The FASTEST Way to become a Shopify Developer - The Ultimate Shopify Developer Roadmap

all right, fastest way to become a Shopify developer in 2022. this time we're going to be focusing on the three stages of going from zero to your first few thousands in projects, then how you can get to a consistent 10K per month, and how you can take it from there if you want to scale this into an agency or service business doing a million per year or more in Revenue. so the stakes are high. and if you're new here, my name is Jan. I personally went for mechanical engineering to freelancing and also worked as a developer in Germany's fastest growing Shopify Agency for about two years, and nowadays we're running a boot camp where we have our students Master these first two stages all day long, five days a week. so I honestly think the following roadmap is going to be really good and it can save you a bunch of time by just avoiding the same mistakes that I did. and if you would still like to get some more personal guidance after this video, then there's going to be a link in the description gets you to a type form you can answer a few questions about yourself and then I will just send you an email telling you exactly what I'd be doing or what I'd be focusing on. if it wasn't, your situation sounds good, awesome, so then let's have a look. alright, so then stage one: you're starting from absolute scratch and you know nothing about coding yet, but you want to make the first few thousands in projects. the few things I'll be focusing on here would be: a, learning the tiknical Basics, and we'll go over these here in a second. then, after that, b, immediately start applying for the first simple project, the projects at your level of comfort- and yes, they exist, just got to know where to look for them. and then, C, you want to do it fast because, yeah, first of all, none of us have unlimited motivation, So the faster you can build up some momentum, get your first results, hear great feedback, see the websites you're building, the better, because it just drastikally reduces your chances of quitting. and then, yeah, second, I mean, obviously it's also important to get paid, because we all need income to survive. but, especially in the beginning, the highest leverage you have, or the most valuable thing you have really is your time, and the sooner you're able to go full time in on this, like on your own schedule, doing work you truly enjoy with your undivided attention, that's when your learnings and your income as a developer gets to a much higher level for the very first time, and there's a different important thing on each of the stages, but for the first one, yeah, it's definitely your time and undivided attention. So the faster we get there, the better. okay, now, in terms of the tiknical skills, my recommendation would be to start with HTML and CSS, and you don't have to be a Master with this, but up to a point where you understand how a website is structured, maybe you can build a small section or a small landing page. you know how to create a layout, you know how to arrange containers, so very foundational things like that. the next thing I would then learn is how to work with a platform, and if we're toking Shopify development, obviously that's going to be Shopify, but the reason here is very simple, because if you compare a completely custom built website where, like 100 is custom code, everything is built from scratch- with the Shopify based website, you will find that 60 is already taken care of by the platform. so these are things that every online store needs: things like payments, customer accounts, login systems, security card system, things like that. another 20 can then be custom configured. these are things like products collections, setting up a theme, setting up shipping zones, things that have to be adjusted on a per client basis. encoding is only needed for these last 20, so these are things that are not included per default or if you want to make some very Custom Design changes. but the main benefit here is that you don't have to learn all of programming at once. you can just focus on that tiny bit which is required for these 20, and I think a solid understanding of HTML and CSS will already get you quite far beyond that. I also still think eCommerce is a great Niche to get started with, because, for example, if you build an online store, you do some work, your client sells more of their products, they make money and therefore your services are directly valuable to them, and it's always a good thing if the value you create can be measured to some capacity, because then it's also easier to charge adequate prices in return. alright, so that's it for the tiknical side of things. and now, how do you go about applying for the first simple projects? first of all, I think you should build yourself a portfolio website, so this is where you present yourself as a freelancer. you present the skills you have as well as the services you want to offer. and here are also some tips: ideally have a video or at least a photo of yourself, just to be more relatable. main call to action should be to get in touch. I have a contact form, State the services you want to offer and then also ideally have some demo projects related to the services you want to offer. yeah, please don't put your- here's my JavaScript calculator kind of thing on the website. your clients don't want a calculator, I'm sure they have one. so, yeah, should be e-commerce related, and