eCommerce & Blogging !

validseo said:

E-commerce is my bread and butter.

1. Make your store a store. Keep it simple and basic. Make it pretty and not cluttered. Minimize every click you can for the shopper so they can add to cart and check out with minimal effort and confusion while still easily being able to find what they want.

2. Make your blog a completely separate website... put your editorial content in the blog... complete looks, buying guides, season gift guides, projects, etc go in posts in the blog. Ads and links on blogs enter into the store for conversion.

3. Find similar audiences in facebook for your customers from your store and market blog posts as sponsored stories to the similar audiences.

Truth is... if you execute ALL of your channels successfully then SEO will ultimately be 5-15% of your gross sales. If you do an "SEO only" store your are starting at a 85-95% disadvantage. SEO amounts to millions of dollars of my sales... so it is totally worth doing, but if that is all you do then you are giving up SOOOOO much more and SEO is slower than the other channels. If you are bootstrapping a start up e-com store then an "SEO only" strategy is the worst thing you could do IMO. SEO comes into full effect in the second year and probably shouldn't be the majority of your revenue if you diversify from the onset.

Going with a store platform like shopify can keep your start up costs low allowing you to focus on your marketing, fulfillment, buying, and customer service early on. Reduce variables where you can.

When I started I sourced product from China at $0.25 per unit and sold online in the US with free shipping at $15.00 per unit... I could replace a whole order with no questions asked and still make 30% profit. I accounted for my time and landed costs, and bad units received... if you do all the math then you are the house in Vegas and there is simply no way to lose... but you have to be deep in every detail early on and map it all out so you know what you can spend to still make a profit (including the time you invest).

When I started I had a day job. So I would package orders in the evening and drop them off at the post office on my way into work in the morning...that part was a lot of fun and it worked well for moonlighting an online store.

Invest in awesome product photos... photos sell product. My products with the prettiest photos always sell best.

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redoxate said:

Besides, there are some points that I can't understand like "Find similar audiences on Facebook for your customers from your store and market blog posts as sponsored stories to the similar audiences." is about searching for another kind of customers?

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redoxate said:

And that "Going with a storage platform like Shopify can keep your start up costs low", but Spotify cost 29$/m + rates.. low cost for me is a woocommerce setup already got the hosting and the domain name ..

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validseo said:

2. Make your blog a completely separate website... put your editorial content in the blog... complete looks, buying guides, season gift guides, projects, etc go in posts in the blog. Ads and links on blogs enter into the store for conversion.

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iPresenceBiz said:

Hi, @validseo. I see that you seriously poured in time to write that meaty response. This particular line, which I quoted, got my attention. For your buying guides, do you strictly follow a template for uniformity of style?

Do you also publish product reviews on your own website or you send them other people's websites as guest posts?

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validseo said:

Good question. No. Constantly A/B test new ideas against your best formulas. Your past tactics lose their edginess with your audience and you have to keep mixing things up to keep your conversion rates high in email and social. When you give up trying and start carpet bombing your lists with boilerplate tactics you can expect your open rates and CTRs to dwindle. Always try something new to challenge current beliefs. Nonsensical marketing is a good avenue for many niches... get creative with getting people to take a fresh look at your offers.

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DineshRawat said:

no, go get some HQ links from real blogs in the industry

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validseo said:

E-commerce is my bread and butter.

1. Make your store a store. Keep it simple and basic. Make it pretty and not cluttered. Minimize every click you can for the shopper so they can add to cart and check out with minimal effort and confusion while still easily being able to find what they want.

2. Make your blog a completely separate website... put your editorial content in the blog... complete looks, buying guides, season gift guides, projects, etc go in posts in the blog. Ads and links on blogs enter into the store for conversion.

3. Find similar audiences in facebook for your customers from your store and market blog posts as sponsored stories to the similar audiences.

Truth is... if you execute ALL of your channels successfully then SEO will ultimately be 5-15% of your gross sales. If you do an "SEO only" store your are starting at a 85-95% disadvantage. SEO amounts to millions of dollars of my sales... so it is totally worth doing, but if that is all you do then you are giving up SOOOOO much more and SEO is slower than the other channels. If you are bootstrapping a start up e-com store then an "SEO only" strategy is the worst thing you could do IMO. SEO comes into full effect in the second year and probably shouldn't be the majority of your revenue if you diversify from the onset.

