How to Shopify is becoming a catch phrase in the online world for good reason.
Creating an online business is the dream for most people, it makes it possible to work from home, work your own hours, and live anywhere in the world (as long as you have an internet connection).
In this article, we will talk about how to Shopify; meaning how to set up a simple e-Commerce website.
You’ll also learn some additional tips that will make it easier for you to reach your online business goals.
This article might be the little push that you need to turn your dreams into a reality!
Before we get into the details, let’s see why most people fail at building an online business…
Let’s Learn How to Shopify!
Nowadays it is incredibly easy to sell products online.
There are plenty of websites that you can use to advertise products.
All you have to do is head to the post office and ship the product.
If you’re wondering why I recommend Shopify for an e-commerce business, here are a few ways that you’ll benefit from this service…
- Easy to set up – extremely simple user interface
- Beautiful online store themes and designs
- Search engine friendly stores
- Social media integration
- Sell virtually anything (as long as it’s legal)
- Control all your orders in one place
- Plenty of different ways to sell, simple buttons, online stores, etc.
- and much more
It makes selling online extremely easy!
So now all you have to do is find a product to sell.
How to Find a Product to Sell on Shopify
You can sell pretty much anything online, as long as it’s legal, but here are a few ideas that might point you in the right direction:
- Find a Wholesale Supplier and Buy Items at a Wholesale Discount
There are wholesale suppliers scattered across the planet, thousands of factories that mass produce products for clients around the globe.
To get further help on this, I would recommend reading Skip McGrath’s educational books to ease the process.
You might want to check a website like Alibaba.com, it lists thousands of different companies and factories based in China where you can purchase mass quantities at wholesale price.
Even something as simple as a key-chain or a baby’s toy could be gold-mines.
- Once You Have a Product in-mind, it’s Time to Test the Demand
There’s nothing worse than investing a lot of your hard earned money into crates of goods only to find out that no one wants to buy them.
Therefore, one easy way to avoid this problem is to test the demand with pre-sells or pre-orders.
If a lot of people are interested in the product, there’s a good chance it will sell, and it’s time to stock up and start selling!
Automate Your Shopify Business
Most people don’t want to head down to the post office every-time they make a sale, that’s where automation and outsourcing come into the picture.
You can find drop shipping companies that will hold your inventory and ship the products for you; sometimes the wholesale supplier will be willing to do this too!
The idea is to create a business that doesn’t require your full-time attention, it can run on it’s own, and run smoothly; that’s the dream.
It’s possible, there are many success stories of people who created these kind of businesses, like Tim Ferris, the author of the 4 Hour Work Week.
It might be difficult at first, but it will be easier with time, and the rewards will be worth the struggle.
Why Most Fail to Create Successful Online Businesses?
It’s easy to talk about creating an online business, but the challenge is to actually take action and start building one from scratch.
This is where most people fail.
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Honestly, it’s not easy; it requires a lot of patience, hard work, dedication, and persistence.
Still, most people freeze when they are told to take action, “What do I do?” and “How do I start?” are the most common questions people ask themselves when it comes to building an online business.
This is a difficult question to answer because strangers online don’t know anything about you.
It creates more confusion.
Forums are full of these questions, everyone is looking for someone to point them in the right direction, it’s natural, but it’s often where people fail.
Why?
They fail because of information overload, too many options – it makes it difficult to pick one technique – and they end up giving up on their dreams.
This does not have to be the case though…
I’ll make it simple for you. Below are a few of the most profitable online business strategies.
(We only discussed one in the article, but the rest are be fairly easy to get into as well)
- Sell digital products. (eBooks, online courses, etc)
- Sell a service. (consultations, web design, etc)
- Or sell physical products. (clothes, shoes, etc)
Which one of those strategies appeal to you the most?
You don’t necessarily need a website to get started with these strategies, but a website is recommended.
My Best Recommendation to You..
Learning how to Shopify is an excellent way to create an online store/service and is something that I’d highly recommend.
Don’t think of replacing your day job right away, but strive to make your first $500/mo, then $1,500/mo, then $5,000, and so on.
Could you use an extra $1,000/mo while you continue to grow your business?
I think most people could.
It will take some work and a bit of education, but all the resources you need are there.
