Ecommerce Pulse

Today I'm answering a question sent to me by Jenny, a listener: How do you decide what content to publish on your blog vs. newsletter vs. social media? Should you post the same thing on Facebook as you do on Twitter? I've started blog posts, Twitter and Facebook. I want to launch a good newsletter campaign. I just want to make sure I'm doing this effectively. I've heard podcast related to creating content for each of these, but not one where you define a strategy for all. Thank you for what you do!!! Jenny This is a great question, and in this episode you'll hear my thoughts on the matter. I'll also give you an update on Survival Knife Experts, including how my amazing wife, Ryan, is helping me implement my marketing plan. I'll share about social media, guest posting, SEO, and PPC. Finally, I'll share a few key lessons I've learned recently that I plan to take action on for Survival Knife Experts and possibly with a new store down the road. To hear the episode, click play below or download in iTunes. Links referenced during the show: PermaBloom.co.uk Travel Like a Boss Podcast Asana My video tutorial on how to set up an email signup landing page in Shopify Product Reviews app for Shopify HitTail Anton Method PulsePremium (use discount code ECOMMERCEPULSE for 20% off your first 2 months) Subscribe to Ecommerce Pulse in iTunes!

Today I’ve got Carole Rains from Rustic Artistry on the show for an ecommerce coaching session. As you know, I’ve previously invited listeners to email me about their own ecommerce ventures and apply for a free consulting session with me to be recorded and shared with all of you. I think it can be really helpful to hear about what one of your fellow entrepreneurs is doing, the challenges they are facing, and what’s been working for them. We’re all probably facing a lot of similar challenges, so this is a chance for us to learn from each other. I’m always open to doing more of these coaching sessions, so if you’re interested in coming on the show for one of them, shoot me an email and tell me your story. A few of the key points we’ll be covering include: How Carole got her site featured on several high-profile blogs that have driven thousands of visitors to her site A number of suggestions I gave Carole for how to improve her conversion rate on high-priced items How Carole built up her Facebook and Pinterest followers to over 2000 followers and how she’s continuing to build those social media followings Some ideas for how she could get nice product photography done for products around the country from different suppliers To hear the episode, click play below or download in iTunes. Links referenced during the show: Rustic Artistry PicMonkey - Free online photo editor Optimizely Visual Website Optimizer Subscribe to Ecommerce Pulse in iTunes!

Today I’ve got Terry Lin on the show from BuildMyOnlineStore.com. Terry recently quit his job, moved to Vietnam, and is now working on building his own ecommerce brand, Baller Leather. He’ll tell you more about himself and his business, but Terry and I discuss a couple of really important topics that I think you’ll enjoy hearing about: First, you’ll hear how Terry got a brand new product designed, got a sample of the product made, and the first run of 150 units manufactured for less than $2,000. But even more exciting, we’ll be talking about how Terry got pre-orders that covered the entire cost of manufacturing that first run. You’ll also hear about how he’s marketing the site by reaching out to bloggers in his niche in order to build awareness, traffic, and sales. To hear the episode, click play below or download in iTunes. Links referenced during the show: TryCelery.com - Accept pre-orders for your product BuildMyOnlineStore.com - Terry Lin's ecommerce podcast and blog BallerLeather.com - Terry's online shop selling leather wallets Tropical MBA Alibaba - Find manufacturers for your product Shipwire Fulfillrite Subscribe to Ecommerce Pulse in iTunes!

