Everyone wants to be the next great entrepreneur.
We want to be the one who starts a revolutionary business that exceeds all imagination and expectations.
But the truth is, building a profitable online ecommerce store is no easy task.
It can often take months or years for a business to become profitable.
And most businesses will close up shop in the first few years due to this lack of revenue.
It’s safe to say that growing an online store is tough.
It sometimes requires years of hard work to see your efforts generate a positive return on investment.
But you also don’t have that long to wait.
When you quit a job or turn down an opportunity to start your own business, you don’t have three years to live without a salary while you grow your business.
You need to drive profit fast if you want to grow your business and not deplete your savings account.
And thankfully, it’s possible to grow an online business that sees profits in just a few weeks.
Corey Ferreira of Syght Glasses is living, breathing proof of that.
He was able to grow his gaming glasses company to find profitable returns within just five weeks of starting his business.
He took an idea that was relevant to his lifestyle and turned it into a profit-driven company.
In this post, you will learn how Corey was able to generate $2,416.51 in profit in just five weeks, and how you can do the same for your own business.
Let’s jump right in.
How Syght Glasses made $2,416.51 in five weeks
Corey built Syght Glasses from scratch with a simple goal in mind:
Grow the business to make a profit in as little time as possible.
Syght Glasses is a company that sells gaming glasses to help reduce eye fatigue that computer screens cause.
When a gamer is playing tons of hours on the computer, they are blinking less and using more rapid-based eye movements that strain the eye:
He developed the glasses out of a need for a solution to this problem.
They use UV technology to block out harmful wavelengths from computers that can damage your eyes.
According to the science-based description page from Syght Glasses, their glasses block out blue UV light:
It works the same way that sunglasses work for blocking the sun’s UV rays.
So, how did Corey come up with this idea?
How did he set himself up for success and profit?
He did his research.
He is an avid gamer and loves to play online video games.
He was constantly looking on Amazon at the best sellers in PC gaming equipment:
From here he stumbled upon glasses that were designed to be blue light blocking.
He found glasses that people were using at desk jobs that involved heavy computer use.
He then spun that product into a gaming-related product to take hold of a bigger market.
Next, he researched the trend history of gaming glasses to see if they were relevant and commonly searched for:
Once he realized that this business was something that people were interested in, he had to start developing a plan to produce profit as fast as possible.
He started developing his social media accounts to build a basic following that he could leverage for promotion when his products began to arrive for sale.
Using Twitter and Instagram as the primary social media platforms, Corey started to conduct massive campaigns to gain followers. He engaged with tons of users that seemed like potential customers.
He started checking out relevant Twitter accounts in his gaming niche.
For example, he would do simple searches for the top accounts in gaming (his product niche) and check out their followers:
Next, he rapidly started following the users who engaged with that brand.
And this ended up driving tons of social growth in just a few days.
It worked because his targeting was specialized and niche-focused.
He chose to follow users with a direct, proven interest in gaming. He knew that he’d land those followers back.
The next step he took was to post his product on Product Hunt.
It’s a tight-knit community that is dedicated to posting and finding the best new products in popular industries.
You can find almost any type of product on the site, from SaaS products to gaming glasses!
It’s a great site to generate huge amounts of buzz and hype around your products.
Next, Corey worked with influencers in his niche in an affiliate-style relationship to have them generate sales for him.
He collaborated with popular YouTube stars and Twitch.tv gamers.
He offered them $10 for every sale they made using their personal coupon codes to spread the word about his product.
Lastly, Corey ran remarketing-style ads on Facebook and used the split-testing feature to drive site visits that didn’t convert back to his product pages:
Implementing these five steps helped Corey to grow his business from nothing to over $2,000 of profit in just five weeks.
And thankfully, all of his steps are easy to follow.
He clearly outlined them for people to follow in his path and to show that quickly growing a business to profit is entirely possible.
Here’s how you can follow these five steps and grow your own online store in no time.
5 Steps to building a profitable online store in 5 weeks
Step 1. Research your product before you dive in
One of the key steps that Corey took to build Syght Glasses was doing his research.
