Some Challenges I faced when starting my web store

Before you go ahead with building your web store and make it successful in the e-commerce niche, I thought I should let you know about some of the challenges I faced when I was a fresher looking to make my web stores successful.

When I first started out online in my vow to become really successful online, I had nothing more than a couple of e-books telling me about how important it was that I start an online store & and some other software that I had bought off the internet because they claimed that they would completely change my life if I did that (my life did change, but not because of the software). But it would be wise to keep in mind that I had no idea until then about what ecommerce was or anything about it. I was still looking for some guides on how to "make money online with ecommerce".

So, after some meticulous research on the internet, I decided to step into the world of affiliate marketing in an effort to try and make some money. I waited and still waited, implementing all sort of SEO (search engine optimization, I will write more about this in another post) strategies but still, pooh! there were just about one or two sales a month or none at all. It was then, as I was looking to buy a laptop online (a Dell laptop, to be precise. I love Dell products), I stumbled upon (no, not with the social networking website Stumble Upon, but actually stumbled upon it when browsing through the Internet) some other websites which said that if I bought the laptop from their stores and applied their coupon, I would get a discount on my price. I was surprised because till then, I had been thinking that the price would always be the cheapest if you bought products directly off the company. Till then, my mantra was that I should never buy from retailers if I could because I would be paying more than was necessary.

That was one of the many turning points in my life. Since I already had a degree in Marketing from college, I knew something about how companies generated revenue and all other basic concepts about marketing in the "real" life. So, I decided to utilize this talent of mine by starting my own store that would sell some products on the internet. Besides, it had always been my dream to start my own business or company & this venture seemed to be the perfect outlet for this dream of mine.

So, I went ahead, bought a domain for a cheap price, got an inventory of products that I would sell online. At that time, I didn't know about wholesalers and drop shipping and I had to get my own inventory of products and ship them myself. (In case if even you don't, then check out this post on how to find products for your online store at once). This was where I made the first mistake in my venture to become successful. You see, I have always set high goals for myself & dreamed high. So, I started marketing my online store with the help of broad keywords.

I will write about what I mean by this in another post, but here are the basics. Suppose you are trying to sell cars in your ecommerce store (something that I don't recommend for beginners. I am in this niche because I know I can succeed there and have), then the keyword "cars" would be a broad keyword & should be something that you should never aim at. It is one of the broadest of keywords. However, let's say that you are aiming to rank good for a keyword like "Toyota cars". Even this would be a broad keyword since as a beginner; you won't be able to rank high for that keyword in major search engines like Google & Yahoo. What you should be aiming at, however, is something like "Buy Toyota land Cruiser". This term, still very tough to rank for, would be something that you could try to "optimize your web store" (SEO) for, since it is a concentrated keyword or as we internet marketers like to call it "Long tail keyword". Anyway, I am starting to digress & so, let's get back to my story.

When I started marketing my web store, I aimed at broad keywords such as the one I talked about in the example above. Thus, initially, it was not ranking very high in the search engines for any of the keywords that were related to the blog. It was not ranking high for the broad keywords because of too much competition and not ranking for even the long tailed ones, because I hadn't "optimized" my online store for those keywords. This made me lose faith in myself and my venture & I was starting to think of dropping the whole idea and go back to getting back my full-time job.

But I held on since I did generate one or two sales over the period of 2-3 months and since I had inventory that could last for a long-long time, I didn't have to worry about them getting deteriorated. However, I was starting to spend more of my time on my full-time job though I kept track of what was happening to the web store I had started from time to time. One fine day, I realized the mistake I had made after sending an e-mail to one of these internet marketing guru's about why I was not being successful.

So, I got working. I re-optimized my website, implemented all the SEO strategies that had worked for me before when I was active with affiliate marketing which is almost the same as selling products online, and yet, different. After this, I set up PPC campaigns, and wrote articles and worked really hard for the success of my web store. This (hard work), as I realize today is one of the most essential requirement if you want to succeed not only with your online store, but also in your life with whatever goals and aims you may have.

But the initial months were frustrating. I was not having much success with Google & there was little to no sales being made. But this was exactly the same thing that the internet marketing guru I had consulted before had warned me about. He had told me that I would have to be patient if I wanted to see results. So, I kept promoting my online business and after about, one and a half months, Google recognized my efforts and rewarded me with a very good ranking. I relished the sight of my web store doing really well in the search engines and also with the sales that it was generating.

I spent my money on getting better quality inventory and also for getting more traffic. This was all I needed for a psychological boost. I knew exactly what I had done that had made it successful. This is another mistake that most beginners make. They do not keep track of all the changes they are making to their website or web store. This is important because the next time you start another online store, you will know what change brought what effect. This can help you make better decisions.

After that, there was no stopping. I moved one new project after another with the main objective of helping people and making money while doing so.

I also discovered many new methods and tools that I could use for promoting my online store properly from some of the wonderful like-minded friends that I made during this journey. We helped each other make our websitesuccessful. If you are sitting their planning to "start your own online store" and not knowing how to start, feel free to comment in the comments section and me, or someone else, who knows what to do will help you out. This is a new blog and I need some help from you guys to make it more interactive and help people. So feel free to interact, people.

That's it for now.

Next post on "SEO (search engine optimization) for your online store" and about the "benefits of starting an online store".

After that I will review websites such as eBay's Prostores and other websites to help you choose the best. I know that this is the part that most people have been waiting for.

Stay tuned.

Good Luck,

Chris.