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How Ben Knegendorf Grew His Dropshipping Podcast to 100,000 Downloads in Under a Year
- Who: Ben Knegendorf
- Website: dropshipbreakthru.com
- Course Topic: Dropshipping
- Interesting Stats: 100,000 downloads on our podcast in just under a year
Who are you and what course have you created?
Created by Ben Knegendorf & Jon Warren, Dropship Breakthru is a proven and unique 5 step system (developed over seven years) that will enable you to successfully start your first online business in the next 30 days.
What market does your online course serve?
We teach people how to start a high-ticket dropshipping e-commerce business.
Dropshipping in today’s age gets a bad rap as it’s often associated with Aliexpress, turn-and-burn websites, and the latest guru standing next to his rented Lambo.
However, dropshipping has been around for 20+ years, and Jon and Ben pride themselves on teaching the most sustainable version of dropshipping by teaching students how to build a high-ticket retail e-commerce business.
What’s the biggest benefit of taking your course?
You’ll learn from two entrepreneurs who’ve used this business model to build and sell 10+ businesses and have taken stores to 8 figures+. They’ve been in the trenches, been successful, and now have built a course to make the next generation’s journey shorter and hopefully more accessible.
How did you get into the market?
Jon and Ben have been operating in this business model since 2014 and 2015. You can hear both of their stories on The Dropship Podcast episodes 9 and 15, respectively.
Why did you decide to create an online course in the first place?
Jon & Ben have been consulting other high-ticket dropshippers for years and continue to see entrepreneurs stumbling on the same issues in growth. The business model is simple, and Ben and Jon give it away on The Dropship Podcast. But it takes a specific marketing form that wasn’t taught anywhere else.
Did you have any moments of doubt before you created/launched it?
No, simply because of the years of experience we both had.
What’s your online course like?
Every module is filled with videos, some of which are talking head-type videos, and others, where necessary, are looking over the shoulder as Jon does the task on his screen so you can set it up on yours. An example or two would be, building a Shopify site, setting up google ads, etc.
How long did it take you to create your course?
Most of it was being taught through consulting already, so organizing and re-recording took the most time. Most of the course was recorded in one month.
Tell us a little about the process of launching your course and getting your first sale(s).
This task was split into two parts.
- Jon created a webinar funnel in which he taught the first steps of starting this business model.
- Ben and Jon launched The Dropship Podcast, which addressed the customer journey one podcast at a time.
Do you have a lead magnet?
Yes, a webinar funnel. One of the first things people often cite as a hurdle is finding high-ticket dropshipping suppliers. - Andy Healy Click To TweetSo, we give that away for free in our webinar.
What’s the traffic strategy that works best for you?
Easily the podcast. Ben has extensive experience here and is also quite good at SEO. So, he married the two, and it worked wonderfully.
By simply researching to find out the questions people were asking around dropshipping, then organizing that into a customer journey, Ben could outline the first couple dozen episodes of the podcast giving listeners the perfect onramp to the business model and both of the founders.
If you look at the first few episodes of our podcast, you’ll understand what I mean. Imagine someone stumbling onto the term dropshipping or high ticket dropshipping; what would their next steps or questions be? Here’s how that looks in our podcast.
- What is dropshipping?
- What is high-ticket drop shipping?
- High ticket vs. low ticket dropshipping
- How much does it cost to start dropshipping?
- Is dropshipping too competitive?
What online course platform are you using?
We use Kajabi.
Kajabi is the All-In-One Course Platform
Kajabi is one of the top online course platforms used by successful course creators interviewed on coursemethod.com. Kajabi includes email marketing and other tools that make it easy to run your entire business from their platform.
- Price Range: $149 to $399/month
- Most Popular Plan: Growth Plan at $199/month
- Annual Discount: Yes, take 20% off!
- Free Trial: Get a 14-day free trial (credit card required)
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Do you like it?
It does everything we need it to do.
Are there any features you wish it had?
No.
What made you decide to use your chosen platform over others?
It does everything we need it to do.
What other tools do you use to run your online course business?
You’ll need something on the payments side – we use Stripe.
We also have a membership community – we use Slack for this.
What books or training programs have you found useful on your journey to a successful business owner that others might find valuable too?
Oh boy, this list could be extensive. Breakthrough Advertising is a great place to start.
Do you have any big mistakes you’ve made along the way that you’d be willing to share?
Frankly, we should have done this a lot sooner. That’s the biggest mistake I see. Jon has been on my case for YEARS to teach the cool stuff we’ve been doing, and it took a big exit and some downtime during the pandemic to convince me.
Please share some idea of revenue.
Our course sales mirror the journey of our podcast downloads. The biggest takeaway is don’t stop. Compounding is fun.
Please tell us a little about what the money you’ve earned from your course has done for you.
Income is great, but that can’t be why you do this. It just can’t. For me, the contribution is a significant value in my life. -Andy Healy Click To TweetCouple that with the fact that e-commerce changed the trajectory of my life in drastic ways, and you have a recipe for happiness which is all we should be striving for.
Jon and I, daily, get reminders of how many lives we’ve been able to impact. That is worth more than what vacation we’ve been able to take or what house we’ve bought.
In addition to revenue are there any numbers you would like to share?
One considerable number that has stood out to me is that we did 100,000 downloads on our podcast in just under a year. Amazing right? Well, in the 30 days following that milestone, we did 40,000 downloads. Keep going.
What has creating your course done for you personally?
It’s taught me that the BS I was taught as a kid and what I hear many other influencers say — Business is hard — is not valid. This has been the most straightforward project I’ve worked on and also the most rewarding.
Do you have a story of a transformation from any of your clients?
We get “first sale” stories weekly, and those are some of our favorites simply because who doesn’t remember that first sale moment? It’s something that sticks with you forever and something we enjoy celebrating with our students.
What advice do you have for people just starting out?
Know your shit. If you haven’t done it, it will be challenging for you to teach.
Alternatively, teaching and mentoring others can seem like a breeze if you have done it.
Learn more about Ben Knegendorf of dropshipbreakthru.com:
- Website: dropshipbreakthru.com
- Podcast
