Shopify & Aliexpress

Dropshipping Guide
By: Carmine Mastropierro
All Rights Reserved ®
Table of Contents
Shopify & Aliexpress Dropshipping
Guide 1
Preface 4
Chapter 1: Product/Market
Research 7
Product Research 7
A Good Criteria To Follow 8
Issues You Face Yourself 8
Brick & Mortar 8
Websites & Tools 9
Google Trends 9
Trend Websites 12
Review Websites 13
 Google Alerts 13
Aliexpress 13
Niche Research 16
Forums 17
Social Media 17
Press Releases 18
Industry Reports 18
20
Chapter 2: Keyword Research &
SEO 23
What Is SEO? 23
How Do Search Engines
Work? 23
So How Do I Rank? 24
How Your Audience Is Using Search
Engines 25
Why You Need It 25
Where To Use Keywords 25
 Optimization Practices 26
Title Tags 26
Meta Tags 27
URL Structuring 28
Keyword Research 28
Chapter 3: Launching Your
Store 32
Settings 33
Payments Settings 33
Checkout Settings 34
Shipping Settings 35
Tax Settings 35
Notifications 35
Sales Channels 35
Account 35
Online Store/Design 36
Logo 36
Sliders 37
 Pages 37
Domain Name 38
Preferences 38
Google Analytics 38
Adding Products 39
Shopify Apps 42
Blogging 48
Chapter 5: Customer Service 50
Fulfilling Orders 50
Customer Service 51
Tracking Numbers 51
Answering Emails 52
Refunds 53
Own Up To Your Mistakes 53
Adding Value 53
Chapter 6: Scaling Your
Business 55
Needed Practices 55
Growth Hacking 56
Influencer Marketing 56
Guest Posting 57
Finding Guest Post
Opportunities 57
Your Good Friend Google 57
Industry Leaders 58
Studying Your Competitors
Backlinks 58
Social Media 58
Preparing Your Proposal 58
Good Practices 59
Creating The Post & Bio 60
Legalizing Your Business 60
Graduating From Aliexpress 60
Reinvesting 61
Tools You Need 62
Organization 66
Good Luck! 66
 Preface
Welcome to dropshipping
program/e-book. Thank you for being
our customer and we wish you the best
in your entrepreneurial ventures. This
program was created to teach
individuals how to create an profitable
online company and the business skills
to do so. You do not need high technical
ability or complex business knowledge
to excel with this program. It was built
with the beginner in mind so the more
experience you have, the easier it will
be.
 For this program, we will be
utilizing the Shopify platform and
Aliexpress. Shopify is a shopping cart
platform that hosts e-commerce stores
with beautiful and professional themes.
Aliexpress is a business-to-consumer
subsidiary of Alibaba, which is the
business-to-business parent company.
Suppliers on Aliexpress will take orders
and ship them directly to a customer, this
process has been coined
“dropshipping”. It is a simple business
model that outsources manufacturing and
distribution, leaving you with the
responsibility of marketing.

The outline of the program is as

such:

Chapter 1: Product & Market

Research. This chapter begins with
finding a viable product to sell. It
then elaborates on performing market
research, competitive analysis,
demographic research, and similar
prospecting.
Chapter 2: Keyword Research.
Performing proper keyword research
will benefit your business in the
short and long term. This chapters
covers how to find keywords through
freely available tools.
Chapter 3: Launching Your
Website. As mentioned earlier, we
will be using Shopify to host our e-
commerce store. In this chapter you
will will learn how to optimize and
properly set up your website.
Chapter 4: Traffic. Once you have
your website launched, people have
to find it. Unlike a physical shop, no
one is going to stumble upon yours if
it isn't advertised. This chapters
covers free and paid methods for
generating traffic.
Chapter 5: Customer
Service/Fullfillment. Good customer
service is a part of your product and
brand. In this chapter you will learn
proper technique to handling
customers and fulfilling orders on
time.
Chapter 6: Growth Hacking: In
this chapter you will discover how
to utilize modern growth strategies to
 increase your traffic and sales. This
will expose your brand to a larger
audience, build your brand, and
ultimately lead to larger revenue.

At the time of this program being

composed, I own and have owned
multiple successful digital companies.
My first was a streetwear shop that
generated $4,500 revenue in a single day
while only being live for 6 months. I
then went on to create Pierro Shoes, my
men's online luxury boutique now
featured in GQ Magazine's A/W 2016
issues. I then launched Wisetech Report
with one of my best friends and business
partners, Evan Pappas.

I have learned incredible amounts

of knowledge from creating and running
online businesses. From market
research, customer service, to growth
hacking, I have gained valuable skills
from experience and constantly
educating myself. You will finish this
program with an in-depth understanding
of how to create online companies that
you can turn physical using the same
process I did.

Course Benefits
These are the skills and benefits
you will gain from completing this
program:

Market research. You will understand

how to evaluate the market you are
entering. Analyzing competition,
identifying trends and opportunities, as
well as compiling demographics will
become second-nature.
Keyword research & SEO. Finding
and implementing keywords
productively will be a gained skill. You
will be aware of multiple tools that will
aid you in the research process. SEO
techniques and basics will be grasped
for the future.

Website creation. This program will

teach you how to put together a
professional and sleek website that will
convert customers. Properly tweaking
settings, organizing products and
information, along with optimization
will be learned.

Generating traffic. One of the most

vital components of e-commerce is
getting traffic to your store. You will
learn in this program how to receive
hundreds to thousands of visitors per day
with little investment.

Customer service. An overlooked

aspect of business is customer service. It
is extremely important to understand
professional approaches to customer
behaviours, psychology, and after-sales
service. This is exactly what you will
learn with our program.

Scaling your business. This course

reveals unique strategies to grow your
brand and revenue so you constantly
experience increases in all business
aspects.

Social media marketing. While it may

seem simple, marketing on social media
is quite the opposite. This program
breaks down how to utilize social media
in the correct way to generate sales and
build presence.

Advertisement campaigns. Creating

profitable advertising campaigns can
make or break your business. You will
learn how to set up successful
campaigns and analyze the metrics for
futher optimization.

Income. After following and completing

this program, you will have a profitable
online company.
 Chapter 1: Product/Market
Research
Product Research
Before you can begin researching
a niche, you must know what you are
selling. There are numerous methods to
select a product you can perform. A
simple way to begin is to brainstorm a
list of your:
 This is a simply exercise that will
allow you to generate ideas for niches.
When pondering these subjects, write
down items that are related to them. For
example if one of your hobbies is tennis,
you could list:
Rackets
 Tennis balls
Athletic clothing
Water bottles
Selling products that you are
interested in yourself makes the process
a lot more entertaining, especially in the
long run. After compiling a list of items,
you need to delve deeper to create a
narrow market. Continuing off of the
idea of tennis, you could sell tennis
equipment specifically for men. This is a
basic example so take your product
ideas and make them more specific.
 A Good Criteria To Follow
When searching for a product to
sell, follow this criteria list to find the
best possible items:
1. Good profit margins. If you can
mark up the product and make at
least 15-20% profit or more then this
is a green flag.

2. Not fragile or perishable. You want

items that won't easily damage during

shipment so be cautious of its

 structure and weight.

3. No assembly needed. While

there are products that are made to be
assembled by nature, it's optimal to
stay away from these until you're
more experienced. It is much easier
to market and sell a product that is
ready to use out of the box.
Issues You Face Yourself
On a daily basis, what problems
do you find yourself having? Perhaps it
is with your car, an electronic, or a part
of your routine. Every problem has a
solution, which many products and
services can solve. Write these down
even if they are very minor and
brainstorm what products would help
eliminate them.
Brick & Mortar
No matter if you live in a small
town or big city, there are guaranteed to
be brick and mortar businesses in your
vicinity. Next time you are out, be
observant of these establishments and
use them for inspiration. Better yet,
consider the opposite which is what you
don't see as this means room for
opportunity. Take note of how they brand
themselves, market their products, and
who may be their target audience.
Thinking like this will constantly give
you inspiration and ideas.

Websites & Tools

There are many freely available
tools for product research if you would
like some assistance. One of the many
places marketers go to draw inspiration
is Amazon's Best Sellers.
Amazon is kind enough to display
all of the most popular products per
category. Browse through various
categories and take note of what
products are trending. Remember at this
point the goal is to compile as many
niche product ideas as possible. Ebay
also offers a similar service that reveals
their in-demand categories. Take a look
at what products and selling the most
along with their respective prices.
Google Trends
Google offers so many great tools
for entrepreneurs, and one of them is
Google Trends. This allows you to view
what topics are currently the most
popular along with search data. Use this
for product ideas, and brainstorm items
related to topics that may not be product
related.
Even better, Google Trends can be
used for niche and product validation
which you'll learn about more later.
When you enter your own search term, a
graph will be displayed with its
popularity within a multi-year span.
 For the above graph, the term
“Hoverboard” was searched. These
were a fad product that recently
received a lot of attention but have
quickly died down. This is clearly
represented by the large spike seen
during the spring of 2016. Below the
graph, interest by region is displayed
which can be switched from country to
city visibility.
When you enter a keyword in
Google Trends, inspect the graph
carefully. You want to avoid products
and industries that appear like above.
These more than likely are not going to
receive a positive response. This isn't
absolute of course but it is a safe rule to
follow. Instead you should focus on
markets that have sustained or
developing interest.
 With regional information we are
able to see where searches are coming
from the most, resulting in some general
demographic data. Finally, below this
we can find related search times and
topics.
 When searching terms on Google
Trends, you can input multiple topics or
keywords to compare their results.
Continuing the example of hoverboards,
we entered two other similar items to
contrast.
 Under the search terms at the top
you will have the options of selecting
location, date, category, and search type
to filter the results. For our search we
changed only the date to “2004-present”
so we can see as much data as possible.
Below is the graph it created.

The different colours all represent

a certain term that we entered. Red in
this case is for “segway”. It is clearly
defined as the most popular out of the
three but they all have a similar pattern.
As mentioned previously, these products
gained popularity(Mostly due to
celebrities) and quickly lost their
appeal. Examine these graphs when
comparing keywords to contrast
keywords, ideas, and niches.
Trend Websites
http://producthunt.com/ is one of
many websites that keeps up to date on
new products that are emerging in just
about any market. The most popular
products are displayed on a daily and
weekly basis. Look through their
categories and take notes of any that
interest you.
Http://trendhunter.com is currently
the world's largest and most popular
trend community. With a global network
of 137,000 members and 3 million fans,
Trend Hunter is the perfect website for
entrepreneurs looking for product ideas.
Finally, http://springwise.com
takes the millions of business ideas
floating around the world and puts them
in one place. Every location in the world
operates business differently and has
varying cultures. Springwise travels the
world for you in search of the best
entrepreneurial ideas, stories, and
trends.
Review Websites
Similar to trend websites, review
sites can you give plenty of inspiration
and ideas for products.
Http://uncrate.com is one of the most
popular to date and showcases products
ranging from apparel, tech, cars to
property. They even offer case studies
that offer a deeper review and
understanding. You will find many
modern and new ideas to draw
motivation from.

