Million different directions

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Hi everyone---
I have an ecommerce site I am working full time on---yes, I recently quit my job and I have some time to work on this right now. I can work on this project all day with out distraction---and I am jumping in head first. No distractions except making money online. Right now I bring in about $1k-1.5k a month net--but I still have to pay taxes. I need this to double really fast.

I dropship my products and have a great facebook following of about 55k active fans--however, this is the first time in about 6 months I can fully work on the site. The only way I get sales is through FB contact, contests and repeat customers.

I am looking for someone to help coach me---because I am starting to feel pulled in a millon directons---and I am not sure which way to go. SEO/ADs/Social Media etc. I would even appreciate anyone just taking a look at the site and giving me any advice.

thanks in advance
#directions #million
  • Profile picture of the author elCapitan
    Hey, I'm in a similar situation bud, left my job and jumped and head first into a bunch of things. One was ecommerce and drop shipping, although I did have some experience in it previously.

    Shoot me a PM let's chat.
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  • Profile picture of the author Hampton44
    Thanks so much--even having someone to talk to is great. Anyone else wanting to help, is great. This is a new profile ---my other one was my work one --so not a newbie here.
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  • Profile picture of the author Anton543
    Looks like you are strong in the social media and converting enough to generate $1K-1.5K a month net, so I would maintain a strong focus on that. But you should also focus on SEO since SEO is some of the best converting traffic there is and 'free'. Also, you may consider buying an or two on blog sites that are related to your ecommerce store. I wouldn't spend to much on it in the beginning because you have to test to see if the traffic converts.

    Also consider submitting your site to shopping engines. Those should bring in the best converting traffic of all.
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  • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
    Are you using buyer's information to followup with them via email or mail to offer additional products?

    .
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    • Profile picture of the author DWolfe
      You may want to try a PPC campaign. That way you can find other buyers for your product. I would not recommend Facebook ads from what I read on this forum.
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  • Profile picture of the author Hampton44
    Thank you everyone--yes, I am strong on FB and that following SHOULD (cross fingers) convert as I go into other social media platforms. It is very time consuming. I was excited to learn about Hootsuite or some of the other automatice posting programs---just to find out you have a dramatic decrease in people who see your posts. So its going to have to be manual most of the time.

    I read up on SEO a bit last night and I will go through the site and optimize it as much as possible. I signed up for marketsamurai---not sure if this is the best program. It seems more for developing sites from the beginning and I am figuring out how to apply this an existing ecommerce site with some competition.

    Yes--I have an email list I am building and collecting customer data with. My list is growing huge due to giveaways and promos where it is at about 3400 now and I think I can add 2000 emails to this a month/every month--maybe even more. I just started organizing all the email addresses---and for about 6 months I was not collecting them (ouch). What is a "good" list size? I am thinking over 50K is good.

    Anton---yes I also got your email. My products are available elsewhere and at time much cheaper. I am a bit wear of adding to a shopping cart. My distributors do not offer MAP--that is just the downfall of this niche, though something I will keep in mind for the next niche I am developing.

    Yes--PPC campaign is on the list too.

    I think the main thing is I am under pressure to get this turning money around and fast. $1500, I need $3k to make it. I have enough in savings for about 4-5 months. I have no kids, family, distractions. I can work on this all day---I have done that before to develop another business---and I did it. I know what it takes. I can use some money to invest. But the pressure is on--I don't mind. I enjoy it--its fun seeing the orders come in. But when it's slow....it gets scary. Thanks for the advice. I don't want to go to 9-5 it never works out for me.
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  • Profile picture of the author onegoodman
    hi Hampton44,

    I might be able to help. I own a website where we promote online stores (including drop shipping).
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    • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
      PPC could blow through your budget
      hire someone good if you have not done PPC.
      Effective money words, headlines, split testing,
      tracking, reporting...

      SEO is for longer term results - generally

      Keep doing social media and email list building.
      They are already working for you, so focus all your time there.

      Somewhat compete on price, but focus on service/relationship/loyalty/VIP treatment.
      Be able to refund or discount or pay for shipping ... to make up for a snafu
      and retain the relationship - even get more repeat and referral business.
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      • Profile picture of the author lostcyclist
        I'm a newbie myself in e-commerce. But here's some things I would look at.

