WP eCommerce Show

In Episode 62, we move forward with our series on  Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate Programs, sponsored by Bluehost. In this second show, we bring in Pippin Williamson, who has three very popular eCommerce plugins for WordPress: Easy Digital Downloads, Restrict Content Pro and AffiliateWP. The focus on this show is on running an affiliate program on your WordPress site. Pippin has not only created a plugin that makes the technical side of this easy to do, but also runs affiliate programs on all of his plugin sites. He brings his deep experience to the table as he shares some great tips and insights if you are considering using your own WordPress site for your affiliate program.

We chatted about:

* What drove Pippin to create a plugin for affiliate programs

* What you should consider when choosing whether to run your program on your website or through an affiliate platform

* Three tips on how to effectively set up, run and manage your own affiliate program

* How to cultivate the right affiliate marketers

* The challenges you will face when running your own affiliate program

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Bluehost

Transcript

You can also download a pdf of the full transcript here: WordPress eCommerce Podcast Episode 62 March 27 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone, welcome back to the WP eCommerce show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today is the second show of our series, a look at affiliate programs and affiliate marketers, for this episode we are going to be talking about running your affiliate program on your WordPress site. Although I know a ton of WordPress vendors who could have shared their experience, I couldn’t think of anyone better than Pippin Williamson. Pippin not only has affiliate programs for all his WordPress products but he also brought us a popular WordPress plugin, AffiliateWP.

Hey Pippin, welcome to the show.

Pippin Williamson: Thanks for having me. It’s my pleasure.

Meet Pippin Williamson, Plugin Developer Extraordinaire

Bob Dunn: Now Pippin, you have an amazing history in the WordPress business community, I don’t know if you could possibly even encapsulate it into a brief into but can you let our readers who are not familiar with you know a little bit more about who you are and what you do?

Pippin Williamson: Sure. So my name is Pippin Williamson and I primarily run three products, I run an eCommerce plugin called Easy Digital Downloads, an affiliate marketing plugin called AffiliateWP and a membership plugin called Restrict Content Pro. All of these were originally built around a website called Pippin’s Plugins, which was my own personal kind of playground and plugin portfolio where I did plugin development stuff and sold my own products and I started building plugins for WordPress around five to ei...

Episode 61 is a revisit on a subject I talked about earlier last season. And that is choosing a theme for your WordPress eCommerce site. This time, I wanted to bring in someone experienced in the theme marketplace, and Chris Tuttle from MOJO Marketplace was the perfect fit. I know from experience how WordPress users, when choosing their theme, can get bogged down and lost in the thousands of them that are out there. In today’s show we give you some good tips and guidelines to help point you in the right direction.

We chatted about:

* The benefits of a theme marketplace vs. randomly searching on the internet for a theme

* If having a theme that is built to work specifically with an eCommerce plugin is an advantage

* What you should look for in a theme when building online courses and membership sites

* Why you should not ignore niche themes even if at first glance they don’t seem to fit your business

* Choosing a theme that is filled with options and features vs. a simpler theme

* The pros and cons of using a page builder on your eCommerce site

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Bluehost

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show:

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone and welcome back to the WP eCommerce Show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today we are talking about choosing your theme for your eCommerce site. Now I know from my own experience and working with others over the years, finding a theme is similar to going down a rabbit hole. And for the person just starting with WordPress and thinking of an online store, it can even be more daunting. In an earlier show in our last season I touched on this subject, but I felt it need to be revisited. It’s time to bring in someone experienced in the theme marketplace to chat with us. And that is Chris Tuttle, Training Manager at MOJO Marketplace. Hey Chris, welcome to the show.

Chris Tuttle: Hey Bob.

Bob: Before we get knee deep into themes, can you tell us a bit about MOJO Marketplace?

Chris: Absolutely. MOJO Marketplace is an awesome theme marketplace where professional developers can come and sell their WordPress Themes. We have an awesome audience, awesome community and we’re really excited to be a part of the WordPress community as well.

Bob: I know that it’s overwhelming and sometimes instead of people going to Google and to start searching, which I’ll be asking you a bit more about, they like having a marketplace where they can actually go through it all in one spot rather than going from site to site.

Benefits of using a theme marketplace

I’m going to start out by touching on the direct experience you’ve had with the marketplace. Can you tell me what advantages a new WordPress user would find when visiting a site such as MOJO Marketplace to find a theme versus randomly going online and starting with a Google search like, “Hey, I’m going to Google search ‘WordPress theme’?” What do you think?

