Best Ways To Make Money Online – Part 3: E-Commerce
Welcome to part 3 of my series “Best Ways To Make Money Online”.
Today, we are talking about how you can make money with E-Commerce.
Did you know that there are thousands of online stores that make thousands of dollars every day?
Those are not owned by big companies, but by people like you and me!
Do you want to earn money online like that?
Read the following article to learn how to get started!
Also, don’t forget to check out the previous parts:
Part 1: Arbitrage
Part 2: Drop Shipping
What Is E-Commerce?
E-Commerce stands for selling things online.
What we usually refer to, when saying “E-Commerce” are online stores.
So, whenever you get to a website where you can buy something directly, you are on an E-Commerce website.
Do not mix this up with affiliate marketing! Affiliate websites don’t sell products directly.
They only link to them.
An E-Commerce store has its own payment gateway. You don’t have to leave the website to purchase the products.
There are thousands of online stores out there.
Every day hundreds of new stores are created. It is a huge business and you can be a part of it.
There are a few big players everybody knows.
Amazon is still one of the biggest online stores out there.
But Alibaba and other upcoming stores are huge, too.
You won’t be able to compete with the big guys, most likely.
But if you find the right product and show it to the right people, you can definitely make a living from an online store.
Interested?
Find out what you need to become successful with an online store:
I don’t Have Anything To Sell! What Should I Do?
To start an online store, you need products to sell, of course.
What if you don’t have anything to sell?
Well, that’s easy!
There are countless suppliers that will be happy working with you.
But before you contact them, you have to think about what you want to sell:
1. Finding A Niche
So, what do you want to sell?
Many beginners start with random products and generate general stores.
I don’t think that this is a good idea!
You won’t be able to compete with big general stores like Amazon.
It is much better to target a narrow niche. Target a group of people with a very specific interest.
This can be anything you can think of.
For example, “Food for diabetic cats” or “Knives for left-handers”.
Can you see how targeted those examples are? There are loads of people interested in those topics but not many sites that give them a solution.
That’s where you can come in and give them what they want.
This can be a goldmine!
Don’t just make a store for knives or cat food! Those would be way too broad.
The competition is just too high there.
Don’t worry, once you have gained some authority and trust, you can extend your niche.
After you have found a niche, you need products to sell.
There are two ways of getting your hands on products:
2. Find Wholesalers Or Drop Shippers
Drop shipping warehouse
After finding a niche, you have to get related products.
I won’t get into too much detail about this here because I have dedicated a whole article to drop shipping.
Just know that you can source products easily from wholesalers and drop shippers.
If you choose drop shipping, you won’t have to store, pack and ship sold products yourself.
I would definitely choose this path. You will save a lot of money!
Wholesalers will send you a bulk of products and you have to handle the rest.
You can find loads of drop shippers on Aliexpress and on Worldwide Brands.
If you want to reduce shipping times, you definitely should go with Worldwide Brands.
It is not free to join, but it is absolutely worth it!
Aliexpress ships from China, while Worldwide Brands has many America based suppliers.
If your customers are mainly from the USA, go with Worldwide Brands!
How Can I Set Up My Own Online Store?
Ok, you got your niche and products.
Now, it is time to build an online store and start making sales!
We are going to use our own website.
This used to be a huge hustle in the “old days”. Luckily it is pretty straightforward now.
I want to give you two different options:
1. Build Your Store With WordPress
WordPress is a free tool to build websites. There are, however, themes and plugins you have to pay for if you want to use them.
Millions of websites are using WordPress and thousands are added every day.
I personally like WordPress a lot and use it for all my websites.
Check out how you can build a free website fast and easy.
As you can see there, WordPress enables you to build sites for free.
Still, I usually pay at least for a professional theme to make the site look better.
Once you have set up WordPress, you have to add the store.
I highly recommend using the WooCommerce plugin for that.
The base version is free and is compatible with most WordPress themes.
Make sure, though, to check the theme of your choice regarding compatibility.
Now, you store has been set up and you just have to add products to it.
Take your time with that!
Don’t just upload an image and set the price.
You need great product descriptions to make any sales.
It might even be a good idea to hire a copywriter for your descriptions.
Writing those descriptions takes a lot of time and is not easy.
Also know, that WordPress can be confusing for beginners.
If you have never used WordPress before, you might be more interested in my second option:
2. Build Your Store With Shopify
Shopify is a much easier solution to build a great looking online store fast.
However, Shopify charges monthly costs and also has transaction fees.
