Ecom Evolution

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 Introduction:
Mindset, Motivation and Money
Let me ask you a question…

Why do you want an ecommerce store?

No seriously, take a moment and honestly answer that question.

And then answer these questions:

 Do you want an ecommerce store because you’re

looking for a way to make money online?

 Do you want a store because you’re looking for a way to

turn your passions and hobbies into money in the bank?

 Do you want a store as a supplement to what you’re

already doing? For example, maybe you already have a
dog training site, and now you’d like to create another
revenue stream on the site by selling physical products.

 Do you already make goods, and you’re looking for an

outlet to sell them?

 Did you read about someone else having big success

with an online store, and that made you daydream about
having your own uber-successful store?

 Does it look like an easy way to make money to you?

 Do you want a store because it seems like a good way to
help your niche market?

 Do you want a store because you like the idea of owning

something? In other words, do you imagine putting “CEO
and store owner” on a business card and impressing
friends and strangers alike?
  Do you want a store because your brother / sister / friend
/ colleague said they were starting a store, and your
ultra-competitive nature kicked in so you wanted a store
too?

 Do you want a store because your current online

marketing gig isn’t working out, and you’re pretty sure a
store would be a much better business for you?

 Do you want a store because you tend to chase bright

and shiny things, and this seems awfully bright and shiny
today?

Those are just a few questions to get you brainstorming.

But basically, you need to be honest about WHY you want to start
up an ecommerce store.

The reason you need to be honest about the “why” is because

your answer can make or break your success.
Here’s the thing…

There are a lot of people who get into ecommerce for all
the wrong reasons. And when that happens, they fail. Big
time.

You see, starting up an ecommerce store isn’t a decision you

should make lightly.

This isn’t a decision like, “What should I have for dinner tonight?” or
“Should I do laundry or just buy more socks?”

This is a big decision, one that is going to affect you every day for
as long as you own this store. And if you don’t have a fire in your
belly about your store, then you’re going to give up a few months
down the road.

Because you know what?

Not every day as a store owner is all rainbows and puppies.

And you may not be making profits right out of the gate.

Sure, some days you’re going to be so excited about your store that
you’re going to fly out of bed in the morning because you’re so
eager to get to work on it.

But then there are going to be those days when things are hard.
You’re frustrated. Seems like things are going wrong.

If you aren’t building an ecommerce store for the right reasons,

those are the days you’re going to toss in the towel.

Let me give you a heads up…

If you’re #1 sole and overriding reason to set up an ecommerce

store is to make money – or you’re doing it for ego reasons -- then
I’m betting you’re going to quit this gig just a few months down the
road!
Because working on your store every day, every week, every month
and every year is going to get old really fast if money is your ONLY
reason for doing it.

Sure, making money is a big reason. I get it. You need to make a
living.

But it shouldn’t be your only reason.

There needs to be something else driving your passion.

You need to be excited about your niche. You need to genuinely

care about your customers and want what is best for them.

Because it’s this deep-seated enthusiasm and care that is

going to propel you to keep going even when things get tough.

Do you have it? Is there a fire in your belly? Are you excited to keep
reading even though I just rained on the ecommerce parade with a
cold dose of reality?

If so, then those are very good signs.

If you’re still feeling excited, then I’m thinking you’ve got what it
takes to be a success. And you are reading the book that’s
going to help make it happen.

Over the next several dozen pages you’re going to discover the
exact step-by-step strategy for setting up and running your own
successful ecommerce store, including:

 The right way to choose a niche and product line.

 How to set up a platform that simplifies ecommerce.
 Where to get your products.
 How to bring in massive amounts of targeted traffic.

And much, much more.

Let’s jump in…

“The Niche Is The Thing That Catches
The Profits… And Secures The Bling!”
At this point we’ve determined that you have the right mindset and
motivation to start and run an ecommerce store.

So, the next thing you need to do is pick a niche and product
line.

This step is hugely important.

Because if you go running after a niche full of deadbeats and tire-

kickers, your dreams are going to go up in smoke. If you pick a
profitable niche but you screw up and choose the wrong product
line, you’re going to waste a lot of time and money getting your
business back on track.

So here’s the thing…

You want to do it right the first time.

Now, when it comes to picking your niche, you have two goals:

1. You need to pick something that interests you.

Remember, you’re going to be working in this niche every day
for years – if you’re lukewarm about it before you even get
started, then you’re going to hate it in six months from now.

2. You need to be sure the niche is profitable. No amount of

passion can make a niche profitable if no one is buying what
you’re selling. That’s why we’re going to make sure your
passion can generate profits.

The good news is that it’s entirely possible to turn a passion into
profits.
Take a look at these examples and feel inspired:

Here’s a store from an entrepreneur who took a strong brand and a

niche idea, and turned it into a million-dollar store in less than a
year:
http://www.beardbrand.com

Here’s another example of a small niche idea (that started out with
leggings) took off like crazy and turned into a million-dollar venture:
https://blackmilkclothing.com/

Here’s someone who took a love for temporary tattoos and turned it
into a thriving store that sells millions of these tattoos:
https://tattly.com/

Or about how about the guy who has a million-dollar business

selling nothing but black socks with a unique “sockscription”
business model? His website is, you guessed it:
www.blacksocks.com.

Those are just a few examples. Just think of your favorite niche,
and you’ll quickly find online stores that started as a dream for
someone and turned into a profitable reality.

You’ll find people selling most everything under the sun, from
jewelry to handmade greeting cards to caskets for pets to clothing
to sports memorabilia to electronics to… well, I could go on and on.

If there is a market for an idea, then someone out there is probably

making a lot money with it – and you can too.

TIP: Take note that several of the stores mentioned above are
very nichified and specific (like black socks or temporary
tattoos). As we walk through the following steps of picking a
niche and product line, you too will want to seek out
something narrow. That’s because it’s easier to set up,
promote and run a successful niche business that’s narrower
rather than broader.

We’ll talk about this in a bit more detail shortly.

So, let’s get brainstorming on possible markets, and then take a
look at whether those possible markets are profitable…
 Uncovering Passions For Profit
First things first – let’s figure out what sorts of topics are going to
hold your interest.

We’ll do this in two steps.

First, you’ll draw up a big list of potential markets and niches.

Then you’ll figure out which ones interest you the most.

So, let’s start by brainstorming niches.

In order to do this step, ask yourself these questions:

 What are you really good at?

 What are your hobbies?

 What are your problems?

 What types of things do you like to read?

 What sort of sites do you have bookmarked on your

computer?

 What sort of apps do you have on your phone?

 What do you like to watch on TV?

 What are your favorite topics of conversation?

 What sort of educational or hobby classes would you be

interested in taking?

 On what topics do people marvel at your knowledge?

And I’d also add - What topics have you loved for years (and that
you’re likely to be interested in for years to come)?
Now list all the other topics you can think of that interest you.
Okay, so now that you’ve done some initial brainstorming, I want
you to go through the following list and pick out any of these topics
that also interest you:

 Hiking and camping.

 Medical problems, including physical and mental health

issues, as well as chronic illness.

 Caring for elderly parents.

 Antiques, collectibles, jewelry.

 Babies, children, family.

 Relationships and marriage.

 Sports hobbies, including golf, archery, fishing, bowling,

etc.

 Other hobbies, such as car restoration, cooking, dining

out, etc.

 Fashion and beauty.

 Anti-aging.

 Making money, including marketing, entrepreneurialism.

 General finances, including investing/debt management.

 Retirement, financial security/becoming an ex-pat.

 Traveling, backpacking the EU to living an RV lifestyle.

 Home remodeling and home improvement.

 Diets, including vegetarianism, raw food diets, etc.

 Weight loss.
  Bodybuilding.

 Motivation.

 Productivity and time management.

 Other self-help (e.g., public speaking, feeling more

confident, finding happiness, etc.).

 Grief and mourning.

 Bad habits, such as stopping smoking.

 Pets and animals.

 Career and job.

 Music, including learning an instrument or learning how

to sing.

 Languages (e.g., learn French).

 Self-defense.

 Home security.

 Computer security.

 Stress relief, such as meditation and yoga.

 Weddings.

You’ll note that many of these are very broad.

What you want to do is figure out what sub-topics/niches
within these broad markets most interest you.

For example, maybe you have an interest in bodybuilding, and

perhaps you’ve even taken up the hobby yourself. You might find a
niche from your perspective, such as bodybuilding for people over
40. Or you might look at a specific problem, such as people who
travel a lot and don’t always have access to weights, in which case
you’d look at portable solutions like bands.

Another example: you care for your elderly parents, and you’ve
noticed that bath time is an especially dangerous time for them. So,
you might focus on selling bathing mobility aids and safety devices,
such as grab handles, bath benches, walk-in bath tubs, showers
that accommodate wheel chairs, and similar items.

The point is, spend some time right now narrowing down your
potential markets to a specific niche or problem.

And then have a look-see at the next step…

 Where Interest Intersects With
Income
Now that we know what interests you, we need to find the niches
(and product lines) that are going to put money in your pocket.

In other words, it’s time for some market research.

Now there are two main methods for conducting market research,
and a good strategy will incorporate both of them:

1. Find out what your market is already buying. Big hint: if

they’re already buying something similar, then that’s a big
green flag telling you that they’ll buy it from you too (if you
carve yourself out a piece of a niche).

2. Find out what your market wants. In other words, find out
what they’re talking about in the niche, and ask them what
they want and need.

Heads up…

Sometimes marketers figure it’s easier to skip the first step and just
ask the market what they want.

But here’s the thing… What your market SAY they want and what
they’ll actually buy can be two different things. So that’s why you
want to see what people are actually actively buying today, because
that’s a good predictor of what they’ll buy tomorrow.
And then you can survey the market for two reasons:

1. To confirm your research. If your market is telling you

they want something AND you see evidence that they’re
already buying it, that’s excellent! You got a profitable
product line on your hands.

2. To discover ways to improve on what the competition

is doing (such as designing a unique selling proposition
that will hook your market).

Okay, so let’s go through these two steps of finding out what people
are buying, and finding out what they say they want…

Follow the Money: There are two ways to follow the money when
it comes to your market research:

1. Find out where your prospective customers are laying down

their money. In other words, what are they buying?

2. Find out where your prospective customers are laying down

money for advertising, because savvy marketers don’t
investment endless sums of money in unprofitable product
lines.
Here’s how to figure out what your market is buying…

Search marketplaces. Simply enter your niche keywords into top

marketplaces, and see which products are selling well.

For example, if you’re looking at organic rose gardening, then you’d

search the various marketplaces using the keywords … (wait for it)
… “organic rose gardening.”

TIP: Keep your keywords broad for now, as it will help you
uncover products you may have never considered before.

You can search marketplaces such as:

 Amazon.com
 Etsy.com.
 CafePress.com
 Zazzle.com
 Bonanza.com
 eBay.com

Take note that several of these marketplaces give you an indication

of what’s selling well.

For example, Amazon lists products according to their ranking in

the marketplace, so it’s easy for you to pick out the top sellers in a
niche.

TIP: Not only should you look for bestsellers, but also look for
similar products which are all selling well. This shows you that
a bestselling product isn’t a fluke. Instead, it shows
consistency since similar products are selling well too.

Search Google. Now go search for your niche keywords in Google

or Bing.
Take note of the following:

1. What are the top sites in your niche selling? If several sites
in your niche are selling similar products, that’s a good sign
that the product is popular.

2. What are the top sites in your niche advertising? In some

cases, a top site might not directly sell their own products.
Instead, they may accept advertisers. Take note of what
these advertisers are promoting – if you see similar ads
across sites, that’s a sign that a product is in demand.

3. What do you see being advertised in the sponsored

results? You’ll find these sponsored (paid) ads next to the
organic ads in Google or Bing. If you see similar products
being advertised across ads, that’s a sign that it’s
something popular in your niche.

Check out print publications. Here’s what you’re looking for:

1. See what niche catalogs are selling. In particular, pay

attention to what is promoted on the front and back covers.
These are the big items that tend to be popular, and those
who print catalogs do a lot of research and testing to
determine which items to put on the front and back covers.

For example, if you’re looking to sell gardening supplies, then

check out what the top gardening supply catalogs are
positioning as their big sellers.

2. See what’s being advertised in niche magazines. Popular

magazines (with large circulation numbers) charge a lot to
advertise, so advertisers pick their products and offers
carefully. Check out the ads scattered through these
magazines, as well as the classified ads in the back (where
applicable).

Next…
 Find Out What Your Market Wants
This is the part where you eavesdrop on your market, do a little
investigative work to figure out what your market wants, and
outright ask them what they want.

Again, take note that you shouldn’t use this method in

insolation, as what people say and what they do can be
two different things.

Walk through these three steps:

Eavesdrop on your market. In other words, simply spend some

time listening to your market talk amongst themselves, which can
be very revealing.

You can find these discussions in the following places:

 On niche blogs (check the comments).

 In communities, such as Facebook groups or forums.
 In product reviews on sites like Amazon.

TIP: Check the discussions on product review sites to see what

people are saying about products in your niche.

Use keyword tools. The next step is to enter your niche keywords
into a tool such as Keyword Atlas.

Then pay particular attention to the keywords that revolve around

specific products and product reviews.