Chris: When you come to the marketplace you have a lot of tools available to help you narrow your search down. Categories, tags, as well as the niche themes that are out there. You can even call and talk to somebody. We have specialists here that can help you work through finding the theme that’ll work for you. It’s super important to be able to have assurance when you’re looking for a theme that it’s going to maintain its updates, that there’s going to be continued support as well. Here at MOJO Marketplace, we offer awesome support for the themes.

In Episode 60, we start our series on Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate Programs, sponsored by Bluehost. In this show, I’m flying solo and sharing my own experience of using WooCommerce as part of my affiliate marketing. WooCommerce gives you the ability to easily create affiliates as products, but there is so much more that goes into planning, organizing and making those affiliates work. Listen as I tell you how we did it.

I talked about:

* What affiliate marketing is

* How to set up your affiliates using WooCommerce

* How to manage your affiliates effectively

* What has worked best for us in placing and using our affiliate links

* How we are using WooCommerce to sell some of our affiliate products

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Bluehost

Transcript

You can also download a pdf of the full transcript here: WordPress eCommerce Show Episode 60 March 20 2017

Hey everyone and welcome back to the WP eCommerce Show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today is a bit different from most of our shows as I am going to be flying solo on this one. Yes, I’m grabbing the mic for the entire podcast and I’ll be sharing my own thoughts on today’s topic. Which speaking of, this is the first of our 4-part series on both Affiliate Marketing and running an Affiliate program. Two of the four shows will be more focused on running an affiliate program. The other two shows, including today’s, is more on the affiliate marketing side of things. Two very different topics under one umbrella.

For those of you who are not familiar with what an affiliate is, well, let’s do this using an example. Let’s say I become an affiliate for Joe’s WordPress themes. Because of my relationship with Joe and his products, I am confident I can help him sell his themes. So I write a post about his theme. In it is a link to purchase the theme. If you decide to click through and buy it, I make a commission. It costs you no more to follow my link to purchase it. And that is that. Now I used a WordPress theme as an example, but there are affiliates in all industries. Heck, even in the credit card industry. And a lot of people make a very good living as affiliate marketers.

How to set up your affiliate products with WooCommerce

What I want to chat with you about today is how you can use WooCommerce as an affiliate marketer. In other words, how to make money from affiliates. First off, there are several things to think through on this. As you may know WooCommerce, technically, makes this very easy. When you create a product, you simply choose the Product Data that is labeled, External/Affiliate product. Once you have done that, you can create it like any other product, except that you will be putting in your affiliate link so when people go to the original site to purchase it it is tracked to make sure you get the commission on it. The other unique feature to this product type in WooCommerce is the ease of changing the button text. So instead of having it say “buy now” you might want to say, “buy on Joesthemes.com” or something like that. As you can see, the product creation in WooCommerce is pretty straightforward.

Install a good affiliate manager plugin

The second piece you will want to get in place is some kind of affiliate manager plugin. I use one called Thirsty Affiliates and actually have a post on how to use it with WooCommerce. The real benefit here is that it allows you to do a couple of things. One, to cloak your links, which means that instead of the extremely large link you might get from an affi...

Episode 59 takes us into the eCommerce platform Shopify. We had the chance to chat with Shopify expert Kurt Elster. His eCommerce Bootcamp gives Shopify store owners a proven method to boost traffic and conversions. Today, as a special treat, Kurt brings us some of the insights he shares in his bootcamp.

If you are selling online, no matter what platform or plugin you are using, you get some excellent tips in this show brought to you by our sponsor, Bluehost.

We chatted about:

* Why we shouldn’t try to sell to people

* Tips to help you optimize your store for conversions

* Some insights on what makes Facebook one of the best social platforms for promoting your online store

* Connecting your Shopify store with WordPress—and why it works

* One of Kurt’s favorite examples of a marketing strategy around a specific Shopify store

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Bluehost

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: WordPress eCommerce Show Episode 59 March 15 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the WP eCommerce Show. Bob Dunn, here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today we are going to shift things a bit and dive into the popular eCommerce platform, Shopify. But we aren’t talking the tech details. Instead, we are looking at two essential pieces that will make your Shopify store a success: traffic and conversions. Often, something many store owners struggle with this. So, to get us on the right track, I’m bringing in the big guns.

