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sarajonesc · 3 years

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Droshipping in Canada

Most people look forward to their online business in some way or another. And the options to start one are abundant in today’s time. Whether you would like to focus solely on an online business or keep it as a side hustle, there is no denying the fact that people are seeking ways to make a profit through various means.

Among the many online business ideas present, there is one that has been making its way into everyone’s list – Drop Shipping. If you would like to start your business on a safer side, drop shipping is the most recommended.

Those familiar with the drop shipping model understand that you need to establish a relationship with a good supplier. You don’t even have to invest your money in products that may or may not sell. Instead, when you buy a product from the supplier, you sell it at a higher price.

Sounds easy, right? In fact, many people believe this model is the best method of becoming rich and making money easily. Then why aren’t most people in Canada not successful despite using this model?

The answer lies in the true reality about the drop shipping model as well as the myths surrounding it. When people get entangled with the ‘easy money-making’ myth of drop shipping, it prevents them from building a realistic and successful drop shipping business.

This article, therefore, covers everything you need to know about Drop Shipping. From the pros and cons of this business to the best websites available for the model in Canada, you will become aware of Drop Shipping thoroughly.

After getting a better understanding of this model, you will also get a clearer vision for your plan to start your drop shipping business instead of relying on anyone else.

What Is Drop Shipping?

A Drop Shipping business is a product fulfilment process in which an individual runs their own store without holding any inventory. Your main role as a drop shipper is to provide customer service and market your products.

Once you’ve made a sale or a customer places an order on your website, your supplier will ship the order or products from their warehouse. This will go straight to your customer’s doorstep. You don’t need to worry about packaging, or shipping the products yourself as is the case with other e-commerce websites.

Drop shipping requires setting up a personal website and marketing your products through Facebook and Instagram ads as well as making use of SEO.

For a more detailed and easier comprehension of the model, let us look at it step by step:

You set up an online website and a customer orders a product from your e-store.

Once you receive the order, you then proceed to place an order to your drop ship supplier.

You provide the supplier with the customer’s address instead of your own so that the supplier can ship the order directly to the customer.

Once the shipping is complete, the supplier will not include details about their own company and it may look like you are the one sending products to the customer.

A drop shipping graphic model by Oberlo

How Does The Drop Shipping Model Work?

To understand the drop shipping business model, we need to take a look at the key players and their particular roles in Drop Shipping:

Manufacturers or Suppliers – Manufacturers are responsible for creating, manufacturing, and shipping out the products. They also look after defective products, restocking the products, and replacing them for the customers on retailers’ behalf. Manufacturers sell the products to retailers at a wholesale price.

Retailer- Retailers (you) have the responsibility to sell the manufacturer’s products under your own brand. Retailers get to choose and market the products that fit according to their website. They also decide the shipping costs and set prices that will make a profit.

Customer – Lastly, the customer purchases the product directly from you, the retailer, from your website. If they have questions regarding the product, they contact the retailer they brought their products from.

Canadians And Drop Shipping

The rise of e-commerce and online shopping in Canada is helping pave way for the business of drop shipping in the country. Many Canadians believe that the drop shipping model isn’t as clumsy as it was before. This is because getting in contact with good suppliers has become an easy task in today’s day and age.

With demand for a variety of products, starting a drop shipping business in Canada has become an easier venture. According to CanadaPost, in the year 2016, 80 percent of Canadians shopped online. According to this research conducted by Maru/ Matchbox in regards to small businesses in Canada, 95 percent believe in supporting small businesses to keep the economy running.

This and similar other factors encourage Canadians to start their own drop ship business online. However, another question arises – why start drop shipping business in Canada?

The answers lie with the Canadian customers. Considering the strong desire for Canadians to buy from a local or Canadian retailer, one sees a rise in potential for starting a drop shipping business. Individuals also prefer local or Canadian manufactured products and buy from local e-retailers.

If we take a look at customers’ diversity during shopping in Canada, Canadians buy a wide variety of products, from apparel, music CDS to even essential groceries.

After looking at all of these statistics, one can’t deny that Canada does provide enormous opportunities for those looking to start a Drop Shipping business in the country.

Pros Of Drop Shipping

Drop Shipping is one of the most simple yet effective business models to start one’s career. It can be handled with ease and may also grow over time quickly. Drop Shipping is one of the least risk-taking business models.

1. Spend Less Money On Stocks

Drop Shipping drastically reduces your costs of starting a business as won’t need to invest money in a warehouse or products upfront. With zero inventory, you can immediately start your business. This also eliminates the risk of going into debt.

2. Low-Cost Inventory

When you invest in a business, you also need to invest in products or inventory. Many a time, you end with a large stock that does not sell or has little to no inventory leading to lost revenue and stockouts.

Drop Shipping avoids these problems as inventory is not the retailers’ responsibility. Drop Ship instead lets you focus on building your brand and expand the customer base.

3. Low Order Fulfillment Cost

Order fulfillment requires one to check the warehouse, organize, label, track, pack, and ship the products or stock which requires a lot of money.

In the drop shipping business, the shipper (third-party) takes care of all this. A retailer’s only responsibility is to give the order details and address of the customers to the suppliers.

4. Test Out Products

As there are no limitations to space or other extra costs, retailers get more options to sell different types of products. They can test hundreds to thousands of a variety of products and choose the right ones for their brand.

They have the option of having a vast and ever-changing inventory that will result in more sales.

Cons Of Drop Shipping

Drop Shipping can be seen as a one-stop for money-making. Don’t let it trick you into thinking you will always receive large profits from this model. Just like every other business, Drop Shipping has its own cons that must be kept in mind.

1. Inventory Not Under Your Control

While you don’t have the full responsibility for your products, it might emerge as a disadvantage. For example – since the supplier has full control of the inventory, they may discontinue a product without letting you know. This may result in a decrease in sales when you have nothing to provide to a customer.

If a product becomes popular overnight and a retailer has their eyes on them, they might still not receive it as the supplier was unable to buy the stock in a limited period of time. All of this may leave you with a dissatisfied customer base which will, in turn, affect your website’s reputation.

2. Similar Business Model

Many people are in the business of Drop Shipping. This means there is an end number of chances your brand or website will be copied by many and may also sell the exact same products you sell.

3. Error While Shipping

Similar to the inventory, the process of shipping is under the control of the supplier, not the retailer. When a customer gets dissatisfied with the shipment, ends up with a damaged product, or the order wasn’t appropriately packed, this will reflect on your website.

This is why it is recommended to work with a safe and responsible supplier in the business of Drop Shipping.

How To Make Money As A Drop Shipper In Canada

Before we get into this section, you will need to research the products you sell in Canada. This should be done to verify if the products you offer can be legally sold in Canada. Visit the Canada Border Service Agency to ensure that you are following all the rules and restrictions regarding the drop shipping business.

Drop shipping is like any other business where you make money by profiting from the difference between cost and revenue.

For example – You are a drop shipper for shoes. Your supplier sells you the shoes for $20. You put the shoes for sale on your website for $30 and market the same product for $5 per product.

This will bring you a profit of $15 per product, which is profitable than many other businesses out there. As you (retailer) are not responsible for the costs of shipping and manufacturing, profits can be reaped quickly.

Myths Surrounding Drop Shipping

As the drop shipping model business is easy and risk-free from other ventures, it makes it vulnerable to several myths making it unrealistic. These are some of the common myths surrounding drop shipping:

1. Helps In Passive Income

Passive income requires little to no effort which brings more money in an individual’s life. This is largely equated with drop shipping as many believe that suppliers do all the work while retailers only sell the products.

This myth is the most common in the drop shipping model and many fall prey to it. In drop shipping, patience and hard work are required to build your brand and attract customers. You also need to compete with various other drop shippers, pick the right product and choose a reliable supplier.

Quick money can be achieved through drop shipping but it will take time, an estimated 5 to even 10 years. You as a retailer need to work hard in optimizing your business and win the trust of customers,

2. No Investment Of Money

While it is true that you don’t need to invest in warehouses and inventory, that does not mean you don’t need to invest money in drop shipping at all.

You will require to invest some amount of money in the drop shipping business. For starters, you will have to spend money on your website and even take courses if you aren’t familiar with marketing. These requirements are not free of any cost.

Further, you will have to invest money in marketing the products in various ways. Once you have a bigger business, you will also have to hire staff and pay their salary accordingly.

3. No Customization For Drop Shipped Products

The supplier you work with may also be working with other drop shipping retailers. This may result in your products looking similar or uniform. However, it does not mean that there is no customization of products available from the supplier’s side.

Instead, it is possible that a good supplier offers customization according to your preferences that will also suit the customer.

Common Mistakes Made In The Drop Shipping Business

If you want a successful drop shipping business, you as a retailer need to avoid these common mistakes:

1. Not Taking The Business Seriously

If you think drop shipping only means selecting a product and shipping to your customer, this isn’t the case. In order to make the business run successfully, you need to dedicate time, energy, and money.

You also need to improve your operations, accounts and handle the customer services in the initial stage of the drop shipping business. If you fail to treat drop shipping like a real business, chances are, you will never succeed.

2. Not Informed About Digital Marketing

To start the drop shipping business, a retailer needs to be informed about the whole model accurately. Only by learning online digital marketing can you let your website or brand stand out in the competitive online space.

You can’t expect to read certain guidelines or tricks, start a website and expect money to come pouring in. In fact, you need time to understand and develop the correct skills needed for marketing your products. The more sales you generate, you will attract a larger customer base.

The most recommended way to hone your digital marketing skills is to get familiar with SEO as it plays a huge role in advertising your website online.

3. Goofing Up The Customer Service

When the customer experiences a problem, be it ordering by mistake or asking for a refund, it is the retailer’s responsibility is to make sure they provide them with an easy and quick solution. If you don’t satisfy a customer’s needs and end up adding fuel to the fire, the already dissatisfied customer may leave a negative impact on your brand.

Thus, it is necessary to be efficient while solving customer-related issues with orders or returns.

4. Generic Marketing Strategy

You want to display a product in a way that appeals to the customer and does not look similar to your competitors. However, if you are using the same generic photos of a product used by other drop shippers, it may not attract many customers.

In fact, they might think that your product is priced higher than that of the competitor and buy their stock instead.

Display unique photos of the products that may catch the attention of the customers instead of being very monotonous.

5. Picking The Wrong supplier.

If you pick the wrong supplier, this will affect your business immensely and might even fail shortly. Although they work behind the scenes, you as a retailer are the face of the brand. So when they end up delivering the wrong product or delay shipment, fingers will be pointed at you.

Pick a supplier who is trustworthy and knowledgeable in the business of drop shipping.

Process To Start A Drop Shipping Business In Canada

Just like any other country, setting up a drop shipping business is quite simple in Canada. Below are the basic steps that will guide you in opening your drop shipping business:

Start by pinpointing a niche of interest and decide the products you want to sell. You should research well on topics such as the ‘best products to sell online in Canada’.

You will need to register a domain for your online E-Store or website. Some of the good websites to purchase a domain in Canada include GoDaddy, NameCheap, Web.com, Hover, and 1&1.

Decide on the products you wish to choose and your target audience. For example- to quickly find out what’s trending in women’s clothing, go to AliExpress or any other e-commerce site. Browse through the clothing section and you will find various categories such as ‘Popular sweaters’ and ‘Hot Categories. You can also filter the results and check which styles are ordered the most.

Next is to find a supplier for your website. This is quite a task that requires research to find an authentic supplier. But Canada has plentiful if you look in the right places.

Paid services like Oberlo, Shopify, and Salehoo provide direct suppliers to retailers.

The Canadian Importers Database provides a list of companies that import goods or products in Canada.

You can also try well-known sites such as Wholesale 2B and WorldWideBrands.

After selecting the supplier, choose an E-Commerce Platform to design and launch your website or E-Store. This can be done through websites namely Shopify, WooCommerce, Volusion, and BigCommerce.

Import all your products to your website or e-store with the help of Oberlo, dropfied, etc.

Market your brand and E-Store by email marketing, Facebook marketing, SEO, Instagram marketing to name a few.

Some more options for Wholesale Distributors in Canada according to different products:

Hudson Bay co. – This company is the oldest Drop shipper in Canada and sells almost everything at wholesale prices.

The Shopping Channel – Another wholesale offering a wide range of products.

BuildDirect Technologies – Offering high-quality home building products and accessories.

Indigo Books & Music Co. – Perfect wholesaler for books as well as electronic accessories.

Reitan’s – Provides high-quality women’s clothing and offers good wholesale rates for vendors.

Cymax Stores Inc. – Offering best furniture suiting home and office decor.

Sales Tax On Drop Shipping Products In Canada

All products or goods being sold in Canada are required to pay tax. There are three kinds of tax levied on products being sold within Canada:

General Sales Tax (GST)

Provincial Sales Tax (PST)

General Sales Tax + Provincial Sales Tax (HST)

The Tax requirements in Canada differ from each province but you will pay taxes only in the region your drop shipping business is registered in. It is better to manage your taxes well with the correct software required for such ventures.

For more information, check out this official guide from CanadaBusiness which proves helpful in the drop shipping business.

Important Steps For Becoming A Successful Drop shipper

1. Only Sell What You Know

It is true that drop shippers have access to millions of products but you can’t cramp all have them into our e-store. Find the product you feel interested in, study its trends, and then sell it on your website.

2. Choose The Right Supplier

This is one of the main steps that determines whether you might succeed or not in your drop shipping business. Keep these basic things in mind while selecting a supplier:

Pick a local supplier as they will deliver the products fast. Although overseas suppliers may sell products for a cheap price, all of that fails when they don’t deliver the products on time.

They should also match the estimated delivery time so as to not delay the order shipment.

Your supplier must be an expert in dealing with faulty or wrong products. They must also provide support to the retailer in case anything goes wrong with the shipment process.

3. Create A Brand

You need to design your brand in such a way that will make it stand out from your competitors. Ponder over questions such as ‘how is my brand different from others?’ and ‘What benefits can I offer to customers which other e-stores cannot’.

4. Measure Your Performance

Without measuring your performance in the Drop Shipping business, you cannot determine whether you are succeeding or failing. It can be disheartening when your numbers are small initially. It may also lead to demotivation and can be hard to measure and optimize. Yet, it is very important that you start tracking the business performance from Day 1 itself.

Create a spreadsheet and track all of the important factors such as:

Is your monthly revenue increasing or decreasing?

How much is your average order number or size?

Are the customers following you on social media increasing or decreasing?

In this way, you can find out for yourself if you are making progress in the business or not. If you think your sales are decreasing, examine what are the changes that can lead to an increase in profits. After applying the changes, keep track to see if any progress is being made in the business again.

Through this, you will optimize different parts of your Drop Shipping business and keep expanding it.

Common FAQs Regarding Drop Shipping

How much money do you need to start a drop shipping business?

You can ideally start drop shipping business for free by using free trails from various websites. However, this is not helpful in the long run and one must plan a budget.

To build your own website, you will need to buy a plan. For example – Shopify’s basic plans start from $29. Buying a domain name can cost $20 to $30. Facebook Ads may take up $5 a day for a maximum of five days.

Where do I find a drop ship supplier?

If you are looking for a local drop ship supplier, the Canadian Interface database provides authentic suppliers.

Why wouldn’t customer order from Amazon straight away instead of purchasing products from Drop shipper?

To answer this simply, many billion-dollar companies like Amazon and Target are professionals in what they sell and how they manage customers. However, many Canadians have voiced their opinion on helping local businesses in keeping the economy uptight. Drop shippers sell products every day because target customers are also impulsive shoppers.

There is traffic in my store but no sales yet, is it a bad thing?

It is an optimistic factor to take in that you have traffic on your website. This means your ads and marketing strategies are working as well as people are getting to known about your brand. Look at your pricing and product description and set it according to the customer’s perspective.

How to pick a winning product?

A winning product differs from person to person. Some may like a product but others may show no interest in it. One way to seek a winning product for a door shipping business is to look for a ‘wow’ factor. If the product catches the attention of a person, even it is just for a second, that product can be a winner.

How to make customers wait for a week to two weeks shipping?

