ok so been doing this since spring. lurked this section for weeks before i ever posted anything so figured i'd actually contribute something for once
month one was bad ngl. dashboard showed revenue, actual money in my pocket after subscription + ads + fees was like nothing. almost quit week 3 cause sales just stopped for like 4-5 days and i panicked, figured the whole thing was broken
it wasnt broken lol. just needed time for the ad system to stop showing my store to randoms and start finding people who actually buy. stopped messing with my catalog every other day (was constantly swapping products thinking that was the problem) and just left it alone. also started actually asking my growth manager specific stuff instead of just reading her messages and going "ok thanks"
biggest thing that helped - she pointed out like 2-3 products were doing basically all the work and the rest was just sitting there doing nothing. featured those harder. made more difference than anything i tried myself
the cost thing is what gets people i think. its not $39. its $39 + ads + the processing fees on top. if you only budget the $39 youre gonna be confused in month 2 when your card gets hit way harder than expected. learned this the hard way obviously
not saying its been perfect either. had a support ticket take almost a week to get resolved, which was annoying when it felt like my money was just stuck somewhere. got fixed eventually tho. also the reserve thing where you see money on your dashboard but cant touch it yet - that messed with my head for like 2 weeks before someone explained it actually makes sense
anyway if ur a few weeks in and thinking about quitting bc nothing's happening yet - thats probably just normal month one, not a sign to bail. happy to answer stuff if anyone's stuck