I am starting a new side business which will have a full e-commerce store... anyone have any tips besides "have great content and SEO" for a novice online store owner... Thanks!
2 days ago
• Do plenty of research into eCommerce software before picking one. There are plenty of options available ranging from simple (for small web stores with few products) to complex (including accounts integration and stock checking).

• Do you have a mission and vision for your business? This is very important because there is a lot of e-commerce websites on the Internet. If you don't have one, your business will be a commodity instead of a brand (see http://estrategypro.com/what-you-can-do-to-avoid-becoming-a-commodity/).

  • Do you have a attractive design for your e-commerce website? Do you have eye catchy images of your products?
 • Hi there, I'm using Virtumart hooked into our Joomla site, set it up myself as I didn't want to get too dependant on someone else's priorities. Anyhoo, sounds like you've heard it before, but nothing, absolutely nothing happened until I got to grips with SEO and metadata/keywords. I had also heard a lot about Googles Penguin algorithm referencing original content on the web and pushing out copy and pasted content in articles. So a good robust eCommerce system isn't going to generate much traffic without some supportive content linked to your site. Example, I look after the website for my wife's craft shop, we began to stock a brand new product from the US, but just couldn't get anywhere with it, until I wrote a couple of articles with youtube links that I found and got to work on the keywords. So now when you google 'cheapest ebosser' we're on Google page 1. Today (just checked) we're listed 2nd and 3rd below the paid listings at the top, it can vary day to day though. Our site is www.homegrowncrafts.biz by the way.
Virtumart has various plugins which will help to automate the keywords I know, but there's nothing it seems quite like some originality.
Hope it all works out well for you.  


 • Got to agree with the above in terms of making content that is genuinely interesting to consumers who can then find you. Obviously proper meta-tagging, google listing, social media connections etc. Of course you must also consider the user journey. Those first few 100 hits will make a difference if they stay on the site and shop, Google will then see you as useful to users and quickly promote you. Get the experience right by really understanding your customer and leverage existing sites for links to add authority. Best of luck!
 
 
 Thank you all... I am planning on doing Magento community. i'm actually a graphic designer by profession, so it won't be too hard for me to manage my content and products. I do plan on having a super active blog attached to the website. Blogging is tedious work, but it has made all the difference for my graphic design sites.
• Is it a unique project? if not then, How different it is going to be from the existing one?
 
 
 Blog! I can't say enough about blogging. I was doing the regular SEO for my site for a long time and had little impact but then I started blogging a couple of years ago. It's been the best thing I could have done. We do virtual phone services for small businesses, not the most catchy subject but when a business is searching for "phone tree" or "medical auto attendant" my blog comes up. Give people free information they can use, tips and tricks for their business. Make sure the blog resides on your site, not a WordPress or other location. You want people to find your site when they search.
 
 
 • Have mechanisms that get the almost buyer to trade contact info... so that you can interact with them later, when they're ready to buy... or to move them closer to buying from you... Optins that offer different "bribes" so they sort themselves into segments.

Have satellite sites, created around one product... so that the product or related keyword can be the domain name... Takes care of some of the SEO for the mini sites. Then link from the mini-sites to your main site... Takes care of some of the SEO for the main site while keeping prospects within your world.

Have the satellite sites have satellites (blogger.com, wordpress.org, squidoo.com)... Sell from here, link to the mini-sites, link to the main site. Pick keywords carefully.

Do you control pricing? What's the positioning on this?
 
 
 You've been given some great advice in this discussion, especially from people who have already walked the walk. What a blessing! I want to invite you to look at www.mymarketingcafe.com. The site offers a tremendous amount of free resources, with guides to creating a marketing plan and developing your content. Let me know if I can answer any questions once you take a look.

  • I agree with Greg about blogging and getting inbound links. Assuming you have the right platform, great products, all looks well, what then? Google and other search engines continuously change the way they search for content that at times it seems impossible to keep up with them.
One way to stay ahead is using blogs and other social medias and you can even automate a great deal. Let's say you have a new product or a n special offer, with Twitterfeed for example you can automate the rss feeds from your site to your blogs and facebook and even linkedin account. Have several rss-feeds set up on your site for new producst, for special offers, for news etc and get those links out there. RSS seems to be a bit an old or forgotten thing BUT it works very well, fast and can be integrated in many ways

Build a network of bogs on google, tumblr etc. They are easy update (Copy-Paste) but are effective on the long run since these site with the links to your site will be showing up on the search engine as well.

