Scott Hilse: Simplified Dropshipping Review, Scam or Legit?

Are you thinking of starting your own eCommerce business and wondering if Scott Hilse’s Simplified Dropshipping Course is worth your time and money? You might have seen his ads or videos on social media and have doubts about whether it actually works. I get it – there are so many gurus out there making unrealistic claims about making money online.

But don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. I’ve done some thorough research on Scott Hilse’s course, and in this article, I’ll share everything you need to know about it. 

First things first, I want to make it clear that I’m not affiliated with Scott Hilse. That means I’m not getting paid to write this review for him. So, you can trust that my words are completely unbiased.

In this review, I’ll cover what you can expect from the Simplified Dropshipping Course and give you my honest opinion on whether it’s worth your time and money. Plus, I’ll share a better alternative that has worked for me.

So, let’s get started!

Who is Scott Hilse?

Scott is an Internet entrepreneur. If you’re familiar with the world of dropshipping, you might have come across his YouTube channel or even seen him on some of Oberlo’s tutorial videos. As of now, he has a solid following of around 102K subscribers on YouTube.

If you take a quick look at his LinkedIn page, you’ll see that Scott has been endorsed by some big names in the industry, including Oberlo, Shopify, and Tai Lopez. Impressive, right?

In fact, Scott is featured in Oberlo’s 101 Dropshipping Course, which is a great resource for anyone looking to learn more about the industry. He’s also a member of the Tai Lopez 300 Group, which is an exclusive community that costs $697 to join.

Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative

What is Simplified Dropshipping Course?

Want to learn dropshipping? Scott Hilse has you covered with his Simplified Dropshipping course. This course is designed to be super easy to understand and takes less than three hours to complete – that’s shorter than most movies! Scott has skipped over some important details. So if you decide to take the course, be prepared to do some additional research on your own.

This makes the course unsuitable for newcomers who need step-by-step instructions. If you want to succeed with this course, you’ll have to put in a little extra effort. Remember that Scott goes through the material quickly, so stay focused and take notes.

How does Simplified Dropshipping help you make money?

The Simplified Dropshipping course is all about teaching you how to create a successful dropshipping business, but with a twist. Unlike many other dropshippers, Scott’s approach is all about focusing on a single item.

Yes, you read that right. Just one item. Instead of trying to sell a whole range of products, Scott believes that by honing in on a single, specific product, you can increase your chances of success. In fact, using this method, Scott managed to create not one, not two, but three six-figure stores back in 2017.

On his course landing page, Scott boldly states, “In a world where simplicity is dominating, so should eCommerce. It’s so simple, in fact, that you can build your entire store, fan page, fill your inventory, and launch your first ad in less than 6 HOURS. It’s even possible that you have your first sale in less than 24 HOURS.”

But before you get too excited, let’s be real here. While it’s technically possible to make a sale within 24 hours, it’s not exactly the norm. Unfortunately, many people fall into the trap of thinking that dropshipping is easy and end up losing money due to expensive ad costs.

Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative

The Simplified Dropshipping Course Modules

There are 28 different video lessons in this course, with a total of 2 hours and 49 minutes of viewing time. 

Lesson 1: One Product Store $1600/day Template

In this lesson, Scott Hilse dives right in and shows you how he raised $1,600 in a single day. But he does not mention that it was a 2017 result. And it was just one day, not every day. If you average out the revenue, it appears that less than $300 was earned per day.

When I try to search for Scott Hilse’s Shopify stores: everything-summer.myshopify.com and 1dealatatime.com, they are already closed.

It’s possible that Scott Hilse no longer has any stores. Like most gurus, he probably makes most of his money selling courses, not dropshipping. That’s why he can only show you the old stats.

Lesson 2: Inner Store Set-Up

During this lesson, Scott Hilse goes over setting up a Shopify store. He covers setting up:

• General Store setup
• Checkout settings
• Refund Policy, Terms of Service, Privacy Policy
• Adding Pages (Policies, Contact pages) 
• Adding Menu items
• Shipping Zones
• Payment Providers
• Picking a Plan for your store.