For example, if you’ve decided to sell shoes to marathon runners,

then take note of what types of shoes are getting a lot of searches,
which ones have plenty of searches for product reviews, and which
types of shoes people are looking to outright buy.

(E.G., “buy [brand name] running shoe” or “[brand name]

running shoe free shipping)
Survey your market. Finally, you can ask your market what they
want. One way to do this is by using a tool like SurveyMonkey.com.
Another way is to simply open the discussion on a big platform, like
in a social media group, in a sort of focus group. Or, preferably, you
can do both.

Either way, don’t constrain answers to fit into some narrow category
by using multiple choice questions. Instead, use at least some
open-ended questions to get answers that you may not have even
thought to include.

Research Complete: Now What?

At this point, you’ve figured out what interests you. You’ve taken the
steps to determine if a niche is profitable. And in the process,
you’ve also seen, specifically, which products get your prospective
customers’ hearts racing.
 Now if you have several niches in mind,
you need to narrow it down.

Ask yourself the following questions (and be prepared to possibly

do a little more research in order to answer them):

Which niches are evergreen?

To help you figure out the answer to this question, you can use a
tool such as Google Trends, which will show you if a niche has
enduring popularity.

Unless you’re a seasoned marketer who can spot new

markets/trends, it’s better to stick with niches that have a history of
being popular (meaning they are likely to continue to grow in
popularity over time).

Which niches appear to be the most profitable?

Check your research, and look to see whether an overall market

has a lot of competition. If there are a lot of marketers selling a lot of
products, consider that a good sign!

Of course, you don’t want to compete with everyone, which brings

us to the next point…

Where can you carve out a niche?

It’s okay to have competition – it will make you stronger and better.
And it’s a sign of a healthy market.

But what you want to do is carve out a smaller niche so that you
can dominate it. Ask yourself if you see any gaps in the market.

Let me give you an example…

Remember when cell phones first started exploding in popularity?
And then the smart phones came along, and everyone was racing
to sell the most sophisticated phones on the planet?
Well, that is except for one company: Jitterbug.

This company focused on selling “dumb” phones with big buttons

to senior citizens. These phones were for the technophobes who
wanted to use their phones to make calls (yeah, I know… weird!).
And the company did really well, because they found a gap in the
market and dominated their niche.

So again, ask yourself where the gaps are in your market.

Is there an under-served niche where there is a demand, but the

companies aren’t all that great at supplying that demand?

That’s where you can step in.

Which niches appeal to you the most?

With all else being equal in terms of profit potential and so on, the
last question you need to ask yourself is which niche most interests
you? Because again, you’re going to be working in this niche every
day for quite some time to come, so you need to make sure it’s
something you’ll enjoy.

Consider these questions carefully, select the niche and product

line that is most profitable while still being of interest to you, and
then let’s move onto the next exciting step…
Platform + Performance = Profits
There’s a reason why smart builders spend a lot of time consulting
with architects before they start laying bricks. And that reason is
because if the foundation of their building isn’t stable, the whole
darn building is going to fall down like a house of cards.

Guess what?

Your ecommerce store is the same way. If you pick an unstable or

unsecure platform, your whole business is going to collapse
beneath the weight of this bad decision. Or even if that sort of
catastrophe doesn’t happen, at the very least you’ll lose time and
money if you have to start over later with a different platform.

Point is, it’s a good idea to do a little researching and comparing

upfront to save yourself time, money and heartache down the road.

And that’s what this chapter will help you do.

Now if you just drop a search into Google to look for ecommerce
platforms, you’ll quickly discover that there are dozens if not
hundreds of solutions. These solutions include open-source
standalone platforms, as well as third-party platforms that host your
store and take care of a lot of the details for you.

Truth is, it’s overwhelming to even start contemplating digging

through all of these solutions and figuring out which ones are legit.
And that’s why we’re going to give you a short list of the BEST
platforms out there. These are the platforms that we’ve reviewed,
tested and use ourselves to run our own stores. So all you have to
do is compare them to see which one is right for you.

TIP: Of course one option is to build your own store from the
group up by hiring a team of developers. But you know what?
It’s a very expensive option, and there are going to be
concerns about whether your platform can keep your
customers’ data safe. It’s much easier to take advantage of
 any number of big, secure solutions that others have spent
millions to develop. That’s what you’ll find in this list below.

Take a look at these options…

WordPress + WooCommerce

WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS), and

WooCommerce is a robust plugin you can use to turn your
WordPress site into an ecommerce platform where you sell your
own products.

Here are the advantages of using WordPress + WooCommerce:

 It’s a stable, secure platform. WordPress was originally

developed in 2001, and it’s been constantly updated and
improved every year since by a large number of developers.
The WooCommerce plugin was first developed in 2011, and
today it boasts millions of downloads and is one of the top
ecommerce platforms.

 You’re in control. It’s your store, it’s your domain, it’s your web
hosting. You have complete control over how you run your
store (within the terms of service of your web host, of course).

 You don’t pay per-transaction fees to the platform. Sure, like

any store, you’ll have per-transaction fees from your payment
processor. But since you own the store and platform, you do
NOT have to pay per-transaction fees to a third-party platform.

 WordPress and WooCommerce are user-friendly. They both

have a lot of online documentation, and you can find peer
support communities.

 WooCommerce is flexible, extendable and adaptable. You can

get plugins to add functionality, or let a developer customize
the open-source code. You can also choose from many
WordPress themes (both free and paid) to create a design that
best fits your store.
Sounds good, right? Before you make a decision, you’ll want to
check out these disadvantages:

 WooCommerce paid extensions can add up. The WordPress

platform is free, and the basic WooCommerce plugin is free.
However, you will likely need to purchase a few plugins in
order to get the functionality you want. So you need to be sure
you research the core features and plugins in depth so that
you can properly estimate your total cost.

 The tech stuff is up to you. While you’re in complete control of

your site (which is good), you’re also completely responsible
for the technical aspects of your site.

For example: if something “breaks” (like an extension breaks

during a WordPress update), you’ll need to scramble and put
in a temporary fix while you wait for the developer to get you a
permanent fix.

Another example: If your server goes down, that is your

responsibility (or your web host’s) to get it back.

 Potentially slow loading times. If you have a lot of variations of

a product, you may find that your storefront loads slowly – and
that’s not good for business.

 There is no telephone support. WooCommerce offers support

through a help desk only. There are third-party businesses
that will offer support through the phone, but these are not
affiliated with WooCommerce. You can also find peer-
supported forums to get help.

To learn more about the WordPress platform, go to

www.wordpress.org.

To learn more about WooCommerce, click here.

Now let’s look at another popular option…

Shopify

Shopify started in 2006 when its developers were looking for a

robust, secure way to sell their own snowboards. They quickly
realized they had developed a platform that others would want, so
they offered to host other peoples’ stores on their platform.

Today Shopify is one of the most popular third-party ecommerce

platforms. It’s hosted hundreds of thousands of stores and done
tens of billions of dollars in sales.

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of this third-party platform…

Here are the advantages of using Shopify:

 It’s secure. This platform has been around since 2006,

and it’s being constantly updated to ensure it is secure.

 It’s flexible and scalable. You can choose from a tiered

pricing plan to pick the level that best fits your needs,
and then upgrade as your business grows.

 It’s customizable. Shopify includes both free and paid

themes to create a beautiful storefront, plus you can
install apps to get more functionality.

 Good customer support. Not only does Shopify have

extensive documentation, but they also offer telephone
support.

 You’re in control. You’re in complete control of your

store, but Shopify hosts it for you and ensures it’s
secure. This means you can do important tasks such as
build an email list of both prospects and customers.
And here are the disadvantages of using Shopify:

 Pricing uncertainty. Shopify’s tiered pricing is

straightforward, as you pay a per-month fee. However, in
order to determine your final cost, you’re going to need
to know what all apps you plan on installing. Some are
free, some are paid, and some require a per-transaction
fee.

 Learning curve. Any platform is going to have a learning

curve. While Shopify is overall straightforward, some
users may have troubles due to non-intuitive labeling.
Still, no worries: you don’t need to be developer to set it
up.

 Checkout cannot be customized. The reason for this is

because Shopify is PCI compliant, which is a good thing
– it means they’re keeping your customers’ credit card
data safe. But on the other hand, you don’t have much
leeway with the looks of the order form, which may be a
disadvantage if you’d like to create a little more
continuity between your store and the checkout process.

Shopify + Dropshipping

With Shopify, you can easily set up a store selling your own
products. However, for those who don’t have their own products,
another option is to set up a dropshipping business model. An easy
way to do this is by using AliExpress.com, which offers you
thousands of products across many different categories.

NOTE: While AliExpress is a trusted dropshipping solution

that gives you the potential for good profit margins, it’s not
without its issues. Delivery times can be lengthy since
products are coming from Asia. What’s more, customer
service/communication is often lacking with this company.
What makes this model so attractive is that you can use the Oberlo
app to find products on AliExpress and load them to your store fairly
fast. Instead of adding products manually (which can be very
tedious and time-consuming), you can drag and drop them into the
app and let the software do it for you.

This is a great option for someone who wants a store, but doesn’t
want the traditional hassles of stocking inventory and shipping
products.

Here’s the next platform for you to consider…

Amazon

Amazon doesn’t need any introduction, as it’s been around since

the mid 1990s, and offering its platform to sellers since 2000. Let’s
take a look at the pros and cons of selling on Amazon…

Here are the advantages of using Amazon’s platform:

 Credibility and trust. You’re using Amazon’s trusted

brand to help you sell your own products, which is a big
benefit. You’re likely to see bigger conversions over
setting up your own store.

 Built-in traffic. Amazon works hard to market your

products, including recommending your products to your
prospects both on their website as well as through email.

 Security. Amazon is known for having a secure, PCI-

compliant platform, and you can take advantage of this
when you set up your store with them.

 You can use FBA (fulfillment by Amazon). This feature

lets you ship your merchandise to Amazon, who then will
take care of everything for a fee (including fulfillment,
returns and customer service issues).

 Amazon takes care of the details, such as collecting

taxes. This simplifies selling, since you don’t need to
know the tax laws for every state.
Here are the disadvantages of using Amazon’s platform:

 It’s not on your site. You don’t have the control as you do
when you set up a store on your own domain with your
own web hosting. And that means you also don’t get to
capture your prospects’ addresses and other
information. And in cases where you receive the
customers’ contact information, it is against Amazon’s
terms of service to market to them.

 Fees can be high. Fees vary depending on whether

you’re taking care of fulfillment yourself or paying
Amazon to do it, so be sure to make comparisons
carefully. If you sell as a professional on Amazon, you’ll
pay a per-month fee plus variable referral and closing
fees.

See Amazon’s pricing page for more information

https://services.amazon.com/selling/pricing.htm/ref=asus_soa_snav_p

NOTE: When considering fees, also consider that

you will likely have lower marketing costs. So while
fees may be higher, possibly those fees could be
offset by lowered costs.

 Direct competition. When you use Amazon, you’ll have

other people on the same platform who are selling the
exact same thing, which often results in people slashing
their prices to compete. Plus if Amazon ends up selling
your product, then you’ll be in direct competition with
them too.

To learn more about Amazon’s selling platform: click here

And now let’s look at the next platform option…

Etsy

If you’re interested in selling your own handmade arts and crafts,

then Etsy is a good option. That’s because people who shop on
Etsy are looking for and expect to find handmade goods. So let’s
take a look at the pros and cons of this platform…

Here are the advantages of selling on Etsy:

 Setting up your store is easy. While it may be a little

time-consuming to set up a lot of listings, the process
itself is intuitive and easy.

 Etsy sends you some traffic. That’s because Etsy will

refer prospects to your listings via recommendations.

 Etsy is a trusted brand. And that means you’re likely to

see higher conversions by putting your crafts on Etsy
versus putting the on your own site. (But of course you’d
need to test this to determine if it’s true and/or if it’s
significant.)

Here are the disadvantages of selling on Etsy:

 You have direct competition on the platform. Even if

you’re selling something completely original, there’s a
good chance that a copycat will pop up soon and cut into
your profits.

 Fees on low-cost products. If you’re selling low-priced

items, the per-listing and per-sale transaction fees will
cut into your profits. That’s because the listing fee is a
flat 20 cents per item, regardless of how much the item
costs, plus a 3.5% transaction fee on sales plus payment
processor fees. Be sure to price accordingly, or stick to
“premium” (higher priced) items with bigger profit
margins.

 You can lose your own sense of branding. While you do

get the benefits of using Etsy’s trusted brand, this can
 also be a negative when you’re trying to stand out from
the crowd. When people share where they bought your
handmade item, they’re not going to name you (the artist
or handcrafter) by name – instead, they’re going to say
they got it from Etsy.

You can learn more about this platform by going to:

https://www.etsy.com/sell
eBay

This platform is another one that’s been around for a long time –
since 1995 – so it’s trusted by both sellers and buyers alike. Let’s
take a look at the pros and cons of selling your goods on eBay…

Here are the advantages of selling on eBay:

 You can sell both used and new merchandise. And you
can sell most anything, from handmade items to low-
priced used goods to high-end merchandise.

 Built-in traffic. People who visit eBay are buyers, and

you’re likely to get plenty of this warm traffic to your
listings if you include the right keywords in the title and
descriptions.

 eBay is a trusted brand. And once again, that means

(potentially) higher conversions when you sell on this
platform versus on your own site, but of course you’d
need to test to see if that’s the case.

