Together, we're also going to begin building our very own fictitious "Virtual E-Store".

And it's not only going to be just any e-store - but an e-store that kicks butt!

I know you'll find the whole process not only ultra-informative, but it's going to be a lot of fun too... you'll see ;-)

In each of the remaining lessons in this 12 part course, we're going to continue constructing our "virtual store" - building on strategies and techniques we learned in previous lessons.  Once you've completed all 12 lessons you'll know exactly what you need to do - and how to do it - to build your own site that continuously MAKES THE SALE!

Just as I shared with you in Lesson 1 the exact strategies I personally used many years ago to build my first "Online Pet Shop" into a $60,000 a year money maker, you too will know how to implement you're very own "Profit Nuggets" into your own website.

In my humble opinion, learning by example is a far better teaching method than simply telling someone how to do something.  So, by building our "virtual e-store" together, you're going to get a "front row seat" so I can demonstrate exactly how you should begin setting up your own website.  Best of all - unlike most of the other sites online... your site will be a SITE THAT SELLS!

So let's jump right in and get started.  We've got a site to build ;-)

A few things we need to consider before we start our site construction...

• What are we going to call our "fictitious" e-store?

• What products and services are we going to offer?

• How are we going to get traffic to our store?

• Who is our target market?

• How will folks find us - or even know we exist?

• How many different income streams can we produce from this one site?

I like to refer to this first step as our "Game Plan".  Every business needs a game plan before they should ever begin to build.

You've heard the term "If you build it they will come!"  DON'T BELIEVE IT!  You need a specific game plan in order to generate traffic to a new website (especially when your budget is very limited) and more importantly...

You need to know what you plan to do with the traffic once it begins to arrive at your storefront.

Just like any good recipe, you already have the basic ingredients you need to build your site from our previous lesson...

In lesson 1, we learned:

• We need a domain name

• A web builder software program

• A  shopping cart

• An affiliate program

• An autoresponder system to follow up with our web traffic, and...

• A reliable drop shipping company to supply us with quality products for "BACKEND" Sales.

Now it's time to start adding our "Special Herbs And Spices" to make our website recipe hot, spicy and full of flavor!  A dish you just can get enough of!

Building Our Virtual E-Store From The Ground Up

First and foremost, it's imperative to your success to remember that building your customer list and establishing a relationship with them is your primary focus!

That's it!  End of story!  BUILD YOUR LIST!

Your customers are the foundation of your business... and a solid foundation is KEY!  Just like when building a house, if you don't have a solid foundation it'll collapse faster than a straw house in a hurricane without the proper- solid foundation.  That's why it's extremely important to be sure to start building a solid foundation (your customer list) and plan and then expand on that foundation.

Okay... let's move on...

Before we can begin building our "virtual e-store" we have to decide who are customer will be - in other words... who we'd like to target.  In my opinion, there are three key ingredients I always consider before deciding upon a target or niche'.

What are the three KEY ingredients I always look for?

1. An easily targeted "laser tight" market

2. Interesting content to write about in the marketplace

3. Products readily available to generate both front and backend sales

Okay... So now it's time I take the reigns and make our first decision about our "Virtual E-store"... After all... this is my course ;-)

Since one of my favorite pastimes is cooking, I'd like to build our e-store around this subject.  So, let's take a few minutes and see if we can't look at the three key ingredients as they pertain to a "cooking theme" for our site...

1 An Easily Targeted " Laser Tight" Market

Obviously...  WAY TO MUCH COMPETITION online for a website only focused on cooking in general.

We could throw that thought right out the window....

But luckily we don't have to dismiss the idea all together...

What we can do is break down the subject of cooking into a more laser targeted "pinpoint focused" niche'.  This way,  we would still be able to capitalize on the market.

So let's see if we can't get a little tighter focus and dig deeper into this niche'...

How about cooking...  but more specifically targeted to a specific gender?

The male "cooking" population would definitely be an easier "LESS COMPETITIVE" market to target than the female market... Wouldn't you agree?

But I'm only assuming - I didn't actually look into it.

And there are a lot of Chefs who are males - even more than women...

But I think that there are probably more women cooking the "family meals" than there are men.  Should we just specifically focus on the men online who like to cook for their families?

Good thought... we'll keep that in mind!

Now I think we're starting to get somewhere!

But I still think we need to get more specific.  We want a "pinpoint" targeted site!

Why?  Why do we have to be so "Laser" targeted?

Ahhh.. patience  my astute student!

Once we've completed this entire course, you'll completely understand the need to tightly define our market ;-)

For now - Let's keep digging...

What about the diet craze?  How about desserts?  What about fried foods or baked dishes as a main focus?  We could consider just offering "Southern" cooking ideas or ethnic dishes.  We could focus on just appetizers, snacks, or finger foods.

What about cakes, pies, or sweets in general...

Our options are really limitless!

And it's all part of the brainstorming process - trying to define a laser tight niche'...

Here's a thought...

