The Ecomcrew Ecommerce Podcast

Cory Stout has already built a successful brand, Woodies Sunglasses. But like any keen ecommerce entrepreneur, he's seen the potential of acquiring Amazon businesses to grow and improve on. In this Under the Hood, Cory walks me through the process of his latest acquisition. Inspired by the episode with Shakil Prasla of Pro Click Ventures, he jumped on Empire Flippers and looked at his options. He eventually settled on a business selling a bird feeder called Nibbles and paid $30K for it. Cory and I then discussed some low hanging fruit in terms of improving the product listing and marketing. These include: Replacing existing stock photos with high-quality images Improving the copy Adding infographics Investing in PPC Change up the packaging (but not too much) We also discussed how tying in the product with some type of birdseed can be a great way to not only generate interest in Nibbles but also open up the possibility of introducing new product additions to complement this one SKU in the future. If you're interested to get onsite advice from Mike and have your business be featured, sign up for the EcomCrew Roadshow today! Join this month's giveaway and get the chance to win an annual Premium subscription for free. Watch the final three pitches for Round 1 of the 5 Minute Pitch. Finally, if you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

From a Dublin-based seller, we now have an Under the Hood guest from the UK. Jamie Graham is a Premium member. I met him in person at the Million Dollar Sellers meetup in Cancun last year. He and his wife Kayleigh own a beauty brand that's bringing over a million pounds in revenue, with a 30-40 percent growth rate. In this episode, the majority of the discussion was focused on these three points. Figure out how to build a 'real' business that's not reliant on him and his wife Developing a top-level hire Working with a sourcing agent Jamie and I also went over how he was able to implement the principles discussed in the book Traction. It's an excellent read, especially if you're on the process of growing and organizing your ecommerce business. Check out the full episode. I'm looking forward to hearing back from Jamie over the next couple of months. With a growing business and a new baby, he'll definitely be having his hands full. Under the Hood is a segment where we do an hour-long coaching call with one of our listeners. We take a look at their businesses, provide honest feedback, offer our best business advice, and answer whatever questions they have. In exchange for the free coaching, we will turn the call into a podcast episode so that our community can benefit as well. It's a win-win! Get more information about Million Dollar Sellers on EcomCrew.com/mds. Need onsite and personalized advice for your struggling ecommerce business? Sign up for the EcomCrew Roadshow. Read more about it here. Join this month's giveaway and get the chance to win an annual Premium subscription for free. Tune in to the 5 Minute Pitch. New episodes published weekly until the final round in May at the Sellers Summit 2019. Finally, if you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

This Under the Hood guest is someone our Premium members would know. Fabio Molle was on one of our private webinars last month to talk about strategies he used to grow his brand's Instagram following to more than 200k followers. Fabio is the owner of Functional Tennis, a company that sells match journals to aspiring athletes and enthusiasts alike. While the brand is taking off on this particular social media platform, that success hasn't necessarily translated to a profit boost. The match journal is a good consumable product. Unfortunately, tennis is what you'd call "a niche within a niche" so marketing using conventional channels is out of the question. I brainstormed with Fabio on possible routes he could take to generate more interest in this product. Here are some takeaways. Instead of going the Amazon route, go to the grassroots level. Capitalize on social media channels by adding more content. A free course can be a great lead magnet because it adds value and can create relationships with people. If those people want to learn more, you can then offer paid content. Google Shopping is an asset you'd want to build long term. Under the Hood is a segment where we do an hour-long coaching call with one of our listeners. We take a look at their businesses, provide honest feedback, offer our best business advice, and answer whatever questions they have. In exchange for the free coaching, we will turn the call into a podcast episode so that our community can benefit as well. It's a win-win! Need onsite and personalized advice for your struggling ecommerce business? Sign up for the EcomCrew Roadshow. Read more about it here. Join this month's giveaway and get the chance to win an annual Premium subscription for free. Tune in to the 5 Minute Pitch. New episodes published weekly until the final round in May at the Sellers Summit 2019. Finally, if you enjoyed listening and think this episode has been useful to you, please take a moment to leave us a review on iTunes. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Happy selling!

If you ask us to pick one episode from the EcomCrew Podcast that we think every ecommerce store owner should listen to, today's episode would be a clear winner. We're very excited to have Brian Dean on today's episode. If you've been living under a rock, Brian is an SEO expert and the founder of the Backlinko blog. He has been called an "SEO genius" and is one of the people I follow closely, and whose courses have helped propel my ecommerce store to new Google search heights. In today's episode Brian and I discuss a topic that many ecommerce store owners find daunting--ecommerce SEO. There is a misconception among online store You'll learn: Why it's no longer possible to rank simply by putting products on a page Brian's experience with black-hat SEO and how he figured out how to give Google what it wants Why you should go for longer-tail keywords The ideal number of clicks from the homepage to a product page Why you need to have unique descriptions for every product How to see if your website has "page bloat" The importance of content marketing and how to find the perfect writer for your store's blog The advantage online stores have over blogs when building links This episode is a discussion of a guide Brian wrote about the topic. You can read about it here. Resources Ecommerce SEO: The Definitive Guide Backlinko SEO That Works Thanks for listening to this episode! Until the next one, happy selling.

