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Why Running An Ecommerce Website Is Better Than Blogging

June 22, 2012 by Dave

The Problem With Blogging And Why You May Want Your Own Ecommerce Store Instead

The Internet is filled with bloggers who are not able to earn a full time income from their blog.

If you are one of them, you may want to consider eCommerce instead of blogging.

I have about 3 years experience with my own ecommerce store: ToothyGrinsStore.com and it has been worth it.

Bloggers Are Struggling

I’ve seen the discussions, many bloggers are struggling to earn enough money with their blogs to quit their day jobs.

I must admit it is a tough thing to do. Unless you are very lucky or very skilled, you will likely struggle to obtain the results that you seek.

Yes, there are some successful blogs but their are thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of non-successful blogs for every successful one.

If you want to be successful as a blogger what you need more than anything is a loyal follower that eagerly awaits your next blog post.

Ecommerce As A Viable Option

– Selling physical products and receiving pay in return for those products is something that has been tried and tested. It is a model that has worked for thousands of years and it is likely that it will continue to work well into the future.

Ecommerce is just the modern way to employ this model. You buy products at wholesale and sell them at retail.

Your customers get a valuable physical item in exchange for cash. They are used to doing this and have done so practically since the time they were able to hold money in their hands.

Selling Physical Products Is Better Than Selling Digital Ones

The one exception to this might be software. But even there, there are problems. The public is tired of buying ‘abandonware’. What does abandonware mean? It means you bought a peice of software to do a particular job but the creator of that software has moved on to other products and does not keep it updated.

Therefore you software becomes problematic when operating systems or content management systems change. If there is no updates to your software, it may become useless to you.

The public has seen enough ‘abandonware’ to be leery of buying more software.

In short, you need to be REALLY good and poeple need to believe you won’t abandon them and their investment in the future.

I have purchased a LOT of junkware over the years. That accounts for a lot of wasted money.

People and small Businesses have learned that buying software on the Internet is problematic at best.

Selling physical products that people can touch and feel gives them the sense that they received something of value for the cash they gave you. This is a much better and safer way to go.

Why E-books are Less Attractive Now

There has been a lot of hype about the ‘low cost’ to create digital products. E-books are, generally speaking, earning their creators less and less. Competition has made it hard to sell an e-book for more than a few dollars now.

Take a look on the Kindle store or the I-Book store. The competition and the larger fees that the bigger retailers are taking are eating into the profits of e-book publishers – small and large a like.

In addition, there are tons of places to download pirated copies of e-books for no or very little cost.

While the government will spend tax-payer money to protect the larger industries and merchants are they going to care about the small publisher at all? Nobody is going to help you reclaim losses from pirated copies of your e-book.

Many people are now giving e-books away for free now! How are you going to make money on your e-book when other are giving similar information away for free?

Even my own book: What You Should Know About Gum Disease – sells for less as an e-book than it does as a paperback!

The only real exception to this problem is if you have a loyal following that are willing to buy whatever you create.
Leveraging the Power of Affiliates Working For You Rather Than Being One Affiliate In Someone Else’s Army

This is perhaps one of the greatest advantages to having an eCommerce store. You can create an affiliate program that capitalizes on an army of commission only salesman.

In fact, you can offer slightly more than a certain big name retailer to your affiliates and get their attention. Why would they sell a product for a measly 4% commission when another program will give them a 10% commission for the same exact product?

Do you see the potential here?

There is nothing wrong with being an affiliate at all. In fact, we have an affiliate program at Toothy Grins Store that you can join today. It’s free! Yes, there are banners and links and even a data feed you can use to promote our products.

However, having hundreds of people promoting YOUR products is a lot better than being one person (all alone) promoting someone ELSE’S products. Wouldn’t you agree?

The Power Of Online Shopping Comparison Engines

As an affiliate selling someone elses’ products or as an e-book or digital product seller you miss out on one of the greatest opportunities for marketing exposure.