Start Building Your eCommerce Business Today With Shopify >>
It makes it possible to sell pretty much anything online and it’s really easy to setup and use.
E-commerce businesses are perfect for people who are not interested in other kinds of online businesses.
Don’t want to write keyword targeted articles on a daily basis?
That’s fine.
You don’t have too.
You can choose a completely different business model, one that works for you.
Like bring traffic to your site through social networks like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, etc.
Or through paid advertising using Google Adwords, Bing, and Facebook!
Need help creating Pay Per Click Campaigns? These guys can teach you how, plus they are my #1 recommendation for online business training.
Already have a moderately successful website?
Why not create some digital products and sell them on a Shopify store? It could make a huge difference in your monthly income.
So, there’s a lot of ways to make money online, but once you narrow down your interests and learn how to test for a demand, it’s relatively easy to create a successful online business.
You can do it.
Just pick one idea and start working on it; it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t work.
Worse scenario is that you learn what doesn’t work and that takes you one step closer to something that does work.
So now you know how to Shopify and I hope that you take action and create a successful online business!
P.S. If you want to see how I make money online with minimum risk, hit the button below.
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You’ll learn to create relevant product Pay Per Click campaigns that convert sales, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, you name it.
Best of luck to you in your online journey.
Really great review on Shopify. Thanks.
Hey mate, thank you for your input on using Shopify to start an eCommerce biz! These points are going to be very useful as I start working towards my online goals.
Happy to help John. Thanks for your feedback on how to use Shopify, glad you found it helpful.
You definitely know your stuff Todd. I will check out Shopify for sure. Seems like an easy way to start selling products online. My only past experience was brief because I could not find wholesale companies to buy the products from….unless I bought huge quantities.
It’s been a while, so time to check this out again. Thanks for sharing. Shopify is definitely worth checking out.
Hi Matt’s Mom,
Thanks for your feedback on Shopify and I think you’ll be happy with the results of your eCommerce website. I’d also highly recommend you use Shopify in conjunction with Wealthy Affiliate to get the training, support, and guidance of how to develop the most important thing for any online business.
And that is TRAFFIC. Learning how to target you posts to people who want to buy something isn’t as hard as you may think. Pay Per Click training is included as well.
If you’re down for learning, you can get this education and be proficient in it within 3 – 6 months.
Best,
Todd
I’ll definitely check Shopify out Todd. Aside from endorsing digital products, I’m also looking at creating a website endorsing physical products.
Thus, I need more information, as much as possible. Hopefully Shopify will be a good answer on my queries. It appears to be a pretty straight forward content and product management system for running a proper Ecommerce business.
Much appreciated.
Thanks.
You bet Toon Blogger, I think you’ll be happy with Shopify. Once you get all your site set up as far as menus, headers, widgets, etc. set up, start trying to drive targeted keyword based articles to help your niche audience out.
If you can consistently do this, you will essentially be investing in the future success of your online business.
By consistently writing quality content based on your niche products, you’ll improve your site rankings in Google to the point that you can generate a lot of organic traffic (that’s free traffic) to your site for increased sales/profit.
Traffic is the life force of any business.
If you need help with your online business, let us know.
Best,
Todd
Hi Todd,
Great post but I was hoping that you would give us an idea of cost and how this works, is it based on number of users or number of products?
I was interested to know how you came across Shopify and what you thought about this in comparison to some of the other big players like Magento. Big Commerce and Volusion?
Will their be a comparison to these some time in the future?
Good day Sir,
Thanks for your feedback on Shopify. I wanted to go into more detail about their pricing structure and product limitations, but it’s a bit extensive.
So I’d encourage you to go over and check them out, click this Shopify link and then hit their pricing tab. Then you can see Shopify’s pricing system, etc.
You know, I got introduced to Shopify by one of my WordPress/online business mastermind friends back in 2010 when I was selling physical products and really starting to get into eCommerce.
After checking them out and reviewing their site, I was sold on using them. But then after looking into importing Yoga pants and looking at 50K for start up and product costs, I started to investigate other online money making options. So I really haven’t compared Magento, Big Commerce and Volusion against Shopfiy. So I can’t say.
I instead took to affiliate marketing, building websites. learning SEO, and earning money online off of site advertising and mostly affiliate marketing.
I like this model because all I had to do was learn the basics of keyword research, SEO, niche marketing, and website development.