 Setting up a store and listings are easy. There are plenty

of services that simplify the process, such as templates
to create a beautiful listing, and bulk-listing services to
make the process go more quickly.

 You can use the valet service. This service lets you ship
your items (for free) to professional sellers, who’ll then
take care of everything else, including listing the item,
payment processing, and fulfillment. In return for this
service, you’ll earn from 25% to 80% of the item’s selling
price. Learn more at http://www.ebay.com/s/valet.
Here are the disadvantages of selling on eBay:

 You have plenty of direct competition on the site. This

alone often drives prices down. And since people come
to eBay looking for bargains, it’s hard to compete in this
marketplace if your prices are higher than everyone
else’s prices.

 Fees can be high, depending on what you’re selling.

You’ll pay insertion fees, final value fees, store fees,
payment processor fees, and (optionally) advanced
listing fees.

Note: you get 50 insertion-fee-free listings for

certain types of merchandise per month if you’re a
basic seller, and more if you have a store. See
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/insertion-
fee.html#free for more details.

 Your payment options are limited. Since PayPal is

owned by eBay, that’s the payment processor of choice
for this platform. You can also accept payment through
your own merchant account. Most other payment options
– even checks sent by mail – are limited or restricted in
some way. See eBay’s terms for complete details to see
if your payment option is accepted.

To learn more about selling on eBay, go to

http://www.ebay.com/sl/sell.
So which platform is right for you?
Obviously, this is a decision that you’re going to need to make
based on your own needs, goals, budget, and preferences. Here
are the issues to take into consideration:

 What sort of products are you selling? Different platforms

have different fees, depending on what you’re selling, so
you’ll need to take that into consideration when
determining cost. You’ll also need to check the terms of
service on each site to be sure that the platform accepts
your type of product. If you’re selling something
prohibited by other sites (such as firearms), then you’ll
need to consider selling on your own site (such as by
using WordPress + WooCommerce).

 What is your level of technical expertise? If you have low

levels of technical expertise and/or you don’t intend to
outsource the development of your site, then you’ll need
to stick with third-party, hosted platforms (rather than
self-hosted options like WordPress). All you do is pay a
monthly fee, and it’s headache free.

 Do you intend to stock and fulfill merchandise? If you

don’t carry inventory, then a dropshipping model is a
good option (think Shopify plus the Shopified App and
AliExpress), or you can use a service such as eBay’s
valet service or Fulfillment by Amazon.

 What is your marketing plan? It’s a good idea to market

your store aggressively in order to grow it as quickly as
possible. However, some platforms – such as eBay, Etsy
and Amazon – help you with marketing, and you get the
benefit of their branding to boost conversions.

 How fast do you expect to grow? You need to be sure

you pick a platform that can grow with you. Consider not
only how many products you intend to list, but also what
sort of volume you plan on doing. Some options, such as
 Shopify, let you start with a smaller plan and then
upgrade as your business grows.

 What is your budget? Obviously, this is going to have an

impact on your decision. But keep in mind, you don’t
want to go for an unsuitable option just because it’s
cheaper, otherwise you may need to start over later at a
great cost of time and money.

So go ahead and consider these questions carefully, and then visit

each site listed above to really compare your options. You’ll also
want to check out the bonus resource document for more tools.

Choose the one that’s right for you, and then move onto the next
step…
 Turning Tire-Kicking Browsers
Into Big-Spending Buyers
At this point you’ve picked a niche, picked a product line, and
picked a platform. Your next step is to set up your store and start
creating your listings so you can convert browsers into buyers.

But hold up there for a moment…

A lot of store owners do this step as quickly as possible. They are

so anxious to get going that they slap some pretty weak
descriptions and product photos up. And then they pay dearly for it
later when sales are running as slow as an elderly snail. Except
they don’t realize that their listings are the source of slow sales.

So let me be really clear with you here…

Your product listings can make or break the success of your store,
no matter what platform you’re using. Yes, the listings matter THAT
much. And that’s why it’s so important that you take your time to
create your listings the right way.

Take a look at these important factors…

Creating Titles

One of the most important parts of your listing is your title. Here are
two reasons why:

1. Your title needs to be compelling enough to grab attention.

If your prospects say “meh” to themselves after reading
your product title, you can bet they won’t be clicking on it.
And there goes the sale.

2. Your title may help funnel traffic to your listing. This is

particularly true on platforms like eBay, where the default
search function is to search titles for keywords.
So what you need to do is create a sizzling listing title that captures
attention and gets clicks.

Here’s how…

Step 1: Consider Your Keywords

First, determine if you’re going to include keywords in your title. You

can determine these words in two ways:

 Use keyword tools. These tools (such as WordRecon)

generally show you what types of searches people are
inputting into the search engines. This will help you
attract search engine traffic as well as internal traffic from
platforms such as eBay.

 Do a little brainstorming. In other words, spend some

time figuring out what sorts of words people might type
into a search box to find your item.

For example, let’s suppose you have a dog collar. Ask yourself:
What similar words may people use in lieu of “dog” when searching
for a collar? Most likely, someone might search for “puppy,” and in
rare instances they’d search for “canine.” Generally, using “dog”
would be sufficient, though you should add “puppy” if the collar is
indeed suitable for puppies. Next…

Step 2: Describe Your Item Succinctly

Now you need to determine the most important aspects of your

product. You can help determine these by asking yourself the
following questions.
Take note that not all questions will be applicable to every product:

 What is the product?

 Who is it for?
 What does the product do?
 What color is it?
 What is it made out of?
 How big is it?
 When was it made?
 Who made it/brand name?
 Where was it made?
 Is it rare in some way?
 Is it new or used?
 Is it an antique or collectible?

For example, let’s go back to the example of selling something as

simple as a new dog collar.

Your prospects will be interested in the following:

 What is the product? Dog collar (and puppy collar, if

applicable).
 Who is it for? Dogs, yes… big dogs? Small dogs? Sled
dogs?
 What does the product do? This is important if it’s a
special kind of collar, like a choke collar.
 What color is it? Black, brown, red, purple paisley, red
polka dots, etc.?
 What is it made out of? For example: leather? Nylon?
Something else?
 How big is it? Here you might list the length and width of
the collar, OR what breeds it fits. Or if you have a variety
of sizes, you can leave this out of the title and provide
the options in the description.
 Who made it? Some people may be interested in the
brand name.

Since this is a new collar, generally the other questions are

irrelevant.
So now you might have something descriptive such as:

“Small black leather dog collar”

Not bad. It’s descriptive, but not exciting. So let’s polish that up…
Step 3: Polish Up Your Description

Your last step is to put a little spit and polish on your description so
that it captures attention. The descriptive title is going to bring the
traffic and help qualify it, but it’s the little sizzle in the title that’s
going to get the clicks.

Now in most cases you don’t have a lot of room to add this sizzle –
you may only have two or three words. So make ‘em count.

One way to add this sizzle is to add a benefit into the title. This
could be a benefit of the product itself, or a benefit related to the
ordering or shipping process.

Here are examples:

 Very stylish small black leather dog collar

 Small black leather dog collar – cute!
 Small black leather dog collar (fast shipping)
 Small black leather dog collar (free shipping)
 Your dog will turn heads with this black leather dog collar
 Surprisingly affordable small black leather dog collar
 Small black leather dog collar (high quality at a low price)
 Small, stylish black leather collar – will last for 20 years
 Best small black leather dog collar online – check it out!
 Fancy small black leather dog collar
 Amazingly soft/durable black leather collar for small dogs
 The #1 toughest black leather dog collar for small dogs
 The #1 choice black leather collar for small dogs

Again, those are just examples pertaining to a dog collar. You need
to get creative and polish up whatever product title you’re creating
by inserting a benefit or emotionally laden words.

Ideally, you should test different titles to see which ones get the
clicks and conversions.

Next…

Crafting Sales Descriptions

Another very important factor in your success is to create a
compelling sales description for every product you list.

Heads up…

If you’re using a dropshipping service like AliExpress, rewrite the

descriptions. That’s because most of their descriptions are awful
and won’t generate sales. Plus writing your own descriptions will
help you stand out.

So, what you need to do is start with the list of questions above,
which covers the basics of your product. Then ask these questions:

 What are the features of the product? These are the

actual parts of a product. For example, a feature of a dog
collar is that it’s made of nylon.

 What are the benefits of the product? This is what the

features of a product do for the customer. List as many
of these benefits as you can think of.

For example, while a feature of a dog collar is that it’s

made of nylon, the benefits of nylon include quick drying
and ease-of-cleaning. This is a great advantage for dogs
who like to go swimming. Nylon is also lightweight for
small dogs, and durable for rough and tumble wear.

 Who is the product most suited for? When applicable, list

who would benefit the most from this product.

In the nylon dog collar example, we could say the

collar is suitable for any dog, but the quick-drying
collar is especially good for dogs who like to swim,
such as labs.

 What are the potential flaws of the product? And how

can you rationalize and overcome these flaws? In other
words, raise and handle potential objections to help
people make the buying decision.
 For example, perhaps one flaw of the collar is that
it only comes in bright green, bright red and bright
orange. You can turn this perceived liability into an
asset by saying that these bright colors put your
dog’s safety first.

 Does the product require any special care? For example,

if you’re selling clothing, you would note if it’s dry clean
only.

 What are the product’s measurements and size? This

includes length, height and even weight.

NOTE: Be sure to list product measurements on

clothing even if you’ve listed the size.

 How is this product different from other products on the

market? In other words, why should people buy this
particular product? What makes it better than the
competition?

Let’s go back to the dog collar example. Perhaps it

has a “quick-release buckle” that ensures a
sporting dog never strangles himself when he gets
snagged by a tree branch.

 Are there any discounts or freebies available? This

includes things like free shipping, as well as any
discounts that may be available.

 Are there any bonuses included? For example, if you’re

selling shoes, perhaps you toss in an extra pair of laces
or even some shoe polish for free.

 Does the product come with any sort of guarantee? If so,

what are the terms of this guarantee? Do customers
need to pay return shipping? What is the length of the
guarantee? Is it a money-back guarantee, or do you only
offer product replacement?
  Is there anything else the prospect should know that will
help them make the buying decision? Go ahead and list
everything that comes to mind, even if it seems trivial.

Now that you’ve answered all these questions, you can write your
product description and incorporate as many relevant details as
possible. Be sure to focus on the benefits of the product, and
include a call to action at the end that specifically tells people to
purchase the product.

TIP: At this point, the most important thing you can do to

improve your listing is to learn the art and science of writing
good sales copy.

Now the next point…

Editing Images
Your images are another important factor when it comes to your
conversion rates. If you have poor images, you’re going to have low
sales.

So keep these tips in mind:

 Take good pics. If you’re selling your own merchandise,

or if a dropshipper doesn’t have good pics, then invest in
a good camera and take your own photos (or hire a
photographer to do it for you). Be sure they’re crisp and
clear, with a minimalist background (preferably white) so
that the focus is on the product.

 Take pics from multiple angles. Be sure to take close

ups that show every inch of the product.

TIP: If you’re taking photos of used or antique

merchandise, be sure to take special care to show
the flaws in your photos.

 Edit the pics. You can use image editing tools such as
Photoshop.com, Gimp.org (a free alternative), or even
web-based tools such as pixlr.com.

 Show videos too. This works especially well when you

can demonstrate how a product works.

Next…
Increasing Conversions
The three things we’ve talked about so far (good images, good titles
and good descriptions) are all going to do the heavy lifting when it
comes to increasing your conversions.

However, if you check your chosen platform, you’ll probably see

apps and add-ons that may increase conversions. Generally, these
apps and add-ons are going to set you back a few bucks.

Question is, are these add-ons worth it?

Answer: not yet.

If you’re just getting your store set up, then focus on polishing those
things that will have the GREATEST impact on your conversion
rates. And three of those factors are the ones we talked about
above: titles, descriptions and photos. (Others include prices and
your overall offer.)

Once your store is up and running and you’re getting some traffic to
it, you can start testing and tracking different parts of your listings to
figure out what’s really working for you. You’ll find out how to do
that just a little bit later in this guide.

For now, FOCUS on the core of your business. Get your store set
up. Get your products listed. Get a good running start so you can
see some results in terms of getting traffic and making money. Then
think about those conversion boosting add-ons later.

One more thing…

“Whoa… Listing Products is a Lot of Work!”

Now as you’ve been reading this section, it may have occurred to

you that listing products actually requires a bit of work. Even if
you’re doing it the easy way – such as using Shopify, AliExpress
dropshipping and the Dropified App—you still need to rewrite
product listings in order to generate sales. It’s all a bit time-
consuming. And that’s why now is a good time to determine if you
want to do it yourself or outsource this task.

Simply put, it may be a better use of your time to focus on

marketing your store, rather than writing descriptions and taking
product photos.

So how do you determine if you should do it yourself or outsource?

Ask yourself these questions…

What would it cost for you to do it yourself rather than outsource the
task?

A lot of people think it’s “free” to do a task themselves, but that’s not
quite true. That’s because time is your most valuable resource
since it’s limited, so you need to figure out the best use of your time.

