The Take Traction Show - Ecommerce Marketing Advice: Recent Episodes
Take Traction: The ecommerce guys!
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Introduction Building a true following on social media is no easy task. And the truth is, there aren't any shortcuts. It takes a lot of great content over a long period of time to build a following of people that really care about what you do.
Providing you're already doing this (or you've at least got a game plan), there ARE a few things you can do to help get your Facebook page off the ground.
Over the past month we've been experimenting with Page Like ads on Facebook and we've been amazed by the results; getting page likes for as cheap as $0.01! That's literally as cheap as it gets.
Want to find out exactly how you can do the same? Tune in to today's show.
Links and Resources: * Episode #32 – How to A/B test Facebook ads on a small budget
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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Introduction Today's show was born out of frustration. Frustration from seeing so many brands running crappy giveways on Instagram.
You know the kind I mean... they partner up with another brand to giveaway a product of theirs. They then publish an image on their Instagram accounts and in the description they outline how you can enter into the competition.
It's usually something like:
- Follow us on Instagram
- Like this image
- Post an image with the hashtag #taketractiongiveaway
I'm not here to tell you this doesn't work. It does! But there's just so much more you could do!
Imagine putting in the exact same amount of effort but getting 5 x the results. That's exactly what you can do when you apply the strategy outlined in today's podcast.
Enjoy!
Links and Resources:
- Giveaway tools:
- Gleam.io – my personal favourite. Cheap and super effective
- Viral Loops
- Wishpond
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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Introduction If you haven't heard someone talking about A/B testing in the past 5 years then it's time you come out from under that rock.
A/B testing has been a huge topic of conversation amongst marketers for a long time now. And there's a very clear reason why: A/B testing generates better results.
10 years ago, A/B testing wasn't something the average Joe could do. It required either a very advanced and pricey piece of software or your very own development team. For people like you and me, it was just something heard people talking about but couldn't really ever try for yourself.
Well, this is 2018, and the landscape is a little different my friend. A/B testing has become a native feature to thousands of online tools and now, even Joe doesn't have an excuse for not running some experiments from time to time.
One of those tools that has now created native A/B testing features is Facebook Ad Manager.
Previously, running A/B tests for your Facebook ads could get quite messy, sometimes requiring you to manually create hundreds of ad sets, one by one, just to run a couple of experiments.
Not anymore. That's all changed since the release of Facebook's split testing feature and their dynamic creative feature. Now you have absolutely no excuse to not be testing the sh*t out of every ad you put out there.
And why wouldn't you want to do this anyway? It is a guaranteed way to get you better results!
Want to learn more about running experiments on Facebook? Tune in to today's episode.
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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Now on video too! Watch on Youtube now.
Head over to facebook.com/taketraction.com to discuss this episode!
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This week we're having a bit of a switch around with our show format. As of today (and for the forseeable future), we're going to be creating shorter, 10-30 minute podcast episodes with just one topic.
Recently we've been playing with longer-form, segment-based episodes that run for as long as 2 hours. We did this because we really enjoy making the podcast and wanted to play around with different segments. What went wrong? Well, nothing actually. It was awesome! BUT. It just took way too much time to do each week.
Each podcast required at least 2 hours of preparation, followed by 2 hours of recording time (3 if you include set up) and then 2 or 3 hours of post production and publishing on different mediums.
That's 8 hours... a whole working day!
Now, unfortunately, since we don't make any money from the podcast, it simply isn't feasable for us to keep this up. Hence why we've switched to this shorter, my actionable format.
Take Traction on Youtube While we may be making the show shorter, it's still important for us to be making it better. That's why we've decided to begin recording video as well. Now you can watch all episodes with video over on Youtube. Head over there now to check it out and please don't forget to subscribe!
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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- 0:08:07 – Opinews
- 0:44:12 – Feature – How to beat 90% of the competition on Upwork
Head over to facebook.com/taketraction.com to discuss this episode!
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This week we've got a great few segments coming up for you:
Opinews In this week’s Opinews:
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- Walmart breaks into the Chinese market... AGAIN!
- Patreonage makes an acquisition that could change the future of content monetisation.
- Turns out, no one buys anything with Alexa... surprise surprise.
- Facebook has something on the horizon that could help improve your business page's organic reach.
- Y-Combinator startup, Jetlenses aims to seriously reduce the cost of contact lenses in a currently overpriced market.
- Walmart and Amazon go head to head with grocery pickup services, but Walmart got a robot!
Feature In today’s feature we're going to be sharing tips and tricks for you to win more business on Upwork.