Kurt Elster is one of the two brains behind the eCommerce Bootcamp, which is a proven Shopify marketing process that any Shopify store owner can use to improve traffic and conversions. Kurt is also a Shopify expert and fellow podcaster. Hey, Kurt. Welcome to the show.

Kurt Elster: Thank you for having me. It’s my honor and pleasure.

Meet Kurt Elster, Shopify Expert

Bob Dunn: So, Kurt, I did cover a bit of who you are, but fill us in on the details for those who do not know you.

Kurt Elster: Sure. I quit my job in 2009 and tried to start my own eCommerce platform. Didn’t know what I didn’t know, and creating a SaaS is incredibly difficult. To keep the lights on, I started developing websites. That was seven years ago, and now, after the last two and a half years, we’ve worked exclusively on Shopify. We were one of the first Shopify Experts. Recently became the 85th Shopify Plus Expert.

Predominantly, we help Shopify store owners uncover hidden profits in their websites. It’s a lot of conversion-rate, revenue-optimization stuff. I like to work with entrepreneurs, fellow enthusiastic entrepreneurs. So, we’ve got folks from Shark Tank and Kickstarter and a lot of Amazon sellers. I just love selling stuff online. It was a thing we were good at. I’ve just made it my full-time job. I love what I do.

Bob Dunn: Very cool. What I want to do on today’s show is, you have this eCommerce Bootcamp, and I know it’s packed with information for the Shopify store owner, but to give them a taste of what they might get there, as well as helping them with their traffic and conversion, I’m going to see if I can pull out five tips from you Plus maybe a couple other goodies to help them with their stores. Sound like a deal, Kurt?

Kurt Elster: Sounds great, yeah. I think I can get you five or more.

Kurt’s eCommerce Bootcamp: download a free chapter

Episode 58 is our final show in a series on Starting Your WordPress Online Store, sponsored by Bluehost. In this show, we had the opportunity to talk with Marc Benzakein, who is not only very active in the WordPress community and owner of ServerPress.com, but a long-time photographer with tons of experience. Having worked in the field for many years and been involved with photographing products for his own online store in the past, he brings this wealth of knowledge to today’s episode and shares some fantastic tips on both hiring a photographer and being a better do-it-yourselfer.

We chatted about:

* What Marc finds as the biggest mistake retailers make with their product shots

* The top 2 or 3 tips for the do-it-yourselfer photographer

* What to look for when hiring a photographer to do your product shots

* Creating your own images or using vendor-supplied photos

* How to make sure your images are optimized for both the web and your online store

* Marc’s thoughts on the benefits you have with today’s technology and the workflow when working with digital images

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Bluehost

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: WordPress eCommerce Show Episode 58 March 13 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey, everyone, and welcome back to the WP eCommerce Show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today is the fourth and last show of the series, Starting Your WordPress Online Store. So far we’ve talked about choosing an eCommerce WordPress plugin, about essentials beyond just the tech things you need to get started, and then about moving from brick and mortar to online. To round off the series nicely, we are touching on a subject that is  critical to your online store success. And that is product shots. I couldn’t think of anyone better than Marc Benzakein to help us through the murky waters of images. Marc is WordPress savvy and very active in the WordPress community. He has a WordPress business and years of professional photography experience behind him. Welcome to the show, Marc.

Marc Benzakein: Thanks, Bob.

Meet Marc Benzakein from ServerPress

Bob Dunn: So Marc, I know you have a long history of both WordPress and photography. Can you tell us about that in a nutshell?

Marc Benzakein: Oh, let’s see. My photography experience goes back to high school years. I sold all my computer equipment that I owned back then, a Commodore 64, in order to buy some film equipment because I was going on a trip to Europe. I got the bug and ended up in the darkroom for the next several years of my life. Then I stepped away for a bit, and then got back into photography once I had kids. Before I got into WordPress, I ran an eBay business where I liquidated Harley Davidson motorcycle parts and had to shoot all of my own product photos. That led me back into photography, I guess at somewhat of a professional level. That is it in a nutshell.

Bob Dunn: And you do run a little WordPress business right now?

Marc Benzakein: We have a company called ServerPress,

In episode 57, I bring on good friend and fellow podcaster Matt Medeiros, who cannot be easily labeled. He has so many different things going on around WordPress that he created a single-paged site to give you a nice bird’s eye view. In today’s show, we are talking podcasting and your online store. When I contacted him about my idea for this show and asked him if online store owners might want to consider doing a podcast, his answer was simple.

