Carl Parnell – Automated Dropshipping Mastery
Automated Dropshipping Mastery Is a clear and concise course that will show you how to make your first store, find and list the products, use the automation strategy nobody knows about to generate sales all in your spare time.
The course consists of 8 modules and an introduction. All the modules stick to one topic and expand on it in detail.
Module 1- Picking your niche
This section is pretty barebones. Carl gives you an abysmally small list of categories, most of which won’t even qualify as niches (things like “relationships”). They are broad categories of products that you can base your store around. A niche is generally a targeted topic about a subculture or hobby. His list contains sections that are very broad like Jewelry, Vegan, Christianity which are just the starting points of drilling down into something. In my experience, once you have picked one of these topics, you will still need to do a lot of research and trial and error on products that work for you. Also, most of these categories are already so saturated that you are going to face stiff competition if you follow his lead.
Module 2- Finding your products
This section leads you to Aliexpress and the standard tips about what kind of products and shipping options to look for. He is not breaking any new ground when it comes to this information. There are a lot of potential pitfalls that he completely misses. So much so that someone might get burned due to the incomplete information presented here. He doesn’t delve enough into the psychology behind buying impulse purchase products which are the bread and butter of drop shippers. This is the standard technical tutorial that all courses do, but it’s done in a very lazy and rushed fashion.
Module 3- Store Setup
This section is all about Shopify. This information can be beneficial for those who are new to the Shopify ecosystem. It is pretty well structured as he runs through a brand new store setup himself. This information is generally very fragmented when you try to search online. It is great to have all of it explained concisely and to the point. This section is split into 3 videos as there is just a lot of content here. The three sections are:
- Store Settings
- Importing Your Products
- Designing The Store
Parnell covers the basics of setting up a store in a thorough way, although this information can very easily be found through other sources.
Module 4- Shopify Apps
In this section, Carl runs through common apps like currency converters, social proof sales pop-ups, and more. This is a useful section for dropshippers who are brand new and need familiarity with third-party applications. However, I would argue that one visit to the Shopify app store can inform you much more about the choices you have regarding apps. He also fails to mention that you don’t have to pay for all the apps if you just get a premium Shopify theme. Overall, this section is a thorough explanation, but yet again the information here isn’t exclusive or groundbreaking to justify the cost of the course.
Module 5- Instagram Accounts
This section deals with setting up Instagram accounts and hooking up the accounts with services to get you “automated” followers to make your account seem more authentic. This is a completely useless strategy. This section was when the bubble of making money without paid ads completely burst. Instagram is very good at figuring out bot accounts, and it’s recent API change makes it near impossible to succeed in this way. You are not going to get genuine eyes on your product pages if you resort to these techniques. You are setting yourself up for massive disappointment if you follow these strategies. To actually make money off Instagram marketing, you need to gain your follower’s trust and build a social brand that resonates with them. Once you have a bunch of real followers and that trust is established, then you even consider monetizing your Instagram account. This section is very bad information and makes us question the legitimacy of Parnell’s online presence himself.
Module 6- SalesBrain Automation Setup
This is the most controversial section of the entire course. Once you have set up your Instagram accounts, Carl persuades you to sign up with SalesBrain(now called FlashFunnel.co) to automate Instagram marketing and connecting it with Shopify. While it sounds good at first, you are required to give 25% of your revenue to the app every two weeks. Then there is also the liability of trusting your store’s future on one application. It just creates a very tight dependency. If you cancel the subscription or the company closes down, you are left with a dead store. This step is highly not recommended. It really casts a negative light on the whole course, and almost seems like a paid promotion.
Module 7- Order Fulfilment
In this section, you learn the basics of fulfilling orders from AliExpress. This is a short section that is straightforward and to the point. He touches on the precautions to take while ordering from AliExpress but it could have been explained more.
Module 8 – Scaling Up
In the final section, Carl talks about strategies to scale the store up to the claimed “30K per month”. The strategies are logical though not anything that guarantees wealth. He trivializes the amount of work needed to grow a store that lasts. He also recommends techniques like using VPNs and incognito mode to manage the multiple accounts that you need to create to scale up. Essentially, the advice he gives isn’t bad. It’s not good either. But once again, not anything that’s completely groundbreaking at all.