No products to purchase, no expensive overhead costs, and I currently run my online businesses for less than $2.50 cents today. This morning I woke up to $245 in sales (with no product returns), so not a bad trade off.
With the skills I learned over a year ago, I have a full income generating site, another site that enhances some guest homes I have in Colombia and I’m building a site that will make thousands of dollars off of leads I generate for another niche industry.
Check out Shopify for more details. If you want to learn how I make money online, check out this post.
Best,
Todd
Hey Todd,
This is such a great post on Shopify and how to put together a proper online business. I remember a few years back I was looking into starting an online shop, but I had no idea where to start. I even looked at Alibaba to see what I could sell, but nothing ever happened. And I’m glad because back then I would have failed big time.
Thanks for pointing the right way for newcomers who wish to properly start an online business.
Keep up the great work!
Hi Davby,
Thanks for your feedback on our Shopify post as well as our online business recommendations. And I completely understand what you what you’re saying about working with Alibaba to import products.
I actually did import products from manufactures that I found on Alibaba and sold on Amazon. If your interested in selling physical products with giant retailers like Amazon, check out our guide to sell on Amazon.
But what I think will prepare anyone who wants to sell physical products or do affiliate marketing will benefit from the most is to learn how to do keyword research through Wealthy Affiliate’s Training Center.
Whether you want to rank content naturally or put together PPC ads, to bring traffic to your online business, you want to understand the impact of keywords and what people are searching for online. I’ve found this to be one of the biggest factors when creating a successful online business.
Cheers,
Todd
Hey Todd
I’ve been researching in to e-Commerce websites and have found it difficult to get a website started because there seems to be some great platforms for doing so.
I’m thinking about actually selling physical products, and Shopify certainly sounds like the ideal website builder platform to get the job done.
I also love the idea of building an online business that can operate itself, and I have heard great things about the 4 hour work week book, so maybe it could help me with my new Shopify website.
Thanks for the help on how to Shopify!
Neil
Hi Neil,
I think that Shopify works perfect for an eCommerce website platform to build a successful online retail site. I think in this situation and your reference to Tim Ferris’s 4 hour work week book, you would be wise to invest in a proper education to write quality content to bring in free targeted traffic to your online products or at least learn the basic SEO skills to edit content to get it to rank.
If you don’t like to write or aren’t a good writer, hire a content writer.
Then as you post ranks naturally on page one of Google, the traffic will come along with online sales. Thus freeing up more time for you to produce more content to rank to bring in more traffic/sales. And the cycle continues till you’ve got 1,000’s of new visitors per day coming to your Shopify site buying 1,000’s of dollars of products. Add in affiliate marketing commissions and advertising and you’re good to go.
Then it’s playtime and simply managing your online business. But remember, you’ve got to put in the initial work.
Best,
Todd
Seems like this may be a good practice if you are planning on launching out your own brand of yours in the future. I haven’t sold anything online besides some used items through craigslist. But thesedays I’ve been having more different ideas on what I can sell online and make my own brand…besides the website that I’m running right now.
Hi Joon,
Thanks for your feedback on our How to Shopify post. There’s 1,000’s of ways to make money online. My favorite ones are affiliate marketing and advertising.
I’ve sold 1,000’s of physical products online and the commissions are awesome, but I like writing keyword based content that helps people, is being frequently searched online, and also benefits my online business through affiliate commissions. But I know others that love to sell retail products online and they make a killing.
I just don’t want the hassles of customer returns and buying lots of products that may or may not sell. But if you’ve got a good idea for branding a product, there’s huge profits in this.
Just keep learning something new each day and you’ll get better and better and the sales will go up and up. If you need help getting started, try my #1 ranked training program.
Cheers,
Todd
Hi Todd,
Thanks for coming up with this article on how to create an online store with Shopify. I’ve always wondered if the WordPress platform is better and there seems to be two schools of thoughts when it comes to choosing an e-commerce platform.
While Shopify’s design is more outstanding, I heard that you need to pay for every additional apps that you want to install. Likewise, back in WordPress, the recommended e-Commerce solution like WooCommerce isn’t cheap either.
I know you sold a lot of physical products online before. Which platform were you using then and what’s your experience like with the online tools that they provide?