Let’s break it down…

The first thing you need to do is figure out what your time is worth.
You can determine this by figuring out what your income goals are
for the year, and dividing that by the number of hours you intend to
work to achieve those goals. That will give you an idea of how much
your time is worth per hour.

Example time…

Let’s suppose your goal is to make $100,000 this year. And let’s
suppose you plan on working about 20 hours per week for 50
weeks. That’s 1000 hours this year to achieve your goals.

$100,000 income divided by 1000 hours = your time is worth $100

per hour

That’s just an example. Plug in your own income goals and hours
worked to determine what your time is worth.
Now that you have a figure, you can determine what it costs to
outsource something. For example, let’s imagine you look at a set
of listings and determine it would take you 10 hours to create those
listings. In this example, if your time was worth $100 per hour, it
would cost you $1000 to do this task yourself.
Now all you have to do is figure out how much a freelancer would
charge for this same task. If it’s $999 or less, then it’s cheaper to
hire someone else to do it.

But even if it’s more expensive to hire someone else, you might still
outsource this task. Check out these next questions to ask
yourself….

What sort of end result can you produce?

In other words, are you skilled at this task? Or would it be better to

hire a professional to get a better result?

As mentioned, your listings can make or break the success of your

store, so it’s very important that they’re as compelling as possible. If
you don’t have any copywriting chops and your photography skills
are lacking, then outsource the task. Even if it costs considerably
more to outsource than to do it yourself, remember that this really
isn’t a cost… it’s an investment. And if you hire the right person, it’s
an investment that’s going to pay you back many times.

Next question…

Do you like the task?

Maybe you’re good at it. Maybe you’ll produce great results. Maybe
it’s even a high-value task, so you feel like it’s worth doing.

But the question is, do you actually LIKE doing it?

If not, outsource it. Because if you really don’t like a task, you’re
likely to drag your heels and slow down your business growth. It’s a
much better idea to hand it off to a professional who’ll get it done
fast and get it done well.

If you outsourced your listings, what would you work on instead?

You only have a limited amount of time in a day. That’s why you’ll
want to focus your time on high-value tasks, such as marketing. So
when you consider what to outsource, leave the lower-value tasks
to freelancers, while you focus on the higher-value tasks.

What is your outsourcing budget?

Chances are, you don’t have an unlimited budget, right? So in that

case, you need to use the questions above to figure out which tasks
you should be outsourcing. Next, rank these tasks in order of which
ones you definitely want to outsource, and which ones you’d like to
outsource if your budget permits. Then allocate your outsourcing
budget accordingly.

Quick Recap

So there you have it – if you want to see good results, then job #1 is
to be sure your listings sizzle. That means they should get attention
and get people clicking the order button by focusing on the benefits
of the product.

Not sure if you can create these sorts of cash-pulling listings? Or

maybe you don’t have the time? No problem… in that case, you can
outsource the task. Check the bonus resource guide to discover
places to outsource these sorts of tasks.
 Plans, Promotions and Profits

So at this point, we’ve covered the most important pieces of getting

your store set up, such as choosing a good niche, picking a
profitable product line, and creating the kind of listings that get
prospects swooning over your order button.

Everything else involved in the actual store set up is easy. For

example, if you’re using Shopify and the Shopified App, you’ll find
all the documentations and tutorials you need to get your store up
and running. It’s just a matter of sitting down and doing it (and it’s
really all pretty easy).

So, we’re not going to cover those basics in this manual, as you can
find them elsewhere. Instead, what we’re now going to do is focus
on the next important piece of running a successful store: traffic
generation.

Now, you probably have some sense of how to market your store. I
mean you’ve probably read several posts or reports on the topics,
watched a few videos, maybe even attended a few webinars. And in
just a few minutes, we’re going to share with you some of our
favorite ways to generate traffic to your store.

But hold up…

Taking the shotgun approach to traffic generation is just going to be

a waste of time, money and your advertising arsenal. So before you
start driving traffic, it’s worth taking the time to create a marketing
plan for your business.

Fortunately, you don’t have to pull this plan out of thin air. Instead,
all you have to do is answer the following questions. In some cases,
you’ll need to do a little marketing research in order to get good
answers, but it’s well worth your time.

That’s because you’re going to get a better understanding of both

your target market and your competitors.
Take a look…

Answer These Questions To Develop Your Ad Strategy:

Who is your target market?

The first thing you need to do is get a very clear understanding of

who is going to buy your products. This includes understanding the
basic market demographics, as that will help you determine the best
way to reach them. You’ll also want to understand more about their
thinking and behavior, as that will help you create ads that really
resonate with them.

Here are questions you’ll want to answer about your target market:

 How old is your target market?

 What gender?
 Where do they live?
 What is their yearly income?
 What language do they speak?
 What is their education level?
 What sort of jobs or careers do they have?
 What is their marital status?
 Do they have children?
 How much money do they spend every year on products
in your niche?
 What are their problems?
 What issues do they have with similar products in your
niche?
 What motivates your target market?
 Does your market use any sort of niche-related jargon?
 Does your market buy products like yours online?

… And anything else you can think of to help you better understand
your target market.
 TIP: Search Google for your audience demographics, such as
“dog owner demographics.” You’ll find reputable sources,
such as government sites and marketing research firms who
release this data.

TIP: Spend time talking to your marketing on forums, in social

media groups and via blog discussions to get a better feel for
what they want. You’ll also want to survey them to learn more
about their demographics and motivation.

How do you intend to reach your target market?

In order to answer this, you need to know where your target market
congregates, or what sort of activities they participate in that allows
you to get an ad in front of them.

Here are some possibilities:

 Paid advertising
 Social media
 Search engine optimization
 Email marketing
 Affiliate program/JVs (joint ventures)

Those are some of the key traffic generation activities, which you’ll
learn about later in the guide. Other activities include things like
blogging, guest blogging, video marketing, viral marketing, contests,
free publicity (press releases), offline advertising and similar.

Your job now is to look at what you know about your target market,
and determine the BEST ways to reach your market. Go ahead and
list as many ways as you can think of, and then rank this list in
order of the most effective to least effective ways to reach your
target market.
What is your advertising budget?

Naturally, this is going to have a big impact on the type of paid

advertising you do. You can create a strategy to reinvest your
profits, so that your paid advertising efforts grow naturally over time.

What are your target goals?

Here we’re looking at what your income, sales and traffic goals are.

In order to determine this, you may need to work backwards.

Start by determining your income goals.

Figure out how many sales on the frontend and backend you need
to achieve in order to meet these income goals. (Which means you
need to set a goal for number of customers, and then set a goal for
repeat sales for these customers.)

Estimate your conversion rate. (Don’t overestimate – depending on

the quality of your traffic and your offer, you may only convert 1% or
less… at least until you polish your ads, find venues of highly
targeted traffic, and engage a two-step marketing process.)

Estimate how much traffic you’ll need in order to achieve your traffic
and sales goals.

Go ahead and jiggle these numbers a bit to create different

scenarios. As you begin to collect actual data once traffic comes in,
then you can adjust your estimates to better reflect reality.

Who are your biggest competitors?

These are the people who are selling the exact same products as
you (such as other dropshippers in your niche), or those who are
selling very similar products to you. You’ll want to do research to
gather as much information as you can about your competitors.
This includes answers to the following questions…
What makes you different and better than these competitors?

As you start advertising in your niche, your prospects are going to

wonder why they should buy from you instead of your competitors.
You need to develop a brand and an USP (unique selling
proposition) that answers this question.

For example, ever notice that you tend to gravitate towards certain
brands when you go to the grocery store, even when similar brands
would work just as well (and sometimes even at a reduced cost)?

That’s the power of a good brand, which is why you’ll want to spend
some time developing your own brand.

Your USP might center around factors such as:

 Exceptional customer service.

 Strong guarantee.
 Good prices.
 Bonus offers.
 Unique products not offered anywhere else.
 Products that are made in an unusual way.
 Products that are “first” in some category.

In order to determine a good USP, you’ll need to do two things:

1. Figure out what USPs your competitors are using, because of

course you want to position your business in a unique way in
the marketplace.

2. Figure out what is important to your prospects. It does you no

good to develop a USP (or overall brand) if your prospects
and customers don’t give a flying fig about it. Your market
research will help you determine what is important to your
customers.

Once you develop your USP and overall brand, then you can start
incorporating it into your advertising campaigns.
What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Simply put, what weaknesses may hamper your marketing and

overall business efforts? And what strengths do you possess that
are a boon to growing your business?

You’ll want to spend some time thinking about this, as knowing your
weaknesses in particular will be helpful, as you can make a Plan B
to overcome these weaknesses.

For example, if you couldn’t write a high-converting advertisement

to save your life, then Plan B would be to outsource this to a
professional.

How are your competitors reaching the target market?

Simply put, study what your competitors are doing. Sign up for their
mailing lists, follow them on social media, search for them online to
find out how and where they’re advertising. Figure out what’s
working for them, and then see if you can adapt some of these idea
into your overall marketing strategy.

So What’s the Plan, Stan?

If you’ve answered all the above questions thoughtfully and

accurately (using research rather than just your gut), then you
should have a pretty clear idea of who your market is and how to
reach them. So now you need to create a marketing plan based on
this data.

NOTE: Don’t spread yourself too thin, or you won’t get results. Rank
your advertising methods in order of most effective to least
effective. Then start with your most effective method, create a plan
for execution, take action on that plan, and then analyze your
results. Once your first method is up and running, then start
working on the next advertising method on your list.

In other words, spend a few days or weeks focusing on just one

method at a time. Get that ad method up and running before adding
another method into the mix. This strategy will help you get better
results.

So now let’s look at some of the most effective ecommerce traffic-

generation methods in more depth…
 Promotions: Buying Your Way In
Front of Targeted Eyeballs
One of the fastest ways to start bringing targeted, cash-in-hand
prospects to your site is via paid advertising. But before you go
crazy with your ad budget, you need to figure out your goals, and
then design a paid advertising strategy around these goals.

Here are the main questions to ask yourself to help you design your
paid advertising strategy:

What is your main advertising goal?

If you want effective advertising, then you need to determine your

primary goal before you purchase your first ad.

Here are follow up questions to help you determine your goal:

 Do you intend to generate revenue on the frontend (e.g.,

advertising for growth and monetization)? While making
profits on the frontend is ideal, you may find it acceptable
to break even on the front end, or even take a loss. This
depends on your backend strategy. Which brings us to
the next point…

 Is your goal to build your customer list and then generate

profits on the backend? In other words, are you willing to
take a loss on the frontend with the goal of making it up
on the backend? If this is your goal, then you need to
determine your likely CLV – customer lifetime value --
and go from there.

 Are you using it primarily to build your prospect list? In

this case, you’re using a two-step strategy that involves
sending traffic to a lead page rather than to your store.
You get people on your list, and then turn these
prospects into cash-paying customers,
  Are you using your advertising to build brand
recognition? Take note: while you can and should build
your brand, using paid advertising to do it isn’t
necessarily the most effective way. Plus, ideally your
goals should be easily measurable—and brand
recognition is more difficult (but not impossible) to
measure, as you’ll need to do surveys and focus groups
to see if your brand-building efforts are working.

TIP: Regardless of whether you’re making money on the

frontend, breaking even, or taking a loss, you need to figure
out how you’re going to extract the most profit out of the
backend of your business. This means setting up a strategy
and a sales funnel for following up with customers to
announce sales, promote related items, and generally get
them to spend more money with you. You’ll do this primarily
via email, in flyers you send with shipments, in strategically
placed cross-promotions and upsells on your site and so on.
We’ll talk more about these sorts of growth strategies later in
this guide.

Once you determine your goals, this will help you decide what sort
of ads to create and where to place these ads.

TIP: You’ll want to experiment with different types of direct-

response ads, including:

1. General store ads. These are ads that direct people to the
storefront.

2. Specific product ads. Here’s where you advertise some of

your most popular products – perhaps low-priced products
—to turn prospects quickly into customers. (This strategy
will likely get you better results over sending people to the
storefront – but test to find out what works for you.)

3. Sale ads. This is where you offer prospects a discount,

such as a coupon on their first purchase.
 4. Lead page ads. This is where you send people to your lead
page to build your list, rather than sending them to a
product page.

5. Retargeting. This is where you place ads in front of people

for specific products they’ve previously viewed in your
store. So for example, if someone looks at a pair of shoes
in your store, then you can show them an ad for those
shoes when they’re visiting other websites. One popular
platform to place this sort of ad is on Facebook.

Now the next step is to determine the exact venues in which to

advertise.

Here are popular options:

 Facebook advertising. Be sure to narrow your audience

by demographics and behavior to ensure your ads are
landing in front of targeted prospects. As noted before,
you can also use retargeting.

 Reddit.com. This is a fairly inexpensive place to test

advertising. Be sure to pick a targeted sub-Reddit.

 YouTube.com. Here’s a good way to reach your market

through video ads (which appear before regular videos
on the site).

 Google and Bing advertising. Here your ads will show up

alongside the organic search results. Be sure to pick
targeted (narrow) keywords.

 Marketplace advertising. Sites like eBay and Amazon let

you advertise on their sites, even if you’re not selling
products through their platforms.

 Third party services. Some websites exist to bring

advertisers and content publishers together. For
 example, you might check out sites such as
BlogAds.com

 Niche sites. These are sites within your own niche where
your target market congregates. You can also check if
these sites offer opportunities such as email advertising,
or ads on their social media channels.

