In episode 42, I have the pleasure of chatting with David Vogelpohl, VP of Web Strategy at WPEngine. The topic is what a store owner should look for when choosing a hosting service for their eCommerce site. With all of the options out there, finding a host that meets your specific needs can be a challenge  and finding one to take care of your online store is even more critical. Listen as David shares his tips on what you should consider and expect when choosing that right host.

We chatted about:

* The most important question to ask your host when you consider using them for your eCommerce site

* How to make sure that you are prepared with the right host as your online store grows

* David’s short list of other essentials an online store owner should look for in a host

* How David would respond to someone who wants to move 10K products over to WPEngine

* A new eCommerce related feature that WPEngine just launched

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: WPEngine

I would also like to thank WPEngine for sponsoring me to attend WordCamp US in Philadelphia.

Transcript

You can download the transcript of this show at: the-wp-ecommerce-show-transcript-november-30-2016

Bob Dunn: Welcome to the WP eCommerce Show, a podcast about everything eCommerce and WordPress. Hey everyone, welcome to episode 42. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today I have the pleasure of chatting with David Vogelpohl, VP of Web Strategy at WP Engine. Now what makes this a very special episode is that WP Engine is sponsoring our show today and they are also sending me to WordCamp US in Philadelphia, which starts this coming Friday. Not only do I want to welcome you to the show, David, but also thank you and the whole team so much for making it possible for me to attend the best WordCamp of the year.

David Vogelpohl: Yeah, thank you, Bob, for having me on the show and for everything you do in the community. We really appreciate the opportunity to support you and send you to WordCamp and all that kind of stuff. We’re really glad to be here.

Bob Dunn: Very cool. Now, I’m going to have David tell us a bit more about WP Engine, which I have to confess, is my host that I use here at BobWP and have for years. If you’re going to be at WordCamp US, I have a tendency to hang around the WP Engine booth, whether they really want me there or not. If you’re there, I think that maybe you should pop by and find David and I, especially if I’m there and we can all do a selfie. How’s that sound David?

David Vogelpohl: That would be really cool. We actually have some plans for our booth for some fun stuff with the selfies. That would definitely be appropriate. We’ll have a lot of folks around, including some technical folks. If you ever wanted to beat someone at the WP Engine, ask that question you wanted to, or give us that wishlist feature, that would be a great time to do it. We’d love to have you stop by, grab some of our swag or whatnot. That’d be a lot of fun.

Bob Dunn: Yeah. Actually, a little side note here that I didn’t even plan for, made me think of. At WooConf I was having an issue with my site and it went down. It actually went down. I got online, it was really weird, because I got online, got on chat with WP Engine. “Oh, I’m having this problem.” They’re like, “Oh,

In episode 41, I’m sharing a few tips for selling your products and services on your blog without being spammy and turning off your readers. I give you eight ideas to consider. Stay tuned because each of these will grow into its own show at some point. Like this abbreviated holiday week,  I’ll be a bit shorter too. So here they are:  a set of tips that you can act on in the coming new year.

I talk about:

* Making your offers relevant to your readers

* The importance of being authentic and trustworthy

* Helping your readers find your offers easily

* Where your offers might work best and how to create add-on products

* Keeping an eye on those blog comments for future ideas on new products and services

* Making your readers feel special

* Using affiliates on your blog

Transcript

You can download the transcript of this show at: the-wp-ecommerce-show-transcript-november-23-2016

Hey, everyone. Welcome to episode 41. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. I’m flying solo today and I’d like to chat with you about selling on your blog. Now I’m not talking about this in the case of having a blog on an online store. It’s more around the whatever you sell on your blog, whether its products or services: your own or someone else’s.

There is a whole lot more on this subject than what I’m going to touch on in this short podcast, but from my own experiences, these are a few things to think about.

I have always been some kind of a content marketer, no matter how I was earning my money. And I have always loved giving our readers tips, tools and advice and, more importantly, building relationships with them.

