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The dynamic duo returns to help answer listener questions. Today we tackle a wide range of topics from how to structure your business joint ventures to what the best sources are for buying and selling eCommerce sites. If you've got questions, Andrew and Drew have the answers. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (With your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and Drew Sanocki of Nerdmarketing.com) Andrew: Welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast, the show dedicated to helping high six- and seven-figure entrepreneurs build amazing online companies and incredible lives. I'm your host and fellow e-commerce entrepreneur, Andrew Youderian. Hey guys, it's Andrew here, and welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in to the show. Today on the show, going back and doing a round of your questions, reader questions from the blog and online, just doing a random grab bag of questions we thought were interesting to tackle. And joining me to really answer all these... Drew: The tough ones. Andrew: The tough ones. I'm going to take all the softballs, Drew, and hand you off all the really, the ones I have been stressing out about. The men, all the hard answers, Mr. Sanocki, how are you doing, sir? Drew: Good. How are you? Andrew: Good, good. Drew, things in New York well? Drew: Things in New York are great. It's getting warmer and spring is just around the corner. Andrew: And you recently sold Karmaloop, correct? Drew: We did. I did not, we did, but yeah, that was a quick turnaround. We bought it out of bankruptcy last summer and just sold it a week ago to a sneaker retailer on the West Coast. Andrew: That's fantastic. Congratulations, sir. Drew: Thanks. It was a great chance to really try out a lot of the things that I preach on my blog, and they work so it was a good case study. Andrew: Yeah, well, you mentioned that a lot of the tactics and things you talked about at your talk at ECF Live which we'll link, well, it's available to all eCommerceFuel members in the community, but a lot of the things from that talk are the things you used to really turn that retailer around. Drew: Yeah, that's right. One of the first things I did was I talk a lot about figuring out who your best customers are and then building the business around that group of customers. And I spent about a month doing that at Karmaloop, and once I figured out who that group was, the next step was really developing the marketing campaigns that kept those customers around, acquired more of them and kept them buying. So that took about a year to implement and it worked. We brought it from a money-losing company, month-over-month losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, to about break even and that's when we sold it. Andrew: That's awesome. Well, congratulations, sir. That's a pretty big accomplishment. Nice little cap in the feather, that's really cool. Drew: Thanks. Andrew: All right, sir. Should we get into some questions? Drew: Let's do it. "In skincare, do you start in-house and small or go straight to China?" Andrew: So the first question we've got is from Matt, and Matt says, "Hey guys, listen to the podcast and love it. I'm looking at starting a store with beauty and face care products similar to Nurture My Body which is Bill's store, but in a different vertical. If you were starting a business like this, would you immediately try to set things up with a Chinese supplier and have them develop formulas for you, or would you do everything small in-house to perfect the formulas first? A little stuck on which avenue is the best to try and pursue." Drew, what are your thoughts? Drew: I don't really know a lot about this kind of production, but it seems like you'd want to do something like this domestically just to figure out the formulation before you deal with sourcing anything from overseas.

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User experience. This phrase has been tossed around a lot in the last few years, but few have actually mastered applying it in all aspects of their business. Most businesses focus on the wire-framing and usability testing, but there are some even easier ways to reel in customers and keep them coming back. Jason Broughton, head of UX for Zappos, weighs in on how to make your website useful, usable, and an experience that will ensure customers will keep coming back for more.   Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (With your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and Jason Broughton of Zappos.com) Andrew: Welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast, the show dedicated to helping high six and seven-figure entrepreneurs build amazing online companies and incredible lives. I'm your host and fellow eCommerce entrepreneur, Andrew Youderian. Hey, you guys, it's Andrew here, and welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Today on the show, talking about UX, otherwise known as user experience, and joined by Jason Broughton, who's the head of UX at Zappos. Zappos, of course, is the very well-known shoe and apparel retailer. Jason's got an incredible depth of experience doing this both at Zappos and a number of other companies. And we dive into what UX is. UX is one of those issues that is a little bit ambiguous, sometimes. What it is, the process at Zappos for improving UX, how data-driven they are, some of his favorite tools. We talk about the future of site usability and what's coming down the pipe in terms of changes, things that are coming down the road, a lot of different ground. So I came away with a pretty substantial to-do list for my own site, and I hope it's something that you find applicable as well. We'll go ahead and dive right in. Jason, UX is a term that gets thrown around a lot online, and I think people are very familiar with what paid advertising is, what web design is, what programming is. But UX is a little fuzzier for a lot of people in terms of what it actually means. Can you give us a sense of what it means to you and what it encompasses? What Exactly Is UX? Jason: Yeah, it's a good question. To me, UX is a lot of the things that you just mentioned, plus it has a lot to do with the usability of your site, the accessibility of the site, and the overall pleasure a customer has interacting with your site. It needs to be both useful, usable, and delightful, and not necessarily in that order, but we try to encapsulate all three of those. If your site isn't useful, no one is going to come to it. If it's not usable, people have a hard time interacting with it. And lastly, if it's not delightful, the loyalty of your product is not going to be what it could be. Andrew: That puts a lot of weight on your shoulders, it sounds like. Jason: It can. Yeah, it does. But we have a great team. And it is a lot of stress at some times. The Most Important Thing to the Zappos Customer Andrew: What is most important to the Zappos customer in terms of user experience? Obviously, Zappos is a brand, is immensely focused on customer service, that's what you guys have built your brand on. But how does that translate into the actual user experience of the web experience, of the website? Jason: Yeah. I think that customer experiences encapsulates all of your customers' touch-points, whether it's over the phone or on the website, or when they un-box to package. User experience is more about the interaction touch-point on the website. So it's when someone's interacting with the website, specifically. And so a lot of the things that we have to worry about, and our users care a lot about, is accurate information from pricing, to being sure that there's trust when they're going through the checkout process, so the usefulness, the usability is quick. And then also,

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Trying to drum up some press for your brand or business can be a full-time job. And with all the effort that goes into trying to get media coverage, how worth it does it end up being for your brand? Today, we're looking at three success stories of landing major press and how each business was affected differently. Join us as we dive into how you can get press for your business and your eCommerce store and what you need to do in order to woo reporters. Even more importantly, we uncover whether expensive PR firms are worth the price and whether you can build a business with one big press mention. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (With your host Andrew Youderian and Laura Serino of eCommerceFuel.com, Kirby Allison of HangerProject.com, Mac Bishop of WoolAndPrince.com, Allen Walton of SpyGuySecurity.com) and Elaine Pofeldt of ElainePofeldt.com Andrew: Hey guys, Andrew here with a quick message before we get started. If you remember from last week we are running an experiment with one of our community members David Heacock to help him decide if he should advertise on the podcast for the Tim Ferriss Show. So we gave him a couple spots on the eCommerceFuel podcast and we're going to follow up and let you know how this pans out, what the response was, what it a success or a flop. Stay tuned for that. David owns FilterBuy.com where he sells high-quality air filters for your home or office furnace that he manufactures and here's three reasons why you should pick one up. First, the air quality in your home or office is probably pretty terrible. Think about it. When was the last time you changed your filter? I know I can't remember either. It's probably been years and years and you've got filthy air floating around giving everyone you love asthma, like I mentioned last time, potentially allergies. Get a new filter. The second reason you should is that David makes this incredibly easy. Go to FilterBuy.com, sign up for a subscription, you get a new filter on a regular basis right to your door. And finally, it keeps away these crazy expensive HVAC repair guys. I had one come to my house, it's astronomical what they charge. He left $500 later and it's money well spent to invest in the longevity of your heating system. So check them out at filterbuy.com/ecommercefuel. You'll get 15%-20% off everything he offers. We'll be following up with the results of this experiment in the coming weeks so stay tuned on how it all turns out. Mac: He said he hadn't washed his suit for an entire year. That got worldwide media attention. So something about not washing your clothes freaks people out, and people want to read it. Andrew: Earlier this year I was starting my morning with a cup of coffee and a copy of the Wall Street Journal when a familiar name jumped out at me. One of our community members Kirby Allison and his business The Hanger Project were profiled in a page one story, right on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. My first reaction was excitement as it's so cool to see someone you're rooting for get major press like this. And my second reaction was one of immediate curiosity. How in the world had Kirby managed to pull off press of this magnitude? Well thats what we're gong to talk about today. How to get press for your business? How do you woo reporters? Are expensive PR firms worth the price and can you really build a business with one big piece of press? Our podcast producer and community manager Laura Serino talks with three of our community members about how they did it and how you can too. Laura: Kirby Allison runs the Hanger Project, a luxury clothing and shoe care line. Kirby has always taken a traditional approach to getting press. He started out by mailing Hanger samples to fashion reporters, and it landed him his very first big break in a column in the Wall Street Journal called "The Catalog Critic,