When building a profitable online store, the biggest question you need to answer is this:
Is there going to be a demand for my product?
You need to know if people are actually searching for the product you want to make.
For example, you could make the most revolutionary bracelet in the world that helps you track how many times you blink.
But if nobody is searching for it, then no matter how hard you work to promote it, nobody will buy it.
If there isn’t a demand, you won’t sell.
To research demand, Corey first started on product marketplaces like Amazon.
Start by searching for your product idea. You want to test the market, see what kind of demand there is, and find out how common the product is:
From here, take notice of the number of reviews that products are getting.
For example, when you scroll down to “Amazon’s Choice,” you can see that it has thousands of reviews:
That is instant proof that your product is something a segment of the population desires.
People are buying that type of product in large enough quantities for you to infiltrate the market with success.
Next, Corey recommends that you head to Google Trends to explore the search history for your product:
You can type in niche keywords that people would search to find your potential product.
For example, if you want to create an online store that sells makeup, search for related industry terms that you think real consumers would search to describe your product.
The goal here is to assess what the traffic pattern looks like.
If you notice that the trend is positive, it means that people are still searching for your product.
If it has flatlined or is trending immediately down, it might not be worth your time.
Remember: you can’t sell products without demand.
Step 2. Grow your social media accounts
Once you’ve found a market that works for an online store, it’s time to grow your social media.
Corey used social media early on to develop trust, social proof, and better credibility for his brand.
Without social media, his brand would have seemed irrelevant or even untrustworthy.
The fact is, you need social media for your business in the modern world.
People will constantly check for your accounts to see if your company is credible and active.
Growing your social accounts needs to be a top priority when it comes to driving traffic, promotion, and sales.
The first step you can take to grow your social accounts is researching large accounts within your niche.
For example, Corey started looking for gaming accounts that were popular, as he was selling products targeted at gamers.
You do this by searching for popular keywords or hashtags on Twitter:
You can instantly see popular, verified accounts within that niche.
Next, click on one of the top accounts and head to their profile:
Next, Corey recommends that you head to that niche account’s “Followers” tab and start following all of those users.
Why? Because you know that these users are interested in products that are similar to yours. That means they have a high likelihood of following you back.
Start by following these users to bring relevant fans back to your page and grow your own user base!
Next, you need to create social media content.
Without content, you can’t expect people to follow you.
The key to growing on social media is consistently posting content.
Corey recommends that you use Buffer.
Buffer is a simple social media scheduling tool that allows you to schedule tons of social posts in advance:
If you go to their site and create a free account you can link all of your social profiles within a few minutes:
Use this tool to start posting content regularly on social media to maintain your following and reach new fans.
Step 3. Put your product idea on Product Hunt
After you’ve developed a social media presence, it’s time to get the word out about your new or upcoming products.
And there’s almost no better place to do it than Product Hunt.
Product Hunt is a great way to find new products and share them with influencers that love exploring new technology.
You can post almost any type of product on this site.
It isn’t limited to any niche or focus.
Corey found great success posting his gaming glasses on Product Hunt:
Product Hunt is a special community of people who love to be on the cutting edge of product development and product releases.
It’s important here that you don’t spam.
In fact, you can’t actually start posting your product immediately.
Product Hunt has a unique system that only allows engaged users to post products on their platform.
You need to show real, proven engagement to get that privilege.
To do this, you need to start by creating a free account:
Once you’ve signed up, head to your profile. When you’re there you should see the following box:
To become a product “hunter,” you need to follow specific steps that will give you access to posting products on the site.
Click “Learn More,” and you will find the tasks to follow:
The idea here is engagement. Product Hunt thrives because the community is real, loyal and engaged.
It prevents spam and users from signing up and spamming their products for promotion.
Create your account today and follow these steps to upload your product and drive big amounts of traffic and buzz.
Step 4. Work with niche influencers to drive affiliate-style sales
After you’ve grown your social following and generated some noise around your company and product, it’s time to get influencers.
Influencer marketing is one of the best ways you can grow a business.
But Corey didn’t use a normal kind of influencer marketing.
He didn’t contact the top Hollywood stars and pay thousands of dollars for promotion.
