Starting A Zlio Store - Frequently Asked Questions

People frequently ask me questions about starting an online store with Zlio, given that I have authored a number of articles concerning how to start an online / what are the best technologies for starting an online store. To be economical with words, Zlio is an important technology that is changing the landscape of e-commerce by enabling anyone to start their own online quickly and easily, for free. Zlio is helping people to create a wide variety of stores, many of which have a 'niche' focus on something that people are passionate about. I have been using Zlio to run a series a stores since Spring of 2007, and have found the service and experience to be eminently satisfying. My primary store is The Hot Sauce Collector (feel free to take a look), which as you might guess, specializes in selling hot sauce. The following is a first attempt at answering some of the more frequently asked questions that I receive about Zlio.

What is Zlio?

Zlio is a free service for starting an online store that anyone can use to start an online store, for free. With Zlio, you can create a customizable online store that sells products from brand-name merchants like BestBuy, Buy.com, and Barnes & Noble. Zlio users receive a commission on every sale they generate. Additionally, Zlio users receive about half of the Google Adsense advertising that their store generates.

Is It Really Free?

Yes, Zlio is truly free. There do not appear to be any 'gotchas' or catches. Zlio does not ask for a credit card or any other form of payment. In fact, quite to the contrary, Zlio pays its users for setting up an online store.

How Do I Setup a Zlio Store?

Setting up a Zlio store is relatively simple and generally takes about five minutes from start to finish in order to create a basic store. After setting up a username and password, you'll be asked to (1) choose a name for your store, (2) choose a domain name for your store (like http://hotsauce.zlio.com, for example), and then, (3) populate your store with products. Its actually quite straight forward.

To start a Zlio Store, click here.


How Do I Get Paid?

Earnings will accumulate in your account for a period of time prior to being made available or verified for payout that is usually about three months in my experience. Your validated earnings are then available for transfer from Zlio to your PayPal account. About 60% of my earnings have now been validated and are available for transfer to my PayPal account.

Google Adsense earnings will build-up in your Google Adsense account - I believe that the payout threshold with Adsense is ~$50. Google offers several different ways to be paid out, including a check in the mail. Its surprisingly satisfying to login to Adsense and monitor your advertising earnings.

How Much Money Can I Make?

Making money with Zlio is dependent upon how much time and energy you want to put into it, adjusted for your own level of creativity, drive, and ambition. My research suggests that some successful Zlio users can make as much as several thousand dollars per month, while others can earn $50-200 per month (and of course, people that slap together half-baked stores without putting much effort into it all will likely earn very little to nothing at all).

Quite candidly, although its nice to build up a little stash of cash using Zlio, I don't do it for the monetary reward. I LOVE hot sauce, and Zlio provides a great way to express my passion for my hobby. As a hot sauce enthusiast, I can transfer my knowledge and set of experiences into a website that is like an online manifestation of my passion for hot sauce. I would encourage you to think about it in the same way - if there is something you love, that you care about, why not do us all a favor and share your knowledge with the world? Help us out with your advice and recommendations and knowledge! Not suprisingly, stores started under this pretext actually do have a great shot at driving sales and earnings because they are created from a point of strength.

Email in your questions and we'll do our best to respond.

Links:

- Zlio
- The Hot Sauce Collector

Tips For Starting An Online Store

So, the economy is firing on one cylinder, the housing market is in the dumps, and the world is facing an escalating series of challenges that will change the landscape of humanity forever. I'm sure you must be wondering, this new year, how can I finally start to follow through on my entrepreneurial ambition, how can I finally start an online store in a reasonable way?

Step One - Get over your hangups and excuses - you can start an online store. Don't make me write another post leveraging Alec Baldwin to tell you to get your sh*t together (I will if I have to, but I would prefer that you just trust me). Its a brand new year, its a brand new you, and its a brand new opportunity to realize that we are surrounded by a world of infinite possibilities and finite limitations. I don't want to hear about the reasons why you can't start an online store; I want to tell you about the reasons WHY YOU CAN. Much of what we know about the world simply is not true. Ten years ago, there were significant technical and financial obstacles to starting an online store. Today, you can start an online store for free. Today, you can start an online store without having to know how to program. Today, you can start an online store in less than ten minutes using any number of thoughtful services designed to leverage your inherent creativity and talent, like Zlio, or FlyingCart.

We are in living in a world in which much of what we see is just the tip of the iceberg:

Start a Free Online Store

A lot of people are unaware that you can start a free online store. Don't get bamboozled by hucksters trying to charge upfront costs or monthly fees in order to get started with your first online store. Free services are a great way to learn what its like to start an online store. Perhaps more importantly, why shouldn't everyone, every family, have their own online store? Since its free, why not circle the wagons and setup an online store for yourself, family, friends, or just people that share your passion? Since mid-2006, there has been a large, growing armada of quality technologies and services that allow folks to create an online store for free.

