dochustle
Regular Contributor
If i had enough space in the title, the full title of this thread would be:
"How I started an Ecommerce store in 1 month, with no prior internet experience, for 325 dollars."
So here it is...
Hey guys,
Some of you may know me from my blog posts on here. My name is Dave Howe and I founded the website ToothbrushSubscriptions.com
I am writing this post to hopefully inspire some of you who are thinking about starting some form of online business yet you are scared to start because you have never done anything online and don’t know even know where to start.
I was you.
I was in your shoes 6 months ago and still somewhat am today. It's been a learning experience but it's necessary, but you have to start somewhere.
First off, let me say the biggest thing is actually DOING something. That may be easier said than done, but it’s essential. Get something up. Get a site up. Learn as you go… But how, right?
Well when I had the idea for ToothbrushSubscriptions I thought to myself “Wow! What an awesome idea!” But as we all know, ideas aren’t shit. Yes, MJ hit the nail on the head with that one. Ideas are really nothing. It’s the implementation and action on those ideas that matter. That’s why I wasn’t scared to discuss my idea on the web and with friends prior to actually starting my site. It actually helped me when I would dicuss it with people. I gained their insights on the idea, helped validate my idea a little and I got some great feedback in doing so.
And as it turns out, my idea wasn’t as great as I thought it was. It's kind of cool. Kind of unique. But toothbrushes on subscription? Cmon’ ..Thats whack, right!?
After doing some research I found out my idea wasn’t as unique as I thought. There we’re 2 or 3 sites doing the exact thing I thought of. BUT…. I saw a void. The companies doing “toothbrush subscriptions’ had very poorly constructed sites and we’re doing slight variations of what I thought a toothbrush subscription should be. For example, one company sells ‘eco-friendly toothbrushes’… I didn’t think that mattered to the masses who brush their teeth (which is almost everyone In the world, right?) as much as having a quality toothbrush, just when you need it it. (Every 3 months.)
So those who have followed my blog know I have built my site to 25 subscriptions sold in 6 months. Not huge numbers by any means, but it’s given me a base to test my product, test my site and get some GREAT feedback on my service.
Now that I have this base product built, or as the lean start up term calls it a “minium viable product”, I am ready to take my business to the next level. The MVP is really a great theory. For those who don’t know, basically you build a minimum viable product by just getting the basics up. Think if you we're selling hotdogs. What do you really need? Mustard, ketchup? No. You need hotdogs. The goal is to validate your idea in the market place, get feedback and iterate as you go…
For me, basically that meant all I needed was to have toothbrushes on 'subscription' on my site. The main idea was there, no extra fancy add ons needed, yet. In fact, I started by buying my toothbrushes from the local grocery store and just taking pictures with my phone. Sounds easy right?
Kind of ..
So here is how I got my site live on the web and had the ability to test and validate my business, all for $325 and in less than a month (and you can do it for less than that, actually.)
First: I needed a website: As I said, I have no prior internet knowledge or experience at all. I don’t know how to build websites and I didn’t even know where to start. However, the beauty of the internet is, as MJ says, that you can learn anything that doesn’t require physical skill. So I began to search. I found a company where I live (Halifax, Canada) who builds out basic sites for $50 a month with no upfront cost. They don’t do anything crazy, but they helped me get my site off the ground. If anyone wants to know what company I used (and still use, infact) just send me a message. I’ll let you know there info.
We just use a wordpress platform with some basic ecommerce functionality (the ability to sell products). There was no subscription software. If I sold a toothbrush subscription I would have to manually charge the customer every 3 months. Not efficient, but in the start, that doesent matter. You just want to get something to market.
Cost: $50 upfront
Second: I needed to actually get my content on the site. This was the tricky part. Although wordpress is very simple to use once you get the hang it of, as I mentioned, I had no idea what to do! Luckily .. there’s Google.. and A LOT of information on how to build a wordpress site on there. As I uploaded my content to the site (only a few pages to start .. homepage, product pages (for my 2 or 3 intial products), about us page and contact us page).