The best way to make the customers wait for a long shipping period is to let them know beforehand. Specify clearly on your website about the shipping and delivery times for the products so that your customers aren’t kept in the dark.

Is drop shipping still profitable in 2021?

In the year 2021, the drop shipping business is thriving as many people are becoming more and more aware of it. By avoiding the mistakes and dedicating yourself to the business, you can earn profits through the drop shipping model.

Drop shipping in Canada is prospering more and more due to access to many suppliers, customers in need of products, and online e-commerce growing stronger. It is a good opportunity for young entrepreneurs to start their very own drop shipping business right away in Canada.

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sarajonesc · 3 years

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Whats the best way to make money online in Canada?

94% of the Canadian population are internet users. They use the Internet for a variety of purposes ranging from gathering information to shopping. This data is only going to increase in the future.

Our whole lives have entered the online stage. We connect with people online, we order food online, broadcast our opinions, pay our bills online, and so much more. The list goes on. In addition to that, the pandemic boosted internet usage as our physical world was inaccessible temporarily.

It is safe to say that the world has shifted online. It is where the people are, where activities happen, and it is where the money is. You can not only pay bills online but also earn money online.

There are several ways to earn money online, and the best feature about the internet is that there is something for everybody. The online marketplace is as huge as this world, and you can literally sell your products to customers who live in another continent.

The internet has made the world a small place. That means employers and employees are never far off on the internet even though they are geographically miles apart.

As Canadians, you can use the internet to earn money by doing what you do best and love the most. You can enter e-commerce and online trading. You can sell a service online or be a monetized content creator. The possibilities are endless. So let us look at some of the ways you can earn money online in Canada:

Earn money through e-commerce

8.1% of all retail transactions in Canada happened online during 2020. The physical part of the retail industry (shops, stores, and outlets) was hit hard by the pandemic lockdown, but sales in its online counterpart increased. So, if you have a physical product to sell, you should immediately take it online as that is where the customers are.

There are two ways where you can sell your product online. The first is having your own E-commerce website, and the second is by selling it in an online marketplace.

E-commerce website

E-commerce websites are digital versions of physical stores. Customers open accounts on them, browse through the products and buy what they like. Shopping is easy and comfortable on e-commerce websites, and that’s why most prefer it.

It is important to have an e-commerce website for your product to convert your business into a big business one day. Online shopping is becoming popular by the day, and soon businesses will have no existence unless they have a presence online.

Two of the biggest drawbacks of an e-commerce website are that you have to spend money creating one, and you have to do your own marketing. That means allocating resources towards building a website and marketing it to the customers should be your first step. And it is a worthy investment as you get more control over how your products are represented and sold.

There are many e-commerce website builders available for Canadians. The links to some of them are given below:

Shopify

WooCommerce

Squarespace

Wix

BigCommerce

Choose an e-commerce website builder that suits your budget and product needs. Additionally, check the ratings and reviews of the builders before building your website on them.

Online marketplaces

Online marketplaces are large e-commerce websites where manufacturers of physical products (like you) sell their goods. The best part about online marketplaces is you do not have to create an e-commerce website and do your product’s marketing. That will be done for you by the online marketplace you have registered in.

Online marketplaces are a great option for people who do not have the budget for creating a website and marketing their products. It also serves as a stepping stone for new businesses to launch their products into the online market sphere. These marketplaces receive millions of visitors a year, so your product is visible to millions of potential customers without you having to spend a dime on marketing.

Selling on an online marketplace is easy. Just register at a preferred marketplace as a seller, fulfill the requirements, decide on the pricing plan, and your product goes live. Some Canadian online marketplaces are as follows.

Best Buy Canada

eBay

Amazon

Etsy

Walmart Canada Marketplace

You must do thorough research regarding target customers before you register at an online marketplace. Otherwise, your product will get lost in thousands of products from other sellers. Register only in that marketplace that has visitors from your target customers.

Social Media

If you cannot afford to create an e-commerce website or the pricing plans of online marketplaces, you can sell your physical products online. But this is not a professional marketplace, so your reach will not extend beyond your local Facebook group and friend circle.

This is how you sell on social media:

Create a Facebook Page for your product.

Click pictures of the product and post them on the Page with descriptions, prices, and other relevant details.

Share Page on your social media handles and your locality’s Facebook Group.

If someone looks at your products and wants to buy them, the person can contact you via the contact information on your Product Page.

The deal is done; you package the product, send it to the customer and receive your cash.

There is no registration fee or pricing plan, or marketing cost (unless you boost your posts). Marketing happens through word-of-mouth, and your market is limited to your locality and neighboring areas.

It is estimated that there are 7.9 million social media buyers in Canada, but these buyers mainly purchase goods from links of retailer sites posted on social media. So, here social media is serving as a marketing platform and not as a buying platform.

Some social media sellers enjoy success by selling products in the local sphere and to friends and friends of friends. It is a great way to jumpstart your manufacturing business, earn some valuable cash and selling experience, and use them to take your business to bigger heights. Every big business has to start small somewhere. Social media is one such place.

Earn money by selling a service online

This is pretty straightforward. You have a skill or a set of skills that can be used to provide a service. You provide that service, and you get paid for it. There are two ways where you can sell your service online. The first is by doing gigs on freelancing platforms, and the second is providing the service through your own website.

Sell your services on freelancing platforms

Freelancing platforms are online spaces (websites) where an employer and a service provider meets. An employer posts a job (remote or in your locality), and people who have the skill set required to do the job can apply.

Freelancing platforms offer jobs that can be done remotely and opens up the possibility to work with international employers from the comfort of your home. There are jobs for all skill sets and experience levels on these platforms. There are jobs for freshers as well as for those who have over five years of experience.

Using freelancing platforms is easy:

Open an account and provide your personal details.

Upload your resume.

Browse jobs and apply.

Get selected and start working.

Some popular freelancing platforms of Canada are as follows.

Freelancer.ca

Upwork

Writers Work

Fiverr

99designs

Behance

Some freelancing platforms are for a specific skill set, while others have various jobs from different fields. Most of these platforms do not charge any registration fee but have a monthly or yearly fee to unlock some features on their websites. Additionally, they have a free plan if you think that those features are not worth the money.

Freelancing websites will charge a nominal fee from every income of yours from their websites.

Use a professional website to market and sell your services

You can have your own professional website being the aggregator for jobs instead of selling your service at a freelancing platform. But this will require extensive marketing efforts and monetary expenses to create and promote your website.

You should think of getting a professional website after acquiring a reputation in your profession and have been in this business for quite some time. We do not recommend going for a professional website if you are a novice in your profession. You need to prove that you are good at your job before attracting employers through your professional website. You can only prove yourself by working through the years.

Earn money through online courses

You can earn money by selling online courses. These courses are in demand because people want to learn new skills. This business got a serious boost during the pandemic as all academic institutions were closed.

The best part about online courses is that you have to record it only once but sell it multiple times on different platforms. Some Canadian platforms where you can sell your online courses are:

Thinkfic

Teachable

Podia

Click4Course

Zippy Courses

Earn money through affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is an innovative marketing technique. Here, you promote a product for a business and get a commission every time someone buys that product through your referral link.

Suppose you have partnered with Company X in affiliate marketing. They will send you a unique referral link to one of their products (let’s say, a gaming mouse). That link will take you to a shopping site. You post the link on your website and social media handles and promote that product through your website and social media content. You get a commission every time the link is clicked, and the gaming mouse is bought.

You must have understood by now that this method of earning money online will work only if you have a large social media following and have many visitors to your website. You need to have at least 200,000 followers on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube for this method to be viable. If you have anyone social media account with that many followers and more, you should get affiliate marketing as soon as possible.

If you have the required traffic on your social media handles, website, and blogs, then it is time to be part of an Affiliate Program. An Affiliate Program is a network that joins advertisers with publishers (affiliates, you). Some of the top Affiliate Programs in Canada are as follows.

Rakuten Linkshare

Amazon Associates

Shareasale

AvantLink

Earn through ads and sponsorship

This method is for those who run successful YouTube channels and Facebook profiles and pages. Your video content on these two social media platforms can have ads in them, which will earn revenue for you. The videos you post on these platforms must regularly cross over 500,000 views. So, your channels and profiles must be viral. Otherwise, this method won’t work.

Facebook monetization policies and YouTube monetization policies will tell you about their eligibility criteria to be part of their ad-revenue sharing programs. You will also get to know how to monetize your videos on these platforms.

This method of earning is not for everyone. Only successful “YouTubers” and “influencers” can avail of this option of earning money online. These online content creators attract millions of views per content video. They did not get this success overnight and have been toiling behind their channels and profiles for years before making it this big.

So there have to be years of hard work before anyone can start earning through ad revenues. But this is highly rewarding as you would be earning money by doing what you love.

There is another way to earn from successful YouTube channels and Facebook profiles besides ad placements. That is through sponsorship. Sponsors are companies that will pay you a fee for promoting their products in your videos.

For example, you run a successful cooking channel on YouTube. A spice brand becomes your sponsor for one video or a series of videos, and you promote that spice brand in those videos. You cook with those spices and tell your audience about that brand in the video.

Earn via fan donations

This method is exclusive to creative artists and people giving valuable services to the community. You will get fans and followers if you broadcast your talent. These fans are people who love what you do and are ready to contribute so that you can continue creating.

You can receive donations from fans via Patreon. Fans of your content will donate money to you, and in return, you will give access to exclusive content like behind–the–scenes footage or insight into your creative process and many more. At the very least, you can thank them on your videos or website or blog, or podcast for donating. Sign up on Patreon as soon as possible.

This is a great way of earning a steady stream of revenue for artists who have not got much internet clout (like influencers have). But donations depend on the whims of the donor, and income will be inconsistent at best.

Earn money through online trading

You can earn money by buying and selling stocks online. This is one of the most lucrative ways of earning money online, but it is also dangerous. The markets, by nature, are volatile. Some stocks are doing well today. The same stocks will plummet the next day.

If you do not make the right decisions, then you can go bankrupt in a jiffy. You need to know the stock market like the palm of your hands and use your analytical thinking to make buying and selling decisions. If you can intellectually conquer the stock market, you can see five figures’ revenue in a single day.

Some best online trading platforms in Canada are as follows.

Wealthsimple Trade

BMO Investorline

CIBC Investor’s Edge

QTrade Investor

RBC Direct Investing

Study the brokerage details, minimum account balance, sale pricing, and customer service of a trading platform before deciding to buy and sell through them.

Which method is best for you?

Only you can answer this question. The best method for you to earn online depends on your skill set, reach, and position.

If you have a physical product, then you should definitely go for e-commerce. Online is the future, and your business cannot survive long if it does not have an online presence.

Whether you create your own e-commerce website or enroll in an online marketplace will depend on your budget and marketing resources. Go for an e-commerce website if you can create the website and launch a marketing campaign. Otherwise, go for online marketplaces or social commerce.

Register yourself at a freelancing website if you can provide an in-demand service. If you understand the stock market, then go for online trading.

If you are a creative individual who creates content regularly, then ads, sponsorships, affiliate marketing, and fan donations are ways to earn money online. Which of them is best for you will depend on your content’s popularity and internet clout.

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sarajonesc · 3 years

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Multi-Level Marketing Canada: All details legalities and alternatives

Multi-Level Marketing is often mentioned as MLM and is one of the customary work options people choose to generate income via a digital medium. It is very inclusive because people with minimal or no experience can also earn from this process.

It often appears to people that MLMs have a 100% success rate because there are advertisements and testimonials all over the internet which have stories about people earning a bountiful income using the MLM strategy.

Why is Multi-Level Marketing a customary choice?

There are multiple reasons why Multi-Level Marketing continues to be a preferred choice, and we have listed all the valid points below:

The products are ready beforehand

Provides with additional commissions and rewards

Gives insight into new marketing materials

Some programs offer mentorship, which is benefitting for a marketing career

The packages have an incredible pay scale

Many people love the flexibility this business model provides. The regular 9-5 jobs are very monotonous and don’t offer time to be creative or participate in recreational activity. MLM can be done at your convenience, and you can choose the time frame and the number of hours you want to dedicate each day.

But these are speculations and what the system looks like from the outside. If you want to jump into MLM’s world, this article will provide you with honest insight and provide alternative multi-level marketing options. We also have found some exciting programs which you might be keen on enrolling so stick with us till the end.

The working mechanism of Multi-Level Marketing

There is some similarity between multi-level marketing and traditional marketing. In both cases, the commodity is sold by a business. The mechanism of how the product is sold is different in the two cases.

Regularly, products are sold from the retail outlets, but only authorized, and independent distributors sell the products in multi-level marketing. There are numerous ways how distributors of the MLM firms can make money; here are a few examples for your comprehension:

Receive a direct commission from the sales they make

Receive commission if the team members under them make sales

Hiring new members for the firm

Performance-based bonuses and rewards

Are MLMs legal in Canada?

Yes, MLM is a legal business model in Canada, but there are a few restrictions to protect the people from falling into Ponzi schemes and money laundering traps. Typically, MLM’s pyramid scheme is not allowed in Canada, and legal action will be taken against the people practicing this scheme.

Illegalities and Faux Schemes

While MLM is a legal way of making money, many people try to use this name for practicing the pyramid scheme, which isn’t a legitimate way of earning. You have to be cautious of these people and never get involved with the companies that practice pyramid schemes. It is easy to get tricked into it, so complete your background research before starting.

Pyramid Schemes may appear to be a part of multi-level marketing, but their intention is different. The pyramid scheme’s main agenda is to recruit new people into the company rather than sell the products.

Most of these companies do have commodities, but they are overpriced. The products are kept for name-sake to give it a real business look. They charge very high entry fees for newly recruited people. It is labeled for different reasons like products and services. It is how they earn a lot of cash in a short span.

The legitimate MLM companies focus on building long term relationships and increasing their sales while these faux companies want to earn a bountiful without doing anything. People who get into the pyramid schemes often go into debt because they come out with less money than when they started. There are various situations where people have lost all of their life savings because they were prey to these firms’ malicious lies.

But don’t be disheartened. There are genuine MLM companies that offer responsible roles with the right pay scale.

Making Money with MLMs

Not everyone is cast for every position. You have to understand the responsibilities before you take up a role. The firms rely on distributors to reach out to potential customers who sell the products to make money.

There are two skills in particular which will prove to be useful for this role:

Sale Skills: If you are outspoken, extroverted, and can convey the point across to the potential buyers, then you will achieve quick success in this role

Expanding social circle: You need to have a colossal friend circle and an expanding social circle with new additions from time to time. It is crucial because you cannot market to the same set of people every time. They might get annoyed if you persistently ask them to buy stuff.

It would be best to make sure that the products are useful and are of good quality. If the products aren’t up to the standards, then no amount of marketing will help. It will also tarnish your image if you market low-quality things. You have to maintain credibility and recommend the good stuff.

Debugging myths around MLMs

MLM qualify as a proper business

The company that makes these products is a business, but the distributors aren’t exactly businessmen. They are into generating leads and sales. MLMs are branded as business opportunities to encourage more people to enter the field, but that doesn’t make the independent distributors owners of a business. It is to target the audience who wants to start their enterprise.

MLMs are a source of passive income.

In the beginning, people believe that if you recruit an excellent sales team, you don’t have to sell the products yourself. After the juniors sell the products, you will benefit from the commission without having to work hard. It isn’t the real scenario because it will take ample time for this to pan out. You can still spot many executives conducting sales despite being at very high positions with a good working experience to achieve their targeted amount.

There are monthly goals which you have to achieve as well. It isn’t a free system entirely because then everyone would sign up and do as they please. A little binding keeps the sales team dedicated.

Alternative Options to MLM

After reading the previous segment, you would have gotten an idea about MLM and if it is the right fit. If MLM’s suit you, then you should go ahead and start working on it. If you believe that the field isn’t right for you, we have some alternative options you would like to take up instead.

Start an eCommerce store.

There is a rising demand for online businesses because you can purchase products from the comfort of your home. Although it will be very consuming to set up the online store, it will generate a decent income.