        ~Are there some other, closely related products, that you could add to your store? Maybe some that actually have MAP?

        ~Can you speak with your supplier and negotiate a lower dealer cost that might enable you to sell closer to your competitor's cost?

        ~Are you fighting your current product too much? Do you think you would be better off launching an entirely new niche?

        Good luck! I wish I could go at it full-time!
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        • Profile picture of the author Audarah
          I think you are doing absolutely great! How long have you had the store up and running to get you at 1.5 k sales? I just read on here the other day something about facebook customers or potentials not actually being able to see the ads or something like that. They came out with some new guidelines that not too many people know about; so while FB is good and is working for you-its time to branch out like you said.
          What I would do ( since I am the queen of a million different directions too) is list all the places you want to market to and then set out and achieve those goals. Shopping comparison sites can offer ALOT of money, so please do get on them asap. Customers are already looking to buy when they go to those sites and if you come in lower, they will land on your page. 7search.com is also another place to look into for cheap PPC and it does bring sales. Studads.com is another great place. Is your website on site SEO? If not, that needs to be done asap. You can focus on SEO as you go along with your site and time, but onsite SEO should be there ( such as adding keywords to the meta tags, etc.) Does your website have a blog? Start submitting to as many blog sites as you can. Sign up for a program like pingomatic that will let all the blog submission sites know that you have made a new post every time that you do. Even if you make day by day goals and then achieve them, at least you have. You can add a bunch of new products- and then email your list. Let them know that you have some new products they may be interested in or offer free shipping for a limited time and let your list know, etc. You can offer a coupon, or whatever you wish. Just organize your thoughts and where you want to list and how. Get out a pen and paper, make that list and then go for it. You can also post in craigslist ads, etc. I wouldnt spend time on adwords though. Im not sure if you can message me or not but I could look at your site if you wanted me to.
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          • Profile picture of the author Hampton44
            What is the difference between SEO and onsite SEO?
            Originally Posted by Audarah View Post

            I think you are doing absolutely great! How long have you had the store up and running to get you at 1.5 k sales? I just read on here the other day something about facebook customers or potentials not actually being able to see the ads or something like that. They came out with some new guidelines that not too many people know about; so while FB is good and is working for you-its time to branch out like you said.
            What I would do ( since I am the queen of a million different directions too) is list all the places you want to market to and then set out and achieve those goals. Shopping comparison sites can offer ALOT of money, so please do get on them asap. Customers are already looking to buy when they go to those sites and if you come in lower, they will land on your page. 7search.com is also another place to look into for cheap PPC and it does bring sales. Studads.com is another great place. Is your website on site SEO? If not, that needs to be done asap. You can focus on SEO as you go along with your site and time, but onsite SEO should be there ( such as adding keywords to the meta tags, etc.) Does your website have a blog? Start submitting to as many blog sites as you can. Sign up for a program like pingomatic that will let all the blog submission sites know that you have made a new post every time that you do. Even if you make day by day goals and then achieve them, at least you have. You can add a bunch of new products- and then email your list. Let them know that you have some new products they may be interested in or offer free shipping for a limited time and let your list know, etc. You can offer a coupon, or whatever you wish. Just organize your thoughts and where you want to list and how. Get out a pen and paper, make that list and then go for it. You can also post in craigslist ads, etc. I wouldnt spend time on adwords though. Im not sure if you can message me or not but I could look at your site if you wanted me to.
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            "Because in the end, you won't remember the time spent working in the office, or mowing the lawn. Climb that damn mountain."

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            • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
              Originally Posted by Hampton44 View Post

              What is the difference between SEO and onsite SEO?
              For starters, study this section of WF: Adsense / PPC / SEO Discussion Forum

              SEO is generally broken down into onsite SEO and offsite SEO:

              Onsite SEO involves the proper coding on the website, speed the website loads, the content of the website, and the keywords and metatags on the website...

              Offsite SEO generally refers to the offsite activities that help your site get found and ranked in the search engines. Your back-linking strategies such as Youtube vids, link exchanges, guest blogging, google authorship, "social signals"...

              To me, with Google's updates especially, it's blurry lines between off site SEO and plain old, smart marketing. And the goal is really to get relevant and effective traffic to your offer. A banner add on the right website can be quite effective. Craigslist can be effective. Article syndication can be very effective...