SO if I came to a problem. I would google it. How to a upload a picture to this page? Google it. How to a write some basic html? Google it. You get the point.
I spent about $150 on some basic graphics (logo, a ‘how it works’ design’ and a few other graphics. Really, I didn’t even need to spend $150 on all of that, but I was learning). Use sites live Fiverr and Odesk to get some cheap and decent work done.
Cost: $150
Third: I needed products: I was looking through suppliers on alibaba and most suppliers require you to order a high minimum order quantity. This was not in my price range.. and actually, it's a bad idea if you even do have the money. How do you know what product to sell if you haven't even tested your idea?
However, most companies are willing to send you samples for free (if you pay shipping) if you ask them nicely. So while I was in the search for suppliers, being the impatient person I am, I still wanted to get something on my site. Like I said before, I just went to my local store and bought brand name toothbrushes and just took pictures on my blackberry.
I got this idea from the Zappos CEO. He did this with his first initial version of his now famous shoe selling site, which sold to Amazon for 1 billion, I think?
So I put these products up on the site and now I had some basic products up with some half decent images.
Cost: $25
Forth: Advertising (traffic). I now have a site up, with some decent products and a shotty design. Now what? I need to get traffic to my site. But how!?
The ‘cheat way’ is really through Pay Per Click. Using Google you can send some targeted traffic to your site for what your trying to sell (for very cheap, or even free). In my case, toothbrushes, there are over 300,000 searches a month for the keyword ‘toothbrush’. This is not a very specfic term as say “buy toothbrushes online” but it worked for the time being.
Again, I didn’t know how to use PPC or what it even was! Luckily, there are some great people online who write resources on how to use PPC and how to get some nice traffic to your site. AND, if you look hard enough to can find $100 coupons for adwords online. This allowed me to send 50-75 people to the site for FREE and get an idea if my idea is worthy at all. You can also find $200 coupons for Bing's PPC. Again.. thats another 100 or so TARGETED visitors to your site, for FREE!
I sold 1 or 2 subscriptions from this and it allowed me to collect some customer information and be able to talk to these customers, seeing what they thought of the idea, what’d they like to see and what they think of the service overall.
I also created free twitter and facebook pages, and sent my personal network of friends to these pages so they could see a little bit about what I was trying to do. Call in some favors. Ask them to like your page, or retweet you.
Again, free traffic and sends a few more people to my site for more feedback.
I also posted my progress right here, on the Fastlane Message Boards. I just talked about what I was going through and the challenges I faced as I tried to build my site. Check my blog posts if you want to see more specfics from this. I actually sold 3 subscriptions from the fastlane forum. This was not my goal..
I just wanted to help other entrepreneurs who we're going through similar struggles that I was, but it was nice bonus added and once again, some great feedback.
One of my fastlane customers, PatrickP (MIA lately on the board, but a great mind indeed) interviewed me on his radioshow. This again sent some more FREE traffic and also added some authority to my brand. I could say on my site that I was interviewed on a business radio show! No matter how small the interview site was .. it’s still true. I wouldn't of had this opportunity if I didn't contribute to the forum.
“As Seen On” is a great authority tool and adds some confidence to customers buying decision. Read Dr. Cialindini's book "Persuasion" if you haven't already. A great start for marketers.
I sent free swag: I contacted about 50 blogs on the web and asked if they would like to test my service for free. In return, I asked that they write a review on my product. Of the 50 I asked, about 10-12 took me up on the offer. This did 2 things:
It got my name out there a little bit, and sent secondly, it send me some ‘link bait’ and helped me rank #1 on google for some basic terms. Terms like “toothbrush subscription” and “toothbrush subscription service”. These terms have no more than 150 hits a month, but people are searching for exactly what I sell.
Through these blog posts and my new found SEO success (very little, but still, some) I gained a few more customers. This cost me about $100 to send out the products to these bloggers.