if you've spent the last few weeks learning, I'm sure you have a few things, and if not, you could even build some projects specifically with that intent and then just replace them over time with real world work that you do. okay, now with that in place, we also need to find a way to get in touch with potential clients, and there are different strategies depending on your personality. so, for example, you could start on your personal Network and ask friends and family, or even post your portfolio page on your socials, because maybe you already have a friend who might need your help. that would be the easiest. you could also look for e-commerce or Shopify related meetups in your city. just go there, tok to some merchants in person and also grab the free snacks, so there's every reason to go there. you could start answering questions on Facebook groups or on the forum for free and the next thing you know is people will ask you for follow-up projects. I think answering for free also takes off the edge a bit, because no one expect perfect quality if it's for free, but you would still get a feeling for the feedback you get and then thereby build your confidence. you can also try to use freelancing Platforms. in the beginning, I would recommend upwork. if you have a professional looking profile there and you also communicate well, that's a very predictable way of getting your first clients. or you can also do some direct Outreach to business owners with maybe very outdated websites and then propose to help them with a remake. so I would recommend you just pick the one or two that you like best and then stik with them, and in the process you will learn so much about sales and marketing, how to present yourself, how to communicate, how to write emails, what to say on a call, how to price your projects, and in the beginning you will also- yeah, it's very likely that you will under bid some jobs, but that's perfectly cool because you're still learning, but now it's at least paid learning Hands-On on the job instead of just memorizing things. alright, now, what I've seen- counters of times now- is that when people get to the 3K per month Mark, they tend to get stuck. and now the question becomes: yeah, how can we surpass that? how can we get to the next stage? how can we get to a consistent 10K per month? and earlier, when we toked about how, in the beginning, time is the most valuable thing you have, because it's kind of proportional: the more time you put in, the more you learn, the more you make. um, now it's a different story because, yeah, unfortunately we can't just repeat that process forever. you can't always put in 10 times more work and then get 10 times the results. you will, you will run out of time.

How to hire a Shopify Expert from your Admin Panel

what's up? everyone edwin here, from resolutions design, back at it again. it's been a while, actually, uh. so, for those of you guys that have been antikipating for the uh, for my latest videos, we got something very nice coming up very soon. so, for those who are new, please don't forget to turn on that notification. uh, there's something very, very good coming up, uh, in the next few weeks or days, rather, and let's just get right to it. so what are we toking about today? what we're toking about is how do we hire a shopify expert from within your shopify store? uh, i'm sure a lot of you guys. when you build your website, eventually, you guys eventually get stuck. eventually. i said that too many times and sometimes you just need help. you need a few tweaks, you need to adjust something, or you know you put stuff together or even follow my tutorials, whatever the case may be, and you feel like, hey, you know what? life is just too complicated right now. i got a family, i got a job, i got this, i got that. i really want to launch my store, but i'm not going fast enough or i don't feel like my website looks nice enough in order for me to compete against the saturated market that exists out there. so you're probably watching this video for that, and that's the purpose of this tutorial. the only thing that i ask for is just a demolish like. really just hit it hard with your keyboard or something. go with your mouse and hit that blue like button super hard and the subscribe button and, uh, i'll be your guide to always train you on anything related to shopify. okay, so this is pretty simple, but this is just in case if you don't know how to do this. so go ahead and log in into your shopify store. you're going to notike that you're in the back end here and what you're going to do is that you're going to look for your name on the upper right hand corner. so you see, right here, here we go. i'm going to click on this and from here, this drag down button, we're going to notike that we have a button that says hire a shopify expert. so we're going to go ahead and click on that and next, you know, we might get sent to like: um, how do you call it? a questionnaire, rather, connect you into the world of shopify expert. this is what it looks like. let me go ahead and zoom in here real quick. so make sure that all of you guys can see all of this. okay, all right. so basically, again, the purpose of this is so that you could hire someone for many different reasons. it doesn't just have to be specifically for the web dev. but here we go. we have this, uh, active, or we can create a job. you might have it active. so these are any jobs that are open, closed, archived, whatever, but you could go