Cathy, I was really close to using Shopify after I had gotten my start at really selling a good amount of products online, but never ended up working extensively with Shopify.
I felt like the site was everything I needed to really be able to organize my online businesses, but most of my sales came from selling on Amazon, eBay, and Etsy. I used their traffic to sell hot niche products and it went well. My online issues were finding more hot products, the high risk of branding your products, and the customer service.
In hindsight after learning how to create successful affiliate based niche websites that bring in organic traffic based on keyword research, I think that learning this skill is more important.
Shopify doesn’t teach keyword research, SEO, and bringing in traffic to an eCommerce site like Wealthy Affiliate does, but their sites and back end management system are perfect for eCommerce business.
I might even goes as far as having a Shopify site and a blog. Then just link from my blog to my Shopfiy eCommerce site. That way I can keep everything organized between my blog and my products and can also incorporate advertising and affiliate marketing on my blog for products I don’t want to buy/store/ship.
If you’re niche is really fun, I’d recommend you also start developing your social sites. If you don’t want to write content, then you could market your Shopify site via social sites like Facebook, G-Plus, etc. If you do like to write, do all the above and make money from all angles, i.e. affiliate marketing, advertising, eCommerce.
Thanks for your comment and hope this helps,
Todd
So Shopify is an eCommerce platform with additional training on top? When you say additional training, is it primarily training for those who have products selected then Shopify would be a good platform for them to use?
So for a beginner the best way to begin would be?
To read the book you recommended.
Find a product to sale.
Contact a wholesale supplier (wholesale)
Then automate business by outsourcing shipping and other services such as inventory management and customer service?
Are you familiar with physical product businesses?
Hi Tyler, thanks for your feedback and questions on how to Shopify. I am familiar with physical product businesses and have had a lot of success with offline and online ones.
There’s a couple different online business models to look at, and many can be used in conjunction with one another. But I don’t want to confuse beginners, I want to keep things simple and easy.
I started my online career by buying wholesale and using drop shippers to deliver my products. I got traffic from giants like eBay, Etsy, and Amazon. And I did all the customer service myself.
I highly recommend Shopify if your goal is to set up your own shop with the primary focus of selling physical products. I recommend Skip McGrath because he’s a successful eBay and Amazon power seller and his guides were invaluable to me in that style of business.
I’m now more into affiliate marketing through producing content that generates traffic to my site that’s independent of giant online retailers. I also incorporate email marketing which is a really good fit for affiliate marketing.
Being an affiliate marketer has allowed me to understand SEO, gaining organic traffic, and niche website development.
What I was saying at the end of this Shopify review is that you could use all of these strategies to bring in traffic to your niche site, sell affiliate and physical products that you recommend, and incorporate email marketing.
If you are a complete beginner, I’d decide what business you want to be in. Do you want the high risk and high reward of selling physical products. If so, Shopify is a great platform to work with and has great customer support.
If you want less risk, then work with the Wealthy Affiliate training center to learn how to build your own sites, understand traffic and keyword research.
Then if I wanted to add physical products, I would use a eCommerce plugin, but if I was selling a lot of physical products, I’d get a Shopify site, then take my SEO skills and apply it to that business as well or link two sites back and forth so that I’m bringing a lot of traffic to my eCommerce site where people can buy my products.
And yes, I’d get wholesale products and drop ship them.
Hope that clarifies everything up.
Thanks,
Todd
Hello Todd,
I am really glad that I came across this article! My girlfriend and I have been discussing practical ways to go into online eCommerce business recently, and she mentioned that we look into Shopify as a way to get things rolling.
It then occurred to be that while I had heard of the term before, I didn’t actually know how to Shopify, or what it even consisted of!
This article really cleared a lot of things up, and in all honesty, this sounds like one of the more exciting and easier ways to get started in online business.
You gave some great starting points for me to consider such as learning how to test the demand of a product BEFORE you make the decision on what to sell.
Let’s say I happen to make the wrong decision though, or the demand is simply no longer there for whatever reason….
In your experience, would I be able to get a return on my investment directly from the wholesaler, or is this something I might have difficulty with?
Anyways, it’s probably better to make sure I choose the correct product the first time around so I don’t run into any issues like that.
This sounds like a great business opportunity, one that I will for sure be running by my girlfriend as we are looking to get started immediately. If you have any other resources or information that might help us out, it would be greatly appreciated!