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The art of sorting out your customers, weeding out the qualified from the non-qualified, is one of the most important skills you can develop in business. There are hundreds of tools out there that claim to help you to weed out these customers, but none as effective as the 80/20 rule. This week AdWords guru Perry Marshall is here to discuss the 80/20 rule of marketing strategies. We discuss everything you need to know about predicting what your market will be spending, getting those higher-ticket sales, and making your mark in your industry. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (With your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and Perry Marshall of PerryMarshall.com) Andrew: Before we dive into the episode, I want to tell you about an experiment we're going to run over the next couple of weeks. One of our private community members David Heacock posted a discussion about asking for advice about if he should advertise his eCommerce store on the Tim Ferriss podcast. And its really expensive to do that given Tim's reach and before he made the plunge and made a huge investment we said well hey, tell you what, what if we use the eCommerceFuel podcast as a little experiment to gauge if potentially it would be a good idea based on the reaction of our podcast listeners, the percentage that listen to the episode and take action and compare to Tim Ferriss' rates and get an idea if this is a good investment. So thats what we're going to do. And we're going to follow up on this after they run to let you know if they worked. Did you guys actually respond? Was it useful? If you have an eCommerce store, should this be something that you consider? Should be kinda interesting. At this point you're wondering what does David sell. David is the owner of Filterbuy.com where he manufactures high efficiency quality air filters for your home furnace. And if you're listening I could tell you to buy one of these filters because it's going to increase the life of your furnace and keep away the $500/hour HVAC guys. I could try to scare you with that. I could also try to scare you by saying hey you've probably got a nasty filter in your home right now, the air quality in your home is terrible and more than likely it's giving all of your family, everyone you love, your young children, chronic asthma and allergies. I have asthma and I'm fairly certain it's because my parents didn't change their furnace filter as much as they should. I could try to scare you about all these things and those things are all true. But I think the most compelling reason for me is that you don't have to make those terrible trips to the home hardware store, where you waste an entire morning or afternoon, you drive across town, you wander around a store, you run into a couple of acquaintances and before you know it, it's been a few hours and $200 later you're finally home. You don't have to do that. David will ship these filters right to your door. And if you sign up with one of his really convenient subscriptions services ever year, or however often you need them, a filter magically appears on your doorstep. No home depot run required. So check him out at filterbuy.com/ecommercefuel. David is going to give you 15% off all his stuff or 20% off all his filters if you sign up for a subscription. That's filterbuy.com/ecommercefuel. Check them out, grab a filter for your home and make it a better environment and be a part of the experiment. We're going to follow up in upcoming episodes and let you know how it worked out. Alright. On with the show. Today on the podcast joined by Perry Marshall who is a fairly familiar name online, and in the eCommerce world, most notably for AdWords. He quite literally wrote the book on AdWords, "The Ultimate Guide to AdWords," which has been one of, if not the definitive guide in the space, and so we do, we definitely talk about AdWords.

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Knowing how to read a financial statement and a few other basics of accounting is vital in an eCommerce business. Without basic knowledge of accounting, you may think you're raking in the cash when you're actually in the red. We're covering everything from the basics of reading an income statement to the ins and outs of your store revenue. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (Wth your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and Bill D'Alessandro of RebelCEO.com) Andrew: Welcome to the eCommerceFuel Podcast, the show dedicated to helping high six and seven figure entrepreneurs build amazing online companies and incredible lives. I'm your host and fellow eCommerce entrepreneur Andrew Youderian. Hey guys, it's Andrew here and welcome to the eCommerceFuel Podcast, thanks so much for tuning in today. Today on the show, extremely gripping topic we've been wanting to cover for a long time. The absolute bare minimum you need to know about accounting. And joining me, an ex-finance guy who is the perfect man to geek out about this. Bill, I'm sorry we don't have whiskey this time to chat but hopefully you'll still stick around until the end of the episode. Bill: I really should have put that in my contract, shouldn't I have? Andrew: Top shelf, $400 a bottle whiskey otherwise I'm not coming back to the show. Bill: That's right, I need whiskey or we'll not record this stuff. I won't hang out with you if we don't have any whiskey. Andrew: To keep things interesting without the whiskey and also, let's be honest, accounting unless you're Bill may not be the world's sexiest topic, we've inserted a couple fun little secondary scenes shall we say throughout the episode. You'll have to listen real carefully to hear them but yeah, just keep your ears perked for those. And Bill, should we get into it? Bill: Yeah, we should get into it. We should call this episode "Front Lines Accounting." The Function of Your Income Statement Andrew: "Front Lines Accounting," I love it, I love it. So Bill there's really three crucial financial statements that you need to know. The income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow statement. And we're going to tackle each of those individually and we'll go ahead and start with the income statement. So Bill, how do you describe the income statement in a nutshell? What is its function and how do you look at it? Bill: The easy way to think about an income statement really is, this is the amount of money that your business made over a certain period. Most income statements you'll see are kind of yearly or monthly. And you in theory could do a daily income statement but I don't think it would be very instructive. So most people will do monthly, will do an income statement and it will show a total for the year and then broken down by month. At the top you'll see revenue and then you will subtract from revenue your cost of goods sold, which is basically the amount of money it cost you to make that revenue. Then you'll have a gross margin, and that's basically the amount of money you have after selling your stuff, the amount of money you have available to use to pay overhead. And then you'll have a section called expenses or sometimes you'll see it called SGNA or selling general and administrative expenses and those are all the overhead expenses of your business, salaries, rent, your subscription to the eCommerce Fuel private members forum, all sorts of things like that go in the SGNA expenses section and then at the bottom you have a number called net income, also or hopefully known as profit and not loss. Andrew: Yeah and it's kind of important to clarify that revenue is equal to sales, revenue is at the very top. It's not how much you make, it's just the gross amount of money you collect from your customers before you pay any expenses. Sometimes you might hear that called top line,

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There are tons of conferences being offered in the world of eCommerce and marketing today, so it can be difficult to choose which one is the best fit for your individual situation. We're a bit biased when it comes to talking up our favorite conference (eCommerceFuelLive of course), but there are a lot of other great options out there as well. Whether you are a big store or looking into selling on Amazon, we break down the biggest and best conferences to help you make the best choice for your business and growth. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (With your hosts Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and Drew Sanocki of NerdMarketing.com) Andrew: Welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast, the show dedicated to helping high six and seven figure entrepreneurs build amazing online companies and incredible lives. I'm your host and fellow e-commerce entrepreneur, Andrew Youderian. Andrew: Hey guys, it's Andrew here and welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Today on the show, we want to talk specifically about events, conferences. There's a ton of different conferences in e-commerce and also just in the online space in general that you can go to. Which ones should be on your radar? Which ones make sense to attend? We want to do a round-up for you and talk about our personal experiences. Joining me to talk about it is a man who's become quite the hot commodity on the conference ticket recently, Mr. Drew Sanocki. Drew, welcome, sir. Drew: Hello, Andrew. How are you doing? Andrew: Good, thanks. You've got all sorts of conference talks coming up. You spoke of course at ECF Live. You're talking at Sellers Summits. You're talking at WooConf. We'll get into all these... Drew: All the big ones. All the big ones. Andrew: Yeah, man. What's the secret to becoming a much-desired name out there? Drew: There's no secret, Andrew. It really is just...it started when I was a kid and just, this was the goal. To speak at ECF Live. Andrew: Are you going to be putting out a course, in addition to your fantastic analytics work, on.... Drew: How to get an amazing speaking gigs? Andrew: Or just how to generate raw charisma, how to develop that. That could be useful. Drew: The great thing about all these is that they make me a ton of money. Speaking fees. A speaking gig can give you, what? Like 10, 20K per gig. Andrew: It can. Is that where you landed on these? Drew: That's what I plan to ask for, for the next ECF Live. Andrew: Nice, nice. Well, we'll see what we can do there. We'll negotiate offline. Drew: Or a free dinner. Andrew: Or free dinner. Free dinner, yeah. We'll land on one of those two, I promise. How are things over at nerdmarketing.com? Drew: We are doing great over at nerdmarketing.com. We're holding down the fort. Keeping the site up. We're in month three now of operation, so it's been a good three months. Andrew: Nice and the podcast has been great so far. I know I've mentioned it, but nerdmarketing.com, the podcast that you've been putting out every week, some really good stuff. Drew: Thanks. Yeah, being on this podcast really helped me get used to talking into a mic. So thank you, Andrew. I owe my podcast to you and I love it. The podcast approach has been great for me, because back when I was trying to write long-form blog posts, they were just killing me. They would take me down for a week and I usually was happy with the final result, but I just couldn't do it because I'd have to make it my full-time job and it wasn't paying me any money. So it was a labor of love and the podcast has just enabled me to get stuff out there easier. Andrew: We'll have to...we were talking about this...hopefully we can bring maybe one of your episodes onto this show in the future. But if you're not listening, really good stuff.

