For the purpose of this discussion, Ecommerce is the online retail sale of products that you buy wholesale. Nothing fancy-schmancy, a simple but powerful concept!
This is a time tested and ancient way of doing business. It has been this way, probably for thousands of years.
You go to the store and buy a product at retail price that the store bought at wholesale. You might even do this every day of your life.
This is called commerce. The online version of this time honored business model is Ecommerce.
As funny as it sounds, Ecommerce is nothing new, it is just a modern twist on what has always worked.
You can sell your digital products side-by-side with your physical products if you wish.
I’ve sold both physical and digital products. I do believe that the physical product side is, generally speaking, going to be more lucrative than the digital product side.
Of course, there are exceptions, that is why I said ‘in general’. LOL.
But more often than not, I think a real business, built on real, physical products is an easier rode to ride.
Go ahead and call me crazy (or ignorant) if you wish!
Why Consider Ecommerce?
Many people are looking to monetize their websites and perhaps even build a full time income or to increase the revenue of an existing business!
As I’ve mentioned before it is not easy to build a business.
I also mentioned how it might be necessary to generate additional income streams when you are facing a lot of debt and (just) being frugal still isn’t enough based on current income.
Just do not be blinded to the fact that whatever type of business you end up building, it is likely going to take a good bit of work!
With Ecommerce, you can build a list of buyers who have already purchased a product from you. If you are into ‘list building’, that is exactly the kind of list that you want.
You can also get affiliates to promote your Ecommerce store products for you! You can even have a data feed for the affiliates whereby they display your products on their sites.
BTW: If you are really into affiliate marketing. We have an affiliate program at: Toothy Grins Store – just scroll to the bottom of Toothy Grins Store and there you can sign up for our affiliate program. It pays a little better than some of the ‘big name’ retailers out there do.
You can take (more) advantage of PPC (Pay per click) marketing. Because you are directly selling a product, it MIGHT be easier to create a successful campaign than with other types of products. The search engine PPC programs seem to favorably regard Ecommerce stores over some other types of sites.
It’s clear that you are selling a product, so there is less chance for misconception on the part of your readers / site users. This may be another reason that SEs (Search Engines) like Ecommerce sites.
When people arrive on an Ecommerce site, they can see right away that there are products for sale there, they have no need to fear a hidden agenda. Indeed, many times they are looking to buy the exact product you have on your site.
How Does Ecommerce Fit In With Blogging?
That is fairly easy to explain. You could use your blog to drive traffic to your Ecommerce store.
You Could:
Blog about your products and display images of them.
You can post positive feedback and testimonials from YOUR customers.
You can blog product related stores about the products you sell. These can be your own stories or those of happy customers.
Ever wonder if you were getting credited for all of your affiliate sales? Well, with an Ecommerce site, you KNOW if a sale has been made.
That is some of the power of Ecommerce over other forms of monetization that exist on the Internet today.
Some examples of Ecommerce stores, aside from Toothy Grins Store, are Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Best Buy, Dell, Apple, WalMart, and many, many others.
You might have better luck selling physical products over digital products.
Ecommerce seems to work for a lot of people.
It may not be right for everyone, but maybe it is right for you?
Comments / Questions are OPEN on this post.