I recently made up my mind to lose some weight so that's something that really interests me right now.  Perhaps we could run with something focused on weight loss...

Can we focus on low-carb meals for men?

We could... but I think there's still way to much competition online for "weight loss" in general... albeit man or woman...

But let's see if we can't run with the "weight loss" theme since there's a huge demand online for "low carb" meals right now (and I am personally interested in the subject)

We need to keep brainstorming and continue to dig further...

We really need to find an ULTRA RESOURCEFUL extremely laser targeted niche...

Wait a minute...  I have got a great idea!

You know what I really enjoy more than anything else when it comes to a good meal?

I love it when my wife and I have some time alone and we plan a nice romantic dinner together (NO KIDS!) and turn off the lights, light a few candles, and just talk over a good bottle of wine and a nice delicious meal!

I especially enjoy cooking those types of meals for her!

NOW THAT'S LIVING!

The only problem for me lately has been trying to cook up a nice romantic meal and still watch how many calories and carbs I'm eating. (I think I just love food TOO MUCH!)

Perhaps there's a way we could focus our site around some of those topics!

By Golly... I think we're getting close...

Okay... so what do we have so far?

First, we're going with a cooking theme.

Second, we're going to focus the cooking around "everyday folks" who REALLY  like to cook - almost as a hobby of sorts.

Third, we'll try to keep in mind the "healthy conscious" aspect of cooking since so many folks are watching their weight and eating healthy.

Fourth, ROMANCE!  If we could come up with a game plan to focus our cooking website around all those things, I think we'll definitely have a winner!

Remember the three areas of interest (KEY INGREDIENTS) that we want to make sure we incorporate?

Let's review...

What are the three KEY ingredients?

1. A "laser targeted" market

2. Interesting content to write about in this marketplace

3. Products readily available to generate both front and backend sales

Excellent!  You're a brain-child!

Do you think we could laser target a niche' in the cooking category, focused on folks who like to cook as a hobby, who want to eat healthier, and (my favorite) are looking to spice up the romance in their lives?

Guess what... I think we'll hit a HOMERUN!

I think we've definitely found our laser tight niche'.  Now let's look into our second Key Ingredient...

2  Interesting Content To Write About

What could be more interesting than "good food" and increased romance, all while maintaining a healthier lifestyle?  Plus, as I mentioned earlier, I don't think we'll have much competition on that topic... do you?

You see... because we took our time and had our thinking cap on before we ever began to build and plan our site (our game plan), we can now design a site that's not only informative but also entertaining - focused around a "hot", interesting, "PINPOINT targeted market!

You always have to keep one very important aspect of Internet marketing in your mind at all times.  We discussed this in Lesson 1 briefly as well.

The Internet is the Information Highway!

It always has been... and always will be!

Never lose sight of the fact that folks are searching for information online.  Therefore, when considering a theme for your website, you'll always want to keep in mind the fact that your site will not "PRIMARILY" be providing products for sale, but more importantly... HIGH QUALITY, INTERESTING CONTENT!  Sales will then come naturally!

Like I said, I like the topic of cooking.  Therefore I know I'll find working on a website  related to cooking both fun and relatively easy to maintain and keep updated with fresh content.

I also like to consider myself a "romantic" (although my wife may disagree!)

Add to that the fact that I'm also trying to live a healthier lifestyle...  and I think we've found the perfect combination!

We will want to plan our site around a lot of valuable, interesting, informative, free content to attract visitors, so this second ingredient is very important (and we'll talk about this in more detail in later lessons as well).

Just remember this...

On the Internet - Content Is King!

So, regarding our SECOND KEY INGREDIENT when considering our website theme with respect to "Interesting Content To Write About", I think we've passed the test!

Two Ingredients Down... One To Go!

If we pass the third test, I think we'll have a winner!

3 Products To Generate Both Front And Backend Sales

Well, I think we could find plenty of cookware, flatware, perhaps custom initialed chef aprons, novelty chefs hats, dinnerware, glassware, small appliances.  You name it - I'm sure we could get it!

PLUS - and here's a goldmine!...

We could eventually even add some "romantic" gifts when sales really start to take off - like chocolates, fine wines, even roses and such that we can offer via an affiliate program like 1-800-flowers!

Yes... BRILLIANT I KNOW!

We'll definitely find ways to create multiple streams of income from this little gem of a site - GUARANTEED!

It's important to remember that the actual products you'll be offering your customers is your last concern when starting out!

I know that may sound crazy to you, but it's very true.  Pick a laser tight theme, make sure you could offer good interesting content, help your visitors solve their problems and strive toward strengthening their lives in some way!

Your last step  - your least concern at first - should be finding products to offer for sale.

Sound crazy?  Well, I think you'll change your opinion once we're done building our "virtual e-store"!

On a side note: I also have a few GREAT ideas for additional income streams (BIG MONEY MAKERS) for our site... but we'll have to wait on those for future lessons.  I don't want us to get too far ahead of ourselves just yet...