Online product comparison engines such as Google’s Product Search or Bing’s equivalent or 100’s of others are available to the merchant’s of physical products but you cannot get e-books or digital products listed in these engines.

That equates to a whole lot of exposure that you can get!

PPC Marketing

This is another area that online merchants have an advantage in. You know how Google has cracked down hard on a lot of people using PPC or ‘Pay Per Click’ marketing?

Well, the good news is that they like ecommerce stores and I suspect they even ‘favor’ them. You can use PPC to market your physical products easily. And this is a lot easier to do than it is for an e-book or a ‘digital product’.

People shop for physical products online every single day. These searchers are often ‘buyer’ searches. These people are searching for a product because they know they want to buy it.

As you know ‘buyers’ are exactly the kind of visitors that you want to your website.

Email Marketing

Everyone talks about email marketing right? Well, would you rather have a list of people to market to that have already bought something from you OR would you prefer a list of people that signed up to get your free e-book?

The answer is clear, it is much better to have a list of people to send email too that have already bought from you. They will be far more likely to buy again than someone who never bought anything from you and just downloaded your free e-book.

With an eCommerce store you can develop a list of BUYERS. What could be better?

—-

So, have I convinced you that is time to put away your blog and create your own ecommerce store yet?

Hate what I said? Love what I said? Have questions?

Sound off in the comment section below now and don’t forget to share this page on your favorite social media!

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Monetizing With Ecommerce

April 20, 2012 by Dave

What Is Ecommerce?

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.

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How Can Spaniards Cope With A 23% Unemployment Rate?

January 31, 2012 by Dave

Today’s date is January 31st 2012,

I recently read that Spain is suffering from an unemployment rate that is just slightly below twenty-three percent. That is truly huge. That means that at least one out of every five people capable of working do not have a job.

I do not know if the government is paying some type of unemployment compensation to those without jobs. If you are from Spain, please leave a comment below and let us know about the situation there.

When the unemployment rate is so great inside the borders of Spain, there may little choice but to look outside those borders. Is that possible without leaving the country?

Here is how it could work.

The first possibility would be to find contract work that can be done over the Internet.

There are third party websites that act as an intermediary between those looking for some short term (sometimes longer term) contract work and those looking for workers to do such work.

That work might include, but is not limited to things like:

Graphic design work

Data entry tasks

Writing or translating documents

Coding and Programming

Carrying out simple but mundane tasks such as placing an article or multiple directories

Editing and Proof Reading

Design Work

Perhaps there may even be positions where you supervise a team of people – all from your computer. You might never see these people in person.

There are a surprising amount of opportunities. You can read more here.

The second possibility is trying to build some sort of Ineternet business where you can work towards creating your own revenue source. This is typically quite hard. It is not easy at all and requires extreme effort and intelligence. This is particularly true if you are trying to start from scratch. You can learn more about such opportunities here.

Starting a business is not an easy task. It requires a great deal of work both to set up and to keep going. Getting started is the hardest part. You need momentum – and then you need to keep that momentum going.

If you are just looking for something to help you get by, it might be best to look at the first option above.

I do not know if any of these will help our friends in Spain but I sure hope it does.

Please leave a comment below to chime in with your own thoughts on the matter.

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PLR Packages and Content and Why You Do NOT Want Them…

January 22, 2012 by Dave

I have found that a lot of PLR (Private Label Rights) sites are offering pre-made content that you can ostensibly place on your site or blog or anywhere that you would like.

One of the biggest problems with this content is that other people are buying it too. This spells duplicate content!

The one exception to this is if you are using this content in your email auto-responder series or in a private membership site. Then you may not need to worry about duplicate content penalties.

Many people do not believe in the duplicate content issue. Well, I personally think that you should ‘believe’ in it.

There are many SEO people who are saying that duplicate content is becoming more of a problem. As the search engines continue to evolve, it only makes sense that they WILL filter out more and more duplicate content.

