#+title: Notes

* step 1 - select a niche

** lesson 1 - NTRODUCTION TO THE ECOMM CLUBHOUSE (PLEASE WATCH FIRST)
- [[./_share/data/step 1/lesson 1.mov][video]]

Welcome to The Ecomm Clubhouse! It is fantastic to see that you have taken action to change your life by building a real, sustainable business. Please watch this introduction video before getting started so that you can get the most out of our extensive library of training videos.

Having a technical issue? Please feel free to email us at theecommclubhouse@wholesaleted.com or theecommclubhouse@gmail.com – please don’t email any Wholesale Ted YouTube Channel Emails (such as ted@wholesaleted.com) & please note we do not offer 1-1 support (so if you have any questions about the course content, we, unfortunately, cannot answer – sorry! This is so we can keep the membership fees as low as possible) but if you are having issues accessing videos & watching them we are here to help 😀

** lesson 2 - shopify vs etsy (which should you sell with?)
- [[./_share/data/step 1/lesson 1.mov][video]]

For this video, I just wanted to explain why as part of this course in Step 3, you’ll see that I will show how to build two different types of stores.


One is a store with Etsy and the other is a store with Shopify. Initially, the Ecomm clubhouse didn’t start out with any training on Etsy. However, overtime, there was a lot of demand for it.


I have since added in the Etsy store training. But that is the reason why throughout the course that you’re often going to hear me refer to Shopify for videos, even though a lot of the training also applies to Etsy as well. But there’s another reason for that as well. And that’s because I recommend that everybody set up their own store with Shopify. But I don’t recommend that everybody sets up a store with Etsy and here is why.


So, if you’ve never heard of Shopify before, it’s an amazing ecommerce platform for creating a store on your own website and your own domain. So, for example, as part of this tutorial course, I’ll be creating an example store called Brewed Treats, which will be themed around the coffee niche. This will be on its own entirely separate website and URL. Whereas Etsy is a very different platform, it’s an amazing third party marketplace that lets you list and sell products on their pre-existing website.

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[[./_share/media/img/step_1/lesson_2/ex01.png]]

Now, this website gets hundreds of millions of visits from customers each month. So there’s lots of free traffic and customers take advantage of. And because you can only sell products that you design or create on here, it means that the average price that products sell for is much higher than other third party marketplaces such as Amazon or Redbubble.

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[[./_share/media/img/step_1/lesson_2/ex02.png]]

So, as part of this tutorial course, I’ll be showing you how to set up an Etsy store. And when I do that, the example store niche that I’ll be theming it around is the camping and hiking niche.


But here is the thing, right? Because you have to be part of either the product design or creation process. If you’re only going to be dropshipping products from AliExpress, that means that you cannot sell them on Etsy. And that’s because the rule is you have to be a part of the design or creation process. And when you’re just reselling a product fromAliExpress, you have no part of that process. And so if you do try to sell them on Etsy, you will get banned.


Whereas when you set up your own store using Shopify, you can sell products however you like. You can drop ship them from AliExpress. You can use print-on-demand services. You can even sell digital products. And so what that means then is that while Etsy is not for everybody, Shopify is. There’s also something else to keep in mind. Even if you are selling products that you can sell on Etsy, I do not recommend that you only sell them on Etsy. I always recommend that Etsy sellersalso set up their own store.


And that’s because if you come to a product listing on Etsy, you’ll notice that Etsy is advertising other products on its right. Well, that’s the thing. These products often aren’t products that this seller is selling themselves. Instead, Etsy advertises other people’s products on your own listings, which means that you are losing money from people being upsold to other people’s products and not yours. Which is why you can make a lot more money per sale in your own store, since you can upsell customers into buying multiple products at once.

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[[./_share/media/img/step_1/lesson_2/ex03.png]]

And something else that’s important is that when a customer buys an item on Etsy, they will give Etsy their email address, not you. And so it’s Etsy that gets to keep them as a long-term customer and email them products to buy in the future, not you. Whereas if you get a customer into your own store, then you are in control. That means that you can collect the customer’s email address and you can then get them to be a long-term customer of your store through follow up email marketing.


And this is a huge part about how I earn money with print-on-demand through email marketing and creating long term customers that buy from you years to come. That is why I personally believe that if you want to set up an Etsy store, that you should also combine it with your own online store with Shopify. That way you can get to take advantage of the large amounts of free traffic that you can get on Etsy, as they do get hundreds of millions of visitors each month. And you can then place a link to your Shopify store in your Etsy profile. And you can also name your stores the same name so that you can funnel customers from Etsy into your own online store.


And then in Step 4, we’ll be adding in a discount coupon to new customers into our Shopify store. So that means that Etsy visitors who click through to your store will see that it will be cheaper for them to buy directly through you. And this will then encourage them to purchase directly from your store rather than Etsy. And now they become your customer,not a customer on Etsy.


You also don’t have to sell with Etsy if you don’t want to. I know a lot of people would prefer to not sell on a third party marketplace because there are rules and there are also seller fees, and so selling on Etsy is entirely optional. If you’re one of those people, that’s absolutely fine, you can just skip over the Etsy tutorial videos and you can just stick to the Shopify Tutorial videos.


However, if you would like to build both types of stores, that’s absolutely fine. You can set up your Shopify store with my tutorial videos and then you can follow along with my Etsy tutorial videos to create your Etsy store so that you can combine the two together .But don’t worry. You don’t have to make that decision now. It’s just something to keep in mind for later on once you reach the Step 3 videos. So head on over to my next video and I’ll see you over there.

** lesson 3 - how i hack algorithms by choosing a store niche