I think it’s crazy if people don’t have one and are selling products.

So listen in as we talk about podcasting for your online store, or just about any site where you are selling products or services.

We chatted about:

* The benefits of having a podcast for your online store or business

* How to address the issue of limited time and resources

* What can you talk about without it just sounding like one, big ad

* Deciding between a podcast and a blog

* Matt’s thoughts on what a shop owner should consider before starting a podcast

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: Bluehost

Transcript

You can download the transcript of this show at: WP eCommerce Show Episode 57 March 8 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to The WP eCommerce Show. Bob Dunn here, also known as Bob WP on the web. Today, we are talking about podcasting. Not just podcasting in general. We are looking specifically at podcasting and your online store. To help me dive into this, I’ve invited podcaster, agency owner, miscellaneous WordPress guy, and good friend, Matt Medeiros. Hey, Matt. Welcome to the show.

Meet our guest, Matt Medeiros

Matt Medeiros: Hey, Bob. That’s probably the best title that anybody has ever labeled me with on an introduction. I appreciate that because there is in fact miscellaneous stuff for sure.

Bob Dunn: Yeah. I started listening and I thought, “Well, I could really do, like, a five minute intro to you of everything,” and then … Not this time.

Matt Medeiros: I’ve actually recently solved that issue for all of the things I’ve done. I created a microsite. It’s called craftedbymatt.com. It has all of the stuff that I do on there. Like you said, agency owner, podcaster, all around WordPress advocate, and product builder for your specific audience.

Yes, I do a lot of podcasting, and you can get the podcast book at thepodcastbook.com, and I also put out a plugin that you’ve taken a look at before, conductorplugin.com. We finally gave new life to the website which was after, I think, you and I talked.  Two years ago I was working on that website. it finally relaunched.

For your audience, anybody who does WooCommerce stuff, it’s a plugin that helps you show WooCommerce products in a grid, in a list, in a slider. That kind of thing, along with other WordPress content. Yeah, that’s what I do.

Bob Dunn: Very cool. I’m glad that I made the perfect intro. I’m going to actually put that … Maybe I’ll put that onto your name on the graphic, actually.

Matt Medeiros: Miscellaneous guy.

Bob Dunn: I did check out your site, that one you were just talking about.

Matt Medeiros: Yep.

Episode 56 is the third of four shows in a series on Starting Your WordPress Online Store,  sponsored by Bluehost. In this show, we chat with Jonathan Martin, President and Founder of Cool Blue Web, a full-service web development agency. Jonathan’s agency has worked with tons of clients on eCommerce sites, guiding many of them through the process of going from brick and mortar to online. Some have added the online as a digital version of their store. Others closed their brick and mortar shops after making the move to online. Listen as he shares his experience and gives you some great tips on making this transition.

We chatted about:

* Whether physical shop owners are aware of what the transition to online takes

* The top two things that a shop owner should think about before making the transition

* How many products you should start with when launching your site

* The benefits of having both and how you can use your brick and mortar store to market your online shop

* Jonathan’s experience working with a client who shut down their physical presence after going online

* One of Jonathan’s most challenging projects when taking a client through this transition

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Bluehost

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: WordPress eCommerce Show March 6 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone, welcome back to the WP Commerce Show. Bob Dunn here, also known as Bob WP on the web. Today is the third show of our series, Starting your Word Press Online Store. Last Monday, we talked about how to make sure you have the right stuff in place when starting your online store, all the things beyond the plug-in, the theme, and building the site. The week before, we covered the plug-in part and looked at some tips for choosing your e-Commerce plug-in.

Today we are talking about a specific scenario: when the owner of a physical store decides to go online. There are some practices that apply equally to an online shop and a brick-and-mortar store. But there is also a learning curve that comes with its own set of challenges. To help you as a retail store owner to make this transition, we have Jonathan Martin, President and founder of Cool Blue Web. I know that the team there has helped numerous clients through this process, so I’m happy to welcome him to the show.

Hey, Jonathan, thanks for joining us today.

Jonathan Martin: Awesome, Bob. Thanks for the great introduction there.

Bob Dunn: So Jonathan, can you tell us a bit about yourself and Cool Blue Web?