Why? Well, we strongly believe that freelancing is a great gateway into building your own business. It allows you to work on your own terms and gives the the freedom and flexibility to be able to spend more time working on your side hustle. If you've ever thought about freelancing but been too worried about being able to get enough business, the tips in today's show will guarantee you close business everytime.
Well... maybe not every time. But we've managed to close about 1 in 10 job applications by applying these tactics and it's helped sustain us for over two years now.
If it wasn't for the ideas we share in today's show, we simply wouldn't be able to do this podcast, let alone all the other projects we've got going on at the moment.
So, pull out a pen and paper, sit back with a glass of wine, and get ready to find out how to nail some contracts.
Enjoy!
Links and Resources: * Upwork – Our favourite freelancing platform. We've generated over $200k from this platform in the past couple of years, which has helped support many of our other business ventures. * Freelancer – Another great freelancing platform. * The User is Drunk – Where it all began. A must see once you've finished listening to today's episode.
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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Head over to facebook.com/taketraction.com to discuss this episode!
- 0:26:52 – Opinews
- 1:01:37 – Feature – How to build a killer Amazon PPC campaign in 2018
- 2:29:15 – Amazon PPC summary – This is a long show and if you're trying to set up your own Amazon PPC campaign I would highly recommend you listen to all of it. But if time isn't on your side, you can always skip to this point to listen to me summarise everything I learned from Cristian in today's show.
Today's riddle: A sundial has the fewest moving parts of any timepiece. Which has the most?
Think you know the answer? Let us know over at facebook.com/taketraction.com. The answer will be revealed in next week's episode.
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This week we've got a great few segments coming up for you:
Opinews In this week’s Opinews:
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- Shit hits the fan in India as the government releases their new ecommerce policies. Will Amazon and Walmart survive these heavy restrictions?
- Etsy joins the India buzz this week by launching the marketplace amidst all the ecommerce changes. Could this more artesan focused platform stop all the protests from small privately owned Indian companies?
- Whatsapp has finally monetised their platform but the way they've done it is genius. Are they even doing it for the money?
- Could Salesforce be in danger after Freshworks raises $100m for their suite of tools?
Feature – How to build a killer Amazon PPC campaign in 2018 Amazon. The beast. The mammoth. The giant. Can't live with it, can't live without it. And as they say, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.
Amazon PPC has always been a very powerful way to increase your sales through the platform, but since their TOS banner users from giving out coupons in exchange for reviews in 2016, Amazon PPC has never been more important to get your product off the ground.
In fact, that's exactly what we've been doing this week! On Monday our first load of inventory arrived at the Amazon fulfillment center in Dallas, Texas. Since then it's been go, go, go to get our first white-label Amazon product up and running.
To do that we've applied all sorts of different techniques and we're still doing so. But one of the most important of them all is Amazon PPC.
But we've actually been preparing for this moment for the past 9 months.
You see, nearly one whole year ago, Cristian and I began work on a new project with a cleints of ours. The client in question came to ask asking if we could build out profitable Amazon PPC campaigns for a number of SKUs that he was managing.
Despite having zero experience with Amazons advertising platform, Cristian and I agreed to take on the project for a couple of reasons:
- We have a lot of experience on various other advertising platforms and we were convinced that with a bit of experimentation we could very quickly understand the platform.
- We knew that we were going to be launching our own Amazon products in the near future and this project would be the perfect way to prepare ourselves for a successful launch.
We both jumped into the research together but I very quickly veered away from the project as more work came in from other clients.
Cristian, however, has spent the last 9 months working on the platform almost every day, entending his knowledge and understanding of Amazon PPC and ultimately running very profitable campaigns for said client.
In today's episode it's time for me to get back up to speed. I'm going to pick his brain for absolutely everything he has learned about Amazon PPC and we'll piece it all together so that you will be able to follow along step by step and build your very own profitable Amazon PPC campaigns.
We'll be discussing:
- How to do keyword research for Amazon PPC – Where to find seed keywords, what tools to use for better keyword research and how to structure your results.
- The difference between auto and manual campaigns and why you need both.
- How to use auto campaigns on Amazon to discover keywords you could never have thought of on your own.
- Keyword matching – The difference between Broad Match, Phrase Match and Exact Match.
- How to set up a "converting keywords" ad group for each of your seed keywords and then use this list of keywords to optimise your product listing.
As mentioned at the top, this is a very long podcast so if you run out of time at any point, skip to 2:29:15 where you'll be able to hear me summarise everything I learned from Cristian in this episode in less than 5 minutes.