But what I think we start wondering at some point, especially when you are looking at all the time you spend writing content, is what will happen the minute I start selling stuff on my blog or promoting myself? Will my readers abandon me if I try to sell to them?

What you have to remember here is that selling your readers things they need and want will not send them away or piss them off. One does not need to jam it down their throats or put in it 70-point red font. The key here is to make sure your offers land in the right place, at the right time. It’s all about strategy— with  some common sense thrown in.

You may ask yourself: how do I possibly move people from eager consumers of my free content to real customers without any backlash? One way is to repurpose, enhance, package and sell your content in an information product. But it goes even more beyond that. What you need to do is lead your readers who are already fans to take the next logical step. And that is to buy something from you. 

Ask yourself these three questions

Do you make it easy for your readers to purchase services and products from you?

You know, the same ones you offer day in and day out—on your website and through other sales venues?

Does your blog content point them in the right direction? 

Do they even know what you sell? 

Many of us answer those with, “Damn right they do”. We assume it. But we don’t always know for sure. And we take it for granted that they constantly peruse our site to see all the cool stuff we offer through our products or services. But in reality, unless you are a product filled site, chances are what you offer may not be as obvious or easy to find as you think they are.

It’s time to put yourself in your reader’s shoes. When they land on your site,

We are podcasting again live from WordCamp Seattle 2016. Our guest on episode 40 is Eric Amundson, owner, web strategist and user-experience designer at IvyCat.com. I’ve known Eric for several years and he has been heavily involved in both our local Seattle WordPress and our WooCommerce meetups. Today I am chatting with him about some of the main concepts you need to know to make sure your users and customers have the best experience once they land on your eCommerce site.

We chatted about:

* The most important aspects of user-friendly design for your eCommerce site’s homepage

* Navigation and tips on what to think about when creating menus and navigation on your site

* How to make the most of your sidebars and the main elements to avoid

* The pros and cons when it comes to mobile-friendly sites and some thoughts on mobile responsive vs. mobile apps

* How content is #1 when it comes to the user experience and a unique tip to help you generate content for your online store.

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: WP101.com

Transcript

You can download the transcript of this show at: the-wp-ecommerce-show-transcript-november-9-2016

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone, welcome to episode forty. Bob Dunn here, also know as Bob WP on the web. Today we are sharing with you our second show recorded live at Word Camp Seattle 2016 a bit over a week ago. It was a fantastic two days of learning and connecting and I would highly recommend checking out a Word Camp near you if you haven’t already. With that said, I am honored to introduce my good friend, Eric Amundson, who runs a company called IvyCat.

Hey Eric, welcome to the show.

Eric Amundson: Thank you so much, Bob. I appreciate you asking me.

Bob Dunn: He actually took some time, I think he was in the contributor room, so I pulled him out from important stuff. If something goes wonky in that and it’s his fault, it’s my fault.

Eric Amundson: If WordPress crashes and burns, it’s all you?

Bob Dunn: Yeah, really. Oh god!

Eric Amundson: Only Eric would have contributed.

Bob Dunn: Yeah, really, but keep me out of that room. Well, before we chat with Eric, go to the questions, I’d like to thank our sponsor who stepped up to cover both of our podcasts here at Word Camp Seattle, my friends over at WP101.com. If you are new to WordPress or just starting to wrap your brain around WordPress, their collection of exceptional and professional video tutorials not only guide you through the WordPress basics, but also help you with some very popular plugins. For me, they are the go-to site where I send a lot of people who are struggling through the murky waters of WordPress in the beginning. That is WP101.com and I will be chatting a bit more about them later in the show.

Before we dive into the questions on usability, user-friendly sites, eCommerce, that’s our topic today, I would like to have Eric tell all you just a bit about IvyCat and what he does.

