Start your own E-Commerce Store: Follow my Progress

[JasonR]

Damn - where to start - 6,000+ products. Overwhelmed at the moment!

 

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[JasonR]

Well, I took down my site by trying to install a brand extension (from Magestores). Luckily I backed the site up before I attempted to install it. Looks like I'll need help installing the extension after all.

 

[theag]

Keep it up, love to read your progress.

Btw, I played around a lot with excel in the last few weeks for mass imports, big niche research data etc. If you have a question concercing the automation of your imports, just drop me a pm, maybe I can help.

 

[JAJT]

You might need a business license to get this sort of information.

I can't recall if you mentioned how you setup your LLC / business license or not but it seems a common way to go is to get a generic-sounding LLC and then setup DBA's for specific niches.

So while the LLC might cost you a few hundred bucks to setup, the DBA might be like $20. So you can spend the $20 to get a trade name so the niche supplier will give you the info you need without setting up a new LLC.

(I have yet to do this, so if more experienced people want to chime in...)

 

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[JasonR]

Your approach makes sense, however a LLC in California is $850 a year minimum. For now, I set up a local business license in my company name. In the future, I will form a LLC or Incorporate, and then branch out with ancillary businesses (when time and money allows, probably many months or several years if all goes to plan) I'll set those up as DBAs or LLCs (separate LLCs would insulate the businesses from each other, but it's more expensive).

Doing business in California can suck as far as taxes, etc.

 

[JAJT]

Why not consider out-of-state LLCs?

Hell, I'm in Canada and likely to setup a Wyoming LLC in the next week or so so I can appear American to certain suppliers (at least, that's the plan).

 

[JasonR]

California will still get me for their LLC fees PLUS whatever state's fees I register in. Ask MJ about that one.

 

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[JAJT]

Man. That sucks.

California is like the parent who checks the odometer when you say you just went up the street to a friend's place.

 

[Pinnacle]

I can't recall if you mentioned how you setup your LLC / business license or not but it seems a common way to go is to get a generic-sounding LLC and then setup DBA's for specific niches.

So while the LLC might cost you a few hundred bucks to setup, the DBA might be like $20. So you can spend the $20 to get a trade name so the niche supplier will give you the info you need without setting up a new LLC.

(I have yet to do this, so if more experienced people want to chime in...)

JasonR is right about separate LLC's helping insulate your businesses from one another.

I have owned my LLC for about 5 years from which I have developed DBA's for any niches I chose to enter. It has worked beautifully for me. It is not until a DBA takes off that I will incorporate it as its own entity. If a DBA tanks, I don't have the additional worry of dissolution.

 

[susanyang]

This is really confusing. I called San Diego recorder office and they said DBAs are not necessary. But when I went to the bank yesterday, the banker said I have to have a DBA. So, let's say on my business license is shop123.com, but I want to branch out and sell pet supplies under pets123.com, and then books at books123. Do I just set up shop123.com DBA pets123 and books123?

Jason, it's good that you have computer programming skills. I am so lost as to how to import product feed to my site. I have been watching youtube tutorials and read a ton...... I might need to hire someone to do it for me.

 

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[JAJT]

Susan - if I recall correctly many states let you "assume" a DBA. However, if you want to open up legal accounts under that DBA (such as a bank account) you absolutely will require an official DBA.

In other words, if you want to put a logo on a page and go around saying that "shop123" is actually "pets123", that's fine. If you want to open up a bank account with "pets123" you need to file the DBA.

 

[JasonR]

This is really confusing. I called San Diego recorder office and they said DBAs are not necessary. But when I went to the bank yesterday, the banker said I have to have a DBA. So, let's say on my business license is shop123.com, but I want to branch out and sell pet supplies under pets123.com, and then books at books123. Do I just set up shop123.com DBA pets123 and books123?

Jason, it's good that you have computer programming skills. I am so lost as to how to import product feed to my site. I have been watching youtube tutorials and read a ton...... I might need to hire someone to do it for me.

My bank (Wells Fargo) didn't require me to file a DBA to open business accounts, but I believe to I need have a DBA to have the account, checks, etc. in my business name. My city didn't require me to file a DBA for anything.

Susan, I only have a little bit of programming knowledge (HTML, CSS, and I can understand a little javascript and PHP logic). I know enough to get by, and to do simple things, and I know enough usually where to start looking and Googling. I would at least learn HTML/CSS, as you'll get far just knowing both of those. You'll always use HTML if you run a website, whether it's editing category descriptions, static pages, e-mails, etc. It's not hard to learn, and you can find many good tutorials on HTML/CSS.

Also, I'd be careful with product feeds. I'm not sure, exactly, what you're using them for, but part of adding value to your site is having EXCELLENT and INFORMATIVE product listings. Anyone can put a product feed from a distributor and not add any real value. However, if you're using the product feeds for inventory syncing, that's awesome!