It takes prolonged periods for the business to take off because customers should be familiar with the brand image and gain trust. If you are putting in all the energy since day one, you can quickly build a sustainable business. You can build an eCommerce store in minutes by registering with websites like Shopify.

Affiliate Marketing

Don’t want to bother yourself with shipments and customer service? Affiliate marketing is an excellent career option to pursue. You have to market the existing products of various brands that offer an affiliate program. These brands can be discovered on affiliate networks and Search Engines. After registering with the brands, you will get an affiliate link for the products you wish to market.

Share them across your website, social media handles, and YouTube channel. Whenever someone makes a purchase using your unique link, you will get a commission from the merchant.

Amazon offers one of the preeminent affiliate programs, which is very easy to understand, and the registration process is hassle-free. You will also get all the requisite tools from the business owners to track your performance.

Sign up with the fantastic training program offered by Savage Affiliates to learn all about affiliate marketing. You can start making over $5000 in one day if you follow the strategies and techniques recommended by Savage Affiliates. They have a comprehensive training program that covers other concepts like increasing organic traffic and boosting SEO score.

Savage Affiliates also provide done-for-you tools so that you can have some practice beforehand. They even teach a particular email marketing module to earn through successful and attractive email campaigns.

DropShipping

It is a relatively fresh concept and is a cost-effective model. You can sell the products from various manufacturers and retailers without a physical store. The most prominent perk is that you don’t have to invest any money in storage, electricity, and handling.

After the customer places an order via your firm, you will pay the retailer/manufacturer for the product. Next, he will directly ship the order to the address with your brand identity, and you will receive the customer’s payment. You don’t have to worry about shipments either because the manufacturers do it. All you have to do is set up an eCommerce store and increase your brand visibility and reach.

To learn all about dropshipping, sign up with Ecom Elites; they provide the best course on dropshipping and are ranked in this domain. Ecom Elites has gained a lot of recognition and appreciation because of its fantastic student testimonials and high success rate. You can start making over 10,000 USD in the first month itself. Learning is always beneficial, and with the fluctuating trends of the industry, excellent mentorship can come in handy.

Conclusion

MLMs are legal, and if you are endowed with the right skill set, you can start earning quickly. But there is a significant probability that unfair schemes like the pyramid schemes exist. Determining the authenticity of MLMs can be challenging. If you are determined to take up MLM, then do thorough research and be cautious.

On the other hand, the alternative options mentioned in this article have a straightforward approach, and there are seldom chances that unlawful practices can occur in these fields. They also give you more flexibility and space to work. We hope this piece was enriching and paved the way for new avenues to come.

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sarajonesc · 3 years

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Shopify vs BigCommerce

BigCommerce and Shopify are platforms where you can launch your eCommerce venture. Both are very popular and reputed for their services. Statistics suggest that Shopify is more widely accepted, but that doesn’t mean BigCommerce is any less.

This article will review the eCommerce industry’s two giants to help you decide which one is the superior choice for your upcoming business venture.

A Detailed Comparison

Transaction Cost

BigCommerce has the edge over Shopify here because it doesn’t levy a transaction fee. Shopify levies a transaction fee of 2% on a completed transaction. It means that you will have to spend a little extra per month if you opt for Shopify.

Pricing Details

The pricing options for both platforms are similar. Shopify’s basic plan starts at 29 USD, and BigCommerce’s foundation plan is priced at 29.95 USD.

Payment Gateway Options

The availability of diverse and trustworthy payment gateway options is crucial because different people trust different options depending on their personal use and experience.

Both the platforms support PayPal and Stripe, which are the most common payment gateway in Canada and the United States. Additionally, Shopify also supports MOLPay, which is a reputed payment gateway overseas.

Market Sync with the United States

Shopify uses an external application to link with popular US marketplaces like eBay. BigCommerce is the winner because it is well integrated with all the popular markets like Amazon without a third party’s aid.

Shipping

Shopify has a collaboration with EasyParcel, but BigCommerce doesn’t provide shipping service.

Customer Support

You can reach out to the support team in case of any problem or doubt via email, text or call. Shopify and BigCommerce have an efficient and diligent customer support team who are well-versed in the domain and help you out.

SSL Certification

Today, it is crucial to have an SSL certification because it guarantees the visitors and users that their data is in safe hands. You will receive a free SSL certificate from both firms.

Free Trial

Free Trials are widespread and crucial because you can decide for yourself if the platform is apt for you. Every user has different requirements, and what is easy for one may not be easy for another.

BigCommerce and Shopify offer a free run to the customers for a limited period. Shopify offers a two weeks long free trial, and BigCommerce offers a day extra. It is a sufficient time window to explore the platforms and get a first-hand experience before moving to the paid plan.

Themes and Designs

There are existing themes available on both platforms, but they offer a vast assortment of themes through external integrations.

BigCommerce has about eleven native themes that have superior quality and are available for free. It also offers an abundance of paid themes. Themeforest is second to none when it comes to providing quality and exquisite themes. You can choose from over seventy designs. On average, this will cost you 180 USD.

Shopify wins here in terms of figures because it provides twenty free themes. With their integration to Themeforest, you can choose from over eight hundred options: a whopping number. The themes would cost about 50 USD on Themeforest and 180 USD on Shopify’s website on an average. Shopify offers themes at a much cheaper rate compared to BigCommerce and has more variety as well.

POS

POS is the acronym for Point-of-Sale. Shopify has its own POS, but BigCommerce has integration with Square. Since you will have to use an external POS for BigCommerce, it will incur additional charges.

Ease of Use

Shopify is straightforward to navigate, and BigCommerce is comparatively challenging. Shopify mobile app enables you to work hassle-free on the go, but BigCommerce doesn’t have a designated app. You will also have to be familiar with a lot of terminologies before making edits on BigCommerce, which makes it very tedious.

Who is the ultimate winner?

It is a cut-throat competition between the two platforms because each of them is brilliant in their way. But after all the analysis, Shopify has won the battle because of the following reasons:

Shopify’s user interface is comparatively more comfortable and intuitive, providing a streamlined experience to the business owners.

Shopify can accommodate any enterprise-big or small. Their platform is designed to host all the ventures, whereas BigCommerce is more focused on bigger businesses.

The core idea of starting Shopify was to avoid all the problems eCommerce store owners face. Therefore, they have a colossal resource material available to assist you, and there are very few chances that you will face any difficulty.

Conclusion

Shopify is an excellent eCommerce platform that has helped multiple businesses achieve great heights. We hope our thorough comparison of BigCommerce and Shopify proved productive to help you decide on the right platform. Without further ado, sign up for their free trial to get a first-hand experience.

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sarajonesc · 3 years

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How to Find the Best Affiliate Marketing Programs in Canada

Affiliate marketing is a fresh and pertinent way of making passive income online. You don’t need to invest money in capital, and it is comparatively a straightforward business model to understand. Many big brands have started affiliate programs to expand their business, and you can earn a bountiful commission by signing up for these programs. It is essential to understand affiliate marketing’s working mechanism before finding the choicest and finest affiliate programs.

Affiliate marketing is a business model to market affiliate products of designated brands and business owners. It is done by sharing the affiliate link with prospective customers. If the customer purchases the product using the unique link, the business owner will receive a notification, and the affiliate marketer will get a commission from the profits.

You will also get credentials to access specific parts of the business database that are relevant to you. It is done to help you keep track of your progress and understand the origin of various leads and sales. Although there is no backup for hard work, you can get ahead of your competitors by learning the best techniques and incorporating effective strategies. Please stick with us to the end of the article to determine how you can start earning via affiliate marketing by enrolling in a top-class program.

Affiliate Marketing in Canada: Scope and more

If you observe the trends of affiliate marketing across the world, they are more or less similar. Just because your site is in Canada, it doesn’t mean that you cannot market products from markets across the globe. But if your website has more visitors from Canada, you would want to mention the products from Canada or the ones that can be shipped to Canada.

You can also promote digital tools globally because they don’t require shipping and are meant for a diverse audience. On the contrary, you should target these brands because they offer incredibly high commissions. ClickBank has one of the best affiliate programs, and you can earn a bountiful deal with them if you follow the correct strategies and techniques.

How to start affiliate marketing

You can go about multiple ways, either by starting a website or a YouTube channel. People also use forums, community groups, and Instagram, but the most effective way is to start a website or a blog because you don’t have to rely on an external platform. After you have set up the platform, follow these steps to get started:

Pick a niche

It will be the theme of your website, and all the blogs will come under the domain. You have many prospects to choose from, such as skills, hobbies, passion, and professional experience. If you are confused between two niches, then opt for the one you have more content to write about because you will have to update the website with fresh pieces regularly. You cannot afford to run out of ideas and content to create.

Design the Content Plan and Strategies

Create a draft that will host all the information about the content you plan on curating shortly. It is an organized way of scheduling content to avoid overlapping of topics. Make sure you design the content in an easy to understand form and is relevant to the audience you are targeting. Further, you have to develop strategies to increase the visitor count of your website. It can be through social media, forums, and email campaigns.

Understand how to market affiliate products

The content you develop should fit the product/service you are trying to advertise. It would be best if you tried experimenting by including the content in different spaces and analyzing what strategy works the best for you to do that for future posts.

Finding Affiliate Programs in Canada

In this segment, you will find directions to integrate with different affiliate programs in Canada. We will also provide you the names of popular affiliate plans to kickstart the affiliate marketing journey.

If you are a little jittery about starting, now is the time to leave all your woes. The majority of the brands and merchants are very friendly, and many new brands are keen on starting their programs. Stay authentic and dedicated, and you can take on the world.

Affiliate Networks

This method is second to none and by far the most unparalleled method. All you have to do is join affiliate networks, and you will be connected with hundreds of brands looking for affiliate marketers. These networks will also have country-specific opportunities so you can connect with brands from your region.

You will find a mixture of both small and large-scale businesses. The large scale businesses will have a proper database of affiliate marketers, and you will be the new addition to it. There will be many small businesses but don’t expect a lot of commission from the new brands. Out of the plenitude businesses you will discover on the network, these businesses seem to be the most popular ones: New Balance Canada, Footlocker Canada, Joe Fresh, Macy’s Canada, The Body Shop, and Royal Doulton Canada.

Additionally, these are the brands that frequently appear on the CJ Affiliate Network: Penningtons, Reitmans, Del Canada, Indigo Books and Music, Keurig Canada, and The Shopping Channel.

Amazon Affiliate Program

The Affiliate Program at Amazon is sought-after because of the brand image, but the commissions are a little less compared to other programs. Nevertheless, there is a high success rate for getting commissions from the Amazon Affiliate Program because of the reliability and superior service. Also, if the customer buys other products, then you will get a commission for that additionally.

The program has something called a cookie, which is the time window of twenty-four hours. It is the time frame a customer can take to return to the product and purchase to get a commission. You will learn how to use the program quickly because it has a straightforward interface.

You will get access to other tools to track the products with a high search volume and are best-sellers. Marketing these products will be an effective strategy to generate more leads and sales. There are many filters to customize the search space and get accurate information about the products.

Visit other Canadian Blogs

Visit the blogs of other Canadians, and observe the type of advertisements it displays. Click on the ads, and check if the business offers affiliate programs in which you can enroll. It is also the right way for a fresher to learn by observing exceptionally creative and outstanding bloggers. It is not about plagiarising ideas but drawing inspiration to create great content. If you are learning by observation, you will pick up the trending styles faster because trends can go out of date more immediately than you can realize.

Use Search Engines

It can be a little time-consuming, but search engines will give you all the affiliate programs across the world. You should use the right set of keywords to find the most suitable program. If you are looking to discover brands from a particular niche, type the niche’s name followed by “Canadian affiliate programs.” On the other hand, if you know the merchant and want to learn about the affiliate plans, enter the merchant’s name followed by “affiliate program.”

How to determine if the affiliate program is right for you

You will get offers from numerous brands, and you have to filter them out to work with the best brands that offer higher commissions and have a good reputation. There are several other factors which you must keep in mind, and they are as follows:

Niche and Audience Demographics

You have to partner with brands and products that are somewhat related to your niche. There is no sense in tying up with brands who pay a higher commission if the products don’t belong to your domain. Understand your audience’s demographics and determine if the products you recommend will be useful to them.

Instead of participating in an affiliate program that gives you 40% of the commission but the products or services aren’t up to the mark, choose the affiliate program which pays 20% commission but is well-known for the quality of commodities. Your focus is to generate leads. Rather than getting 40% of nothing, your aim should be to get 20% of something.

The little details

A lot of merchants are a little reluctant when it comes to giving commission. For instance, they will promise you a 20% commission and later alter the clause to apply to new customers alone. Be careful and thoroughly read these terms before signing the contract.

Currency

The preferable form of currency will be the Canadian dollar or USD. A lot of the affiliate networks prefer to transfer the commission in USD via PayPal. You can transfer the amount to your bank account whenever you find it convenient. Some of the affiliate networks will calculate the value in Canadian dollars and then make the payment. There are perks when you get money in American dollars because it will be a good tip for Canadian Affiliates. One of the statistics data suggests that you will receive CAD 100 for every USD 300 transferred. Study the commission rates carefully to maximize profits.

Quality above all

When you promote a product or service to a broad audience, you become responsible for the information you provide. Make sure that you can take the credibility of the product you have decided to market. It shouldn’t happen that you have apprehensions about it because if your viewers purchase it and have a terrible experience, they will not trust your reviews and opinions.

It is a beautiful idea to purchase the product yourself and give it a shot. You can click snapshots of yourself using it, which will help the audience take your recommendation more seriously. Additionally, you will also get assurance that you are involved in the distribution of something useful. Make the reviews honest, help the brands improve their quality, and filter out products belonging to the same category.

Commission Structure

Every affiliate program offers a different commission structure. Some programs will pay per click, and others might pay for every lead generation. Even the commission you receive will be different; for some, it will be a percent share and a fixed rate for others. Analyze all these little details before selecting the program because you have to choose the system in which you are most comfortable.

Threshold

Since affiliate marketing gives you the flexibility to work with different networks and programs, you earn from multiple sources. Before you indulge in a network program, check for the payment threshold levels; if you believe it is beyond your competency to reach the goal, don’t register for it because it will waste time. You can utilize this time to market with other programs that suit you the best.

What to do if your favorite brand doesn’t have an affiliate program?

You can always approach the brand and convince them to start an affiliate program. Design a promising business strategy to explain to them why they will benefit from an affiliate program. You can also offer to write a blog post for their brand and develop a long-term relationship this way. Most of the brands are open to learning about new marketing methodologies, so there is an excellent chance that they will go through with the idea.

Want to start earning with affiliate marketing right away?

It would be best to enroll in this remarkable and super knowledgeable training program right now to learn all about affiliate marketing. Savage Affiliates offer one of the preeminent training programs in this industry, and you can start minting money with the best practices and stay up to date with the industry’s current trends.

You can get hands-on training experience, learn about other digital techniques like acquiring organic traffic, and boost your SEO score for just USD 197. Get additional training in web-hosting and launch jacking by signing up for the alternative package for USD 297.

Why choose Savage Affiliates?

If you wonder why we recommend Savage Affiliates, this part of the article will be very intriguing. We recommend Savage Affiliates for the following reasons:

The training program’s mentor has achieved several laurels in the industry and is a world-class expert in affiliate marketing.

Savage affiliates offer a 30-day money-back policy, which makes the website more reliable and trust-worthy.

You will learn many additional skills such as using ClickFunnels, improving SEO, and understanding new website assets that will upskill your existing potential.

There are numerous success stories from past students verified to be authentic and have gained huge profits because of the program. You can read the student testimonials on the official website.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing is an incredible business model to earn money online. You don’t have to bother about handling the products or worry about delivery and customer support. All you have to do is develop an engaging follower base and expand your network.

There are various options to choose from, and you have the liberty to choose the program and the products. With expert training from world-class mentorship, you can soon establish a dominant presence in the industry. We hope this piece came to your assistance.

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sarajonesc · 3 years

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Top Ecommerce Platforms in Canada

The world is heading to a digital revolution, and every business now wants to take on the internet. The reasons are because of mass reach, the comfort of shopping from home and saving expenditure on real estate. It is 100% wonderful if you are thinking of starting your eCommerce business.