ahead and create a job. so click on this one right here and you could see hire shopify expert and look at all the different services. let me go ahead and try to explain what a lot of this stuff means, but, mind you, shopify is always improving this page. so if you're looking at this at a later date and you see something just a bit different, just remember that shopify is always updating this interface to make sure that they give you the best experience so that you can find the right person for you. okay, so whoever that could help you, right? okay, so here we go. what types of services from very high end? what are we looking for? are you looking for marketing and sales, a store set up, development and troubleshooting, visual and branding, content writing, expert advice? this is my opinion about this thing here. i'll be very honest with you, listen. so i feel that the way that this list here- obviously it's not alphabetikal order- shopify felt that marketing and sales should be the first thing, because a lot of people have trouble with that, right, uh? but in all honesty, based on a lot of people who come into the shopify expert marketplace, i don't think that marketing and sales is the number one, primary reason as to why people come here. i feel that store setup, or starting from the beginning, is one of the most highest requests that people come into this, uh, into the site. so we're gonna click on here. i'm not gonna dive into what i believe, right? so let's just go into store setup. to give you an example as to what this could look like, and from here you notike that you have different options to choose from. uh, the store builder redesign: are you migrating from another platform over to shopify? do you need help with product and collection setup? is there something like a theme customization that you need, perhaps some custom visual elements such as buttons, banners and visual effects? store setting: back-end configuration. so this has to do with everything on the back end. um, you know, i also have videos about how to set up your shipping. so if you haven't seen that video, go ahead and check it out. guys, um, payment settings, custom urls, etc. that's what this is. do you need help with pos integration? pos is that, uh, you know, if you have a brick and mortar store and you want to charge people, uh, because you have an event or something like that, that's what a pos system? okay, and then set up and design guidance. so i'm guessing, right here, this store setup and design guidance. this is more like, just, you know, very simple, maybe a consultation or something of that sort. but i'll tell you what a lot of people choose. so a lot of people choose this right here: store build or redesign. a lot of people choose this. so once they choose this here comes into the um, the other aspect of you know the page for setting this whole thing up. sorry, all right. so what type of solution are you looking for? do you want a basic store setup with minimum theme tweaks or do you want a full custom setup which includes theme customizations, visual designs and non-standard features? uh, do you want to allow people to buy products from an existing website or blog? all right. so this right here. i you know, at this point of the video, i mentioned to the team at shopify that this confuses a lot of people. uh, we get a lot of inquiries from the shopify expert marketplace and you'll be surprised how many people click on this without really understanding what they're clicking. and then they put their their issue. they say, look, i'm looking for someone to build me something x, y, z, all that stuff right, but they don't realize what it is that they're asking. right, right here. the real way to interpret this is: it's a full custom setup. what this means is that it's something built from scratch, something that does not look like a theme, right, even though it says including theme customizations. be very honest with you: including theme customizations, personally, to me, is a basic store setup with theme tweaks. that's what it is, because it's a theme, right. you're, you're setting up a basic store setup but then you're altering it with theme tweaks. but a full custom setup. that's when you want everything from scratch. that's when you're just like: look, let's go to the drawing board. i want my website to look nothing like the typical shopify themes that are out there. uh, how many of you guys listening to this video, watching this video? how many of you guys in the comments express what you think about this? like that, those shopify themes that you see, sometimes they all kind of look the same. if you feel that a lot of those themes look the same, please let me know down in the comments: what is it about those themes in shopify that makes you feel that they all look the same? because at times i do agree with you if you feel that way and that's why we definitely favor fully custom setups. so let me know what you think about that. or are you one of those that thinks, hey, it doesn't matter if it's a shopify theme or custom setup, as long as it's a good looking store really doesn't matter to me? let me know down in the comments on that as how you feel. but anyways, you would select one of these, right? uh, what store setup tasks do you need? done? right, and a lot of people they just look at this and they're like everything, i need the whole thing. right, there should be a button that says i need everything, or a checkbox, rather than you clic.