One good way to get started is with a Zlio store. Zlio offers a free service for starting an online store that can sell products from Buy.com, ice.com, Gap, and other brand name web merchants. You get to customize the store to your liking with user-friendly templates or HTML if you prefer, based upon your skill level. Each user gets to start up to 20 different stores - so far I've started The Robot Collector and The Hot Sauce Collector. Zlio is a respectable service, run by a professional team, and funded by well-known venture capitalists that invested in Skype.

Zlio pays out cash earnings into your PayPal account in the form of a commission based upon the sales that your store generates from the products that you select and add to the store. Commissions vary from merchant to merchant but seem to be in the range of 3-10% of overall sales. There are a wide range of merchants and products to choose from - in my experience, the selection has struck me as surprisingly large. New products are added all the time, like this remote control lawn mower that I just added to the store.

Additionally, the service gives users 'pay per click' payouts on some of the links on your product pages, which increases the probably of generating some income in any given day. Zlio creates a product page automatically for each product that you add to the store. Each of these product pages attempts to offer your visitors a comparison shopping list of all the merchants offering that product at various prices. So, this comparison shopping engine helps your visitors find the best price and merchant. If visitors purchase the product through the "buy" button at the top of the page, you'll earn a commission. But If visitors click on one of the paid links within your comparison shopping engine, you'll earn a pay-per-click (it's pretty neat, you should check it out for yourself). Finally, users get about half the advertising revenue that their stores generate through a payout into your Google Adsense Account (yes, AdSense accounts are free).

One of the neat things about this experience is getting to check your progress throughout the day, monitoring Google AdSense earnings, checking Zlio earnings, and observing traffic trends to your websites with Google Analytics. With Google Analytics, you can see how many folks went to your store in a given day, and which specific search engine keywords sent visitors to your store(s).

I originally created a Zlio store on a lark in Spring 2007 since it was free, and have now made about $140 in Zlio earnings and $50 in AdSense earnings. As an avid hot sauce collector, I thought it would be fun to start a hot sauce store - even if it didn't sell any hot sauce, it would be a great way to (1) keep track of the hot sauce I already had and (2) contribute to the community by writing about hot sauce and reviewing various hot sauces. Much to my surprise, the store actually began selling hot sauce and generating both commissions and pay per clicks. Users email me from time to time asking questions about hot sauce and which hot sauces to recommend. Additinoally, prospective Zlio users email me to get my take on whether or not they should sign up for Zlio.

Based upon my experience, I am convinced that there is no reason why everyone should not have their own Zlio store. Its free, it works, its fun, and there is no lasting obligation on your part to contribute anything beyond the time you choose to put into it. Don't think of Zlio as something that's going to replace your current income; think of Zlio as something that is fun to do, and that provides an additional passive income stream. There are several stores that appear quite successful selling jewelry and computer electronics to the general public, but there are other folks that are quite content with more niche focused stores that focus on a product category few other stores focus upon. I'm sure some folks are considering adding a Zlio store to their blog, family homepage, or social networking user profile. All things considered, I think that quite a few people could benefit from having their own free online store. Feel free to contact me with questions.

Links in this Article:

- Zlio

- The Robot Collector

- The Hot Sauce Collector

Now In The Future The Past Has Occurred

By The Hot Sauce Collector

When starting an online store, heed these words of wisdom, generously bestowed upon us by the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past From the Future:

"Now in the future, the past has occurred."

Don't be confused by this seemingly contradictory statement - its actually quite straight forward. The past has occurred. Amazon.com has already happened. Buy.com has already happened. And we're not going to make any money by trying to imitate what has already been done. As entrepreneurs, we need to be focused on getting ahead of the curve, anticipating what the market will need in the future and then positioning ourselves to benefit from the cascading series of events leading to said outcome. Don't be confused about where you are in space and time. Take a lesson from Napoleon Dynamite's Uncle Rico - you can't go back. We can only go forward.

Here's a forward-thinking idea: a store focused exclusively on selling robots - like The Robot Collector. Ten years ago, robots were a figment of the imagination relegated solely to exist in movies and minds. Now in the future, significant technological advancements have created a new generation of robots with sophisticated characteristics. There are dancing robots from WowWee Robotics like the second generation Robosapien. There are robots that can do acrobatics like the Robonova. There are robots that can clean your friggin' house and then return to their base station to recharge, like the Roomba Discovery SE from I-Robot. There is even a flying remote-controlled robot dragonfly called the WowWee FlyTech Robotic Dragonfly that can dart around your house. Just imagine what robots will come next.

New ideas for starting an online store are all around us every day. All you have to do is focus on your passions and be aware of the world around you. How about an online store that focuses exclusively on selling Guitar Hero? That's an idea with legs. How about an online store selling Crocs and other footwear of that style rapidly gaining in popularity? Or even start an online store selling solar power products. Did you know that there is a company that makes a solar powered backpack that can charge your i-pod? The future is now. And the underlying technology for starting an online store is free. Just let me know if you have any questions.