Google Alerts
Another useful tool from Google is
their alert service. This allows you to
input keywords and be notified by email
when related news is released. Keeping
up to date on your industry is important
for identifying trends and opportunities.
Putting quotation marks around
keywords like “digital marketing” will
return specific results. Leaving the
search term without quotation will give
you broader news. Include ~ before the
keyword such as ~digital marketing for
synonyms to also alert you.
Aliexpress
In this dropshipping course, we
are utilizing Aliexpress as mentioned
previously. It only makes sense to look
for products on the platform we will be
ordering from. Visit
http://aliexpress.com and you will have
an infinite amount of product ideas at
your disposal.

On the home page, we are greeted

with a search engine, categories, and
various promotions they are offering.
Using Aliexpress itself for product ideas
is beneficial as you will also learn how
to navigate the website better.
Click “See All” beside the
categories header. This will then take
you to a page displaying all of the
categories and sub-categories. Scroll
through and click one that catches your
attention.
 It will then bring you to category
page with available products as seen
below. We are able to sort the products
with a few different variables. The most
important one is orders as this will
display the most sold items. This also
implies that the vendor is reliable but
always check reviews for further
confirmation. You will learn more about
this in depth in a further chapter. On the
sidebar there are more options such as
colour, sizing, and various specifications
depending on what category you have
chosen. Navigating through the various
options on the sides will dig into more
narrow product sub-categories.
 Niche Research
Once you have decided on your
niche, market research can then be
conducted. This is mandatory component
of creating a business, no matter what
niche you find yourself in. The benefits
include:
Better communicating with your
customers. Understanding what your
target demographic wants, how they
behave, and similar information
allows you to tailor your marketing
to them. Knowing what they want to
hear and don't want to is key to
effectively speaking in their language
per-se.
Identify opportunities. Market
research will give foresight into the
industry and potentially identify
opportunities you can take advantage
of. You may find a product that
competition doesn't offer which you
can capitalize on for example.
Minimize risks. With knowledge of
the market you're entering, you'll
decipher if there is too much
competition, what trends are
occurring, and similar mistakes to
avoid.
Competitive intelligence. When you
understand how your competition
promotes, positions themselves, and
executes marketing strategies, you
can learn from this and shift your
own plans.
Identify problems. While
developing your product and
marketing plan, you will be able to
see potential issues you could have
with it. You will also be able to
identify problems the consumer has
 and build something to solve this.

Begin by visiting Google and

typing in a keyword related to your
niche. To continue off the example of
men's tennis products, we'll use the
results for “men's tennis gear”. With 1.3
million results, it is obvious there is a
decent amount of competition but not
overly saturated. Lets take a deeper look
at some of these websites and ask
ourselves these questions:
How many product categories do
they have?
What exact products are they selling?
How are they offering value?(News
letter, discounts, free shipping etc,
unique product, etc)
What is the layout of the website?
(Simplistic, blog style, etc)
What kind of content do they use?
(Infographics, articles, etc)
Are there opportunities present?
 What can I do that they aren't?
This information is vital to break
down because we can then apply it to
our store in the near future. Pay attention
to any trends and patterns you notice
between the stores you analyze. It only
makes sense to look at the successful
companies and apply similar marketing
strategies.
Forums
One of the best places you can go
to tap into a niche is where people are
talking about it. Visit Google and type in
a related keyword follow by “:forum”.
This will display results for forums in
your niche. This is a simple strategy that
is very powerful as we are going straight
to the consumer. Browse through
discussions and ask yourself these
questions:
What do they like about the product?
What changes would they like to
see?
Who are these individuals?
(demographics)
Forums some times have threads
regarding occupation, education and
similar topics. These are the perfect
discussions to figure out a deeper
understanding of your target market.
Take notes of everything you can about
them even if it seems random like music
preference.
Social Media
Social media can be used for
demographic research but also
competitive analysis. Search for
influencers within your niche on
platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and
Instagram. Study how they are
positioning their brand, marketing their
content, what their content consists of
and any details you can extract. You can
then apply these similar approaches
when you have your social media
accounts running.
To understand the consumer more,
probe social channels in a similar
manner. Identify how the audience talks
about the niche and products. When you
grasp their wants and needs you can
write product descriptions, blog posts,
ads and similar tailored to such.
Press Releases
 When new companies launch it is
common for press releases to be made to
announce it. These always present a
reasonable amount of information about
their business that you can use for market
research. It can tell you a lot about the
product itself, its benefits, pricing, and
how they are positioning it. Use this
knowledge to base your own pricing and
overall marketing.
Industry Reports
One of the most useful resources
in market is industry reports. There is a
very good reason companies pay for
these compilations of data from websites
like Ibisworld. The information they
contain explicitly explains industry
opportunities, trends, consumer
behaviour and more. This is truly
priceless for any business looking to
succeed in their market.
Unfortunately these reports do not
come cheap and you'll be spending close
to $1,000 at minimum. They can go for
thousands if not more depending on how
new they are and the source they come
from. Luckily there are many market
reports and similar information freely
available on the internet today.
Visit Google and search for a
keyword related to your niche followed
by “market report”, “industry report”, or
“case study”. You may find slideshow
presentations, Youtube videos, and other
resources. Utilize all of these to extract
information which can be applied to
better your business.
 Inspecting these resources there
are some key points you should be
paying attention to:
Revenue reporting: This is a section of
market reports that will contain
information on how marketing strategies
are generating revenue. This allows you
to understand how companies are
performing marketing and what works
the best. You can then consider investing
time or money into specific channels that
you see do well in your industry.
Channel traffic: When you fully grasp
what channels are generating the most
traffic for similar businesses you can
take advantage of them. If you discover a
certain channel type is performing well
like social media or Instagram ads then
consider investing into it. You must also
acknowledge that traffic may be high but
doesn't always convert. If a channel
delivers less traffic but converts more
than it is more valuable.
Consumer behaviour: Knowing your
potential customer is of utmost
importance in business. If you do not
know the demographics of whom you are
selling to you will never succeed.
Market reports more importantly go into
consumer behaviour. This informs you
how they prefer to shop(mobile vs
desktop for example), how much they
like to spend, how long they spend on
the internet and more.
Demographics: As we just mentioned in
the previous paragraph, these collections
of data will present demographic
information on the industry. This details
the average consumers age, location,
income, sex, relationship status, and
more. Different age ranges, sexes, and
alike all have various ways of shopping
and consuming. When you can market to
a specific group you have a recipe for
success.
 Chapter 2: Keyword
Research & SEO
If you are already familiar with the
process of keyword research and search
engine optimization, use this as a
refresher. For those new to it, you will
learn how to perform keyword research
with freely available tools to rank in
search engines. You will also be
utilizing these keywords for paid
advertising campaigns in the future. SEO
is a vital component of any successful
business as it benefits you in both the
short and long term. There is plenty of
things to learn in this chapter so take
your time and re-read sections if
necessary.
 What Is SEO?
SEO is an abbreviation for search
engine optimization. This is the task of
growing your visibility on search
engines to drive organic traffic to your
website. There are various aspects of
SEO including backlinks, onsite
maintenance, and more which you'll be
learning about.
Many marketers make the mistake
of not focusing on SEO which ultimately
makes them lose out on valuable traffic.
A majority of traffic is driven from
search engines such as Google, Yahoo,
and Bing. It only makes sense to
optimize our websites to get the most out
of them. If these engines are unable to
find your website, pages, and posts then
you miss out on potential customers,
signups and alike. If you take care of
your SEO then more people will be
exposed to your brand and products.
It is without a doubt a complex
subject but anyone can grasp the basics
and apply them to reap the benefits. A
small amount of knowledge about SEO
can create drastic improvements to
traffic and overall success.
 How Do Search Engines
Work?
Search engines operate by
“crawling” websites and gathering data.
The most relevant content in then
displayed to the user depending on the
search term. This is why we need to
optimize our websites as then they have
increased visibility.
When links point to your website
from an external source, these are known
as backlinks. They are very useful for
building rank as the search engine sees
your site as more important. Huge
databases store all of this web
information to be used for further
queries. The companies that own these
engines house massive datacenters over
the world so it can be accessed.
Thousands of machines holding data
process these searches every second.
The real purpose of a search
engine is to provide answers for users.
Any time you visit one odds are you are
there to ask a question. Whether it's
directions to a restaurant, show times for
a movie, or looking for a job. Search
engines see websites with the most
traffic, backlinks, and fresh content as
the most important. Very complex
algorithms are in place to decipher
ranking and there are much more
variables that are considered.
 So How Do I
Rank?
There are practically endless
strategies to ranking higher in search
engines and increasing visibility. Google
themselves offer advice that will
definitely help improve your websites
SEO.
One of the first things they
recommend is to keep the user in mind
when creating content and pages. This is
because it can hurt your rankings when
the content is different between what the
search engine and a user sees. It's
typically done through manipulating
keywords which is known as cloaking.
Having your potential customers in mind
makes their experience better anyways
and is a component of your branding.
The second tip from Google is top
use a well structured navigation. You
should be able to get from any page to
another in one or two clicks through
menus and links. When your website is
crawled by search engines it makes it
easier for it to be completed as well.
Thirdly assure that your website is
full of rich content. Pages, articles, and
alike should include optimized photos,
internal links, external links, and good
length. Internal links are done by linking
to other posts or pages of your own
website. External links are other
websites you use as resources or to offer
extra information for the audience.
Regarding articles you compose, do your
best to keep them at minimum 300 words
long but the more the better.
 How Your
Audience Is Using Search
Engines
Marketing stems from trying to
understand how your customers feel,
think, and behave. When you research
this and can predict it, you're able to
attract them to your products and
services. This is no different when it
comes to search engines. If you have a
strong grasp of what they would search
for, you can utilize these keywords to
place yourself in front of them.
 The phrases and terms used for
queries are known as keywords. When
evaluating the strength of a keyword, you
must ask yourself the following question:
If a user lands on my website after
searching this phrase, will they be
satisfied? Think about what they are
truly after and tailor your websites
content to that. Understanding keywords
and researching them will be detailed
later in this chapter.
 Why You Need It
When you perform SEO for your
business, it is not a cost but an
investment. It will take time for you to
rank for keywords and receive organic
traffic thus it's an investment for the
future. It is also one with a very high
return and any successful website can
agree with this. Once you have a flood
of free traffic coming from search
engines you'll see that is was all worth
it.
One of the most beautiful parts of
proper SEO is that is enhances whatever
you are already doing for your business.
If you have high amounts of organic
traffic then you will experience an
increase in sales, content sharing, brand
exposure, and much more. It's a shame to
miss out on something so great that you
can do for free.
 Where To Use Keywords
Keywords are the building blocks
of the internet and search engines.
Algorithms and the act of information
retrieval is all based on keywords to
begin with. It only makes sense to
understand how to use them to their
fullest potential. As websites are
crawled, they are put into keyword
indexes to organize them rather than
keeping the 25 billion web pages out
there in a single place. This allows them
to retrieve information much faster and
we can optimize our businesses to
coincide with this.
When you enter words to search
for, engines match the most relevant
pages based on what we entered. The
order that you type them in along with
spelling and punctuation will change the
results we get. One of the most important
areas of a website to use keywords are
in titles, text, and meta data.
Keywords that are general and
short will be difficult to rank for as there
will be high amounts of competition.
When you use phrases that are longer
and more specific, you narrow down
search results and potential for ranking.
These are known as “long tail
keywords”.
Some internet marketers exploited
the algorithms used to rank for keywords
and ultimately lead to them loosing their
ranks or websites. In the earlier days of
search engines, stuffing your content,
URLs, links and alike with keywords
was a viable strategy. Over time
companies like Google noticed that this
was happening and changed how engines
decipher proper ranking.
The best practice you can do is
using keywords naturally and when
appropriate. Don't be implementing them
into content that doesn't relate in
attempts to have it appear more often on
your site. The point of ranking for a
keyword isn't to just be in the top search
results but to actually lead the users to
useful content.
 Optimization Practices
These are some effective
techniques you can apply to your
website to improves its SEO, rank for
keywords, and make it more search
engine friendly:
Include a keyword once in the title
tag and keep it close to the beginning
of the tag.
Use a keyword near the top of
content, whether it's a page, article,
or similar.
In the body of your content include
variations of keywords 2 or 3 times.
To optimize both web and image
search, use a keyword once for alt
attributes of images.
Use a keyword just once in a URL
for pages, posts, etc.
Put a keyword in the meta tag at least
once if not more.
 Title Tags
A title tag appears at the top of
your internet browser and is definitely
the most important area to insert
keywords. It is the first place users look
at in search results thus needs to be
relevant to their wants or needs. The
title should depict the pages content
perfectly in a concise matter. This is
important for both the users experience
and for SEO.
When using keywords in your title
tags be weary of length. If it is too long,
ellipsis's will cut it off after 65-75
characters. This is plenty of space to
describe your website and content to
your audience so you shouldn't have
much difficulty.
The most valuable keywords
should be placed towards the beginning
of the title tag. This helps in both ranking
and likeliness of users clicking from
search results. Using your brand name
within title tags also helps in building
brand awareness.
When a user first interacts with
your website, the title tag is the first
thing they'll come in contact with. It
should be easily readable while also
appealing to exactly what they want.
When you begin to grasp these basics of
SEO, you will realize it's more about
creating a better user experience that
ranks you higher.
 Meta Tags
There are a few different meta tags
but really only one you need to be
concerned about and that is the meta
description. This isn't used for ranking
but rather to display exciting
copywriting to entice visitors. When you
are displayed results for a search,
underneath you will see a short
description for the content, this is the
meta description.
 When composing the meta
description, do it in the same manner of
your title tag. Using attractive keywords
and speaking to the users needs is key to
success. You will experience higher
click through rates with proper
copywriting in your meta descriptions.
The above picture is a great example of
such. You also have a bit more head-
space with approximately a 160
character limit. If you do not create one
of your own, the search engines will
with content from your page.
 URL Structuring
When deciding how you want your
URLs to be structured, there are few
rules you should follow. The first rule is
just like the rest of your SEO
copywriting and that is to make it
descriptive but concise. Users shouldn't
feel any confusion while reading the
URL but rather be confident it will take
them to where they want.
Secondly do your best to keep it as
short as possible. Longer URLs are more
difficult to remember, are less visible in
search results, and can hinder
conversions. Don't go overboard with
keywords either, just one is fine enough.
Use hyphens to separate words and
exclude symbols or parameters that can
cause confusion.
 Keyword Research
With all the talk of keywords,
you're probably wondering how you can
actually research them. In today's world
it's not about traffic, it's about getting the
right traffic. Finding and ranking for the
correct keywords can make or break a
business. In this section you will learn
how to use Google's Keyword Planner
tool to analyze keywords and their
respective data.
Take a visit to
https://adwords.google.com and sign up
for a free account. Once you have
completed this, you will access to many
tools and analytics. Under the “Tools”
drop down menu select “Keyword
Planner”.

