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