Suppose you want to switch over from your dull and monotonous 9-5 job or get into the industry right after education. In that case, it is an excellent resolution because making good revenue online has become a lot simpler in the present times.

You can sell anything, and everything on the internet, be it a full-fledged store with various products, your souvenir collection or your art pieces. Enthusiasm and willingness to work hard are the qualities you require for your business to thrive. Once you are determined to set up the store on the internet, nobody can stop you.

You need an eCommerce platform to set up your store. To help you find a suitable eCommerce platform in Canada hassle-free, we have combed through the various options available in the market and given our reviews on each of them.

Shopify

Entrepreneurs regard Shopify as one of the preeminent business platforms in Canada. It caters to the necessities of the users very well. Tobias Lütke is the founder of Shopify He, and two other people started this platform because they were not satisfied with the existing platforms. They didn’t want future businesses to face the same issues.

Pros

Let us now have a glimpse at the advantages of signing with Shopify.

You can sell your products on multiple websites. It is improbable that the customer will visit your website specifically, especially in the beginning stages. You have to enter a competitive market space like Amazon or eBay to list your products. With Shopify, you can easily integrate the products into diverse markets. And it also allows you to connect to popular social media channels.

The design of the Inventory System is very systematic and neat. Assuming you have an extensive list of products from multiple suppliers, keeping track of it can become a little complicated. But with Shopify, you can categorize and edit your inventory at ease. You can also organize the products into various collections for future reference.

If your business has multiple fulfillment centers, you have to record the different outlets’ activities. For instance, you could have an order at the Amazon fulfillment Centre or some parcel from a Drop Shipping service. Shopify helps you in managing and maintaining all the product details at different outlets and centers.

Attributes

Running an online business is a vast process, and it will require several other services and tools. If you sign-up with Shopify, you can use additional features that will come in handy when you have to generate confirmation emails or recoveries from abandoned carts.

Assuming you did not get the correct attribute you were looking for, you can still go to the Shopify App Store. They have an assortment of apps, both free and paid, to fulfill your other requirements. Additionally, you will also get a personal card reader after you have registered with Shopify so that you can sell your products physically as well.

Cons

It is essential to be critical in the reviews, and here are all the disadvantages or issues of using Shopify. The platform can be a little pricey for beginners. It means that you need a significant amount of money to invest in this business beforehand. But the prices are not over the roof when compared to the others in the industry.

You will face technical difficulties when you are trying to modify the website theme. A lot of times, people hire experts to make necessary changes in code. It could mean an additional expense, and also, you have to keep up with them anytime you face an issue.

Designs

You can use the ten free themes available on Shopify, each dedicated to a particular type of eCommerce store. They have rustic and beautiful pictures of Canada as well. If you want to explore and fiddle around with fresh colors and styles, you can purchase the different templates and designs that Shopify offers. There is a vast base for community engagement to exchange ideas and create the best designs.

Ease of Use

The whole purpose of setting up Shopify is to enable people to create their e-commerce spaces hassle-free. You don’t have to design the templates either because everything is done for you. The designs are optimized for mobile websites, so another purpose is solved.

To make edits and changes in the design, you have all the options handy and intuitive. You don’t have to learn from tutorials on how to customize the site for your preference. Furthermore, you can hire a developer to make the website second to none.

Shopify’s best part is the mobile app, which makes working so much easier and accessible at all times. Payments and social networks are automated, so you don’t require expert technical knowledge to understand the process. It is streamlined and efficient.

Backend

The backend aspect of Shopify is a little complicated to understand. You might face minor issues at some point, so having a developer on board is going to be very handy.

Pricing Details

As mentioned earlier, you will have to spend a significant portion of the money to get started with Shopify. But if you are looking to stick around for a long time, it is worth the investment. It all depends on the profits you make from the online store over time; if you are firm that you will get bountiful profits, then investing in setting up your e-commerce store would feel like a little expense.

Shopify offers three paid plans, which are: Basic Shopify, Shopify, and Advanced Shopify. You will have to pay $29 per month for the basic plan, $79 per month for the Shopify plan, and $299 per month for the advanced plan.

The basic plan will give you two staff accounts along with discounted shopping. The Shopify plan will give you five staff accounts, and the advanced plan will give you fifteen staff accounts. You can choose the plan by scaling your business. The advanced plan has some fantastic features, such as third-party calculated shipping rates and supreme tools to build high-end reports. You will also get better discounts on shipping and lower payment fees.

Shopify will offer you the complete eCommerce experience, and it is on par with other competitors in pricing. Although you will get a lot of cheaper options, they are not dedicated to eCommerce specifically.

Additional Apps

Shopify has over two-thousand apps, and you will find anything and everything here. It is like a little world on its own. From SEO to email marketing to printing custom t-shirts, Shopify has got you covered.

Customer Support

We have to admit that customer support is constructive and efficient. You can contact the team 24×7 via live chat or write them a mail or make a call. The experts are well-endowed with knowledge in this field, and you will get the solutions to the problems.

Wix

Wix provides you services to build a website without having to learn about anything. You can customize the website the way you want. It is a great software to build a website but not the best option for a full-fledged eCommerce store because it lacks crucial applications to run a business. However, if your eCommerce store is limited to just one or two products, then Wix could be the right option for you.

Pros

There are several pros of choosing Wix as a medium to start your e-commerce store. With the aid of incredibly pleasing designs, you can create some beautiful product catalogs. Artists usually prefer to stick with Wix because of the freedom to design the website.

Wix has a diverse collection of elements that you can explore. It gives you a blank canvas to try out different elements to create beautiful aesthetics. It will take some time initially to master Wix’s functionality, but once you are thorough with the features, it will be a lot of fun creating and designing your site. They also use artificial intelligence to save time in picking up the correct designs. You have to answer a few questions, and the software will show you the related layouts you will like.

Apps and Additional Features

There is a colossal app library that has all the relevant apps for an e-commerce business owner. You will get almost everything you need to function, but Wix wouldn’t take care of the business’s finer technicalities.

Designs and Templates

The editor of Wix is straightforward to use, and you don’t need much expertise to experiment around it. However, adding new elements to the existing design could be a little troublesome because it might clash with the existing ones.

You don’t have to bother about messing up the design because you can restore the previous creation with the “undo” option. You have so much freedom to create your masterpiece, which is quite tricky without the aid of Wix’s tools, and it is all the more complicated when you are trying to add them to a custom-built website.

One of Wix’s most commendable features is the ease with which you can add videos and animations almost anywhere. There are some minor issues in formatting, but it can be rectified relatively quickly, and you don’t have to worry a lot about it.

Easy of Use

You can create an excellent website with Wix because of the drag and drop feature. However, it ranks second when it comes to the ease of creating a website. Squarespace is by far the best platform to create a website because there are no distractions. Please note that Wix isn’t specifically for eCommerce stores. There are not many functions available for the eCommerce part per se.

Pricing

Wix is affordable when compared to the other giants of eCommerce. The various plans don’t have an upgrade in ease of doing business but are more for storage and support. You have the online payment feature to make your purchase. After you have signed up for the paid plans, you will access Wix ad-free, Google Analytics, two apps, and a free domain for one year.

There are three plans: business basic, business unlimited, and business VIP. You have to pay $20, $25, and $35 for each of these plans respectively every month. Each of these plans offers 20GB, 35GB, and 50GB of storage, respectively. You will also get professional social media logo service with Unlimited and VIP plans. The business VIP plans provide you with unlimited video hours, but there is a cap of five hours on the basic plan and 10 hours on the unlimited plan. If you don’t want to invest a lot of money in the eCommerce store, Wix could be a great choice.

Cons

Wix wouldn’t be able to give you a complete eCommerce experience. It is somewhere between an advanced website builder and an e-commerce store. Don’t expect a lot of expertise on the eCommerce side with Wix, but you can make a great website here for sure.

There is a vast assortment of designs and elements. Sometimes, it could be a little overwhelming to have so many options and quite distressing to choose from them. It also has many other features that you will have to spend time in abundance to explore.

Customer Support

Beginners often feel lost in the new field, but Wix wouldn’t let that happen to you. They have a designated help center with countless articles to guide you about all the features and use them. You will also learn many new concepts, such as SEO, which is an excellent upskill.

Their team is prompt in the response. There are two ways you can reach out to them. You can generate a ticket or opt for the callback service. The callback service is available from Monday-Friday between 8 A.M and 8 P.M EST. Ideally, they will respond to the request within five minutes. Customers with superior plans do get an edge over the regular customers.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce will cater to all the requirements of an eCommerce store. They have all the crucial features you need to operate the business. BigCommerce’s marketing tactics give them a higher rank over the rest of the platforms.

Pros

The biggest perk of using BigCommerce is access to their management tools. You will find it exceptionally hassle-free to have their tools manage your corporation.There are different departments, such as products, sales, and reports. Each of these requires special attention and needs a different record to track the department’s activities. Once your website is live and the orders start rolling in, these tools will help you organize all the transactions to make a detailed analysis.

They have tons of marketing tools available to help you get adequate reach. These tools are beneficial for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and advertising. Once your business expands by leaps and bounds, BigCommerce will assist you in scaling the significant operations. They are more inclined to help with orders with large volumes.

Cons

There are not many cons to be named per se, but we believe that you need to keep in mind that these are some facts before deciding.

BigCommerce levies a transaction fee of 1.5% on their lowest plan. It won’t be a cakewalk for beginners because the interface is a little hard to figure out. You will have to understand the functions of different elements, merely clicking around will not do the job.

Apps and additional features

BigCommerce offers about six-hundred applications to solve all the issues you face. It will have A-Z of tools you need in the e-commerce industry. You will not have to bother about rummaging for something out of this space because they have everything in the store.

Ease of Use

It can be a little challenging to design a website on BigCommerce. You’d require a developer to do the task for you. Even if you hire a developer, they would prefer building the site on Wix rather than BigCommerce. Another drawback is the lack of a designated mobile app. While competing with websites like Shopify, the mobile app becomes necessary to have a better experience. Ecommerce business isn’t a 9-5 thing, and you have to attend to things on the go so having a mobile app makes the task easier.

You will have to learn all the terminologies before changing the design because it is not suited for newbies. The free designs on BigCommerce are more or less the same. If you are looking for attractive templates, you have to go with the paid option, and they can be a little expensive for your pocket.

Designing the store on BigCommerce isn’t very easy either; however, they have made the process better by introducing a tool called Store Design. The themes you get with BigCommerce may look extraordinary, but if you have to make edits, the whole thing will become a big clutter.

Customer Support

The support team at BigCommerce is highly skilled, prompt, and helpful. You will get a 24×7 support service. For any assistance or doubts, drop a mail or make a call. Additionally, they have thousands of videos and articles to help you understand all the tools, solve the issues, and introduce you to new and quirky features.

Pricing Details

The prices are comparable to Shopify. You will get plenty of useful features such as unlimited storage, coupons, unlimited bandwidth, flexibility to sell in different sales channels, and well-developed reporting tools.

The standard plan of BigCommerce starts at $29.95 per month and has a sale limit of $50K. The next level of the plan costs $79.95 per month and has a limit of $150K on sales. You will also get the option to recover abandoned carts, and the processing fee will be much lower.

The pro plan is the most superior option available and costs $249.95 per month, and comes with a limit of $450K on sales. The processing fee is going to be much less. Additionally, there will be the flexibility to recover an abandoned cart, and you will also get a dedicated SSL.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce can be called the WordPress of the eCommerce world. Just like how you can alter all the aspects of WordPress, you can do the same with WooCommerce. If you already have a current WordPress site and wish to jump into the eCommerce industry, then WooCommerce is the most suited option because it is available for free of cost.

Pros

The most notable advantage of WooCommerce is that you don’t have to pay for anything. Second, it was specifically built for WordPress, and the majority of people now use WordPress to construct their site, so the shift is going to be smooth.

Initially, bloggers just want decent organic traffic to make enough money using advertisements or affiliate marketing. But over time, they want to form a concrete business and start selling their products. If you belong to this category, you just have to add the relevant products to match your blog’s niche, and you can start selling them.

WordPress users are familiar with their website’s functions and operations. WooCommerce is a part of WordPress, so they wouldn’t have to invest additional time trying to learn the working mechanism. You will intuitively understand the functioning. You can customize the website the way you want. Many big developers prefer WordPress and WooCommerce because it gives them the space to run a blog and an e-commerce store under one roof.

Cons

The disadvantages of using WooCommerce are more or less the same as the cons of using WordPress.

If you want to set up a full-fledged e-commerce store, you will have to do some technical work. Assuming that you are well-versed in coding and web development, it will be a cakewalk for you. But if you don’t have a technical background, you will have to hire a developer to make necessary updates and changes whenever needed.

Since you can customize every little detail on WooCommerce, building a big store will be a colossal task because it will consume an enormous amount of time. Moreover, if you are new to it, you will have to spend additional hours understanding each feature’s role.

You can quickly build a small store with three-four products on WooCommerce because this will not require much knowledge. But if your product list is massive, then WooCommerce is not a good option to go with because you will have to put in way more effort when compared to platforms like BigCommerce.

Designs

It is common to assume that you don’t require coding skills to use WordPress, but it is an asset for designs and templates because you can make out-of-the-box modifications. The fundamental thing you do after launching a WordPress site is to pick a theme.

There are plenty of themes and elements you can choose from the options WooCommerce offers. The elements can help in adding texts and descriptions in places where it is necessary. Some of the themes are specifically designed for eCommerce use.

You can also purchase themes from reputed brands, which allow you to customize the design to every detail. Elegant Themes is one of the top choices amongst creators because you can adjust the elements’ position at a particular level.

Ease of Use

If you don’t have WordPress experience, it will be a little more time-consuming because first, you have to focus on understanding WordPress’s functioning and utility. Once you are familiar with WordPress, WooCommerce is going to be relatively easy. It cannot be easy if you have a lot of products. WooCommerce is simple to use if the products are limited. Adding too many will lead to complications and clutter.

Additional Resources

There is probably no other competitor that can come close to the number I am going to state. You can choose from over fifty thousand plugins, and no single person would require all of these plugins. There is something in store for every requirement, and you can search for the appropriate one like any other search operation online.

Since WordPress has many users, you will find reviews and recommendations for each plugin, helping you choose the best one. It can get a little overwhelming browsing through the entire list, so try to focus on the ones which are useful to you.

Customer Support

Don’t expect very prompt customer support from WooCommerce because it is free of cost. But you can always contact the executives at WordPress, and they might be able to assist you. But WooCommerce and WordPress have a huge community base, and you can seek help from other website and e-commerce owners. If that doesn’t pan out for you, then Google search is the place to go. You will find various articles on the issues you are facing.

Pricing Details

You don’t have to spend anything to use WooCommerce. It is free with WordPress. The prime source of income for WooCommerce is through the vast assortment of plugins. It is beautiful for people who aren’t willing to invest a lot of money because it gives them the flexibility to spend on upgrades that they require.

Squarespace

Squarespace is an excellent option to consider if you have a mini catalog and you are looking for an alternative option to Wix. There are pros of using Squarespace, but it isn’t an outstanding choice.

Pros

Time crunches are troublesome to deal with, but if you choose Squarespace, you can quickly complete your website design. The aesthetically pleasing templates, and it also has an easy to use drag-and-drop tool, can create a fabulous look, and you don’t have to overthink about customizing every aspect.

Squarespace provides everything on one platter, right from customizing the design to analyzing the business metrics and keeping track of all the visitors. But when it comes to providing eCommerce resources, there isn’t plenty to mention. It is a go-to place for photographers who wish to sell their pictures online. Primarily the design of the website is the best fit for stills and images. Other products will look a little out of place in this setting.

Cons

There are limitations on size, and you cannot build a colossal eCommerce space with Squarespace. It works for small businesses and artists the best. Altering the existing template is going to be an arduous task. Numerous developers feel that it is too complicated and time-consuming.

