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hey guys what's up so today I'm just
gonna jump right into the topic I'm not
gonna explain because you can read the
title of what's are to go down here lots
of you have been asking me the ins and
outs of creating an online store and if
I help with that kind of stuff that's
what I'm gonna do first of all you've
got to decide where you're going to host
your store because it's obviously gonna
be an online store there are many places
you can do it you can do it on
Squarespace
Weebly where Etsy store NV Shopify so
many sites I am cheap and I wanted a
site that both had two requirements one
I was able to customize what the front
of my store looked like and it wasn't
just a generic Blair - I wanted the
place to not take a cut of my profits
and also not make me pay for actually
using the platform now that just leaves
you with one platform which is store
envy and to be honest I have zero
complaints about store and be literally
zero I think it's probably the most
useful online website that I've used in
a while without Storenvy I wouldn't be
here today I wouldn't have made as many
sales as I have today and those sales
have really helped me out
Etsy you have to pay for each listing
and it's strange algorithm with the more
listings you have the higher in the
marketplace they'll sell you two
you know weebly I think you also get
cuts but I'd have to check that but I
know you do have to pay Squarespace it's
similar you have to pay for your website
and I am cheap I love Squarespace I look
at it but I cannot afford to be paying
for website at the moment cuz I'm trying
to save money so store Envy is what I
chose and I highly recommend it the
backside of storing fee is very simple
and straightforward if you want to edit
you have done things that you can edit
on your website like the colors and the
background the banners and the profile
picture and that the basic layout you
can edit it's not completely
customizable but most things aren't so
now there are also other ways that you
can done online store and these are the
sites where you don't do the shipping
yourself for example red bubble society6
basically they do all the processing for
you you just upload your prints and
people order on the site however you
take really really no cut from that kind
of situation you're relying on that
store to bring like a standard of
quality which I'm not really sure about
I've heard raves about the quality of
these stores but I want to be able to
feel the quality for myself and decide
the level of quality I also want to make
cute packaging and really make it
personal and write letters and thank-you
notes and you can't really achieve that
what's those kind of sites I think it's
kind of impersonal and it's just not for
me also with the amount of orders that I
get I don't get thousands of orders a
day so I wouldn't really be making any
money on those stores because the profit
margin on each sale is just so small
pricing your products if it comes to art
prints and art products or just like
prints pin that kind of thing you're
going to want to go and take every
single quote you can from the area
around you printing glass takes samples
of each go and print one of each like
print from each place compare the
quality and make sure that you're
getting the best quality the best price
that you can afford if it's with prints
and it's your first run of prints I
don't suggest printing 50,000 of them
I suggest printing maybe 10
then make a subsection in your sore
empty side of your website saying that
processing for orders is three to five
days that's when your order will be
shipped out so you have time to go to
the printer get the print and come back
and mail it to them or you could print
it yourself that can be a very expensive
startup cost if you don't have a quality
printer so what I did is I chose the
printer that I wanted to deal with after
a bad experience with the previous
printer I'd said goodbye to them and
went to a new printer and I basically
had a running kind of tab with them at
the end of the week when all the orders
would come in like on a Friday I would
email them and say I want five of these
five these three of these two of these
and then I would go pick them up on
Monday and then I'd pay them like when
they send me an invoice at the end of
the month you have to remember that you
need to save as much money as you can
if one place is just one dollar or one R
and one pound difference from the other
place go to the other place because
those small increments are going to add
up so much more than you think
for example the first time I offered
free shipping I made the prints like one
millimeter too big and I ended up
walking out that free shipping from my
pocket because I kind of neglected that
one millimeter thinking it wasn't gonna
make a difference and the post office
grouped my packages as a higher level
package and I had to pay extra which is
a cost that I didn't really think about
so make sure that you have everything
down to the millimeter calculated but go
to the post office get one of those
pamphlets that has the millimeters and
the centimeters requirements and the
weights and the width of each package
and make sure before you offer free
shipping before you offer any sort of
cell you know exactly what the cost of
everything is going to be so you can
prepare because you don't want to be
running into a situation where you don't
have enough money because you forgot a
millimeter like me now standing out and
selling your products is a whole
different scenario I waited a while to
start selling products because I wanted
my name to kind of get out there on
YouTube a little bit and I wanted to
have a little audience that would be
keen to buy my product otherwise I
wouldn't have made any sales
so I think there needs to be a place and
an audience that you can kind of market
to obviously I'm not marketing to you
guys I'm just sharing my journey and if
you guys interested in supporting me
then there's a way that you can you do
need an audience to give your work to to
like sell your work to otherwise you're
just kind of shouting in a void that's
why I think those people go for Etsy