Hey Matt,
Thanks so much for your feedback on how to Shopify. You can certainly use these guys to make your online eCommerce dreams a reality. I have a couple of ideas for you, but first to answer your question.
Once you place an order with a manufacturer, they’ll typically want 50% (or so) upfront to start the order, then the rest of the payment when the shipment is ready to be sent. So there’s no getting your money back here. You’d be stuck with the merchandise and need to find a way to sell it or eat it, so to speak.
So it’s very important to make sure you have a product in demand and that’s relatively hot. One way that I would look into this is by looking at what was selling on Amazon. I’d even go to places like aliexpress.com to see what’s selling hot there (don’t buy from these guys unless you want knockoffs.
Another source I used was terapeak.com. This is essentially a eBay tracking platform to give you exact sales data that can help you figure out what’s hot or not. It’s a monthly service, but if you start really selling on Amazon, it’s worth having it for research value. And what’s selling on eBay is most likely selling on Amazon.
Another little trick I used for my first seccessful product was to create a free 3rd party seller account with Amazon, then I’d take my ideal product and put up a picture of it, in this case it was an iPhone 5 case. I didn’t actually buy the product, but just put the picture and description. The next day, I had 2 sales on Amazon on a product I didn’t own.
What did I do? I simply cancelled the order and apologized and said that we were out of stock but could get it to them in 3 weeks. No harm, no foul.
Then I made sure that my profit margins were at least 2 to 3 times the cost of the product and delivery. So if it cost me $10 dollars total, I better be able to sell it for $25 dollars, hopefully $30 or more.
This will allow you to make a good profit and protect you on the orders that don’t sell. I ended up selling about 2,500 units of this product and got stuck with 180 or so at the end. The case isn’t hot now, so the remaining cases sit in my garage.
How’d I do, I took a bath on the 180 cases, loosing $1,800 dollars, but the other 2,500 I sold made me around $53,000 dollars. Net profit, $51,200.
The other thing I’d do after I had my niche product or niche area that I want to develop is take the training courses at Wealthy Affiliate, although they teach how to use WordPress, the concepts that they are teaching will be critical to your success working with Shopify.
They’ll teach you how to do effective product reviews and drive warm traffic (people who are already looking for your specific product) to your website where they can then go on to ready your review to make an educated decision to buy your eCommerce products.
Hope this helps Matt and I’d love to hear about your experience with Shopify if you have the time and would be so kind, if not, no worries and best of luck to you.
Todd
Hi Todd,
I found you website instructional, easy to follow and comprehensive, without belaboring the points. I have been interested in Shopify for some time but never really looked into it. Having read your Shopify page I am reinvigorated to get into this.
It seems that you have instructions and tips to help the would be entrepreneur all along the way, without any get rich quick promises.
Thanks for putting this together. I think it will help a lot of people.
Best regards,
Gary
Hi Gary,
Very kind of you to say and I’m glad you liked our How to Shopify post. You’ll find they’re one of the best eCommerce building platforms out there. Their customer service is excellent and their sites a fast and clean, easy to navigate.
However, I would also recommend for anyone really interested in getting into eCommerce to take a month or two of training from Wealthy Affiliate, they’ve got a great program to teach you how to blog and rank content to drive organic traffic to your eCommerce products.
I’d use both services unless you wanted to use a WordPress eCommerce plugin, or go with Shopify and take a couple months of classes at Wealthy Affiliate. The classes are super easy to complete and by the time you’re done, you’ll know how I rank so fast 😉
Cheers,
Todd
Hey Todd,
Great article, I’ve always been intrigued with and wanted to learn how to Shopify but never knew how they worked.
I have a question though, do we need to learn about taxes from different countries if we plan to ship worldwide? Each country has different taxes and its very confusing. Also, do we need to register our online business with the local body as a company since we’ll be selling physical goods?
Hi Riaz,
Thanks for your feedback on our “How to Shopify” post and your question is a good one. You want to learn this if you want to inform your customer in order to maintain a good reputation with your eCommerce business. Most countries charge a Duty Tax and some charge a Value Added Tax (VAT), your customer who is in another country would have to pay this fee and this might cause them to be a bit upset if they’re not informed about this.