Now, pour yourself a glass of wine, sit back and prepare to learn everything you need to know to launch your next big product.
Enjoy!
Links and Resources: * Links from our Opinews segment: + 99designs.com – The place where you can get hundreds of submissions for your design project for less than $300. + Freshmarketer – One of our favourite A/B testing tools (although since the Freshworks acquisition it's a little bit on the pricey side). + Optimizely – The expensive – and quite frankly, not as good – competitor to Fresh Marketer. + VWO – Same as above. * Amazon keyword research tools from today's feature show: + Paid tools: - Junglescout – They have two tools, the product tracker/researcher web app and the extension. When you use the extension in your browser on a search results page on Amazon, you'll see a small icon in the bottom right of the popup that looks like a cloud. This is a great way to find out what keywords your competitors are using. - Keyword Inspector + Free tools: - Merchant Words - Keyword Tool - Keyword Tool Dominator
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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"It's who we are that defines the business model we choose" – Tweet this!
- 0:14:13 – Opinews
- 0:32:36 – How we nearly got screwed over in China this week
- 0:50:24 – Feature: Should you go all in on one business? Or should you have multiple businesses?
- 1:29:32 – Gameshow: The Price is Wrong
Head over to facebook.com/taketraction.com to discuss this episode!
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This week we've got a great few segments coming up for you:
Opinews In this week’s Opinews:
- The EU is cracking down on US companies, issuing it's biggest fine ever – $5bn... Mr Trump is not impressed.
- Ebay is trying to break into the Japanese market.
- Snapchat has had to quickly shut down its money exchange platform, Snapcash after it was used to sell erotic images.
Feature
Before jumping into the main feature today, we'll be adding to last weeks feature, sharing a story of how we nearly lost $8000 and 4 months of our lives after a close shave with a Chinese freight forwarding company.
Then it's time for today's main feature: Should you go all in on one business? Or should you have multiple businesses?
We'll be discussing the ins and outs of each business model to help you work out which one is right for you.
The Price is Wrong Here's a brand new segment for you guys! Tune in to hear about some of the weirdest things people have sold on ebay and see if Cristian can beat me in today's gameshow.
Links and Resources: * Niche Pursuits – Spencer Haws' blog where he reports everything to do with his empire of small businesses that he runs. If you're interested in building a portfolio of your own businesses, Spencer's got some great content for you. * Jungle Scout – Greg Mercer's Amazon product scouting tool... one of his many businesses.
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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Take Traction For more, head over to taketraction.com
- 0:11:00 – Opinews
- 0:33:57 – Feature – Dealing with Chinese suppliers & not getting screwed over
- 1:35:26 – When Shit Hit The Fan
Head over to facebook.com/taketraction.com to discuss this episode!
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This week we've got a great few segments coming up for you:
Opinews In this week’s Opinews:
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- Amazon Prime Day wrap up.
- Mall For Africa and DHL team up to bring the world a brand new African marketplace where you can buy artesanal products.
- Alibaba boosts its offline reach with a $2.2 billion investment in an advertising firm.
- H&M tests one-day delivery service.
- Media Markt gets sued for saying "product coming soon."
Feature In today’s feature we’ll be discussing our recent experience with Chinese suppliers and how we managed to avoid getting screwed over along the way. We'll go over:
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- How to find new suppliers.
- How to avoid getting spammed.
- How to reach out to suppliers for the first time and how to ask the right questions.
- How to work out if you're talking with a manufacturer or a trader.
- How to use an inspection company to avoid unwanted issues upon delivery of goods
When Shit Hit The Fan Here's a brand new segment for you guys! Today we'll be discussing failures. It's important to talk about failures. We spend so much time hearing about the successes of others that we tend to forget that most successes are preceeded by massive failures. Today Cristian will be sharing a big failure of his that ultimately cost him 6 months of his life and a couple thousand euros.
Had a failure yourself? Come on, you know you have! Share it with us over at facebook.com/taketraction and we'll read it out in next weeks show! Listening to this long after it was published? It doesn't matter! Come and share anyway. We'd love to hear from you and share your story with our listeners.
Links and Resources: * Amazon courses: + My Wife Quit Her Job – Steve Chou created this Profitable Online Store course with great reviews for just $1500. + Ecom Crew – Mike and Dave have created a bunch of useful guides and premium support over at ecomcrew.com for just $79 per month. * Other links: + Alibaba – Source almost any product from China and find the right supplier for you. + Ali Express – Buy individual products from Chinese suppliers... no bulk ordering required. + Asia Inspection – The best investment we've made on our Chinese adventure.