Gideon Kai is facing a dilemma. His 74 year old father-in-law just declared that he'll need to start working a day job again to pay bills. Gideon knows he's a prolific artist, but not having displayed his art for anyone outside of family and friends, whatever he earns from selling his work is not enough to cover even his basic needs. He could not stand seeing such a great artist fall into the oblivion of a day job, so he came to us to ask for help. He knows that with a little direction on marketing, he'll be able to spread the word about the man's art so that he'll no longer have to work a day in his life. In this episode you'll learn: The various business models and strategies suitable for different types of art How to test if there's enough demand Whether or not Kickstarter is a good idea for testing demand and generating funding Logistics - finding a good printer, shipping artworks, and lowering costs down for the end consumer Tips on raising capital This episode is part of our Under the Hood segment, where entrepreneurs come to us for a free hour of coaching which is recorded and turned into a podcast. If you want to be featured on your own Under the Hood, you can sign up here. Resources: The Trifecta

Dave and I always liken our Asia trip planning to a tumor - it starts small at first but as the travel dates get closer and closer, the anxiety gets bigger and bigger. We love going to Asia, especially Hong Kong, but there are little idiosyncrasies that make the trip the trip a pain in the rear end. One of these is the internet and everyone who's been to China knows what I mean. That's why Dave and I decided to sit and talk about our upcoming Asia trip. We'll be talking about our plans and itineraries and tips and strategies to make the trip a lot less stressful. If you're heading to Asia yourself, you'll find these tips invaluable. If you'll be in Hong Kong on the 26th, you're free to join us in a meetup we're doing in the evening. Send us an email to support@ecomcrew.com to let us know you're coming. Thanks for listening! Until the next one, happy selling.

As ecommerce sellers we ultimately want to be seen. That's why we spend ungodly chunks of money on Amazon PPC, Facebook ads, and Google Adwords and Shopping. But what happens if those paid traffic channels become unavailable? Christian Gravel of Grower Scrog Nets is facing this problem. He has developed a product that helps people grow good cannabis more easily in their homes, and with more states legalizing cannabis, it seems like a viable product. However, marketing for products in this niche is very challenging as there's not exactly a Facebook audience fit for it. On top of that, ad platforms like Facebook and Youtube regulate ads for this niche very heavily. Building authority in his niche is essential if he wants to be seen, especially since paid ads is not an option. In this episode Christian and I discuss how to most effectively do this. You'll learn: How to get people to spread the word for you What the ultimate purpose of every blog post should be How to practice writing overwhelmingly great content The 6 essential parts of a great blog post Christian and first I met when he joined the 5 Minute Pitch. Watch his entire pitch here. Thanks for listening! Until the next one, happy selling.

When Shakil Prasla graduated with an MBA and had no idea what to do next, he decided to venture into the world of ecommerce. He bought his first business for $52,000 and made the money back in 6 months. Fast forward to today - he has bought a total of 12 businesses under Pro Click Ventures, with his latest purchase being worth $3 million. In this episode you'll learn: How to get financing when buying ecommerce businesses How to earn a seller's trust and get seller financing What to look for when buying a business The importance of being like a detective when doing due diligence How to hire a CEO to manage the day to day activities of the business The best way to handle the transition from the old owner How to handle cash flow while servicing the debt financing and paying the CEO Incentives to get the CEO to stay Tips for buying ecommerce businesses Shakil is still buying more businesses and looking for CEOs to manage them. If you want to reach out to him, you can email him at shakil@proclickventures.com. Thanks for listening to this episode! Until the next one, happy selling.

To recap for those of you who missed Episode 222, we're launching a brand-new segment called EcomCrew Roadshow where we help ecommerce entrepreneurs come up with a plan to take their businesses to the next level. The premise is we will come to your city, spend a couple of days with you at your office, go over your business, review things, and come up with a plan to grow your business. This episode is a preview of my sessions with first-ever Roadshow participant, Lance Robinson of Wall Charmers. It's a fun sneak peek of what the EcomCrew Roadshow is all about. If you ever want to become a participant, just fill out the form here to let us know. See you on the road!

When we made the move from affiliate marketing to selling our own physical products years ago, we realized in a kind of baptism-by-fire way how starkly different the two business models are. Mike Higman, owner of HuntingGearDeals.com, is trying to make the same shift. In this episode, he and I talk about the 3 things he needs to carefully consider to make sure he is prepared to take his business to the next level: cash flow, products to sell, and content strategy. You'll learn: Why cash flow is the enemy of a physical products business How to find the perfect product to sell by leveraging information from your affiliate marketing website The best way to rank your website on Google How to gather content from true fans of your product Why you need to be careful about spending tons of money on web development Mike and I met when he signed up for 5 Minute Pitch. Check out his story and pitch. Resources mentioned: E184: Dealing with Cash Flow 5 Minute Pitch Thanks for listening! Until the next one, happy selling.