Going with a store platform like shopify can keep your start up costs low allowing you to focus on your marketing, fulfillment, buying, and customer service early on. Reduce variables where you can.

When I started I sourced product from China at $0.25 per unit and sold online in the US with free shipping at $15.00 per unit... I could replace a whole order with no questions asked and still make 30% profit. I accounted for my time and landed costs, and bad units received... if you do all the math then you are the house in Vegas and there is simply no way to lose... but you have to be deep in every detail early on and map it all out so you know what you can spend to still make a profit (including the time you invest).

When I started I had a day job. So I would package orders in the evening and drop them off at the post office on my way into work in the morning...that part was a lot of fun and it worked well for moonlighting an online store.

Invest in awesome product photos... photos sell product. My products with the prettiest photos always sell best.

Click to expand...

Jamie Teal said:

This is such a really good, kind and nice reply!

I've had a online fashion brand for a good while now, the sales are non existent now but everything is very professional and the average people who see it thinks its a big brand and I'm making good money... my hits are like 10 a day as well, went fromm 200 a day to 10 so obvs sales are none.

Can I possibly PM you my website and you can give me some QUICK opinions, I'd love to send you some free stuff for any advice etc!

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SERPTurbo said:

validseo spent his time to write a well-informed post with direct experience in the field, and then after all that redoxate is asking whether he should be buy an expired domain....[facepalm]

Haven't done eCommerce with physical products myself, but surely you would be much better off with a brand domain, such as widgetsmonster.com, rather than buycheapredwidgetsonline.com?

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Jamie Teal said:

This is such a really good, kind and nice reply!

I've had a online fashion brand for a good while now, the sales are non existent now but everything is very professional and the average people who see it thinks its a big brand and I'm making good money... my hits are like 10 a day as well, went fromm 200 a day to 10 so obvs sales are none.

Can I possibly PM you my website and you can give me some QUICK opinions, I'd love to send you some free stuff for any advice etc!

Click to expand...

validseo said:

E-commerce is my bread and butter.

1. Make your store a store. Keep it simple and basic. Make it pretty and not cluttered. Minimize every click you can for the shopper so they can add to cart and check out with minimal effort and confusion while still easily being able to find what they want.

2. Make your blog a completely separate website... put your editorial content in the blog... complete looks, buying guides, season gift guides, projects, etc go in posts in the blog. Ads and links on blogs enter into the store for conversion.

3. Find similar audiences in facebook for your customers from your store and market blog posts as sponsored stories to the similar audiences.

Truth is... if you execute ALL of your channels successfully then SEO will ultimately be 5-15% of your gross sales. If you do an "SEO only" store your are starting at a 85-95% disadvantage. SEO amounts to millions of dollars of my sales... so it is totally worth doing, but if that is all you do then you are giving up SOOOOO much more and SEO is slower than the other channels. If you are bootstrapping a start up e-com store then an "SEO only" strategy is the worst thing you could do IMO. SEO comes into full effect in the second year and probably shouldn't be the majority of your revenue if you diversify from the onset.

Going with a store platform like shopify can keep your start up costs low allowing you to focus on your marketing, fulfillment, buying, and customer service early on. Reduce variables where you can.

When I started I sourced product from China at $0.25 per unit and sold online in the US with free shipping at $15.00 per unit... I could replace a whole order with no questions asked and still make 30% profit. I accounted for my time and landed costs, and bad units received... if you do all the math then you are the house in Vegas and there is simply no way to lose... but you have to be deep in every detail early on and map it all out so you know what you can spend to still make a profit (including the time you invest).

When I started I had a day job. So I would package orders in the evening and drop them off at the post office on my way into work in the morning...that part was a lot of fun and it worked well for moonlighting an online store.

Invest in awesome product photos... photos sell product. My products with the prettiest photos always sell best.

Click to expand...

validseo said:

You are welcome!



Since nearly everyone has a facebook page if you have facebook fans or a list of emails you can use them to find similar audiences on facebook to market too. It is probably the easiest way to grow your customer base.

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set23 said:

I don't understand

You use email of your buyers from facebook, to target OTHERS potencial buyers? How?

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