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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Take Traction For more, head over to taketraction.com
0:8:00 – Opinews
0:50:40 – Feature – How to use discounts THE RIGHT WAY
1:30:46 – Game show – Funded or Fake?
2:00:42 – Riddle – If Teresa's daughter is my daughter's mother, who am I to Teresa?
Head over to facebook.com/taketraction.com to discuss this episode and give us your answer!
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Today we're launching a brand new podcast format. After starting the Opinews show on Fridays we realised that we really enjoyed doing a mix of things, not just a feature show.
So we've decided to do exactly that by combining the two together and throwing in a bunch of new segments on top of that. We'll be playing quiz show games, discussing books, creating audience segments and much more.
Stick around to see what new segments we'll be throwing in there and leave us a message on our Facebook page if you have any suggestions.
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This week we've got a great few segments coming up for you:
- In this week’s Opinews:
- Online mattress retailers, Casper, is selling ‘sleep’ in their latest publicity stunt – The Dreamery
- There's a lot of Amazon business going on as always. But could a secret discovery of an integration or even a potential acquisition of Snapchat be real?
- Amazon’s Last Mile program could be a new franchise that supports war veterans.
- In today’s feature we’ll be discussing everything to do with discounts…
- Why you should avoid becoming known as a discount brand.
- The problem with people being too afraid of becoming a discount brand.
- How to use discounts to empower your brand and create sustainable growth.
- Trigger marketing and how it can be used to give a personalised experience.
- Different scenarios that you can use discounts for without it damaging your brand.
- We’ve also got our first game show segment – Funded or Fake? This week I read out 5 ridiculous Kickstarter campaigns as Cristian tries to work out if they are funded or fake. Who will win?
Links and Resources: * Episode #3 – Trigger marketing for epic growth. * Nerd Marketing – Drew Sanoki’s great website for marketing geeks
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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Take Traction For more, head over to taketraction.com
We're back! After taking a couple of weeks off from podcasting we're back with a brand new show. But you'll have to wait until tomorrow for that one. Today we're digging one out of the archives and it's going to make for a great inbetweener show because it's a little bit different from what we normally talk about...
We're consider ourselves to be ecommerce guys. We love it! But... it would be a lie to say that it's all we do. In fact, Cristian and I have worked as freelancers for much of our lives. It's helped us achieve great things, earn a decent living, take control of our lives, travel the world, and most importantly, fund other projects.
Today we're going to dive into why freelancing is a massive opportunity for you to learn new skills that you can apply to any business while you earn money, as well as freeing up the time you need to be able to chase your dream.
What is your dream anyway? Maybe ecommerce isn't right for you. If your dream is to be able to travel more, or just be your own boss then maybe you're barking up the wrong tree.
Find out more in today's show. Enjoy!
Links and Resources: Freelance platforms with almost unlimited work available:
- Upwork
- Freelancer
- People Per Hour
Places to learn new skills:
- Udemy
- Lynda
- Facebook Blueprint (FREE)
- Google Academy for Ads (FREE)
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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It's the 21st century dream right? Galavanting around the world as you earn passive income and have your remote team run your business for you?
Sure, who wouldn't want that.
Side note, perhaps you don't want that. Maybe your idea of success is being able to spend more time with your kids and you have no desire to travel whatsoever. If that's the case then this podcast is still for you.
First of all, let's just clean the slate... never having to lift a finger and earning loads of money while you sleep is a fantasy. It's a great fantasy to have and maybe even one that's achievable for some, but I bet you $100 that it's a fantasy that won't lead you to a fulfilling life.
You shouldn't hate work. You should be able to enjoy what you do. And that's almost just as important as some of the other benefits of working for yourself.
Today's show is going to show you exactly how you can build a business that will help you reach your goals. Whether it's traveling, seeing your family more, or maybe just working like crazy doing something you love, today's show has got something in store for you.
Enjoy!
Links and Resources: * The Four-Hour Work Week – The book that changed the 21st century. * Lynda.com – A great source of information at a very low cost. You can learn almost any sellable skill here. * Udemy.com – Another great place to learn things for cheap. I've learned how to build an entire Amazon business for $29 from here. * Niche Pursuits – Spencer Haws and his amazing niche empire. A great example of how to diversify your entrepreneurial adventure.
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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Trying to come up with new business ideas? How about selling tampons and condoms? Naaaaah, why would you do that?
