Welcome to the jungle! If you've been thinking about becoming an eCommerce entrepreneur for a while now, but you aren't sure exactly how to get your business up and running, take heart. There are resources and supports out there to help you launch, including market research tools and even marketplaces that connect Amazon sellers with shoppers looking for deals. Greg Mercer escaped the corporate world through eCommerce five years ago. But he didn't like the guesswork involved in choosing products to sell on Amazon. An engineer by trade, Greg began designing software that provided the data he craved, allowing him to make decisions based on the numbers rather than instinct. Today, Greg walks us through the process of launching a new product on Amazon, explaining how to leverage his software platforms, Jungle Scout and Jump Send, to 1) select the right products, and 2) land those crucial initial sales. Greg also reveals why differentiation is critical to success on Amazon today and discusses the online tools available to eCommerce entrepreneurs for managing their businesses and maximizing profit. Listen in to get the tools you need to eliminate analysis paralysis, list your first product on Amazon, and launch a successful eCommerce enterprise!

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our … email marketing campaigns? As eCommerce entrepreneurs, we get the importance of building an email list and regularly implementing email marketing to promote our products. But how do we talk potential customers into providing us with their email addresses? And what exactly do we say in a series of emails that will turn subscribers into loyal customers? Zach Miller has worked in the online marketing space for over a decade, but it wasn't until he discovered the magic of the sales funnel that Zach understood just how much online entrepreneurs could expand their audience and boost conversions via email marketing. Today Zach explains the sales funnel concept, walking us through the best email campaign to employ for freebie subscribers versus buyers. He offers advice around the right voice to use in email marketing and how often to communicate with customers. We cover the role emotion plays in making a purchase, how the Soap Opera Sequence can help us hook potential customers, and the best tools and templates available to support us in creating sales funnels of our own. Listen in for Zach's insight about using the success hack to thrive from the get-go and learn how he helped a client go from profits of $2K/month to as much as $15K!

If you rush into Google AdWords, you are likely to end up paying the Google Stupidity Tax. Though the process seems easy, it's not as simple as signing up and waiting for the money to pour in. Google AdWords is a 'beast of a piece of software,' and today's guest admittedly got swallowed up by its complexity and spent a lot of money before he figured out what worked. In 2004, Phil Adair and his wife opened a quirky children's salon in Sydney, Australia, and Phil went all-in on Google AdWords in an effort to drive traffic to the salon's website. He spent a significant amount of cash, but saw little return on investment. Frustrated by his failure, Phil started devouring all the Google AdWords resources he could find. He read books and experimented with landing pages, and soon he got the hang of it. Now he serves as an online marketing strategist, sharing his expertise and understanding of small business to help clients avoid the mistakes he made. Today Phil outlines the benefit of Google AdWords, explaining how paid ads boost your rankings in search results and allow you to control the user experience on your site. He offers a step-by-step process for designing landing pages and discusses the importance of tweaking your ad copy on a regular basis. Listen in for Phil's insight around leveraging video content to promote your business and learn how a YouTube channel can connect you with potential customers!

Branding is an investment—an investment that leads to more conversions over time. But how do you go about branding your online enterprise? How can you leverage your story to create brand awareness and drive sales? And what are the advantages of pursuing the new Amazon Brand Registry? The branding you create for your eCommerce business is what separates you from the pack, the symbol or word that consumers recognize and associate with your products. And if you're doing it right, your brand is connected with a feeling of quality and good service. It is, of course, much easier to convert customers once they have a positive impression of your brand and a sense of trust in your merchandise. Today I'm sharing my notes from the Amazon branding workshop at the Boost with FBA Conference in New York City this past summer, explaining the four ways to establish a connection with customers, the significance of providing a consistent brand experience, and the best way to communicate your brand story. Listen in to understand the process of getting a trademark and the tools available to you through the Amazon Brand Registry program!