You expect the pro to give you some insider tips, but unfortunately, Scott only spits out the knowledge you can get for free on YouTube. If you are just starting out, you’ll obviously find this helpful, but I would not bother paying for it.

Lesson 3: Buying & Connecting a Domain 

In this lesson, Scott Hilse suggests the use of Google Domains. He demonstrates how to find a domain name, register it, and then connect it to a Shopify store.

Lesson 4: Setting Up Your Facebook Page

In this lesson, Scott Hilse shows you how to set up your Facebook business page, including how to use Canva to design a logo (cover image), a banner, and a button that redirects visitors to your website.

Lesson 5: Business Ad Account + Pixel Setup

In this lesson, Scott Hilse will walk you through the process of opening a Facebook business account from scratch.

Lesson 6: Product Research

In this lesson, Scott Hilse shows you how he finds products using Facebook, Google Trends, AliExpress, and Google.

Lesson 7: Importing Your First Product

In this lesson, Scott Hilse shows you how to import your first product into your Shopify store using Oberlo.

Lesson 8: Testing Your Pixel

In Shopify Payment Providers, Scott shows how to use trial mode. You can also get this information elsewhere for free.

Lesson 9: The Freedom Funnel

The so-called freedom funnel is nothing more than a bunch of free apps Scott installed on his website to improve his conversion rate. Scott explains how to set up abandoned cart apps and countdown timer apps.

Lesson 10: Getting Tons of FREE Page Likes in Seconds

If you want tons of free Facebook page likes, Scott advises inviting all your Facebook friends to like the page. In reality, that doesn’t work.

Lesson 11: Understand This Before Proceeding to Facebook Ads

Scott Hilse begins this lesson with a disclaimer. Before you start Facebook Ads training, Scott Hilse warns you that you must be prepared to lose money. That may sound paradoxical, but it’s good advice.

Even the pros make mistakes from time to time when it comes to running ads. You may spend more than $1,000 on ads in a six-week period, but only make $100 in sales.

Lesson 12: Launching Your First Facebook Ad – Method #1

The video in this lesson shows you how to create a Facebook ad with video. Scott Hilse moves very quickly through this, so it can be difficult for beginners to understand his steps. Once you have created the ad, Scott Hilse shows you how to launch it in Facebook’s Ads Manager.

Lesson 13: Launching Your First Facebook Ad – Method #2

Again, Scott Hilse shows you how to use a video to generate interest in your product/store. This time he relies on humor in hopes that the video will be shared frequently and go viral. He finds a funny niche-specific YouTube video and posts it again.

Lesson 14: Getting Tons of Facebook Targeted Page Likes From Your Ads

Scott Hilse shows you how to find out who liked your ads on Facebook. Then invite them to your Facebook page/store.

Lesson 15: Order Fulfillment

In this lesson, Scott Hilse teaches you how to use Oberlo to place orders with your suppliers quickly and easily

Lesson 16: From 0 to 100 Orders: Facebook Ads Strategy

In this lesson, Scott Hilse explains how to target specific areas for your video ads based on insights from interactions with your video ad.

Lesson 17: When to Form an LLC

In this lesson, Scott Hilse explains when you should form an LLC. He also suggests a company you should use to register an LLC.

Lesson 18: When & How To Outsource

In this lesson, Scott Hilse explains what tasks you should outsource and what websites you can use to find a virtual assistant.

Lesson 19: From 100 to 10,000+ Orders: Advanced FB Ads Strategy (LAAs)

In this lesson, Scott Hilse recommends creating Lookalike Audiences once you reach 100 orders and introduces you to his scaling method. Scott Hilse hopes you will then exceed 10,000 orders.

Lesson 20: Manual Bidding

How Scott Hilse manually bids on ads: Scott Hilse shows you his method of manual bidding.

Lesson 21: Converting To A Niche Store

Scott Hilse suggests that you convert your Shopify store to a niche store once your product is no longer selling well. Scott Hilse shows you how to purchase a new domain and set up a Shopify store, and you need to create a Facebook business page.