Well, if you had done that just a couple of years ago, perhaps you'd be where tampon and condom subscription company, LOLA, is today: with $24M in the bank. Maybe it's not so difficult to come up with ideas afterall? The key isn't always in the idea but rather the execution. So stop procrastinating and do that thing you've been thinking about for the past 6 months!
Here's what we've got lined up for you in today's show:
- Tampon and condom subscription company, LOLA, raises $24M in their series B round. That's right... they sell tampons and they're making a load of money doing it.
- Google is adding tools to its search engine service that support brick-and-mortar stores.
- A salad-making robot has managed to raise $11M. Could this be the beginning of the end for chefs?
- Uber brings on Facebook product director to work on their driver app.
- Carrefour partners up with Google to provide deliveries through Google Home. Finally, something useful from these smart home systems!
- And Instagram continues to push its ecommerce features with a new opportunity for businesses.
Tune in to find out more from this week's Opinews!
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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You know you want to create something. You know you want to run your own business and be independant. You know that you've got to get off the hamster wheel.
So where do you begin? There are so many options these days right? It can be pretty overwhelming trying to decide which business model could be the right one for you. Afterall, blogging, affiliate marketing, dropshipping, selling on Amazon, building apps and creating software are all completely valid business ideas that could make you lots of money and give you the freedom you're looking for.
In today's episode we discuss a much better option for you. A way in which you can utilise all of the different business ideas that have ever excited you to build your little empire and live a happier, financially stable, stimulating life.
Enjoy!
Links and Resources: * Onnit - Store for oiptimising your health. Founded and run by Aubrey Marcus, he is also a great example of entrepreneurial diversification. Check out his personal website to see all the things he's up to. * James Altucher - His Ultimate Cheatsheet to Starting and Running Your Own Business
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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It's that time of the week again ladies and gents, and boy have we got some exciting ecommerce news for you today.
Here's what's coming up in today's show:
- Ecommerce sales in india are expected to jump by as much as 31% in 2018 – no surprise really since Amazon and Flipkart are both operating at huge losses just to pump money into ecommerce and try to win the market (Amazon's annual operating loss is USD $750 million!).
- 3-wheeler tractor lawn-mower-looking things are taking over delivery services in major German cities to speed up delivery times and reduce carbon footprint.
- More from Germany... Amazon is the place where Germans are spending most of their time online according to a survey performed by Innofact.
- Are you investing in your prodcut images and videos? Good, how about augmented reality? Well, you should be according to a survey conducted by PushON. Visualisation is massively important for customers and it turns out that 45% of people would be willing to spend more money online if they could get a better idea of what the product looks/feels like.
- Now you can purchase event tickets straight through Snapchat thatnks to its partnership with SeatGeek.
- Patreon has acquired merchandise logistics company, Kit, in an attempt to further advance creators' ability to monetise their work.
That's all for this week. Thanks for tuning in!
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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It's the dream right? Being able to work for yourself so that you can choose where, when and how you want to work...
Well, it's actually not as easy as that. Both Cristian and I have tried all three of these setups and we've learned some interesting things along the way.
In fact, I spent years chasing the dream of working from home and it didn't turn out to be what I expected. At first it was amazing of course. I didn't have to get up to an alarm in the morning. I didn't have to wear a suit. I didn't have to do anything if I didn't want to! But here's the thing, the novelty soon wears off. And you have to ask yourself what you're left with when that happens.
So, if you want to find out what happens behind the glamour of self-employment freedom, tune into today's show as we'll be discussing these three work models in depth.
Enjoy!
Links and Resources: * Wework.com
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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A short and punch round of Opinews for you today. Here are some of the things we've got lined up for you:
- The fastest growing startup in Europe is surprisingly an ecommerce store. And when you find out what they're selling, it will make you realise that anything can be sold online now days.
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Ashton Kutcher is splashing the cash!
- We have an investment into a meat supplies company in the states. Sounds boring right? Well, their business model could be exactly what the meat industry needs for us to start reducing our carbon footprint, looking after our animals better and eating healthier meats.
- He's also made a massive donation to the international favourite, Ellen DeGeneres. But it's not just any old donation... it's a cryptocurrency donation. What could this mean for cryptos?
- And lastly we've got a counter bid from Amazon to buy Flipkart. The war has well and truly begun!
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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Running your own business is HARD. It's a lot of pressure for one person to take. And when one thing goes wrong it can often feel like the whole world is falling apart.
Well, guess what... the world is still here and it hasn't fallen apart yet. But that doesn't make it feel any better when the blues hits home.
So what can you do to avoid the entrepreneurial blues?
