[Progress Thread] My E-Commerce and Content Approach From A to Z

[Keith Allen]

Hey Everyone

I wanted to create this thread as a place where I can journal and put my progress and struggles out there around like minded people. The hope is that along the way I can use my skills to help others out and hopefully others can provide a little help back.

A Quick Background On Me:
I have been doing web development since I was 14 years old. Everyone said I was "wasting time online", but really I was a kid making a lot of money! This eventually turned in to a full time gig of picking up local business clients and freelance work; forming my first business at that point. I provided graphic design, web design, hosting, setups and installing/modifying scripts I was also building news related content websites and bringing in revenue from Google Adsense and traditional banner sales.

I went to school and got a business degree thinking it would help me in my future businesses.

After school I ended up in a corporate job doing web development for a group of radio stations, I quickly got burned out and closed my side business. During this time I also picked up trading equities and futures as what I thought would be my future gig to abandon the rate race. I did this for 5 years!

Currently I am working for a large bank and trading in my spare time...I have settled in to a typical corporate job. :nonod:

I do not hate my job, but I am not satisfied. I have a constant feeling of resentment that I don't get enough control over my own progression and how we do things. Even if I stay and continue to move up, I doubt these feelings will go away.

I have decided that while I enjoy trading, the uncertain ups and down and the fact that I am not building anything leaves me unsatisfied. I want to build something on my own terms and provide something to the market.

I recently found this website, purchased the book, and I am almost finished with it. I have been researching what path I wanted to take and I have settled on e-commerce as my main focus.

I am gong to post here from the start of the process and all throughout it--win or lose. With hard work and a little help, I am confident I can make this work and continue to scale and repeat the process.

Keith

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Keith Allen]

First Steps:

I have already determined my fast lane approach as e-commerce. I have done a lot of research this weekend and have also decided on an approach. If you are familiar with ECommerceFuel, I will be taking a similar approach to what he does as it makes a lot of sense to me.

My first big decision is to decide my product/niche. I am torn between selling items that I am passionate about and currently buy, and going with a product I am slightly interested in, but not really an expert on yet.

The market for the items I am passionate about is very saturated, but while doing research the top sellers have a lot of negative reviews due to low quality product and customer service. This is a collectible niche where people are extremely fanatic and picky. If I do the product and customer service right I see a lot of potential for word of mouth advertising within the fanatic groups and repeat customers. My biggest worry is scale-ability as this niche is pretty much the same items produced over and over again, but with a different theme. It is hard to be an expert as I said it's the same things over and over again...not complicated. I am having a hard time seeing where I would scale in to related items that the same customer group would buy.

The other product is a more common product, but there are lots of options, models, ways to use them. I feel I would be able to build a website that really educates customers on the benefits, the differences between models, etc. I also have an angle in mind where I can narrow my target further than just selling the product. I envision a lot of room to scale in to related products in the future. My worry with this product is that you can buy it many places online and at local stores (i.e. wal-mart, target, department stores).

To Do:
Finalize decision on product/niche
Continue market research - competitors, search volume, etc
Search for wholesale/drop shipping companies
Company name brainstorming and purchase domains
Decide on shopping cart software and install on server (Wordpress/Cart Or Magento)
Sketch company logo and tag line
Collect documents to form LLC

I think that's enough for the to do list for now. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. I will be journaling here with what I'm thinking, what I've accomplished, etc.

-Keith

 

[Kerin]

Welcome to the forum Keith! I look forward to hearing about your progress.

Just because you aren't an expert in a niche now doesn't mean you can't be. If you want it enough you'll do what you need to do to make it happen.

Good luck!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jab]

Welcome, and good luck. I'm also using ecommerce as my speedy vehicle so it will be interesting to follow your progress.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.