Meet today’s guest: Jonathan Martin from Cool Blue Web

Jonathan Martin: Yeah, absolutely, Bob. We actually started out as a merchant seven years ago. I ran five eCommerce stores. They were small stores, on a different platform, called Magento. I wish WooCommerce was around then. It would have been awesome. They were great little drop ship business models. We never had to touch product. We processed orders. Then I fell in love with the building of eCommerce stores. As we were building out a web agency, everyone said, “Hey, you have experience working on eCommerce stores. Can you work on mine?” We started up as a Magento shop. As WooCommerce came on the scene, we began doing a lot more Woo. Now it’s about 50/50. That was seven years ago. We’re an agency of somewhere between 20 and 25 people. All focused, all of our people here in the U.S. out of our Seattle office.

In episode 55, I had the chance to chat with Dale Reardon, owner of My Disability Matters. He keeps busy with his three sites: My Disability Matters, The My Disability Matters Club, My Disability Matters New Site and a My Disability Matters Shop, which will be coming soon. In today’s show, we look at how Dale uses eCommerce on his club site, as well as reasons he chose WooCommerce, the roadblocks he has navigated, and of  his own challenge working on the web as a visually impaired professional.

We chatted about:

* Why he chose to use WooCommerce

* What has been his largest challenge building sites as a visually impaired person

* The accessibility issues he confronted and the solutions he came up with

* His biggest challenge with starting a membership site

* What lies ahead in the future for My Disability Matters and what is his big dream

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: Bluehost

Transcript

You can download the transcript of this show at: WordPress eCommerce Show Episode 55 March 1 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone, welcome back to the WP eCommerce Show. Bob Dunn here, also known as Bob WP on the web. Today, we are talking with Dale Reardon from My Disability Matters. Hey Dale, welcome to the show.

Dale Reardon: Yes. Thanks for having me along today, Bob.

Bob Dunn: Now, I know that your newest venture is a social networking community, but I also know that you have run and are running several membership sites. Give us a short rundown of what you’re doing. A little bit about yourself, Dale.

Meet our guest, Dale Reardon

Dale Reardon: Yes. I work in the online businesses with my wife Jo. Her primary venture, which we started off just as a blog and has now turned into a full blown consulting and membership site, is Move to Tasmania, where she helps people relocating to Tasmania, where we live. Over the time, she’s built up a site of resources, a discussion forum and other things. That’s all been implemented using WooCommerce and Woo Memberships, which is a terrific plugin that you’ve reviewed on your site. We have also offered a WordPress blog-building course that we designed videos and, once again, an online membership site using WooCommerce and Woo Memberships.

As you say, the latest venture is My Disability Matters, which we are concentrating on as our main business.  At the moment the primary focus is a social networking community for the disability sector. That’s been built up using BuddyPress, bbPress, WordPress of course, WooCommerce and our membership site. Yes, that’s been going along very well.

Why did you choose WooCommerce for your plugin?

Bob Dunn: Obviously you’ve kind of answered my first question, but I’m going to poke it a little bit more as far as you choosing WooCommerce for your platform, or I guess I should say, your plugin. Why did you choose WooCommerce? Was there any specific thing, or was it several things?

Dale Reardon: Yeah, really several things. As compared to a hosted platform like the other solutions that are out there or other plugins, WooCommerce gives us a lot of flexibility. It has tremendous support for a lot of payment gateways, which was always one of the problems. We’re in Australia, so I mean we have access to Stripe and PayPal, of course, and some other gateways, but unfortunately not to Amazon Payments and other things that you’ve rev...

Episode 54 is the second of four shows in a series on Starting Your WordPress Online Store,  sponsored by Bluehost. In this show, we talk with Patrick Rauland, eCommerce consultant and educator on Lynda.com. This is Patrick’s second appearance on our podcast. Last week, we talked about choosing your eCommerce plugin, but we all know there is so much more to an online store than just building it. Patrick walks us through some of the key elements you need to consider in the early stages of planning your eCommerce site.

We chatted about:

* The essentials to get in place before you start your online store

* What mistakes store owners often make in the beginning

* The importance of planning how you are going to market your new endeavor

* The questions you should ask yourself about whether to start a blog on your site

* Resources Patrick recommends to help you get started

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Bluehost

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: WordPress eCommerce Show February 27 2017 

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone and welcome back to the WP eCommerce Show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today’s guest and I share a lot of history. Not only is he my first returning guest—he appeared on show 3 of the first season—but he helped in the months before I started this podcast with some thoughts about the direction that I was thinking about taking with it.  This is the second show of our new series, “Starting your WordPress Online Store.” Last Monday, we talked about choosing your eCommerce plugin. If you are going the route of a plugin versus a platform, it plays an important part in the process. That is, we all know it takes a heck of a lot more than just getting that plugin and building your site. Many store owners approach start their E-commerce site without some of these important pieces in place.

