My Ecommerce Story Part 2 - Launching • Scott's Money Machines (2024)

Two weeks ago I wrote a post sharing my story in quarantine and that I am spending my time building an online Shopify store. Now I want to follow up and tell you how that’s going.

So far, so good. I’m ready to launch.

Actually, kinda sorta already launched, but I did not do any marking yet.

I know that’s not the right way to launch because it’s always better to build excitement and anticipation ahead of a launch.

But I’m fine doing it this way because it’s all an experiment because it’s my first ecommerce store. I am treading on new ground, and I know many of you can relate to that.

So last time (read it here) I told you that I have created a niche, made a logo, chosen colors, opened my Shopify account, opened my Printful account, and built out my store.

I also told you that I was ready to start making products and that I chose to design all my products myself (even though that is not necessary – just sayin’).

Now I have a whole bunch of products in my store!

Remember, I’m in quarantine, so there ain’t a whole lot of other things to do.

My products are mostly t-shirts. There are also a few coffee mugs and one tote bag so far.

I will be making more… more of everything already mentioned, as well as other products I am considering.

If you recall from the last article, I have chosen to use POD, or print on demand.

I made this choice because I can run a business without any physical interaction with other people. And that was the whole point of starting a business in quarantine.

Of course, the business also needs to be sustainable after this pandemic blows over.

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Print On Demand

So I want to talk to you a little more about print on demand and what I’ve learned so far.

POD is an automated business model because production and fulfillment are handled by the product printing company.

All I need to do is design my products and market them. That should not be so scary… I’m designing because I like to but you can outsource that. And marketing is just telling the world that your products and your store exists.

So getting back to my POD products, I think I got a lot better designing products as I produced more.

I discovered better ways to choose fonts, use font effects, use of color, contrast, background shapes and images, and a whole lot more.

If you are considering a similar path, don’t delay because you don’t know how to do it, or because you’re afraid it won’t be perfect. It won’t, that’s the learning process.

I’m trying to make the point that you should just get started. You’ll figure things out as you go, as I am.

The print on demand model allows me to design products without actually producing a prototype, thereby keeping the design and production phase costs down – way down.

You see, no product is actually produced until an order is placed.

It is a double-edged sword though…

If you can’t see your product until you order it, then there are chances for error. That’s a fact.

The good news is that the design platform (I’m using Printful) makes it easy to line things up and ensure your designs fall within the printable area of the product. I’m going to try other POD sources as well, but right now I’m just using Printful. I’ll keep you updated.

As mentioned earlier, I’m learning to make better products as I make the designs uniquely my own with the many tools at hand.

For instance, my first t-shirts used basic fonts in black or white (depending on the shirt color). They’re still cool because of my text (content), but now I can do so much better.

Now my designs use color text, shadowing, and textures where I think they’d enhance my design.

And all this in the last two weeks!

If I can do it, so can you 🙂

Launching

I already told you that I have not done a customary launch… all I did was share my announcement on my social networks.

And guess what? I made my first sale… woo-hoo!

I haven’t even done any marketing yet… but that’s about to change, maybe even as soon as today.

I just opened a Pinterest account for my new store, claimed my site, and verified rich pins. But I have not created any boards, nor have I created any pins – yet.

By the time you read this (even if it’s today), that may be different. After I finish this post, I’m getting back to my Pinterest efforts.

That’s it for now…

So that’s my online store, e-commerce update.

Please continue to follow along and I will let you know what I’m doing and how it’s working out.

I still have a lot of work ahead of me.

I have a ton of ideas for new products, as well as new ways to market them!

Wanna see what I’ve done so far? Here’s my store (tell me what you think)

Oh, and by the way, if you like my store and the products I designed, you can make money as my affiliate. Yep, I even set up an affiliate program. So go to my store and sign up… There’s a link in the footer. And it’s free to join.

Moving forward…!

If you like this post, please share it. It would mean a lot to me.

If you have any questions, let me know so I can get you an answer right away

Resources

• Get started with Shopify
• Get started with Printful (print on demand)
• Check out my Shopify store (sign up for my affiliate program – link is in footer)
• I’m Building An Ecommerce Store – Part 1