Templates

Squarespace is easy to use for website building because all the elements are intuitive, and you don’t have to do a background study to start developing the website. Other sites offer the same solutions, but the user interface is low and cannot easily navigate elements. With Squarespace, you can click anywhere on the page and instantly make the changes you desire.

Ease of Use

Squarespace is the most comfortable platform to design your website because of its incredible drag and drop feature, which lets you customize every little detail without disturbing the landscape or creating clutter. You have to determine the elements of your choice and place them across the screen. You can experiment and create a masterpiece with Squarespace.

Additional resources

There aren’t many apps or plugins for eCommerce. You will find a few useful and essential products, but that is about it. Amazon affiliate marketing and MailChimp are the best integrations they offer.

Customer Support

There wouldn’t be many opportunities where you would require assistance because everything is understandable for a layperson; nevertheless, their technical team is available for your queries via email or call. Squarespace hosts a vast knowledge base that has information about everything you could need. Just glance through space and read up about the features which seem tricky to use.

Pricing Details

Squarespace offers three plans, and you will get unlimited storage space, email address, SSL security, and $100 Google Ads credit. The first plan is called the business plan, which costs $18, and you only get a free domain with the plan.

The second plan is the basic eCommerce plan, which costs $26, and the third plan is the advanced eCommerce plan, for which you have to pay $40. You will get many features with the higher tier plans such as abandoned cart recovery, selling products on Instagram, discounts and gift cards. For instance, transaction fees will not be levied on these plans. Still, it cannot be compared to other websites’ eCommerce utility.

Volusion

Imagine managing a colossal inventory. Iit can be confusing and chaotic if everything is not maintained sequentially. Volusion has one of the best inventory management features par with the industry’s other creme software.

Pros

Volusion offers varied services through the platform. It is quite distinct when you compare it to Shopify. You will find many built-in services on the platform, such as hiring freelancers and illustrators, to help you accomplish the task immediately. There is no requirement to look for employees outside, and your work is done much efficiently. Compared to other software, Volusion is second to none when it comes to inventory management. It is very well organized and built for a hassle-free experience.

Cons

Volusion has a cap for bandwidth, which essentially means that it cannot handle a huge traffic volume. The website will not function if you have a lot of visitors at the same time. It is a significant drawback because the business will not flourish with such restrictions.

Building a website on Volusion is beyond challenging. Even after spending hours working on the design, the end product isn’t going to be very attractive. There are no additional apps to cater to your requirements, and you cannot even publish a blog with Volusion. Also, Volusion doesn’t support the selling of digital products.

Ease of Use

Volusion is not easy to use at all, not just for beginners but advanced developers as well. Installation of SSL is also very tricky and confusing. The only plus point is its inventory management.

Customer Support

Like all the other websites, Volusion too has an efficient customer support system. You can reach out to the help center, and they will respond in a concise duration. If you have chosen the top tier, you won’t even experience a waiting time.

Pricing Details

The prices can be compared to BigCommerce, but it seems like Volusion can provide many other essential services for the same cost. There are three plans, and you will get unlimited storage, a variety of products, coupons, multiple payment options, and inventory management across all the platforms.

The personal plan starts at $29 per month and has a limit of $50K on sales. If you go for the pro plan, you will have to pay $79 per month, and there will be a limit of $100K on sales. Biz is the most superior plan and costs $299 per month. You will have a limit of $500K on sales with the Biz plan. The Pro and Biz plan offers an additional option for phone orders and reviews.

Conclusion

Ultimately you have to choose the platform which meets your requirements. We have drawn the significant aspects of our favorite platforms to help you choose the right one for your business.

If you are serious about starting a severe eCommerce store and want it to function diligently in the future, then Shopify is the perfect option for you. It will cater to the little requirements you have so that you can operate the business smoothly.

To build aesthetic websites and mini business stores, you should go ahead with Wix. The pricing is adorable, and since you don’t require a lot of eCommerce features to run a small store so Wix will meet your requirements in curating an attractive business site.

WooCommerce is an incredible choice for people who want to learn from scratch about building an eCommerce business. You have to steer your way around the innovations. Additional knowledge of WordPress will always come in handy.

We hope this detailed analysis helped you in picking the right platform for your eCommerce store. Without further ado, pick up the platform you liked the most and start working on setting up the store immediately.

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sarajonesc · 3 years

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Shopify Canada Review: Best ECommerce Platform Builder Guide for Beginners

The online commercial business world is spreading like wildfire at the global level. The shift to virtual eCommerce platforms has left behind traditional ways and methods of running businesses.

Suppose you’re someone who is looking to put their business online. Or a beginner thinking to start an online business in need to set up an eCommerce website, this article will help you to choose the best available services for website building.

You must have already come across Shopify as one of the options while researching website builders for your new online business site.

About Shopify

Shopify is a rapidly growing e-commerce website builder spread across the world. Shopify is a platform that allows you to create your eCommerce website without any programming expertise or in-depth knowledge. It is a one-stop solution for your website creation needs that comes in handy for people new to the online business world.

Shopify was initially founded in 2006 as an isolated online platform to promote and manage other businesses. It acts as a huge building block to aid the newly emerging online SMEs (Small -Medium Enterprises). Moreover, Shopify provides social media selling tools that integrate them with markets such as Amazon, eBay, Google Shopping, and other channels while enabling you to create your personalized online shop.

In this Shopify Canada Review Guide, we will help you choose among the wide variety of website building software available in the market. And why Shopify will be a better option following its detailed plans, pricing, advantages, disadvantages, and other relevant information. Before you begin, please decide on the type of eCommerce business you will want to be in. It is always better to organize and strategize beforehand without any hurdles.

Shopify is a suitable option for beginners new to the internet world lacking confidence in navigating their programming or developer skills. In fact, it is not all necessary for one to be an expert developer or even have the fundamental knowledge to set-up an eCommerce website with Shopify. One can create the most basic e-commerce site in just less than a day on Shopify.

The question that conflicts with us is why we should choose Shopify when many website builders are available at a cheaper rate in Canada? The inevitable question is why we should spend money on Shopify when we can get so many other options at a more affordable rate.

Choosing the right website builder software for your online store is a risky business, one wrong decision, and everything might come crashing down. Consequently, it is crucial to choose the accurate website builder platform according to the business type you will be pursuing.

Below mentioned are essential questions one should consider before selecting a website builder application for their online store which can help achieve their business dream plan:

Can it help you build and achieve a site representing your brand in the way you want?

Will the Shopify software application help you reach out to your targeted audience?

Does it aid in the smooth running and managing of your business?

Is it adaptable to changes allowing you to update it according to fluctuating market needs?

Does it offer user-friendly marketing tools to promote your business and keep it growing?

To know more about Shopify and its in-depth review analysis, please read the Shopify Canada Review article until the last page.

Shopify Canada Review: Index Guide

What does Shopify Canada Review include?

Shopify: An Introduction

Origins: History of Shopify

What is Shopify? And how does the Shopify eCommerce platform work?

Shopify: Varying Plans, Pricing, and Strategies

Things to Keep in Mind While Looking for eCommerce Platform

Shopify: Principal Characteristics

Shopify Vs. Other Website Building Alternatives

Frequently Asked Question regarding Shopify

Final Verdict on Shopify

Few Points to Consider Before Buying Setting-Up a Shopify Store

Quick Guide to setting up your own Shopify Store Online

2. Origins: A Glance through Shopify History

Shopify through the years

Original Plan and Idea, 2004-2006

Shopify wasn’t always as famous a platform for creating e-stores as it is today. The fun fact here is that before Shopify became a budding website builder, it was an online store itself.

The initial plan was never to build an e-commerce platform but an online store, namely, Snowdevil for snowboard equipment. However, Tobias Latke was immensely disillusioned with the present e-commerce platforms when he failed to find an appropriate for their Snowdevil online store.

The unavailability of a good eCommerce platform for online stores and retailers gave Lütke a brilliant business idea known as Shopify. Lütke, being a computer programmer, was determined to find a satisfactory solution to their problem.

After two months of hard-work and few failures, the Snowdevil was launched in the year. Now, two-years after the host-platform of their Snowdevil store was invented and established as Shopify.

The official Shopify Inc. was founded and launched in 2006 by Tobias Lütke, Daniel Weinand, and Scott Lake. Shopify is an eCommerce website builder that has quickly burgeoned across the world. Presently, Shopify Inc. is a global e-commerce firm based in Ottawa, Canada.

2007

Since its launch, Shopify has been growing at an unprecedented level, becoming one of the popular eCommerce platforms at a global station. Besich of the Shopify cart system’s launch in 2007 boosted the sales on the platform to a net combined worth of $ 100 million.

2009

This was the year when Shopify had launched its App Store and application programming interface (API). The API enabled the developers to build online stores and then sell them in the Shopify App Store.

2010

In the early summer of the year 2010, Shopify initiated to offer a free mobile application on the Apple Store, which allowed merchants to work and manage their Shopify stores from iOS devices.

Moreover, it was the same year when it was declared the fastest-growing company by Ottawa Business Journal and Magazine.

2011

By the year 2011, Shopify had approximately 15000 operating Shopify online stores spread over around 80 counties.

2012

Another eventful year for Shopify was titled “Canada’s Smartest Company” by Profit Magazine. The Shopify eCommerce business was growing rapidly and had 40k active Shopify Stores in more than 90 countries.

In the same year, Shopify became a finalist for ‘Start-up of the Year’ (In Canadian Start-up Awards), whereas its founder Lütke became a finalist for Entrepreneur of the year.

2014

Shopify had scored more than 80k customers at the beginning of the new year with around net sales of $ 1.6 billion. By the end of the year, Shopify had more than 1 lakh stores (and still counting) and around 500 employees.

2015

It was a profitable year for both Shopify and Amazon, as Amazon opted to close its webstore service for merchants online. It announced Shopify as their preferred provider starting September 2015, resulting in a 20% jump in Shopify shares.

2017

Shopify announced their integration with Amazon at the beginning of this year to enable traders to directly sell on Amazon through their Shopify stores, culminating in a rise in Shopify stocks.

2019

By now, Shopify has been recognized as the fastest developing eCommerce company at a global level. According to the reports, Shopify had reached $155 Billion in sales worldwide as of 2019.

Now, who knew that a general snowboarding online store would turn out to become the largest eCommerce business across the globe.

3. What is Shopify? And how does the Shopify eCommerce platform work?

In the simplest terms, Shopify is an eCommerce platform that allows traders and sellers to bring their business online and directly sell products to the consumers. It is a packaged deal where you set up your store, buy a domain name, and host your website through Shopify servers, along with other SEO and marketing tools to rank your website higher.

Shopify is a virtual store that helps you build sites and hosts them for you through its own servers and unique URL. It would take less than two-three hours to set-up the most basic Shopify store online, which you can customize accordingly. Customers can buy your listed products virtually through online transactions via dozens of payment gateways as PayPal, Stripe, credit cards, net banking, and more.

Shopify is not like Amazon or another third-party virtual market where multiple sellers put up their product listings on one platform. Shopify here allows you to post your products at your online store with an individualized link URL. Through a Shopify account, you can handle all your business from one account and strategize to build and grow your store through available services.

4. Shopify: Varying Plans, Pricing, and Offered Services

Let’s look at the variety of plans that Shopify offers, added services, and how much they will cost you to get you an idea about the initial investment one might require.

A basic Shopify plan begins at a minimum of $29 per month and goes up to $299 per month for an advanced Shopify plan. Besides, before you subscribe to a Shopify plan, we should inform you that it offers a 14-day free trial allowing you to unlock and try all the available features before buying a subscription plan. If dissatisfied with the offers and services, you can cancel your free trial account at any time within a limited time.

Now comes the inevitable question of which plan will be best for you? To answer, that question we have a table below mentioning the differences between the plans (as of March 2021), allowing you to pick the best one for your business:

Shopify Plans and ServicesShopify Basic PlanShopify PlanShopify Advanced PlanMonthly Price

($/ month)

$29$79$299Yearly Price

($/ month)

$26.10

(10% Savings)

$71.10

(10% Savings)

$269.10

(10% Savings)

2 Years Price

($/ month)

$23.20

(20% Savings)

$63.20

(20% Savings)

$239.20

(20% Savings)

Staff Accounts2155Product List Unlimited UnlimitedUnlimitedFraud AnalysisNoYesYesTransaction Fee2.0%1.0%0.5%Storage Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited 24-Hours Customer Service YesYes YesProfessional Reports —Yes Yes

Table 4.1 Shopify Plans and Pricing

After going through these three major plans offered by Shopify, each with individualized services at differing costs, you can decide what program to pick for your eCommerce business. If you’re a beginner, I would suggest you go for the Shopify Basic plan at the initial stage and then make your way up as you learn and master the art of using Shopify with time.

One can easily decipher from table 4.1 that the higher the plan, the more the savings will be. Another thing to notice is the transaction fee is higher for the low-price plan and lower for the highest-plan. In simple terms, if you’re looking for a low transaction fee, then selecting the advanced Shopify plan would be a good option.

Choosing the perfect Shopify plan completely depends upon your business requirements. If you’re a newbie launching a new Shopify store, the Basic Shopify at $29/ month would be the most appropriate for you. It will allow you to access all the important features and handle your payments through POS and the backend of the business.

But if you’re someone with an already established business looking to bring it online, you could go for an advanced plan with a low transaction fee, which will benefit the long-term. For example, if your sales volumes are high, then your transaction fee will be cheaper in the long haul.

However, it will take time to establish a target audience and increase sales volume for someone new in the business. For them, it is recommended to begin with a cheaper plan. In conclusion, selecting the best Shopify plan for your online store is determined by how high your sales volume is.

Let’s move ahead to unravel the principal features Shopify offers, making it one of the most well-known and sprouting eCommerce platforms.

5. Things to Keep in Mind While Looking for eCommerce Platform

It becomes essential to learn about the principal characteristics and attributes of Shopify before making any decision for your online store. But what becomes even more important is to be aware of what a good eCommerce website constitutes. Does it offer customers what they want? Does it allow customers space for flexibility, creativity, and discovery?

To understand whether Shopify offers all the features needed in an eCommerce platform. Let us go through some fundamental components every eCommerce should offer. The check-list below includes the must-have components in not only Shopify but any eCommerce site:

It should be user-friendly, allowing not-so-tech-savvy people to navigate with any hurdles.

It should offer high-resolution videos and photos as they play an important part in representing the site that plays a crucial role in attracting customers and building promoting strategies.

The site should be mobile-friendly, allowing the owner and partners to manage and oversee the online store through their mobile devices.

Any eCommerce site should also offer a well-designed review section as it plays a huge part in gaining the customers’ trust. Studies have shown that around 60% of online consumers are more prone to buy products after reading the reviews.

We all know how important a tab for Wishlist is in any online store website. You all must’ve your Wishlist full of products you want to buy from your favorite website. Wishlists allow your customers to save the products which they’re likely to buy in the near future.

Secure payment gateways are an integral part of any online store website. It has the power to do your business or break it. During an online transaction, the merchants should respect their privacy and protect customer information by ensuring the best security features.

These are some of the major key components (along with other marketing and promotion features) one should look for before coming to any conclusion.

6. Shopify: Principal Characteristics

Time to take a look at what principal features Shopify has to offer its customers:

Quick and Easy to Set-up

Shopify is a hassle-free eCommerce platform that is quick to set-up and easy to manage. It is a packaged deal for people looking for a complete solution without worrying about programming, hosting, and technical development of their online store. Shopify platform offers people to run online stores without dealing with any technicalities by providing the unique software and hosting services required to launch in any online store website.

Any business’s ultimate aim is to boost its sales volume without being encumbered by developers or other laborious administrative issues. Shopify becomes a milestone in breaking the myth that only people with expert-tech skills can run a successful business. Shopify provides crucial advantageous features that most other eCommerce platforms don’t even consider to assist. Features such as channels as the clear interface, technological needs, and several other services. On the other hand, Shopify offers an inherent and user-friendly admin interface and a user-interface for the consumers.