Meet Eric Amundson from IvyCat

Eric Amundson: Sure. I started IvyCat in 2002 as a web designer. I had been laid off from a job where I built an e-commerce site. I built my first eCommerce site in ’99 and did a good job, used FrontPage, made all the mistakes and learned from them. Then over time, when WordPress came out—I started using it about 2005— in 2010 I hired my first employee. We focused the business more on, instead of just all sorts of sites, more on eCcommerce and event management sites. That’s really what IvyCat specializes in,

We bring episode 39 to you live from WordCamp Seattle 2016. Our guest Michael Tieso, Developer Advocate for WooCommerce/Automattic,  has also spent a good part of his career there focused on WooCommerce, including working with support. Michael and I also run the local WooCommerce Seattle meetup. He understands the challenges facing anyone who is starting out with WooCommerce. In this episode, we go over some tips and insights for those who WooCommerce beginners who are just starting up their online stores.

We chatted about:

* What to consider when starting your WooCommerce

* Things you should have in place before you start building your site

* Specific challenges users have when starting with WooCommerce

* The answer Michael gives someone when they say, “I am setting up my online store for the first time. I am selling one item that will need to be shipped. Not sure what the future holds. Should I start with WooCommerce?”

* The most unique product Michael has seen someone selling with WooCommerce

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: WP101.com

Transcript

You can download the transcript of this show at: the-wp-ecommerce-show-transcript-november-2-2016

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone, welcome to episode 39. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today is a special day as we are recording our show live at WordCamp Seattle 2016. So, that little bit of chatter you here in the background … well, we’re live. So, you’ll be listening to the next two shows live from WordCamp and we are on day two here so far. Been a blast. But it’s also special because I am talking with Michael Tieso from WooCommerce/Automattic about starting your eCommerce site with WooCommerce. So, hey Michael, welcome to the show.

Michael Tieso: Hey Bob, thank you for having me.

Bob Dunn: Before I dive in, we have a sponsor, of course, as we always do. They’re actually sponsoring both our shows here at WordCamp Seattle. That is my friends at WP101. If you are new to WordPress or are just starting to wrap your brain around it, they have a collection of exceptional and professional video tutorials that not only guide you through the WordPress basics, but also help you with some very popular plugins. They are the go-to site where I send a lot of people who are struggling through the murky waters of WordPress in the beginning. That is WP101.com and I’ll be chatting a bit more about them later in the show. So, Michael, tell us what you do over at … and I always go WooCommerce/Automattic, just because I never know if I should say one or the other.

Meet Michael Tieso, developer advocate

Michael Tieso: I usually say the same thing, actually, I work at WooCommerce/Automattic. Yeah, so, I’m in the business development team. I’m a developer advocate, so that often means that I work very closely with developers and agencies that are developing things for WooCommerce. So, I love seeing what people are making with WooCommerce and partnerships with those folks.

Start-up questions to ask yourself

Bob Dunn: Okay. Very cool. So, what we’re going to do here, as I mentioned, is if you are just thinking of starting with WooCommerce or if you’re been kind of dabbling in it and you’re just lost, “What do I do here? What are some ideas and what’s some guide that can help me?” I have a few questions here, I’m going to have Michael help you with that. First, we’re going to look at what are the top five questions someone should ask themselves. If you don’t have five, that’s fine … if it’s four, three. When they’re considering starting a site...

Today, we are doing Episode 38 and the fourth and final in our eCommerce & Security Series. We talk with Dre Armeda, co-founder of Sucuri.net, the sponsor for this series, and Lee Blue of Cart66.com.

In the first episode, we looked at the big picture of the state of online security and the risks and in show #2, narrowed that down to eCommerce and Security. Last week, we dug deep into the PCI DSS, or the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Today we are lucky to have this powerful duo take us into 3rd-party integrations and payment gateways. We explore tips and insights to ensure that all of your customers’ data is secure and that your site can safely handle this information without you having to be concerned about compromises.  This is a must-listen-to show for anyone who runs an online store, as well as people or agencies that build and support WordPress eCommerce sites.