Why? Because no one wants to do a search and find the same content over and over again. They want different information from each site they visit.

This only makes sense.

Sites that provide unique, one-of-a-kind content are going to dominate sooner or later. You might as well do it the correct way now and not have to start over from scratch in three, five or ten years.

Get used to writing your own content and become prolific. The more you write the easier it gets.

If you are using the content for email or a private membership site or in some manner where you are not wanting or caring about search engine traffic, then you may not need to worry about using PLR content. In those cases, I can see where it would be a nice short cut.

Even with that, one of the problems for me, is that I often do not agree with the content that others produce. Often times, I can see that the ‘author’ of this content doesn’t actually know the subject well. How can I use his writing on my site when I know it lacks depth of understanding?

These ‘content writers’ spend their time writing content. They are probably not the kind of people that truly qualify as experts on any one subject or topic. They just write on all kinds of topics. Some of this content is not hard to spot. They seem to follow some type of template.

These articles are filled with fluff and what I often consider to be meaningless phrases. Get to the point! But, they cannot get to the point. This is because they do not understand the subject matter well in the first place!

They got their main points from reading someone else’s content and try to duplicate it in their own words. They don’t understand the deeper points because they do not know the subject well. It shows. This is what it comes down to in the end.

Write your own content. If you do end up making money from your website, at least you will know that the value people are finding is coming directly from you!

This is what I think about PLR content and PLR packages: Stay away from them, unless they are for email or private membership sites where it doesn’t matter what the search engines think. But even then, won’t you feel better knowing that you are making your business run off your own content and not some duplicated PLR with questionable origins?

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Pregnancy Increases Your Risk For Developing Gum Disease…

December 20, 2009 by Dave

It is understandable that the excitement of pregnancy keeps you busy in many ways. A simple word of caution is recommended here: This is an especially important time to look after your dental health.

Actually, some would suggest that this is the time to really pay attention to overall health and well-being. There is an old saying about the number of teeth missing being equal to the number of children a mother gives birth too.

Though certainly not one-hundred percent accurate, there may be a kernel of truth in this. The fact is that women are more likely to develop gum health problems during pregnancy. Hormones have a great role to play in this scenario.
If you are a mother-to-be, pay special attention to your oral health. Do not be content with just brushing and flossing. Consider using a a good oral irrigator.

Another excellent product to consider would be an oxygenated, ph balanced mouthwash. There are many mouthwashes on the market but very few that harness the power of oxygen with a proper pH. The importance of this should not be overlooked.
Chew xylitol gum. Xylitol has been used in Finland since WWII and they have found that the incidence of dental disease is lower as a result. Xylitol is fine for human consumption but keep it away from pets.

Make sure there is someone looking at your gums a little more frequently during pregnancy – just to make sure that problems are not creeping in. As mentioned before, the probability for developing gingivitis / gum disease increases during pregnancy. If you do not know what you are looking for, then you need someone who can help. Besides, it is not so easy for a person to examine her own mouth.
Ask your practitioner about your pocket depths and how they relate to the health of your gums and teeth. Next, learn more about this topic from the next links.

Grab your free report on How to stop Gum Disease at https://www.HowToStopGumDisease.com. Shop for products that may help you to manifest better dental health at https://www.ToothyGrinsStore.com —

David Snape is the author of the book: What You Should Know about Gum Disease. ISBN: 978-0981485508 – Available online at most book retailer sites. It can also be ordered at most book stores.

Disclaimer: This article is for information and entertainment purposes only. It does not intend to render advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have or think you might have gum disease or any other health problem, visit your periodontist or physician for advice, diagnosis and treatment. The USFDA has not evaluated statements about products in this article.

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Deal of the Day – Buy One Deluxe Teeth Whitening Kit, Get One Free!

September 9, 2009 by Dave

Today only: September 9th, 2009

Buy one Deluxe Teeth Whitening Kit and Get One Free:

Note: This deal has ended but you can still get a great deal on these products via these coupon codes.