Anyone can set-up an online store within a few hours with Shopify’s drag and drop feature. It is the best platform for less tech-savvy people to handle most of the technological and hosting functionalities allowing the owner to focus more on growing your online store. But suppose you’re someone with good tech-skills and industry experience. In that case, you can go for Shopify’s competitors such as BigCommerce, Squarespace, WordPress, or Magento that are a bit more challenging (as they are self-hosted) but are more flexible in terms of theme, layout, and customization.

Reliability and Security

One of the essential features of any online business is that it offers to keep your customers personal as well as financial information confidential by setting up strict security channels. Shopify here is both reliable as well secure in maintaining their customers’ privacy. Moreover, these features are regularly updated and retained by the admin interface as they are linked with hosting domain solutions.

No Expert Knowledge Required

One of the main features that stand out in Shopify among other eCommerce platforms is it requires no expert web design or programming knowledge for creating an online store. The Shopify administrative-interface handles all the technical work and functions.

Offers Shopify POS

Shopify POS, i.e., Point of Sale, is a convenient service that allows you to sell your products in the real physical world market, brick-and-mortar, or even a pop-up store setting. It is an application for iOS and Android devices to keep track of transactions and payments in a physical store.

Any merchant can opt for Shopify POS with the extra cost of just $59. Through Shopify POS, one will receive cash drawers, a mobile-barcode scanner, a receipt printer, along a Shopify Card Reader, which helps you keep a record of your sales, inventory, and transaction in your Shopify account irrespective of how and where you sell.

Integration with Other Channels

Shopify provides an integration feature with external applications and services to help you build and grow your business. Integration service to different channels allows you to reach out to a large number of customers. One can simply visit the Shopify App Store, search for the apps you want to integrate your online store with and add customized features to your Shopify admin.

With the help of this Shopify Integration, you can expand your online store on multiple platforms such as Amazon, Pinterest, Facebook, and various others, enhancing your business market.

Mobile-Ready Website:

For any eCommerce company nowadays, it becomes a requirement to provide a mobile-optimized online webstore —the reason being the rising number of mobile users for shopping purposes. It becomes mandatory for running a successful e-store to have a mobile-friendly and responsive site freely available to everyone.

The Shopify themes and layouts are mobile-ready, which makes your Shopify store look great on all devices.

Offers SEO and Marketing Tools

Shopify platform comes with SEO-friendly features and marketing tools that help navigate your store website’s analytics. Web analytics play a key role in understanding customer behavior to optimize sales by developing effective digital strategies. Along with these powerful marketing tools, it extends other discount offers, gift cards, targeted social & email marketing, and more.

Just having a visually good-looking online Shopify store is not enough when you have no traffic. The Shopify SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Marketing tools boost your website to rank higher during search results for more customers to reach you. The advanced web analytics will give you all the store statistics and information about where your customers are emerging from.

With all the analytics statistics information, you can customize your marketing strategies accordingly to reach a targeted audience. SEO becomes important to ensure that your online store is accessible to people searching for products such as yours.

Further, the Shopify app store gives you access to various other marketing tools such as product reviews and social media marketing. Shopify marketing tool acts as a virtual guide for less tech-savvy people by recommending and implementing marketing strategies tailored to your product type, audience, and overall store performance.

Multiple Payment Gateways

Shopify, an international eCommerce platform currently spread over approximately 175 countries, has integrated with multiple payment gateways for ease of access to anyone from anywhere. However, even though integrated with various gateways, Shopify has its own payment gateway known as Stripe.

Using Shopify’s payment gateway will be beneficial in two ways. First, one doesn’t have to pay any transaction fee if you choose this option. Second, it will charge you with a low credit card fee.

Shopify Analytics and Reports

As mentioned before, Analytics become an underlying factor in surveying your store’s performance and building up necessary strategies to help grow your business further. The web analytics report will give you answers to questions such as the amount of traffic on your store, the source of customers visiting, how many people are buying and how many are a few to start with.

You can download detailed reports on one’s online store with all the sales volume, traffic, and charts on transactions made to learn and formulate provisions as mandatory.

Outstanding Loading Speed

Shopify being a worldwide eCommerce hosted solution has been designed with a trusted infrastructure with reliable software and hardware, which allows fast loading speed than most Shopify alternatives. The loading speed becomes crucial as slow loading speed can become the reason you lose out customers.

24-Hour Customer Support

Being one of the most prevalent eCommerce websites all across the globe, Shopify provides excellent customer support. Anytime you find yourself stuck with a technical issue or any other query, you can use their customer services that are available 24/7 every single day.

The customer service people will get back to you within a few hours. You can avail of the customer services through the web, email, or phone according to your need for urgency and preference. Alongside active customer service, it also provides feedback and complaint forums for people facing any problem with accessing customer service.

Abandoned Cart-Recovery

Shopify comes with an abandoned cart-recovery to keep track of abandoned checkouts. It allows you to keep track of customers adding products to the cart but is not making any purchase which could be quite demotivating.

The abandoned cart-recovery plugin will send out emails to these customers reminding them about the products. The mails will be sent to them at different intervals to help attract more customers by reminding them about the carts’ forgotten products.

The above-discussed features make Shopify stand out from the other similar platforms available in the market. With such diverse features ranging from technical help to help customize your store to your liking, Shopify does become an option for many blossoming online stores.

However, like every coin has two sides, Shopify is not without faults either. Here are some of the major drawbacks that will tag along should you choose to opt for Shopify.

Less Customizing Flexibility

Some services on extra charges under all plans

Poor reviews about CMS (Content Management System)

No option allowing to move the business to another platform

Like no human can exist without flaw, Shopify doesn’t exist without a few disadvantages. However, these few drawbacks do not in any manner reflect Shopify as an insufficient and inefficient eCommerce platform. Shopify has created a trusted brand image among customers in a short time span and spread its network around the world due to its quality and effective features.

No matter what eCommerce website you select for your online store, it will come with two-three faults. You have to decide what features and plugins you want to use to grow your business. And more importantly, which eCommerce platform will be profitable for your business in the long run.

7. Shopify Vs. Other Website Building Alternatives

Being one of the fastest-growing eCommerce services, Shopify has progressed in a way, leaving behind numerous entrepreneurs in the race. Today Shopify has achieved a tremendous success rate in the eCommerce market. Who would’ve thought that an online store for Snowboarding equipment will someday transform into one of the largest eCommerce platforms?

Shopify is not some average eCommerce platform that is a comprehensive solution for all your online stores tracking your performance, attracting more traffic, and upgrading to new solutions to grow your business.

Here are 6 top Shopify competitors blossoming into leading Ecommerce Platforms:

Wix

The first on our Shopify competitor list is Wix, another popular solution for website building that handles and manages all the technical and backend security details for your website. Wix is an easy-to-use eCommerce platform with great design flexibility and a support team behind your back to guide you through all the obstacles.

Wix is considered ideal for emerging small businesses with helpful features such as a drag-and-drop option for creating a highly customized website. Like Shopify, it has various SEO and marketing tools helping you grow your online store quickly by targeting customers at affordable plan rates.

BigCommerce

Another popularly growing website builder that helps you build and grow your store. One unique thing about BigCommerce is that it offers more built-in tools than any other eCommerce platform. Like most website building solutions, BigCommerce doesn’t require any coding expertise to create your online store website.

BigCommerce offers around 250 in-built sales tools with distinctive features and functionalities considered best for B2B eCommerce. A basic, BigCommerce plan costs around $29 with all the features, live team support, POS, checkouts, coupons, and discounts.

Big Cartel

Big Cartel eCommerce builder is different from most Shopify competitors in the market for several reasons. Firstly, it provides free plans for people looking to sell less than five products and customized programs according to the needs of businesses looking to sell fewer than 300 products. Second, it has been specifically made for art creators such as fashion designers, musicians, artists, and others.

Third, it offers dozens of user-friendly tools that can be accessed to monitor your site performance, analytics, customer reach, updating products, promotion channels, and transaction records.

However, it is a bit limited in the features it offers than most Shopify alternatives but will be a good option at such a low rate for larger online stores.

Magento

Magento might be the next best software solution after the Shopify eCommerce platform. Magento was the only efficient choice for website building solutions before Shopify and others swooped in at the scene. Magento being an open-source platform, is reputed for its SaaS (service as a software) available in the online market.

Magento is the sound choice for a large business that acts as a part of the Adobe Cloud experience providing you with global merchants and an audience to reach out to you and help build your business. It offers beneficial features to help you run and manage, expert business advice, and assistance at every step of the way.

One drawback in Magento’s software building solution is that it is one of the most expensive Shopify competitors in the business market today.

Volusion

Volusion is the most affordable of all the Shopify eCommerce competitors with a standard plan beginning with $15 per month. It offers great theme and layout customization with highly representative options to build you a beautiful online store.

The Volusion website builders save you a lot of time and take all the tech work off your shoulders about site maintenance, hosting, and other tedious tasks. The most powerful is its analytics and data reporting features in keeping track of customer behaviors, inventory records, number of orders, and sales revenue in one single place.

On the downside, it is not as easy to use and navigate as the Shopify platform. It requires some basic coding knowledge and skills to build a website through Volusion. Also, it charges extra costs for purchasing an SSL certificate and other necessary tools that are usually included in the plan. However, if you’re looking for something at a lower-price, Volusion might be your top choice.

Squarespace

Another leading Shopify competitor, Squarespace, is identical to Shopify in terms of styles and design, allowing you to set-up your online store in the most convenient way possible. To create a website through Squarespace, one doesn’t need in-depth technical skills to build your eCommerce store.

Squarespace web builder comes with a wide range of extensive plugins and features such as SEO marketing tools, analytics reports, abandoned cart recovery, and others. Squarespace’s strength lies in the great templates that it offers its customers for web design with unlimited product listings.

8. FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) About Shopify:

Question:1 What is Shopify, and how does it work?

It is an eCommerce platform that helps set-up online stores make products accessible to a wider audience range according to their needs.

Question:2 How to cancel Shopify subscription delete Shopify account?

One can easily delete their Shopify account following simple steps:

Step-1 To delete your Shopify, go to Settings on your Shopify Account.

Step:2 Select the account you want to cancel the subscription for.

Step:3 Now, if you scroll down further, you will find the close store option.

Step:4 Click on the close store and then enter your account password.

Step:5 You can confirm your password to close your store, selecting the reason.

4-simple steps to cancel your Shopify subscription:

Step-1 To cancel your Shopify subscription, go to your settings.

Step-2 Now, select the account you wish to cancel the subscription for.

Step-3 After selecting the account, scroll down and click on the Pause Store.

Step-4 Lastly, confirm your billing details to cancel your subscription.

Question:3 How much will Shopify Cost?

Before you go ahead and buy any Shopify plan, you can access their 14-day free trial to test the platform and explore its feature to analyze if Shopify is a good choice or not. If not, then you can easily cancel your free trial before within two-weeks.

For detailed information on Shopify Plans and their pricing, refer to the article.

Question:4 Does one need to be a programmer or designer to be able to use Shopify?

No, one doesn’t require any kind of expertise in programming or knowledge of tech-skills to use Shopify. It is one of the major features that attract many customers to use the Shopify eCommerce platform for their online store as Shopify itself handles all the technicalities.

If you’re looking for an end-to-end solution for all your online store problems without any experience in the industry, then Shopify is probably your best go-to option.

Question:5 Are there specific countries where Shopify can be used?

Shopify eCommerce platform has its network spread across 175 countries approximately. One can easily access Shopify and set-up an online store from anywhere any time without any restrictions by visiting their official website here.

Question:6 Is it possible to remove the Shopify label from my website?

Yes, when you set-up a Shopify Store, sometimes a label ‘Powered by Shopify’ appears automatically at the end of your website.

But don’t worry, you can simply fix this in mere minutes by following a few steps.

Step-1 Open your online Shopify store account and choose themes.

Step-2 Then edit the theme which is currently in use and select edit languages.

Step-3 After selecting edit languages, a search bar will appear where you can type ‘Powered by Shopify’

Steps-4 Now, in results, you will see the option of editing the footer. You can simply remove these words or replace them according to your preference.

Question:7 Is Shopify, an authentic website builder?

It is understandable to question the authenticity of a platform you plan to invest in in a world where scam and fraud cases are constantly rising. Shopify is a completely safe and legit solution for your online store business. A Canadian public company with its original headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is one of the most used eCommerce website building platforms globally trusted by more than 3.6 million customers running their stores through Shopify.

Question:8 Are there any better alternatives available to Shopify?

Yes, there are numerous alternatives available to Shopify. But only you can decide which one is better for your business according to its need and requirement. Some of the Shopify competitors are WooCommerce, Magento, Wix, Shift4Shop, and various others.

Question:9 How can one set up an eCommerce Shopify online store?

One can set up a Shopify store by creating an account and selecting a Shopify plan for your store. After which, you can add the list of products you want to sell, pick out themes & layouts to customize your Shopify store along with payment gateways, shipping settings and then finally prepare your store to be launched.

Question:10 Does Shopify include Web Hosting?

Yes, for people overwhelmed with all the technical jargon, the Shopify Stores are fully-hosted by its servers, and regular updates and maintenance save you a lot of time.

Question:11 Which is the best Shopify plan?

Each business has its unique individualized necessities according to which they can pick a plan. For someone new to the eCommerce platform, I would recommend a basic outline for Shopify or any other website builder at the initial stage of their business.

Question:12 Does Shopify offer various themes and layouts to list out your products?

Yes, Shopify allows you to choose from various themes and layouts for your online store. Customization of your online store is necessary to provide your customers with the best user experience. However, Shopify is rather less flexible and limited in its approach towards theme customization.

Question:13 Can one use their domain name with Shopify?

Yes, one can use their domain name on Shopify if you have one; all you’ve to do is connect it to Shopify from your admin store. However, if you don’t have a domain name, you can buy one from Shopify or any third-party developer for your online store.

Question: 14 What are some of the best applications on the Shopify App Store?

Through the Shopify app store, you can use various free and paid apps to help your store grow. It consists of different marketing, upsell, SEO plugins, and customization apps are available which you can add to your online store.

9. Final Verdict on Shopify Canada Review:

After going through all the points in such great detail, I can say that Shopify is one of the best eCommerce platforms for building online stores, especially for beginners in the online world. Shopify eCommerce is used to run thousands of online stores across the globe. It helps people with no tech knowledge go online with their business and help reach a wider audience, making products accessible to larger audiences within the comfort zone of their home.

Yes, Shopify is not without some drawbacks, as we discussed above in the article. But I doubt that you will find any eCommerce platform free of any fault at all. The smart thing here to do would be to choose a platform that coincides with your business needs and will help it build & grow further into a successful business someday.

10. Few Points to Consider Before Buying Setting-Up a Shopify Store

One can make an informed and educated decision after following the next four steps to establish whether Shopify (or any other website builder software) is your go-to website builder or not:

The possible ways Shopify can help you build and grow your business.

Understanding their varying Shopify plans and pricing along with the other useful tools they offer in detail.

By comparing Shopify with other local Canadian or non-Canadian website builders, choose the best option for your budding business idea.

Scrutinizing the features website builders offer, such as SEO benefits, marketing tools, and other CMS (Customer Management System) user management, improved functionality, website design pliability, and other services.

11. Quick Guide to setting up your own Shopify Store Online

Here is a quick and comprehensive guide to help guide through setting-up Shopify Store.

Step:1 Before you go ahead and make a site, pre-plan your business idea and ways you want to execute it.

Step:2 Decide what you would like to name your online store. Make it short, catchy, and attractive.

Step:3 Now, once you’ve things ready, just create a Shopify account. (If not sure about Shopify is the one for your online store, you can take advantage of a 14-day free trial and explore to make a final decision.

Step:4 Once you’ve entered all the details about yourself along with your store name, you will land on the admin page of your online store. You can start adding products, set-up shipping, and payment gateways.

Step:5 Once you’ve set-up all the essentials, you can customize your online store by selecting the needful themes and layouts. Once you’re done, you can test and preview the site.

Step:6 After selecting your theme, you can add analytics and other important apps to help you manage your business spread.

Step:7 At last, you’ve to choose a paid Shopify plan to decide as your business requires. To beginners, I would recommend a basic Shopify plan. Once your beginning starts to grow, you can opt for a Shopify or Advanced Shopify plan.