I have been doing this for a year and still today the old blogs turn up and bring customers in. Get a Youtube account and run short videos if you have, get your name out the best possible way, you have nothing to lose at this time.

Some say that inbound links don't work anymore, fact is however, the wider your products are spread the better and the more likelier you will find your customers.
Naturally, if you have a big budget you can go all the way for the almighty online advertisement....

Hope all works out!
 
 Thanks Axel, I agree with you as well but if she does put blogs out on several different sites make sure they are different copy. They can be the same topic but the content should be original. I've heard you can tag the blog on one location as the "original" so search engines will give that copy the most importance in search but I don't know if that is true. But the key is to have several of your blogs and perhaps a video (with closed captioning, very important) show up on the first page for a search phrase.
 
Here is a summary of my pet peeves when I'm trying to buy something online ...

I would suggest that you have good quality images. Sometimes the site looks really cluttered and its difficult to focus on what is actually there.
If the express purpose of the site is to sell things, then each page should have clear directions on how to buy what the customer is looking at on the screen
The biggest frustration is when I am looking at the shopping basket and want to cancel something, its not always easy to go back to the store and look for something else
  
Greg, that is true, they have to be originals but you can set different tags for different blogs as long as the content is according to the tags. It is a bit a pain until you have the routine going on but worth every effort.
 
i didn't know this would grow into such a great discussion! :-) thank you for all the tips. blogging is definitely on my radar, and with time i will incorporate the mini-sites/blogs around the topic. my market is crafters/designers... my product will be unique fabrics, sewing/craft supplies. most my competitors sell these already, but it's always a crappy looking warehouse/wholesale-looking site. or it's a nice site with little inventory. hopefully i can hit presentation and inventory.
 
 
• Hey Mili, good that you came up with this topic... an eye opener for more people like you and me. One more hint i can give is attend Business networking place... you may have potential customers there looking for your products.
16 hours ago



 You must consider UX as an X-factor for e-commerce store.  Do not use x-cart as e-commerce solution for your website. Real P.I.T.A.
 
 
 If you are looking for an SEO company, my company has successfully ranked many websites around the world for multiple #1 rankings. http://www.goldmedalseo.com - I tend to go overboard with customer service and our seo products as well. In the last 3 years we have not had one client cancel their service with us. I hope we can help.
 
 
 @Mill I too have a e commerce site. There are so many things to look at. My opinion is that you research your market. What I mean is to look at your competitors and see what they are doing. This is your best research and it is priceless. There are many way to find your niche market also you may private message me for help
 
 
 Hi, I have been in eCommerce since 1995 with multiple stores. All the experts will tell you how to drive traffic to your store so I will not comment on that. Most of the experts will not tell you what to do with them once they get to the store. You have shopped before and know if it is easy to buy what you want, the sales people are friendly, helpful and not pushy and the store sends you promotions for being a good customer you will go back. In eCommerce content and navigation is king. Amazon is too large to copy but it is very easy to do business with them. If you have multiple products or services and the experts have shown you how to drive traffic to your site by product or service, they should land on that page not the home page. With less than four clicks they should be able to check out and pay. Once you have sold some one capture their email address and thank them and do not try and sell them with the thank you email. Give them the opportunity to opt out of future notifications at that point. Most wont. Remember the easiest customer to sell is your existing customer. Poor navigation will kill your business. Make it simple, selling and straight forward. Ask some specific questions and I will help you out. Remember this. All the SEO and SNM are great but converting visitors to buyers is more important by far. I got a 4.5 percent click through rate and a 8.5% visitor buyer rate selling women's high fashion jeans and blazers. Those two numbers are by far the most important in your business. I only got one return in three years of doing business.
 
 
 
• Hi, Besides SEO and content, you need marketing. We have Blogs, Video Webinars, and Video Tutorials to help - http://imagebuildingwebdesign.com/. Good luck!
 
 When I buy things online one the thing that is most likely to get me to buy is great photos. Since I can not see the product up close or touch the project, I heavily rely on the photos. The other thing I look for is easy navigation, secure checkout, and clean and non-cluttered sites. I hope this helps and good luck with your new business venture.