Things That Will Help Your Online Store Succeed
Some of you know that most of my online income comes from selling tangible products online. Last year’s goal was to replace my wife’s income. We haven’t dived too deeply into our taxes yet to guage what our ending revenue was for 2006, but it looks like we have accomplished our goal. So how did we do it? Below are a list of things that can help your online store succeed.
- Learn Coding - Knowing HTML or any other coding language can really help you. It will save you money for sure.
- Gain Graphic Skills - Knowing at least a little bit about graphics can help you tremendously. An ugly site is like a gas station that is scarcely lit in a bad neighborhood, even if someone gets gas there the customer leaves as soon as possible.
- Learn How to Market - When I first started my online store, I began to frequent SEO forums. I slowly learned how to get traffic to my site. Now, my online store receives 100% organic traffic. This is what pays the bills.
- Find a Good Product - You may have all the marketing skills in the world, but if your product hasno profit margin because of a flooded market you will never make anything. Stay away from knick knack dropshippers!
- Be Consistant - It is important to stick with one project. The sites I have kept the longest have been the most rewarding.
- Have Great Customer Service - Your customer service will either send people away from your online store or send people to your online store. I’ve had customers that had a bad experience because of a simple mistake. But since we made things right, they keep coming back ordering more stuff and they tell their friends about us.
This list can be much longer that what it is. These are just a few things that we have done. You can read more throughout this blog and particularly in our Newbie Tutorial.
Do you have anything to add to this list? Feel free to leave your comment.
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March 11th, 2007 at 3:25 am
Thanks for the tip. I’ve been thinking of starting an online store instead of dwelling into PPCs and text links. But the promises of low margins, returned goods and scammers are holding me back.
Do you use worldwidebrands?
March 11th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
I’ve bought a subscription to World Wide Brands before, but I didn’t find my dropshipper through World Wide Brands. I can say though that WWB is the best place to find wholesalers and dropshippers.
If you pick the right product, you can have higher profit margins with a lower return rate. As far as scammers are concerned, don’t sell anything to Nigeria. LOL
Seriously, the product you sell will determine the potential amount of scammers that you could have. In our case, we don’t deal largely with the general public. The majority of our customers are very reputable buisnesses and colleges.
March 26th, 2007 at 12:37 am
Advertising should be the number one priority of online stores. I used to work as a webdeveloper and I frequently urged the client to put money aside for advertising. They didnt.
A few months later they come back to me saying the site doesnt work because they arent getting any sales.
“did you do any advertising?”
“no…..”
*raises eyebrow*
March 26th, 2007 at 12:43 am
Very good point. Many people think that sales will just come their way with out doing anything. It takes work to get anywhere in the real world and the internet world.
April 13th, 2007 at 9:21 am
Oh, is that all!!!!
Add anything to the list, I think there is plenty to be getting on with there don’t you
I think SEO and marketing is one area a lot of stores fail, as they don’t look at that side of things until the store is live (technically), and, as you know SEO can take a long time….
March 10th, 2008 at 11:04 pm
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