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sarajonesc · 3 years

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Top 5 Ways To Make Money Online For Canadians

Are you looking for opportunities to generate passive income online? Then this article is going to benefit you. We are going to introduce you to five great methods to generate money online.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is essentially promoting the affiliate products via your unique affiliate link. Every time a person purchases with your connection, the seller will get the notification in the system, and you will receive a commission.

The stablest way to start affiliate marketing is to set up your blog in a designated niche. You can then share the link of the affiliate products related to the blog in your write-ups and external platforms such as forums and Reddit. Email marketing and social media pages are also going to help you expand your user base and attract prospective customers.

Dropshipping

You can start an eCommerce store without having to stock the products practically. Essentially, every time you receive the order, you alert the manufacturer or retailer, who will ship it to the customer under your brand name. It will save a lot of money on capital.

Freelance Writing

If you know your way around with words and are passionate about writing, then freelancing is an excellent choice to take up. You can sign yourself up on different freelancing platforms, create an attractive profile, and wait to receive requests from clients. You have to prepare the content and revise it before submitting it. After the approval, you can enjoy the extra bucks. You don’t have to manage a website, which is an advantage.

Pinterest VA

You can earn via Pinterest by signing up for the role of Virtual Assistant. As a VA, you will work closely with brands, websites, businesses, and creators to expand their online presence and reach.

YouTube

You only require a camera and an internet connection to start a YouTube channel. On YouTube, you can perform affiliate marketing by creating videos based on using a particular product and mentioning the link in the description box. After you achieve a certain amount of hours viewed, you can monetize the channel and start earning from the advertisements.

Training

To familiarise with the digital industry trends and learn all the tips and tricks, you should get training from the field’s preeminent mentors.

We recommend you to sign up with training programs from Savage Affiliates and Ecom Elites. To learn all about affiliate marketing, and dropshipping respectively.

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sarajonesc · 3 years

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How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing in Canada

If you are looking for alternatives to increase your total income and generate multiple passive income sources, you have reached the appropriate place.

The globe is going digital, and making money online has become an efficient, sustainable, and profitable income source. But there are numerous methods through which you can generate revenue online. To save your time, we have researched and discovered that affiliate marketing is the best way of making money online in Canada. In this piece, you will know all the details about affiliate marketing and an insight into a renowned course to help you get started.

Before we jump into the process of making money online, let us understand what affiliate marketing means. Essentially in affiliate marketing, you have to promote affiliate products with your unique link called the affiliate link. If the customer purchases the commodity using your link, you will get a commission from the business owner. This product doesn’t always have to be a commodity; it could even include services, membership or subscriptions.

Why affiliate marketing is a great business choice?

There are a plethora of reasons which make affiliate marketing stand out from the rest of the methods in the industry, and we have jotted down all the crucial reasons:

You don’t have to spend money on capital, purchase goods, or worry about additional charges such as electricity bills, rent, and so on.

You can handle most of the work in affiliate marketing, so you don’t require a team, which means you don’t have to pay people.

Unlike other eCommerce businesses, you don’t have to spend money on product testing because your role is to market the commodity.

Additionally, you don’t have to ensure timely delivery, refunds, and customer support.

Steps to get started with affiliate marketing

Are you feeling a little jittery about starting? To help you start in the world of affiliate marketing, we have designed a few steps which you should follow to kick-start your venture.

Pick a Niche

You have to pick a niche to start your journey, and this step can be a little confusing. The spectrum of niches to choose from is broad. It could be your hobby, passion, skill, or expertise. The best way to choose a niche is to list all the possible domains which fascinate you. After you make a list, create a rough content plan for each of these domains and analyze the category, and the type of content you can develop.

For instance, if you are engaged in cooking, but you don’t have sufficient information to write about, there isn’t any point in taking up that niche. When you start your blog, you regularly post fresh content to stay ahead in your competitors’ race. Hence, choose something where you have a lot of ideas.

Pick a Platform

After deciding the type of content you are interested in posting, decide on the platform to hold your content. If you want to become an affiliate marketing giant, then starting with your website is the most suited option. You can also resort to other platforms like YouTube or Instagram.

If you can write exquisite and helpful content, then start your blog. If you have a knack for creating timeless visuals, videos, YouTube and Instagram are the perfect fit for you. Start with only one platform because keeping tabs on multiple places can be overwhelming, and you wouldn’t be able to give your 100% to a single platform.

Product Hunt

The most crucial part of the journey is to pick the right set of products and services to market. A very convenient way to find the products and brands of your liking is by entering the name of the product or brand on Google, followed by typing affiliate.

You will get all the details of various affiliate programs. Make sure to read all the terms thoroughly before you begin the product hunt to ensure that you fit the criteria. A lot of affiliate programs demand a minimum number of visitors or subscribers. Make sure to look up the Amazon Affiliate Program. It is incredible and widespread.

Curating Content

You don’t have to be Shakespeare to compose excellent content. All the content you create should be easy to understand, convey the point across, and be grammatically correct. The best approach to create content is to be in your creative sphere and do it at your pace.

It doesn’t mean not sticking to the schedule or objectives. You don’t have to pressure yourself into creating the best blog post because it wouldn’t help. Try to draw inspiration by looking at other posts or pleasing visuals, and then you will be able to create engaging content.

You have to promote the affiliate products using the content so try to write articles where you can do it effortlessly. Don’t promote an affiliate product in every blog post or video because your audience isn’t going to be happy about it. For every ten non-promotional posts, you can curate a promotional one.

Hard-Work: The irreplaceable ingredient to success

If you decide one fine morning to create a website to start affiliate marketing and make a whopping income online, then you are in a dreamland. If it were possible, everyone would quit the existing jobs and switch to this method. The reality isn’t so welcoming and comfortable.

You have to put in additional effort to help your website or channel take off. In the initial months, stay more active by engaging with the audience, responding to queries on different community platforms and forums, and get honest feedback on your work.

It doesn’t mean slogging all day and not sparing any time for recreational activities. You have to draw a plan and work accordingly to achieve the outcomes. If you finish the tasks early, you can spare more time to do the things you like.

Evolve and Learn

The digital industry trends change very often, and you might be an expert in your domain, but you have to be familiar with the new concepts. It requires a lot of continuous learning to evolve as a person.

It would be best to understand your audience’s needs from time to time and devise strategies to help them. Ultimately, if the audience isn’t finding your content production, they will stop visiting the website. To create an audience that will stick with you for long years, you must create engaging content.

Website v/s YouTube: Which one to choose?

Starting a website to practice affiliate marketing is more convenient than starting a YouTube channel because you are the owner. You get the flexibility to curate content as per your choice.

You have to comply with a lot of rules and regulations to start a channel. If YouTube notices that you are spamming the description box with links to affiliate products, they might take down the video or suspend the channel. You can lose all of the work overnight, and you will have no choice but to start over.

The same is true for platforms like Quora and Instagram as well. There are strict rules to abide by and to be realistic unless you have shared the link multiple times, there are significantly fewer chances of getting customers on board. External platforms are unreliable but owning a website gives you security for the future.

Training Program

There is no better learning approach than the experts and mentors who have established themselves in the industries. It can be very overwhelming to start affiliate marketing without getting the requisite training. There are many training programs for affiliate marketing online, and it can be a little tough to choose which one is the most dependable because all of them seem to give exceptional results.

We have done a lot of analysis and research to find the best training platform for you. This program’s results are authentic, and you will learn a lot of other digital marketing essentials along with affiliate marketing.

Savage affiliates are the go-to training program for newbies to the industry, but even if you are experienced, this platform can still help you brush up on the existing skill-set and teach new techniques.

Savage Affiliates Training Program

There are two programs available: the standard package and the super package. Both of the programs have a one-time payment option. For the standard package, you have to pay $197, and for the super package, you have to pay $297.

The Affiliate training program consists of comprehensive modules which will help you learn about the following concepts:

The A-Z of affiliate marketing and how to select the affiliate products

How to increase organic traffic by participating in forums and improving Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) score

Using paid methods like advertisements to direct traffic to the blog

How to develop and design effective email marketing campaigns

Techniques to develop your website and make it more user friendly

How to use ClickBank and ClickFunnels for affiliate marketing

If you choose the super package, you will also learn about web-hosting and launch jacking.

Why Choose Savage Affiliates?

The following reasons make Savage Affiliates continues to be the top choice amongst aspiring affiliate marketers:

It is a very inclusive course which has something for people from different levels of experience. Be it freshers or experienced industry experts, and it offers modules of a diverse range.

The thirty-day money back policy guarantees the authenticity of the program. You can apply for a refund within thirty days if you haven’t reached the desired outcomes.

Franklin, the founder of Savage Affiliates, has proven his success in this industry and is a receipt of several honors and awards.

You will be a community member with like-minded people, and it will help build networks for a lifetime.

A few done-for-you tools are available to help in practice before starting. It will give you hands-on experience.

The mentor will address all the doubts and queries. He will also give you the latest developments from an industry perspective every week.

Conclusion

Affiliate marketing is a tested and effective way of generating passive income online in Canada. It doesn’t require a lot of capital or investments. If you put in dedicated efforts, then you can start earning in the first few weeks. Sign up for the training program with Savage Affiliate to start your venture right away.

The post How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing in Canada appeared first on Maple Loonie.

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sarajonesc · 3 years

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How to Start a Dropshipping Business With Low Capital In Canada

Are you looking to start your enterprise with minimal investments? Then you have come to the right place. With Dropshipping being more accessible to Canadians during the present times, it opens paths to new avenues.

Americans have achieved new heights of success with this method, and it is now more approachable in Canada. If the concept is entirely fresh to you, don’t worry at all. In this article, we will explain to you all about dropshipping and assist you in getting started.

So without further ado, let us open the path to a new avenue!

The working mechanism of Dropshipping

It is relatively simple to grasp the concepts of drop shipping but to set up the business, and earn profits requires a lot of hard work. You are supposed to have partnerships with wholesale retailers or manufacturers whose goods you want to sell. The only difference here from the usual collaboration is that you don’t need a physical location to store the products.

You can set up an e-commerce website or put the products up for sale on platforms like Amazon. Once the customer places the order, you have to pay the seller the wholesale price. He will, in turn, ship the parcel to the customer.

Majority of the time, your customer will not be aware of the fact that the product is coming from a different place. They receive it with the illusion that the work belongs to your brand.

How to Start Dropshipping in Canada?

The most crucial part of dropshipping is creating an online presence. There are numerous companies which specialise in developing drop shipping platforms, the preeminent one being Shopify eCommerce.

Amazon and eBay have multiple partners for dropshipping purposes. You will get many additional features for the ease of doing business.

It is entirely on you to decide which option is the best suited for you. Read the guidelines thoroughly for all the options before making the final call. It will help you in gaining a comprehensive outlook.

Who are the DropShippers that work with Candian sellers?

Before you sign a contract, study the terms carefully. A lot of wholesale suppliers levy extra charges to cover additional expenses such as shipping. They might also charge this nominal fee to cover the cost of buying a large number of products at wholesale rate.

It is common to have these expenses but always be careful. Just because a supplier asks for the extra bucks, it doesn’t mean it is a fraud. But there could be an instance where the supplier is trying to extract money for personal benefits.

How to Find Dropshippers in Canada?

There are always individual business deals which are solely between you and the company. However, this isn’t the choicest option among people. The best way to approach drop shippers is through the directory.

People prefer to go with the directory because they will get a whopping number of products and additional services. To help you commence, we have a list of reputable companies below:

SaleHoo Canada: If you aren’t very confident about dropshipping for a long duration, you can get hands-on experience with the free trial. SaleHoo has about two million goods, plenty of drop shippers, and the supplier takes care of shipping.

World Wide Brands: The Better Business Bureau has accredited World Wide Brands with an A+. Also, you can approach close to ten-thousand drop shippers.

Wholesale2B: If you are looking for products to sell across multiple platforms, this is the perfect place. You can choose from the given list of plans according to your convenience and sell from about 1.5 million products. They have a free trial opportunity available, and they ship to most parts of the world. It allows you to globalise your little venture.

Benefits of Dropshipping

There are numerous reasons why people prefer dropshipping over the traditional business, and we have curated a list of them below:

The quantity of products doesn’t matter to you because you don’t have to store it. It eliminates the problem of hoarding.

The entire process of shipping is taken care of by the suppliers. You don’t have to participate in the process of shipping.

With the ease of exporting to several countries, you can expand your brand and get global recognition.

The platform to sell on is of your choice. Suppose you are not comfortable with owning a website due to technical difficulties or time constraints you don’t have to. There are external platforms available to get the work done.

Conclusion

Dropshipping is a hassle-free online venture to help you earn money online. The field is on the rise, and it will be a great source of passive income as well. We hope this article aided you in getting a clear insight into the world of dropshipping.

The post How to Start a Dropshipping Business With Low Capital In Canada appeared first on Maple Loonie.

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sarajonesc · 3 years

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Top 8 WordPress Plugins You Need To Install in Canada

WordPress is well-endowed with a lot of features to make your website attractive and user friendly. But if you want your website to stand out from the rest in the industry, then you should install quality plugins.

Thanks to WordPress’s fantastic flexibility, you can choose from a variety of plugins to upgrade your website. But there are too many plugins in the market, and to help you pick the best we have curated the list of preeminent plugins.

The list comprises both free, and paid plugins. They are easy to use, and you don’t have to worry about the technical aspects much. We hope you find this list productive and helpful.

Contact Form Plugins

If you are interested in keeping your readers updated with the latest content on your website, then you are going to need a contact form to collect their details. This form will also help you generate leads for your venture.

Contact Form 7: This plugin is available for free of cost and is quite purposive to create elementary contact forms. It is user-friendly and easy to navigate. Also, it has about five million installations already, making it a trustworthy plugin.

Gravity Form: If you want to go a notch higher from the primary forms, then Gravity form is your go-to plugin. You have to pay US$59 a year to unlock their best features. The best part about this plugin is that you can easily incorporate it to software like MailChimp, which will aid you in conducting email campaigns.

Security Plugins

The audience visiting your website is going to be cautious of uploading their details if they believe that the website is not secure. There is a good chance of WordPress sites being a target of hackers. To ensure your website is not a victim to the malicious attacks; you should install a security plugin right away.

Shield Security: This plugin is available in both free, and paid version. If you opt for the free version, you will get two-factor authentication and brute force login shield. With the paid version, you can get a lot of additional features at just US $1 per month.

Astra Security: It is a paid security plugin to protect your website from malware. Astra Security will be beneficial to monitor your website during an attack at US$9 per month.

SEO Plugins

Search Engine Optimisation is crucial to draw organic traffic to your website, and advance the rank on the SERP. You will get a specific SEO score with the help of plugins, and you have to work towards making it maximum.

Yoast SEO: Yoast has a free, and a paid version. By integrating Yoast in your website’s pages, and posts, you will be able to achieve the top spot on the SERP in no time. The paid version comes at US$89 per year for one website.

RankMath: It is a relatively new plugin in the industry with some incredible features. RankMath is giving stiff competition to other plugins because it is available free of cost. Notably, the quick indexing feature is the best part of RankMath.

Pro Tip: If your website is relatively new, then keeping a constant of high SEO scores will help your website gain recognition from Google much quicker.

Cache Plugin

Website speed is essential to enhance the user experience. Visitors would hate loading the page multiple times, and having to wait for a longer duration. If you want to increase the website speed, then showing the visitors cached version of the site is a suitable option. We have done our research to present you with the best cache plugin.

WP Rocket: The plugin is user-friendly, and your website will have lightning-fast speed once you have incorporated WP Rocket. There is no need for configuration because it will start working on the website immediately after you load it.

You will also get the opportunity to customise the settings according to your preferences. There are different options such as CSS, and JS minification, optimising Google fonts, and XML sitemaps preloading.

Since more people now use their smartphones to access websites, WP Rocket can customise the website for smartphone users as well.

They offer different plans with one year of license. You can opt for a single license for one website at US$49, a plus license for three websites at US$99 or infinite permit for any number of websites at US$249.