A note on SEO: Again, you will learn as you go. I have really focused on my SEO efforts of late and have learned a lot. I now rank for terms such as "adult toothbrush" and "newborn toothbrush", and I'm even on the 3rd page for the word "toothbrush". It's a lot of work, but it's well worth it.
I can share what I've learned about SEO if anyone is interested (but 1 forum member, thetruth, will be able to help you more than I. And in fact, he did help me along my road too!)
To me, SEO is all about getting your basics in place first (metas, titles, keyword research etc.). Read SEO Moz's free "Beginners Guide to SEO" for all of that info). Having a solid content marketing strategy (Read Neil Patel's "Guide to Content Marketing" to develop your strategy) and lastly, building links. Again, these are just 'basic' SEO tactics. Test and see what works. It's all trial and error.
Cost: $100 to start (find a free coupon on adwords, start some social media pages for free and send some free swag to bloggers).
So there it is. For $325 I had a site up, with a few products, the ability to sell these products with a basic ecommerce function and some customers to test and validate my idea - the most important part of it all in the early stages.
This is obviously a very basic way to start things, but it got me to where I am today and I feel like now I am poised to grow a lot more.
I got valuable feedback from customers and found out if my idea is actually any good.
The amount I learned during this phase has been huge and people I have met have really helped me grow. Thats the beauty of entrepreneurs. They we're once in our shoes. They like to help those who they see have the motivation to succeed. I hope I am in that position once day.
I still have loads of work left to do, but I am confident that I can do it. What I have learned about internet marketing, SEO and ecommerce is general is all due to me going through all of this trial and error and taking that first initial risk and just starting something.
If I can do it, YOU can do it! It's true. It may sound easy. Thats true and false at the same time. It's a lot of work and a lot of learning, but now this is what I do. Full time. I learn everyday and I have a vehicle to help me to do that. It does take focus and a lot of hard work, but not a lot of capital upfront, necessarily.
Hopefully this helps some of those who are on the fence about starting their idea! The hardest part is actually starting, but it’s the hardest for a reason.
Enjoy!
Dave
"How I started an Ecommerce store in 1 month, with no prior internet experience, for 325 dollars."
So here it is...
Hey guys,
Some of you may know me from my blog posts on here. My name is Dave Howe and I founded the website ToothbrushSubscriptions.com
I am writing this post to hopefully inspire some of you who are thinking about starting some form of online business yet you are scared to start because you have never done anything online and don’t know even know where to start.
I was you.
I was in your shoes 6 months ago and still somewhat am today. It's been a learning experience but it's necessary, but you have to start somewhere.
First off, let me say the biggest thing is actually DOING something. That may be easier said than done, but it’s essential. Get something up. Get a site up. Learn as you go… But how, right?
Well when I had the idea for ToothbrushSubscriptions I thought to myself “Wow! What an awesome idea!” But as we all know, ideas aren’t shit. Yes, MJ hit the nail on the head with that one. Ideas are really nothing. It’s the implementation and action on those ideas that matter. That’s why I wasn’t scared to discuss my idea on the web and with friends prior to actually starting my site. It actually helped me when I would dicuss it with people. I gained their insights on the idea, helped validate my idea a little and I got some great feedback in doing so.
And as it turns out, my idea wasn’t as great as I thought it was. It's kind of cool. Kind of unique. But toothbrushes on subscription? Cmon’ ..Thats whack, right!?
After doing some research I found out my idea wasn’t as unique as I thought. There we’re 2 or 3 sites doing the exact thing I thought of. BUT…. I saw a void. The companies doing “toothbrush subscriptions’ had very poorly constructed sites and we’re doing slight variations of what I thought a toothbrush subscription should be. For example, one company sells ‘eco-friendly toothbrushes’… I didn’t think that mattered to the masses who brush their teeth (which is almost everyone In the world, right?) as much as having a quality toothbrush, just when you need it it. (Every 3 months.)
So those who have followed my blog know I have built my site to 25 subscriptions sold in 6 months. Not huge numbers by any means, but it’s given me a base to test my product, test my site and get some GREAT feedback on my service.