Today's episode is without a doubt my favourite episode so far. Happiness is something I've studied a lot in the past few years and after going through some pretty shit times in my life, I've had to devise methods to avoid depression. It's not easy. But believe me, there IS a way. And we're going to be sharing some super important stuff with you in this episode.
If you suffer with burnout, or depression, or whatever you want to call it, this show WILL help you. More improtantly, reach out. Don't be a stranger. Head over to the podcast page on our website and leave us a comment there to let us know how you feel and what you do to try and avoid the down times: taketraction.com/14-avoid-entrepreneurial-blues.
Links and Resources: Onnit – a cool website with a focus on optimization, focus, fitness and all that great stuff.
Own the Day, Own your Life – The new book by Aubrey Marcus, founder of Onnit.
Lumosity – Brain training created by scientists and game designers.
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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It's May 25 and surprisingly, today we're not going to be talking about GDPR. If you wat to know more about it, we did an entire long form episode on GDPR earlier on this week. You can check it out here: taketraction.com/podcast/13-gdpr-wtf
Today we're discussing some of the latest news in the ecommerce world, including:
- Hubspot's new integrations with Shopify and Facebook Workplace. Could this mean a change in direction from Hubspot's previous all-in-one, let's-take-over-the-world, attitude?
- Adobe is acquiring Magento for $1.68B. Will the amazing guys at Adobe be able to bring Magento back from the dead?
- Is Ebay ever going to get with the times? Well, it looks like they might be trying.
- UK ecommerce is going through the roof, with a total of €15.6B being spent online last year, a 13.65% growth!
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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It's time to take action boys and girls. GDPR is here and it ain't going anywhere any time soon.
So, what are you gonna do about it? Are you going to sit back and hope that someone will take care of it for you? Or are you going to get your data in order and avoid a 20 million euro fine? I know which one I'd choose!
Today's podcast is an attempt to deceipher all of the information you've been hearing about GDPR, and what you should be doing about it. Now, I must stress: THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE and you should 100% go and speak with a lawyer or a Data Protection Officer... seriously, you can't afford not to.
Nonetheless, hopefully today's podcast will break things down into layman's terms so that you have a better understanding of what GDPR is and how it's going to affect your business.
Enjoy!
Links and Resources: * GDPR Portal * Useful guide to GDPR from ICO – The UK's Information Commisioner's Office
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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We're back with with your favourite weekly news show – Opinews! Well... it's our favourite at least.
This week shit is going down in our opinion based news. We've got:
- Shopify's new app – Shopify Ping! These guys are changing ecommerce for the better and this app has been long awaited. Finally a way to organise all of you customer communications into one easy chat app. Nice work Shopify! We'll be jumping into the beta test!
- Alibaba's made an acquisition. Whenever a company as big as Alibaba buys another company, it's something you should be paying attention to, but due to other circumstances, this one could be a serious game changer. Asia is going to be the next best thing!
- Coinbase has made its first external investment! And of course it's an investment into a cryptocurrency company. Expect Coinbase to soon be integrating with their new investment, Compound!
- Driverless cars. Texas. July. 2018. WTF! Check out Drive.ai now.
- What the hell is Walmart doing? They've sold a massive UK supermarket chain to chase after Amazon. Are they getting in too deep?
Find out all this and more in today's show! Enjoy.
Links and Resources: * Drive.ai * Shopify Ping * Compound
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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Ecommerce is a pretty wide ranging business model. There are loads of ways you could be doing it.
Ever heard of dropshipping? It's a great way to make money. I have no doubt that you've read a bunch of blog posts about how much money people make from dropshipping and how they never have to spend a penny. It's true... it's pretty amazing.
But then, so is wholesaling and warehousing... selling other people's products. An aggregator if you will. What an a great way to add value to exisiting products. Selecting a niche and pulling together brands from all around the world.
Or maybe white-labeling is the way to go? Afterall, we've all heard about how much money is being made from people white-labeling products in China and selling them on marketplaces such as Ebay and Amazon.
But if you've got a great product idea, surely manufacturing is the way to go? It would be pretty cool to create your own product from scratch.
As you can probably tell, there are a bunch of options you have to choose from when starting an ecommerce business. So where do you begin? Is one better than the other? And how much money do you need to get started?
Find out all this and more in today's show. Enjoy!