Just make sure your product listings stand out, and have unique content on them. Make sure you provide the customer with EVERYTHING they need to know on the product page and website that they need to know to order the item(s).

 

[Sabs]

Jason -

To keep your SSL cost down, go with a cert from GoDaddy using the 80% off coupon code LKSRTLSSL (found it on RetailMeNot.com). I did the same - it's only for 1 year at the discounted rate, but the price is $12.99 which is way cheaper than anywhere else.

Finding a merchant account is tough. I too bank with Wells which offers merchant account and Authorize.net processing, but their rates aren't very good and they charge a $500 termination fee if you cancel the account within 3 years. It's hard to research who's best by reading online. Most review sites profit on commissions, so you have no way of knowing if they're recommending one because they offer the best affiliate fee. I would go with Merchant Plus as it sounds pretty good overall, and got the recommendation of Steve from mywifequitherjob.com (BTW, all of you should check his blog out in addition to ecommercefuel if you're getting started in eCommerce). There's a link for 20% off Merchant Plus on his site, but be sure you talk to a rep and compare the tiered fee structure before signing a contract. There are 3 different rate levels - qualified, mid-qualified, and non-qualified. Most rewards credit cards (what 90% of people will use to place orders) are mid-qualified or non-qualified. Mid and non-qualified are always at a higher rate than the advertised (qualified) fee, sometimes substantially more.

Keep up the posts - it's a good way for you to hold yourself accountable to follow through with each step. Everyone should do this whether it's forum posts, updating a friend or family member, or something similar. It's better than a to-do list. In the back of your mind you know that if you don't keep on task, someone else knows about it and may call you out.

 

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[andviv]

if you're using the product feeds for inventory syncing, that's awesome!

I assume this is the reason. This is where many people struggle. I've done a few of them and part of the problem is that suppliers every now and then update the inventory feed without telling you, or the flat files have errors and your script fails.

 

[JasonR]

Yeah, I'm choosing not to manage inventory (in Magento) since I'll be dropshipping to begin with, and my supplier has a 97% fulfillment rate. That way I don't have to deal with inventory syncing, worry about how Magento handles out of stock products (for some reason they're set to not display, even though I have "show out of stock products" set to "yes."

If you're dropshipping, I think the key is to find a GOOD supplier with as close to a 100% fulfillment rate as you can. That way, you don't need to worry about inventory.

Edited to add: My first goal is to get to 3-4 sails daily so I can quit my job (I'm guessing 3-4 sales will cover it, wide variety of product at different price ranges).

 

[JasonR]

Applied for my SSL Certificate at Godaddy (simple, cheap SSL Cert). Thanks Sabs for the discount code; it worked beautifully. I also signed up at Braintree (https://www.braintreepayments.com/) for my payment gateway. 2.90% plus 30 cents per transaction ($15 chargeback fee), includes tokenization, card vault, recurring billing, takes my website out of PCI scope without leaving my site, and has a Magento extension.

Amasty did some customization to my site for me (some SEO tweaks and improvements to the core code), and added some Javascript to my site so I can show/hide text easily. I have one more project going (Brand extension), and then I'm ready to start loading product!

Next up: knock out a bunch of small stuff on my to do list,
Figure out wtf product to load (sooo many products, lots of questions),
Figure out Magento's Import/Export (Data Flow)
LOAD PRODUCT!!!!

So excited. So much work ahead, it's insane. Marketing, content strategy, loading product, Quickbooks, etc. I don't know how people do this sh!t on there own, but onward!

 

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[susanyang]

Jason, ready to share your niche??? The suspense is killing me!

 

[JasonR]

All in good time. I'll probably release it to the INSIDERS first for some feedback and constructive criticism.

I'm realizing that, although I've sacrificed SO much to take the Fastlane path, I am finding I still need to sacrifice. I'm sacrificing sleep, as I need as much time as possible to work on this project, and continue working a full time job. I got about 4 hours of sleep last night. Not complaining at all, just thinking out loud.

 

[Barry]

Awesome thread on action taken goodluck man

 

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[JasonR]

Sorry for the lack of updates - been SO freaking busy lately its incredible.

So...I screwed up my site again today. Had another extension installed (shop by brands: Shop By Manufacturer | Magento Shop By Manufacturer Extension). It is NOT very SEO friendly, and I had to modify it to get the proper H1 tags, etc. Just a work to the wise: many companies/extensions/etc. will advertise that their extension, theme, etc. is SEO friendly. Do NOT trust them! Check it out yourself. Most of the extensions and themes I've installed has had some sort of SEO issue with them, which I've fixed myself or paid to fix.

That being said, LEARN SEO. It really isn't that hard, and once you understand the basics you can get a grip on the more advanced stuff.

Always, always check developer's work. I had the brand extension installed, and he said it was done and it had some glaring problems. He fixed those problems, and I found more. I'm thinking I may need a crash course on PHP so I can do some advanced editing myself.