Now that I have this base product built, or as the lean start up term calls it a “minium viable product”, I am ready to take my business to the next level. The MVP is really a great theory. For those who don’t know, basically you build a minimum viable product by just getting the basics up. Think if you we're selling hotdogs. What do you really need? Mustard, ketchup? No. You need hotdogs. The goal is to validate your idea in the market place, get feedback and iterate as you go…
For me, basically that meant all I needed was to have toothbrushes on 'subscription' on my site. The main idea was there, no extra fancy add ons needed, yet. In fact, I started by buying my toothbrushes from the local grocery store and just taking pictures with my phone. Sounds easy right?
Kind of ..
So here is how I got my site live on the web and had the ability to test and validate my business, all for $325 and in less than a month (and you can do it for less than that, actually.)
First: I needed a website: As I said, I have no prior internet knowledge or experience at all. I don’t know how to build websites and I didn’t even know where to start. However, the beauty of the internet is, as MJ says, that you can learn anything that doesn’t require physical skill. So I began to search. I found a company where I live (Halifax, Canada) who builds out basic sites for $50 a month with no upfront cost. They don’t do anything crazy, but they helped me get my site off the ground. If anyone wants to know what company I used (and still use, infact) just send me a message. I’ll let you know there info.
We just use a wordpress platform with some basic ecommerce functionality (the ability to sell products). There was no subscription software. If I sold a toothbrush subscription I would have to manually charge the customer every 3 months. Not efficient, but in the start, that doesent matter. You just want to get something to market.
Cost: $50 upfront
Second: I needed to actually get my content on the site. This was the tricky part. Although wordpress is very simple to use once you get the hang it of, as I mentioned, I had no idea what to do! Luckily .. there’s Google.. and A LOT of information on how to build a wordpress site on there. As I uploaded my content to the site (only a few pages to start .. homepage, product pages (for my 2 or 3 intial products), about us page and contact us page).
SO if I came to a problem. I would google it. How to a upload a picture to this page? Google it. How to a write some basic html? Google it. You get the point.
I spent about $150 on some basic graphics (logo, a ‘how it works’ design’ and a few other graphics. Really, I didn’t even need to spend $150 on all of that, but I was learning). Use sites live Fiverr and Odesk to get some cheap and decent work done.
Cost: $150
Third: I needed products: I was looking through suppliers on alibaba and most suppliers require you to order a high minimum order quantity. This was not in my price range.. and actually, it's a bad idea if you even do have the money. How do you know what product to sell if you haven't even tested your idea?
However, most companies are willing to send you samples for free (if you pay shipping) if you ask them nicely. So while I was in the search for suppliers, being the impatient person I am, I still wanted to get something on my site. Like I said before, I just went to my local store and bought brand name toothbrushes and just took pictures on my blackberry.
I got this idea from the Zappos CEO. He did this with his first initial version of his now famous shoe selling site, which sold to Amazon for 1 billion, I think?
So I put these products up on the site and now I had some basic products up with some half decent images.
Cost: $25
Forth: Advertising (traffic). I now have a site up, with some decent products and a shotty design. Now what? I need to get traffic to my site. But how!?
The ‘cheat way’ is really through Pay Per Click. Using Google you can send some targeted traffic to your site for what your trying to sell (for very cheap, or even free). In my case, toothbrushes, there are over 300,000 searches a month for the keyword ‘toothbrush’. This is not a very specfic term as say “buy toothbrushes online” but it worked for the time being.
Again, I didn’t know how to use PPC or what it even was! Luckily, there are some great people online who write resources on how to use PPC and how to get some nice traffic to your site. AND, if you look hard enough to can find $100 coupons for adwords online. This allowed me to send 50-75 people to the site for FREE and get an idea if my idea is worthy at all. You can also find $200 coupons for Bing's PPC. Again.. thats another 100 or so TARGETED visitors to your site, for FREE!
