Where to begin?

I opened an ecommerce shop a little over 2 months ago, still haven't broken even yet. I make anywhere between 100-600 a week, sales are really sporadic. I'm majoring in business administration with an ecommerce option, and I'm reading up all I can on marketing, and my ultimate goal is to acquire enough of a skill set to open my own internet marketing company, because the future of the economy looks very grim as far as employment goes. Any books or suggestions of where to start? I read SEOmoz's beginner's guide, and have been doing some research on long tail keywords.

I have a shopify store that accepts google checkout, which is a huge pain because they can freeze your account for any reason, and customers have to make an account with them. I'm going to register as an LLC sometime this week or next so I can offer CC processing through braintree, then customers can just checkout as a guest without having to sign up for anything.

seomoz is great resource and tool. I use them too for a lot of different projects.

rchase,

With regards to your online store, you probably should look into adding content to your site, that's assuming your store is just based on the "items being sold". Consider doing a blog section of the store, and get articles written related to the products being sold to drive traffic that way to increase sales. I have never used shopify, so not sure if it's at all possible to add blog content, but growing your site's content to be more than just the items would help.

Also, I don't know if your store is selling anything that is "General" or "Local Specific" but you should try adding content and articles that are GEO specific, since they are easier to rank for, and could bring targeted traffic. Also optimizing your site for buyer related keywords would help as well. For example "buy xyz product" "purchase xyz product" "cost of xyz product" "want to buy xyz product".

dreballer said:

rchase,

With regards to your online store, you probably should look into adding content to your site, that's assuming your store is just based on the "items being sold". Consider doing a blog section of the store, and get articles written related to the products being sold to drive traffic that way to increase sales. I have never used shopify, so not sure if it's at all possible to add blog content, but growing your site's content to be more than just the items would help.

Also, I don't know if your store is selling anything that is "General" or "Local Specific" but you should try adding content and articles that are GEO specific, since they are easier to rank for, and could bring targeted traffic. Also optimizing your site for buyer related keywords would help as well. For example "buy xyz product" "purchase xyz product" "cost of xyz product" "want to buy xyz product".

Click to expand...

What dreballer said. Also if possible, video content is very user-friendly for ecommerce sites these days. Bonus: you can create a Youtube channel for your company and upload those videos there. Bigger bonus: go find someone on Fiverr to promote that video to Traffic Geyser for $5.

Hey Rchase,
Great you found a processor other than Google Checkout. I just want you to be aware that all processors can hold funds if they feel there is a risk exposure associated with your account. If you have any questions, just let me know.

Will-
(at)Refuteit

dreballer said:

rchase,

With regards to your online store, you probably should look into adding content to your site, that's assuming your store is just based on the "items being sold". Consider doing a blog section of the store, and get articles written related to the products being sold to drive traffic that way to increase sales. I have never used shopify, so not sure if it's at all possible to add blog content, but growing your site's content to be more than just the items would help.

Also, I don't know if your store is selling anything that is "General" or "Local Specific" but you should try adding content and articles that are GEO specific, since they are easier to rank for, and could bring targeted traffic. Also optimizing your site for buyer related keywords would help as well. For example "buy xyz product" "purchase xyz product" "cost of xyz product" "want to buy xyz product".

Click to expand...

Read this,