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Why Hire a Shopify Expert

hi, this is kevin king with pinehurst websites, and today i'm going to tok about Shopify experts and what they can do for you. so I just did a google search here and you've got Shopify experts and you can see the site links on Google. you've got your setup experts, your marketers, your designers, your developers. those are the most popular ones. but if you go into experts on Shopify, you can pick your category or you can just browse right here under each category. so you've even got photographers that can help you with images, IMO under setup experts and marketers. and I have a retail store. I also have three Shopify websites and one of them is for retail ones, for wholesale ones, for my web business, painters websites- so I've been selling on Amazon and eBay for a number of years, as well as our own website, and Shopify is by far the simplest platform to work on. but there are things that can be optimized within Shopify to really give you a boost in traffic and to help you integrate all your different sales channels. so having an expert can help you define the best tools for marketing. also to find the best ways to set up your products so that they're optimized for SEO, for example. if we were to do a search on a coral starfish bracelet. I just did a search in Google and you would want to come up on the front page. so you would want something where your products from your website- this is our retail website- will come up on the front page under the image search, for instance, and that's part of it is that it is optimized with all the the right tags that you want within Shopify. Shopify does a lot of it for you, but there's a small learning curve. it's certainly easier than any other platform to learn, but I think with expert guidance, it can really speed you along the path. also, you know one of the things. as far as SEO goes, I think it's important how you structure your blog. that's one of the best ways to be found within a web search. we've got some buy buttons on some of our items within our blogs and it just helps you to optimize your site much quicker by having a little bit of expert guidance. all of the information is out there and can be found, but knowing what to do, what's necessary to do on your website, what you need to look at, that's where an expert can speed you up, whether it's a marketing or designing your site or choosing the correct theme that is really optimized for search. not all themes in Shopify are created equal, so choosing the correct theme from the theme store can really give you a boost in SEO as well. also, structuring and choosing the right tools or apps that you want to incorporate into your store. an expert can help you with that as well, because there are a lot of apps to choose from and you have to find one that suits your partikular market. so those are some of the things that an expert can do for you, and I recommend that if you do need help with an expert, go through. check out their profile, check out the testimonials and find out what that expert can do for you. check out their website. on my website, as an added benefit, I also have helpful links for Shopify as well as my reviews on sites that I've done, and also I have a very helpful thing for Shopify. these are tutorials. a lot of them are video tutorials, and I also have an index so that you can find exactly what you're looking for. and these are tutorials that oftentimes I've done for my customers, and I'll create a video so they'll go back and they can refer to something, but I have that available to everyone so they can go through and do simple things on their website, like if you want to add a map to your website, for instance, or if you want to know how to do drop-down menus or smart collections on your websites. I have tutorials, I have artikles on SEO and all things that can help you, but you can definitely speed up the process by going through and finding the right expert for you. so check out Shopify experts. you can also check out pinehearst websites, because we are Shopify expert. thanks for tuning in to pinehearst websites. hope this was helpful for you.

