In a previous post, I explained how I have moved to WordPress as the platform for my commercial products. I have received feedback from others with interest in using WordPress for the same purpose. Many of the inquiries have come from people who have never had an online store. In this post, I’d like to share some thoughts for those starting their online stores for the first time using WordPress as their platform. The assumptions for this post are that:
- You want to make a living from your online sales, not just a hobby that brings in some additional money (although much of this still applies)
- You are establishing your first online store using WordPress
Hits != $$$
Many people looking to WordPress as their e-commerce platform do so because it blends the capability of selling with that of blogging. Blogging can be an effective means of promoting your product and should be a tool in any entrepreneur’s toolbox. WordPress’ flexibility with the multitude of free themes and plugins makes it perfect for blending the activities of promoting, selling, and supporting products. However, there is a fundamental difference between blogging (or promoting) and selling – the metric by which success is measured is not the same for both!
When blogging, you’re looking to build an audience. You want to see stats with lots of unique visitors, a high number of page views, and an rss feed with thousands (or tens of thousands) of subscribers. On an e-commerce site, promoting your product, that won’t pay the bills! You can try to sell ad space, but that can dilute your message, detract from your product, and confuse your potential customers.
Hits Are Not Equal To Sales
When selling through a WordPress platform, the metric used to measure success is the same as every other business; money. You can talk all you want about hits, visitors, page views, and conversion rates, but only the latter matters. You may be capable of presenting an online store front for basically no cost through free WordPress themes and plugins, but you still must pay for Internet access and bandwidth, domain names, hosting (be it self where you pay for electricity, hardware, licenses, etc. or remote), etc. The bottom line truly is the bottom line – revenue derived from your sales is the only thing that counts. It alone will keep you from eating buttered macaroni.
The advice here is to pay more attention to your prospective customer base than your fan base. The trick here is to know when you’re moving fans to customers and not simply educating the world (which isn’t a bad thing, but also isn’t your goal here). The information you need will be in your website access logs and that will require you to do more than install the WordPress stats plugin. Woopra has a sexy interface, but you may need to go even deeper. If your site is hosted, see if AWStats or any other analytical tool is available to you. You will also need to gather information from your visitors in the form of polls, forms, etc. If visitors aren’t buying, you need to figure out why – as fast as you can. Blogging more may actually hurt more at that point by adding to the confusion. If your hits (page views or visitors) are high but your sales are low, stop doing what you’re doing. Listen to your stats and your visitors, then refine your approach until the $$$ are soaring as much as the hits!
WordPress != Guaranteed E-commerce Success
There is no magical combination of theme + plugins that will guarantee the success of your online store. You must market and sell your product. It’s hard work! You will need to be flexible, try new plugins, perhaps change up your theme. After six months of using the default WPRemix Home Page #1 template, I just changed up the format by introducing the NextGEN Gallery plugin and a slideshow on the home page. I’ve gone from presenting a lot of information, to a far simpler home page. I have also changed up the plugins (and will write about the changes soon). Some of the changes were done because of security concerns, others because of a lack of support, and still others because they offered a solution to an emerging need.
The advice here is to be prepared to nurture your entire site, not just your blog. That takes time, effort and money (you do donate to the authors gracious enough to provide their themes and plugins, don’t you?!). While WordPress is a great platform for e-commerce, it’s just that – a platform. It’s up to you to put in the effort to make your store a living, growing concern. WordPress and the careful selection of plugins can work to make your efforts to earn your living from the Internet easier in many ways, but it doesn’t eliminate all the work. Come prepared to do what is necessary, make certain you have the time to contribute to the effort, use care in choosing your theme and in particular your plugins, and be flexible; listen to your prospective customers (separated from your fans), tweak your offering, rinse and repeat.
Go for it != Don’t quit your day job
I’m not one to tell people, “Go for it!” without the word of caution, “Don’t quit your day job yet!”. It is certainly possible to make a living offering the right services or products via the Internet, but the babies need food, Momma needs new shoes, and then there’s the cost of living. The advice here is to proceed with caution. Know your “tipping point” before you reach it.
At the End of the Day…
At the end of the day, when you have a chance to catch your breath, count your blessings not your money! Count your money during the “work day” – which leads me to a very important point; with the allure of global reach from your desktop, the ease of implementing WordPress, and the potential for riches, it’s very, very easy to lose track of time and your work-life balance. Don’t.
You should have several “tipping points”; the point at which it’s ok to slow down because the sales sustain the business, the point at which it’s ok to take the vacation – to be absent for more than a few hours or days, etc. At the end of the day, what matters most is your health and your relationship with others. Give it your best, then give it a rest!