Google Analytics is incredibly important for managing an online business. The data provided by the program can give you valuable insights about how well your site is doing, but for beginners, it can be hard to interpret all of the information or even know how to get started. But don’t panic, this step by step guide will make the process easy.

Step 1: Check Out Acquisitions, All Traffic, Source/Medium.

This is the one part of Google Analytics that I check every day. You can use the calendar at the top to display data from a certain period of time or to do a year-to-year comparison. This will give you an idea about how well your site is performing in terms of important key metrics.

The page tells you the top sources of revenue that your site has. You may have hundreds of different entries on the page, but the top five on the page will be the most important for you. It’s these areas that you’ll want to concentrate your marketing efforts on.

With the filters, you can eliminate certain traffic, such as visitors that are coming from outside the geographic area that you sell to. By selecting different metrics, you can evaluate things like how well advertising methods are working. This will help you to refine your marketing efforts and spend money on the things that are most profitable and beneficial for you. You can also dive into your pay per click traffic to find out how much you spent on specific ads versus how much you actually made.

The other segment that I use most often is mobile traffic versus non-mobile traffic to see how well my site is performing with shoppers using mobile devices. This will also let you know what percentage of your sales come from mobile device users and how those (more…)

I’ve been making videos about successful online stores for some time now and provide coaching for entrepreneurs who are looking to get started with e commerce. From my experiences, I realized that most people who are new to e commerce have similar questions about the process. Here are some questions about online stores and some answers:

1. Does it make a difference if you add hand written notes to customers?

Yes, absolutely. My store includes handwritten notes with every order. I have a staff member who sends a follow-up handwritten note to every customer who spends more than $250, and I actually have a second staff member who personally calls every customer. To make sure that the work gets done, my team reports to me once every week on how many calls were placed and how many letters were sent. I have everything automated so that a spreadsheet is compiled on an ongoing basis when a customer spends more than $250. Then, my staff members mark off when the work is done.

2. For someone who is just starting a website, what advice do you have to help people get their first few sales in order to get some food reviews?

Well, the very first thing that you need to do is take the time to examine your website and make sure that it looks good and works properly. Remember–you want the site to be straightforward and simple to use. If customers can’t easily find products and check out, they won’t waste time on your site. Don’t get hung up on little details like banners though. As far as how to get reviews, you may want to approach friends and family members and ask them to try your products for free and write reviews. You can also put out highly targeted AdWords ads (more…)

It’s time for another edition of Effective E-Commerce marketing, and this time I have good news and bad news for you! The good news is I’m going to make an exciting announcement that you’ll want to hear about as the owner of an online business. The bad news is that a major marketplace site has made a huge change to their policies that could have an impact on your business. But don’t worry, I’m going to tell you what it is, how it can affect you and what you can do about it.

First–the good news!

I am very pleased to announce that I am introducing my first ever educational product for owners of e-commerce stores. It’s called the “25K Ecommerce Profit Plan.” This isn’t just an e-book or a guide; it’s a complete course of study intended to help anyone get an e-commerce business off the ground.

The “25K Ecommerce Profit Plan” takes a step-by-step approach to starting an online store. The educational course is a great fit for people who want to start an online store and have no idea where to begin. In addition, you can also benefit from the course if you have an idea for a store and are ready to begin putting your vision into action to get your store up and running. Even people who already have an online store and want to boost sales and become more profitable can gain valuable insights from the course. What I’m basically saying is that my program can help anyone who wants to succeed in e-commerce no matter what your experience level is.

Through the course of 10 modules filled with actionable tips and step-by-step tutorials, “25K Ecommerce Profit Plan” will teach you everything that I know about starting and running an online business. I’ve developed the course based on my (more…)

Social media marketing is vital to the success of any online business. Nearly all e-commerce store owners have heard that they should market on Facebook and Twitter, but there are other social media platforms that are emerging as well.

Among these newer social media sites are Pinterest and Instagram. Both social media platforms have millions of users that fit into demographics that many businesses target. Like other social media sites, Instagram and Pinterest are constantly being refined and updated to make them better for users and for businesses.

Recently, changes to both platforms were announced, and these modifications to Pinterest and Instragram will have an impact on social media marketing. If you’re using either or both platforms for marketing or are considering getting into Instagram or Pinterest marketing, it’s important to learn about these changes and determine how they may potentially affect you. Read on to get the full story on the changes.