On the next page select the first

option “Search for new keywords using
a phrase, website or category”. This
will expand the drop down with many
options to choose from. In the first
dialog box labelled “Your product or
service” enter a word or phrase relevant
to what you're selling. Everything else
can be left default but assure targeting is
set to the United States only and broad
search is enabled under “Keyword
options”.
 You will now thrown into the heart
of the keyword planner where magic
happens. In front of you will be
displayed keywords, adgroup ideas, and
much more. The main data we are paying
attention to is the keyword, competition,
search volume, and suggest big.
Now the competition level tells
you how many advertisers are bidding to
have their ad displayed for that
keyword. It is not telling you how many
people are trying to rank for it, make
sure you understand that. Suggested bid
is the amount you would be paying when
a user clicks your ad displayed for that
keyword.

Not all keywords are made equal.

Remember that long tail keywords with
more length to them are ideal. It is also
valuable to find those that imply buying
intent with phrases such as “most
affordable”, “Where to buy”, “Buy
online” and alike.
You should also click “Ad group
ideas” to find keywords worth using. Ad
groups contain similar phrases combined
together for easier sorting. For example
when we searched “Men's tennis”, ad
groups included “Women's tennis,
“Tennis apparel”, “Tennis rackets” and
similar results.
We want to compile a list of close
to 10 keywords that have a low to
medium competition, at least a few
hundred monthly searches, and has
lower search results. To test a keyword
that looks feasible, enter it into Google
and look at how many results are given.
If it is less than 300,000 you should keep
it, otherwise there is too much
competition.
 Once again
consider if a user were to
land on your page after
searching for that keyword
if they'd be satisfied. Be
patient as keyword
research can be time
consuming especially in
the beginning and when
you're new to it. Soon
enough you will be an SEO
wizard and it will come
naturally to you with
practice.
 Chapter 3: Launching
Your Store
At this point you should have
identified the market you wish to enter,
conducted market research, and have a
list of key-words you will use for SEO.
Here is an exact checklist that is
required to go any further in the process:
Product(s) that you wish to sell.
Market research information
including competitive intelligence
and target demographics.
A list of approximately 10 keywords
 that have low to medium
competition, 500k or less results on
Google.
When you are confident that you
have all of these items, you can
successfully begin the process of
creating your online store. Luckily in
today's day and age you do not need to
know how to code to get a professional,
responsive e-commerce store.
Visit https://Shopify.com and sign
up for the free 14 day trial. This will
give you plenty of time to learn the
interface, settings, and overall platform.
It is also a good amount of time to design
your website before you launch it.

Enter an email, password, and

name for your store. Don't worry, the
name you choose here won't be the final
one as we will purchasing our own
domain.The next two pages are basic
information about your business. Fill it
out and you'll be thrown right into the
platform as seen below.
Settings
 To begin you will need to adjust
some settings. Click the settings tab and
the first area you're taken to is
“General”. The store details is already
filled out for you but feel free to adjust it
if necessary. Under store address enter
the legal name of your business that you
registered under. If you haven't you can
complete this form later when you do.
You will learn how to legalize your
business in a later chapter. Adjust the
standards and formats according to your
timezone and unit type.
Payments Settings
 Getting paid with Shopify is
extremely easy and quick. In the payment
settings select “Complete account setup”
under Shopify Payments. This is
powered by the company Stripe and is a
free payment gateway to process
transactions. Complete the business,
personal, and product details along with
the customer billing statement. The final
information you need to enter is banking
information so you can be paid directly.
It is recommend you sign up for a
Paypal account and connect it in the
payment settings. It is widely used by
many customers and offering more
payment options is a great way to
increase conversions.
Checkout Settings
Under the first option for checkout
settings is accounts. It's best to make
accounts optional as some customers
will want to purchase as guests. If you
force users to create accounts it can
lower conversions as not everyone
wishes to do so. The best settings for
form options are:
Require first and last name.
 Company name optional.
Address line 2 optional.
Phone number optional.
To fulfill an order at minimum you
require a name and address. Anything
past that is optional so stick to the basics
so your customer has an easier time
checking out. Some users are also not
comfortable giving too much information
so giving them the option can keep them
at ease.
Ordering processing is a very
important area to configure. Keep the
first box checked for shipping addresses
to be used as billing addresses as well.
If the customer doesn't need to change
the billing information, this saves them
plenty of time and helps conversions. In
the case they need to change it, it's also
editable.
For promotional email permission,
it is wise to select the first option “By
default, customer agrees to receive
promotional emails”. This makes it
easier to collect emails for marketing
purposes and the customer still has the
option to uncheck it if they prefer.
 We have the choice to either
manually or automatically fulfill orders.
It's best to manually fulfill them so you
have more control of the process and
when it happens. You should also choose
to “Automatically archive the order” just
below the previous option. This keeps
all of your order data in a neat archive
for future reference.
Terms and conditions are a vital
component of any business. Without it
users may not feel safe with their
information or returns. Luckily Shopify
can generate you thorough, detailed
statements in the click of a button. Scroll
down to the last section of the checkout
settings and generate a free template for
each policy.