For example, if you’re selling dog supplies, then you’d

seek out dog training (and similar) websites.

Keep these points in mind as you develop your advertising strategy:

 Focus on one ad venue at a time. Get it up and running,

and succeed (or fail) before you purchase ads through
another venue.

 Be sure you’re placing effective ads. Testing and

tracking your ads will help you determine which ads get
you the clicks, customers and revenue.

 Request demographics. Find out as much as you can

about a website’s traffic – who these visitors are and
how the site obtained them—before you decided
whether to place an ad with the site.

 Start small. Test a venue with a small ad buy. If you get

good results, then you can invest more money in a
bigger ad buy.

Once you have your paid advertising strategy in place, then you can
move onto the next strategy…
Promotions: Optimizing Your Store
For the Search Engines
Right at this moment, there are people searching Google, Bing and
other search engines for the EXACT products you’re selling in your
store. Question is, are they going to find your site at the top of the
search engines… or your competitors’ sites?

If you want to get your store to the top of the search engines, then
you need to use SEO (search engine optimization).

This is a two-step process:

Step 1: Determine what your prospects are searching for.

Step 2: Optimize your store and blog for these keywords.

Let’s take a closer look at these two steps…

Step 1: Pick Your Keywords

What you’re going to want to do for this step is grab a good

keyword tool and use it to figure out what words your prospects are
typing into the search engines. All you have to do is enter a broad
keyword (such as “gardening” or “women’s fashion”), and the tool
will deliver hundred if not thousands of related keywords

Heads up…

You’re not going for the big words, the ones with the most traffic.
That’s because there are big sites with deep pockets and teams of
SEO specialists who darn near work around the clock to corner the
market on words like “weight loss” or “women’s fashion.”

Instead, what you’re going to do is locate VERY specific keywords

with small to moderate amounts of competition, and then optimize
your pages around these keywords. Generally, these keywords will
include:
  Very specific product names, such as: “Nike men’s
Revolution 3 shoe.”
 Very specific produce reviews, such as: “Nike men’s
Revolution 3 review.”
 General product searches, such as: “men’s running
shoes.”
 Buying-related searches, such as: “buy men’s running
shoes” or “men’s running shoes free shipping.”
 Information searches, such as: “top men’s running
shoes.”
 Location-specific searches, such as “men’s running
shoes Los Angeles.”

The more specific your keywords, the more targeted your audience.
For example, if you’re selling Nike men’s Revolution 3 shoes, and
you optimize for buying related searches (e.g., “buy Nike men’s
Revolution 3 shoes”), you know you’re bringing some relatively
warm traffic into your site.

So the point is, forget about the broad (vague) and highly
competitive keywords. Instead, focus your efforts on highly targeted
keywords.
Step 2: Optimize Your Pages

Now that you know what words you’re optimizing for, you’ll do this
in two places:

1. On your product pages. You can put prospects right in front

of the products they want to buy.

2. On your blog pages. Here you can post product reviews,

product demos, and even “how to” information related to
your niche, and then bring traffic in from the search engines
by including your keywords in this content.

TIP: Don’t stuff your pages with keywords, as the search

engines may rap you on the knuckles for it (meaning
your page will appear low in the search engine rankings,
or maybe not at all, if the search engines think you’re
spamming). Instead, inject your keywords into your
content at a rate of 1% to 2% (meaning your keywords
will appear once or twice for every 100 words of
content).

Here’s a checklist you can use to optimize your product pages.

Include your keywords (such as the brand name and type of
product) in:

 The page title.

HINT: Use 70 characters or less here so that the

search engines don’t truncate your title.

 The page URL.

 The H1 tag (the header on the page).

 The image alt text.

 Image captions.
  Image filenames.

 Navigation links or other internal links.

 Within your product description itself.

 Meta description tags, which is the content appearing

under your page title in organic search results.

NOTE: Not all search engines use these tags, but it

doesn’t hurt to include them. Keep the meta
description length to 150 characters or less so that
search engines don’t truncate it.

Then walk through these other points on the checklist to ensure

your product pages (and blog pages) are optimized for the search
engines:

 Keep your focus on your human visitors, not the search

engine bots. Write for humans first, and bots second (as
long as writing for the bots doesn’t diminish the
experience for the human visitors).

 Make sure you’re using a mobile-friendly theme/design.

 Be sure your site loads fast.

 Create content-rich pages (especially with blog posts,

where you have more leeway to expand).

 Include synonyms and words related to your keywords.

For example, if your keyword includes the word
“housebreaking,” you might also use words such as
“house training,” “potty training,” and “

 Set up related social media pages and link back to your

store.

 Install social media

  Set up review pages on sites like Yelp and Epinions, and
link back to your store.

 Create an XML sitemap.

 Use canonical tags if you have duplicate content (such

as similar product descriptions), or avoid the issue
altogether by changing the descriptions.

 Create original content. Don’t use product descriptions

from dropshippers. (Not only does original content help
you with SEO, it also helps with conversions and sales.)

 Use redirects for pages that no longer exist.

 Check your site regularly for errors, such as broken links

or scripts that don’t work.

 Offer videos, interactive features and other “rich

snippets.” These snippets may appear in the search
engines, which will have your page standing out from
among the text-only pages.

Quick Recap
SEO is your key to ranking well in the search engines, and it
doesn’t take too much extra time to include keywords in your
product pages. As always, however, you may decide to outsource
this task to someone else.

For more information about tools to help you optimize your pages
for the search engines, be sure to check out the bonus resource
document included with this guide.

And now the next advertising method…

 Promotions: Success With Social
Media Marketing
Social media strategist Amy Jo Martin says,

“Social media is the ultimate equalizer. It gives a voice a

platform to anyone willing to engage.”

She’s right about that. It’s like connecting a microphone to a

booming speaker on a busy street corner. Anyone who takes the
mic is going to get heard. People can’t help but stop and pay
attention.

Indeed, social media platforms are like springboards for businesses

of any size and with any budget. A small business with a good
social media strategy can level the playing field with their deep-
pocketed competitors.

And that includes you.

So maybe you’re up against some stiff competition in your niche. If

you carve out a specialized niche, develop a brand, and then
engage on social media, you too can level the playing field.

So here’s what you need to do:

1. Clarify your goals.

2. Define your target market.
3. Determine which social media platforms make it easiest for
you to reach your target marketing and achieve your goals.
4. Create a custom social media strategy.

Let’s walk through these steps…

Step 1: Define Your Goals

Before you develop a social media strategy, you need to figure out
what your end goal is. That is, how do you intend to use social
media to grow your store?

Here are some ideas to get you started:

 Generate new leads/build your mailing list.

 Create more sales.
 Drive traffic.
 Build your brand.
 Build authority status.
 Boost your viral marketing strategy.
 Distribute content.
 Engage your audience for research purposes.
 Create higher conversion rates.
 Develop another communication channel (including for
customer service purposes).
 Lower your marketing costs.
 Bolster your other marketing efforts.

While you may enjoy all these benefits of engaging on social media,
you need to primarily pick just one goal, and then develop your
social media strategy around that one goal.

Next…
Step 2: Define Your Target Market

When it comes to social media, there are two very important

reasons for knowing as much about your audience as possible:

1. It helps you determine which social media platforms to focus

on. You’ve probably heard about the ol’ 80/20 rule. That rule
says that 20% of your activities generate 80% of the results.
So we’re going to figure out which social media platforms are
likely to provide 80% of your results, and then focus on those
platforms.

2. You can connect with your audience better when you know
something about them. In other words, you’ll be better able to
post content on your social media platforms that really appeals
to your audience.

Two good benefits, right?

For the purposes of this particular discussion, we’re going to focus

on that first benefit: finding out who your audience is, so that you
can then figure out the best social media platform(s) to use.

So how do you figure out who your audience is?

If you’re thinking you’ll just take a look at your crystal ball or look at
some tea leaves, I’m gonna nix that idea right now. We’re going to
be a bit more methodical about this.
This is a two part process:

Step 1: Do some market research.

Step 2: Profile your market based on this research.

The good news is, you’ve already completed these steps when you
did your initial market research while planning your store. So now
you just need to go back to that research, do some more if you find
any gaps in what you know about your audience, and then create
an audience profile based on their demographics and behavior.

NOTE: If you need extra help with this step, check out the
resource mentioned at the end of this chapter.

Once you’ve created this profile, move to the next step…

Step 3: Determine the Best Platforms

If you really start looking around online, you’ll quickly discover that
there are hundreds of social media sites. You could immerse
yourself in signing up for those sites starting today, and not come
up for air for several weeks from now.

But you know what? Most of them are a waste of your time.

So instead of throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks, what

you’re going to do is choose from the list of the top seven social
media sites.
Here they are:

 Facebook
 YouTube
 Twitter
 Pinterest
 LinkedIn
 Google+
 Instagram

And how do you choose?

Simple: you use the profiling information you already have on hand
about your audience, and then compare this to what is known about
the audience profiles on the above sites. Then you select and focus
on just one or two of the top platforms that best fits your audience
demographics and overall business goals.

One way to get this information about the platforms is simply by

researching the demographics yourself. You can find some of this
information right on each of the social media’s sites, typically in the
“about” section.

For others, you’ll need to do some research using Google or Bing.

Be sure that you draw your numbers and research from reputable
sources, especially those that conduct their own research (such as
PewInternet.org) or those that link to their references.
Step 4: Develop a Social Media Strategy

Now what you need to do is develop an overall social media

strategy. Remember, you’re going to start with just one or two
platforms and focus on them until you start seeing good results.

You’ve already defined your overall social media goal – that will
drive your social media strategy.

Here are questions to ask yourself to help you develop your social
media strategy:

 What sort of content does your audience seem to

respond to the best? (Hint: look at your competitors’
social media pages to get ideas.)

 What type of content do you need to create for your

chosen platforms? (For example, if you’re on Instagram,
then you need to share pics. If you’re on Facebook, you
can create and share a wider variety of content.)

 How will you integrate your branding into your social

media strategy?

 How often will you post on your social media accounts?

(Hint: Posting at least two or three times weekly is the
minimum – you’ll likely want to post more often.)

 What sort of tools will you use to schedule content and

track responses? (See the resource document included
with this guide to learn about your options.)

 Will you outsource content creation or do it yourself?

 How will you engage your audience to produce more

likes, comments and shares? (E.G., Asking, “What do
you think?” at the end of a post.)

 What sort of viral content will you distribute?

  How will you integrate your social media campaigns
within your store? (For example, you can place social
media “like” and “share” buttons next to products as well
as below blog posts.)

 How much time will you set aside each day to interact
with your audience, respond to their questions, etc.?

What you’ll want to do is develop a strategy using the answers to

the questions above as a guideline, and then test your strategy.
Test content length. Test text versus multimedia. Test out the time
of day you post, the day, and how many times you post per week to
see which strategy gives you the best reach.

Remember, social media isn’t an advertising platform – it’s an

engagement platform, a place to share content. So while you may
post promos from time to time, remember that social media should
be a dialogue (rather than a one-way monologue) – so engage and
interact accordingly. If you build a relationship with your audience,
they’ll be much more open to
Quick Recap

Some store owners sign up to every social media platform available

and then use a shotgun approach. That’s a mistake. Instead, you
need to profile your audience first, pick one or two platforms where
your audience is most likely to congregate, and then develop a
social media strategy that’s designed to meet your goals.
 The Magic of Building a Big Email List
At this point you have some traffic coming in, and you’ve developed
a strategy to grow that traffic by taking consistent steps every day to
generate new traffic. Yay, you!

So here’s what’s next: you need to start building a mailing list

ASAP.

TIP: You should have multiple lists. At a minimum, you should

have a customer mailing list (those who’ve actually purchased
something from you) and a prospect mailing list (those who’ve
joined your newsletter list and are still kicking the tires a bit, so
to speak).

Sometimes new store owners put this task on the back burner, but
that’s a big mistake. That’s because a well-built and well-cared-for
list will become your BIGGEST asset. You own it. It’s yours. And
you’ll quickly discover that a big list will become your biggest source
of revenue.

Consider this…

Even if all your traffic sources dried up tomorrow, such as if the

search engines dumped your pages or social media changed their
rules, you’d still make money as long as you maintained your list.

And even if your inventory was destroyed in a freak act of nature,

you can still make money –any time you want—as long as you
maintain your mailing list.

Plus here’s something else you’ll want to consider…

If you’re not building a mailing list, then up to 99% of your traffic is

going to come to your store, hit the back button without buying
anything, and NEVER return. Ever.

Oh sure, some of these visitors have every intention of returning.

Maybe they even bookmark your store. But the moment they leave,
they’re going to forget about you. Visiting your store again is
somewhere on their to-do list below re-grouting the tub. In other
words, it ain’t gonna happen.

But get these prospects on a mailing list instead, and you can
remind them to come back to your store. You can entice them with
coupons and other incentives to make that first purchase. And you
can build a relationship with them, which will turn them into loyal,
lifelong customers.

So what you need to do is make every effort to capture your visitors’

email addresses so that you can follow up, close the sale, boost
your conversions and grow this valuable asset (your mailing list).
Here’s how to do it…

Step 1: Get Email Marketing Software

Here you have two choices: you can use a third-party email service
provider (ESP), or you can host and manage your own mailing list.