Is growth hacking just an overused buzzword or is it something you should be thinking about?  What is growth hacking, and what does it mean to small ecommerce businesses? Today I'll be talking about 3 key concepts of growth hacking, and I'll be sharing some real-world examples of ecommerce websites that use growth hacking to grow. My goal is for you to finish this episode with 2-3 specific actionable items that you can implement today to start growing your business using the concepts of growth hacking. A few of the items we'll be talking about in this episode include: What attributes of products lead them to spread organically How to use analytics to hone down your growth efforts on the most effective methods What a funnel is and what it means to you I'll also be sharing the key points of growth hacking that differentiate it from traditional marketing: Growth hacking incorporates built-in virality. Growth hacking relies heavily on analytics. Growth hacking focuses on an awareness of where the traffic is in today’s economy, and on placing yourself where you’re visible to that traffic To hear the episode, click play below or download in iTunes. Links referenced during the show: The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping The Definitive Guide to Growth Hacking Diamond Candles - An example of an ecommerce site that uses a unique customer experience to build virality into their products. Moo - A business card store that uses a "pass-it-on" discount card to build virality into their products. AirBnB - A site that leveraged the user base of AirBnB to build their own traffic and users Google Analytics Kissmetrics My free 5-day email course on how to choose an ecommerce niche Subscribe to Ecommerce Pulse in iTunes!

In today's episode I share six things I've learned recently through starting Survival Knife Experts, my drop ship ecommerce business. Here are the six lessons I've been learning. Listen to the episode below for tips and strategies on how to solve these problems and defeat these challenges! The hardest part comes after you launch. It's difficult to do more than one thing at a time. Shipping costs will kill you. Don't invest in low-return activities or advertising. Keyword selection is king. Shiny object syndrome is real and dangerous. To hear the episode, click play below or download in iTunes. Links referenced during the show: SurvivaKnifeExperts.com - My drop ship ecommerce business AskPat.com - Pat Flynn's new podcast answering listener questions. Startups for the Rest of Us - A fantastic podcast on bootstrapping a business that I recommend you check out The Great PPC Experiment, Part 1 - My experiment with using Facebook ads to drive traffic to Survival Knife Experts Spy On Your Ecommerce Competition Like James Bond 007 How to Research your Ecommerce Competitors 12 Strategies for Avoiding Shiny Object Syndrome Subscribe to Ecommerce Pulse in iTunes!

In today's episode I'll be sharing a conversation I recently had with Pat Flynn of SmartPassiveIncome.com. Pat is an expert at building new niche websites, becoming an expert in a niche, creating high-quality authoritative content, and building awareness of a new brand. He shares his experiences and tips in today's episode, and I'm extremely excited for you to hear what he has to say. Here's a preview of what you'll hear in this episode: How Pat talked with people in his niche before launching his site to figure out the best ways to create content to reach them. How he's building awareness of the FoodTruckr brand by churning out high-quality content and generating word-of-mouth buzz. How to become an expert in a niche Pat's tips for finding areas of your business that you could outsource to VAs And more... To hear the episode, click play below or download in iTunes. Links referenced during the show: CloudFlare.com - A free CDN service to boost your website's speed and reliability Smart Passive Income FoodTruckr Security Guard Training HQ Entrepreneur on Fire with John Lee Dumas Eventual Millionaire with Jaime Tarde (check spelling?) Social Triggers with Derek Halpern Virtual Staff Finder with Chris Ducker Subscribe to Ecommerce Pulse in iTunes!

Today's episode is a question and answer session. We'll be covering some important topics, including: Whether or not you should still be using guest blogging for SEO, in light of Matt Cutts' recent condemnation of the practice How to write interesting articles for "boring" niches (including some specific questions to ask yourself to help you brainstorm) Some tips for what to do after launching a new ecommerce site to start driving traffic and sales To hear the episode, click play below or download in iTunes. Links referenced during the show: EmbedResponsively.com - A free tool to help you embed YouTube, Vimeo, and other videos responsively (so they show up well on any device). The decay and fall of guest blogging for SEO - Matt Cutts' blog post. ClocksMarketplace.com - Amiel's new ecommerce website, for which he's trying to write interesting content. How to Write Interesting Content for a "Boring" Topic Quora.com and Yahoo Answers - Good places to learn what questions people are asking about your "boring" topic. eCommHub.com - An online SAAS tool that syncs your stock levels between your ecommerce site and your suppliers. It also handles things like sending shipping tracking numbers. Magento - An open source ecommerce platform. I don't recommend using it unless you're ready to tackle big technical issues to set up and manage your store. TraditionalShavingShop.co.uk - Mitesh's brand new ecommerce site. Mitesh asked what he should do next to start driving traffic and sales. HootSuite - A tool to schedule your social media posts ahead of time. Subscribe to Ecommerce Pulse in iTunes!

