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.

Common mistakes made by people starting their own online stores

Everyone in this world aims to be flawless in his/her work. And yet no one in this world is perfect. When I started my own online store, I made a lot of mistakes myself. But I learnt from my mistakes & made sure that I did not repeat them when I continued with the marketing of my online store. In this post, I will highlight mistakes that people who are newly starting their websites commonly make. This is from my own experience & also with the help of people in my field who have had the same mistakes. In short, these are the things that you may want to try and avoid initially.

1.       

      1.     Entering an overcrowded market – This is one of the most common mistakes made by beginners. When people start out looking for products to sell & researching on which market would be the most profitable, they choose to enter overcrowded and extremely competitive markets because of the money involved in it. For  example, when I started my first store, I entered the electronics market, the computer market, to be specific.

I did this because I saw that large amounts of money could be made by selling laptops or other similar electronic    items. I fell for the money & started marketing my online store & put in a lot of hard work to promote my online store only to find out that my store stood absolutely no chance compared to some of the other “biggies” that had already been in the market from the past decade or so.

So, in a short time, I was exhausted & really disappointed with my results & started thinking negatively about the whole ecommerce business. Now, this can be very bad because self-confidence is the first & the most important thing that is required for a beginner if he/she wants to succeed in this business. Things can be extremely discouraging at first & is, for most beginners. But you have to continue with what you started out non-stop if you want to succeed.

So anyway, I was forced to say to myself that the market I had entered was the wrong one & drop all plans for that & shift to a new market. Now, I am not saying that you should never enter a competitive market. Just postpone your plans until you are a seasoned and an experienced marketer. For example, right now I am in the same electronics market making a lot of money a couple of years after my failed first attempt. So enter a low-competition market. Succeed there; learn a couple of lessons & move on to other, more competitive markets.

2.      2.       Keeping in touch with your customers who visited your web store – Another BIG mistake made by beginners. When a customer buys from you, it is vital, extremely vital, that you get his contact details like e-mail address & keep in touch with him. I can’t stress how important it is to build trust with customers who have previously bought from you.

    

      Doing this not only helps to keep them updated about new niches that you will be starting in the future, but also builds trust. When people trust you, they will buy from you. For example, when you are trying to buy a laptop, why do you buy from Dell or HP & not from the new store that just started? It is because you have heard from your trusted friends talking about how great Dell & HP laptops are & so, you want to buy from them.

      So, when you are a beginner, & a customer buys from you, it is important to keep in touch with the customer since when he/she bought from you, he was trusting the legibility & its author, you. If you delivered a great product to him, then he is happy with you & your store & may be willing to purchase more from the products that you recommend or stores that you start. For this purpose, I use services like Aweber to send out weekly newsletters to my precious customers. But be careful not to bombard them with e-mails about your products. This doesn’t help either party.

      3.       Not checking conversion rates of the products you are promoting – This mistake is unusual in that it is the only one that can be corrected the easiest. When you are selecting products from websites like Doba or others, you must make sure that you also take a look at the conversion rate. What is a conversion rate? Well, it is simply the number of visitors to a website that get converted into buyers.

      So, that is why you hear many people on the internet who are in the same field, moaning about how they are not converting very well. Since you can’t foresee how your websites will perform, it would at least be a good idea if you checked out if the products that you choose to promote are converting well or not based on its performance by customers who have promoted it before you.

      If the product has good conversion rates, then go ahead & start promoting it. Otherwise, promote it if you believe in it, or else move on to another one.

So make sure you don’t repeat the mistakes above & your online store will perform much better.