We suggest you use a third-party service. That’s because a

reputable third-party service works hand-in-hand with ISPs and
email providers to ensure your emails land in your subscribers’
inboxes. If you took this task on yourself, you’d hardly have time to
run your store.

Step 2: Set Up An Autoresponder

Once you’ve selected a service provider, then follow their

documentation to set up your autoresponder. This is quick and
should just take a couple minutes.

Once it’s set up, you’re going to want to load your autoresponder
with an initial series of messages to build relationships with your
new subscribers and start generating sales.

Let me give you examples of the types of messages you might send
out:
  Limited-time coupon series. Here you offer new
customers a coupon for a discount off their first
purchase. You can then send out a series of three to five
emails reminding them to take advantage of the offer,
plus you can point the towards some of your most
popular products.

 Informational series. Here’s where you send out a “how

to” or tips series.

For example, let’s suppose you sell grilling supplies. You

can send out a series showing people how to grill
various meats to perfection, and then promote your
grilling supplies from within these emails.

 Product series. Here you send out a series of product

reviews to showcase your most popular products.

 Case studies. If you’re selling products that produce

some sort of results for people, then you can send out a
series of case studies to show how well these products
work.

For example, if you’re selling gardening supplies, then

you can send out case studies for items such as seeds,
fertilizers and organic pest control sprays.

In other words, create an initial series to build trust with your new
subscribers and generate sales. Then move onto the next step…

Step 3: Create an Incentive to Join

Merely promoting a “free newsletter” isn’t going to create any big

rush to join your mailing list. That’s why you need to give your
prospects a GOOD reason to join.

Here are two good reasons:

  Give new customers a discount coupon for their first
purchase in exchange for joining your list. (E.G., “Join
now to get 20% off your first order!”)

 Offer customers a gift for joining your list. This gift might
come in the form of a report, app, video or other valuable
product that’s easy for you to distribute automatically.
For example, if you sell home improvement equipment,
then you might offer a free video series that teaches
people how to do common home-improvement tasks
(such as refinishing kitchen cabinets).
Next…

Step 4: Promote Your Opt-In Form

Now you’re ready to start building your list. The next step is to
incorporate your opt-in form around your store and website. In
every instance, be sure to include the benefits of joining your list,
along with a call to action.

Here’s where to put your form:

 Create a lead page. This is a standalone page whose

sole purpose it is to entice prospects to join your mailing
list. Instead of sending traffic to your storefront, you may
consider utilizing a two-step marketing strategy and
sending traffic to your lead page instead.

 Use a lightbox pop up. You can set this pop up to appear
shortly after people first arrive at your store-font or on a
specific product page. This works particularly well if
you’re offering a discount coupon off their first purchase.

 Insert forms on your blog. If you have a blog, then there

are several places you can either insert opt-in forms
directly, or insert links to your lead page.

Specifically:

- The sidebar of your blog.

 - The header or footer of your blog.
- In the navigation menu (link to your lead page).
- At the end of articles.
- Direct calls to action within the articles
themselves.

 Install an exit redirect. Don’t let exiting visitors leave

without giving them one last chance to join your list.

 On your other platforms. Be sure to put opt-in forms or

links to your lead pages on your social media platforms,
as well as in any content you distribute (such as videos
on YouTube).

Quick Recap

You now have a step-by-step blueprint in hand for getting your

email capture system up and running.

So what’s next?

Now you need to learn how to tap into the gold that lays hidden in
your mailing list. That’s what’s next.

Read on…
 Mining The Gold That Lays Hidden
In Your Mailing List

You’re getting some traffic. (Yay!) You’re building a list of

prospective buyers. (Yay!) And now you need to engage that list to
build relationships and start generating sales. So read on to
discover the best practices, strategies and secrets to helping you
mine the gold that lays hidden in your mailing list…

Create a Strategy

First things first – you need to develop an email marketing strategy.

See, a lot of store owners think of an idea for an email, create that
email, and send it out. But there’s no rhyme or reason to their
publishing schedule. And if you don’t develop a strategy around a
specific goal, you end up with poor response rates, unsubscribes
and other problems.

So ask yourself these questions as you develop an email marketing

strategy:

 What are your overall goals for your mailing list?

 What sorts of promos do you plan on running, and

when?

 What kind of content can you send to build

relationships? In other words, what sorts of “how to”
articles, tips and other informational articles are can you
create to inform subscribers (build relationships) and
close sales?

For example, if you sell dog supplies, you might write an

article about how to leash train a dog who pulls on the
 leash. Then you might promote a “no pull” collar and
leash set within this article.

 What sort of holidays would you like to observe with your

mailing list? (E.G., If you sell candy, then you’re sure to
want to send special promos out during Halloween,
Christmas and Valentine’s Day.)

 What sorts of events are relevant to your niche? For

example, if you sell clothing, then you’ll send out
seasonal newsletters. E.G., selling beachwear during the
summer months.

TIP: Be sure you know your audience. For

example, it does no good to advertise beachwear in
July if your audience is in the Southern hemisphere
(where it’s winter in July).

 Are you doing any content swaps with partners? If so,

you’ll need to plan their mailings into your publishing
calendar.

 Which products do you want to focus on moving? “All” is

not the correct answer here, because you can’t promote
all your products in your newsletter. (Assuming you have
dozens, hundreds or even thousands of products.)
That’s why you’ll want to pick your top products and
promote them in your newsletter.

 How can you use your newsletter to promote these

products? NOTE: Generally, a series of emails about a
product creates more sales than sending out a single
email about a product.

Once you answer all these questions, then you’ll be able to create a
publishing calendar so that you know what sort of emails you’ll send
and when over the next six to twelve months.

In other words, don’t just send out an email because it’s time to
send an email. Instead, send out emails with a specific purpose,
such as promoting a new product in your store, promoting a
seasonal item, or announcing a sale.

When you have a plan in hand, then move onto these others steps
and best practices…

Send Emails Regularly

You can’t very well establish a relationship with prospects if you’re

only contacting them once or twice a month. At a minimum, you
need to contact them weekly – you may even find better
conversions by contacting them multiple times per week.

Brush Up On Copywriting

Copywriting (the art and science of writing great sales copy) is the
#1 skill you can develop to start getting better results from your
email marketing efforts. That’s because great copy will ensure you
create subject lines that get the clicks, and emails that keep people
engaged and clicking on your links.

Here are tips for writing better copy:

 Create benefit-driven copy. Your readers are always

wondering, “What’s in it for me?” So when you’re
describing a product, don’t just describe the features
(parts) of the product. Instead, let prospects know what
those features do for the prospect. In other words, let
readers know the benefits of the product.

E.G., The titanium casing protects your laptop and all

your valuable pictures, videos and documents against
damage and loss if you ever drop this machine.

Note: The “titanium casing” is the feature. The line above

then explains the benefit of this feature.

 Arouse curiosity. An email subject line that arouses

curiosity will get people opening your email. An email
that arouses curiosity will keep people reading. And
 sprinkling a little curiosity near the call to action will get
the click.

 Push emotional buttons. People need a little emotional

push to move towards the order button.

For example, let’s say you’re selling clothing. Your

promo for a black party dress might include something
such as, “You’ll be all the envy of your friends when they
see you in this jaw-dropping little black number…

 Provide proof. An easy way to do this is by providing

testimonials and reviews from satisfied customers.
These testimonials can cover the products themselves,
as well as issues such as shipping times and your
customer care.

Next…

Use Responsive Templates

A lot of your prospects are likely reading your email on their mobile
devices. That’s why you want to make sure that it’s formatted well.
If you’re sending HTML emails, then use a responsive design to
ensure a good reading experience across devices.

Segment Your List

One way to improve the response rate of your mailing list is to

segment it into targeted sections. That way, you can send highly
targeted content and promos to each segment.

At a minimum, you should split your list into prospects (those who
haven’t purchased anything yet) and customers. But you’ll enjoy
higher conversions if you can segment your list in other ways.

For example, let’s suppose you sell clothing. You’ll make more
sales if you can segment your list into those who are interested in
women’s clothing versus those who are interested in purchasing
men’s clothing.
Here are other ideas for list segmentation:

 Segment your list according to list behavior, such as

those who clicked on a link or those who didn’t open
your last email.

 Segment by basic demographics, such as age, gender

and location (where relevant).

 Segment according to lead magnet. That is, offer

different incentives for joining your list, and then segment
accordingly.

 Segment your list according to what people purchase.

This makes it easier for you to send targeted offers to
create backend sales.

 Segment according to where the traffic originated. For

example, if a segment of your population came from
Facebook, then you might refer to a special offer for
Facebook Fans only.

Those are just a few ideas to get you started. Many major email
service providers make it easy to segment your list, so use this
feature and track whether segmenting boosts your conversion
rates.

Next…
Track and Test

Many major email service providers give you the basic tools you
need to track and test your campaigns—use them! You can then do
things such as:

 Test different subject lines to see which ones get you a

higher open rate.

 Test different products and offers.

 Test specific things within your email such as the opener

or calls to action to see which gives you the best
conversion rates/most clicks.

Be sure to just test ONE thing at a time in your emails. That way,
you know that if there is a difference between conversion rates, it’s
because of that one factor you tested.

For example, let’s imagine you’re testing email subject lines. What
you’ll do is create two emails that are EXACTLY the same, except
for the subject line. Then you’ll send those two emails out at exactly
the same time, so that time of the day doesn’t become a factor that
influences conversions.

NOTE: An email service provider with built-in testing tools will

handle all the details automatically, including splitting your list
randomly and then sending the emails out at the same time to
these random segments of your list.

So now that you have a good idea of how to boost your email
conversion rates, you’ll want to take a look at this checklist…

Use This Checklist

There are plenty of pieces and parts to remember when you’re

sending out campaigns and emails.

Use this checklist to be sure you cover all your bases…

Goals

Do you have a well-defined goal for this email?

Did you plan your content and pitch around this goal?

Is this email part of a series? If not, would your goal be better

served by creating a series?

From Field

Have you selected a recognizable “From” field?

Is your “From” field brandable?

NOTE: Pick your “From” field carefully, as you do not want to

change it once you’ve decided on it.
Subject Line

Does your subject line give your prospect a good reason to open
the email? (Does it grab their attention?)

Does the subject line include a benefit?

Does the subject line arouse curiosity, where possible?

Is your subject line short so that the email client doesn’t truncate it?

Email Content

Does your email immediately engage readers with a direct benefit,

a story, an intriguing question, a startling statistic or similar item?

Is your email reader-oriented? (Hint: You should use words like

“you” and “yours” much more often than self-centered words like “I”
or “me.”)

Is your email structured in a way to naturally lead people to your

offer at the end?

Do you answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” by offering a list

of benefits?

Do you include high-quality product photos in the email?

Do you provide a strong call to action alongside a link?

Do you give your readers a good reason to click on the link now?
(E.G., a time-limited discount offer is a good way to create a sense
of urgency.)

Email Formatting

Are you using a responsive email design?

Did you test your email across devices to be sure it looks good?
Did you proofread your email?

Did you test the email’s spam score?

Testing

Did you switch your email’s testing tools on so that you can test and
track this email?

Are you only testing one factor at a time, while holding all other
variables constant?

Segmenting And Follow Up

Are you sending highly targeted emails to different segments of

your list?

Do you have another email with a different subject line ready to

send to people who didn’t open the current email?

Do you have another email ready to send to people who open the
current email, but don’t click on the link?

Do you have another email ready to send to people who open and
click on the link, but don’t purchase the offer?

Quick Recap

Building your list is only part of the battle. If you want to make
money with your list, you need to develop a relationship with them
by sending them a combination of good content and product
promos. The key here is to treat your list like you would your best
friend, by staying in touch regularly, only recommending the best
products to them, and focusing on solving their problems.

Now let’s look at another way to grow your store…

 Affiliates and Partners and
Referrals…
Some of the best and warmest traffic you’ll ever get is when
someone else directly refers traffic to you. Because think about it –
we are much more likely to do something when someone we know,
like and trusts tells us to do it (versus if we see an advertisement
about it). That’s why you’ll want to consider installing an affiliate
program or other partner referral program.

But heads up – this traffic and list-building strategy may not work for
all store owners. The #1 thing you need to consider is whether you
have the margins to be able to share a cut of the profits with
affiliates.

TIP: Check with other store owners in your niche are offering
affiliate programs. If no one else is doing it, there may be a
reason – the margins just aren’t there.

If you’re a dropshipper, then chances are the margins are too small.
The exception is if you are in a very specialized or high-end niche
where you’re not competing on price with others.

If you’re selling your own products, then you’ll need to consider

whether your pricing strategy supports affiliates. If you raise your
prices, will you still maintain a good conversion rate? If not, will the
extra sales make up for the loss of profits? (Keep in mind that
backend sales are a big part of it.) Can you offer enough of an
incentive (in the form of a big commission) to attract top affiliates to
sell your wares?

Still another thing to consider is whether your business model

supports breaking even or even taking a loss on the frontend by
giving affiliates most of the profits. In this case, your goal is to build
a list of buyers and make the bulk of your profits on the backend.

You’ll need to consider all these issues carefully. If you do decide to

set up a partner referral program, you’ll pick from these options:
 1. Set up an affiliate program. Generally, you’ll offer a
commission on every sale referred to you by affiliates.
Depending on what you’re selling, commissions on physical
goods usually range from between 5% to 25%, with most
products right around the 10% range.