We chatted about:

* The eCommerce site data beyond credit card numbers that need to be protected and why

* What an SSL certificate is and its role in eCommerce security

* The differences between accepting PayPal and accepting credit card payments from a security and PCI compliance perspective

* The types of products that can affect how you choose to process the payments on your site

* Which eCommerce features have the biggest impact on security

* Some tools to help shops owners in terms of overall eCommerce security

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Sucuri.net

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: the-wp-ecommerce-show-transcript-october-24-2016

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone, and welcome to our show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today is episode 38, the fourth and final show of our four-part series on security and eCommerce. Today we are rounding out the series on the topic of third party integrations and payment gateways. Like the other three shows, this is a huge area. We’re going to make our best attempt to give you a birdseye view, but also enough details to really help you with your online store. To do this, we are bringing in the heavy hitters, who are going to drop those knowledge bombs and round off this series with even more information to help you with the security of your online store. First we bring back Dre Armeda from our sponsor, Sucuri.net, who has guided us through these last three episodes and has been nothing but an excellent sport in spending this much time with me. Hey Dre, are you ready for this last one?

Dre Armeda: Well, not after you told me I got to drop some knowledge bombs. I’m a little nervous now, but we’re here.

Bob Dunn: Well, you’ve done a few already, so, I think you’re on a roll. What I’m going to ask Dre to give us a bit of a quick recap of the last three shows, and then I want him to introduce our second guest.

Our Last Three Security-focused Shows

Dre Armeda: Aw, snap, so we got a guest. This is going to get pretty awesome. I’m excited. Bob, thanks for having me again.

In episode 37, we are taking our interview in a little different direction. I was going  to call it ‘Mark Forrester Unplugged,’  but that might have been a bit misleading. Instead, we are unplugging Mark from the typical interview questions he has answered in the past and getting to know Mark as a person, a shopper and yes, an entrepreneur. Listen in as I ask him some fun questions and propose a few interesting scenarios.

What I asked Mark:

* Some basics, like his favorite color, band, move, book and more

* A few fun scenarios that include his children, a unusual deserted island and a conflict with WooConf

* What his biggest frustration is when shopping online, what he would never buy online and a few more insights

* What he had wished he knew before going down the entrepreneurial road

* Which entrepreneur he looks up to

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: SmallWoorld.com published by Prospress

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: the-wp-ecommerce-show-transcript-october-26-2016

Bob: Hi, everyone and welcome to episode 37. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today we are slipping into a bit of a different interview format. Typically, as you have experienced, we’re bring in an eCommerce expert and ask him questions specifically around their expertise. But when I asked Mark Forrester, co-founder of WooThemes and WooCommerce to join, I thought about those dozens of interviews where Mark has shared his experiences around Woo and most currently Automatic.

We’re going to change that today. Instead, we are unplugging Mark from the typical, hard-hitting Woo question to learn more about Mark, the guy, Mark the entrepreneur and Mark the shopper. That doesn’t mean a bit of Woo won’t be scattered in but heck, why ask the same questions? With that said, welcome to the show, Mark and are you ready to roll?

Mark: Thank you, Bob. I am ready to roll and I look forward to untypical questions.

Bob: Very cool. Mark, I already gave a spoiler of what you do for a living but tell us something about Mark that people might not know.

Mark: Despite my fixed South African accent, I was in fact born in the UK. I lived there close to nine years old. What else? I’ve only been employed twice. Once as a pizza deliverer and once as a team leader at Automatic. Family wise, I have two boys. Malakai and Max. Malakai doing seven months today. Maximilian is four years old.

The entrepreneurial spirit: ‘only employed twice’

Bob: I’m intrigued at that ‘only employed twice.’ You obviously have other stuff between there but one time and then you moved from pizzas to Automatic but there’s all those in between, right?

