Although the dropshipping business model sounds fairly straightforward, there are quite a few things you must grasp to make it work.
As a result, teaching dropshipping has become an industry of its own.
Luckily, however, you don't need to break the bank to learn dropshipping.
In this guide, we'll show you how to learn dropshipping faster without spending money on a course.
Our 9 tips on how you can learn dropshipping faster in 2024
Where there's a will, there's a way.
If you're intentional about learning dropshipping fast without buying a course, you can do it.
The methods below are not the only ones you can use, but they'll facilitate a solid takeoff.
1. Just start: Practice makes perfect
We've all been told the same thing from childhood—practice makes perfect.
As we grow, we acknowledge and appreciate the truth of that statement.
That statement holds when you're learning dropshipping.
Most people are introduced to dropshipping through YouTube videos. This isn't a bad thing.
However, if you truly want to be a successful dropshipper, you must stop watching dopamine-inducing videos and start taking action. Learn on the move.
Here's why.
After watching two or three videos, the narrative usually starts recurring.
You start to realize that all the "gurus" you learn from regurgitate the same information but package it differently.
The silver lining, however, is that if you're keen enough, you'll notice all the fundamental steps of dropshipping from the videos, i.e.,
- Conduct market research.
- Pick a niche.
- Identify a problem in that niche.
- Find a product that solves the problem.
- Build a website.
- Run ads.
- Fulfill orders and provide customer support.
- Rinse, repeat.
Instead of watching more YouTube videos or reading more blog posts, get into the first step and start digging deeper.
For instance, by conducting market research you'll learn interesting things like audience segments, their cultures, how that affects their decision-making, and their purchasing power.
Alternatively, if you do product research, you'll learn about the numerous platforms and product research tools you can use to expedite product research with high accuracy.
You'll never learn any of these things from watching a hyped, superficial "How to make $10,000 a month dropshipping" video from a guru who's never dropshipped anything.
It's possible to make a decent income dropshipping, but not like that.
2. Learn from free online resources
We've already said to stop watching and start doing, and that's true.
But there's a healthy way to still watch and learn.
One of the beauties of the internet is that whatever problem you're experiencing right now, someone else experienced, solved, and documented it online.
The trick to learning from their experience is specificity.
And this is where the ability to articulate your problem in detail helps you reach an existing solution.
But what does that look like in reality? Here's an example.
Searching "How to make $10,000 a month dropshipping" doesn't do you much good.
Why?
It isn't specific and, therefore, doesn't give you actionable steps. It simply brushes over important information.
Comparatively, searching "best free product research tools for dropshipping" is a much better search query.
It goes over the tools you can use to find dropshipping products with the potential to sell—this is a properly articulated question.
You can find free resources on dedicated blogs like Do Dropshipping, online communities like Reddit, and YouTube.
The only caveat of this strategy is that it only works if you take action. By taking action, you run into specific problems that lead you to specific resources.
Does that make sense?
Tip: Check out our Learn for Free category page for more inspiration on where to learn about dropshipping for free.
3. Allow yourself to make mistakes and learn from them
Let's face it: perfection is the enemy of progress. And nobody is perfect.
Reaching for perfection wastes your time and slows your growth.
If you expect everything to flow seamlessly from the onset, I've got news for you—it won't.
It doesn't matter how good you think you are; you'll make tons of mistakes when you start learning dropshipping.
But guess what?
That's fine. It's a new venture.
So, embrace your mistakes and learn from them.
You weren't born a web developer, so your first website will probably be embarrassing.
But it's only by building a bad website that you'll learn how to build a good one.
Mistakes help you understand what works and what doesn't. Failing is a part of the dropshipping process.
Whenever you fail, assess the situation, figure out what you did wrong, pick up the pieces, and move on.
Don't sulk or beat yourself up. It will be difficult initially, but you'll toughen up with every failure.
4. Develop a learning routine
Learning is a lifelong process.
It's a major requirement of continuous improvement, which is what you want.
If you spare time to acquire new information proactively, you will consistently grow your dropshipping business.
A few benefits of developing a learning routine include:
- Improved time management. By creating time to learn, you'll be able to separate your learning time from other daily commitments.