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Crowdfunding is a popular topic and it's one that continues to pick up steam as bigger companies and cooler products get launched on platforms like Kickstarter. And we've finally discovered the secret sauce of crafting a killer Kickstarter marketing plan from start to finish. Jason Feinberg, founder of FCTRY, is here to talk about the Kickstarter Holy Grail: getting funded in under a day. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (Wth your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and Jason Feinberg of FCTRY.com) Andrew: Welcome to the eCommerceFuel Podcast, the show dedicated to helping high six- and seven-figure entrepreneurs build amazing online companies and incredible lives. I'm your host and fellow eCommerce entrepreneur, Andrew Youderian. Hey guys, it's Andrew here, and welcome to the eCommerceFuel Podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Today on the show I'm joined by Jason Feinberg, a friend of mine and the founder of FCTRY.com, which is a brand that sells a bunch of really unique toys, interesting products, like Unicorn Snot, and is really well known for their line of political action figures. Jason and the team has released, I think, a McCain action figure, an Obama action figure, Hillary Clinton, and most recently the Bernie Sanders action figure which was funded incredibly quickly, in like eight hours. It has raised more than $200,000 on Kickstarter. It's done really well and Jason knows this stuff, having done three campaigns, seeing a lot of success with Kickstarter. He actually built a custom template cheat sheet for our private forum members on how to do this stuff. He's an expert, and that's what we're going to be talking about today, how to build a Kickstarter marketing plan that gets you funded quickly. Without further ado, here's my conversation with Jason. I hope you enjoy. Jason, so what's the quick and dirty about how FCTRY came to be? Jason: FCTRY started in 2006. Actually Jailbreak Toys was the original name. At the time I was working as an English teacher and trying to figure out what I could do with my life, and I had studied sculpture in college, and I came up with this idea where I was like, I don't want to try to sell sculptures to people, but instead of trying to sell one sculpture for $5,000, I was like, what if I could sell $5,000 sculptures for $1? That was sort of the epiphany moment that led me to starting the company. Andrew: So it's like the Costco model for sculptures. Just sculptures in bulk. Jason: More or less, yeah. It was this different idea. Everyone thinks art has to be expensive and inaccessible, and I was like, I think I can do this differently. That was just sort of a jumping off point for making cheap art. Creating Action Figures for Adults Andrew: FCTRY sells a ton of really cool stuff, very interesting, fun, creative items, but what you've had a lot of success with as well is the action figures, the Obama action figure, the Clinton, Bernie Sanders. Was that what it started with? Or did you start doing other toys and then kind of the action figure thing came out of that? Jason: It started with a line that preceded the Obama action figures. I'll take you back through it. It's a fun story. I had the idea for the company in about 2003 or 2004 initially. That was when I started, "Hey, I'm going to do this," but then as I'm sure plenty of people can relate to, it took me about four years until I actually got to the doing part. So I knew I wanted to make an action figure for sort of a niche market, and that I couldn't afford to pay any licenses, and those were sort of my criteria. I had to find something that people would be into that I didn't have to pay for. Andrew: One of the things I really want to do a deep dive on is Kickstarter marketing, because it's something you've had a lot of success with, but last question before we get into the core topic,

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Today's episode comes to you from the road. As eCommerce entrepreneurs, flexibility is one of the biggest perks of the job. But how easy is it to pack up the family into an RV and head south while trying to stay on top of your business? Hop into the passenger seat as we dive into what it takes to hit the road, spend time with family and turn an RV into a mobile office. Today, I share my personal experience on the road, away from Montana, while trying to get meaningful work done, as well as the biggest lessons I’ve learned from this incredible experience. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (With your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com) Andrew: When I sat down in January to plan out my year, one of the first things to make the list was not to be in Montana on March 15th. It's a great state but the springs can be a little cold and miserable, and so our family decided to get out of town and spend a month in Morro Bay, California. Today on the eCommerceFuel podcast, I want to take you along on that road trip for a number of reasons. I want to take you down to our eCommerceFuel meet-up that we had in southern California, take you inside the recently Shopify Unite conference that I went to and give you some of the takeaways from there and some of the please I met, but ultimately I want to answer the question: can you get real meaningful work done on your business from the road, even if you have a family in tow? Let's find out. Hitting the Road in the VW Van Andrew: We decided to drive down and the vehicle for the trip is my 1990 VW van. You may have heard me mention it before. It's a little house on wheels I bought probably for like a quarter-life crisis when we had our second daughter and I was convinced that we'd never leave home again. But a vehicle I've always loved. It's a little van that seats four people. It sleeps four people with a couple of beds. It's got a fridge, stove, sink, a couple tables, a heater to stay warm at night, and a sliding door that sounds like a guillotine from the French Revolution. The drive from Bozeman to Morro Bay was almost 1,300 miles, which is really equivalent to 10,000 miles if you're traveling with kids, as anyone with kids will know. You've got bathroom breaks and other miscellaneous stop required every 20 miles. And in a van, you try to stick to the side roads because the interstate just isn't that fun. The van's already noisy. You usually max out at about 65 miles per hour or 50 miles per hour if you're going up hills. So on the interstate when people are screaming by you, it's not that fun. So we slated five days to travel down. We stayed with friends the first night and camped in Utah, Nevada, and California the next three nights. And I think my first lesson takeaway from being on the road is that you've got to have a core team in place for the times that you aren't going to be able to work operationally. I can't imagine trying to get away. We were camping, which is a little bit tougher, no cell service, but even just in transit, driving and airports, it's really hard to meaningfully run the operations of your business. So lesson number one, if you want to do this kind of thing, you've got to have a core team in place, which I've been blessed to be able to have some great people come on board that I can trust. Getting close to California, we of course had to go through Nevada which beautiful but incredibly lonely place. We went hundreds of miles sometimes without seeing really any other meaningful signs of civilization. Fortunately, we had DJ Claire to get us through some of those lonely stretches of road. Claire: [club music] Andrew: What do you think about the desert out here? Claire: I love the desert. Andrew: Should we camp out here like gypsies forever? Or should we go to the beach? Claire: Go see the beach. Andrew: All right.