Changes to Instagram

Instagram is becoming a more important platform for social media marketing, especially for niches that are highly visual like home decorating, fashion and beauty. Teenagers and people in their 20s and 30s use Instagram to discover products, so having a presence on the platform is crucial if your business caters to people in these age categories.

Recently, Instagram followed in the footsteps of Facebook and did a major overhaul on their algorithm. If you’re not familiar with the term, the algorithm of a social media site refers to the process that’s used to determine how individual posts to the site are displayed. The move to alter the social media site’s algorithm isn’t that surprising, considering the fact that Facebook owns Instagram. But even though it’s not a shock, the algorithm changes can have a major effect on your marketing.

Instagram is now no longer displaying posts in chronological order. Instead, it (more…)

Have you been thinking about starting an online business? E-commerce stores can be a great way to make money online, and you don’t have to have any retail experience to succeed with one. Still, you do need to know how to go about setting up your online store if you want to attract customers and make money with your site. I’ve put together a course that will help you get your online store up and running and begin making $25,000 or more per year.

Why Start an Online Store with This Guide

Before we get started, here are some of the reasons why this guide and starting an online store can benefit you.

1. You’ll Make Extra Money. An e-commerce store can help you bring in extra money to use for vacations, special purchases and more.

2. You’ll Be Able to Save. Having a steady stream of income from an e-commerce store can allow you to begin to save money, so you’re prepared if you ever have a financial emergency like a job loss or unexpected medical bills.

3. You May Be Able to Become Your Own Boss. Successfully growing your online business can help you achieve financial independence. Eventually, you may be able to quit working at your main job and focus on your online store full time.

4. You’ll Have More Freedom. E-commerce can be a pathway to freedom. An online store allows you to be free to live where you want, set your own schedule and be your own boss.

How My Guide Is Unique

There are a number of other programs out there like this one, but my ecommerce course is different because:

– It’s Based on My Experience. I successfully launched an e-commerce store and grew it, so that I could become my own boss. My course is not filled with (more…)

When you’re in the world of e-commerce, marketing is important. Across all niches, competition is high, so you want to make sure you’re doing things that will bring customers to your site. Unfortunately, there are as many ways to market an online business as there are online businesses, so it can be hard to figure out which methods of marketing to use.

Based on my experiences, spotlight marketing has to be one of the most if not the most effective ways to market an e-commerce store. Spotlight marketing has proven to bring in customers from other websites and to make people eager to tell their friends and family members about my online store. Best of all, most online stores aren’t using spotlight marketing, so you’ll get a competitive advantage if you do.

The Power of Spotlight Marketing

Spotlight marketing is the only form of marketing that I use to get traffic to my blog. How well is it working? Well, I get roughly 10,000 to 35,000 unique visitors to my site every month.

Basically, spotlight marketing involves interviewing customers and industry influencers. Interviewing encourages sharing and also allows you to network. By giving shoppers and important people in your industry attention, you can build relationships that can be beneficial to you in the future.

Benefits of Spotlight Marketing

Spotlight marketing has a number of benefits, including:

1. Easy content creation for your site. Interviews are an easy way to get unique content for your sight.

2. Guaranteed sharing. Interviewees will go out and share the interview in order to promote themselves, driving traffic to your site.

3. Backlinks. Backlinks can help to improve your standing with the search engines if they’re of good quality. There is a good chance that your interviewees will include links to your interview on their blogs or websites, giving you good quality (more…)

When you’re developing a marketing plan for your e-commerce business, social media marketing is an important part of any strategy, and most business owners should be using Facebook and Twitter to engage current customers and attract new ones. Still, Facebook and Twitter aren’t the only social media sites out there.

Pinterest is a thriving social media site used by millions of people and has proven to be a profitable way to advertise online stores. The website allows people to “pin” items to boards to come back and look at later. For example, my sister is getting married, and she has a board that she saves wedding ideas to. Other people can follow boards to view the pins and then re-pin them to their own boards.

Here are some important things that every e-commerce business should know about Pinterest:

1. Pinterest is widely used by women. The majority of people using Pinterest are women, specifically women between the ages of 25 and 50. Any online business that caters to this demographic can do well advertising their e-commerce stores on the platform. Some types of stores that cater to men may also do well on Pinterest. Hair care, beard care grooming products and fashion are examples. Men’s gifts also do well on the site because women can see them and purchase them for their husbands and boyfriends.