Links:

- start a free online store with Zlio

- learn how to start an online store with WikiHow

- get focused on the future with The Robot Collector

Coffee Is For Closers

Blake [Alec Baldwin]: PUT THAT COFFEE DOWN! Coffee is for closers.

This is arguably the most memorable line from the critically acclaimed yet broadly underappreciated film, Glengarry Glen Ross. Allow me to quote IMDB user Adam Malik in order to create some context:

Glengarry Glen Ross contains the greatest performance ever caught on film. Baldwin's role is about six minutes long and you wish it lasted for an hour. He plays Blake, a job motivator who is asked to motivate the rest of the cast to encourage them to sell real-estate, and his motivations and handling of the dialogue just rip the screen apart cause it's just too small for him. The rest of the cast is great and David Mamet writes one of his smartest scripts, but besides how great the cast is Alec Baldwin's performance just blows them all away.

If you want to be successful starting an online store, you should strongly consider watching this movie and paying very close attention to the above mentioned scene. The first important take away from this film is that Coffee is For Closers. In other words, profits are for the people that close the deal. This means that somehow, some way, we need to find a way to get folks to purchase products from our online store. In other words, Get Your Sh*t Together. Get a jacket. Get your website cleaned up so that it looks professional. If your website looks amateur hour, guess what, your sales will follow suit. Having a clean, professional looking website is very important.

The second point is that we want happy customers because happy customers are referenceable and come back for more. In Glengarry Glenn Ross, salesmen have to overcome far more adversity than we do in online sales. They have to convince people to buy things that customers don't really want. We, on the other hand, have the opportunity to give people a great experience by providing products that people crave. By providing valuable information about things that people care about we do a good service for the community and all of its stakeholders. So, rejoice in the fact that you're not a real estate salesperson and take advantage of the unique opportunity in front you to create something that people want.

Here's a link to buy the movie GlenGarry Glen Ross from Barnes & Noble.

Here's a link to start a free a Zlio Store.

And here's a link to our original article, How To Start An Online Store.

How To Get Relevant - Let's Get Searchable

Being relevant on the internet means being searchable for keywords associated with your store's theme and then coming up in those search results. Being relevant requires more than just submitting your site to Google to be indexed. A relevant site is focused and on-topic. A relevant site has useful information about your subject matter that goes well beyond product recommendations and links. A relevant site is interesting and attractive, and a site that has these qualities will naturally attract visitors. In the game of search, success is concentrated in the hands of only a few sites that will garner the abundance of traffic for particular terms. To the victor go the spoils.

I'm going to throw out an overused euphemism and just say "let's cut to the chase." You need to start creating content around your online store's theme that people will crave. Eventually, over time, if you are successful, this content will snowball and evolve into an interesting network or web of information (such as the internet was originally designed for) that will attract visitors and generate traffic for your store.

For example. If you were the Hot Sauce Collector, you might write an article called What Is The Hottest Hot Sauce In The World? That's something that people want to know!

Technorati Profile

Finding the Right Niche For Your Store

Starting an online store is easy. Finding the right niche for an online store is hard. These two factors interplay against and compound upon one another. As the barriers to starting an online store continue to fall, more stores are started, meaning that competition for online sales is generally increasing. The good news is that powerful undercurrents are broadly increasing online sales, and thus the size of the overall market or pie for an online store. The bad news is that now we have to figure out how to pry away our piece of the pie amidst a healthy landscape of competition from other would be entrepreneurs. So, as you can see, it becomes increasingly important to find a theme for our store that will give us an advantage and create operating leverage:



How can I differentiate my store?

Be more specific than the next guy. Consider developing a tightly focused theme for your store, like The Robot Collector. By focusing on a specific theme for your store, you'll offer potential customers a "pure play" on information and products pertinent to that specific theme. This pure play should have a competitive advantage over other websites that are broader in nature, exhibited along several different dimensions that matter. Specificity helps build relevance and gives people a great reason to choose one website or online store over another.

How can I come up with an original idea for my store?

Survey the market opportunity and then focus on your passions. Ask yourself, what am I passionate about? What do I think about in my spare time? How do I spend my disposable income? What are my kids passionate about? What are my hobbies or interests? By focusing on something that you are passionate about you'll have a far greater chance of success because you'll approach the opportunity from a point of strength and credibility. Passion breeds success.

Read voraciously. Pick up a copy of the Wall Street Journal, especially the Weekend Journal and look for ideas. There are hundreds of ideas in any one issue.



Is [fill in the blank] a good idea for an online store?



How passionate are you about this theme or niche? Your level passion is a good leading indicator for success.



How tightly focused is the idea for your online store? Make sure that it is not too broad in scope. More specific is generally better.



How much do you know about the products you'll be selling? The more you know about the products, the greater your ability to assist folks with helpful advice and information about these products. Online purchasing decisions can be challenging and stressful - a trusted source of information could be perceived as valuable by potential customers.