overall performance of your business. Let’s say that you believe you found the best product on earth and you found the right targeting, but if you don’t know how to speak to these audience, if you yourself are not in the market and if you yourself are not even convinced of buying that product, then guess what chances are you’re not going to be able to sell because you’re not able to create a rapport, you’re not able to speak to them directly, you don’t know what their pain point is, you don’t know why they would want to buy your products because you are not in your market.

Again, this is actually some very important stuff that I got to bring out. Another thing, it was on Instagram. I don’t know what her name is, we’re just talking from direct message and she has a cerebral palsy. I was guiding her through, mentoring her through, she showed me her store. It was a store that was selling men’s boxers. I was like okay well you’re a female. How are you going to convince a male to buy your boxers or swimming trunks when you’re not the person that would love to buy these swimming trunks. I gave her a quick thing, I was like well you know what for you having this kind of disadvantage and health problem, but you’re still striving for it, why don’t you say also cerebral palsy can still be beautiful.

I told her that. I flat out poured that why don’t you say that even any person with these health disadvantage can still be beautiful and basically just feature things like fashion accessories, necklaces or different things to make her beautiful and that’s the tip that I gave her. Basically it gave her a really an AHA moment. Here’s the deal, finding a product – YES it is supercritical, but how to sell it, who to sell it to and most importantly how you’re positioning your product is going to be the key and if you’re not in your market, you will never be able to accomplish that and here’s the most important part, you always want to let data so run ads, let the data tell you if it is selling or not.

These are again the fundamentals. YOU – when you’re starting out don’t go shoot for the moon, it’s always great that your goal is to always shoot for the moon. I had the privilege to actually meet Naveen the guy that always say #moonshot #whatisyourmoonshot, but at the end of the day, when you’re starting out, you want to get your feet wet first to really understand what is going on and to know your market well before you go big and really diversify your business from there. Again, going back into your product and you got to be in your market, you got to basically be like – you know what if I found that product,, if I actually see that ad and I’m in market, I would just pull up my credit card right away.

If you’re able to accomplish that, if you’re able to do that, then the person on the other side the screen will absolutely buy whatever you have for sale. Jon Keller Rico, my brother joining us right now. “What is her moonshot, Fred?” Tthere’s a lot of things that I wanted to do. I’m still discovering it as I go, but that’s where I am at. I don’t know my exact moonshot yet, I think it’s going to develop ask it come. I’m just continuing to do whatever I think is right, continue to do things that I believe can bring a lot of value to you guys and that’s what I’m doing right now. I hope that tip really helps you guys out.

So moving on to the third question of the day is by David D. Villarreal. He said,

Can I create my website on WIX for my business? it’s free to create your own website.

So, David here’s the deal. I don’t know what kind of business you’re in. I don’t know what market you are in. If you’re trying to use eCommerce, WIX is not going to be a solution; however, if you are a maybe a practitioner, you sell some kind of service, you maybe selling insurance or whatever, just got some presence then WIX can be basic enough for you to actually get started. But again, when you start to actually go into a very specific sector inside the online space like eCommerce, you don’t want to use WIX. If you’re trying to go affiliate marketing, WIX may not be the solution for you. If you are trying to create all these kind of lead generation kind of thing or build a sales funnel, WIX is not good for you; however, you just basically wanted a website for me to see what you’re about or actually having a business card, then yeah, WIX cannot really help you out and for you to kickstart right away.

Moving on to the fourth question is by Carlos Julian Blum

When listing products in our store, where can we get videos for that certain product? I haven’t yet seeing product videos in AliExpress . if I use YouTube video, I don’t know how to do it the right way without getting the owner of that view mad at me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Carlos, great thing that you are not ripping YouTube videos stuff off and then simply trying to create an ad and sell it because you may get into copyright infringement problem.  Great stuff that you ask me. Some products on AliExpress,  if you scroll down further down the product description, they will say that there will be a video there, some like really once they’re doing really well do you have some videos. Now if you don’t have a video, it’s actually very easy. All you got to do is simply just order the product on AliExpress and simply just use a camera.

Use your smartphone to do some quick video to the product demonstrating and all those other stuff. What you want to do and lighting you may want a lightbox, it may cost you only $20, but at the end of the day, you don’t need like crazy professional gears. All you need is just a smartphone and you can record it. It’s actually the easiest thing that you can do. Now, here are the tips that I can give you. There are two apps that I always use that really helped me out when I’m creating these video ads or product videos through a mobile phone which is simply using legend and also the other one is video shock. These are amazing stuff and I believe that inside [unclear 0:18:30] is video.