Shipping Settings
Since we are dropshipping we do
not need to do much configuring in our
settings options. What we highly
recommend is you offer free worldwide
shipping. This is an incredible way to
add value to your business and increase
the users experience with your store.
Most businesses you see in todays world
don't charge for shipping anyway.
Amazon was one of the first pioneers to
start this trend and all modern
businesses need to follow suit.
Under the shipping zones you will
have “Domestic” which is your home
country and “Rest of world”. Click
“Edit” and you will be taken to a more
detailed page for these zones. Delete the
“Heavy Goods Shipping” and edit the
“Standard Shipping”. Rename it to “Free
Shipping” or alike and click the
checkbox below that says “Free shipping
rate”. You've now successfully created a
free shipping option for your customers.
Tax Settings
Taxes are a delicate area to cover.
To legally and properly collect taxes
from your customers you must have a
government registered tax number. The
requirements are different for every
country, state, and province so do your
due diligence. For example in Ontario,
Canada you not required to collect
HST/GST to remit unless your revenue
is above $30,000 in 4 quarters. This
means you have a healthy amount of time
to grow your business and earn profits
before taking this step.
Notifications
Under notification options you
have templates that are used for various
events. These range from shipping,
fulfillment updates, and order
confirmations. By default Shopify
already has them taken care of so you
don't have to edit any of them unless
preferred.
Sales Channels
With Shopify you can connect
other networks to sell your products for
a higher chance of success. These
include Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and
more. Until you have uploaded products
and understand the platform deeper,
leave this until later. We will be helping
you through it in a later chapter.
Account
The only information you need to
enter under the account settings is billing
information. This will be used to pay for
your monthly subscription and also if
you decide to purchase themes or
upgrade. There are some very useful
apps you may want to consider
purchasing which we will cover later.
 Online Store/Design
With the setting tweaks out of the

way, we can begin to build our online

store. Navigate to “Online Store” under

the sales channels on the sidebar. Click

“Visit Theme Store” on the top right to

view themes for your website. These are

pre-built designs which means you don't

have to code it yourself or outsource the

work.

Begin by filtering the themes with

the “Free” option. You may think that
since you are not paying for web design
it won't suffice, but you'll be pleasantly
surprised. Shopify themes are
responsive, professional, and made to
convert. Browse through them and you'll
quickly get an idea of how great they
look and operate.
For this course, we will be using
the “Debut” default theme. Clicking
“Customize Theme” will bring you to a
live preview of your store. Of course it
is rather empty at this point but it will
soon be filled with content and products.
Universally a white website with
black or gray text and detail always
works. Many themes are built around
this colour scheme because it looks
professional and needs little to no
editing.
In the Debut footer options make
sure to select “Show newsletter signup”
and “Show payment icons”. With other
themes thoroughly check to make sure
you aren't missing any important options
like these.
Logo
A logo can say a lot about your
business before a user even visits your
website. It displays your brand image
and what you represent. Logos are easy
to come by and if possible you should
design yourself. For the less tech savvy
you have two options:
1. Get a logo designed for you for $5
from Fiverr.com
2. Use no logo for the mean time. Many
successful businesses use just their
name as a logo.
Once you do have a logo, upload it
through the theme customizer.
Sliders
Most themes will display
“sliders” which are slideshows used to
show products, promotions, and alike.
To utilize these you have to upload your
own graphics so a similar approach to
logo design can be used. Your options
are to create the graphics yourself or
outsource them. Making them yourself is
easy with free programs such as Gimp.
Take commercial-use photos from
websites such as Pixabay and place text
over them.
Pages
A good e-commerce website
needs to include certain mandatory
pages. These help build trust, answer
questions, and show transparency for
your customers. Under the online store
navigation, select “Pages” and click
“Add Page”. Implement these and you're
one step closer to getting your shop up
and running:
About us: When a user visits your
store, they need to know who they
are purchasing from. This makes
them more comfortable knowing
where you're from and understand
your business goals. Do not make the
common mistake of creating a bland,
vague about page. This can easily
deter potential customers so instead
utilize storytelling to build your
brand image. Tell them what
inspired the business, what they will
experience with your products, and
the direction you plan to take.
Contact us: A contact us page is
necessary and doesn't need much
besides a contact form and your
business information. Shopify has
templates found on the right sidebar
when you are adding a page that will
handle this for you.
F.A.Q: Addressing questions and
comments increases conversions and
aids in building trust. With an F.A.Q
page you are able to easy any
concerns potential customers may
have. Typical questions you should
 answer are:
1. How long does shipping take?
2. What's your refund policy?
3. Is your website secure?
Categories: Of course if you are
selling products it only makes sense
to display the categories. You will
learn how to create a drop-down
menu for easier navigation.
Blog: Producing content is an
important step you need to take in
your business. A blog allows you to
share useful information with your
audience to create value. You should
write articles 3 days a week at
minium. Keep them no shorter than
300 words and make sure to include
inbound/outbound links, photos, and
videos. Separate areas with headers
so it's more digestable.
Policies. By default Shopify makes
your policies accessible from the
footer and at the checkout page. This
is fine but you can also create a
policies page for users to view
before. Simply copy and paste the
statements after they've been
 generated into a new page.
Domain Name
Your domain name is the URL
address to your website. It will only cost
you approximately $10 for an entire year
of owning it. It's a cheap investment that
is required and luckily you can purchase
one right through Shopify. Under the
online store sidebar navigate to
“Domains” and it will give you the
options of either adding or buying a
domain. If you already have one from a
registrar, you will have to point
Shopify's nameservers to it. Follow this
guide from the Shopify Help Center to
get it working properly.
When choosing a domain name, it
should be relevant to your niche. The
Shopify store we're setting up as an
example in this course is called Tennis
Tent thus Tennistent.com would be
suitable. You can also create a unique
name to use as branding if you prefer.
Remember that the shorter the better but
if you can't do so it's still fine.
Preferences
In the preferences section under
the online store settings you will need to
make some minor tweaks. The first entry
fields are for your title and meta
description which we covered in the
previous chapter. The title should
include your brand name with a brief
summary of your business or tag line.
“Tennis Tent – Men's Tennis Equipment”
is an example of such. The meta
description allows you to elaborate on
this so write a more detailed product
and business summary.
Google Analytics
Shopify conveniently allows you
to connect your Google Analytics with
your store to track important data.
Anything from traffic sources, visitor
amounts, to detailed reports are
available with this free tool. It is
seriously a must-have for any e-
commerce entrepreneur.
If you don't already have an
account then visit the Analytics website
here. All you require is a Google
account to begin which I'm sure you
currently have. Once you are signed up,
under the “Admin” tab select “Add new
property” from the drop-down menu.
Enter your domain name and it will give
you a UA code to use for Shopify. You
will learn how to use Google Analytics
in depth in the last chapter of this course.
For now just get them set up together
with the authorization code.

Adding Products
To add products to your Shopify
store begin by navigating to the
“Products” tab and selecting
“Collections”. These are groups of
products that are similar which are used
to create easier navigation and sorting.
For example you may create a
collections for t-shirts, pants, and
jackets to separate types of clothing you
sell.

Select the “Create collection”

button in the top right corner of the
window. Name it depending on what the
products are and upload a collection
image to represent. A description isn't
100% necessary unless your theme
displays it. Write a brief summary of the
products featured in the collection if you
do.

Below you want to check

“Manually select products” so you have
control over what goes in the collection
easier. In the SEO section edit the page
title, meta description and URL. Use
keywords if possible, be concise, and
remember to state benefits. Save the
collection once you've finished doing
this.
 Now lets actually add our first
product. Click the “Products” tab and
“Add product” in the top corner. You
will be brought to a page that is
streamlined to make adding items to your
store easy and efficient. Lets take it one
step at a time here.
Add a title for your product.

Write a description that includes

one of your keywords and don't use it
more than once. State the dimensions,
size, and features. After this you want to
mention the benefits of the product. This
entails how it will change the customers
life in a positive way. For example we
may say for a tennis rack “Lightweight
design to give you more control and
accuracy when you play”. It states the
feature which is a lightweight design but
then explains how it will benefit the
user.
Next lets add some images. You
can take these directly from the
Aliexpress page of the product. Ideally
you want as many as you can so all the
angles and parts can be shown. After
you've uploaded a photo, hover over it
and click “Alt”. This is the alternative
image text as we discussed in the last
chapter. Insert the products name here,
it's good for SEO and for users that are
visually impaired.
 On the sidebar you don't have to
worry about product type or vendor.
Click collections and a drop-down menu
will appear. Select the collection that
matches the product so it can be sorted.
Enter tags that customers might search to
look for it.
Next you must price the product so
that it results in a profit when sold. If
you are selling an item that you are
purchasing from Aliexpress for $20 then
you could mark it up to $35 for example.
This leaves you with $15 profit from
each sale. To calculate how much you
should be charging, use competitors
pricing as a benchmark. The goal is to
price lower than them while still
remaining in a reasonable profit margin.
Do not charge taxes until you have a
business tax number and can collect it
legally. We will teach you how to
legalize your business in the last chapter.
Under inventory you can leave the
information blank as we do not handle
physical inventory with dropshipping.
You can also disable “This product
requires shipping” below this.
Variants are different forms of the
same product. For example you may sell
a t-shirt but offer small, medium, and
large sizes. These sizes are what we call
variants. Change the option name
accordingly(Size, colour, etc) and the
values separated by commas.
 Upon entering an option value, a
variation with be created down below to
be modified. This is especially useful
when variants have different prices.
Enter the pricing for your products and
leave the “SKU” and “Barcode” Empty.
Finally lets edit the search engine
listing preview. Insert a keyword into
the title if applicable and include
attractive copywriting. With 70
characters you have plenty of space to
tell your audience what the product is
and it's main feature. The meta
description can go more in-depth but
remember it doesn't affect SEO so don't
include keywords.
After you completed all of these
steps click save in the top right corner.
You've just successfully added your first
product to Shopify, congratulations!
Now continue to add products on a daily
basis to build up your collections.
 Shopify Apps
To grow your business, improve
marketing, and quicken processes,
Shopify offers free and paid apps. These
are available through the app store you
can visit here or through the “Onlines
store” panel of your admin dashboard.

The first app we wanted to

mention is Oberlo. This enables you to
import products from Aliexpress with a
single click. This includes photos,
variants, descriptions and more. It is
very useful for filling up your store with
a variety of products quickly. Over
18,000 shops currently use Oberlo and
have generated a total of $120,000,000
in sales since October of 2015. Lets go
over exactly what it does.
Import products directly from Ali:
While browinsg Aliexpress, click the
Oberlo icon next to a product and it will
instantly be imported to your store.
Fullfil orders automatically:Through
the app you can fulfill orders by simply
clicking a single button and confirming
the order on Aliexpress afterwards.
Inventory & price updates:Oberlo will
constantly update your product price and
stock levels so you never have a
customer order one that is out of stock.
Automation: If you need to price
products in bulk, Oberlo can help you by
creating pricing rules you apply to them.
Integrated tracking: Knowing where
orders are is extremely important and
Oberlo keeps all your orders tracked.
Epacket filter: As we've said in this
course, ePacket is the best mode of
shipping from Aliexpress. With Oberlo
you can filter products that only offer
ePacket to find the best products faster.
Fair and flexible pricing: They offer a
free plan that is great for those just
starting out. The basic plan is $29.90/mo
and is suitable for bigger businesses.
Finally the pro plan is $79.90 a month
and is recommended for very big
businesses. We recommend you start
with the free version and upgrade if
needed.
 Used by more than 30,000 Shopify
store and counting, the numbers speak
for itself. This app allows you to gain
social media followers in exchange for a
coupon. This is a hands-free way to
increase conversions and gain potential
customers.
The average bounce rate for an e-
commerce store is 50%. This means that
approximately half of your traffic will
visit then leave. To take full advantage
of these prospects, offering a coupon
entices them to come back. Following
you on social media also will
continually expose them to your brand
and offers.