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eCommerce entrepreneurs can be a misunderstood bunch. Sometimes it's the people that know us better than anyone else who can't figure us out – our parents. Today on the show, we talk to a few eCommerce entrepreneurs and their mothers to really dig into how well their parents really know their kid's business. What they say might surprise you! Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher With your hosts Andrew Youderian and Laura Serino of eCommerceFuel.com, Freddy Lanksy of iChess.net, Nathan Rothstein of ProjectRepat.com, Kevin Stecko of 80sTees.com (and their Mothers) Lucy: My technical knowledge is, let's say making a graph, is still below zero, but is going higher. Freddy: I think it's better than some of our customers. She can figure out how to open applications or send an email. It's not that bad. Lucy: Hey, come on, I'm far more advanced than that. At least partly. Freddy: Okay. Andrew: Welcome to the eCommerceFuel Podcast, I'm Andrew Youderian. We e-commerce entrepreneurs can be a misunderstood bunch and sometimes most so surprisingly among a few of the people that know us best in the whole world, our parents. If you asked your parents to describe what you do, how close or perhaps comically off the mark would their answer be? Some of them would have no problem describing what you do fairly accurately while others probably couldn't find your store's website online if they had to. So today on the show, how well do parents of e-commerce entrepreneurs really know their kid's business? And it's brought to you by our podcast producer here, Laura Serino. One quick note, despite my handing the reins to Laura much more frequently over the last two to three weeks, not planning an early retirement on my side. You will definitely be hearing more from Laura in the future. But I've been on the road the last couple of weeks and we'll be back in full force next week and hopefully with an upcoming episode about I've been up to on the trail. Here's Laura with today's episode. Freddy Lansky of iChess.net and his Mom Lucy Lucy: This is Lucy Lansky. I'm Freddy's mom, I'm originally from Argentina after 36 years I'm still talking...I sound like a newcomer. Laura: Freddy Lansky is the co-founder of iChess.net, a chess enthusiast website that specializes in digital chess products and videos. His mom Lucy is not surprised that he ended up running an online business. Laura: Does he ever talk to you about work and what he's doing? And when he does, do you understand what he's talking about? Lucy: Well, the first question as far as sharing with me what he's doing, the answer is not too much. And as far as understanding what he's doing, the answer is again partially. I used to know more about or understand more what he was doing. Right now, I know very little as far as what he actually does. Freddy: I think as business grows, there's more aspects and elements and things that I'm doing that, if you're not a marketer or an online business owner, it's kind of hard to explain. So I'll have to just say it in general terms like, "Business is good," "Business is not so good this month." I don't get into marketing nerd talk with my mom because I don't think she'd really know what I'm talking about. Lucy: Why don't you try? Freddy: Okay, I can try. Lucy: Just to see how stupid I can be. Freddy: Okay. Laura: I have a feeling you'd catch on quickly, Lucy. Freddy: Yeah, maybe we'll train her. [laughter] Lucy: I still hope that eventually he'll settle somewhere. That's all I have to say about that. Nathan Rothstein of Project Repat & His Mom Ana Ana: When he started Project Repat, he told us he starting to help this guy he met at graduate school. It was, "Oh, okay, fine." We just listened and learned pretty quickly that we needed to just listen. And now yes, of course, we ask questions,

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After almost 150 episodes of the eCommerceFuel podcast, our topics have run the gamut. But one very obvious topic we've yet to tackle? The story behind why Andrew Youderian and frequent co-host Bill D'Alessandro got into eCommerce in the first place. The path to success in eCommerce can be a long and bumpy one. Sadly, many people give up before they bring their visions of starting an eCommerce business to reality. Hopefully, this episode will inspire any of you with thoughts of giving up, to understand that starting an eCommerce business doesn't happen overnight. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (With your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and Bill D'Alessandro of RebelCEO.com) Andrew: Hey guys. A quick note before we get started about one of our private community members. Jason Feinberg from FCTRY is releasing a follow-up to his highly successful Bernie Sanders action figure over at TrumpVader.us. I think the domain pretty much says it all but if you enjoy creative, interesting eCommerce projects or the media spectacle about the U.S. election so far I think you'll get a kick out of it. Again, check it out at TrumpVader.us and stay tuned for more from Jason in a future episode. Alright, onto the show! Welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast, the show dedicated to helping high six and seven-figure entrepreneurs build amazing online companies and incredible lives. I'm your host and fellow eCommerce entrepreneur, Andrew Youderian. Hello and welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast. I'm your host Andrew Youderian, and a special edition of the podcast today. Normally I do this with a guest, and very frequently one of my favorites guests, Mr. Bill D'Alessandro, but normally he is across the entire country from me, not sitting right across the table from me sipping some whiskey here in Bozeman, Montana. Bill: Yup. So I made a flight out and we are doing eCommerceFuel podcast live from Bozeman, Montana from eCommerceFuel headquarters. Andrew: And we were both commenting just before we started how we both look like 70s-style talk-show hosts with the super cool microphones and the headphones. We do not look very cool in this. Bill: I don't know, we'll leave that up to the listeners to decide. So we just took some stupid pictures, so we'll post them in the show notes for everybody to laugh at us. Andrew: But hey, cheers! Bill: Cheers, man! Thanks for having me. Andrew: Yeah, good to have you here in Bozeman, and you're in town...we hit up Big Sky to do some skiing over the weekend. Bill: Yeah, it was awesome! Came out for some skiing at Big Sky. I've not only never been to Big Sky, but never been to Montana. So this is my first time in Montana. I'd heard awesome things, so flew in on Friday and then we headed up to Big Sky to talk business, ski, it was awesome. Had a hell of a day skiing on Saturday. I hung out at the house on Sunday, talked some business, and now we're back in Bozeman to do our podcast, and Andrew has provided me with some delicious 100 proof whiskey that I hear we have his brother to thank for. Andrew: Yeah, thank you, Chris. This is good stuff. Man, you're a great skier yourself, man. Bill: Six years in Colorado helps. Andrew: Yeah, helps a lot. So we were thinking it'd be fun in our first in-person podcast...we've never really talked about how we got into business. Like how did we end up here? The paths and the stories that brought us to eCommerce, to where we are today. And thought it'd be kind of fun to explore those, and want to try and be a little bit tactful and considerate of people not wanting to hear our entire life story over the course of six hours, but it'd be kind of cool to share because I don't know if we've ever done it on the show. Bill: Yeah, we've been talking about all kinds of specific things but we never really talked about how you can go from...

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We were inspired by one of our favorite podcasts, Start-Up, to kick off a new series this week. Over the course of the next year, we'll be following Kyle Goguen, founder of Pawstruck, to see what it's like for a successful business to try and take their company to the next level. We'll be checking in with Kyle every few months to see if he's ticking all the boxes off his 2016 "to do" list. Today Kyle lays out his key goals for 2016 along with his worries about the coming year. Join us as we chronicle both the highs (and hopefully very little lows) over the next twelve months. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (With your hosts Andrew Youderian and Laura Serino of eCommerceFuel.com and guest, Kyle Goguen of Pawstruck) Andrew: Welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast, I'm Andrew Youderian. A lot of time on this show, and in the business world in general, we tend to look at businesses in the rear view mirror, at their past and their successes. But there's something really interesting and exciting about following a business in real-time when you're not sure what's going to happen. Take for example Start-Up by Alex Blumberg, one of my favorite podcasts. There's something I really respect about someone who's willing to put their goals on the line publicly as they chase them. I think that's really admirable. In today's episode brought to you by Laura Serino, our producer here, we've got something that combines a little bit of both of those, so I hope you enjoy. Kyle: Hi, everyone. My name is Kyle Goguen, and I own Pawstruck.com. Pawstruck.com sells healthy, natural dog treats and chews and food online direct to consumers. We've been in business about a year and a half now, started in June 2014. Laura: Kyle's a member of our eCommerceFuel community, and I first met him last year at our live event in Nashville. Kyle's motivated, successful, driven, and he's only 25 years old. He first got his start selling online where lots of people from his generation did, on eBay. When he was 16, he responded to an ad on Craigslist from a guy looking to hire someone to help him list items from his garage. Kyle's Story Kyle: So I found the job, I responded to the guy, we set up an interview, and then I told my parents. And as you might imagine, my parents were questioning exactly what I would be doing and where this was and who this person was that was hiring me to basically sell stuff on the internet. So my dad in a very parental, embarrassing way, kind of forced me to let him come with me to the interview, and he forced his way there, I guess, and he made me let him meet my boss, I guess. So it was a very awkward interview, having my dad there asking questions as well. But once we got through all of that, yeah, basically I would go out this guy's...he kind of had a warehouse, and we would just look through all the electronics, and I would pick and choose what I wanted to list for that day, and I would take out a camera which happened to be a camera that we pulled from the inventory, take photos, upload them, and list anything I wanted, and whatever I sold, I would make commission on it. It was definitely an interesting first job, very different than anything any of my friends were going through, but it was really nice kind of learning this skill, and also it was very flexible. As much as I listed was as much as I was going to make, and if I didn't want to work I didn't have to, or if I wanted to work more, I could. So it was really up to me as to how much I was listing and selling. Laura: Kyle continued to sell on eBay into college to make money. In his graduate program, he was taking an entrepreneurship course, and for his project, he decided to use the pet industry as a model. As a dog owner, he was hearing more and more backlash about products that were making animals sick, and he saw the need for more U.S.