This weekend, Mrs. Ecommerce Pulse and I are moving to Cancun, Mexico. We are extremely excited about our move, and are currently working long days and nights to pack our things into storage, move out of our apartment, and get everything ready. Due to our hectic schedule this week, today's episode is an Audio Blog--an audio version of a blog post previously published here on Ecommerce Pulse. Don't worry--next week the show will be back to normal. To read the original blog post, click here. To hear the episode, click play below or download in iTunes. Links referenced during the show: The original blog post: 8 quick actions you can take to boost your online store towards massive success HootSuite - The tool I use to manage my social media accounts for Ecommerce Pulse and Survival Knife Experts Evergreen content - A term I used during the show. Don't know what it is? Click the link to find out. Bounce rates - Another term you should know (and stat you should track on your site)! Theodore Levitt - I paraphrased something that Mr. Levitt once said about quarter-inch drill bits and holes Yotpo - An easy and free way to add reviews to your ecommerce site. Using Shopify? View the Shopify app page here. How to take better product photos Ecommerce toolkit - The top tools I use to build and manage my online businesses Subscribe to Ecommerce Pulse in iTunes!

In today's episode, I have an information-packed discussion with Francis Teo. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), according to Francis, is "the science and art of getting more people to take action on your website." Francis shares why the often-quoted "industry-standard" conversion rate of 2-4% is not something you absolutely count on, and he also talks about some general principles you can use and potential pitfalls to avoid. An overview of what Francis and I discuss during the show: What CRO is What the benefits of CRO are (what it will do for your business) When you should start doing CRO as a startup Tools that will help you do it Francis' top tips for optimizing your site without hiring a consultant To hear the episode, click play below or download in iTunes. Links referenced during the show: Conversions Guaranteed - Francis Teo's CRO agency The Conversions Podcast - Francis' podcast about, well, conversions. ;) Startups for The Rest of Us - A great podcast targeted to helping solo entrepreneurs Optimizely - One of the tools Francis recommends for doing CRO Visual Website Optimizer - The other CRO tool Francis mentioned Subscribe to Ecommerce Pulse in iTunes!

This is a quick update regarding a technical issue I had with episode 25. If you have already listened to episode 25, you can simply disregard and delete this mini-episode. If you downloaded episode 25, only to realize that it was in fact episode 24--last week’s episode--that was due to a technical glitch on my part. To fix this, simply delete episode 25 and download it again. I apologize for the problem, and thanks for your patience!  

In today's episode, you'll hear an interview with Richard Lazazzera, an amazing ecommerce entrepreneur who shares his experience with manufacturing products in North America and building a men's fashion accessories brand. Richard has built, bought, and sold multiple ecommerce businesses, and has tons of experience that I'm incredibly excited to share with you. The exact steps Richard went through when finding a manufacturer for his products and going through the manufacturing process How he found a manufacturer with a Minimum Order Quantity of only 60 units per style How he got the manufacturer to take on the risk of buying $15,000 worth of materials up front, rather than taking on that financial risk himself How he's packaging his product Richard's top tips for negotiating with manufacturers The difference in capital required for Richard to start an ecommerce store selling his own manufactured products vs. starting an ecommerce store that sources wholesale products To hear the episode, click play below or download in iTunes. Links referenced during the show: ABetterLemonadeStand.com - Richard Lazazzera's ecommerce blog Finch Goods - Richard's new brand selling men's fashion accessories Alibaba - A source for finding suppliers and manufacturers for your products Maker's Row - A curated directory of manufacturers based in the USA Subscribe to Ecommerce Pulse in iTunes!