Raise your hand if you're ever had a frustrating online shopping experience. I'm confident that each and every one of you has given up in the middle of an online purchase because the next step in the process was impossible to find, the site itself was too cluttered, or the checkout process involved signing up for yet another online account. In the world of eCommerce, your website functions as your storefront. The way you present yourself there can make all the difference between converting a sale or driving the customer to another site. Matt Isherwood is a UX design consultant out of London. He works with eCommerce startups and growing companies, using evidence-based processes to research and design websites that convert. He has been working in the space since 2008, serving on the design teams for the BBC World Service and One Fine Stay, a high-end vacation rental platform, before establishing his own firm, Mattish Design Limited. How does Matt approach his work with eCommerce clients? And what can we learn from his expertise in user-centered design? Today, Matt explains how to establish your brand, convert your target audience, and design your site in a way that works for both mobile and desktop users. He offers up some great tools and resources to help you conduct user tests that will identify what works and what doesn't. Listen in for Matt's advice around facilitating a smooth user journey on your eCommerce site—a journey that ends with a successful purchase!

Imagine turning a $600 investment into a thriving $1.7M eCommerce enterprise—in just four years! Taiwanese immigrant Ellen Lin accomplished just that. After getting laid off from her job as a video game developer, she joined forces with her father to start an online business in 2011. By 2015, they had scaled the business to enjoy seven-figure profits. Now Ellen runs a coaching and consulting firm on top of her eCommerce business, teaching others the formula she used to build a wildly successful online store. A sought-after speaker and author, Ellen has inspired 350-plus students in 12 countries to build and scale successful eCommerce businesses of their own. So how did she do it? Today Ellen shares her systems around designing product listings, establishing brand exposure and taking advantage of social media.  She explains the benefits of listing on multiple platforms and how to leverage software to simplify the process. Ellen walks us through the Amazon Vendor Express application process, discussing the benefits of participating in the program. Best of all, she has advice about getting started with very little capital. Listen in and get inspired by Ellen's eCommerce success!

Time to set annual goals for 2018!

The new year presents a perfect opportunity to set the goals you would like to realize in the next twelve months, the goals that will ultimately change your life.

If you have been thinking about online entrepreneurship, now is the time to flesh out your short- and long-term goals for the coming year.

Sit down with me for Fireside Chat #2 to work through the details of goal-setting, from designing SMART goals that will inspire you to achieve to carving out the time to work on your eCommerce business. Let's work together and get you on the road to financial security through online entrepreneurship!

It is the most wonderful time of the year, especially if you're an eCommerce entrepreneur!

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the weeks leading up to Christmas provide an opportunity for those of us with online businesses to maximize sales as consumers look for gifts on Amazon and other shopping sites.

So what can you do to stand out, attracting customers and maximizing profits during this high-volume holiday sales season?

Listen in to my first Holiday Fireside Chat where I share my top ten last-minute tips around preparing for a successful Q4. Learn how to attract consumers who are looking for a deal, develop an email marketing campaign for your current customers, and create a sense of urgency that motivates shoppers to buy—and buy now!

As eCommerce entrepreneurs, we all know that China is the best place to manufacture products affordably for sale on Amazon. But you may not know how to navigate the cultural differences between the East and the West, or how to communicate effectively with manufacturers 8,000 miles away.

Sam Boyd is the perfect candidate to bridge the gap between American entrepreneurs and Chinese factories. Sam earned his degree in East Asian Studies from Salisbury University and moved to China to continue studying the language. He quickly realized China's huge potential in global manufacturing and after learning the ropes of international trade, Sam founded Guided Imports.

Based in Shenzhen, Guided Imports makes manufacturing from China simple for small- and medium-sized businesses by managing all aspects of the process on their behalf. Today he shares his company's approach, explaining what sets them apart from traditional sourcing companies. He offers his best advice around communicating with Chinese suppliers and building positive relationships with manufacturers overseas. Listen in as Sam offers information about quality control, how to solicit the help of a third-party inspector, and when it's valuable to make the trip to China yourself.

Neil Patel spent all his money paying a marketing firm to promote his online business, with no results. So he decided to figure it out on his own—and did he ever!

Today he brings half a million dollars' worth of free traffic to his blog through content marketing and serves as a digital marketing specialist, helping companies develop a strategy for driving traffic to their sites and achieve their digital marketing goals.

On this episode of The Online Rich, Neil shares his best advice around generating free traffic, how to make use of analytics tools to refine your digital marketing strategy, and when to make use of paid traffic if you choose to go that route.

Listen in to understand all of the different approaches to digital marketing and how they work together to grow an audience. Want to convert those visitors into customers? Neil will tell you how!