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Why and How to Hire Shopify Experts, Developers or Agencies

hello everyone. are you running a business on Shopify and looking for Shopify experts? if you're looking to hire a Shopify expert, developer or freelancer, in this video I will give some tips to find the right person for your project. one: Define your needs. before you start your search for a Shopify experts, it's important to take some time to think about your specific needs. what exactly do you need help with? are you looking for someone to build a custom theme or create a custom app? do you need someone to help with a setup and configuration of your store, or are you simply looking for someone to provide ongoing maintenance and support? once you've identified your needs, you'll be in a better position to find the right person for the job. two: consider your budgets. how much are you willing to spend on a Shopify expert? this will be a key factor in determining who you're able to hire. Shopify experts can charge anywhere from thirty dollars to two hundred dollars per hour, so it's important to have a budget in mind before starting your search. three: check out job boards. there are a number of job boards that list Shopify expert jobs, including upwork, Fiverr, freelancer, people per hour and Shop a buffet. I prefer to work with an agency like shop of a vape, because they are more reliable, trustworthy and produce higher quality work than an independent freelancer shop a buffet. a Shopify service provider agency helped more than 10 000 online stores to build their successful Shopify store. they have 72 hours of full store setup, regular maintenance services and other development services. 4. post a job on shopify's Expert Marketplace. Shopify has an expert marketplace where businesses can post jobs and find Shopify experts to work with. this is a great option if you're looking for someone with specific Shopify expertise. 5. ask for referrals. if you know someone who has worked with a Shopify expert in the past, ask for a referral. this can be a great way to find a qualified candidate for your project. 6. conduct interviews. once you've compiled a list of potential candidates, it's time to start conducting interviews. during the interview process, be sure to ask each candidate about their experience with Shopify, as well as their availability and rates. this will help you narrow down your list to the candidate that's the best fit for your needs. 7. make your hire. after conducting interviews and reviewing proposals, it's time to make your final decision and hire a Shopify expert. once you've made your hire, be sure to provide clear instructions and expectations for the project. this will help ensure that your expert is able to deliver the results you're looking for. hiring a Shopify expert can be a great way to get help with building and managing your online store. when looking to hire someone with expert level skills in Shopify, there are a few key qualities you should look for. extensive experience with Shopify: the ideal candidate will have significant experience working with Shopify, both in terms of building and managing stores. an understanding of your business: the ideal candidate will take the time to understand your business goals and objectives. they should be able to provide insights and recommendations that will help you achieve your goals. a strong portfolio: the ideal candidate will have a strong portfolio of previous work, which will give you an idea of their skills and abilities. clear communication: the ideal candidate will be clear and concise in their communication. they should be able to explain complex Concepts in a way that's easy to understand. a positive attitude: the ideal candidate will have a positive attitude and be a pleasure to work with. they should be proactive and willing to go the extra mile to get the job done. flexible availability: the ideal candidate will be available when you need them. and flexible in terms of their schedule. affordable rates: the ideal candidate will offer competitive rates that fit within your budget. when looking for a Shopify expert, these are the qualities you should keep in mind. by finding a candidate that possesses these qualities, you'll be in a good position to get the results you're looking for. there are many benefits to working with the Shopify experts, including the ability to focus on other aspects of your business. when you have someone working on your store, it frees up your time to focus on other aspects of your business. increased sales: a well-designed and managed store can lead to increased sales. improved customer satisfaction: a well-run store can lead to improved customer satisfaction. a Competitive Edge: a well-designed store can give you a Competitive Edge over other businesses in your industry. these are just a few of the benefits you can enjoy by working with a Shopify expert. when you partner with the right person, they can help you take your business to the next level. there are pros and cons to both hiring a freelancer and an agency. when deciding which is right for you, it's important to consider your needs and budgets. hiring A freelancer is often the more affordable option, as they typically charge lower rates and agencies. however, Freelancers may not have the same amount of expertise or experience as an agency if they are incapacitated by sickness or any other cause, in the middle of your project you could be in trouble. by hiring an agency, you can be confident that they have the experience and expertise to get the job done right. additionally, agencies typically have a team of people working on your project, which can lead to faster results. ultimately, the decision of whether to hire a freelancer or an agency depends on your needs and budget. by carefully considering these factors, you'll be in a better position to make the right decision for your business. I hope this video will help you to hire Shopify experts, developers or Freelancers for your neck Shopify projects.