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It's everyone's new favorite social media platform and for some business owners, it's a gold mine. Lily Jade is a multi-million dollar diaper bag business and they've generated seven figures alone through Instagram. eCommerceFuel community members and founders of Lily Jade, Landon and Meggan Wood, along  with their Instagram manager, Ashley McGleary, share the secrets behind using influencers and creating engagement to create buzz (and lots of sales) using Instagram. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (With your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and guests, Landon & Meggan Wood and Ashley McGleary of Lily Jade ) Andrew: Hey, hey, guys, it's Andrew here. And welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in to the show today. And on the show, we're talking Instagram today, and specifically, how do you generate seven figures in sales from Instagram? And my guests have done that. Not only do that they have a multi-million dollar business, and have done well with Instagram, but they've generated seven figures in sales just from the Instagram channel itself, by their own estimates. A really impressive story. And the owners, who are eCommerceFuel community members, I had the chance to meet them at ECF Live last year in Nashville, Landon and Meggan Wood, and they've got a really incredible story. And we're...we have them on, and we're also joined by their, kind of a Instagram manager. She heads up their Instagram team at the company, Ashley McClearyan. And talk tactics. How do you make this work? We talk about the early days, how they got going, how they got their 1,000 followers. We talk how much you should expect to spend when you paying for influencers to share your things, based on how many followers and how much engagement we have. We talk about how you should put together an engagement letter when you have people that you're paying sponsored posts for, to make sure they present your brand in a way that actually gets engagement and represents you the way that you want to be seen. And we talk about that, and a lot of other things in today's interview. So, I'm going to go ahead and get the intros brief as possible, and let's go ahead and jump right in to discussion with Landon, Meggan, and Ashley from Lily Jade. In Search of a Great Diaper Bag Andrew: So, Meggan, you were mentioning that you've only been doing this for a couple years. I think like, October of 2013, you and Landon and the team there, and...which, really surprised me, given the quality of the business of your line of products, and what you've been able to accomplish since then. So, was LilyJade born out of just, your need for a good diaper bag? Meggan: Yeah, actually it was. I'm a mom of two little girls, and when I had my second daughter, I looked at my husband and said that one day I wanted to design a diaper bag line that did not look anything like a diaper bag, and that had multiple functions, just as a great coat, and that had an organizational component that would help keep moms and women and business women just organized. Help their lives run a little bit more efficiently. So, yeah. Andrew: I think this is the kind of thing where you don't really realize how valuable that is until you have kids. Because we have a couple girls now, and when we had our first, my wife got a...she got something...not a...she didn't know about Lily Jade, but she kind of got a nicer, higher end designer bag, because she uses it so much. Meggan and Landon, of course, you guys are married, for people who may not be aware of that, just listening. But, have you been working together since the beginning of the company, and what are your different, respective roles within Lily Jade? Landon: Yes, we have been working since the beginning of the company. I think that we work well together as a team.

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If you can't beat them, join them. Amazon FBA is a natural next step to help you grow your business. But sending out your first shipment can be ripe with potential problems. On today's episode, we've got a novice and a pro weighing in on the intricacies behind FBA, including the differences between a UPC, FNSKU, and an ASIN, along with expert tips for optimizing your FBA experience and nailing it right from the get go. Subscribe:  iTunes | Stitcher (With your host Andrew Youderian of eCommerceFuel.com and Bill D'Alessandro of RebelCEO.com) Andrew: Welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast, the show dedicated to helping high six and seven-figure entrepreneurs build amazing online companies and incredible lives. I'm your host and fellow eCommerce entrepreneur, Andrew Youderian. Hey, hey, guys, Andrew here and welcome to the eCommerceFuel podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in today. And today on the show, talking about how to not screw up your first inbound shipment to FBA, something I don't have any experience with. I've got a shipment of goods coming in that I'm going to be sending to FBA for the first time and figured who better else to grow with questions about this, for my own benefit and hopefully yours as well, other than Mr. Bill Dalessandro, the man behind Rebelceo.com and Elements Brands. Bill, how's it going? Bill: It's going well, man. It's great to be back on the show, as always. Andrew: Yeah. I feel like it's been...I don't know if it was just the holidays or the New Year, but I feel like it's been a while. Bill: Yeah, the ECF Live and holiday hangover. It kind of all ran together. Big Goals for 2016 Andrew: Quickly before we jump into this one, any big plans for 2016? Or did you like sit down and have a big kind of pow wow with yourself to really plan out the year? Are you big on the New Year's resolutions things? I know we're talking about this much after the New Year, but... Bill: So I'm not big on the New Year's resolution thing, but I am big on planning for the year and setting goals. So I sat down with all my employees. We're trying something new this year, and we're doing bonus programs. So we sat down with all the employees, and I set six goals for each of them for the year. I set up a bonus pool of 12% of each of their salaries, and each goal was worth 2% of their salary as a bonus. So everybody has sort of six goals for the year for 2016 hanging above their desk, and if they hit all six goals they get a 12% bonus at the end of the year. So as a way, something new I'm trying this year to...and I made some of the goals were monetary. They were hit a certain number. For my salesperson like a certain number in wholesale sales, or for my eCommerce marketing manager a certain amount of website sales or a certain number of new accounts, new products in stores, or getting a new website launched. So some were monetary, some were more kind of projects that needed to be done. Like we're implementing a new shipping and inventory system. Things like that. So like getting that launched was a goal for my warehouse manager. I basically looked at this list of all these things and said, "Man, if all like 20-something of these things are done by the end of the year, I'll feel really good, and it'll be easily worth me paying everybody a 12% bonus." Andrew: Nice, very cool. One thing we did this year, at least on the eCommerceFuel site was tried to focus more. I mean, we've got kind of this dashboard across all of our businesses with a myriad of different metrics. You could come up with 100 probably metrics you could track for a business, if not more. We tried to focus in on three metrics this year. One that was like the overall king metric, and two other kind of secondary ones, but be able to... Bill: What are they? Andrew: For eCommerceFuel, they are the biggest one that we're focusing on is new mem...

The Affordable Care Act has been in effect for five years now. We decided to check in with small business owners to see how well it's worked for their families and employees. Today we're hoping to answer this question: is it possible to find affordable heath insurance for your small business under ObamaCare?

Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1LIzKjr

In this wide-ranging conversation, we talk about Kickstarter, Amazon, creating proprietary products, as well as a plethora of other eCommerce-related topics. We wrap up the show with some trivia to see how well Lars can remember some of the things that he may or may not have shed light on in terms of funny stories and comments in the forum.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1QdUNLL

Jason brings a unique perspective to our tribe of independent 6 and 7-figure merchants and shares some takeaways that we can glean from some of those bigger organizations. He shares a lot of great insights on the future of eCommerce and talks about some of the innovative things that retailers are doing today. Jason also shares some predictions about what may happen with mobile, messaging commerce, and Amazon.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1SxkugX

This episode is a prime run of all things storytelling for your business from a guy who has the background and authority to speak on the topic. Michael and I chat about how you can use storytelling to grow your business, build your brand, and connect with customers. Don’t miss Michael’s gems about what goes into building a good story and the exact formula for writing compelling stories to help you promote your brand and your products.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1ny7ha8

Jeff is here today to talk about how he created Ugmonk and infused it with his personality and style.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1KwEKqG

Today, we take a slightly opposite approach to an often-discussed topic - instead of talking about how to find a mentor we dig into the ins and outs of being a good mentor in business. Tune in to check out our reflection on our experiences with mentorship as well as our best tips for being a great mentor.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1SWJxbW

The author of the New York Times bestselling book, Essentialism (one of my top book picks for 2015), Gregory McKeown, joins me on this episode to help answer those questions. Greg shares some key concepts outlined in his book and imparts some game-changing advice that you can start applying today to become more productive and efficient in your life and business.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1OjdlKv

If you’re in the eCommerce field, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Peep Laja from ConversionXL.com, one of the most respected conversion blogs online. I invited Peep to join us on the eCommerce Fuel podcast to discuss some of the best practices for increasing your eCommerce conversion.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1RheCGh

On this follow-up, Clayton and I chat about how things panned out – did everything go well, did things fall apart and so on. We dive into what it’s like to buy your first eCommerce business, as well as how TrollingMotors.net is doing now, what has changed since Clay’s purchase of the store and the biggest “a-ha” moments of the process.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1QSOJh8

Apart from being a great eCommerce writer on Medium.com, Andy is the founder of Bonobos.com, a menswear clothing online store that he’s grown into a highly-respected company over the past few years. We chat about how Andy got started and his experience in men’s clothing space. And, he also shares some stories from his own experience.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1mtA4MV

If you haven’t heard this interview with Michael before, or even if you have, then you are in for a real treat. While I first aired this interview over two years ago, the incredible knowledge and lessons that Michael shared with me is still something I know all of us can learn from and use in our businesses today. Enjoy!