Lesson 22: When & How to Sell Your Store

Scott Hilse explains what the Shopify exchange is all about and when it’s a good time to sell your store. However, he does not show you exactly how to go about it.

Lesson 23: What You Can Do With Results To Take On Clients (Extra Passive Income!) 

Sales prove that your Facebook ads and methods are working. In this lesson, Scott Hilse suggests that you can then coach small businesses to run ads for them or run their own. This lesson is only 2 minutes long, so there is no help or insight for people who want to profit from this business model.

Lesson 24: Sam Walton’s Price/Steve Jobs Method

In this lesson, Scott Hilse explains his pricing strategy that combines the knowledge of Sam Walton, Steve Jobs, and Jeff Bezos. However, it does not explain exactly how to price your product.

Lesson 25: Multiple Product Method

This lesson does not make much sense to me. Scott Hilse has only ever dealt with single-product businesses, and now there are multiple products. He does not suggest when or how to include multiple products in your store.

Lesson 26: Managing Online Reputation

This lesson shows you a fairly simple way to manage your reputation on your phone. You basically keep track of all the comments in your Facebook feed and delete anything negative.

Lesson 27: How to Get FREE Targeted Traffic

In this lesson, Scott Hilse suggests joining niche-specific forums and linking to your product if you do not have a big advertising budget or if you want to test products. But in reality, this method does not work at all.

Lesson 28: Outro

In this final lesson, Scott Hilse thanks you for taking this course, wishes you the best of luck and encourages you to keep learning. Scott Hilse also gives you some advice on using certain mobile apps to simplify your life.

Bonus

You’ll have access to Scott’s mentoring Facebook group, where he promises to personally guide you and answer all your questions. You can also participate in weekly Q&A Live Calls.

Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative

How much does Simplified Dropshipping cost?

Simplified Dropshipping is not cheap. It costs $497. I think it is overpriced because there are other, cheaper alternatives on the market.

Also, a lot of the information in this course can be found online for free. So I would not invest $497 in this course.

Are students getting any results?

You may have come across Scott Hilse’s students boasting about their huge profits from dropshipping. But, in my opinion, these claims might not be all they seem.

You see, many of these screenshots only show the revenue, not the associated expenses. And when it comes to dropshipping, expenses can add up quickly. Advertising, for instance, can eat up a significant portion of your profits, sometimes even resulting in a loss.

While a 20% profit margin may sound impressive, it’s not uncommon for dropshippers to make as little as 5% in some months. And with the rising costs of advertising on platforms like Facebook, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to turn a profit.

So, before you sign up for a dropshipping course, always ask about the profit margin. And be aware that dropshipping isn’t the goldmine it used to be. 

While it was possible to make a quick buck a few years ago, the game has changed, and it’s even changed for the gurus who made their money selling courses. To learn more, you can check out my article about the dropshipping success rate. 

Praise for Simplified Dropshipping

1. It covers most basic topics of dropshipping

With Scott Hilse’s course, you’ll learn the ins and outs of dropshipping, from finding the right products to sell to setting up your online store. You’ll also learn how to use Facebook ads to drive traffic to your store and increase your sales.

Criticism of Simplified Dropshipping

1. Some concepts are unclear and rushed

Scott Hilse’s course may leave you feeling confused and overwhelmed at times. He tends to breeze through important concepts without providing clear explanations, which can be frustrating for beginners. Additionally, his fast-paced teaching style can make it difficult to keep up with what he’s saying.

2. Bold claims that are not realistic

Some of the claims Scott makes are too good to be true. While he promises that his strategies will quickly help you make thousands of dollars in profit, the reality is that most dropshippers actually end up losing money.

3. Overpriced for basic content

The Simplified Dropshipping course is on the pricey side, especially considering that much of the content can be found for free on YouTube. Furthermore, the course doesn’t offer any insider tips or secrets that you can’t find elsewhere.

4. Outdated stats

Another downside of the course is that Scott Hilse tends to rely on outdated statistics. This means that some of the information he presents may no longer be accurate or relevant to current market conditions.

Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative

Is Scott Hilse a scam?

I can’t say that Scott Hilse is a scam. At least, I’ve no evidence to say that. However, that doesn’t mean that I recommend this course.

It’s possible that he’s a successful dropshipper. However, his course is very basic and most of the content can be found for free on YouTube. 

Also, dropshipping isn’t easy at all. There are still many people who think dropshipping is easy, and Scott Hilse perpetuates this false impression.

You may see many screenshots of sales posted by people as testimonials, but they don’t show you the cost. So you don’t know what the actual net profit is.

Even if you can double or even triple the cost of an item, you still have to subtract all your expenses, of which advertising is the biggest.

I know dropshippers who don’t make more than 5% profit in some months. Do the math. You’ll see that even at 20% profit, the numbers aren’t all that impressive. Given the cost of advertising on social media, some dropshippers are even losing money on their marketing campaigns.

In the next section, I’ll tell you more about the problems of dropshipping that Scott Hilse tends to hide from you when selling his course.

4 Reasons Why I Quit Dropshipping

I wanted to share with you my experience in dropshipping and why I decided to quit. It’s been a rollercoaster ride, but there are a few things I learned that I wish I knew before I started.

1. You have to take a huge financial risk

One of the biggest reasons I quit dropshipping is the financial risk. Your dropshipping store won’t sell anything if you don’t advertise, and unfortunately, Facebook ads can be quite expensive. 

In fact, the total cost of Facebook ads can account for at least 30% of your total sales, and the learning curve of Facebook ads is steep because the algorithm changes all the time. Plus, Facebook ad costs are skyrocketing, so you might need weeks or even months to break even and see any profit.

2. Dealing with customer service and suppliers is time-consuming

Another thing that made me quit dropshipping is the amount of time you have to spend communicating with suppliers and dealing with customer service. If your customer has any issues with the product, you have to wait for your supplier to help you, which can be frustrating. 

Unfortunately, many dropshipping stores have poor customer reviews and no returning customers because of these issues. In the worst case, you could experience a lot of credit card chargebacks, which could risk getting your payment gateway shut down.

3. You’ve got to keep finding winners

In dropshipping, you always have to find a product that has the momentum to go viral so that the ad costs can be covered. Unfortunately, most products reach their peak in just 1-2 months or even weeks. This is because many competitors will steal your product and create a better ad or increase their budgets on Facebook ads to outbid you. Therefore, you need to keep finding new replacements to keep generating cash flow.

4. Low profit margin

Lastly, many dropshippers might post their revenue online, but they don’t tell you the net revenue. Some of them might be making money, but it’s not sustainable. You have to be careful about the cost of running your store and the profit margins.

Is there a better alternative to dropshipping?

If you are new to online business, you may ask if there is a better business model that doesn’t need Facebook ads and can do it as a side hustle.

Yes, I would suggest you get started with affiliate marketing. It is far easier and less time-consuming as you don’t even need to handle customer service.

In affiliate marketing, you can run your business at almost zero cost. Most importantly, you don’t need to invest in creating and developing any products.

But How Much Can You Earn in Affiliate Marketing?

A 21-year-old student from my #1 recommended training platform of affiliate marketing was able to earn $7,395 in just 1 week, which means he made more than $1k a day…all while using free traffic methods and affiliate marketing.

Wealthy Affiliate has existed for more than 10 years and there are many success stories over the years.

To give you more examples, here are some of the other inspiring success stories of Wealthy Affiliate members.

Where to Join Wealthy Affiliate?

Wealthy Affiliate has a very simple pricing scheme. It has a free and premium membership.

If you want to feel about Wealthy Affiliate, you can sign up for the starter membership here (no credit card required). You can select to be a free member with no time limit.

And as a starter member, you can get instant access to the community, live chat, over 500 training modules, 2 classrooms, networking, commenting, 1 free website, and access to the keyword tool.

You can enjoy all these values without paying a penny.

So I strongly recommend you register a free account and see it yourself.

Recommendation: Here’s The Best Alternative