I Paid Fiverr $500 To Create a Shopify Store: LOOK AT WHAT I GOT (Shopify Dropshipping with Fiverr)

in this video for the second and last part of the fiverr shopify experiment. we're buying a shopify store fully built on fiverr for about 500. we'll see what we get, if it's worth to buy it and exactly what result we got from paying 500 bucks to a shopify designer on fiverr. let's go. hey, it's rafael cintron here. we did another video called product research on fiverr. seeing that experiment. it turned out pretty well. so now we're doing a shopify drop shipping store experiment on fiber, seeing what we get and seeing if it's a really reputable store that actually is worth the 500 bucks that i spent on here. if you don't know what fiverr is, it's just a marketplace where you can go and buy different kinds of services, just like here. for example, if you go to fiverr it says i will create converting shopify drop shipping store shopify website- pretty straightforward. the guy is george nick level two seller. i love picking level two sellers of a fiverr and this one in partikular, the basic one, which is the one that i picked. it's 495 for a store with seven pages and 15 products. then you have the standard 695 for 10 pages and 30 products and then you have the premium one: 9.95 for 10 pages and 50 products. prices a little bit steep: 995 for store build out. i've seen a lot cheaper, but in this case we're just stiking to the basic one, which is pretty good. i ordered the store originally on july 8th. it was finished around july 14, but it's important to note that i gave him the requirements on july 10 and it took about about three to four days to actually finish the store, so it was pretty quick that he got it done. the requirements that i submitted right here. what niche do you want for your shopify drop shipping store? as you can see, after i paid the 497, i got to write out the requirements, so i put family niche, home products. it looks like this one, so i put a store that i wanted it to look like. do you prefer any special themes- prestige, if possible, if not booster- and have you selected a name for the store? marisol, this is my mom's name. i put that name there. do you have any other questions regarding the shopify store? are you going to find the products or you need me to send you the list of products? so what i did was i actually took the product list that i got from the product researcher on fiverr, gave it to this guy and then he got the store. are you ready to see the store in action? let's go marisolhomecom, marisol home, you can see here, have that amazing home comfort. we're just gonna go through the store. the store itself, the home page looks really, really well built out. best sellers here, products create the perfect home atmosphere. and then we're going to click on shop now see what we got there- 15 products at, as he promised. and then let's go to one of the product pages. this design in general is very, very professional. i like the way that he structured the pages. i like the look of the theme that he got. let's look at the aroma humidifier. the only problem that i don't like about building a store here is you have to be very clear about what you want out of the store. for example, i asked them: can you do a couple of product pages and actually get the product page made? those were actually extra cost. so, apart from the 500 that you pay from the store, you need to pay extra for the product pages, which is okay, it's just would be better if it's very, very clear on that. at the cart here he imported the products you also like. let's check the other products here. so overall the product pages, i mean they're not done, they're extra, but shopify unavailable, those gpas. so let's just ignore that. let's go to home collection here. pretty well built out, i mean, the store in general looks really good. it's just it's missing quite a lot because of the product pages and actual the products. but the collections itself- home, kitchen, cleaning, home products, home pitch- in general looks looks really nice. let's see what he did with uh. let's check the refund policy, privacy policies and so on. those are all properly made nice. let's look at the order tracking. see what he did on that. okay, so it's, uh, it's probably 17 track net. oh, shipway tracking. so shipway is an app that you can also use. there's also aftership. you can also integrate the apps directly to your shopify store. he integrated them already and then the contact us page here. so overall the store itself, it the first thing that you see is that it looks really, really good. the quality of the store is good, the homepage is very well built, but the products are all here. on the collections, let's say, home, kitchen and cleaning collection has four pages and then you go to the product page. so i would suggest, if you are getting a shopify store. be very clear to the person that you need the actual product pages built out, not just import it, which is going to take you a lot of time. so if we click on marisol home again for 500 bucks, it's. it's quite good that i got the store as professionally done as it is right here. the theme is very professional. the look of the homepage is really good. i would prefer if you can do the product pages as well, but i really like the store that he built it out. let's look at the cleaning products. see the collection here and in general, i mean the store looks amazing. it's just adding on the product