Tracking orders and recieving

updates on them in e-commerce is
extremely important. AfterShip helps
you track the shipping process so you
can notify customers when orders are in
transit, out for delivery, and more.
AfterShip tracks shipments from
UPS, Fedex, USPS, and over 335 more
couriers. No matter what mode you use
to get your goods to the customer, this
app has you covered.
The tracking page that customers
will use to track their shipment is
customizable. This means you can add
your logo, store URL, and more to
increase the user experience.
 Mastro Digital is a huge fan of
Zotabox. They offer endless free apps to
help entrepreneurs better their
businesses. Facebook live chat is one of
the best apps they offer and can easily
increase conversions.
The convenience of Facebook live
chat for both parties is astounding. For
yourself, you don't have to be online
waiting for messages like other live chat
systems. With Zotabox, it's forwarded to
your Facebook page as a message. You
can chat with your customers easily
through inbox and assist them.

Email marketing should be a part

of every businesses strategy to reach
more customers and raise sales. By
growing your email list and sending out
valuable newsletters, you drive traffic
and inform prospects of deals, new
products and similar. MailChimp is a
free service that helps you create email
campaigns and connects directly to
Shopify.
Add customers automatically: When a
customer completes the checkout
process on your store, they are asked if
they are interested in receiving
promotions. If they agree to this,
MailChimp automatically syncs their
information to a list called “Shopify
Customers”. This allows you to easily
target users that have already purchased
from you.
Targeted email campaigns: With your
e-commerce data being forwarded to
your MailChimp account, you are able to
target specific segments. Based on
buying behaviour you are able to change
the offer and message. This easily
generates sales and brings back past
customers or those that abandoned cart.
Campaign reports MailChimp creates
also display valuable information you
can use to further increase ROI.
Automate email campaigns: With
MailChimp you can automate emails to
reach customers at a precise time. This
app also allows you to send notifications
to users that abandoned their cart,
encouraging them to return.
Make it personal: Personalizing is
becoming a trend in e-commerce that
involves tailoring a page or content
exactly to an exact segment. By
segmenting customers through
geolocation, purchasing behaviour and
more, you can adjust your emails for
each group.
 SEO as we discussed in the
previous chapter is important for your
long term business success. Alt text is
the alternative text that is displayed
when an image doesn't load or the user
is visually impaired.
This app will take care of your alt
text which can improve traffic, rankings,
and sales. We'd love to talk more about
but it's just that simple.
 When a user visit your e-
commerce store they need to be able to
trust you before making a purchase. This
can be done through many different
optimizations and strategies but seals are
one of the best. McAfee Secure creates a
feeling of safety for your shoppers by
placing a McAfee certification on the
website. It's a well known name so a
large majority of users will recognize it
instantly.
When security concerns are
alleviated, people are likely to buy from
you. The McAfee app also displays the
trustmark verification page in 20
different languages depending on the
browser language. Getting started is
simple, just allow McAfee to scan your
website and you're finished! If you like
the app so much, support them by
upgrading to premium and receive:
1. Unlimited Trustmark Views
2. Shopper Identity Protection
3. TrustedSite Ratings & Reviews
 4. Search Highlighting
5. Complete Trustmark System
6. Search Engine Submission
7. Website Diagnostics

It's well known in the business

world that reviews are necessary. They
are the simplest form of social proof.
Think about when you visit an online
store yourself. When you read positive
reviews it typically improves the chance
of you purchasing.
 Yotpo has more 5 star reviews
than any other app in the Shopify store
for a good reason. It has helped over
150,000 stores increase conversions and
sales. With the free version you will
receive:
In-mail reviews: Yotpo features in-mail
forms so customers can create reviews
from the comfort of their email.
Increase conversions: Yotpo users
typically experience a 30-120% in
conversions when using reviews. It
creates a good level of trust between
your business and customers.
Optimized for mobile: With mobile
traffic growing substantially, your
website and content needs to be
optimized for mobile devices. Yotpo
features are made with this in mind.
When a request for a review is sent,
mobile users do so without leaving their
email app.
If you're interesting in upgrading at
some point, their premium package
offers a lot of useful benefits from social
integration, user-generated content, and
more.
 Blogging
Creating daily content through
writing articles is necessary for every e-
commerce store. It provides useful
information, tutorials, and news for your
audience. It's fantastic for your SEO and
driving organic traffic which we've
touched on in the last chapter. When you
are writing about something you enjoy, it
becomes a fun task to do every day.
Follow these guidelines to create the
best possible articles.
Length: The length of the blog posts you
write is critical for SEO and for value
purposes. Most individuals will find a
150 word article too short for example.
300 word count is the minimum you
should aim for every time.
Visuals: Articles that are purely textual
are less appealing to read. By
implementing photos and videos you
make it a lot more entertaining to read.
This increases retention rate and the
amount of users that will finish the entire
post.
Links: For SEO purposes you need to
utilize both internal and external links.
When applicable use links to your own
products, pages, and other blog posts.
This creates “link juice” as you have
content feeding each other backlinks. It's
also useful if you can link to a relevant
product as it can lead to a sale.
External links are those that point
to another website other than yours. Use
these to help the audience further
understand points you discuss. It can
lead to graphs, studies, and similar
resources.
Keywords: You do not want to exploit
the use of keywords for two main
reasons. To begin, it is obvious to your
audience and appears spammy. Secondly
it can damage your SEO and rankings as
it's considered keyword “stuffing”.
 Chapter 4: Driving Traffic
Once you have successfully
finished designing and setting up your e-
commerce store, you need to get users.
This can be accomplished through
generating both free and paid traffic. In
this chapter you will learn the various
methods to attracting prospects and
customers to your website.
 Social Media
Over 50% of mobile phone
activity is used for social media. As the
legendary entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk
has said, “Social media is just another
for word the internet now.” No matter
the demographic group you will find a
high use of mobile traffic. This is
because desktop is quickly becoming a
less convenient way to access social
networks which themselves are
enormous. Facebook boasts over 1.79
billion monthly active users. This simply
says that these networks are starting to
overpower other markets. With this
being said, lets move onto the networks
you need to be making accounts on.
Facebook
Visit https://facebook.com and
create a group from the left sidebar. Fill
in the information according to your
business for name, location, website,
etc. Include your logo and an aesthetic
cover photo. We recommend you
create(or get created) a graphic that has
some kind of promotion. Discounts,
sales, or featured products are the best.
 Aim for posting at least 3 times a
day. Morning, afternoon, and night is a
simple schedule to stick to. Over time
you will be able to notice the trends of
what times result in the most
engagement. Canva is an incredibly
useful tool for entrepreneurs that need to
create consistent content. It enables you
to create stunning graphics, documents,
headers, and more. Mastro Digital highly
recommends you use it as it is also free.
 To begin getting users to your
Facebook page you have two directions.
Using both is certainly the most optimal
for success. Search for Facebook groups
that are related to your niche. Join them
or request to join them. Now the next
thing to consider is not spamming.
Social media networks are used for what
they're for, places to socialize.
Engagement in conversations and post
your content. You can like and comment
as your page by selecting from the
dropdown on posts. Users commonly
check who likes or replies to their
comments. This will result in them
seeing your page and they can easily
convert into likes, share, and similar.
 Facebook ads come in many
different forms. You can purchase post
boosts, post likes, website traffic and
much more. To grow your Facebook
page, likes and boosting your posts are
very valuable investments. At the time of
this course being written and released,
Facebook is an extremely under-priced
service. It is similar to how powerful
and cheap Google Adwords was for
years after its release.
 Instagram
One of the easiest and most
rewarding platforms to master is
Instagram. It's an amazing hub no matter
what niche you find yourself in. Create
an account on https://instagram.com for
your business as soon as possible.
Include your logo or an attractive photo
along with a website link. Your bio
should state what your business is about
and what it'll do for the customer. If you
created a discount code previously, also
put this into your bio to increase
conversions.
 Posting on Instagram should take
place 1-4 times per day. Quotes, product
photos, infographics, and videos do very
well. Remember the 80-20 rule which is
80% of your content should be value-
giving and the remaining 20% can be
product/service related. No one enjoys
logging onto social media to have brands
overwhelming them with their products.
When you offer interesting content a
large majority of the time, the audience
is more likely to respond positively to
what you sell.
 Pinterest
If your niche has a predominately
female user base or you're in a fashion
market, Pinterest is a necessary
platform. 70% of the users are women
thus any feminine products will gets lots
of positive attention. This isn't to say you
can't market to men though as there are
dedicated male fashion and health lovers
in abundance. The amount of male users
is also increasing substantially so don't
shy away from Pinterest if you have sell
masculine products.
 Create an account on
https://pinterest.com today. Fill out the
information and upload a profile picture.
Pinterest works by “pinning” photos to
“boards”. First you have to make the
boards before you can pin any content to
them. From your profile select “Create
board” and name it after a related topic
to your business. For example it could
be “Men's shoes” if your selling male
apparel. You can then pin men's
footwear or your own products to this
board. You want to have 5-10 boards to
start with.
Search for accounts that are
popular and go to their list of followers.
Begin following these users every day to
bring attention to your profile. You will
begin to receive follow-backs, repins,
and likes. This will then turn into traffic
to your e-commerce store. Every time
you write a new article on Shopify, post
it to a “Blog” board.
 Twitter
Twitter is a great platform to build
your brand and connect with your
audience. It doesn't tend to fair to well
for direct product advertisements. What
we mean by this is that conversion rates
tend to be low when funnelling Twitter
traffic to product pages. It's more
optimal to drive traffic to articles that
then lead to product links. This isn't to
say that you shouldn't promote your
products though, especially when you've
added new additions to your store.
 Visit https://twitter.com and sign
up for an account. Upload a profile
picture, cover photo, and fill out the rest
of the information. Aim to post 3-5 times
per day with meaningful and interesting
content. Tweet at other users and join in
conversations. Respond to your direct
messages and be a lively brand. There's
nothing worse than seeing a business that
doesn't interact and looks bland.
 Organic Traffic
Traffic generated through search
engines isn't something you can force to
happen, let alone quickly. It occurs
through properly optimizing your
website, products, pages and everything
inbetween. Writing consistent content
with good keyword density is also very
critical. Over time you will begin to
notice higher amounts of organic traffic
flowing to your store. Focus on
continually improving your SEO to
achieve this.
 Forum Posting
As mentioned in the first chapter,
forums are an excellent channel to find
your target demographic. Not only is this
useful for performing market research
but also driving traffic that converts to
your website.
Visit Google and search for a
keyword related to your niche followed
by “forum” or “discussion board”. Find
1-3 of these sites and sign up for an
account. Fill out the information how
ever you like, it doesn't necessarily have
to be related to your business. The goal
is to be a frequent and contributing
member of the community. Assure that
you can include a link in your
“signature” which is the small space
below your posts you can customize.
Even if you can't have a direct hyperlink,
include your stores URL in the signature.
When you reply or start discussions,
other users will see your website and
potentially visit.
 Paid Advertising
Investing and reinvesting into your
business is a required practice to
succeed. As little as $1 per day in
advertising can actually make a great
difference. When you are first beginning
we recommend you keep your spending
minimal to learn the platforms and how
to measure data. The first advertising
platform we will go over is Facebook
Ads. It is a highly underpriced service
that can be compared to the early days of
Google Adwords, which we are also
going to cover.
 Facebook Ads
Facebook advertisements include
photos or videos with a desired message
that are displayed to a custom audience.
When you understand your target
demographic you are able to make your
targeting for ads more narrow and
specific. You can create campaigns that
have various objectives such as website
traffic, page likes, post engagement, and
more.
Ads are displayed in locations
called placements. These include the
desktop or mobile news feed, right
sidebar, and external audiences such as
Instagram. As the advertiser you will
decide how much you spend each day on
your campaign. An auction system
allows us to choose an amount we prefer
to pay per cost-per-click or cost-per-
impression.
Before you create an ad or
campaign, ask yourself these questions:
What is my goal? Do you want
traffic directed to a specific page on
your website, increased brand
awareness through page likes, or
related? Define a specific goal.
What should my ad look like? Your
ad is also known as a “creative”. It
can be a photo with overlying text,
video, or slideshow. Consider the
image you would like to use whether
it's a product or niche related.
Brainstorm the message that you
want to portray to your audience.
Who is my target demographic?
The demographic research you
performed earlier will be extremely
useful for this. Outline the age range,
location, and interests you believe
your audience to have.
 Facebook ads are structured with
a campaign, an ad set, and the creatives.
The campaign is the overall goal that is
trying to be achieved. Ad sets lay the
foundation for the creatives by defining
targeting, budget, and placement. Finally
the ad or creative is the final visual
delivered to the targeted audience.
Mastro Digital recommends that
you begin with page likes to build your
brand. This will then expose these users
to your pages content and store.
Lets begin by navigating to
“Create ad” under “Pages” on the left
side bar of Facebook. You will then be
brought to the campaign objective page.
Select “Promote your page” and enter a
name for the campaign title. Under the
list of pages select the one you created
earlier.