2. Pinterest is perfect for promoting products. The pin format lends itself nicely to showcasing products. Nearly all types of products can fit into the categories for boards on Pinterest.

3. DIY products do especially well on Pinterest. Many people come to Pinterest looking for ideas for projects that they can do themselves. If you sell something that can be used for do-it-yourself projects like arts, crafts, cooking, home beauty treatments, sewing, home decorating or home improvements, Pinterest will be very (more…)

Search engine optimization or SEO is vital to the success of any online business. Why? Well, without a well optimized website you won’t be able to get free traffic directed to your site from search engines like Google and Bing. When your site is properly optimized, you have a better chance of appearing high up on the list of results that are displayed when people search for keywords that are related to the products that you carry. This guide will tell you the things that you need to know to make sure that your site is well optimized.

What Is SEO?

How did SEO get started? The story begins with Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google. They made an algorithm that could figure out which websites were the most relevant for any term. Search engine optimization or SEO means using techniques that increase the chances of Google’s algorithm placing a priority on your site above others for specific keyword search terms.  SEO involves the following:

– On-Page SEO. On-page SEO refers to the actual text, images and other content on your website. For example, my website uses the words dance clothing frequently, so Google would recognize that fact and show my site when people search for dance clothing. The on-page SEO is the easiest for you as a store owner for you to control.

– Off-Page SEO. Off-page SEO is also sometimes called link building. Google can track how many other websites refer traffic to websites. Ones with more links are thought by Google to be more popular or better quality, giving them a priority over other sites.

On-Page SEO Basics

A successful on-page SEO strategy must include:

– Meta Title and Meta Description. The meta title is the name that appears at the top of a product page, and the meta description is the (more…)

An e commerce store can give you a continuous source of side income to help you save for special purchases or to use in case of emergency and can even grow to become your primary source of income over time.

If being your own boss and working full-time at your own business is your ultimate goal, it’s important that you get your e commerce store off to the best possible start. That’s why you need to do some careful work long before you even begin to build your site. You need to start off by deciding just what you plan to sell, what you’ll call your online store and how you’ll create a brand. This guide will teach you how to do just that step by step.

Step 1: Narrow Your Niche

A successful e commerce store needs to have a distinct focus, which is also sometimes referred to as a niche. You can’t expect to be all things to all people and to sell something for everyone like Amazon.com or Walmart.com. As a small business, you need to have a clear area of specialty that is obvious to your customers. The most successful entrepreneurs select a very specific target market to cater to with their online stores and then gradually expand it.

Take me for a sample. I sell dance clothing, something that I myself would never purchase. My site only features dance apparel. You won’t find workout clothing or yoga clothing or athletic gear in my inventory. Instead, dancers, dance moms and dance teachers can find everything that they need for their needs at my website.

Spend a little time thinking about the kind of niche you’d like to sell to. You may want to choose one that’s related to your interests and experience, but I’m proof that it’s not necessary to do so (more…)

E-commerce stores can be incredibly profitable online businesses, but they don’t make money all by themselves. To succeed with an online store, you need to manage the business well and market it wisely. I know from experience how many well intentioned decisions can have disastrous results. When I first got into e-commerce I had to learn as I went and make a number of mistakes as a result. The good news is that you can learn from my mistakes and avoid making them entirely.

Before you do anything to get your e commerce store running, you need to decide which platform you’re going to host it on. There are many of them out there, but Shopify is the one that I recommend the most. While the platform has a number of advantages, the biggest reason to opt for Shopify over the competition is that it is really simple to use. You won’t end up wasting time trying to master the platform, so you can focus on your business.

Now that we have that out of the way, it’s time to reveal the biggest mistake that you need to avoid making if you want your store to work well. What is it?

Not making a store that converts!

I talk to people who are getting ready to launch e-commerce stores all the time who want to know how they can make their site look cool or how to add fancy features. Right away, I stop them and ask “how is this going to help you get sales?”

In the end, it doesn’t matter how pretty or fancy your site is if no one buys. The most important thing for you to think about when you’re creating your store is “What can I do to get people who come to this website to buy?”

To get started designing a (more…)