I sold 1 or 2 subscriptions from this and it allowed me to collect some customer information and be able to talk to these customers, seeing what they thought of the idea, what’d they like to see and what they think of the service overall.
I also created free twitter and facebook pages, and sent my personal network of friends to these pages so they could see a little bit about what I was trying to do. Call in some favors. Ask them to like your page, or retweet you.
Again, free traffic and sends a few more people to my site for more feedback.
I also posted my progress right here, on the Fastlane Message Boards. I just talked about what I was going through and the challenges I faced as I tried to build my site. Check my blog posts if you want to see more specfics from this. I actually sold 3 subscriptions from the fastlane forum. This was not my goal..
I just wanted to help other entrepreneurs who we're going through similar struggles that I was, but it was nice bonus added and once again, some great feedback.
One of my fastlane customers, PatrickP (MIA lately on the board, but a great mind indeed) interviewed me on his radioshow. This again sent some more FREE traffic and also added some authority to my brand. I could say on my site that I was interviewed on a business radio show! No matter how small the interview site was .. it’s still true. I wouldn't of had this opportunity if I didn't contribute to the forum.
“As Seen On” is a great authority tool and adds some confidence to customers buying decision. Read Dr. Cialindini's book "Persuasion" if you haven't already. A great start for marketers.
I sent free swag: I contacted about 50 blogs on the web and asked if they would like to test my service for free. In return, I asked that they write a review on my product. Of the 50 I asked, about 10-12 took me up on the offer. This did 2 things:
It got my name out there a little bit, and sent secondly, it send me some ‘link bait’ and helped me rank #1 on google for some basic terms. Terms like “toothbrush subscription” and “toothbrush subscription service”. These terms have no more than 150 hits a month, but people are searching for exactly what I sell.
Through these blog posts and my new found SEO success (very little, but still, some) I gained a few more customers. This cost me about $100 to send out the products to these bloggers.
A note on SEO: Again, you will learn as you go. I have really focused on my SEO efforts of late and have learned a lot. I now rank for terms such as "adult toothbrush" and "newborn toothbrush", and I'm even on the 3rd page for the word "toothbrush". It's a lot of work, but it's well worth it.
I can share what I've learned about SEO if anyone is interested (but 1 forum member, thetruth, will be able to help you more than I. And in fact, he did help me along my road too!)
To me, SEO is all about getting your basics in place first (metas, titles, keyword research etc.). Read SEO Moz's free "Beginners Guide to SEO" for all of that info). Having a solid content marketing strategy (Read Neil Patel's "Guide to Content Marketing" to develop your strategy) and lastly, building links. Again, these are just 'basic' SEO tactics. Test and see what works. It's all trial and error.
Cost: $100 to start (find a free coupon on adwords, start some social media pages for free and send some free swag to bloggers).
So there it is. For $325 I had a site up, with a few products, the ability to sell these products with a basic ecommerce function and some customers to test and validate my idea - the most important part of it all in the early stages.
This is obviously a very basic way to start things, but it got me to where I am today and I feel like now I am poised to grow a lot more.
I got valuable feedback from customers and found out if my idea is actually any good.
The amount I learned during this phase has been huge and people I have met have really helped me grow. Thats the beauty of entrepreneurs. They we're once in our shoes. They like to help those who they see have the motivation to succeed. I hope I am in that position once day.
I still have loads of work left to do, but I am confident that I can do it. What I have learned about internet marketing, SEO and ecommerce is general is all due to me going through all of this trial and error and taking that first initial risk and just starting something.
If I can do it, YOU can do it! It's true. It may sound easy. Thats true and false at the same time. It's a lot of work and a lot of learning, but now this is what I do. Full time. I learn everyday and I have a vehicle to help me to do that. It does take focus and a lot of hard work, but not a lot of capital upfront, necessarily.
Hopefully this helps some of those who are on the fence about starting their idea! The hardest part is actually starting, but it’s the hardest for a reason.
Enjoy!
Dave
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