Check out my conversation with Robert Stanley of Directfix.com.  He has been in the business since the Palm Pilot days (what is that?) and had a great conversation with him to talk about Youtube marketing.  Here are some quick bullet points on what was discussed, but please listen to the show for all the great tips that he had to offer.

• Started in 1998 selling Palm Pilot parts on eBay before evolving into a website, powertothepalm as a how-to informational site
• In the year 2000, he decided to make it into a company as gethightech.com
  • starting with selling 2 parts
• Take apart videos with the first iPhone that went viral
• Miva Merchant started with using Big Step. Used hostasaruas as a host and used Miva
• Build and designed his own website before outsourcing the new redesign to Miva a couple of years ago

SPONSORS:

3dcart - use this link to get 1 month free on one of the best all in one Ecommerce platform.

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Corey Lolley created MAYA in 2006. Her inspirations include movement in the natural world, life experience, street fashion, architecture, and the art and customs of indigenous cultures. She has been an active member of the piercing community since 1994 when she got her start in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area. She expanded her focus to developing the freshest jewelry designs from the most luxurious materials by utilizing her knowledge of industry trends, standards, and modern and ancient design aesthetics. Each Maya piece is an aspectual reflection of the communities and tribes who inspired them, and an offering back to those same communities.

SPONSORS:

3dcart - use this link to get 1 month free on one of the best all in one Ecommerce platform.

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Ecommerce Platform: Miva

Marketing Tips: Uses Instagram for promotions and newsletters/catalog. Get people engaged and form a community. Seek out influencers to grow your business.

Running a Successful Contest

1. Run contest on your own site, see www.estorecoaching.com/contest to see an example of Gleam.io in action.  In general, length of contest should be anywhere from one to 3 or  4 weeks.  Too short, you might not get enough participants, too long, people might not want to enter because it's too far.    Experiment to see which length works for you.  After someone enters a contest, they are more likely to browse your website then if your contest were on a Facebook tab.

2. Choose an attractive prize.  Pick something of value and relevant from your site.  Service, coaching sessions or product base if that is something you're selling.  For example, if you are Zappo's, a pair of shoe or one hour coaching session for swimming. 3. Use previous entrants to re-enter the new contest and share.  If they love your first contest, they have to love it even more the second time around?  If you know the rule of...

Listen to how Asim and Hina Khan built their wedding store, weddingfavorites.com over 16 years ago.   Their business idea is focused on the modern and contemporary look to wedding favors as their market separator because they both enjoyed arts, crafts and planning for their wedding.

They used a drop-ship model to start out with items that they didn't have

They used a drop-ship model to start out with items that they didn't have capacity, hand made some products like vellum envelopes and get some supplies and customize it before shipping to the customer. My favorite quote: “Replatforming sucks!” - Asim Khan Bootstrapped and built the website development and Hina with the design and photography before hiring out these aspects of the project when they were more profitable  

Tips from Asim

• Have good content, write for the customer.
• Cross promote with other companies
• Perseverance
• Create a weekly and monthly plan
• Good health and workout routine
...

Listen to how the lovely couple Michael and Momo Fensterstock were traveling through Southeast Asia and discovered an exotic, botanical fragrance that doubles as insect repellent. It smelled so good and worked so well during their flight back, they started working on their business plan.

Their initial tips and strategies includes:

• Their marketing efforts in the earlier beginning involved family and friend outreach
• Door knocking retails shops all over the tri-state area
• Spent time marketing and reaching out to influencers
• Used referral marketing with their existing customers

SPONSORS:

Use Grasshopper.com toll a toll free number for your business and transcribed messages when you're on the go!  Click here to get $75 off ANY plan.

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Ecommerce Platform: Shopify (start your free trial today)

Email Service Provider: Constant Contact and Mailchimp

Other tools: Olark for chat and Google Docs

Enter to win your very own...

Listen to how Noah Dentzel from Nomad, build his Ecommerce business. His story kind of reminds of rags to riches in terms of him and his partner started with basically nothing and bootstrapped their marketing outreach by spending thousands on shipping samples to influencers to help get traction, getting funding from Kickstarter to where they are now. Nomad is evolving. Their new Apple Watch products showcase the evolution of Nomad into a smartwatch first accessories company. They believe the smartwatch will soon eclipse the smartphone as the number one mobile device, including telephone and camera. One thing that isn’t changing is our uncompromising commitment to absolute portability in designing essential tools for the modern Nomad. They got our start on Kickstarter in 2012 with our first mobile charging product, ChargeCard, raising over $160,000 in 40 days. Since then, they have grown to a family of minimalist, portable and rugged smartphone and smartwatch accessories. Now,...

Listen to the great story on how John quit his job as a CPA (right after his honeymoon) to start his business education not through an MBA, but by working at a diner in Austin as a host, washing dishes and learning the ropes before he started his own cheese shop. 

After putting ourselves through cheese boot campss, running a cheese club out of our house, attending cheese conferences, interning for French affineur Herve Mons, journeying through Europe, and eating our way through thousands of tasty cheese morsels, we honed in on our true passions.

Then, over a bottle of wine one evening, we realized that working behind a cheese case would allow us to fulfill them all: eat great cheese, talk to whoever would listen, travel the world and spend more time together. Listen to the great story on how John quit his job as a CPA (right after his honeymoon) to start his business education not through an MBA, but by working at a diner in Austin as a host, washing...

In 1999, Elysia Tsai worked as a Certified Athletic Trainer helping injured athletes, physical therapy patients, and fitness clients return to sport and achieve their goals.

In 2001, she had an idea to improve the current balance board designs, which started with a cooler cover and a ball on the bottom! It wasn't until 2004 after returning home from graduate school that she began this journey.

After three years in developments, they finally had a product line and started sales in 2007.

Listen to the rest of the story now.

SPONSORS:

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Website: Si-boards.com

Ecommerce Platform: Volusion

Email Service Provider: Constant Contact

Material is a truly free Ecommerce platform coming out to the market, no transaction costs, monthly hosting fees. or plans.  

Out of the box, all themes comes fully responsive and has a marketplace for additional add-ons.  

This Ecommerce platform is built to provide you a great way to quickly build your website with a real-time editor. As of today (the day I posted this article), I have not received access to this Ecommerce platform, but I can't wait to check it out and tell you guys what I think.

5 Tips for Getting Sales After Your Launch!

• Social media is your best friend. It’s impossible to make it anywhere in the world of Ecommerce without having a strong social media presence. Master Instagram, Facebook and whatever other new social channels are popping up, and be sure to provide your followers with unique, intriguing content. People will only want to follow you if you have something interesting to say, so think abstractly about how you can capture their...

Today on the show, I have James Lees from Advantage Learn, a South Africa startup with passionate educators who started teaching in 3 facility centers before offering online courses with no VC funding.  

We'll get into his background and what it took for him to get started and his approach over the past year in launching his business and his plans to grow.

James talks about his journey on finding the technology behind Advantage Learn.  Launched "click to learn" as their minimal viable product, platform to allow users to find the course, make a purchase and take the course - two courses with multiple modules. James talked about the "Ecommerce triangle", Three Levers of Ecommerce: Price, Quantity, and Conversion.

1. How much it cost people to purchase your product and convert?
2. At what quantity they are buying your product and convert?
3. Conversion, how many people add the course to their cart and make a purchase.  Find your balance, the high price will only...