How do we actually setup our site to sell products??

[Craig Hough]

I understand that the challenge is all about getting rankings. But I was wondering if the challenge also includes helping you set up a real web site that actually sells something. I would think that part of this process would be to actually build a website that has a shopping cart and means of accepting money. I have been following along and doing all of the challenges. I thought by module 7 setting up something - giving some actual instruction on setting up a site in addition to just blogs. I know they are important by it doesn't do any good to send someone to your site if you don't have some means of them buying something. Oh and one more thing. I did do searches and could not find any posts that pertained to this. So please do not terminate this thread. Thanks

[akalafr]

The purpose of the challenge is to test a niche and part of that is setting up your blog with adsense and affiliate offers to test if the traffic you get will actually buy something or take the appropriate action you want them too.

During the challenge I don't believe they will go into detail about setting up shopping carts and taking payments, but that is something you can definitely do within wordpress, ONCE you've decided your niche is a GO and you want to move forward with it.

I know the challenge has a program called the challenge plus, which I'm sure they will talk about which will be a program that goes into more depth on options you have once you have a "business" and are out of the testing phase.

[Bill Thomson]

Dana is correct Craig - the Challenge is all about testing a niche to see to see if it's viable. There will be a lesson soon discussing going forward with your own product on a niche but it won't be an in-depth discussion on how to do things. Product creation and management is beyond the scope of the Challenge but other programs such as Challenge Plus and the Immediate Edge are worth exploring for this once you have proved a niche is viable and appropriate for product creation.

Bill

[Craig Hough]

I appreciate the feedback. When I started this I thought we would actually sell something by the end of the challenge. I know some people already had websites and yes I am a newbie. I learned a lot by taking the challenge and am ranked number 1 in google for the the niche I am in. Just wish I had a way to sell something and start making some money. On the 30 day challenge plus site it says that there is going to be a discount to the 30 day challengers so I will wait and see what the cost will be and proceed from there. One thing that I am a little worried about thou is that it sounds like the plus version is for selling audio products or affiliate products. I am more interested in selling tangible products that I either make myself or by from wholesalers. Does anyone know if the plus version goes into that and if their are tutorials on how to set up a website to sell tangible products including building a shopping cart and taking credit cards or paypal?? Thanks to challenge has been great I will continue to do all of the challenges and hopefully keep my number one ranking in Google.

[akalafr]

If you've followed the challenge you will be selling something. Many people have been selling affiliate products on their sites. I'm confused as to why you think you aren't going to be "selling something by the end of the challenge"?

If you're #1 and have followed the challenge then in module 6 you should have set up an affiliate ad to sell a product. It's no different than setting up an online store except for the medium in which the products are presented.

I'm not sure what is in the challenge plus, but I know you can make wordpress blogs look, feel, and act just like a regular ecommerce site. There are shopping cart plugins that you can purchase and use to accept payments just like a yahoo store for example.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the ecommerce sites we see on the internet, actually started out as a wordpress blog.

[Caro :-)]

Whatever sales strategy you choose to adopt - as an ecommerce site is one strategy, and then promoting affiliate products is another, and promoting your own product is another. There's drop shipping as well - and it goes on and on.

Whatever end point you arrive at - as Product is the 4th step in the Symphony of Four. You are best served to test for traffic and conversion to sales. Which is what we do in the Challenge - and we test theme keyword phrases that research is suggesting to us have traffic potential without too much competition. Meaning the stats are suggesting we can get a result within the time frame of The Challenge.

We use stats that Google gives, us, that comes via Market Samurai as they present them in a useful format for us. We have no idea, and never will, if the numbers Google publishes are exact or not. That's why we test to see what the reality is.

So we begin the testing phase by creating a website and we ensure we build strong foundations around it, which are the steps we get you to take to build it's authority.

Once it's ideally developed some traction in the search return results - and there's no guarantee it will, that's what we're testing - we then advise you to test for conversion using Adsense and an Affiliate product. This is to see if people buy in this market.

Let's say you have an end result you want to take further. You may choose to keep promoting an Affiliate product - as that is a sales strategy. You may decide to create your own product - as that is another sales strategy. You may look to build an additional ecommerce site, as that's another strategy.

Then there are such steps as building a list, including a lead capture, article marketing, video marketing, social media marketing and so forth.

So The Challenge takes you through the process to ensure you do not waste your time and money down the track with investing in a 'great idea' that when it goes live, gets little traffic and doesn't sell etc.

Best

Caro