- Effective resource utilization. More information helps you spend less testing or developing products. For instance, learning how to write good ad copy will help you increase your conversion rate, consequently getting more value per dollar.
- Avoiding procrastination. Without structure, it's easy to get overwhelmed and put things off. However, a solid learning curriculum is a great learning incentive because you know exactly what you need to be doing and when.
- Habit formation. When you follow a learning routine long enough, it becomes a habit. This helps you counter the feeling of despair when things don't work. It'll also help you build consistency, a key ingredient of mastering dropshipping.
As you learn, remember to take notes. Not only does note-taking help enhance retention, but the notes also become a resource you can refer to later.
5. Find a mentor
Mentors can expedite the process to dropshipping success, but only if they're experienced and willing to invest their time in you.
They can help you avoid common pitfalls, saving you money and time.
But, you must be careful as you look for a mentor.
If you're an avid reader of this blog, you've probably noticed our disdain for self-proclaimed dropshipping "gurus" with nothing to show for their success.
These gurus make a living by preying on beginners and selling them weak courses.
They position themselves as selfless mentors that move mountains to help you succeed.
In reality, they don't care about you—only your money. Plus, most of them don't have hands-on dropshipping experience.
The best way to find a mentor is through referral.
Do you know an active dropshipper? Ask them to refer you to a mentor they know.
Or, if they're up to it, ask them to mentor you.
This way, you'll find an honest person with the necessary skill set to mentor you.
Remember, It's okay if you can't find a mentor; keep taking action and focus on the task ahead. It's the best way to learn.
If you find a mentor, good for you!
However, always research your problems before asking questions. Your mentor is probably busy.
By asking them questions you can Google, you risk coming off as lazy and unmotivated, and the mentor might feel like you're wasting their time.
Being informed shows initiative, which may strengthen the bond with your mentor.
Alternatively, only reach out to your mentor when you're stuck on a problem or need advice to make a major decision.
6. Join a community
A community is one of the best places to learn to dropship faster.
There are several reasons for this:
- It helps you tap into members' expertise. Every online community has members who are far more experienced than you. By asking them the right questions, you can get valuable tips to grow your business.
- It helps you gain new perspectives. When you open your mind to learning in a group setting, you can see things from other people's perspectives. This can help you tackle your marketing in different ways.
- It helps you team up with growth-mates. When you stay in a group long enough, you start to make friends with people in your growth phase. Growthmates can hold you accountable and keep you on the right path by honestly critiquing your work.
- It helps you keep your mental health in check. As you delve into dropshipping and lose money in the early stages, frustration, anxiety, and even panic can overrun you. Seeing other people failing and trying again keeps your mental health in check.
- It keeps you up to date with trends. Trends are short-lived, and obsessing over them can be detrimental because you can't build a long-term business on trends. However, knowing what makes products popular can inform your product research efforts.
That being said, only join a handful of communities so you can keep up.
Find a community where discourse is respectful, healthy, and valuable. Also, ensure it caters to the people in your current growth stage.
To get you started, we recommend finding communities on platforms like Reddit, Facebook groups, and Discord.
Tip: Did you know that we have a Facebook Group as well? Check it out here!
7. Avoid the get-rich-quick mindset
We all want to be successful as quickly as possible, but Rome wasn't built in a day.
Dropshipping is a real business.
All the principles of starting and running a normal business apply here.
You must be tenacious, passionate, focused, customer-centric, financially literate, and strategic to succeed.
A get-rich-quick mindset will cause you to deplete your budget quickly, become anxious, drain all your energy, fail, abandon the dropshipping business, and worse, probably become a dropshipping fearmonger… haha.
I hope it doesn't come to that.
To get around this mindset, take time to plan.
Some of the things you can do to prepare yourself include:
- Raising a sufficient amount to start the business and keeping it in a separate account from your savings.
- Registering a business with your local government.
- Research your target audience.
- Creating an emotional management system. For instance, when you get overwhelmed, take a break and take an aerial view of your business. Notice what you're doing well and where you're going wrong, and then get back into it.
- Setting goals and realistic time frames to achieve them. You can review them to help you reset your focus whenever you feel down.
