I recently created a website using Shopify (for testing purposes) and came to realize how almost simple it is to set up/manage an online business these days.

As this Shopify tutorial demonstrates , Shopify makes it easier than ever to start selling online

You also don't need to spend a lot of money to get started with Shopify.

Provided you master some key factors:

• Sell/promote products that you would buy yourself (product).
• Know the right channels where you can effectively attract your target audience (marketing).
• Earn the trust of your target audience and potential customers (conversions).

Shopify tutorial: Your store concept

The idea process is sometimes the part that takes the most time to start an ecommerce business.Since you have to take into account a few things:

• By choosing the products/categories you will have the best chance of competing to sell online.
• Choose a commercial/business name.
• Find the best suppliers (especially if you're going to start with dropshipping).
• What will be the unique selling point of your brand/company?
• How much will you earn for each product you sell (markup and pricing strategy)?
• How will you approach your marketing?
• How will you scale the business idea?

In my case, I spent 24 hours brainstorming products that I would focus on selling through Shopify. 

But the main essence is to choose products that interest me personally – products that I will most likely buy for myself.

My initial Shopify Store options included:

1. Portable external gears (AliExpress via Oberlo)
2. Minimalist home furniture (manufacturers / suppliers from the Philippines)
3. T-shirts (via Printful)

Since I'm doing it mainly for testing, I went with the cheapest option – shirts.

In addition, fulfilling orders will be much easier with this option (since the company is based in the United States).

As for the design concepts for shirts, I always wanted to collect printed shirts of iconic, but underrated characters of modern history (such as Nikola Tesla, Sun Tzu, Tim Berners-Lee, etc…).

But I didn't really like the t-shirts I see listed on Amazon.

So I decided to create our …

Shopify Tutorial – Build Your Shopify Store

The beauty of the ever-evolving web consumption is that today it has become so easy for people to create websites (of any kind) with the help of CMS like WordPress, Wix, and Shopify.

It only took me 3-4 hours to build a site from scratch with Shopify.

Recommended: Shopify tutorials

It was all easy.

From setting up a new account, to registering a domain name, to getting a theme (I only used one free theme from their theme store), to adding products (including writing product information for each).

However, I was too excited to launch the site that I encountered some minor issues that I know I should have figured out soon, such as:

• Forgetting to change the "Shipping zones and rates", as I had originally planned to have free shipping on all products (which caused us some abandoned carts in the first 2 days of the site).
• Improper installation of conversion tracking for Facebook Pixel.
• Launch of the site with a product and without logo: yes, I was so excited.

So our team took a step back and decided to temporarily close the site for a few days.

I waited for our designers to finish the first batch of T-shirt design and the site's logo, so I immediately restarted SageMode.

Shopify Tutorial – Market Your Shopify Store

Since I have a solid track record in SEO and content marketing, I initially thought that driving traffic to the site would be the easiest part.(and relatively speaking for me, it is)

But for this 7-day case study, I wanted to focus on more instant traffic, rather than SEO.

So I mainly focused on Facebook (and Instagram) ads for overall traffic capture.

However, the hardest part I've learned along the way is encouraging people who are already visiting your website to buy the products (which I'll explain later).

Begin…

I started promoting key site products using conversion-focused Facebook ad campaigns (website conversions using Power Editor).

In this way, the ads I create will be displayed by Facebook to their users who will most likely convert (based on historical activity).

Note: It's imperative to have Facebook Pixel properly installed on Shopify (help).

I only started with a $1/day budget for each product (for both sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram).

The key lies in audience targeting.

Facebook/Instagram Marketing Tips:

Be as rigorous as possible in creating your audience for each of the products you're promoting.

1) Further narrow the audience.In addition to targeting key interests (related to your product), it's also best to explore and target behaviors (related to online shopping) and demographics (education, work, yearly salary, etc…) to maximize the value of the traffic you will get.

2) Use high-quality, visually appealing images (if your promotions point directly to product pages).
3) Continuously check your copy of the ad. Being direct and concise with ad copies seems to work best most of the time.

Watch and learn how other successful brands approach their ad copies.

4) Location options: Make sure you target the right people in the location where your ads will appear.

5) Test other creative formats, especially "Carousel" where you can promote and showcase more products.

Optimizing conversions in your Shopify store

When I first launched the site, I meant not to include some of the most essential site elements that typically help improve a site's conversions, to really see the difference.

After a couple of days, I saw how important these small changes to the site are in terms of improving revenue generation.

Once you've figured out how to get qualified traffic for your business, the next crucial piece of the puzzle is how to establish trust.

The key is to make the site (not just appear) legitimate.

1) Create an identifiable logo – something that will resonate well with your target audience.

A well-planned site brand is what will make it easier for you to sell in the long run.

2) Unexpected add-ons (eg.Give back): Forgive a portion of your profit to organizations/make your company truly support.It's one of the best ways to build a community around your business.

3) Quick FAQ on product pages – Include other necessary details that most potential customers will try to search for once they are on the site.

Make it easier for them to find this information.

4) Create disclosure pages ( Return Policy, Privacy Policy, Terms of Service )

You can easily generate templates of these pages on Shopify (via Settings> Buy).

These small changes and additions to the site helped us make our first sale within the week.

Shopify Store Setup – Next Steps

The entire initial process of building the business – from conceptualization, site building, traffic, and reoptimizing its key pages – required us a small amount of capital to get started (domain registration, Shopify fees, and a $20 start-up fund for Facebook ads) and only several free hours of our time (about 1-2 hours per day).

Now that we have somehow validated that there really is a market for the products we are selling, it makes more sense for us to spend more time trying to grow the business.

Here's a peek at what we should do next:

1. Start investing in developing assets with large content to drive more revenue earned (via social and organic unpaid search).We will focus in particular on creating content that can actually engage our target audience, such as list-type articles, data visualization and more image-based content (comics, memes, etc …).
2. Increase ad spend on key products (especially projects with larger market sizes).Also allocate budget for Facebook remarketing.
3. Create multiple products and collections that align with your site's brand goals.
4. Start capturing more email newsletter subscribers and organically grow your site's social follow on key social platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc…) through constant content marketing efforts.
5. Eventually, collaborate with other designers/publishers to create a community within the site.

These however are topics for a future Shopify tutorial.

For now, the important thing is to start: the world of selling physical products is waiting for you! It's really a lot easier than you think, thanks to SHOPIFY.

Shopify SEO update…

Shopify SEO – The Beginner's Guide to Higher Rankings

When choosing a platform or technology for your ecommerce website, in terms of SEO optimization, there's no perfect option.Every platform, whether it's WooCommerce, Shopify, or Magento, has its pros and cons.

You have to compromise between SEO features, customization options, ecommerce features, and so on.However, we firmly believe that, in most cases, Shopify offers an excellent balance between ease of use, user experience, and SEO capabilities.

Once you've chosen Shopify as your ecommerce platform and reviewed the website configuration mechanisms, the next step is to optimize it to make sure you're ranking high in search engines.

In this in-depth guide to Shopify SEO and practical Shopify SEO infographics, you'll discover fixes to common Shopify SEO issues, as well as nine non-technical SEO tips, which you can apply now to see quick improvements in Shopify rankings store.

One last thought…

A growing number of Shopify stores are adding OptiMonk to their marketing arsenal.With a Countdown theme created specifically for online sales, OptiMonk is the perfect addition to any online store.