So, we've got a highly targeted market to tap into...

We're convinced we could write quality, entertaining, informative content for our site...

And, we can easily find a drop shipping supplier for our product sales...

Hocus Pocus... I think we have a winner!

So, why don't we raise the curtain and unveil the
name of our new site...

 

A candle light cooking theme focused on fine meals, fine wines, juicy desserts, and ROMANCE!  And because we added the "LITE" into our theme, we can even throw in a section for those "healthy conscious" eaters too!

Now let's reflect back for a minute and think about something...

Imagine if we simply decided to setup a site dealing with the topic of cooking. 

So, we ventured out to setup a "superstore" and to find every supplier imaginable who would drop ship cooking supplies for us to make sales.  After we completed all our product research and setup accounts with all our drop ship suppliers, we then decided  to build a HUGE site with all the "bells and whistles" and start promoting it in the search engines everyday.

It could be quite exciting!  We may even spend months designing the site - or worse yet - thousands of dollars hiring a web designer to build our dream website.

And guess what...  It turns out looking awesome!  Boy... are we proud!

We've got credit card processing, PayPal all setup, a whole database of high tech "goodies"!  Tell a friend, A Newsletter about cooking, Impressive photos of our products, etc., etc.... Quite Impressive!

We call all our family and friends to give them the web address.  They're quite impressed as well!  We tell everybody we come in contact with that we're a BIG BUSINESS OWNER and to check out our website when they have time.

Our store has over FIVE THOUSAND products!

Now, all we have to do is sit back and let the Internet work it's magic!  We've got a super site online so - of course folks will find it!  The search engines would be crazy not to list our website in the top 10 searches for cooking or cookware.... right?

Heck, we've got 114 pots and pans sets, 12 uniquely designed cutting boards, 122 varieties of steak knives, 16 different wine bottle openers, 7 electric fryers, 31 high tech microwave ovens, 14 toasters, 6 blenders, 4 deep fryers, 16 spice racks, 11 espresso machines, 3 cappuccino machines, 44 flatware sets, 85 ceramic canisters, 25 different cookie jars... and the list goes on and on!

If someone surfing the net is looking for anything related to cooking... rest assured they'll be buying from us!

So we sit back and wait..

... and wait...

...and wait...

...and wait...

Our e-register hasn't rung once!  There must be a problem with our credit card processor!

Nope...

... that all checks out fine.

Maybe our shopping car is having a problem... WRONG AGAIN!  Our cart is working fine...

Maybe our prices are too high?  Let's lower 'em a bit and we'll certainly start seeing orders pile up.

So we lower our prices and flash "ON SALE NOW" signs all over the website!  Now we're practically giving away our products for little to no profit but that's Okay!  We're sure going to make it up on volumes of sales we'll have coming in now!

Weeks go by... still NO SALES!  Months go by... Still no sales!

So what do we end up doing?

We could hire a search engine expert (a few thousand bucks there) to give us a good ranking in the search engines...

We could hire a web design consultant to analyze our site to see if there's anything more we could do to improve sales (a few more thousand there).

We could hire some top copywriting guru to re-write the sales pages and "HOPE" that will increase sales.

The list goes on and on...

But needless to say... we end up doing what most new online entrepreneurs do...

We give up our dream of owning a profitable business online and go back to looking for another way to make a living.. Usually another J.O.B!

Trust me!  99% of hard working, determined, intelligent people starting out online go through this exact scenario.  I'm talking about "soccer moms", hard working dads, entrepreneurs, small business owners, grandparents, sisters, brothers - all hard-working, honest, GOOD PEOPLE!

So, where did they go wrong?  They had all the high tech products stocked to the ceiling.  They paid a web designer to build a flashy "state of the art" website.  They stayed focused and dedicated.  They offered sales and FREE shipping!  They even dropped prices to a bare minimum...

They thought they did everything they were supposed to do!  They read all the e-books and spent hundreds - if not thousands - on info products and seminars guaranteed to teach them the "secrets" to making it big time on the net.

So why aren't they depositing rolls of cash into their bank account everyday?

It all comes down to one cruel aspect of doing business online...

BECAUSE NOBODY CARES!

SO WHAT!

There are hundreds of websites just like theirs all over the Internet!

The question is...

Why should I buy from YOU?

What's in it for me - THE CUSTOMER?

I'll tell you where they went wrong right from the start...

• They failed to pinpoint a highly-targeted laser tight niche...

• They didn't offer me any Quality, Informative, Entertaining content...

• And all they did was try to sell me something!  I DON'T WANT TO BE SOLD ANYTHING!  If I want to but something... I'll go to Wal-Mart!

Thank goodness we're smarter than that!

And in lesson 3, we're going to continue on building our e-store and begin adding a few more "profit nuggets" that'll be sure to get our site off on the right track...

So, until next time..

See you at the top,

David Nayavich
David Nayavich

P.S. I'd Love to hear your comments or any feedback about this course.  Please send me your comments to daven@dropshipper.net