That being said, I made a change to the URL rewrite structure in Magento and screwed up my newly installed Magento Brand extension, and the customizations I made may be lost (luckily I have the files on my hard drive). Always, ALWAYS back up your site before working on something new. In fact, it's best if you can work in a dev environment (will set up one soon). Live and learn. I'm SO frustrated right now.

Anyways, I set up my SSL Certificate, and configuring Braintree payments (woohoo, no contract!), and it takes my website out of PCI scope. If you aren't familiar with credit card processing or PCI scope, let me know and I'll explain. In fact, if I was running an e-commerce blog, I'd write an article about PCI scope, tokenization, and credit card processing as I think many blogs miss this, and it can be important, especially in the beginning. The company I work for got hit with $15,000 in investigation fees because our site POTENTIALLY got hacked (we didn't end up losing any credit card info). Had our website been out of the PCI compliance scope, we wouldn't have paid a dime. Sure, we can afford the $15k, but individually that would bankrupt me.

Anyways - sorry for the scatterbrained posts. I write these fast, as I have shit to do. I hope you find these posts useful.

Counting down to add product...should be this week. By this weekend I'd like to have 50-200 products live and online. Then it's time to unleash the site...and maybe reveal my niche. Stay tuned.

 

[St.Alpine]

Great to hear you are making progress! Seems like a steep learning curve.
I am in the deep of website development myself and know that it
can be frustrating.

Speed++ for taking action.

 

[JasonR]

Argh - so frustrated. Lesson learned - I need to get a dev site up as it looks like a couple of customizations I had developers work on screwed up some features of my site. I'll have to get someone on Odesk to help me fix some things.

Lesson learned - work on the dev site only. I also need to stop dicking around with these customizations and start loading product.

 

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[JasonR]

Also - I have 6k products to load. It's going to take me f-o-r-e-v-er. I don't know what to load first (although Google's KW tool will work). I'm beginning to think I should have chosen a smaller niche.

Dealing with some of the manufacturers as far as UPC codes, images, and information can be really difficult and frustrating.

Anyways - pressing onward.

Edit: I also need to find someone on Odesk that knows Magento and PHP well.

 

[susanyang]

Also - I have 6k products to load. It's going to take me f-o-r-e-v-er. I don't know what to load first (although Google's KW tool will work). I'm beginning to think I should have chosen a smaller niche.

Do you really need to load 6K of products? Maybe choose a few hundred best sellers to start off? My supplier's product list has 4K products, and I plan to choose the one with free shipping only, so that narrows it down to a few hundreds. More manageable for me because I am a fairly disorganized person. :nono:

BTW, I am in a rut right now. I started off all excited about e-commerce but now I am unsure about my niche. I think it's saturated, very, very saturated. But in mind, I am thinking yes, this most likely won't be my fastlane, but at least I will gain knowledge about how e-commerce work and keep searching for the one niche.

DBA is done and is being published as we speak. $15 for 4 weeks, not bad. I was going with Opencart, but now I am leaning towards Big Commerce. I haven't open a bank account yet. I am moving very s l o w l y. I hope I can open my store before you, JasonR!

 

[JasonR]

Oh, my store is open, but I haven't been marketing it yet.

Yes - I'll be loading product, and will be ok with having a few hundred products. Unfortunately, I don't really know how to find the best sellers in my niche (other than researching what people want/like, which is pretty challenging).

Susan: why did you choose the niche in the first place? If it's not your "fastlane" nothing prevents you from earning some revenue from your site, quit your job (if you have one), and focus on other niches. Your niche very well may be fastlane, but it's probably hinged on the execution.

 

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[Zen Focus]

This is such an amazing thread it's mind blowing.

Thanks Jason.

My major problem is I'm not from the US. This creates a lot of inconveniences. I am also currently trying to start an Ecommerce store right now with a niche. Let's keep moving.

 

[Hassassin]

interesting thread.
im 16 from the uk and i want to get on thefastlane asap . but i dnw ifi shud drop outa college or not and how to make income through ecommerce any tips advice would be appreciated thanks

 

[theag]

interesting thread.
im 16 from the uk and i want to get on thefastlane asap . but i dnw ifi shud drop outa college or not and how to make income through ecommerce any tips advice would be appreciated thanks

What questions do you have that are not answered in this or other ecommerce threads here?

 

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[JasonR]

interesting thread.
im 16 from the uk and i want to get on thefastlane asap . but i dnw ifi shud drop outa college or not and how to make income through ecommerce any tips advice would be appreciated thanks

Is your post for real? You didn't even take the time to type out a one sentence post correctly. No one is going to give you a hand out here.

Harsh, but true.

 

[pdog]

Hey Jason thanks for the cool thread and good to see you taking serious action.

Just wanted to suggest you add google analytics to your site, so when that first sale comes in (and it will!) you'll know where it came from - e.g. what kw they searched etc.

Carry on,
Peter