Mark: Yeah, pizzas and then my move into more of an entrepreneurial journey. I’ve started a few businesses. I was a wedding DJ when I was at university paying for my beer tab and my rent but yeah, it’s been a long and winding journey until I found WordPress around 2005, 2006.

Bob: Okay. Yeah, so you’ve been an entrepreneur longer than you’ve actually been employed so to say.

Mark: Technically.

Favorite color

Bob: Very cool. Now, I have seven very basic and easy questions. The questions that come up over small talk when meeting someone for the first time and you’re sipping on a beer and you just don’t know what to say and then fill in the conversation. This is just going to tell us a little bit about Mark and  who is some of his favorite stuff. Let’s start with a really easy one, what is your favorite color?

Mark: At a dinner table, I would say, blue but to a WordPress community,

Episode 36 is the third of four shows in a series on online eCommerce security. We talk with Dre Armeda, co-founder of Sucuri.net, who is the sponsor for this series. In the first episode, we looked at the big picture of the state of online security and the risks and in show #2, narrowed that down to eCommerce and Security. In today’s show, we are diving into a subject area, although not the most exciting part of running an eCommerce site, but probably one of the most important: the PCI DSS, or the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard.

Anyone selling goods or services online should listen to this show so you understand what you need to do as a online store owner. It doesn’t matter if you are selling a single item or thousands, it’s important to know that if your customers’ information ever gets breached that you have them and yourself covered so you are not slammed with large fines or have your brand tarnished for good. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

We chatted about:

* The impacts and benefits of the PCI

* Why any sized merchant needs to not only know what the PCI is but how it affects them

* Where to start with the standards if you are new to them or just beginning to build your online store

* The penalties that can happen in the event of a security breach to your eCommerce site if you are not PCI-compliant

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Sucuri.net

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: the-wp-ecommerce-show-transcript-october-24-2016

Bob Dunn: Welcome to the WPE Commerce Show, a podcast about everything e-commerce and WordPress.

Hey everyone and welcome to our show. Bob Dunn here, also known as Bob WP on the Web. Today, we bring you episode 36, but also the third part of a four-part series on security and e-commerce. Last week, we heard from our guest, Dre Armeda, via our sponsor, Sucuri.net, as he narrowed down the topic from the big picture of online security to security in e-commerce, but still a birds-eye view. Also in last week’s show, Dre gave us an introduction to the PCI, the Payment Card Industry. There are some standards there, and we’re gonna be chatting about that more. We’re gonna get down and dirty with the PCI, explore it more in depth. It may not be the sexiest topic when it comes to your online store, but I’m thinking it’s a damn important one.

To give you a better idea of why as a store owner, you need to pay attention to the PCI, we bring Dre back to the show. Of course, Dre may be looking forward to the day when he doesn’t have to talk to me weekly, but heck, until then, hey Dre, welcome back.

Dre Armeda: Hey, thanks for having me, Bob. Look, if I could talk to you every day, it makes my day a brighter one.

Bob Dunn: Oh, man, no. You’re pushing it there. I’m going to take you up on that, see just how long that lasts.

Dre Armeda: Hey, you know, we have to apply it to see what happens, right?

What is PCI and what are the impacts for online store owners?

Bob Dunn: Yeah, really. In episode 2 of this security series, as I mentioned, you talked about, explained the high level of what PCI is. Can you cover PCI a bit more in-depth, to give the audience a good definition of PCI, its impacts and its benefits?

Dre Armeda: Well, I’d be happy to cover that, Bob. Bear with me,

In episode 35, I am sharing my own experiences when you are looking for a theme to fit your WordPress online store. There are many variables when it comes to an eCommerce site that can make an already challenging task, finding a theme, even more so. Let me guide you through some tips, insights and thoughts to get you started on the process.

In this podcast, I talk about six questions that might want to ask yourself.

