The dropshipping space is full of fake gurus that are simply out to make a quick buck out of you.
This article will cover how they manipulate results, how they fake their lifestyle, and how you can avoid these fake dropshipping gurus.
What Is A Shopify Dropshipping Guru?
According to Wikipedia, the term guru comes from Sanskrit and basically means ‘teacher, expert or master’.
Essentially, a dropshipping guru is someone who has seen a great deal of success in dropshipping and is willing to share their recipes to success with their audience online.
This could be a beautiful thing where real, successful e-commerce masters become gurus and help others in their pursuit of financial freedom.
Sadly, the internet is a dark place where things can easily be faked.
The internet is a place where so-called ‘influencers’ can rent a fake private plane to take their Instagram pictures and boast their supposed wealth.
…Or where dropshipping gurus rent Lamborghinis and AIRBNBs to make their audience believe they have ‘made it’.
How Can You Spot A Fake Dropshipping Guru?
Fake gurus are honestly pretty easy to spot, if you know where to look.
The first thing you need to know is that fake dropshipping gurus LOVE to show you that they have made it.
Do you constantly see advertisements where a supposed guru is sitting on top of a lamborghini or showing you around his beach-side villa only to finish the advertisement with something along the lines of ‘I can show you how YOU can become wealthy too?’
Yep, thats a fake dropshipping guru.
There’s 3 big signs they are fake dropshipping gurus:
- They feel the need to put their wealth in front of your face to make you feel like you’re missing out, this is called FOMO-advertising (Fear Of Missing Out)
- They tell you you can also become wealthy, all you have to do is buy their course
- They feel the need to spam you with advertisements until you buy their course (aggressive selling)
Why do we call these people ‘fake dropshipping gurus’?
Because they are using aggressive marketing techniques to get you to purchase their course.
This incites a lot of people who have no business starting a business, to start a business.
Essentially, these fake dropshipping gurus are selling of the dropshipping busines-model as a get-rich-quick-scheme.
This is wrong, dropshipping is not a get-rich-quick-scheme. It requires hard work and dedication.
No that 999 dollar course (or whatever they charge) is not going to make you rich.
That course is merely an A-Z guide on how you can start an online business using the dropshipping model.
It’s nothing more than that. But fake dropshipping gurus will pass it off as an easy way to get rich, this is completely false.
Basically, anyone who tells you you can become rich by buying their course, is a fake guru.
They aren’t out there to help you gain financial freedom, they are out there to make a quick buck out of you.
How Shopify Dropshipping Gurus Scam You And Fake Results
Youtuber ‘Start Starting Up’ created a funny and educational video of how Shopify gurus scam their audience.
If you prefer visuals, its a great watch.
If you just want the gist, here it is:
By using the ‘inspect source’ option in your right-click menu, you can change data on any webpage in the world.
This also applies to your Shopify dashboard. So this way you can easily make the dashboard display any amount of sales you want.
Want 1,000,000 dollars in sales? Simply change the number and poof, you’re a guru.
But that’s not even the most shocking method.
Shopify will let you ‘create’ ANY order you want on your orders page!
That’s right, you can add hundreds of orders manually and make it appear as if your store is doing well!
So yeh, anyone can fake the Shopify sales numbers.
A screenshot, incoming notifications, and even someone showing their ‘live dashboard’ these things can all be faked.
Who Are The Good Dropshipping Gurus?
Now you may be thinking: are there good dropshipping gurus out there and who are they?
There are definitely some good dropshipping gurus out there.
But heres the thing, these people wouldn’t dare call themselves gurus.
I don’t want to endorse anyone and say ‘this is a real guru’ but I do want to show you some dropshippers I find have valuable information online.
One of those people is Gabriel St-Germain, who previously posted a lot of useful guides and case studies on his youtube channel.
However, he hasn’t posted since November of 2019 and is now dedicating all of his attention to creating private-label brands instead of dropshipping.
Another Youtuber with free Shopify dropshipping guides is Kamil Sattar (also known as The Ecom King) who shares many free dropshipping guides on his youtube channel.
Is Dropshipping Legit, Can You Make Money With It?
Once you realize how many fake gurus there are out there promoting the dropshipping business-model, I understand it might be difficult to see the good in the dropshipping business model.
Dropshipping is still a legit business-model though.
Fake gurus have made it look easy and make it appear to be a get-rich-quick-scheme but if you see it simply for what it is: a business model, then it can still be your ticket to financial freedom.
Wow I’m almost starting to sound like a guru there. 😛
(I promise I have no courses to sell you…)
All jokes aside, I believe dropshipping is still a great business model that opens doors to passionate entrepreneurs with limited startup-capital.
People see dropshipping as simply re-selling cheap AliExpress products but it’s so much more than that.
There is print on demand dropshipping that allows you to start a store with your own custom designs.
There is private labeling where you start a store selling your own branded product.
You can use your own dropshipping agent in China.
And there are literally hundreds of thousands of dropshipping suppliers out there that are NOT AliExpress.
There are simply so many directions you can go with this dropshipping model.
So if you’ve ever dreamed of starting an eCommerce store, dropshipping is definitely worth checking out.
Our blog covers a wide variety of dropshipping topics and gets updated almost daily.
Conclusion
Through exotic rental car companies, fancy Airbnb villas, and fake private jet photoshoots, anyone can become a fake dropshipping guru.
Luckily, now you know just how easy it is to fake all of these things!
It’s easy to seem rich by simply renting a lamborghini for an hour and shooting an advertisement.
Just like it’s dead-easy to fake your Shopify sales numbers.
So next time you see flashy Shopify Dashboards that make you feel like you’re missing out and they have the magic recipe…
Think of this article and don’t buy their course. 😉