description, making sure the product page is well built out, and that would be. it would make it perfect. free shipping on all orders over 50.. i like what he did with the top line here. whereas multiple messages at the same time, hassle-free returns, so that's pretty cool. it changes every couple of seconds. that's pretty clever. the heated logo as well logo looks really good. and then let's try to click on add to cart on one of these add to cart. okay, the card is a pull out, it looks really good. check out, and then it just goes to the checkout page here. yeah, and that's pretty much it. the checkout looks also pretty good. i like what he did with the two colors here. it makes a nice contrast when you're going to the checkout page. really quick note, i just want to congratulate savage sash from australia for winning our zero to 60k per month case study that i did with my student ryan. we go through the products, the ads and everything that he did to get to that point. all you got to do to win that case study or to partikipate in the giveaway is to comment down below your country or your city, where you're from, where a global community. i want to connect us all, country or city down below, subscribe, hit that notification bell and that like button and i'll pick a winner from this video. if you want to find somebody like this, all you got to do is do shopify store building or shopify store build out and we can click on search on fiverrcom and there's a lot of people that build shopify stores on this platform- so many, there's probably more than a thousand people. it says: i will build out a shopify store. i'll build shopify store- automated shopify store. i'll build a seven-figure shopify store- customized shopify store. what i would recommend is to do the seller details here, and i would do top rated seller and level two sellers, not new sellers. if you're looking for somebody to actually build you a store, you want it to look really good, not just a a random template that somebody put on your store. apply to that. let's look at that. i'll build a high converting. let's look at the delivery time as well. some of these can take up to 10 to 15 days. so if you're looking for a store done, make sure that you want it in the time frame that you want, not three days, seven days- but you have to actually pick which one you want. so let's say i want it up to seven days and then i want to do service options, shopify as well. and if you want to do drop shipping exclusively or you want something to be done specifically for drop shipping or store that looks for your drop shipping- although if you want the store to actually be very converting, you don't want it to look like other drop shipping stores, so i'll leave that out- apply and then the category you

Wish I knew THIS before starting my Shopify store

hey, my name is Elle and I've been listed as a Shopify expert since 2013.. and in that time, I've built over 175 different Shopify stores and Counting for myself and my clients. the last nine years have just completely flown by, for whenever I was first selling my products at local flea markets to launching my very first Shopify store, let's just say there's been a lot of mistakes made along the way, and if I was just now starting a Shopify store or e-commerce store in general right now, these are the things that I wish I had known. first off, you need a traffic strategy, because build it and they will come is totally 2 000.. you need to have a plan in place of exactly who your ideal customer is and how you're going to be getting them to come to your online store. you need to know where they're hanging out online. what kind of messaging is going to resonate with them to get them to come to your store, because without it, they're just not going to know that you exist, and that's obviously a problem. you've also got to think about how you can make your product more unique. so if you're selling things like coffee mugs, for example, what makes someone actually want to buy your coffee mug over all the other ones out there in the world because, let's face it, there's already so many designs out there, so is it the wording that's different? the design itself? or maybe the material? like this one has gold foil in it. what makes yours more unique and stand out in a crowded Marketplace? me personally, I love drinking coffee, and I have a full collection of coffee mugs that I love to choose from, fill up with coffee and then leave somewhere around the house and forget that I had made coffee in the first place. any other parents out here do that, or is it just me? please tell me, it's not just me. so, even though I have so many coffee mugs already, I still like purchasing them for myself and giving them as gifts, because they're meaning something to me and they're unique and different from all the other ones that I already have. what can you do differently with your product that stands apart from your competition? so then it makes people want to purchase it for themselves or purchase it as a gift. you really want to think about how you can stand out, no matter what Niche you're in, so that you can do things differently and separate yourself from your competition. foreign coffee. let's tok about something that I actually really hate doing for my business. you ready for it? it's social media. to be completely honest, if I didn't have a business, I wouldn't do social media at all. I'm a pretty private person, but I do have a business. I