2. Set up a customer referral program, where customers (or even

prospects) get rewards (instead of commissions) for referring
their friends.

Let’s look at these two options separately

Set Up An Affiliate Program

Before you set up an affiliate program, you need to get your email
list up and running. That’s because an affiliate program isn’t going
to be very profitable for you, unless you are already marketing to
your customers on the backend.

In other words, your margins are going to be small on the frontend,

so your affiliate program is only going to be a big success you have
a plan for monetizing the backend of your business. This may
include:

 Sending promos via email on the backend. (This is the

most important thing you can do to increase sales on the
backend.)
 Sending promos along with shipments.
 Adding upsells on the order form.
 Adding promos on the thank you/confirmation page.

So let’s talk about how to get your affiliate program set up…

Step 1: Decide On Commissions

Here’s the simple truth: the higher your commissions, the more
high-quality affiliates you’ll attract. That’s why selling a high-end
product with a generous commission is going to help you build a
better affiliate program than selling low-priced items that offer
affiliates very little incentive to promote.

Step 2: Install Your Affiliate Program

Depending on your platform, you may be able to use an app or

plugin to create your affiliate program. For example, if you’re using
Shopify, then all you have to do is pick from one of several good
affiliate apps in their app store.

On some platforms (like Amazon), your affiliate program is already

built in, though you won’t have any control over the program, nor
will you even be able to contact affiliates. (That’s a big
disadvantage of using these sorts of platforms.)

Next…
Step 3: Create Marketing Materials

Your next step is to make it easy for your affiliates to join your
program and start promoting immediately. You can do this by
creating “cut and paste” type promos and graphics for your affiliates
to use. These materials may include:

 A variety of graphics, including banner ads and smaller

graphical squares.

 Short text ads for platforms such as pay per click

advertising.

 Short promos for social media platforms like Twitter.

 Longer promos for other social media and blogs.

 Articles that are part content, part promo for blogs and
newsletters.

 Coupons.

 Videos.

 Rebrandable reports.

 Apps.

In other words, create a variety of both text and multimedia content

for a variety of platforms. Then be sure to ask your affiliates what
else they need or want to promote.
Step 4: Recruit Partners

Now you need to build your affiliate team.

You can do this by:

 Including a link in your store where you advertise for

affiliates.

 Let your social media followers, blog visitors and

newsletter subscribers know you’re looking for affiliates.

 Directly advertise your affiliate program on affiliate-

related websites.

 Seek out the top affiliates in your niche and contact them
directly to join your affiliate program. Basically, anyone
who is already working in your niche is a good candidate
to become an affiliate, including:

- Other product vendors or service providers in

your niche.
- Those with big platforms, including big blogs,
social media platforms, forums, well-trafficked
sites, and newsletters.
- Those who are actively working as affiliates in
the niche, including those who are currently
selling your competitors’ products.

Once you start building your team, then move onto the next step…
Step 5: Motivate Partners

If you are on a platform where you have control of your affiliates,

then you’ll want to stay in touch with them on a weekly basis and
motivate them to promote. You can send out weekly emails with the
following kinds of content:

 Coupons for affiliates to distribute.

 Announcements about upcoming promos.

 Announcements about new products.

 Showcasing popular products.

 Announcing affiliate contests.

 Providing new marketing materials for affiliates.

 Highlighting how well other affiliates are doing

(along with tips of how they’re doing it).

And anything else that will motivate your affiliates.

Note: Recruiting and motivating affiliates isn’t something you do

once and then never again. These two steps are an ongoing
process, something you should be doing every single week. If you
want your affiliate program to grow, then work on both recruiting
new affiliates and motiving the entire team on a consistent basis.

Now let’s take a quick look at the other method for getting referral
traffic…
Set Up a Rewards Program

If you don’t have the margins needed to offer cash commissions to

your affiliates, then you may consider setting up a rewards program
instead. This is where you offer people – often your existing
customers and prospects—gifts for referring customers to your
store.

Note: You can offer a direct reward for every referral. Alternatively,
you can offer “points” for referrals, which your customers can then
exchange for gifts. The more points they accumulate, the better gift
they’ll receive.

Now whether you’re offering direct gifts for each referral or you’re
working on a points system, you’ll want to think outside the box.
Specifically, consider what type of gifts you can offer that have a
high value to customers, yet actually are a low-cost and easy-to-
deliver item for you.

Here are some ideas:

 Discounts on future purchases.

 Gift cards for your store.

 Free products from your store.

 Discounts or free products from your marketing partners’

stores. For example, if you sell wedding supplies such as
bridesmaid gifts, tiaras, decorations and the like, then
you may offer discounts with a marketing partner who
caters to the same niche but doesn’t sell the same sort
of products. (E.G., a jeweler, a bridal gown store, etc.)

 Related digital products, such as apps, videos, reports or

even access to live events such as webinars. For
example, if you’re selling bodybuilding supplements and
equipment, you might offer a training video or a meal-
planning app.
  Related services. For example, if you’re selling weight-
loss goods, you might offer a free consultation to help
design a custom meal plan and training program.

You get the idea. Point is, try to come up with rewards that your
prospects and customers will really value, yet they won’t bankrupt
you.

No Cash Incentives Or Rewards? No Problem…

If you don’t have much in the way to offer in terms of cash or gifts
for referrals, there are two other ways to get referrals:

1. Joint ventures.
2. Viral traffic.

A joint venture is when you team up with other marketers in your

niche for mutual gain. Go back to the example above – if you sell
wedding favors and accessories, then you might team up with
someone who sells bridal gowns. That way you can help each other
without competing with one another.

How do you help each other? Simple: by co-promoting each other

all through your respective sales funnels.

For example, you can swap endorsements and promos in the

following places:

 Emails to both prospects and customers.

 Social media.
 Blogs.
 On thank you/confirmation pages.
 In content you co-create, such as lead magnets (reports,
videos, etc.).

You might even do events together, such as holding a live webinar

where you promote both of your stores at the end.

The second way to bring in referral traffic is by creating and

launching viral content on social media. This traffic won’t be as
warm as other sorts of traffic, because your prospects will be
passing around the content that happens to include a promo, rather
than specifically telling their friends to buy from you.

Here’s a classic example of viral content: BlendTec and their

famous “Will it blend?” videos on YouTube. This campaign was
launched over a decade ago, and it still continues to draw views.

Here’s how: This company regularly shows off their product line of
blenders by creating humorous, eyebrow-raising videos where they
blend items such as iPhones. The videos show how well the
product works, but the videos also go viral since they’re
unconventional.

Need more inspiration for viral content? Check out Facebook pages
and YouTube videos in your niche to see what’s hot. This content
may include videos, memes, infographics, and more.

Quick Recap

Two good ways to start getting partner traffic is by starting an

affiliate program and offering a rewards program. You’ll need to
check your margins and your business model to see if these types
of programs make good financial sense for you. If not, then two
additional ways to get traffic is by partnering with other people in
your niche and launching viral content. These two methods are
good additions to your marketing arsenal regardless of whether you
have an affiliate or rewards program in place.

Now let’s turn our attention to another important issue…

 Customer Care… or Customer Swear?
So at this point traffic is coming in at a nice clip. You’re building
your list. You’re making sales. Life is good!

But don’t kick your feet up and lace your fingers behind your head
just yet. That’s because you still have to put in place one very
important piece: a system for handling customer care.

Plenty of store owners don’t give too much thought to this piece of
their business, but that’s a huge mistake. That’s because your
prospects and customers will judge you based largely on the quality
of your customer service.

If you provide outstanding service (consistently), your customers’

loyalty to you will grow. All is well. Business will be good.

On the other hand, you’re going to be feeling a world of hurt if you

can’t or won’t provide a good customer experience. Bad customer
service can destroy your reputation and destroy your business.

You don’t have to look far for proof. Just look at any business on
Yelp with a low rating, and chances are the customer service is
what tanked the rating. Reviewers will even say the products are
great, but they’ll never return because of the way they were treated.

And you know what? People who have a good experience may or
may not tell anyone. But people who have a BAD experience tell
everyone. They go on social media. They go on review sites. They
tell their friends. You can say “bye, bye business” if it happens to
you.

Maybe you’ve even seen this in your own life. You shop at a store
loyally for months… and then one bad customer service experience
turns you away from the store FOREVER. And you tell your friends
about it.

Because think about it…

You customers can probably get your products elsewhere, no
problem. But they can’t get good customer service everywhere, so
they’ll develop strong brand loyalty to anyone who treats them well.
You need to step up and be the person who treats your customers
like gold, makes them feel valued, and makes them feel special.

So how do you provide this sort of top-notch customer service?

Take a look at these tips and best practices…

Consider Outsourcing

One common complaint from customers is that companies don’t

answer questions in a timely manner. If you’re trying to handle
customer service yourself, then you’re likely going to get the same
sorts of complaints (and lose customers because of it). That’s why
you’ll want to consider outsourcing this task to a competent
customer care representative (or team).

A few points to keep in mind:

 Train your staff. Even if the staff has a lot of experience

with customer care, you want to be sure the staff
handles inquiries quickly and professionally.

 Provide answers to common questions. This saves your

customer care team time, plus provides a uniform
experience for customers.

 Be sure your customer care team speaks and writes

English well. You don’t want your customers to get
frustrated because of misunderstandings and language
troubles.

Next…
Use a Good Help Desk

A good help desk will keep tickets organized, allow you to install a
live chat option, and ensure customer’s emails don’t fall through the
cracks.

Cut Down on Questions

One way to make your customer service experience better is by

making it easy for people to find what they need without taking the
extra step of contacting customer service.

You do this in the following ways:

 Provide a FAQ and other documentation. Let people

know what to expect regarding common issues such as
types of payment accepted, shipping costs, delivery
estimates and similar issues. Where applicable, provide
text and video documentation on how to use a product
(such as user’s manuals).

 Consider installing an artificial intelligence bot. A good

bot will cut down on questions going through the
customer service desk.

Let Customers Know What to Expect

When customers contact your business via email (or help desk),
you don’t want them to feel like their question dropped into a black
hole. Post your business hours and time zone clearly on your site,
along with an estimate of when you’ll get back to them. You can
post this same information in an autoresponder that you send
whenever someone contact you.

Which brings us to the next point…

Handle Inquiries Fast

If a prospect has a credit card out but wants to ask a quick question
before ordering, they’re not going to wait around forever. If you take
too long to answer the question, they’re going to find a competitor
instead.

Point is, handle all inquiries as quickly as possible. Whenever

possible, offer live chat support to provide instant answers. Help
desk inquiries should take a couple hours to answer at most – but
you’re more likely to save the sale if you can answer more quickly.

Provide Care Across Channels

With the advent of social media, customer service is no longer

contained to your site. If you have a Facebook Page, Twitter
account or any other social media platform, be sure to check your
pages and messages daily. That’s because some people will send
their questions through these platforms rather than fiddling around
on your site.

Make Customers Feel Valued

In addition to promptly providing useful answers, you can provide a

good customer experience simply by making customers feel valued.
Thank them for their question. Thank them for their business. Let
them know how much you appreciate them. And if you mess up,
make it up to them (such as by offering discounts or free products).

Keep Customers In The Loop

Once customers hit the order button, you’ll want to let them know
what is happening every step of the way. So send out emails (these
can be automated) that let customers know important information
such as when the order is likely to ship, as well as information such
as a tracking number once it ships.

Likewise, keep customers in the loop whenever they lodge an

inquiry at your help desk. For example, if you’re refunding a
purchase, let them know when the return arrives, let them know
when you’ve credited their account, and give them an estimate of
when the credit will appear on their credit card statement.

Offer Live Support

As mentioned above, offering live chat is one way to provide fast

answers to customers. You’ll also want to consider offering phone
support, as some people want to talk to a “real person” rather than
handling everything by email.

Stay Calm

Sometimes people who’re having a bad day will attempt to take it

out on you and your customer service staff. They’ll berate you,
they’ll use bad language, they may lie about what’s going on, they
may insult you personally, they may even threaten you.

Take a deep breath. If you feel your blood pressure going up or you
feel like firing off a nasty email to “get back” at them, that’s a sign
you need to take a step back. Once you feel your emotions settle,
then and only then should you answer the inquiry.

Remember, one bad customer service exchange can end up on

social media and destroy your reputation. So be sure you’re always
handling customer inquiries promptly, calmly, professionally.

TIP: This doesn’t mean you need to let customers abuse you.
If a customer is abusing you or your staff, handle what needs
to be handled (such as a refund), and then block the customer
from your store.

Be Sure Your Site Runs Well

You’ll want to regularly check your site to be sure you don’t have
broken links, inaccurate information, or order forms that don’t work.
Most people who encounter these problems will simply walk away
without telling you (and you can bet they won’t be back).
In short, good customer care starts with providing a good onsite
experience and a user-friendly site.
Plan For Heavy Loads

There are going to be certain times when your customer service

load is going to be a bit heavier than usual. You’ll need to
compensate for these high-traffic times by bringing on more staff.
It’s best if you anticipate these periods ahead of time, rather than
scrambling and falling behind under a deluge of customer-service
inquiries.