Online Marketing Scams – A Bit Of A Rant

September 5, 2009 by Dave

Special Note: If you are marketer who has been ripping people off, I challenge you to change for the better.

Let’s get real for a minute. You are bombarded everyday with this marketer’s and that marketer’s money making package.

Could it all be for real? Well, if you ask them it is. But what are your chances of getting rich after buying, reading and implementing one of these ‘packages’?

I’d say in most instances your chances are pretty close to ZERO.

If you can’t make it work, they want you to blame yourself. “I didn’t try hard enough”. etc. There is always some angle they will psychologically feed you. This is a tactic used in various groups as well. There is no need to control you when you are perfectly willing to control yourself. Watch out for this kind of very powerful psychological manipulation.

Now, I won’t go all out and say that what these people say doesn’t work. Although, in some cases that is true.

A lot of people are throwing all kinds of rehashed stuff out there for outrageous prices. There is very little NEW information in these things.

You can get a lot of information for free by reading between the lines on email lists, downloading free reports, reading articles, reading good reputable forums. All of the marketing information is out there somewhere. Do you really need to pay $97 to someone to give you some rehashed information on marketing?

Let me tell you what is closer to the reality: Making money online is hard. Yes, once you get to a certain point, it may become easy – but getting to that point is hard. I can tell you, I’ve been working my tail end off for a long time to have what I have and it still requires daily work to maintain / grow it.

So, please don’t think you are going to put up a blog and start spamming twitter with your RSS feed (a technique suggested by some) and that you are going to be a millionaire in a couple of weeks.

Another thing that I find despicable is some of the BS testimonials that are out there. You see, these ‘big dogs’ are all friends. They gladly give their testimonials to each other in exchange for the same down the road. Watch out for this con. I believe there are many who flat out make their testimonials up. And that is a shame because it leaves you with the feeling of ‘who do I trust’?

I’m not here to bash anyone. Please notice that I’m not mentioning any names. However, I am dismayed by all the BS marketing tactics going on. If you are legitimate, offer me a money back satisfaction guarantee. That means if I am not happy, I decide whether you give me the money back or not, not you. If your stuff is that good, then there would be no reason for me to ask for the money back. They will lie to you and tell you they have to protect themselves from getting ripped off. BS. If you are satisfied with their service, then they have nothing to fear. Most people won’t ask for their money back. There are some who will, but most won’t. Many, but not all people, will ask for their money back if they feel they have be ripped off, however.

It is a known fact that there is a high return rate on ‘digital’ products. Why is this? Because many times you get the product and realize it is simply the same old information you have gotten everywhere else. There is nothing new.

If they have a large email list, they can spam their subscribers all day long and someone is going to buy, these marketers know this. That’s why you get BS emails that say, oh, I gave you the wrong link in the last email etc. They do this to get even more exposure for their messages.

I can’t begin to tell you how many ‘big dog’ marketers have people calling around trying to get you and me to buy their 5K coaching programs.

Here is what the acid litmus test is on these 5K coaching offers: Do they offer a money back satisfaction guarantee? Um, NO! They try to side skirt that issue by saying we offer a guarantee that we will help you for up to a year. What does that mean? In the end, it probably only means that you can email them questions. The value of the answers is what I don’t trust. I can tell anyone to do more PPC or article marketing or give some other vague and goofy answer and it would be ‘valid’ from a logical standpoint. Advertise more and you are bound to get an additional sales! But, in good conscience, telling someone the obvious is not really an honest way to make money.

Here is what is important to know when it comes to making money online in my opinion : Everyone’s unique situation is different. EVERYONE’S! What may work for one may not work for another. You have to find your own path and leverage your own unique situations to get to a profitable business.