If you’re doing a good amount of business in one country, you should register your online business with that country, but in the online world, I think you would be fine if you didn’t. I certainly would talk to a legal or tax council about this to make sure your eCommerce business is on the up and up.
It is confusing, and a bit of a pain, that’s one reason I personally like affiliate marketing versus eCommerce. There’s more upfront money and larger profits with building a Shopify eCommerce business, but you can achieve the same results with affiliate marketing as you continue to drive organic or paid traffic to your products.
Thanks,
Todd
Hi Todd,
Your post, How to Shopify, really intrigued me! I have tried ecommerce a time or two, but only had good luck with one product I sold.
I have done really well on eBay also, working with drop-shippers. I never got involved with wholesalers, because I never wanted to have all the products to get stuck with if the auction or site failed. I tried dropshipping from China, it never worked because of the time it takes to get the product stateside, unless you order your product before hand and have it in inventory.
Shopify seems to be a complete package, and I really appreciate your review. I guess the smart thing to do would be to join Wealthy Affiliate, which I am already a member of and can vouch for their ability to teach one how to bring traffic to their site, then check out Shopify when you want to strictly put up an eCommerce site.
Thank you for such an awesome explanation of how to use Shopify to make a business that will work for you, if YOU spend the time to create it, it will operate for you 24/7! That’s what I like about creating an online business.
Kind Regards,
Linda
Linda, you’re so smart. You couldn’t have said it better. You can use the eCommerce sites from Wealthy Affilaite’s WordPress website building platform or you can have the convenience of Shopify. But for sure you should first stop by and spend 3-4 months in WA’s training program. I’m glad I did.
I had no clue how to build website traffic organically. Now my site gets between 500 to 1,000 visitors per month and over 85% of my traffic is organic. Meaning straight for search engines by people searching their keyword phrases.
It’s simple, spend some time and get educate and then create your online business through eCommerce or affiliate marketing.
Personally I’m a fan of affiliate marketing, but it’s because I want less work, more sales and the ability to spend more time doing the things that I want to do in life.
Thanks so much Linda for your feedback on how to Shopify. The only thing to do now is get to work to reap the rewards of online eCommerce business.
Best,
Todd
Hi Todd,
How to Shopify – hmmm.
I haven’t investigated this opportunity but I do have a friend who is really into it and she keeps requesting me to get involved.
It sounds easy but outsourcing physical items from China means investment in time and money. Moreover, finding a good wholesaler with reliable products, and shipping them to the US involves a lot of trust in companies you have no experience with.
I think sourcing products from local US wholesalers would be the way to go. Still, you’re gonna need a garage to use as a warehouse. Then packing and shipping requires more investment in time, patience and more money to pay FedEx or UPS. And what about handling returns, broken items, and complaints?
So it seems that selling digital products would be the way to success. We eliminate the problems of physical items, customers get instant download so no shipping hassles, and nothing to break or get lost.
What do you think?
All the best,
PJ
You make some great points PJ about deciding to go in importation/eCommerce or go into something less stressful and less risky like affiliate marketing.
One thing to mention, you don’t have to worry about storing or shipping products if you use a warehouse that will drop ship for you. If you sold on Amazon, you could easily use their Fulfillment By Amazon service to handle this.
But you do make some excellent points about the extra factors that go into having an eCommerce site. I think it’s much easier to go with something like affiliate marketing by setting up a niche website or blog.
This allows you to become an authority in your respective niche and build email lists and develop consistent organic traffic from targeting warm keyword phrases that your niche is looking, then it’s simply placing your links and collect your commission as your niche audience goes on to hit the link and make a purchase.
So for me PJ, affiliate marketing is one of my favorite ways to make money online, but you could do the same thing with a physical product. All that’s required is to learn how to write quality content that brings in the traffic. And for that you can learn how to get started right here.
Thanks for your feedback on How To Shopify PJ, take care.
Todd
Hi Todd,
Really great post about how to use Shopify for eCommerce businesses. I have been recommended them in the past by friends that have eCommerce sites and I really like the simplicity of their system and Shopify seems to be the leading eCommerce website builder.
But one thing you touched on here in this article is get traffic by targeting keywords. Can you tell me a little more about this strategy.
