Fri, 29 April 2016
New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog: 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. |
Fri, 22 April 2016
New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog: 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, |
Fri, 15 April 2016
New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog: 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. |
Fri, 8 April 2016
New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog: 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, |
Fri, 1 April 2016
New post from The eCommerceFuel Blog: 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... |