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here:

http://bit.ly/1Z9c3Zu

Joining me to talk about our top 10 favorite (or perhaps only) books from 2015 is the man behind NerdMarketing.com, Drew Sanocki. This year we have a good mix of business, personal development, diet and fiction books that you might want to check out if you’re looking for a next good read.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1OmlLjJ

The man who’s currently recovering from frostbite after standing in line all night looking for Pokémon deals on Black Friday, Bill D’Allesandro of RebelCEO.com, is here today to help answer those questions. Here are some tips for optimizing your eCommerce business for Black Friday and Cyber Monday and, ultimately, making them the best sales days of the year.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1Nc8ryd

Joining me on this Q & A episode is none other than the Oracle of Time Square, the man with all of the answers, Drew Sanocki of NerdMarketing.com. We dive into a wide range of topics from why certain markets aren't great for eCommerce and what the best Shopify apps for analytics are, to whether Drew's dreamy salt-and-peppered look is natural.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1MDiXSi

This episode features Mr. Drew Sanocki’s talk from the recent eCommerce Fuel Live event. He talks about the best practices for finding and attracting those customers that can drive a huge part of your business and really growing by focusing on and delivering value to those folks.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1X57dPg

Bill joins me today to discuss which shipping carriers will save your business the most money. We look at the strengths and weaknesses of each carrier and what you need to do to negotiate the best possible deals.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1LZ5fYo

Finding the answers to those questions can be considerably overwhelming for entrepreneurs, so today, joining me to tackle the salary topic is Bill D'Alessandro from Rebel CEO. We cover everything you need to know about the topic from paying yourself a salary without starving your business to separating your business and personal financials, as well as the rule of thumb for reinvesting your profits.

Get full show notes and more information here: http://bit.ly/1kf0Rf3

Today, we are diving into the anatomy of a perfect business... The business you would create in an ideal world where you were you able to wave a magic wand and anything you wished would come true.

What would it look like? What would be the different components of your business that would maximize profitability, minimize the headaches and create a continuous stream of customers.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1Q244KK

In today’s day and age, the previous option of being able to thrive in ecommerce based solely on reselling items is quickly coming to an end. As eCommerce is becoming more and more competitive, the need for new and unique products is becoming an absolute necessity.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1MSTDUC

This week, as we are just recovering from ECF Live, Bill and I recap our favorite moments from the event. If you didn’t get the chance to go, or even if you did, this episode covers some of the highlights that made the event an incredible success.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1ZOVsv9

Fraud prevention can be a tricky road to travel. So how do determine which order is a possible fraudulent order?

Listen in as we talk fraud prevention techniques. And while they are never 100% foolproof, they can surely help you make decisions that could save you thousands

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1L5ppke

Growing the marketing plan of your eCommerce business can be a difficult task, especially if you are a first-time entrepreneur. Knowing the right steps to take can be daunting even for an experienced business owner, but, with help, you can navigate the tricky steps to marketing success.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1FyJcIg

Growing your business alone can be a daunting task; one thing that entrepreneurs can do to alleviate the stress of the workload is outsource different aspects of their operation. From hiring freelancers to hiring a warehouse to store and ship your products, outsourcing can become a huge part of your business.  While I outsource a large amount of my business, I have learned, as most entrepreneurs will over time, that some things just have to be kept in-house.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1JfYBIk

Ben Camerota joins me today to share his experiences with the B2B sales world, both in the traditional, corporate world and in his own businesses. We take a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of B2B sales and get an inside look at how to set up your business and your team for business-to-business sales. In today’s episode, Ben shares his methods of harnessing the potential that B2B brings to ramp up your order size, overall volume and profits.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1UOwmHw

Debt. As an eCommerce business, that word can either be singularly the most terrifying word or a powerful business tool. Depending on your beliefs and willingness to take on extra debt, you can learn to harness it to grow your business faster than ever before.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1LbAxrM

Drew Sanocki joins me to talk about how to pick a service agency to help you run and expand your business. We have both had the good, the bad and the downright ugly experiences in the past and have learned some hard lessons. We share our methods of finding, evaluate and hiring an agency that will become one of the greatest investments you have ever made in your eCommerce business.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1JsBP3z

I knew that I had to talk with David after hearing his story in the forum, not only as a vagabond but as a formidable eCommerce entrepreneur. He was able to create a huge Facebook following, along with several successful eCommerce stores. David shares his tips for creating a strong, engaged audience and talks about how he runs his businesses while seeing the world has to offer.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1PssRot

In the world of Amazon Prime, free shipping has become an expected standard for most online shoppers. For most of the bigger retailers, this does not pose any significant threat to their bottom line. But how can the smaller eCommerce owners compete in that environment? Shipping has been a topic that we've discussed briefly in the past, but today, we are talking about how you can offer free shipping as a merchant, without absolutely murdering your profitability.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1gKQgGa

China... Just the mention of China can bring up varied reactions from most people. A lot of people may think of China as over-populated where most of their products comes from and culturally, as a bit of an enigma. But to those of us in the eCommerce world, China is incredibly relevant, with boundless opportunities for growth in your business.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1W34LFY

If you are a part of our private forum or have been thinking about joining up, then you may have wondered just how we review and accept new members. Also, if you are a fan of our community and blog and have been wondering just how to emulate our copy, then this episode is for you.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1Jxawqt

Drew Sanocki joins me to talk about our experiences with making decisions based on our intuition, as well as both of the instances where we got it right and wrong. Find out why you need to pay attention to the little things, get outside perspective and take your time before jumping into any significant decisions. With our help, you can learn to use your intuition to make judgement calls that will help you reach your long and short-term goals with ease.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1IfiLC4

Every entrepreneur, at one time or another, has thought about transitioning to working full-time on their business. Coming up with the right strategy for this transition, for you and your business, can be a daunting task. Do you quit your job to work on your business, or do you work on your business as a side project while still working full-time? And, if you take the latter route, when do you finally make the leap, if ever? Bill D'Alessandro, and I answer these and other related questions as we share our experiences with making the leap to full-time entrepreneurship. 