I think this has to be the most important aspect about selling goods online, you’ve got to be able to bring in the traffic if anyone is going to have a chance to buy your products. You can have the coolest, most user friendly site, but if nobody is using it, what’s the point.
Any suggestions or advice would be very much appreciated.
Thanks,
Sara
Hi Sara,
Excellent point and Shopify provides some really great tools and training for their service, but you 100% right. You have to have traffic to make any online business successful.
Traffic is gained by either paying for it, or for free by writing keyword based posts that are based on what your niche site is already looking for in search engines like Google each and every day.
By having insight to the frequency of keyword phrases that are being searched as well as the competition level of these keywords, you can use this to your advantage to reach your audience by writing posts based on these keywords.
Now remember, you want to write quality content that helps you niche audience first and foremost, but it all starts with keyword research.
The keyword research tool I use for each and every post I write is called Jaaxy, click the link to read all about them. Since I started using Jaaxy, I’ve been to rank my posts very quickly and get a substantial amount of traffic. The more that I apply this technique, the more traffic I see.
The other major tool I used and still use is the Wealthy Affiliate Training Center to get updated SEO training and this program was the beginning to my education on website development, SEO, learning how to write engaging content, and is constantly updated with tidbits to help your rankings, traffic, and overall website performance.
So I highly recommend both these internet marketing products. Just between Jaaxy and Wealthy Affiliate, I’ve been able to create a successful online business without selling online products, I sell affiliate products and advertising and the more I repeat the process the more my traffic and sales grow.
After I started applying the training from both these products, my traffic went to about 50 – 100 visitors per day to 500 – 1000 visitors daily.
Hope this helps Sara and let me know if you have any other questions.
Todd
Hi Todd!
Great post! I really wanted to learn on how to shopify but I can’t find resources in the net the are really helpful. Good thing I bumped into your site. To create a simple and profitable e-commerce business is one way to make passive income. Right now I’m still learning affiliate marketing but sooner or later I will definitely try using shopify.
By the way, can anyone join shopify even though there is no previous experience in online business?
John
Hi John,
Thanks for your feedback on how to Shopify and to answer your question, yes, anyone can start working with Shopify to create an eCommerce website. I would also encourage people to build their social profiles and learn some SEO skills to gain traffic to your site, but anyone can get started with Shopify.
With the drag and drop style editor and all the self help tutorials it’s easy to create your site.
Good luck with your affiliate marketing business, affiliate marketing is a much less expensive way to start making money online. If you need help with affiliate marketing, understanding keyword research or want to build a blog, I’d recommend the Wealthy Affiliate Training Program.
Cheers,
Todd
Hi Todd,
I once almost joined shopify and looked into it carefully because I wanted to build a eCommerce site and sell flashlights.
I kind of wish I had now. As by the time I got signed up to a different e-site program, the cost and training was so much more…I was shocked!
Then I ended up paying monthly, much more than if I had done the whole thing through shopify.
Well, long story short. I would definitly look into it if anyone is reading this message. As I took a different road and spent way more to do the same job.
Later on I didn’t like the end result and the people I was with and eventually quit the membership altogether!
Thanks for getting the word out!
Rick
Hi Rick,
Thanks for your feedback working with Shopify and working with other eCommerce platforms. I think for eCommerce, Shopify has got the competition beat, but if you want to learn how to build traffic to your website for free, then you need to learn how to write content that ranks.
And for those that lack this training, I would recommend taking the Wealthy Affiliate training course first, create a blog about your eCommerce niche, and then you’ll have much more success with free traffic coming to your site.
Thanks again for the feedback Rick and take care,
Todd
Hi Todd,
I have never heard the term “how to Shopify”, but as you say it’s a great little catchy phrase. I have briefly looked at their eCommerce platform before and been quite impressed.
I haven’t ventured yet into selling physical products, although when I have the time I would love to give it a try. Following your tips on selecting a product seems like a good way to go about it. Automating the business is also something that would be necessary for me.
Setting up the business from the Shopify side seems straightforward and fast. The only thing that might hold me back is the cost. For me, it would probably be a choice between WooCommerce or Shopify.
I think Shopify is the best choice for a store, but for a blog and store I’m not sure.
Loved your comment if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter. Every failure we have, we learn and building a business will take a long time with ups and downs. The setbacks are something we all face, but we must keep going.