Next is configuring your target

audience in which the ad will be
displayed to. Under locations choose
countries and areas you believe your
target demographic to be located. The
more competitive countries such as
USA, Canada, UK, and Australia will
cost you more per click and impression.
A lower tier country is cheaper so
choose a variety of both if possible.
Through your demographic research you
should have established an idea of
where your potential customers are.
Enter these and as you see results we
will be able to validate this assumption
or not. Set the age range, gender, and
languages after this.
Detailed targeting allows you to
narrow down the audience either further.
Start by adding interests which could be
sports, fashion, music, etc. Of course do
your best to make them more defined
like men's tennis, streetwear fashion, or
hip hop music to relate to the above
example. Under “Browse” you will find
a an extensive drop-down list of
demographics, interests, behaviours, and
more categories. Use these to further
reach your audience as you begin to
understand them more. Characteristics
such as relationship status, number of
children, and job industry are commonly
used. As you choose more options, your
reach will become smaller since you're
targeting a very specific niche.
Facebook will automatically bid
on your behalf to find the most optimal
results. We recommend you choose this
option for the “Bid amount”. Your daily
budget should begin at $1 so you can
become comfortable with the platform
and reading metrics. For “Schedule”
select to run your ad continuously
starting today. Choose to be charged
when you receive a website click. Leave
the delivery type as standard.
 Continuing to the next page will
bring you to the creative section. In this
area of the ad manager you will be
building the visual. For an image you
have the choice of either uploading your
own or using free stock images. You also
have the option of utilizing video or
creating a slideshow. We recommend to
begin by just having a single photo with
text. The text should inform your
audience what business is about and the
value it provides. Click “Show
advanced options” to edit the headline
and make it a short but attractive
message.
After completing all these steps
your ad will be set up. Place the order
and within 24 hours Facebook will
approve it for delivery.
Testing is a crucial component of
e-commerce. When you perform
research, you must test that information
through various strategies. Setting up
your targeting is an example of this as
you will see if the created audience
reacts well to your campaign. If so, you
can continue to increase spending, refine
creatives, and split test changes. If not,
you will have to redefine whom you
believe the target audience is.
Once you begin to collect
demographic data from Google
Analytics you can utilize it to improve
your campaigns. You will be learning
more about
 Ads Manager
The ads manager is a dashboard
that allows you to view your current
campaigns, spending, and analyze
metrics. Selecting a campaign will
display the ad sets that are contained
within it. You will see delivery status,
results, reach, cost, among other data.
This will tell you overall how your ad is
performing. You can also change settings
within your ad set or creatives if you
wish.
Selecting an ad set will give you
more information on its performance,
demographics, and placements. Take this
knowledge and use it to optimize your
campaigns. For example if most of the
engagement comes from the 18-24 and
25-34 age ranges, you can edit the ad set
to only deliver to those groups. Over
time you will have a refined campaign
aimed at a very niche target market. This
data also helps us to understand who our
prospects are better.
 Google Adwords
One of the first major advertising
networks released was Google Adwords
in 2000. Today it generates billions of
dollars with millions of advertisers
using it. When you sign up with Shopify
you will receive a free $100 coupon to
use for Adwords. This is perfect
because it gives you the opportunity to
learn the platform and potentially drive
sales while you're doing so.
Lets begin by visiting
https://google.com/adwords and logging
into the account you signed up for earlier
to perform keyword research. As
mentioned previously, keywords are
used for SEO but also paid advertising
campaigns. You will be creating ads
similar to Facebook and bidding to have
them displayed to an audience.

On the top navigation select

“Campaigns” to be directed to the
campaign manager of Adwords. You
will notice a lot of similarity between
this and Facebook's.
 Here you fill find tabs for ad
groups, keywords, settings, and many
more options. All of this is incredibly
useful for identifying how to improve ad
campaigns for higher conversions. You
also will see metrics such as your
budget, costs, impressions your
receiving and similar. Be patient and you
will learn the platform over time. For
now the basics will suffice to create ads
that drive traffic and sales to your store.
Click the red button labelled “+
Campaign” to create a new campaign
and select “Search networks only”. This
will assure our ads are only placed on
Google's search engine.
Name the campaign
to your liking. The type should already
be set to “Search network only” and
“Standard”. If not, change the settings to
these two or else you campaign will
have unexpected results. Under networks
the box for “Include search partners” is
checked by defaulted. We want to
uncheck this as you only want the ads to
appear on Google. This is a common
mistake marketers miss that hinders the
campaigns success.
When you performed keyword
research you entered what countries to
include in the search. For the campaign
your creating, use these same countries
in “Locations” settings. English is the
default language in the next option so
either keep it or change it if you are
targeting a foreign country.
Set the bid strategy for maximizing
clicks. This will take your daily budget
and optimize it to receive as much
engagement as possible while keeping
costs low. Mastro Digital recommends
you set your budget to $5 per day. You
will be able to generate traffic, evaluate
keywords, and analyze data even with a
low amount like $5. It will give you
valuable practice and experience with
Google Adwords before you begin to
invest more into it.
Moving onto the next page you
will be creating an ad group which is
equivalent to an ad set on Facebook. The
landing page link it first asks for is
where the user will land after clicking
your ad. Do not make the common error
of directing them to a homepage. You
want them to enter through a product or
category page. This places the users
further into the sales funnel and
increases the chance of conversion.
Paste the list of keywords you've
compiled into the box below this.
Keyword research is a continual,
ongoing process you should be
improving on over time. Certain phrases
are bound to not respond well so we
must replace them with ones that
perform better. As you do this over time,
you will have a list of affordable
keywords that drive converting traffic.
To find this out though we must begin
testing them through ads to see how their
results. Next we will create the ad.

The final URL is where the user will be

directed to upon clicking the ad. As you
edit these fields , the preview to the right
will change so you know what the final
product looks like. Headline 1 and 2
need to include value propositions. You
have 60 characters total to give a very
brief introduction to the main products
and benefits your business offer. “Path”
is for directing users to deeper
navigation which we recommend. In this
case you need to enter just your domain
name in the “Final URL” section then
place the rest of it in the path fields. For
example if our website is called
Tennistent.com and we want prospects to
land on our apparel page, it would look
like this:

After you have completed creating

your ad, review and save it then you're
ready to start advertising. Once it is
approved you'll be able to track its
progress.
 Chapter 5: Customer
Service
Fulfilling Orders
So you make your first sale and
you're excited, you should be! Now you
wonder how to get the product to the
customer. This is where the beauty of
dropshipping takes place. As mentioned
in the second chapter while designing
your website, you have two choices. The
first is by using the paid Aliexpress app
that allows you to fulfill orders in a
single click. The second is by simply
taking the extra minute and ordering it
yourself.
Once you have made a sale, you
can wait until the funds are deposited
into your bank or order it instantly if you
already have the money. We recommend
that you order the product through the
supplier as quickly as possible so your
customer is satisfied sooner. To do so,
navigate to the Aliexpress product page.
It's a good idea to bookmark the
individual item or store so you can
access it easier. Inspect the order
information carefully so you know what
size and colour to get if there are
options. Add it to your cart and go to the
checkout. Enter your billing information
and put the customers information for the
shipping. Pay for it and you're all
finished.
When ordering from Aliexpress
you must choose ePacket for the shipping
method. The default is typically China
Post Airmail but is extremely slow. You
do not want your customers potentially
waiting months to receive their order
that doesn't even include tracking.
Epacket will arrive within 2 weeks or
less globally. For many countries it's
free and at most you'll have to spend an
extra dollar or two for it.