Here are some times when you can expect heavier loads:

 During sales.

 After big sales. (You’ll get return inquiries, questions

about how to use the product, etc.)

 During affiliate contests.

 Whenever you’ve created extra traffic, such as through a

new ad campaign or even a viral campaign.

 When your store gets mentioned by a prominent

influence in your niche, such as by the media, by a well-
trafficked blog, etc.

 Before gift-giving holidays such as Christmas.

 During niche-relevant events or seasons. (E.G., if you

sell smoking-cessation aids, you’ll see an uptick around
New Years as people set their resolutions to quit.)

You’ll want to think about your own niche, and when you’re likely to
see an uptick in traffic and sales.

Anticipate Questions

No matter what kind of store you own, there are certain types of
questions that are bound to come up repeatedly. You’ll want to
have these questions on file, along with a copy and paste template
of how to answer them. This saves both you and your customer
staff time, plus it ensures multiple customer service reps are
handling inquiries in the same way.

NOTE: Some of these questions are suitable for inclusion in

your FAQ document. Keep in mind that even if they appear in
a FAQ, a few people will still inquire via your help desk.

Here are the inquiries and questions you’re likely to receive:

 What payment methods do you accept? (Or specific

questions such as “Do you accept PayPal?”)

 How quickly do you process orders?

 When can I expect my order to arrive?

 I didn’t get a receipt/tracking number – can you resend

this information?

 What is your return policy?

 What is your guarantee policy/warranty?

 How do use a coupon?

 How do I use a gift card?

 Do you have any coupons/Groupons available?

 Do you have any upcoming sales?

 How do I use the product/is there an owner’s manual

available?

 Can I order a replacement part?

 This item didn’t work – what are my options?

 How do I start a return?

 Do I need to pay for postage on a return?

 Is there a restocking fee?

 Do you have telephone number where I can speak

directly to a real person?

 I’m furious about _____. How do I contact the manager

or owner?

 Did my order go through?

 Where is my order?

 Do this, or I’m going to leave a bad review…

NOTE: Some people have such bad customer

service experiences that they start out every inquiry
with a threat. Stay level-headed and answer these
inquiries cheerfully and promptly.

 I just hit the order button and realized I ordered the

wrong item/size/color/etc. – how can I correct this before
it ships?

 I keep getting an error when I try to _____. What now?

 I asked for a refund 7 days ago and haven’t heard

anything back. Are you trying to rip me off?

 Can you flush a dead fish down the toilet? (That

probably has nothing to do with your business, but you
can bet you’re going to get some off the wall questions
sometimes – so be sure to handle them in a polite,
professional way!)
Quick Recap

Again, don’t overlook this piece of your business. Handling

customer concerns can make or break a burgeoning business.
People have been known to organize boycotts over bad customer
service. Don’t let this happen to you – use the tips and best
practices above to provide great service and start building a good
reputation in your niche.

Once everything is running smoothly, then you’re going to want to

turn an eye towards future growth.

That’s what’s next, so read on…

 Sell Lots, Scale Up… Smile Big

If you put into place everything we’ve talked about so far, you’re
going to have mailing lists, traffic logs, sales numbers and revenue
to make you smile. But if you want to grin from ear to ear every day,
then your next task is to focus on growing your business.

Here’s how…

Reinvest Your Profits

Once you start pulling in a few bucks with your store, you’re going
to be tempted to spend those profits. If you have a day job, you’ll
want to quit. If you’ve got something to prove to everyone who said
it couldn’t be done, you might be tempted to blow those initial profits
on something nice, like a new car or exotic vacation.

Hold up…

If you spend your profits as fast as you make them, then you’re
going to end up with a store whose growth plateaus and goes
stagnant. Not good, right?

So here’s what you do instead: invest your profits to grow your

store.

Initially, you may want to invest ALL your profits right back into your
store. As your store grows, you may scale back the amount you
reinvest, such as 75%.... then 50%... then whatever number keeps
your store growing.

Here are good places to reinvest:

 Outsourcing (from creating product listings to customer

care).
 Advertising.
 Conversion optimization.
Which brings us to the next point…
Test and Track Relentlessly

Many store owners throw good money after bad. Or they spend a
lot of effort doing things that aren’t bringing in the profits. Not
intentionally of course, but rather because they simply don’t know
what’s working in their store.

Don’t do that. If you want to grow your store as quickly as possible,

then you need to find out what’s REALLY working.

You need to track and test:

 Emails (subject lines, offers, sales copy).

 Product pages (sales copy, photos, prices, etc.).
 Order forms.
 Upsells.
 Backend offers.
 Ad campaigns.

Basically, you need to find out what products your audience wants,
what prices get them cracking open their wallets, and what words
(sales copy) boosts conversions.

Next…

Build a Brand

When you first start advertising, you’re going to be relying on direct-

response ads to get sales going. You send an email to your list, you
make sales. You start up a Facebook ad campaign, you makes
sales. Your affiliates run a promo, you make sales.

This is all good stuff. But you also want to create top of mind
awareness in your prospects and customers, so that they think of
your store even when they don’t have one of your advertisements
sitting right in front of them.

How do you achieve this? The answer: by developing and building

a strong brand.
Keep in mind that a brand isn’t just about a logo and a slogan.
Instead, it’s about creating a specific feeling in your prospects and
customers. Your brand logo and slogan support this feeling.

For example, the luxury watchmaker Rolex isn’t going to position

itself on having durable watches or good value watches or even
exceptionally good timekeepers. Instead, Rolex is all about wealth,
power and sophistication. And that’s embodied in the crown logo
and the related slogan, “A crown for every achievement.”

So the question is, how do your customers feel when they shop at
your store? How do you want them to feel?

Once you figure this out, then you can create a logo, color scheme
and slogan (unique selling proposition) that support this brand.
Then you can integrate this brand fully into your marketing,
including:

 Creating a web design around the brand.

 Sending emails that showcase this brand.
 Creating advertisements with your branding infused.
 Using social media photos that highlight the brand.
 Creating content that supports the brand.
 Training customer service staff to handle inquiries in a
way that supports the brand.

You get the idea – basically, your brand should drive your activities.
And it should be everywhere, so that your customers and prospects
have a consistent, uniform experience whether they are browsing
your store or interacting on your social media pages.

End result? You’ll create the top of mind awareness that drives
long-term growth.

Here’s another idea…

Let Competitors Do the Heavy Lifting

Your top competitors already invest a lot of time and money to

figure out what works. You can take advantage of their hard work
by swiping some of their ideas. Of course you should still test these
ideas for yourself, but they’re great stating points.

For example, check out what your competitors are heavily

promoting – chances are, those are the products that are selling the
best for them. Likewise, look for products that are specifically
designated as top sellers, as well as those with lots of reviews. If
they’re selling well for your competitors, they’ll probably sell well for
you too.

Of course don’t stop your “spying” with products. Sign up for your
competitors’ newsletters. Join their social media pages. Check out
their blogs. All of these activities will give you clues about what
works in terms of content and promotions. You can then use these
ideas as inspiration for creating your own content and campaigns.

NOTE: You’ll notice I said “inspiration” – you’re not copying,

you’re modeling what works.

Next…

Focus On The 20%

The 80/20 rule says that 20% of some specific thing is going to
produce 80% of the results. This is true in your business too.

For example:

 20% of your customers are going to create 80% of

revenue.
 20% of your affiliates are going to produce 80% of
affiliate sales.
 20% of products are going to produce 80% of your
profits.

And so on.
Your job as a store owner is to identify the 20% that produces the
80% of results, and then invest the bulk of your time and money on
managing and improving that 20%.

Next…

Email Those Who Abandon Carts

One big source of lost sales happens when people abandon their
carts and then forget to come back and complete their purchase.
You can save the sale simply by sending an email to those who
abandon their carts. In fact, you can do this automatically on many
platforms by adding an extension or app. It’s one simple step that
can produce big profits for you over the long term.

Here’s a related idea…

Use Retargeting

Sometimes people get really excited about your store and products.
They might even bookmark your site with the full intention of coming
back. But once they leave your site, they forget. And there goes the
sale.

That’s where retargeting comes in. Retargeting lets you remind your
prospects about a specific product (or your entire store) by putting
an ad in front of them when they are visiting other sites. So if
someone looks at a dog toy in your store and then leaves, you can
retarget by showing them an ad for that exact same dog toy when
they’re on another site like Facebook. It’s a great way to close the
sale, even if the prospect didn’t join your list.

You can get started with retargeting (AKA remarketing) using

Facebook’s ad platform, or by using sites that offer retargeting
services, such as www.adroll.com.

Next…
Personalize Promos

One of the keys to generating profit on the backend is to offer

products that are highly related to the product your customer just
purchased. That’s why you’ll want to personalize your backend and
cross-selling promos to the extent that’s possible.

Now if you’re using a platform like Amazon, then Amazon does this
for you automatically. Just look at their product pages and the
pages they show you after a sale, and you’ll see recommendations
for products that are very similar or complimentary to what you just
purchased.

For example, if you purchase a bird feeder, Amazon is likely to

recommend that you also purchase bird seed.

If you purchase a cap for your favorite sports team, you’ll get
recommendations for shirts, jackets, mugs and other team
merchandise.

You can do the same thing on your platform by using apps, plugins
or extensions that show related products. You can show these
related products as a cross-sell during the ordering process, directly
after the order is complete, and you can even include a note in the
thank-you email.

TIP: Some of the bigger autoresponder services let you create

automation rules, where you can add people to specific lists or
send specific emails based on their behavior. So if someone
purchases a certain product, you can automatically send them
an email about a related offer.

And finally…
 Consider Your Exit Strategy
At this point you’re still reading up about how to start and grow your
store. So why on earth are we talking about an exit strategy
already?

Simple: because your exit strategy is going to heavily impact your

future profits.

A lot of store owners don’t give an exit strategy any thought until the
point when they actually do want to exit the business. But if you
want to maximize profits, you need to run your store with your exit
strategy already in mind.

For example, let’s suppose you decide to create an online store

that’s built around the branding of your name. You spend years
building the brand, growing the store, and living a comfortable life
as a result.

Then one day you decide to retire. You decide to sell the store to
the highest bidder. And since it’s a very profitable store, you expect
to see a bidding war and a big sale price.

Except the problem is, YOU have become an integral part of the
store. You’re the face of the store. Your name is the brand. When
you step away, a very valuable part of the business is gone. Your
store simply isn’t going to be as valuable, especially if you decide
that you don’t want some stranger to continue to use your name
and likeness to promote the store.

See the problem?

So that’s why you need to develop your exit strategy today. Think
about how you intend to leave the business.
For example:

 Sell the store to a stranger.

 Sell the store to a current employee.
 Sell the store to a family member.
 Sell the store to a friend.
 Sell the store to an existing partner.
 Give the store away to a friend or family member.
 Close the door and walk away.
 Drop dead and let someone else worry about it.

(That’s not a comprehensive list – but it gets you thinking…)

Once you know what you’re going to do, then build your store with
your exit strategy in mind. In other words, design your store for a
smooth and profitable exit.

For example:

 Create a brand that’s easy to transfer.

 Create a business model that’s easy for someone else to
take over.
 Create ad campaigns that the new store owner can
replicate.

Another thing you’ll want to consider is whether you have family that
need to be taken care of in the event of your untimely demise. If
you’d like your store to support your family after you’re gone, then
you need to write down everything you do on a daily basis to grow
your store—and start training your family members ASAP.

Now let’s wrap things up…

 Conclusion: This Is The Beginning
So this is it…

You’re at the end of the guide.

But this is exciting, because it means you’re now at the

beginning of your journey as an online store owner.

You’ve probably got a few visions of your store floating through your
head. You can just imagine the pride you’ll feel when your store is
up and running – and it’s yours, all yours. You can imagine telling
your friends and family about it. And oh yes, you can imagine the
money that will come in – and what it will feel like to quit your job to
become and head chief of a burgeoning online store.

Exciting, right? This is the stuff that keeps you up late at night and
sends you flying out of bed in the morning. This is the stuff that
gives you an adrenaline jolt that’s better than anything you’ve
experienced.

Now here’s the thing…

None of this is going to happen on its own. The working elves aren’t
going to do your market research tonight while you sleep. They’re
not going to build your store. They’re not going to set up your list or
start driving traffic.

All of that is on you. Not that you have to do it all yourself, of course
– you can outsource. But you’re the one who needs to put the ball
in motion. And the sooner you do that, the sooner you’ll start
reaping the rewards.

So this is where it starts.

You have a complete step-by-step plan in your hand.

This includes:
  Deciding if running a store is a good fit for you.
 Choosing your niche and product line.
 Selecting the right selling platform.
 Building your mailing list.
 Driving targeted traffic to your site.
 Growing your store over the long term.

These are all the steps you just discovered inside this manual. This
a proven strategy that we and countless others have used to start
and grow profitable online stores.

And now you can put this strategy to work for you too!

And that’s not all. You also have a workbook to help you walk
through the entire process. We’ve made it as easy as possible for
you to start and run your store – now it’s up to you!

In short, you have everything you need to start building your dream.

So I suggest you start right now. Go back to the beginning of this

manual, and work through the steps of choosing your niche and
product line. And do it now, because every step you take today puts
you closer to owning the thriving, profitable store you’ve been
dreaming about!

To Your Success!