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1dUBfzZ

Regardless if you are new to eCommerce or have been running a successful online business for a few years, most entrepreneurs worry about how to continue growing their business once they plateau. For many companies, this happens once they hit the high six to low seven figures. If your business has plateaued and you can't seem to move the needle and experience growth, there are six questions you need to ask yourself to determine your next step.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1eIT85E

eCommerceFuel veteran Ezra Firestone, of SmartMarketer.com, returns to talk about social media and paid traffic. Ezra has become a paid traffic guru, focusing on the multitude of ways to drive traffic to your website using different channels available today. Ezra explains the best method to determine your strategy specific to your business and budget. With our help, you will be armed with the information you need to finish 2015 with a plan that will drive traffic to your site through the roof.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1QH70cy

Today, Drew Sanocki and I share our experiences with coupons, our successes, and our horror stories. Find out the best ways of offering coupons to entice your customers to come back time and time again, without losing money in the process.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1fipSDa

Hopefully, you were able to make it to the IRCE (Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition) this past month in Chicago with us. But if you weren’t able to attend, then you are in luck! Bill D’Alessandro joins me today to discuss the events of the conference. We talk about our biggest takeaways, the challenges and some surprising insights we gained from the world’s largest eCommerce conference and exhibition.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1NrCovF

If you are like me and many other entrepreneurs, one of the biggest perks of owning your own business is being able to be completely mobile. You may have an office that you work out of, but if you need to, you can unplug and work on your laptop from anywhere in the world with ease. But did you know, that that convenience can come at a price to your health?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1IbO1qy

Joining me to explain the differences in mastermind experiences, is Taylor Pearson. Taylor shares his expertise and talks about why so many masterminds fail the entrepreneurs within the group. From the structure to member selection, we dive into how to create an efficient and impactful mastermind that will revolutionize your business.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1KO4piv

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard the phrase “laughter is the best medicine” at least once in your life. But did you also know that laughter can also help your business grow and prosper? In the world where a majority of entrepreneurs are constantly fearful of offending their customers (or potential customers), there is one man who is successfully blazing the trail of using comedy to sell.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1RmyWVf

Finding the right domain for your business can be a long process and one that you should create a strategy for. Should you find an exact match domain? If that domain is already claimed, should you try and buy it? What is the best method to search for and purchase a domain? Is there a difference between spammy domain names and exact match domain names?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1EZ7nsz

As an entrepreneur, it is very easy to get caught in the trap of saying yes too often in an effort to chase down opportunities and the desire to help everyone who asks for it. However, if you are honest with yourself, you know that by adding another task or responsibility to your plate, you are postponing more important tasks and burning yourself out. 

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1KHG9Lk

Most entrepreneurs, at one time or another, have faced ups and downs that come with living in their area. From networking opportunities and potential investors to income tax rates, entrepreneurs should be thinking about what their business needs to optimize their success.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1JRHh26

eCommerceFuel Forum alumni, Miracle Wanzo, joins me today to discuss the process of building a fashion brand. We talk everything fashion from how she created her own line of lingerie, to how she has been able to combine her own line with brand name fashions. Miracle also discusses the methods she found to harness Facebook ads to increase traffic to her site without spending tons of money.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1DD4Nrm

Traditionally, most eCommerce owners have thought that creating original content is what is needed to improve their search engine optimization (SEO) and increase their Google rankings. But what if that is not entirely correct? In this data-driven world, innovative content alone is not enough to ensure the success of your brand.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1Ou9teO

So you decided to make the jump and own your own warehouse. You found the ideal location, built it out according to your specifications, finished stocking it, and your first order just came in. Uh oh, now what do you do? How do you accurately keep track of your stock, your employees, and know what the status of ALL of your orders is at any given time?

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1HsDKok

Warehouse guru Aaron Rubin joins me in a two-part series about warehouses. From how to determine the right time for acquiring your own warehouse, to the necessary addition to your lease contract, we cover everything you need to know to set up and run a successful, efficient warehouse.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1G9Gsk6

Taxes. The one word that most entrepreneurs dread even thinking about, let alone going through the process of filing. If unprepared, a business owner can feel like taxes are this huge, monstrous cloud looming over them. However, there are multiple, completely legal ways that entrepreneurs have found to not only reduce the amount of taxes they need to pay, but also the time spent organizing and preparing them

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1JNxGXo

Often, eCommerce business owners get caught in the trap of considering Amazon to be one of their biggest competitors; they spend too much time and money fighting against the tide of loyal and secure Amazon customers. However, what many business owners don’t realize is what an incredible resource Amazon can be to get your brand and products known. So, instead of fighting the powerhouse that Amazon is, entrepreneurs everywhere are learning to harness the name and reputation of the billion dollar company.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1HJWcY1

On this episode of The eCommerceFuel Podcast, Drew Sanocki joins me on the show to talk exits. After selling a business he built from the ground up, Drew now helps others to buy and sell businesses.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1yqOFIi

This time, on the eCommercefuel podcast, eCommerce guru Bill D’Alessandro is back to discuss different metrics that you, as a business owner, should be tracking. These metrics can be anything from how much traffic you actually get from mobile vs browser, how many people who visit your site come back, and how much each one of those clicks are worth.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1FKMTJG

Today, we are talking about how to run your business and still be a good parent and spouse. One of the biggest hurdles for entrepreneurs when they have kids, is transitioning from the 24/7 entrepreneur, working whenever you would like, to a parent AND an entrepreneur. So Drew and I are here to help! We discuss the big hacks we have found for good fathers and keeping our businesses running, along with several reality changes we have come to understand as fathers. If you have small children, or have planning on having one soon, you do not want to miss this episode!

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1Cv3a4S

Listen in as Bill and I analyze the big predictions that Scott made in his video and in turn share our own predictions. We tackle everything from Amazon and Apple, to Facebook and Uber, talking about the changes that have happened and what we see on the horizon. You do not want to miss this informative and insightful look at the future of eCommerce!

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1EBaMTA 

On this episode, I am talking about why I decided to do our site redesign, the huge changes you will find (one of which you will have to order something to receive), and the results we are already experiencing after these changes. Listen in to learn about the possible results that you can expect from a site redesign, as well as any hiccups and issues I experienced along the way.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1aMbelr

Listen in as Bill and I share not only what we feel was our biggest successes are, but how we were able to achieve them and how you too can achieve similar wins in your business. From finally utilizing email marketing, to raising prices and getting your products on Amazon Prime, you do not want to miss this episode’s tips and tricks that can help you double your profits (in some cases, within days). 

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1Fr0Zfo

Here, on The eCommerceFuel podcast, we have often discussed exporting goods from other parts of the world and even running our businesses from anywhere with an internet connection. From episode 57 with Andrew Henderson of NomadCapitalist.com to episode 47 with Austin Brawner of eCommerceInfluence.com, this is a topic we have explored thoroughly. My guest today, however, is one that has acted upon these ideas and made them a reality. 

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1E4s0XT

Bill D’Alessandro is joining me this week to review the biggest stories of the past month in the eCommerce world. Bill and I also spend some times discussing how OrderCircle is progressing and Bill’s latest eCommerce acquisition. 

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1uH9en7

Returning to the eCommerce Fuel Podcast for the first time since Episode 4 (way back in August of 2013 - wow!), is Steve Chou. Steve is one of those rare entrepreneurs who, through a ton of hard work from both him and his wife, was able to replace her salary of $100K within one year, making it possible for her to quit her job to stay home and raise their kids. Since then, Steve has branched into just about everything, from a course to a podcast and affiliate marketing, all while running his eCommerce store AND working his 9-5 job. 

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1zT7VUw

Once again, flying solo, I am talking about what I have learned since starting my first eCommerce business and my biggest regrets along the way. Anytime a new venture is started, there are bound to be mistakes and regrets, but moving forward and learning from past mistakes is how great companies are created.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/15RyZX0

Listen in as I talk about 10 of the best books I have read in 2014, what I have learned from each one, and why you should read them as well. Also, I dive into how I am able to go through so many books (Audible is definitely something you should check out!) and one of my New Year’s resolutions that I hope to use to help me to drive home the incredible lessons I learn from each book I read. Before we get started though, please comment below or Tweet me your favorite fiction reads that I can check out!

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1GsuNgC 

Are you a business owner who is working hard to get your business off the ground, but keep thinking about starting new one? Is your plan to split your days between two businesses and have your staff do the same? Well listen up, because this episode is all about when it is the right time is to start a second or even third business and still experience incredible success.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1swrdeV

Xiaohui Wang or X, as he is more commonly known as, is an email marketing genius. He burst on to the eCommerceFuel forum not too long ago and through his informative and actionable content, quickly earned a reputation for being the expert, the go-to email guy. Listen in to learn how X makes email work for you, regardless of the size of your business and your budget. With tips on platforms and the simple changes you can make that can drastically improve your revenue, this episode is one you can’t afford to miss.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1tI91KG

Drew Sanocki joins me today to talk about one of the hardest parts of owning a business - managing people. We discuss the 5 big problems that we have encountered and how we strive every day to walk the tightrope of management to ensure both our and our employees' success. If you have employees, or are thinking about hiring, you need to listen up!

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1AbCYro

Bill D’Alessandro of Rebel CEO is back on the show to delve into just how to increase your productivity and decrease the distractions that seem to constantly pop up. Bill and I share our tips and tricks that we have developed over the past few years from working mostly solo, and we learn some new ones from each other! If you use these, or have found other tactics that work for you, please comment and share them below! 