In today's episode, you'll hear another ecommerce coaching session with Matt Ward. Matt recently started an online store selling remote controlled boats, and he reached out to me after hearing about the free recorded coaching sessions that I've mentioned on the show a few times. Matt and I will be discussing how he chose his niche, how he’s currently getting traffic to his site and building backlinks, and you’ll hear the suggestions that I give him, along with a suggestion or two that Matt was able to give me. If you’re interested in having a conversation with me about your ecommerce store, getting some free coaching, and being featured on the show, send me a message using my contact form and tell me your story. To hear the episode, click play below or download in iTunes. Links referenced during the show: Remotorboater.com - Matt Ward's online store, where he sells RC boats. Google Keyword Tool (now Google Keyword Planner) - Use this tool to research keyword search volume /r/ecommerce - The ecommerce subreddit. In case you're not already familiar with Reddit, it's an extremely active community divided into smaller groups (subreddits) based around particular interests. The ecommerce subreddit is a great place to interact with fellow ecommerce entrepreneurs to get your site critiqued, ask questions, and top ecommerce articles. The eCommerceFuel Forum - A great community of experienced ecommerce entrepreneurs A few articles about how to advertise effectively on Reddit: How to advertise on Reddit How To Advertise On Reddit: My Experience & 9 Ideas for Advertising on Reddit oDesk - I'm thinking about hiring an Adwords expert on oDesk to help me get things optimized TrollingMotors.net  & RightChannelRadios.com - Andrew Youderian's ecommerce stores that both have examples of very prominent Unique Selling Propositions in the header of the site MyBlogGuest.com - Submit a site if you want guest posts, or find guest posting opportunities Andrew Youderian's strategy for choosing a niche and getting started with ecommerce (free ebook) - Profitable eCommerce Subscribe to Ecommerce Pulse in iTunes!

In today's episode, I share my written marketing plan for Survival Knife Experts, and then I drill down int...

Today's episode is an audio blog--an audio version of a blog post previously published here on Ecommerce Pulse. This is a bit of an experiment--I'm interested to get the feedback of you, my fantastic listeners, as to whether or not you'd like to hear more episodes like this in the future. The topic is a challenge that faces every bootstrap entrepreneur: how to make a living while starting your business. It's no easy task to keep bringing home the bacon while also building a complicated, delicate, and needy thing like a business. I've experimented with several ways of doing it, and I've talked with other people who have done it other ways, and I'm sure there are others I haven't thought of. I'd love to hear how you're doing it, so leave a comment below, or even better, join the discussion on the original blog post here. To hear the episode, click play below or download in iTunes. Links referenced during the show: The original blog post (5 ways to support yourself financially while bootstrapping an online business) Zirtual - Work from home as a virtual assistant oDesk freelancer types - Some of the potential jobs you could get as a freelancer How to become an SEO freelancer in 48 hours - by Sean Ogle Leaving Work Behind - Tom Ewer's blog about how to become a freelance writer Dave's ESL Cafe - Find a job teaching English abroad Dave Ramsey's budget forms (free PDFs to help you create a budget) Subscribe to Ecommerce Pulse in iTunes!

In today's episode, we'll be talking about several obstacles that confront us as we go down the road of ecommerce entrepreneurship. These are challenges that I'm facing right now, and things that have been on my mind a lot lately, so I wanted to share them with you. If you want to understand why it's so easy to procrastinate, how to stay motivated and avoid discouragement, and understand other mental challenges that we entrepreneurs face, have a listen! Which challenge stands out to you? How have you handled these barriers? Leave a comment below--I'd love to hear from you! To hear the episode, click play below or download in iTunes. The 4 psychological barriers that you’re facing as an ecommerce entrepreneur and how to overcome them The “not-sure-where-to-start” barrier The marginal benefit barrier The false productivity barrier The friction/momentum barrier Links referenced during the show: The Great PPC Experiment, Part 1 - My recent blog post about using PPC for dropship ecommerce stores Lift.do 50 actionable ways to build links to your online store Quote of the week: “Success is determined not by whether or not you face obstacles, but by your reaction to them. And if you look at these obstacles as a containing fence, they become your excuse for failure. If you look at them as a hurdle, each one strengthens you for the next.” ~ Ben Carson, Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story Subscribe to Ecommerce Pulse in iTunes!