In one of my “Ask Fred Lam show” where I shared step-by-step on how to use it, so definitely check that out. At the end of the day, let me just order the product, it only cost you a couple dollars and then just shoot it with your smartphone and that’s all you need to do.

To the last question of the day is by Hussan Ahmed. He said,

Hello Senpai, love your videos. I was very curious how you spend your profits in your business from what you keep for yourself to what you invest back into ads or other further costs in a percentage?

That’s a really great question that you are asking more of now where do I go once I basically start to do well in my store? Again, it depends on where you’re at, what inspires you and what your lifestyle want to be. For me, I love to continue to scale my business. I love to continue to push forward and I invest majority of the percentage of my profit back into the company and I basically take a salary that is good enough for me to pay for my mortgage, basically pay for my cars, pay to make my daily living expense and I basically just go from there. It’s kind of Elon Musk does. When Elon Musk actually got a big acquisition for PayPal, he took majority of his money going to solar city, going to Tesla and go to SpaceX and he doesn’t really have a lot of money left himself because his goal is to actually continue to push forward to be innovating and to build a bigger Empire.

That’s what he chooses. Now, some people will say I don’t want to grow that big of a business. I just want to keep more profit. I’m just going to invest a little back. So in terms of percentage, it’s really up to you. For me, majority of my businesses, I’m literally just like telling you right now, I just take a monthly salary and all I do is basically invest everything back into my business in terms of research, team members. I’m buying an inventory for the ones that I know it’s going to crush it, simply systemizing my company, scaling up trying different things, so I actually invest a lot back into my business.

I don’t really have a percentage on me because majority are going back into the business so I can continue to grow it and to continue to scale it to a whole new level where I can actually share more of those details to you guys when there’s like a proven model that I know works out really well. I also obviously invest a lot into mentorship, into like people that give me like coaching so I can always elevate my game and up level my game. That’s the new word that’s been used which is up leveling my game.

I hope that you guys enjoy my daily huddle today so leave a comment right below if you guys love it, hate it, dislike it, let me know I read almost every single comment. Let me know right below into the comment box or on the chat box.

Today is Monday so we are going to go ahead into our most anticipated time of the week. Yes, we are now officially going into our kickstart 500. Again, every week I invest into one single individual and I’m going to give up $500 cash to that individual who wins and when that person actually got the $500 cash you are supposed to invest those money into your business, invest into your ads and you’re not getting the next iPhone, iWatch or whatever. That’s not the case. I want you to actually kicked up on your dollar invest in yourself, invest into your knowledge. If you guys want to apply for my kickstart 500 grant, which I select a winner every single week, go to www.fredlam.com/500, and you can actually fill in the application.

Here’s the deal okay,  I don’t want you to give me short answers. There is an application form, we do look through it, we do read them and I want to make sure that there is a game plan that you have. I want you to share me your story or else it’s just a couple word or sentence answer, I’m not going to select you. I want someone that is serious that will take some time to actually apply, then I will actually pick from those places. So for our winner today in our kickstart 500 grant Karen Call. Congratulations for winning our kickstart 500 grant!

Wow she’s in all sorts of businesses right now and she obviously is really in line with wanting to go sell vegan products, wanting to actually make a difference in the climate. So great stuff. She wrote a lot of things which is amazing. Her goal is to actually get Zero Up. Awesome! Sweet! So, congratulations Karen Call. You will get an email from my team on getting you the $500 to you and giving a checklist to you so that when you receive the checklist and actually got your stuff done within 30 days, I will jump on to a one-hour consultation call with you to help you with your business.

Everyone, congratulate Karen. I hope that you’re going to make the best out of it with that $500. Again, if you guys want to apply for my kickstart 500 grant, all you got to do is simply go to www.fredlam.com/500 and you will be able to qualify. Now again, before I go, please like this video, share this video, subscribe to my YouTube channel, follow me on Instagram. You guys want more amazing content and a lot of things. I’m going to be going back to Vancouver this Friday and I got messages from my team that I got some amazing things happening while I’m gone. A lot of things that that I ordered arrived, so there’s going to be some epic things coming in March so definitely check out my videos, subscribe to my YouTube channel, follow me on Instagram, you want to know behind the scene of what is happening and also most importantly my goal is to continue to inspire you guys, provide value and to share my knowledge with every single one of you. I look forward on seeing you guys tomorrow at I don’t know what time, it’s going to be a random time. So other than that, I’ll see you guys soon. Bye now.