Approaching dropshipping as a long-term investment is fundamental to your success.
Conversely, a get-rich-quick mindset guarantees failure.
8. Don't give up
Starting a dropshipping business is daunting. Getting overwhelmed in the initial stages of learning is normal.
It's worse if you get your information from a dropshipping "guru."
"Gurus" make it sound like learning dropshipping is an impossible task you can't undertake alone.
They position their courses as the silver bullet you need to succeed.
In these courses, they claim to share everything they've learned running their businesses.
But in reality, the courses are nothing more than regurgitated content from other internet sources.
Luckily for you, we've got your back.
With the right mindset, devotion, and patience, you can become a successful dropshipper, just don't give up.
Make mistakes, but learn from them:
- If a product fails, dump it and find another.
- If a marketing angle fails, try a different one.
- If you deplete your budget, save up and get back on the horse.
- If your ad account is closed, reach out to customer support.
Whatever you do, don't give up!
9. Ask better questions
Better questions advance your dropshipping knowledge.
Here's what that looks like.
The first time you came across dropshipping, your first question was probably, "What is dropshipping?"
But your questions became more specific the more you learned.
When you take action, you learn more about the business and ask more specific questions about various aspects that make the business work.
When this happens, you get better answers and solutions.
Another example:
Instead of asking, "Where in China can I buy products to dropship?"
You can ask, "Which dropshipping suppliers can deliver to the customer in four days?"
And more importantly, "Which dropshipping directory has the highest-quality suppliers?"
The last two questions are more specific and will give you more value than the first one.
But the only way you'll know to ask them is if you've studied enough material to know that it's possible to cut your shipping time by finding suppliers in supplier directories.
So, stay curious, consume as much information about dropshipping as possible, and always remember to interrogate or test theories before implementing them.
How long does it take to learn dropshipping?
The duration it takes you to learn dropshipping depends on factors like your availability, budget, access to learning resources, support from mentors, and commitment.
There are more factors, but these greatly impact your progress when starting out.
You're likely to find success faster if you commit more time and resources and take more action.
It's also worth noting that your unfair advantage plays a big role in your success.
For instance, if you have Shopify web development experience, you can save money by designing your website. You can spend the time you save here learning a different skill.
If you have access to more money, you can afford to make more mistakes and learn faster by testing more products. And if you don't have a nine-to-five job, you have more time to earn more skills simultaneously and keep your expenses low.
Whatever your unfair advantage is, lean into it to learn dropshipping faster.
Taking action
Reading and absorbing information and knowledge is great (definitely if it’s free!), but do you know what’s even better?
Taking action!
So, to help you with taking action with what you have learned in this article, take a look at the bullet points:
- Don't get stuck on analysis paralysis. Start now with whatever you have and learn as you go.
- Use material that's freely available online to expedite your learning process and keep your expenses low.
- Develop a learning routine and stick to it.
- If you can, find a mentor. They'll help you avoid common pitfalls.
- Join a community and share knowledge with your peers. Peers are a great source of knowledge and psyche to keep you going.
- Don't fall for the get-rich-quick mindset. A dropshipping business is a business like any other and it takes time to grow.
- Whatever you do, don't give up. If you try long enough, something will give.
- Consume enough information to ask meaningful questions.
Conclusion
Dropshipping is a simple business model. However, equipping yourself with high-quality information is essential to succeeding.
To this end, the methods we've covered above are sure ways to move from beginner to expert level.
The time it takes you to advance from one level to the next will depend on your commitment, focus, and effort.
You'll get more if you give more.
The best part of learning dropshipping is that you don't need to spend a dime to learn anything. As long as you have an internet connection and a computer, you can learn as much as you want.
If you start today, you'll be proud of yourself in a few weeks.
All the best!
Want to learn more about dropshipping?
Ready to move your dropshipping store to the next level? Check out the articles below:
- Are Paid Dropshipping Courses Worth the Money in 2024?
- Where to Learn Dropshipping and Ecommerce in 2024 for Free?
- How Can a Dropshipping Store Compete With Amazon in 2024?
Plus, don’t forget to check out our in-depth guide on how to start dropshipping here!