It is as simple as that, all you

have to do now is follow up with some
after sales service. Assure that you also
change the order status on Shopify to
fulfilled. We recommend that you edit
the email template to something along
the lines of:
“Thank you Name for your purchase
from Business name. Your order will be
processed within 2-3 business days and
it will begin the fulfillment process. We
will follow up afterwards in the near
future with a tracking number once it is
shipped.”
To break down the above message,
lets look at a few points. You make it
personal by mentioning their name and
thanking them for their purchase. You
give them an accurate estimate of how
long it will take to process so they aren't
left wondering. Finally you let them
know what to expect which is a tracking
number later on. It's a simple message
that reduces customer worries, provides
useful information, while using a
positive and professional tone.
 Customer Service
An extremely important piece of
advice you need to follow is this:
Customer service is a part of your
product and brand.
It's not so much advice as it is a
factual business statement but many do
not follow this. Disregarding customer
service is a one way trip to failure. It
may not happen instantly but it will over
time.
When you give your customers a
smooth, streamlined, and positive
experience, they attach that to your
brand. They will always remember your
business as the one that responded to
emails quickly, answered every
question, and made sure they received
their order. Remember that you are not
just building a business but more
importantly a brand. With that being
said, we at Mastro Digital are going to
share our customer service tips.
Tracking Numbers
Aliexpress supplies you with a
tracking number after the order has been
successfully shipped. You want to relay
it to your customer as soon as possible.
This way they aren't left stranded and
know where their order is along the
transit route. Email them with a message
similar to this:
Subject: Order #xxxx Tracking
Dear Customer name, your order has
been successfully shipped and the
tracking number is Tracking number.
You can track it at www.17track.net/en
and it should update within 24-48
hours. Have a wonderful day and
contact us if you any questions or
comments.
 17Track.net is a website that
allows users to track their packages
coming out of China and is one of few
that supports ePacket. It normally takes
24-48 hours to fully update thus you
should always inform the customer of
this. To see the the tracking number of
your Aliexpress order, navigate to the
“My orders” under your profile drop-
down menu.
 This is where you will be able to
view all the information about the orders
you've placed. You can watch tracking
updates, see messages from suppliers,
open disputes, and much more. For now
lets click “Track Order” on the right
side.

Answering Emails
When you purchase from an online
store it's always nice to receive fast
replies and updates. You should be
checking your email on a regular basis.
One time in the morning, afternoon, and
evening is optimal. This keeps you from
getting distracted and allows you to put
more energy into productive tasks.
It's safe to presume you probably
have a mobile phone. In that case you
should connect your email to it so you
can also check it on the go and get
notifications.
Speaking to your customers should
be done professionally and positively.
Be honest and transparent with them. If
they ask where your products are
sourced from, let them know you are
importing from China. If you try to avoid
this, it can seem suspicious and turn
people away. Most individuals don't
mind where it comes from as long as it
arrives in a timely manner and works as
intended.
Always keep the conversation
positive so at no costs insult or be rude
to them even if they are upset. Angry
customers are a normal part of business
but you do have a large control of
preventing them and calming them down.
Refunds
It may seem tempting to persuade a
customer that wants a refund to think
twice so you can keep profits but do not
do that. If they wish to receive a refund,
give it to them and initiate it through the
order screen on Shopify. It will return
their money within a few business days.
Own Up To Your Mistakes
I am going to give you an example
of how owning up to your mistakes can
lead to success for your business. My
first e-commerce store sold streetwear
for both men and women. I accidentally
shipped the incorrect jacket to one of my
customers and found out later when she
emailed me. Upon hearing this I told
them they can keep that jacket and we
will ship the correct one as soon as
possible for free. On top of this I also
sent her a pair of shoes to make up for
the mistake. She was unbelievably
grateful for this act of customer service
and ended up being a repeat buyer in the
future. That mistake which cost the
business more resulted in being
profitable in the long run by creating a
loyal customer.
If you find yourself in a situation
in which you didn't fulfill an order,
shipped the wrong product or similar, be
honest and make up for it. It's the right
thing to do and you never know how it
may be returned.
Adding Value
The purpose of a business is to
add value for its customers. When
creating content, settings prices, and
making business decisions, consider if it
creates value. This can be done in
numerous ways such as offering discount
codes, special promotions, or
giveaways. Value is also offered in
bigger forms such as unique products
and good customer service. Keeping
value in mind as you build your business
will benefit you greatly.
 Chapter 6: Scaling Your
Business
If you've followed everything laid
out in this course, you should have a
profitable Shopify store up and running.
The number one goal now is to continue
scaling the business bigger on a daily
basis. This requires you to stay
consistant to needed practices that we
will outline in this chapter. We will also
be covering other methods to growing
your business for the future to increase
revenue, profits, and size.
 Needed Practices
Throughout this course it outlined
all the information you need to know to
create your business properly. Here are
routines that are mandatory to keep your
store growing and active so you never
stagnant or feel stumped for what to do.
Social media: Don't slack on your social
media activity and presence. These
platforms and networks are only
growing more and more with new ones
popping up often. Continue to post
content every day, interact with other
users, and promote your brand. As stated
in chapter 4, post at least once a day per
platform but you should aim for more
preferably.
Writing articles: Giving value is the
core concept of any business. This
doesn't just come through a great product
or pristine customer service. It also it is
given through content like articles/blog
posts which are huge in todays culture. It
represents that you are a dedicated and
consistent brand that wants to deliver
value to your audience. These pieces of
content can also be easily shared,
exposing your business to more potential
customers. Write a new article at least 3
times per week if not daily.
Optimizing advertising: As you begin
to invest into advertising campaigns on
the platform of your choice, you need to
pay careful attention to them daily.
Analyze which keywords are performing
the best and if any should be replaced.
This is the case mostly for Google
Adwords and if you do need to change
any out, simply perform more keyword
research.
For Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest
and other networks, break down the
metrics. How much traffic is it
generating you? Where does the most
traffic come from? What are the
demographics? Use this information to
continually optimize your campaigns and
ads.
As you begin to become
comfortable with these platforms and
increase profits, invest more into your
ads.
Customer service: As you learned in
the previous chapter, customer service is
one of the top priorities for your e-
commerce store. Every day assure you
are checking your emails to answer
questions, address concerns, and know
when orders have been made. Fulfill
them as soon as you can and keep your
customer service practices consistent.
Studying analytics: Whether you are
using Google Analytics or other similar
tools, you need to be studying the data it
gives you often if not daily. At first it can
be very overwheleming with the amount
of information it presents but you'll
realize how useful it is quickly. Look at
bounce rate, traffic sources, popular
content, and similar metrics to
understand what's working or what's not.
Research: Researching is key in
business as you can continually apply the
new things you learn. You don't have to
spend hours upon hours reading every
day but dedicate some time to research.
Look up industry news, trending
products, new social networks, and
other topics you believe would benefit
your business.
 Growth Hacking
Now that you understand what
your daily routine should be composed
of, here are tactics to “growth hack”
your business. These can instantly
improve traffic and generate sales when
performed correctly.
Influencer Marketing
You can witness influencer
marketing all the time on social media
and blogs. Any time a business reviews
another brands product or shouts them
out, your seeing this in action. It's a
modern marketing strategy that can
easily drive sales and expose your brand
to a targeted audience.
One way to go about influencer
marketing is to find other brands and do
mutual promotions. The simplest way to
do so is by searching for them on social
media through hashtags and related
terms. Reach out and ask if they'd like to
do a collaboration to grow both of your
businesses. State that you'll shout out
their brand if they do the same. You can
also propose to have a specific product
or service to be mentioned.
 Instagram is an incredible
platform for influencer marketing. If you
wish to shout each other out, you can
simply post one of their photos with
them tagged. This is achievable on other
networks as well but be certain you have
permission to use their photo. Instagram
is especially great for influencer
marketing if you have a visual brand.
What we mean by visual is that your
products are best seen on a person or in
use. When a user posts a picture of them
wearing the shoes you sell, it instantly
shows their audience exactly how it
looks.
Reaching out to blogs and
websites in the same manner works as
well. Propose that you will send them a
product for review.
Guest Posting
Originally we were going to
include this under SEO as it is a
common practice in that area but it is
more important for business growth.
Guest posting is exactly what the name
implies, posting as a guess on another
website. This entails having a pre-
written article ready to deliver to
another blog that will post it on your
behalf. They will give you credit and
this usually includes your website, name,
and similar information. This creates
excellent backlinks but also generates
traffic. Assure you are reaching out to
sites that are relevant to your niche and
market.
Finding Guest Post
Opportunities
When searching for guest posting
opportunities, we need to consider a few
factors. These include:
The audience of the blog you're
reaching out to will be interested in
your business.
The blogs content is already focused
on your industry.
Their blog has engagement such as
comments, likes, and shares.
The website is active on social
media thus you know their an active
brand.
Your Good Friend Google
Take a careful consideration about
what you are selling and who your
audience is. With the market research
you've performed already you should
have a good estimate so lets head to
Google. Use one of the following
formulas or similar:
Keyword “guest post”
Keyword “submit a guest post”
Keyword “submit guest post”
Keyword “Guest post guidelines”

Industry Leaders
Are you familiar with any well
known guest bloggers in your market?
As stated earlier, reading up on industry
related news is a great way to learn
about and get inspiration. If you notice
any names that appear often, take note of
them and check out who they are. Search
for their name followed by “guest post”
or a variation of it and you may stumble
upon gold. By gold we mean websites
that these influential individuals have
posted on before. More than likely these
blogs will be a fantastic place to
propose a guest post yourself. Better yet
if you know any of these industry
leaders, have them help you land a spot
on a well known blog.
Studying Your Competitors
Backlinks
You don't require expensive
software to analyze the backlinks of your
competitors websites. Tools such as
Open Site Explorer or Moz will allow
you to do it for cheap. Now you may be
wondering what this has to do with guest
posting. By inspecting these backlinks,
you will be able to locate blogs that
have given Them authoritative backlinks
which can likely be a result of guest
posting. To confirm this, search for the
chosen website followed by “guest post”
or a variation of such.
Social Media
You can utilize social media to
find both blogs to contact and guest
posting opportunities. Look for brands
within your industry and message or
email them with your proposal. Also
consider running a Twitter search for
“Keyword guest post” and see if
anything relevant pops up.
Preparing Your Proposal
Once you have found a blog that
you would wish to contact, it's time to
prepare your proposal. First you should
get to know their brand a bit more before
you jump right in. Lets take a look at a
few variables:
The level of audience their content is
written for. Is it for beginners,
intermediates, or advanced users? Is
it easy to read or has many complex
terms?
Are they writing towards customers
or other businesses? You want your
guest post to be seen by prospects,
 not other businesses.
What kind of content do they
normally post? Is it industry news?
Tutorials?
This will help you understand if
the website you've found is a good
candidate to reach out to. It also tells
you what the best kind of content to
submit would be as you want it to align
the average. Check how posts from
previous guests have performed. If they
received a healthy amount of engagement
then this is a good sign.
 Good Practices
So you've narrowed down a few
websites you'd like to submit a guest
post to. The next step is understanding
some good practices you need to apply.
The first practice is to read their
rules. Any blog that accepts guest posts
will have guidelines that you need to
follow carefully. This typically includes
what format they want it in, what it
can/can't include, and similar
information.
Secondly make the email you send
personal. Too many people start every
email with something bland such as
“Dear sir/madam” or similar. You
should easily be able to find the
webmasters name and use it when
contacting them. It's a small detail that
makes a big difference. Check their
contact page or look who publishes the
blog posts.
Next you have to actually send the
proposal. Here is a basic idea of what it
should look like:
Subject: Guest post proposal
 Dear Website owners name,
I am the owner of Business name and I
recently came across your website. We
are a Business description and share
similar audiences. I am writing this
email to propose a guest post that
would greatly benefit both of us. You
would share great content with your
users that would link to us and we
would gladly accept a guest post from
yourself. Here are some articles I've
written that I believe are up to your
standards:
Links to articles.
Let me know what you think and I look
forward to hearing from you.