              Dan
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  • Profile picture of the author Silas Hart
    Did you acquire most of your following on Facebook through contests?
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  • Profile picture of the author MKaren
    Originally Posted by Hampton44 View Post

    Hi everyone---
    I have an ecommerce site I am working full time on---yes, I recently quit my job and I have some time to work on this right now. I can work on this project all day with out distraction---and I am jumping in head first. No distractions except making money online. Right now I bring in about $1k-1.5k a month net--but I still have to pay taxes. I need this to double really fast.

    I dropship my products and have a great facebook following of about 55k active fans--however, this is the first time in about 6 months I can fully work on the site. The only way I get sales is through FB contact, contests and repeat customers.

    I am looking for someone to help coach me---because I am starting to feel pulled in a millon directons---and I am not sure which way to go. SEO/ADs/Social Media etc. I would even appreciate anyone just taking a look at the site and giving me any advice.

    thanks in advance
    aside from SEO You should consider local marketing like email marketing,social media and mobile marketing to spread the news about your business but If you have budget then why not PPC ..
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  • Profile picture of the author Hampton44
    Hi everyone --thanks so much. I am going to go with Audarah's ideas and just get a bit more organized and slowly add SEO to this. I appreciate ALL the ideas on here ---I just bought some notebooks etc and the rest of the day will be spend simply organizing the above ideas and mapping out a great marketing plan. The site has been running 2 years, but I purchased it 8 months ago, and I am doing some much needed ravamp work. I am really trying to build a brand. I also need to continue to build other niches. Relying on one website is very very scary. I will be back on some of the other threads with more specific questions. Thanks for all your help.
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    "Because in the end, you won't remember the time spent working in the office, or mowing the lawn. Climb that damn mountain."

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  • Profile picture of the author clockingdollars
    I feel as perplexed as you and I'm not even making any money yet, well, let me take that back . I just got approved through Google for the $10 bucks I've made with my first Adsense page but oddly enough my Google Ads aren't even on my page anymore and I don't know what's going on. That's just the first thing on my list.....I own about 24 domains myself and I realize some were bought in haste but they can all be developed. I'm also trying to build clickbank and amazon sites as well....ahhhhh. I can see I need to start my own thread on this.....anyway good luck. Will try to send a PM just to begin friending people on here, I need all the help and support I can get. Been a Warrior Member for quite awhile but have never utilized the site the way I need to, the one thing you and I really have in common is I got rid of a job to do this, I sold my regular business to build my online businesses.....little did I know the real work involved and how you can very quickly feel the overwhelming sensation of getting pulled in a thousand different directions.
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  • Profile picture of the author Hampton44
    Yes---I agree. It really is a ton of work, perhaps even more work than a regular 9-5 job. I am pretty sure I worked 12 hour days last week, but just took a 3 days weekend. Create a plan and stick to it---that is the goal. Good luck to you as well. The pressure is on, and some days are simply overwhelming.
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    "Because in the end, you won't remember the time spent working in the office, or mowing the lawn. Climb that damn mountain."

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  • Profile picture of the author Hampton44
    Thanks Dan---I would agree with the blurry line of offsite SEO and good marketing. I have zero SEO onsite. Main problem I am attempting to resolve---revamp of site, customers questions, running sales, etc---yet still have time to do marketing. So far one marketing goal a day is good....but its tough. Today I am still on shopping engines---and getting a bit organized. So far bringing in $200 in sales a day, minimum for a week. Some days way more.
    I think I just need to sit down and study SEO every day for an hour.

    I also think---in the long run, I will be a true expert at this and could possibly consult---but right now I am just a beginner studying 10-12 hours a day---the good thing is, most people dont have the time to do this, and this is more of a hobby.
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    "Because in the end, you won't remember the time spent working in the office, or mowing the lawn. Climb that damn mountain."

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  • Profile picture of the author bizgrower
    Hampton44,
    I admire the persistance and it soounds like you will be intermediate and soon thereafter able to consult before you know it. Wax on, wax off, Daniel-son.

    I'd make it a priority to get the onsite SEO done so the site will get indexed/read by the search engines and because, as you know, people search by keywords or part number or model number... And you might pick some words or numbers that will get traffic.

    Keep on getting many paths to your store so you are not search engine dependent, or dependent on any one source. (Or any one buyer for that matter.)

    Dan
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