Thanks for the great course on Shopify.
Peter
Hi Peter,
Very good points regarding Shopify and online businesses and yes, in an online business or offline business there are always going to be ups and downs. I think the key is to be adaptable and open minded to learning from our mistakes as well as simply learning new material/info.
It can be a challenge to be open to learning new things, but if your open to learning, you can see the rewards of your hard labor with time. Shopify versus WooCommerce, not sure on that one either since I haven’t looked into depth about WooCommerce. I know it’s a highly recommended plugin for many bloggers that want to start selling their own products on their sites.
But either way, you won’t go wrong working with Shopify. Thanks again Peter for your feedback on “How to Shopify.
Cheers,
Todd
Hi, Todd
I’ve always heard about e-commerce websites and how lucrative they are, but never understood how to to set one up for myself.
To me, Shopify sure does sound like a no-brainer, and thanks for sharing the tips on how to find products to sell 🙂
I have a friend who has just started up her own candle business and she’s been wanting to promote it online, so I will definitely send your article her way. She will be very pleased with this!
I can also see the great free ways that can be leveraged for traffic to an e-commerce site, which is awesome!
However, I do enjoy writing, so how could I use this to drive free traffic from the search engines to my e-commerce website?
Cheers for your time!
Neil
Hi Neil,
Thanks for your feedback on my How to Shopify guide and yeah, pass it along to your friend. I’m sure she could put up a cool site with Shopify. Your question on traffic is an excellent one and one that is overlooked by many new eCommerce business folks, but soon becomes apparent.
I would suggest a couple of things. You could always build out social profiles like Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, etc., and then advertise some of the products with a short product description on your profiles, but I think content driven traffic that makes the rankings in top search engines (like Google) is the best way to go.
How often do we type in some product related question into Google to find info on a product, then go to the top 1-3 SERP’s (top 3 positions on page one of Google) and read about the product or go on to buy the product.
So I would recommend your friend to read these two posts to learn how to do keyword research related to her niche related products and to invest into an awesome keyword research tool like Jaaxy. Here are the two posts below.
HOW TO GET TRAFFIC FOR YOUR WEBSITE – PIECE A CAKE
HOW TO FIND THE BEST KEYWORDS FOR MY WEBSITE – ALPHABET SOUP & JAAXY
Hope this helps Neil and thanks for your feedback on how to Shopify 😉
Take care,
Todd
HI TODD
BEEN THINKING ABOUT DOING SOMETHING E.G. CREATING AN E COMMERCE SECTION ON MY WEBSITE BUT HAD NO IDEA HOW TO DO IT!!!!
BUT AFTER READING THIS ARTICLE ON HOW TO SHOPIFY, I FEEL I HAVE A CLEARER PICTURE OF HOW I CAN CREATE AN E COMMERCE SECTION FOR MY WEBSITE, DO YOU KNOW OR HAVE YOU GOT AN ARTICLE ABOUT HOW TO GO ABOUT SETTING UP AN E COMMERCE SECTION ON A WEBSITE???
THANKS,
GINO
Hi Gino,
Thanks for your feedback on my how to Shopify post. You can use Shopify which has some awesome features to help manage your product inventory and set up your shop, but if you already have a WordPress website, you can get a woocommerce/eCommerce plugins that work similarly.
Or you can use Shopify, and then just link people to your Shopify Site. I think the woocommerce plugins would be cheaper although I have not looked into doing it myself.
Thanks for your feedback and question,
Todd
Great post on how to shopify!
I must admit I haven’t heard that phrase before, but it is quite catchy!
However I have heard of Shopify itself before and I have heard some great things that say it is an awesome platform for having an e-commerce business.
It sounds like a great way to sell products online.
Great review Todd!
~John
Hi John,
Thanks for your feedback on my review of Shopify. It is a cool catch phrase as well 🙂
Yeah, Shopify is a really cool platform that has been helping people create eCommerce sites for a long time. I think what they offer as far as price compared to quality of service and products is very reasonable.
The more people who learn how to Shopify, the less they have to rely on day jobs or jobs they don’t like. More and more people are online, the marketplace is huge, and people are buying stuff online more than ever before.
The key to any website is how to get traffic, once you’ve got traffic, cool products, then you will have a successful online business.
Thanks and have a great week John,
Todd