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1x9JqxY

This week, I am flying solo, for the first time in a while, to continue our discussion about site redesigns and adding my own spin on it. Currently, with my Right Channel Radio site, we are undergoing a massive overhaul to completely redesign the website. Drawing on some of the information in my past episodes, I break down all of the steps I have taken to prepare for this time (and money) consuming project.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here:

http://bit.ly/1wJ42wK 

Drew and I discuss three of the most interesting threads from the eCommerceFuel forum as well as share some of your opinions and our take on each of the topics. Listen in to learn how you can take advantage of our breakdowns of what has happened and what we foresee happening in the next month. 

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1ID6HOQ

Justin Cook is the co-founder and owner of EmpireFlippers, a safe and fast way to buy and sell profitable businesses of any size. Together with his business partner Jon, Justin relaunched their website in August of 2014 after a five figure, multi-month site update achieving incredible success! Listen in as Justin shares valuable insight that will help you plan, design and execute a website redesign that will help you streamline the process and get it right the first time. You do not want to miss this episode! 

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1vkfTSS

On this episode of the eCommerceFuel podcast, Bill D’Alessandro and I discuss all of our favorite tools that we use to make our lives as eCommerce entrepreneurs easier. We share the apps, websites and tools that we have found to help increase our productivity and reduce the time spent on daily tasks.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here:

http://bit.ly/15aAtLk

I invited Drew Sanocki back to the show to talk about how the lessons we have learned from our collective experiences in the corporate and military world. We talk about how what we have learned has shaped who we are as entrepreneurs and how you too can take those lessons and apply them to your business. You do not want to miss this episode's easy-to-follow steps for setting your business up for success.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1uCE9iu

Today, Bill D’Alessandro and I dive into how we have sold our products wholesale in the past, drawing upon Bill’s expansive experience in setting up those types of deals. We share our hacks on how to find potential retailers, set up profitable deals and give your product and business greater exposure than ever before!

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1tRxCyG

Drew Sanocki is back on the eCommerceFuel podcast today to talk about the insecurities that most business owners experience. We talk about each of our own personal insecurities and how we strive every day to overcome them. Listen in as Drew and I share our tricks and tactics we have found to work for us and countless other business owners for overcoming these insecurities and experiencing incredible success.

 You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1y6D4yb

This week on the eCommerce Fuel podcast Bill and I talk about how we deal with competition, from starting a new business to buying an existing one. We dive into many different constructive and destructive ways that competition can affect you and your online venture. You do not want to miss this episode's time and money-saving advice that will give you a good understanding of how to harness competition to your benefit.

 You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1wEtX7o

This week, Drew and I examine the multiple options available to you that can help you ensure that you, like us, never pay for personal travel again. We explain each of our unique approaches to using credit cards to rack up miles and how we calculate just how much our miles are worth. Listen in, as Drew and I give our tips, tricks and hacks that have helped us not only not pay for flights but much more.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1wjnsYz

Alibaba has currently been making history as becoming the largest IPO in history. Together, Bill and I talk about everything from Alibaba's history, their mission statement, and how they are positioning themselves to taking over the world of eCommerce. We also delve into Bill’s exciting new SASS app that will revolutionize and simplify the business-to-business wholesale orders process.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1udVrOx

This week, I welcome back Drew Sanocki to the eCommerceFuel podcast as my co-host for the October News Roundup to look at the new and notable stories in the eCommerce world. This week, we are exploring Apple Pay, Facebook’s advertising changes, and the world of Alibaba, what we believe their potential is here in the states and how they differ from their biggest competitor, Amazon.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1sjUGqz

Carson McComas is a top-ranked Shopify expert and the founder and designer at ShopifyCustom.com. He has been developing, launching and marketing eCommerce sites since 1998 and currently works with a small number of clients a year to ensure personal attention for each of his clients. Listen in as Carson shares his knowledge and expertise to help you find the right designer on your first try, before spending thousands.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1yzYOHh

This week, Bill D’Alessandro is back on the show to demonstrate his eCommerce prowess, by diving into the pros and cons of hosted and self-hosted carts. We discuss topics like carts we have used in the past, the perks and downsides to each one and the questions we believe every eCommerce owner needs to ask before choosing. We also give examples of our own past successes and failures with each cart.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1u1ye5Z

Drew Sanocki returns to the show again this week, and this time, we are discussing the importance of coding skills in online solo entrepreneurship. As more resources like oDesk are popping up, it is creating a situation where it is incredibly inexpensive to outsource programming to great coders. While the urgency to learn in order to be successful seems to be fading, we argue that this knowledge will be absolutely vital to your success.

 You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1qe9q4h

The eCommerce guru, Bill D’Alessandro, is back on the show this week to discuss the best methods of handling customer support and phone calls. We have an open discussion about everything from what software and services we have tried, what we liked and disliked about each one and where we have completely fallen short on customer service. We also discuss several options for getting started with manufacturers and suppliers when starting a new drop shipping business.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1uwSriQ

Drew Sanocki is back again on the eCommerceFuel podcast to delve into the top news stories in the eCommerce world from the past month. This week, we dive into the changes that Google has made and is expected to make, and introduce Drew’s exciting new eCommerce venture.

You do not want to miss our breakdown down of the important changes and our advice that can save you valuable time and money.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1oFWVhv

This week’s episode is a special treat for anyone who was not able to make it to last weekends’ eCommerceFuel Live Event. Welcome Brandon Eley, founder and owner of 2BigFeet.com. Brandon is a 15-year eCommerce veteran, speaker, blogger and author of Online Marketing Inside Out. Brandon shares his incredible entrepreneurial journey, from blowing all of his start-up money, to being near bankruptcy, and turning it all around to making over 7 figures. You do not want to miss this informative and inspiring session from the eCommerceFuel Live event.

 You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1q9QgRS

This week, I welcome back Ezra Firestone to discuss the 5 questions all eCommerce owners need to consider before starting a site redesign. We debate the reasons behind why an eCommerce store owner would start a site redesign and where to begin. We also get into the different tools that you can use to determine what needs to be changed on your site vs what should stay the same.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1pP1rPv

Drew Sanocki is back again on the show, and this week we dive into one of the most vital, but often overlooked aspects of entrepreneurship -supportive spouses. Regardless of your financial situation, having a supportive life partner is detrimental to the success of your business, and the health of your relationship. This week, we discuss several ways to earn and keep your significant others support and trust.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1l4ttXw

My guest, Andrew Henderson, is the founder of NomadCapitalist.com and The Nomad Society. Andrew is an international entrepreneur and perpetual traveler, searching the globe for the best places to live, invest, and start a business. With his private online club, The Nomad Society, his members receive access to valuable training and contacts that can help them internationalize their lives and their businesses

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1mnHNoK

Drew Sanocki is back on the show this week to dive into what has been going on in the world of eCommerce during the month of July. We are hoping to make this a regular occurrence on the show, where we discuss the many fast-paced changes that happen each month. This week, we tackle everything from Google’s authorship photo changes to a possible addition to the Internet Sales Tax Bill.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here:http://bit.ly/1zxUB3S

This week, Ezra Firestone is back to discuss how to provide excellent customer service with an eCommerce store. We discuss how the key to success, and one of the cheapest marketing tools available, is consistent, great customer service. On this episode, Ezra and I use our experiences with our eCommerce stores, along with valuable advice to help turn anyone into a repeat buyer.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1sVzmse

Josh Caba, the founder and developer of CortexCommerce.com, has came up with a solution to the one-site-fits-all eCommerce store. A majority of eCommerce owners have been led to believe that self-learning platforms are only available to those whose revenue is in the millions. While it is true that self-learning platforms are generally more expensive than typical platforms, they more than make up for their cost by dramatically increasing sales. 

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1qj8H8w

eCommerce guru, Bill D’Alessandro is back on the show this week to join me in a review of hiring our first employees. We discuss everything from what we did right, where we were able to mix it up, and what we completely missed the mark on.  You don’t want to miss this episode’s beneficial tips that will save you countless wasted hours and reduce your risk of hiring the wrong person.

You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1mEqWBg