Ecommerce Pulse

If you already have an online store, and are looking for ways to improve it, here's a checklist of 8 quick, actionable items you can do today to grow your business.

Is a blog really that important for your ecommerce store?

When you start an ecommerce business, you might think that you just want to sell your products and not worry about things like writing good blog posts and attracting a following. It's tempting to throw up a blog because everyone's doing it, and then fail to update it regularly with quality content. After all, you're a store owner, not a writer, right? Plus, you have more important things that demand your attention.

I'm Leighton.

A few years ago I graduated from college and married my beautiful wife, Ryan. My degree was in Graphic Design, but I wasn't quite sure what type of job I wanted to pursue. My wife is a true globe-trotter, having grown up as a daughter of missionaries and having lived in Paris, Benin (that's in Africa), New Jersey, and Haiti before she went to college. She did not like the idea of settling down in America just yet, and I was eager to explore the world as well, so shortly after getting married we decided to find jobs as English teachers in China.

A call to action (CTA) is where you encourage the visitors to your site to take a specific action. A call to action might be something like "Sign up for our newsletter" or "Browse products."

As an ecommerce website owner, you eventually want visitors to purchase something, so your calls to action throughout the site should funnel your visitors towards making a purchase. The final calls to action will be "Add to cart" and "Checkout," (or something like that).

In my experience working with numerous budding ecommerce entrepreneurs, I've seen one mistake trip people up over and over again. It's something that we've probably all experienced at some point in our lives (in general life circumstances), and if you aren't careful there's a good chance it will kill your chances of success with ecommerce. What is this dangerous problem? 

I firmly believe that deep down inside, most people have the desire to own their own businesses. Maybe it's something about human nature--we like freedom, we like control, we like success. If you ask any random person on the street if they'd rather work for someone else or own their own business, I'd bet almost anything that most people would choose the latter.

You know what that feels like--that's why you're reading this sentence right now. You have that desire, and I completely understand, as I have the same gnawing urge. So how can you do this successfully? Is it really possible to build a business to where you can quit your job, be your own boss, and even make a lot of money?