* Should I use a free or premium theme?

* Should I use that slider that came with my theme?

* How does the theme I’m looking at present the homepage and my online shop?

* Will shoppers be able to find my products easily?

* Do the theme and the eCommerce plugin I am using play together well?

* Is it mobile-friendly?

* Do I use a theme out-of-the-box, with a few customizations, or a ground-up customized theme?

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: Pronto Marketing

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: the-wp-ecommerce-show-transcript-october-19-2016

Hey everyone and welcome to episode 35, Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today I am flying solo on the show and wanted to chat with you a bit about finding that WordPress theme for your eCommerce site. Of course, I am talking about when you are doing a self-hosted site as opposed to a platform that may already have a selection of themes specifically for online stores

lf you have any experience having put together or planning for a WordPress site, you know that choosing a theme  can be overwhelming. We are hit with simple themes, niche themes, themes for businesses, themes focused on call-to-actions and then onto theme builders, or page builders to help you with the theme you choose. The list goes on and on. But when you are looking for that one for your online store it can even be more of a challenge, because heck, this is your store and it needs to take the customer through the process of buying your products in the easiest and fastest way.

So let’s look at the broad expanse of WordPress eCommerce themes. For example, if you go to WordPress.org and do a filter search with eCommerce, you will get 67 themes to choose from. If you Google eCommerce WordPress themes, the results go up exponentially — to 2.7 million and growing all the time.

Or how about that question that I see over and over and over in Facebook groups. It might go something like this…

Hey everyone, I am building a online store where I will be selling my jewelry. What theme do you recommend? Yep, that’s it. And what an open question. Now this person will be graced with dozens of replies of people suggesting their own themes, their favorite themes or something they recently used. Truth be known, this will likely confuse the person more than help them.

The fact is that I have written a lot of posts on this subject. Done several tutorials and even gave workshops and talks focused on just themes. Finding that perfect theme can’t be summed up in a single show, nor is there a silver bullet to finding it.

You see, eCommerce sites have too many variables to make it as easy as one-theme-fits-all. It’s tough enough to find the one you want to present your business, but throwing in the mix of selling products adds on layers of things to think through before we make that final decision.

To help you at least get started on the right path, here are seven questions that you can ask yourself as you make your way through the maze of themes.

The first question to ask yourself. Should you use a free or premium theme?

I am the first to admit that there are a lot of well-built,

This, Episode 34, is the second of four shows in a series on Online eCommerce Security. We talk with Dre Armeda, co-founder of Sucuri.net, who is the sponsor for this series. In the first episode, we looked at the big picture of the state of online security and the risks. In this show, we dive deeper into the eCommerce and WordPress side of things. Although online security is an issue with all sites, when you start mixing in eCommerce and WordPress, it can inherently bring in some other challenges. Dre takes us through those and gives us a deeper understanding of how we can be more prepared for online risks when securing our online stores.

We chatted about:

* The motivations behind taking down eCommerce sites

* The importance of the PCI (Payment Card Industry) and a brief introduction to its background

* What a person should be looking for when they are choosing the right  host for their eCommerce site

* How the security plugins for WordPress play into this and what they are doing right and wrong

* A CDN (Content Delivery Network): how it not only improves site speed but also plays a role in the security of your site

* How the PCI focuses on cardholder data environments and not enough on eCommerce deployment and integration

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Sucuri.net

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: the-wp-ecommerce-show-transcript-october-17-2016

Bob Dunn: Hey. Everyone welcome to our show. Bob Dunn here also known as Bob WP on the web. Today we bring you episode 34, but also the second part of a 4 part series on security and eCommerce. Last week we heard from our guest, Dre Armeda via our sponsor, Sucuri.net, on the overall state of online security and some of the risks that we are seeing in today’s world. If you didn’t get the chance to listen to that one, make sure you do. In our show today, we are going to focus down on security and eCommerce and start exploring the overall picture of keeping your online store secure. As we move into the last 2 shows after this, we will even dig deeper into navigating the payment card industry data security standard in the next show and then online payments and their security implications on show 4. Welcome to the show again and how are you doing today, Dre?