Creating The Post & Bio

After you've received the great
news of being accepted to guest post, it's
time to put together an impressive
article. You want to craft it so it meshes
with in the other content. If they utilize
big headers, quotes, and infographics
then you need to as well. Include a few
internal links to other posts they've made
and external links of your choice. Insert
an enticing call to action at the end to
create more engagement.
The bio is where your personal
brand shines. This is the section that you
can do some self promotion. Put your
website link there or social links to gain
more followers. Tell them a little about
yourself so they know more about you
and where they can find you.
 Legalizing Your Business
Having your business in line with
the law is key for success in the long
run. Just because your store is online
doesn't mean that your exempt from tax
or licensing that physical companies
experience. Of course where you are
located will change the nature of how to
go about legalizing your business. Here
is what we recommend.
The first step is to get your
business license. This will give you a
business number that can be given to
suppliers and other organizations.
Secondly it's required to get a tax
number as well. Once again this is
dependant on where you live as they can
be registered together or separately. A
tax number allows you to legally collect
sales tax to remit it to the government.
 Graduating From
Aliexpress
Not all entrepreneurs wish to
dropship from Aliexpress in the long
run. There is nothing wrong with doing
so but some wish to find domestic
wholesalers eventually. To achieve this
you will at least need your business
license/number as stated above.
Suppliers will ask for this number to
verify you are a real business and not
just a consumer.
Working with domestic and
wholesalers in general outside of
Aliexpress is very beneficial. It allows
you to expand into brand names, have
quicker shipping, and is overall more
consistent. Finding them is the first goal
and there are numerous ways to do so.
We recommend you visit Google and
search for a keyword followed by
“wholesale”, “dropship”, or “reseller”.
They should either have a contact
form you can use on their website or an
email available. Send them a message
similar to this:
Good afternoon,
I am Your Name, the owner of Your
Business. I came across Their
Business and am very interested in
your product line. I believe it would
make a wonderful addition to our store
which you can view at Your Url. Please
let me know how I can begin reselling
your products on our store.
Best regards,
Your Name
You don't have to go very in-depth
in the email. Let them know who you
are, your stores URL, and that you are
interested in dropshipping their
products. From there they will inform
you on the steps you need to take to
begin working with them.
Once you have created an account
with a wholesaler, you can list their
products on your website. A standard
wholesale discount is 40% meaning
when you order, the price will be
deducted that percentage. This leaves
plenty of space for profit margins and
the process is the same as Aliexpress.
You would simply log in, enter your
customers information and place the
order.
We recommend that you make this
a daily routine to look for new
wholesalers. Over time you will
compile a healthy amount of suppliers.
This means your store will have a great
variety of products to sell.
 Reinvesting
Good entrepreneurs understand the
value of reinvesting into their
businesses. It can be exciting once you
start earning from your e-commerce
store but you must remember to use this
revenue wisely. Dedicate a portion of it
such as 10% to advertising. This will
keep your ads on Facebook, Google, etc
continually running and driving traffic.
That portion can also be used for
influencer marketing.
 Tools You Need
If you've made it this far in our
dropshipping course, you should be
completely set up now. This means you
have a functioning e-commerce store,
social media accounts, and advertising
campaigns running or ready to begin.
This is the last section of our course thus
we want to finish it by assuring you have
the tools needed to succeed.

IFTTT is an automation service

that allows you to create applets that
connect various accounts to do just about
anything you imagine. For business
purposes we will utilize IFTTT for
posting on social media. It only takes a
moment to sign up and get everything
working.
Lets begin by visiting
https://ifttt.com and signing up for an
account. From the account dropdown
menu select “New Applet”. You will
then be taken to a page to choose from
platforms you wish to connect together.
 IFTTT doesn't get any simpler than
the message displayed on the page you
should be on now. If X does this, then Y
does that. Click the blue button to
connect the first account. You will
understand the depth of capability that
this service has when you see how many
options are available.
 One of the most effective
strategies for automating social media
with IFTTT is to connect accounts
through feeds. Select the orange feed
button and “New feed item” afterwards.
For example you could take the RSS
feed from your businesses Tumblr
account and enter it here as such
“youraccount.tumblr.com/rss”. Click
“Create” trigger and you'll be prompted
to choose the next function. If you were
to choose Twitter and “Post Tweet with
new image” it would post your latest
Tumblr photos.
 This is a simple but efficient way
to keep your social media updated.
Experiment with IFTT to find ways to
improve your business process and daily
productivity.

If there is one tool you will hear

constantly recommended in the e-
commerce community, it's Hootsuite. It
has undoubtedly earned its right to be so
popular with how useful it is for
entrepreneurs. You will save time by
being able to post to multiple networks
at once. Analytics and performance data
will be at your disposal to track
progress.
Start by signing up for a free
account on https://hootsuite.com. You
will have a selection of plans to choose
from but we recommend you begin with
the free one. Enter the required
information to set up your account
afterwards.
From the launch menu on the
dashboard, select “Streams”. Click
“Add Social Network” to connect and
authorize your social media accounts.
After you have completed these
steps, you can compose messages on the
top bar. Select which accounts you
would like to post to, attach images, and
either post them instantly or schedule
them. Mastro Digital recommends you
schedule posts throughout the day to
keep content flowing on your social
accounts.
Hootsuite also offers free and
premium apps to improve your work
flow. Navigate to “App directory” on the
left sidebar and filter the results as
preferred. There are apps for email
campaigns, monitoring blogs, and much
more.

Data tells you everything you need

to improve and continue doing in
business. Without it you will lose
valuable opportunities to increase
conversions, website performance, and
understand your target demographics.
Google is too kind to us entrepreneurs
with the tools and information they give
us freely. Google Analytics is one of
those tools and it is an absolute
necessity to have it, not just a
recommendation.
It can be overwhelming at first
when you first see the various graphs,
statistics, and menus. Google Analytics
is a tool that will improve your business
quickly and in the long run so don't fret
about becoming a master soon. Over
time you will understand how to
measure metrics, split test, and grasp the
deeper meaning of the data.
For now lets focus on some
general principles to follow that will
help you build your e-commerce store.
On the dashboard of Google Analytics
you will first see the amount of sessions
your website has been earning.

The dropdown menu on the top left

allows you select various metrics and
next to it you can select another to
compare. Viewing your traffic levels and
if they are increasing or decreasing
implies if your marketing strategies are
working as a whole.
On the top right of this graph you
can filter by hourly, daily, weekly, or
monthly levels. A monthly basis will
give marketers an overall look at how
their sessions or other metrics are
behaving. Hourly is useful for pin
pointing the exact times your website
gets the most traffic, bounce rates, or
similar.

Useful Metrics to pay attention to

are:
Users: Unique visitors that have had one
or more sessions in a certain time frame.
This is a key metric to observe as it is an
accurate representation of your traffic
levels.
Bounce rate: The bounce rate is the
percentage of users that visit your
website and leave without navigating to
another page. You should analyze the
bounce rates of all of your pages and
content. If they tend to be higher this
means that you need to adjust the pages
copywriting, photos, or other content.
50% if an average bounce rate so keep
that in mind when measuring your own.
Average session duration: The average
duration of a users session is important
to follow. If users are not staying for
long periods of time this may indicate
that they are not finding your website
useful.
Averages pages per session: This is a
similar metric to the above and is tied to
bounce/exit rates. If users are not
visiting more pages then it could
possibly be because of poor navigation
or lack of interest.

The audience tab on

the left sidebar contains all of the
demographic information you need to
know about your potential consumers.
From the country their from, the device
they use, and more is available for you
to analyze. This is important information
as it will aid you in developing
advertising campaigns and marketing
strategies.
For example, click the “Geo”
dropdown and select “Location”. This
will display the regions that your traffic
is coming from. You can go even deeper
into the exact states/provinces and cities.
This geographical data can then be
implemented when you run paid
advertisements to refine results.
Under “Mobile”, the overview
showcases the amount of traffic that
comes from mobile, desktop, and tablet
devices. In 2016 and beyond, mobile
traffic is quickly overshadowing
personal computers thus everything
needs to be optimized for phones. Too
many businesses are falling behind and
suffering losses because they aren't
realizing this yet.
Under the “Behaviour” tab you
will see what users are searching, what
content is the most popular, site speed,
and more. Under “Site content”, pay
attention to what pages such as blog
posts or categories get the most positive
results. If you notice pages or content
with high bounce/exit rates you will
need to improve them.
 Google themselves have stated
that a good website speed is 2 seconds
or less. Anything longer than this will
need to be fixed. The rate that users drop
off when your website's slow is very
high. This results in a loss of potential
sales, sign ups, and overall conversions.
Luckily Shopify stores are built to be
fast so you shouldn't have a problem in
this department.
 Organization
With multiple social media
accounts, customer orders, emails, and
alike you need to stay on top of your
organization. You will feel much more
confident when you know all of your
information and data is secured.
Mastro Digital recommends
keeping spreadsheets on Google Drive
since they are kept on Cloud and can be
accessed anywhere. It is also a free tool
that all entrepreneurs should take
advantage of. Export your order archives
and keep them neatly in spreadsheets.
Have all of your usernames and
passwords in one as well so you never
forget them.
 Good Luck!
Thank you for purchasing and
going though my dropshipping course.
We sincerely hope you achieve success
with your online store and as an
entrepreneur. We recommend you go
back through any sections you wish as a
refresher. It is also wise to continue
educating yourself on business topics
such as marketing, social media, SEO,
and everything else related to what you
learned in this course.
Best regards,
Carmine Mastropierro