Links and Resources: * #10 – Dropshipping Vs. Inventory Management – a previous show where we discuss the ins and outs of dropshipping vs. inventory management. If you're really considering dropshipping you should check out this podcast first. * ecommercefuel.com – Andrew Youderian's website. Andrew is a dropshipping veteran and has built and sold two large dropshipping companies. He has a load of great resources on his website as well as an awesome private community. * Kickstarter.com – Crowdfunding platform to help you raise money for your manufacturing business. * Indiegogo.com – Kickstarter competition... another great platform for crowdfunding.
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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It's all happening this week! And we're back to report on the biggest highlights in ecommerce news.
We've decided to go ahead an make Opinews an official new segment of the show! We'll continue releasing the normal podcast on Tuesdays and now we'll have the additional shorter-form Opinews podcast on Fridays. Consider it a great way to finish the week... get updated on all the stuff going on in ecommerce while listening to two hilariously cool and amazing people. What's not to like?
In today's episode of Opinews we've got some interesting stuff going on:
- Amazon is now delivering to your car. Yes, you read that right. Using their new car key Prime service (available in limited states in the US) delivery drivers will now be able to locate your car and unlock it, leaving the package in the car before locking it again and carrying on with their day.
- Walmart is making a $16 billion attempt to push Amazon out of India by acquiring the Indian ecommerce giant, Flipkart.
- Instagram is trying to go back to its roots of fluid photo browsing by introducing in-app ecommerce payments. When clicking on an ad, users will no longer be taken to another website but rather they will be able to complete their purchase directly from within Instagram, without ever leaving the app.
All this and more in today's show!
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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Take Traction For more, head over to taketraction.com
Funnels. What would we do without them?
They're the heart and soul of digital marketing. They should be part of absolutely every marketing campaign you run at your company. But I can bet you they're not!
Here's the thing: You've heard lots about funnels. You've maybe even got a couple up and running right now. But you still don't realise just how important they are! That's why you need to listen to today's show.
In this episode we're going to be telling you all about funnels and how you should be using them in your business. And it's not even complicated! In fact, if you take the advice from today's show and implement it in your business it will actually make your life easier! How about that for a promise ;)
So, tune out from the world and tune in to The Take Traction Show. Enjoy!
Links and Resources: * Graze.com – A great example of a marketing funnel * Thebeardclub.com (previously known as Dollarbeardclub.com) – Another great example of a marketing funnel * Crazyegg.com – You guessed it... another great example * iTunes * Overcast * Stitcher * Youtube
Amazon has just released the Q1 report for 2018 and it's got some mind-blowing numbers in it. Most importantly what do these numbers mean for the future and what opportunities might be hidden within the report. Find out in todays Opinews!
Links and Resources: * Find the full Amazon Q1 2018 report here. * Find the Q1 2018 earnings conference call with Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky here.
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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To dropship or not to dropship, that is the question.
Here’s the deal, we’ve all heard about dropshipping and how it’s changed the way people do business in the 21st century. Along with affiliate marketing it has become known as one of the most lucrative business models for digital nomads looking to escape the 9 to 5.
People have made absolute fortunes through dropshipping and many ecommerce veterans have experimented with the business model in one way or another.
So what’s the deal in 2018? Is dropshipping still a good option for your new ecommerce business? Or should you be looking at purchasing your own inventory?
Well, fortunately for you, Cristian and I have both run dropshipping stores in the past, as well as managing our own inventory, so today we’re going to go through some of the pros and cons of both sides of the coin. We’ll also be sharing our thoughts on how you can leverage both models at different stages of your business, to make sure you get the biggest bang for your buck.
Enjoy!
Links and Resources: * ecommercefuel.com – Andrew Youderian's awesome ecommerce community * rightchannelradios.com – Andrew's first dropshipping business * trollingmotors.net – Andrew's second dropshipping business * Alibaba.com – Chinese manufacturer sourcing platform * Aliexpress.com – Like Alibaba but no need to order in bulk. Great for dropshipping in order to validate markets * Shopify.com – Our favourite ecommerce hosting platform * Amazon FBA – Amazon's fullfilment service
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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Artifical intelligence. It's what everyone's talking about these days. But unless you're a crazy nerd who's working on an AI project, the odds are you haven't found any way to use it yet. But what about chatbots?
Chatbots are becoming more and more popular these days. In some countries such as China they're heavily dependant on them for making regular purchases. So how are they going to affect you and your ecommerce empire? And should you already be using them?
In today's episode you'll find out about some cool existing chatbots that you can be using to grow your business right now, as well as some speculation on where this whole chatbot thing is going. By the way, it's not where you think.
Buckle in and open those ear holes of yours because you're about to find out all about chatbots.
Enjoy!
Chatbots Mentioned in This Episode:
- Chatfuel – Build Facebook chatbots without any coding.