Welcome returning guest, Patrick Rauland

This is where our guest Patrick Rauland is going to take us today. Hey Patrick, welcome back to the show.

Patrick Rauland: Hey Bob, thanks for having me. It’s fun to be back.

Bob Dunn: Yeah, in fact I’m going to even drop in a little something here that Patrick will also be joining us a third time. We’ll be doing a live broadcast at Word Camp Miami in the latter part of March. Patrick will make a third appearance and we’re going to do that show live. You’re actually probably going to see our faces, so that’s going to be fun as well.

Patrick Rauland: I have to put on clothes?

Bob Dunn: Yeah, yeah. If I can’t wear pajamas… Or maybe we’ll do it from the neck up or something. Now, the last time you were here you were the lead product manager for Woo Commerce, and I know that lives, careers, things often take twists and turns along the way. We do know that you’re still immersed heavily into eCommerce, so why don’t you catch us up on what you’re doing these days?

Patrick Rauland: Yeah. I love product management and I wanted to get back into it at some point. I like developing software. I’ve been in the eCommerce world for so long that I’m kind of taking a break from project management, and I’m turning all of my eCommerce knowledge into courses on

In episode 53, we talk with Steve Dogiakos, Co-owner of Choteau Spice Company. Steve has been working on the web for several years and has his hands in eCommerce through several sites. Today we talk about his bootstrapped company, WooCommerce and some thoughts on what it takes to sell spices online.

Steve also proudly runs his site on Bluehost.com.

We chatted about:

* Why Steve chose to use WordPress and what plugin he decided on

* The  biggest challenge he has faced selling online

* How he found the learning curve was for WooCommerce and whether there was any part that was harder to learn

* What it’s like to sell spices online

* What has worked the best in helping him promote Choteau Spice Co.

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: Bluehost

Transcript

You can download the transcript of this show at:WordPress eCommerce Show Februrary 22 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone and welcome back to the WP eCommerce show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. As you know, we like to occasionally bring on shop owners to share their stories about some of the challenges and successes they’ve had online. Today, we are going to be chatting with Steve Dogiakos from Choteau Spice Company. Hey Steve, welcome to the show and did I butcher your name or your company name?

Meet Steve Dogiakos, Co-owner of Choteau Spice Company

Steve Dogiakos: No, you got it spot on. Well done. Yeah, so I am co-owner of Choteau Spice Company. I have been doing web development and mostly website maintenance for about ten years. Choteau Spice has been open for, probably, eight months now.

Bob Dunn: I just have to bring this up because I was looking at your Facebook page. Are you also involved with your local Chamber of Commerce?

Steve Dogiakos: Yeah, absolutely. Both my business partner and I.  So, in addition to Choteau Spice,  I own another company that does Amazon and Ebay retail kind of stuff. My business partner also has an Etsy shop where she does artsy kind of stuff and through one of our three businesses, we are both on our Chamber of Commerce’s board, actually.

Bob Dunn: Oh, very cool so wow, sounds like you have your hands in a lot of different things.

Steve Dogiakos: Yeah, always.

Bob Dunn: Always, yeah, I know the feeling. Well, I’m intrigued with this whole thing of selling spices online because well, one thing is I love spices, I mean, who doesn’t like spices? I’m anxious to really hear about what you do. I had somebody on a little while back and they sell tea online.

Steve Dogiakos: Okay.

WordPress and WooCommerce working hand in hand

Bob Dunn: Sometimes, they have their special little challenges, so tell us a little bit about your online store. Why did you choose WordPress and what eCommerce plugin did you end up using and was there a reason behind that as well?

Steve Dogiakos: Sure. I use WordPress. I’ve been using it to build websites, nothing phenomenal or anything like that. I’ve been doing it for about ten years now, though. I bought hosting back in 2007 and was just playing around with the concept of building websites. It’s just what I’ve become most familiar with. I’ve looked at Drupal. I’ve looked at a couple of other different content management systems and I just like WordPress the best. It’s easiest to use, it’s what I’m most familiar with now. We ended up going with WooCommerce for our eCommerce platform,