Dre Armeda: I’m doing wonderful. Thanks for having me back. I can’t believe you allowed me to get on the air with you one more time.

Bob Dunn: I know. It’s just going to be a 4 time thing. We will never know. Everybody will have to tune in to see if Dre or if we talk to somebody else. You’d never know.

Dre Armeda: You never know.

Bob Dunn: Let’s dive right into this because I know we have a lot to cover. We want to make sure and get all that good information out of you. First question, obviously it’s important to keep your site secure, but we know when it comes to online stores, there are some very obvious vulnerabilities they have. I’m sure we’ll be diving more into each one either today or in the future show, but can you give me a list, I know you don’t like list, but let’s say a checkpoint of getting your online site securely locked down.

Dre Armeda: You know how I feel about lists, Bob. Come on, big guy. It’s a good question, but I don’t know that it’s entirely accurate in terms of how we want to think about it. It’s not a matter of having more or less obvious vulnera...

In episode 33, we are talking with Adam Selley from Pronto Marketing. If you are getting ready to start working on your online store, whether you plan on doing it yourself or hiring someone to design and develop it, you should listen to this show. Creating and launching an eCommerce site can be a daunting task, but if you prepare yourself and know when to find help when you need it, the process will be much smoother for you and your business.

We chatted about:

* The top priorities you should have in place before moving ahead with your site

* Whether your content should be created before you start the design/development process

* A few of the mistakes people make when starting their online store

* Any frustrations they find from their client when using WooCommerce

* Some of the challenges Adam has discovered when starting to create an eCommerce site

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: Pronto Marketing

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: the-wp-ecommerce-show-transcript-october-12-2016

Bob Dunn: Welcome to the WP E-Commerce Show. The podcast about everything e-commerce and WordPress. Hey everyone, welcome to episode 33. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today I have the pleasure of chatting with Adam Selley from Pronto Marketing who is also our current sponsor. Hey Adam, welcome to the show.

Adam Selley: Hey Bob, thanks for having me.

Bob Dunn: You bet. Really looking forward to hearing all the nuggets you have for us. Now for our listeners on occasion our sponsors are also guests on the show because they bring specific expertise to the table, something I am always excited to share with you.

Today we are going to be talking to anyone who is preparing to pull together, create, and launch their online store. Having coached people through this myself in the past, I know that all though it seems to be a daunting task, if you prepare yourself in the right way, find the right help when you need it, life will go much more smoothly for you. Adam is here to give us some insights and tips on this. Before we really get into that, I would like Adam to tell us a bit more about himself and Pronto Marketing.

Adam Selley: Sure, Pronto has actually been making WordPress websites out of Bangkok for about 8 years. The company is growing tremendously and today we manage over 1,300 sites. I joined the company a year and a half ago and e-commerce was a hot topic within the company. They just didn’t have anyone to take the lead on it so I was tasked with finding a way to offer this to our existing clients and as a service to new clients. Pronto has a fantastic team of designers, developers, editors, SEO experts all on hand for the clients to use as they need. We also have a dedicated support team accessible by email, chat, and phone. Ultimately the value of Pronto is that we free up business owners’ time to focus on other aspects of their business.

Bob Dunn: Excellent, excellent. It’s amazing because not only are you the all in one shop and you can fill all those different needs but I love it, the support. When you’re running an online store, the fact that you can get hold of somebody when you have an issue, especially your store. People seem to freak out a bit more when your store, something goes sideways. They think, “Oh!” That’s great to hear Adam. We’re going to be hearing a little bit more about Pronto Marketing and a bit more details of what they can do for you later in the show. For now, let’s dive into these questions.

I’m going to start with this very first one which is pretty generic.