actually have two businesses, and doing social media is an essential part of having an online presence. you need to be showing up consistently online so that people know that you exist, that your products exist and that you're constantly sharing your news about your products, new offerings and how you can help your ideal customer. now, I'm not saying you have to be on social media every single day, posting, because that's a lot, but what I would focus on is choosing which platforms that your ideal customer is hanging out online and what platforms you actually want to post on as well. for me, I like YouTube. it works with my personality and my interest in video editing and cinematography, so it's not that hard for me to show up consistently on YouTube. however, Instagram not so much. I'm just not a fan and it's not really for me. so I'm always behind on a posting on Instagram, and that's okay, because I'm posting elsewhere online. so the key is to find out not only where your ideal customer is hanging out online, but where you want to be online as well, and what kind of content pieces work best for you, then just think of a consistent posting schedule so that you can show up, you know, one time a week, two times a week, whatever it is. you just want to be consistent. so create content that you consistently want to create. if you don't like creating the content, well, it's going to be a lot harder to show up online. let's be real. when we're toking about social media, let's tok about how it can feel like you're constantly on a treadmill, just always trying to put out new content and thinking of new ideas. it can be exhausting. so think about using social media differently to create some Evergreen pieces of content for yourself. for example, whenever you post on tik tok or Instagram or Facebook, it's got a shorter shelf life and it'll be seen for a couple days and then poof, it's gone forever. but if you post on different platforms like YouTube or Pinterest, or you do SEO for your site, those are great, Evergreen sources of traffic that can keep sending you traffic to your store on autopilot for years to come, and that's far better than constantly trying to just put out more content, more content and more content, because, believe me, that can get exhausting. oh gosh, oh no, I hate Mania. whoa. too close, too close. Okay, one of the next big tips is to know exactly who your ideal customer is, and I'm not just toking about the demographics of their age, their gender, where they're located, their education level. yeah, that can be somewhat helpful, especially when doing like ads targeting, if you want to narrow that down. but it's more important to know more about them themselves. what are their dreams, their hopes, their fears? where are they hanging out online? what kind of music do they like? are they in sync fans, Backstreet Boy fans? or do they have no idea who either of these two quality boy bands from the 90s are? because that's a little sad. but once you know this information, you can then tie it into your messaging so that you can have your product photos, your website copy all resonate with them and you can add in these little Snippets throughout, so that way, whenever they come across your brand online or look on your website, they instantly see those images or the website copy and they go. yeah, you know what that is me. I really could use this product. or, oh my gosh, this solves all of my big problems. you want to think through of exactly how you can pivot your copy and your images to speak directly to them. huh, do you see what I did there? friends frame, friend frame- my sister actually made this. nextly, you're going to have returns. it's just part of it. I used to take it as something against me personally or my products, but it's not that. it's just part of business, so don't make it about you get over it. yeah, that's not fitting. let's actually tok about shipping for a second. it can be a huge ongoing expense if you're selling physical products that you actually need to ship out to your customers, especially if you have products that are different sizes, come in different types of boxes or cylinders or whatever it is. you want to make sure that you have really prioritized figuring out what your actual shipping costs are, working with a carrier that you can get some bulk rates through, and making sure that you're not losing too much money on shipping or you can actually pass through some of those shipping costs to the customers by increasing the price a little bit. especially if you're doing free shipping on your store, make sure that you've tested out wherever your Warehouse is that you're shipping this from, or if you're shipping it from your home, what does it cost for you to send a product across the US versus in your local state? the shipping costs are definitely going to vary there, so make sure you know what the roundabout average cost is, especially if you're doing flat rate shipping or do carrier calculated shipping. it's the exact shipping cost in any needs to be, so that you're not losing money on shipping. honestly, you've really gotta think this through or you're gonna lose money pretty quick. okay, I had to tok about this at some point, and what better place than tip number eight, which is: don't forget to pay your taxes. I know it's a scary word and everybody hates paying them. however, if you don't pay them, it's gonna be far more scary. my friend, when owning a business, there's a cou.