- Manychat – Same as Chatfuel... competitor.
- Growthbot – Add it to Slack and use it as your personal assitant. Ask it questions and let it do research for you.
- Standupbot – Use it to organise your team by interacting with each member and collecting information from them to find out what everyone is working on and what they have achieved in the day.
- Cleverbot – Just for fun. Chat with this bot about anything. Perhaps the only true AI example from the podcast.
- Kit – A chatbot Shopify app for you, the store owner, not the consumer. Kit is your marketing assistant, creating and running advertising campaigns when needed, and keeping you updated via SMS.
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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It's time for action! By now you've hopefully listened to the last two podcasts on conversion rate optimisation (if not you can find the links below) and learned bunch of things. But if you still haven't taken any action, now's your time to shine.
In today's show we're discussing the CRO hacks that are almost guaranteed to shift the needle and start getting you better results today. That's right, you don't even have to know what you're doing, just take the advice from today's show, apply it to your business and you're bound to start seeing results.
There are no excusses my friend. You've got the tools. Now it's time to put them to work!
Enjoy.
Links and Resources:
-
6 - CRO Part 1/3 - How to beat the competition on Adwords with CRO
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7 - CRO Part 2/3 - Things you should be A/B testing today
- Great example of a funnel - graze.com
- Email marketing tool - Klaviyo.com
- Shopify - How to create a link that adds an item to the users shopping cart and sends them directly to the checkout: /discount/YOURDISCOUNTCODE?redirect=/cart/add&id=123456789&quantity=1
Please Help Us Out:
Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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A/B testing, also known as split testing, is absolutely vital if you want to increase your conversion rates. It's the process of testing two different versions of something to see which one performs best. That's why we absolutely had to dedicate an episode to A/B testing in our CRO 3-part series.
In today's show you'll learn exactly what you should be A/B testing and where you're most likely to get the best results from your campaigns.
Enjoy!
Links and Resources: Best value-for-money A/B testing tool out there (in our opinion) – Fresh Marketer (previously Zarget)
Please Help Us Out: Our podcast content is free, but we just have one favour to ask: If you like the show then make sure to subscribe but most importantly, please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts. You really have no idea how much it helps.
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Today is the begining of a 3-part series on convresion rate optimisation - a.k.a. CRO.
This episode is going to go over a brief introduction to CRO, what it is and how much of a massive impact it can have on your business, before we take a deeper look at how CRO can help you beat the competition on Adwords. By the end of the show you'll have a much deeper understanding for how CRO can affect your chances of winning this game we play.
Enjoy!
Do you struggle when it comes to picking the right tool for the job? The CMS you use. The marketing automation software. Landing pages. CRM. Whatever solution your looking for, it can be difficult to choose amongst so many different options.
Today we're going to shed some light on the difference between all-in-one solutions and custom tech stacks and what you need to know when it comes to selecting the right tool for you. Enjoy!
Everyone talks about email marketing and how important it is, but when it comes to actually creating the emails, it can be kind of difficult to know what to do.
In today's episode we're going to share with you the top 5 most imprtant email sequences you MUST implement for your ecommerce store. These are sequences that we have used time and time again and they generate extra revenue for us every time. Enjoy!
Show Notes:
Klaviyo integrations page - https://www.klaviyo.com/features/integrations
Today's show is all about trigger marketing. Heard of it? You should have! If you've ever had anything to do with digital marketing then it should be part of everything you do. This really is one of the most important things you can ever doing with your marketing strategy so there are going to be some killer takeaways from the show.
Perhaps you've been doing it and you didn't even know! Whatever the case, today's episode is going to tell you everything you need to know so that you can start applying trigger marketing now and 10 x those sales! Enjoy the show.
The topic of todays show is #productivity. Because guess what, staying productive is frickin' hard.
Afterall, you work for yourself, so who's going to tell you to get off your ass and do something. Newsflash, IT'S YOU!
Maybe you work at home... even harder!
Maybe you're a solopreneur and don't even have anyone else working with you... even harderer!
But don't fear, in today's show we're going to be sharing our favourite productivity tools to help you smash it every day.
We're sure you'll find some gems in there that will help you become a productivity machine. Enjoy!
Have you ever wondered how to get started on Google Adwords or Facebook Ads without throwing a bunch of money down the drain?
Believe it or not, there IS a way you can get started right now, with next to no risk!
In the very first episode of The Take Traction Show we're going to show you the exact types of ads you need to be building to reduce your risk and generate massive growth!
Enjoy!