In fact, he didn’t pay anything.
He simply contacted popular influencers in the gaming industry and offered them an affiliate-style deal:
He would pay them X amount of money per sale that they made, and would give them free products to showcase.
This method is a proven and effective way of generating more sales because you take yourself out of the equation.
You allow others to conduct the sales efforts and you pay them a portion of the sale.
To do this, start researching influencers in your space.
If you do a simple Google search you can find influencers within your given niche:
Read the lists of influencers to start collecting potential influencers for outreach.
Once you’ve got a list together, it’s time to conduct the outreach.
Corey sealed the deal with high conversion rates on his products by using the following tactics:
- Offer to send them a free product.
- Ask them to showcase it on their channel.
- Create a coupon code for them to use for their viewer base.
- Offer to give them X amount of dollars per sale they generate with the coupon code.
To create a coupon code before you send emails, head to your Shopify store under the “Discounts” section:
Next, click “Create discount” to create individual coupon codes for each influencer:
Here you can decide what kind of discount you want to offer and give it a personalized name that reflects the influencer:
These codes will allow you to track the individual performance of each influencer to see who is driving sales.
Next, reach out to your influencer list with a basic template like this:
Hey ((influencer name)),
I love your ((blog, videos, etc.))! I always watch them and learn new tips about ((insert topic)).
Especially love ((another example)), it was awesome.
I create X product and think that you could definitely get some great benefit from it.
It helps ((benefit 1)), ((benefit 2)), and ((benefit 3).
I’d love to send you a free one. And if you’re interested, we are starting an affiliate-based program where you’d get $X from every sale you make using a basic coupon code!
You would simply promote the code to your fan base and make $X every time someone uses it in a sale.
I even made you a coupon code already: ((coupon code name))
Would love to have you on board.
Cheers,
((yourname)).
This template will help you deliver a personalized email that doesn’t feel spammy.
You’ve already created a coupon code specifically for that influencer, showing them that it’s not another spam or scam email.
Try running this outreach campaign to land great influencers that can generate tons of affiliate-based sales for your business.
Step 5. Run remarketing ads on Facebook
The final step that Corey took to build a profitable online shop in just five weeks was remarketing with Facebook ads.
And thankfully, they are cheap and effective for almost any brand. That means you can use it as a big tool to drive relevant sales to your shop.
Remarketing is simple:
It helps to bring back site visitors who visited your site once in hopes of getting them to convert the second time around.
To get started with remarketing, you can use Facebook or Google AdWords.
I’ll use Facebook as an example since Corey used it to drive sales.
To get started, head to the Facebook Business Manager and navigate to your “Audiences” tab:
From here, select the option to create a custom audience:
You can choose how you want to create a list.
For this example, you’d want to target your website visitors that didn’t convert. Select “Website Traffic” to continue:
From here you have a few ways you can remarket past website visitors:
You can simply remarket all of them, or narrow down the field by targeting specific pages, time on site, and frequency.
Sticking with a basic website visitor remarketing plan will help you capture a wide net of visitors back to your site:
Once you’ve created and saved your audience, it’s time to get creative and make compelling ads.
If you need ad ideas, here’s what Corey threw together:
If you don’t want to pay for a designer, you can create awesome Facebook ads by using Canva.
Create an account for free, navigate to the “Ads” section, and select the “Facebook Ad” option:
From here you can upload your own product pictures and use customized templates and fonts to create a simple, compelling ad:
Canva is a great, free tool if you want to create Facebook ads in no time.
Conclusion
Starting an ecommerce business is one of the toughest things to do.
Getting profitable growth doesn’t come quickly or easily.
It’s a grind and it feels like it will never end or you will never reach your goals.
But the truth is, it’s doable.
If you follow the steps that Corey took, you can give your business the best shot at seeing profit in just a few weeks.
Be sure to research your product carefully, grow your social following, use influencer marketing, take advantage of product websites, and close deals with remarketing.
Following these tips can help you achieve profitable online store growth in just five weeks.
What products have you dreamed of selling with an online store? Which startup strategies do you plan to use?
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