Stop buying money making products. Pay attention in really good forums, make friends with someone that can help you. BTW – have you noticed that these big name ‘marketing dogs’ are never accessable? Can you guess why? 🙂

As far as the forums go, the same testimonial crap is going on. I know because I have bought garbage and I see other people on the same thread in the forum saying how great person “insert name here” offer is. And how satisfied they are with the service or the product. This is how this kind of marketer works – they will return the favor later.

The reader who has no idea what is going on gets excited when he sees this kind of testimonial and may even be motivated to buy.

In closing, let me say that there is a lot of scamming going on at the lower levels of marketing too. I’m talking about people who setup fake names to sell their ‘information’ products. They don’t even have the guts to use their real names. In reality, they may not even believe in the product they are selling – THAT’s How bad it is out there – Right now!

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Google Cash Detective – Now Open for Free Trial…

June 14, 2009 by Dave

Click here for the Google Cash Detective Free Trial – You don’t even need to provide any payment information.

Amazingly enough, Chris Carpenter has opened access to his Google Cash Detective via a free trial.

This is the same software that people have paid close to $2000 to access.

The free trial does not even require any credit card information. You simply try it and if you don’t like it you don’t pay. You won’t be billed because you didn’t provide any payment information.

This is a great way to try out Chris’ system and to see if it will work for you.

Then, you will know if it is worth investing in or not. No one will tell, you will know for yourself and make your own decision based on results that you received during the trial period.

This makes signing up for free access a no brainer. But hurry, Chris has said that he will only grant access to this free trial until June 23rd 2009.

So hurry up to get a free trial on the same software and system that people have paid almost $2000 to access.

Next: Click here to get the free trial to the exclusive Google Cash Detective

Don’t Buy Stuff just because it sounds good…

June 6, 2009 by Dave

I seldom put my neck out for any products because most of these Internet marketing products (and services) are total garbage. I’ve wasted boat loads of money on various Internet marketing schemes, products, memberships and services, and most are not worth what people are charging.

Return on investment is important if you are running a business. So, you have to try not to waste any money. Just last month, I was suckered into a program that cost me $1200 bucks. They were supposed to do a lot of work for that $1200. I’m not sure they have. The reports they were supposed to produce documenting their work have not shown up yet. I also have not seen any results in terms of the only thing that matters : increased sales. My level of sales has remained about the same. Any slight increase may be due to work I’ve done myself.

Arrrgghhh. It is So frustrating. Why can’t these people be honest about their products and services? Most are total garbage. If you have bought any of these things you know exactly what I mean.

As I said before, I’ve tried a boatload of this nonsense and I’ve only found a couple to be of any worth.

Next time someone offers you a product or an SEO service or a conversion improvement service and they want to charge you $1200 or $2000 – ask yourself, “If this service or product worked so well, why would they need to charge so much”. Why do they have so FEW customers that they have to charge that much money for their product or service?

Could it be that they are trying to make as much money as quickly as they possibly can before people figure them out and quit their membership site or their monthly charges?

The answer, in my opinion, is obvious.

I’ve bought thousands of dollars in products and services over the Internet over the last 6.5 (almost 7) years. The information simply, in the end, is not worth that much money. Sign up for guru lists and read between the lines -you will learn a lot. Don’t buy anything. Read their freebie pdfs, watch their videos, take advantage of all of their free information. But DO NOT buy anything.

—- They might get mad at me. But you know what? I’m tired of getting ripped off!!!!

Have you received any phone calls for $5000 packages for ‘personalized’ coaching that doesn’t even come from the ‘named’ guru himself? Here is what I told them. I’ll just come to your office and you can show me everything in person. They declined that offer. I’m not surprised. Once they prequalify you (find out if you have a credit card that you are willing to charge 5K for) they send you over to Mr. Closer who knows all of the psychological triggers.

LOL. It’s sickening really.

Ok. I’ve gone on for a while now. I just want to warn you – don’t buy stuff just because it sounds good.

As I mentioned before, I’ve tested out a bunch of stuff and the number of things that work on the Internet is extremely small! Extremely so.

Let the Buyer Beware!

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