because you do get pushed on the
marketplace and with Storenvy you don't
really get pushed on the marketplace and
nobody really goes to search on Storenvy
if they want to go and buy something
they're just not that kind of level yet
so if you don't have any audience to
market to i suggest saving up a little
bit so you can pay to use Etsy or one of
those stores that markets you to a whole
bunch of people but if you're going to
do that I suggest you watch a lot of
videos on how to get at the top of
search results and really maximize your
SEO for all those kind of things
otherwise you're just gonna get lost in
the void of the millions of artists
trying to like make a business on Etsy I
also suggest in the beginning you don't
go and quit your job and say I'm gonna
open it online store like I would start
small give it a year give it two years
there's been a year for me and it's slow
and it picks up very slowly and you've
got to just kind of be patient and
grateful for the orders that you do get
so I think you also need to work on
making your products really unique and
really like personal because when I
order a print it's basically in my mind
my mind's telling me it's a piece of
paper dude like why ordering this off
the internet and I need to be able to
verify that it is a quality piece of art
that I'm going to love it and it's gonna
look nice in my room i wantyou want to
put pictures of it framed you want to
add personal bits and pieces to the
package like I have bookmarks stickers
all sorts of things so it's not just a
piece of paper and I usually decorate
the wrapping paper right thank you notes
ribbons everywhere it's just kind of
like a mess of personalization the video
that announces my store being live I'm
gonna make that public No
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anyway so you want to make it as
personal and as unique as you possibly
can
once you have your store set up I highly
highly suggest to stay on top of your
orders because I've been in a scenario
where I have had to pack 25 orders in
one night and that doesn't sound like a
lot but when you are when you have like
17 different steps to packing up an
order because that's how meticulous and
personal each order needs to be it takes
you like three hours to do that my
prints come on a big page and I have to
kind of cut them up so I have to do that
then I have to cut up a big page of
cardboard to put behind it so it doesn't
get bent and I have to cut plastic and
make up envelope out of it so it doesn't
get wet and inside of that but my card
my de stickers that come with the print
a bookmark a thank-you note that I have
to write there's usually like a little
gift card for your next print like all
of that stuff needs to be cut out and
put into each and every single order so
it is a long assembly line to package
orders and I suggest that you have a
routine throughout the week so when I
was back from in South Africa I would
package orders on Friday night but
throughout the week when I would get
order like I would see it on my phone I
would go and cut everything out so that
wouldn't take that much long but then on
Friday I had to sit down and I print all
the shipping labels which is basically
just piece of paper that I've stick on
the envelope and I would package
everything together and then on Saturday
morning I would go and post everything
off make sure you have a routine because
being behind our orders makes you feel
awful and people are paying for
timeliness and for your product and you
don't want to disrespect that kind of
support that they're giving you that's
pretty much all the technical advice I
can give you and I'm just gonna kind of
leave you with two questions that you
really need to keep in mind before you
start an online store first of all who
are you marketing to you you need to
have someone to market to and it's the
sucky part of this whole thing you need
to have an Instagram following you need
to have or either a YouTube following
you need to have a following somewhere
and if you don't that's for your first
step you need
you work out their post everyday make it
dedication over motivation it's not
gonna go as planned if you don't have
someone to market to you know second
question you should ask yourself is why
would someone want to buy your product
over somebody else's brother I always
ask myself this question when I'm
putting together a new item for the
store why did someone want to buy my
print package rather than like another
established artist and I tell myself
it's a little bit cheaper because I'm
not that established yet as I have a
huge audience secondly it comes with a
whole bunch of add-ons that you can use
to decorate your life like stickers and
bookmarks and all sort of things it
usually comes with a gift card that will
take a percentage off of your next order
or give you it like a free mini print in
your next order it comes beautifully
packaged with a personalized thank-you
note that it's just like really frickin
personal with some of my prints I would
paint on top of the prints so each print
would be kind of one-of-a-kind it's a
limited edition product you want to add
as many of those things that makes your
product better than something else that
someone will want to buy because if I'm
siding between a print that I'm gonna
order on society6 that's gonna become
packaged to me in the most industrial
way possible or this online artist
that's gonna package it with her love
and care ribbon thank you notes
bookmarks stickers gift cards freaking
blood sweat tears and fluids from her
body I'm kidding you're not gonna get
that from me then I'm definitely going
to choose the last
so laughs laughter anyway that's all the
advice I have for you today
I'm ludie exhausted you should be seeing
this to your blog on Friday so I'll see
you then my friends if you are new to
this channel if you are new I hate it if
you feel so wrong when I say that if
you're new to this channel why can't I
say that without sounding like I want to
vomit
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[Applause]
I also can at alarming amount okay see
ya
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