Many themes and plugins have to be paid for as well
All in all, it is usually more expensive than WordPress.
That does not make Shopify a bad option!
Shopify has huge advantages and it is the most popular online store builder.
Shopify also has a free trial.
I highly recommend checking it out and see for yourself if you like it.
Get Your 14 Day Free Trial Here!
Want to start with Shopify but don’t know which theme to choose?
I have the solution for you.
The Ecom Turbo Theme was created with conversion and flexibility in mind.
The creator, Frank, is a successful online marketer and loves sharing his wisdom
You can be sure that his theme has all the features you need to be successful.
It is also a huge money saver!
If you want to have its features with another theme, you would have to install quite a few PAID plugins.
Just get the Ecom Turbo Theme here and you have the perfect Shopify theme for your E-Commerce business.
Alright!
You have your products and a great looking store in place!
Let’s get you some customers:
How Can I Find Customers?
Find your customers
You can have the best products and a great store. But without visitors, you won’t make any sales.
Those visitors will not just come to you by chance.
You have to find them and lead them to your store.
There are several ways to do that.
Some are free, others are paid.
All of the strategies below are highly effective.
Choose for yourself which suits you the most:
Blogging And SEO
Blogging and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) are a great way to drive free and targeted traffic to your site.
It does take time, knowledge and effort to do it, but once you know how to effectively write blog posts that rank high on Google, it is a lot of fun to do.
If you want to get started with blogging to get traffic, check out my Blogging Series.
For tips and tricks how to use SEO effectively, click here!
I have websites that get thousands of visitors every month and 95% of that traffic comes from Google (thanks to good SEO!).
Social Media Marketing
Social media is a very effective way to get more visitors and potential buyers to your shop.
Make sure your online shop is connected with your social media accounts.
Post regularly on multiple social media platforms to make yourself heard and seen.
If you want it for free advertising only, it will take a bit longer, but once you have a good following, you will make consistent sales thanks to social media.
Tips on how to use social media correctly can be found here!
Paid Advertising
Before you start with paid advertising, please know that this is not a guarantee for success.
If you do it wrong, you might lose a lot of money before you even start making sales.
With paid advertising, you can reach much more people faster than with any other way.
Especially, with a new store.
SEO and free social media marketing are effective but much slower.
So, if you want to make money faster, you have to invest money in advertising. Just like any other offline store, too.
The best places to start are:
Google AdSense
When using AdSense, you can reach loads of people on different platforms and websites quickly.
Make sure you watch all the tutorials and help videos on their website before you get started.
You have to target the right people to make sales.
Get that targeting right and you can make sales instantly. Even if your shop is completely new.
Facebook Ads
Facebook ads are huge and very effective.
You can choose to display your ads on Facebook and/or on Instagram.
There are people who are absolutely killing it with Facebook ads and their online stores.
E-Commerce is strong and is here to stay.
Boost your business with paid ads and make a living from your store faster!
How Fast Can I Make Money With E-Commerce?
You want to know how fast you can make money with E-Commerce, of course.
Well, there is not a definite answer to this question.
If you use paid ads and get the targeting right, you can make money instantly (after setting up your store).
This can be hundreds a day.
But, there are others who won’t make that money quickly.
Many people fail completely and lose a lot of money because they used paid advertising.
When using paid advertising, you have to test different strategies!
If one doesn’t work, you have to try a different targeting!
I, personally, would recommend starting with free ways of generating traffic.
Only spend money on ads, if you can afford to lose that money!
If you are using free ways, it usually takes around 3-6 months before you see regular traffic from Google.
If you have a lot of experience with SEO, it will be faster, of course.
What I Mainly Do To Make Money Online
E-Commerce is a fantastic and fun way to make money online.
I have done it and it is great.
However, I mainly use another way to make money online.
What I am doing is called Affiliate Marketing!
The start-up costs are extremely low and you don’t have to bother with customer support, storage, shipping, etc.
All you do is sending people to your recommendations.
When they buy something, you will get a commission.
After setting things up, you can make money without doing anything for this site anymore.
This is real passive income!
Can it be much easier to make money online?
I don’t think so!
Get Started Here!
Which Road Will You Take?
Are you ready to start with E-Commerce?
Or do you think that Affiliate Marketing suits you more?
Whatever you choose, do let me know!
If you have any questions, just drop me some lines in the comments below and I will get back to you.
Also, don’t forget to check out the other parts of my series Best Ways To Make Money Online.
Part 1: Arbitrage
Part 2: Drop Shipping
All the best,
Moritz