Schema Plugin

If you want your business to get a higher recognition on Google, then Schema is a must. It will convey detailed information about your page, reviews, and comments. Overall, it will boost the SEO score significantly.

Schema Pro: This plugin stands out from the rest in the market because it can markup all the different types of pages. Most of the other schema plugins only markup selective pages. You have to pay US$59 per year.

SMTP Plugins

You can manage the emails you have sent from your website with the aid of this plugin. Although WordPress offers its version of SMTP, it is not very advanced. With plugins, you can get a lot of perks.

WP Mail SMTP: People regard this as the most superior SMTP. You can use this plugin for free, and also integrate it with a variety of mailing software such as SendGrid.

Page Builder Plugins

The recent updates of the WordPress editor are quite remarkable, but if you are still looking to develop it more to add new features to the page, then these plugins are going to be your go-to!

Ultimate Gutenberg Add Ons: You can add twenty-more features to the Gutenberg editor at no cost with this plugin. It is quite brilliant, considering that it is free.

Thrive Architect: This page builder is a must for affiliate marketing websites or marketing of any type for that matter. You will be able to add some beneficial elements like comparison tables. Additionally, you can also track lead collection through a dedicated page. It will cost you about US$67 for one website.

Elementor: You can customise every page of your website with Elementor. It doesn’t take into account the theme you are using, and you get to curate your website entirely. There are two versions of the Elementor, the first one is free, and the second one costs about US$49 per year.

Lead Collection Plugins

Leads are prospective clients who are most likely to become customers. You can now collect all the information of the leads using subtle, and supreme forms. It is crucial to do this because staying in contact, and updating your lead can help you get business from them.

Thrive Leads: This plugin offers you more than ten types of forms. You can integrate it with all the trending mailing software such as Aweber and MailChimp. It is also very affordable; you have to pay US$67 for one website. The payment is one time only.

Conclusion

This list comprises all the top-quality and awesome plugins which you can use to expand your business. Plugins are crucial because they will help you in generating more leads, attracting organic traffic, improving the look of your website and enhancing the SEO rank. So go ahead and play around with these plugins!

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sarajonesc · 3 years

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How to Start a Blog in Canada: Easy Beginners Guide

The increasing trend of social media has left everyone to think if blogging is still alive.

The types of blogging and how people approach it may have changed, but rest assured that it is far from dead.

Even with the rising popularity of social media and the masses moving towards vlogs, there are several pros of starting a blog in Canada.

If you are planning to start a blog, here are a few reasons why you must proceed and an easy guide to get started for beginners.

Why Start a Blog?

There are numerous benefits to writing a blog in Canada- and here is a look at a few of them.

1. Helps to Build a Personal Brand

Creating your own blog gives you the freedom to express your thoughts on a particular subject, and it is one of the best ways to develop a personal brand.

Having your online personal brand will help you to access new opportunities and make the most out of them.

For example, if you are looking for a job in the market, your online brand will help you locate a similar profile as you.

Your personal blog is also a great platform to showcase your skills, which serves as a digital resume. It will make you stand out from other applicants who do not have their personal brands.

Moreover, you may use the online brand to publish books, online courses, articles, workshops and boost your freelance career.

2. Earn Some Extra Money

The internet is a source of unlimited opportunities. You may use your online brand to make some money on the side by advertising, selling digital or physical products, and even start affiliate marketing.

If you are consistent enough, blogging can even replace your full-time income. Otherwise, it will keep bringing some additional money for you.

Many bloggers in Canada and worldwide have successfully sustained themselves using blogs for more than decades. And new bloggers are emerging every day.

3. Helps to Socialize With People Having Common Interests

Having an established online is a fantastic way to connect with more people.

Most readers have a tendency to feel a sense of closeness with the writer.

That is why if you meet one of your readers even for the first time, they already seem to know you, and you can form a bond with them more easily.

The best aspect of blogging is that only one article can earn you thousands of readers.

4. Build Your Community

In today’s world of digitalization, you can easily build a large community on various social media platforms like Facebook.

But keeping your community engaged is an entirely different story. You must post regularly in your groups, while maintaining the quality of your content.

Most social media platforms have a group feature nowadays, which offers a suite of practical tools to build an engaged community.

Although there is a risk of algorithm alteration, these platforms can change their algorithms whenever they want, without consulting their users.

It can turn your successful business into a failure overnight.

Having a blog can be helpful in such scenarios. It will protect your brand even if your social media accounts get closed.

5. Attract Customers

A well-developed blog will help you attract more leads for an existing business.

Blogs are known to attract more customers than any other methods of marketing or lead generation. It is because blogs help you form a positive relationship with potential customers more effectively than other means.

The blog will reflect your skills, and you can also use it to showcase the projects you have done.

How to Sep Up and Grow Your Blog

Now that you have learned the benefits of having a blog, you must know how to get started.

1. Identify Your Niche and Goal

The first and foremost thing you need to do even before starting your blog is to determine your niche and goal.

You might be wondering why it is so important. Well, it will direct your blog in a direction and will not let you divert.

Besides, a goal will determine the effectiveness of your blog. It will help you stay motivated throughout the blog.

Apparently, having a determined goal will prevent early breakdown, which is very common while writing blogs.

Before starting a blog, you must have clear answers to these questions:

If you want to become a thought leader on a particular topic or not?

Are you making the blog to earn some extra money?

Do you want to showcase this blog to your future recruiters to be judged by them on it?

The last thing you want to do is start a blog without knowing what you want to do with it.

Deciding your goal halfway through can decrease your blog’s quality, and it will never be well directed.

Without a goa, you will soon lose motivation to blog over time and update it regularly, and your work will feature among many dead blogs on the internet.

Having a niche before starting your blog is equally important. It will determine what your blog contains.

In current times of competition, you cannot use your blog to write on random subjects that cross your mind. Even if you do, the blog will not give any positive results.

It is also imperative that your blog focus on a particular topic or your readers will get confused and develop a negative impression.

Growing your blog will become practically impossible with a proper niche.

By choosing a niche, you can easily produce focused content blogs of high quality. It will not only attract more readers but build an engagement with them to grow your blog.

If you are not sure about what you want to write in your blog, then you may take suggestions from friends, teachers, and the internet.

That is why we recommend deciding why you want to start a blog and what you will be writing about.

2. Selecting The Right Blogging Platform For You

Once you are determined about your niche and goal, the next important step is selecting your blogging platform.

There are several blogging platforms that you can use to write your blog, but all of them might not serve you equally.

Some software has unique fonts and features to add images and clips, while there are some tools that have autocorrect features to point out any grammatical error.

You must be aware of what you exactly want from the platform and choose accordingly.

We recommend using WordPress, an easy-to-use writing tool that will help you develop excellent blogs in a stylish font.

It is an open-source content management system (CMS) that you can learn quickly, even if you do not have any coding skills or technical knowledge.

Besides, WordPress is famous worldwide, having more than 19 million websites across the world that run on this CMS. So you can easily find tutorials or resources to resolve any issue occurring with this software.

The company offers two different kinds of tools: WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

The primary difference between these two tools is based on the ownership of your website.

WordPress.org allows you to host your personal website and have complete control over it.

You may develop and design your website however you please and also determine how to monetize your website.

WordPress.org is free of cost. However, it will charge you for the domain of your website and the external hosting.

On the other hand, WordPress.com hosts the website on your behalf. It also has certain limitations to your control over the design and monetization of your website.

Unlike its other variant, this software does charge for any domain that ends with .wordpress.com.

You will need to pay an additional charge if you want to update the domain name.

Both the tools have their own advantages and drawbacks, but most professionals prefer using WordPress.org as it gives total control to the user.

We recommend using WordPress.org, even if the other variant is free. It will not allow you to have your desired domain name, reducing your credibility.

Think for yourself, which website would you have trusted more

www.forexample.com

Or, www.forexample.wordpress.com?

Moreover, managing a free website can easily make you reluctant to work on the blog. If you spend even a little on your website, it will be an excellent motivation for you.

So, if you are serious and committed to blogging, we would suggest you choose WordPress.org.

3. Setting Up The Website

After you have decided on the blogging platform you will use, your next task will be setting up the website.

First, you will need to buy a domain and hosting plan.

The domain will be your online address, like www.forexample.com. Your readers or anybody else on the internet can find you here.

The provider will store all the files of your website at the hosting provider. When a user types your domain name on their browser, it will extract the files from where they are stored on your hosting provider.

Many domain and hosting providers are available out there, but we recommend using Bluehost as a beginner.

Bluehost is very cheap for first-time users. It offers you a free domain for your website and charges $3.95 per month for a three-year subscription.

The monthly fee for a two-year subscription is $4.95.

Other hosting providers charge for the domain, and also the hosting fees are higher than Bluehost.

Bluehost’s basic plan is quite reliable for a website with low traffic. As a beginner, you are most likely to get minimum visitors.

That is why the basic plan is a reliable and cost-effective hosting solution.

Once you start getting high traffic for the website, you will need to switch to another hosting provider as Bluehost can become too expensive.

Moreover, starting your blog with Bluehost and WordPress is quite simple. Bluehost allows one-click installation to launch WordPress.

After purchasing your hosting and domain, you are required to install WordPress, which is the last step for setting up your website.

Bluehost will allow you to customize your website by changing the website themes and plugins.

4. Choose A Domain Name

Selecting a name for your domain will have more impact on the traffic than it may seem. In case this is your first time creating a domain name, some quick tips can be helpful for coming up with a good domain name.

A good domain name is something that people can easily grasp and remember.

Keep it short: The shorter you keep your domain name, the easier it will be to remember. Try to keep your domain name within two or three-syllables.

Choose an easy-to-pronounce name: Try to pick a name for your domain that is easy for average people to pronounce. Avoid names that are too foreign to your readers, or they will forget it easily.

Go for a .com if possible: Although most of your readers will be from Canada, we suggest using a .com for your domain, as they are more convincing and easy to remember.

Make It As Relevant As Possible: Pick a name for your domain that is related to your niche. If your domain name is entirely different from the content, your reader will get confused and more likely to leave.

People will develop an idea from your domain name and decide to visit your website. If the content does not relate to its domain name, it will be disappointing for your visitors.

Pick up a brandable name: It is best if you can be creative while choosing your domain name. Try to figure out a catchy name for your domain that is more likely to become a brand.

It will boost your brand value, domain name, and website.

Remember not to copy your domain name from another website.

5. Set A Plan For Your Blog

You can start planning how you want to work on your blog after you have successfully set the domain name.

Having a plan will help you work on the blog helps you develop a routine for updating it.

If you do not have a plan in place, it will generate irregularities, and you will tend to forget to update your blog. Or even if you do, it will only be once in a while.

A plan will ensure that you know what needs to be done on each working day that is essential for your blog to grow.

Things that you need to decide while planning are:

How often you want to update the blog: You must be clear if you want to update your blog every day, once a week, or once a month. It is important to be practical while planning about how often you can actually update the blog.

You may plan to update your blog daily, but indeed you are updating the blog twice a week, which will be no good.

You must stick to what you have planned. If you think you will be able to update your blog once a week, you must plan it accordingly.

As a beginner, you can plan to update your blog every once a week or twice a week. Updating it daily would not make much sense as you will not get enough traffic in your starting days.

But you cannot drag the period too much as well. Updating your blog once a month can make your readers find an alternative, even if it has good content.

Topics that you will blog about: Once you have decided on how often you want to update your blog, the next thing you need to plan out is the topics that you are willing to blog about.

You can plan your topics months ahead of starting with the blog. It will help you work according to the plan instead of figuring out what you shall do every day.

Once you are ready with the plan and topics, you need to follow through with them and start updating the blog based on your plan.

Of course, it does not mean that you need to stick to the plan at any cost. You are free to modify the plan according to response, traffic, and your comfort.

6. Promote Your Blog

After you have accomplished all the steps to create your first blog, it is time to promote it. Promotion may not be a part of the blogging process, but it is equally essential for its growth.

Promoting your blog means bringing it in front of people who are going to read it.

If you put all your efforts into the blog, the last thing you will want is to have no viewers.

There are uncountable ways of promoting your blog. The most effective means to attract more viewers are SEO and popular social media platforms like Facebook.

You may also like to use other platforms like YouTube and Instagram, but they require a certain innovation level. But you can be generic on Facebook.

It is entirely up to you to choose a suitable platform to promote your blog, but we recommend you to stick only to that method at first. Do not use multiple means of promotion as it can become hectic for you to manage them.

Once you have gained a certain amount of visitors to your website, you can increase your means of promotion.

Most bloggers prefer SEO over other marketing methods, and we suggest you do the same. It will give you the best result in the shortest time and lesser efforts.

Summary

As we have already discussed, there are several reasons to start a blog. You may like to use it to develop a personal brand, form a positive relationship with people of common interests, earn some extra money, or generate leads for your business.

If you have followed each step, we are sure that you have become more confident about starting your first blog. Besides, you must have learned everything that you need to know before getting started.

This article is designed to help you grow your blog as you continue updating it monthly.

Remember that all these steps were to help you start your blog and grow it. You still have to work hard to give your viewers high-quality content.

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sarajonesc · 3 years

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Can You Make Money Online in Canada Without Any Investment

Making money online is easier than you think.

The best way to make money is by searching for a flexible and freelancing job with the specific skills you possess.

If you start an online business keeping in mind the basics, you can earn some good extra money. Knowing your niche, or what you’re trying to sell is important.

The Top easy ways to make money online

1. Sell Productised Services

If you love doing freelancing on skills like content writing, video editing, graphic designing, it will be easy to set up a productized service.

2. Selling Virtual Experiences

Due to the borders of other countries being closed all over the world, it is difficult for travel freaks to book tickets and leave for an adventure trip to other countries.

Hence, it is easy to quench their thirst by offering local experiences on Airbnb online experiences.

From visiting local sites to hosting home cooking shows, it can be easy for an individual to do this job.

3. Start A Podcast and Sell Sponsorship

Podcasting is still one of the newest opportunities for the Canadian population. Thousands of people spend hours commuting, so there is an excellent opportunity for you to participate in their usual programming.

But for that to happen, your content needs to be inciting enough.

You can attract many businesses across Canada to pay you for featuring their brand on your podcasts.

All you need to do is mention their company’s name in your podcasts and briefly explain their services or products.

It is a type of advertisement, and you are just doing it through your podcasts.

4. Bring Offline Businesses to The Digital Market

There is a need for every business to go online in current times. However, many business owners do not have the resources or enough knowledge to go online.

Especially in this time of the pandemic, people tend to fulfill all their requirements through online stores.

If you can develop an e-commerce website, you may offer this service to interested business owners.

Moreover, you can offer several other services even after providing them with an online store – like photo and video editing, advertisements, and brand promotion.

You may educate these business owners on the benefits of an online business. It can accommodate a thousand times more traffic than their physical stores.

Lastly, if you have an e-commerce website, don’t forget to update it regularly.

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sarajonesc · 3 years

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10 New Ways to Make Money Online in Canada

The CVID-19 pandemic has taught us many things about our lifestyle, and one significant lesson is that we shall not rely on one source of income.

Having multiple earning sources can serve as a backup for an ugly situation when your primary job does not sustain.

Along with the rest of the world, Canadians have lost their jobs, and sales almost dried up during the pandemic.

Fortunately, several online platforms give you the opportunity to supplement your primary income.

In this article, we will learn about some unique ways Canadians can make money online. Hopefully, you will find a suitable option that suits your skills and goals.

10 Ways To Make Money Online

1. Sell on Social Media Platforms

Selling products on live streams has become one of the biggest trends in Canada.

Whether you want imported goods, clothes, accessories, linens, or edibles, you will most likely find each being sold on a live stream.

You can become an online seller too. All you need to get started is a popular platform, goods or services, and an engaging personality.

The platform you choose will have a significant impact on your sales. You must sell your products on a platform that is popular among the masses.

We recommend selling your products on Facebook, as it is the largest social community and free.

Almost everybody is a Facebook user nowadays, so that it will offer you a vast market.

Next, you will need to decide on what you want to sell. Choose a generic category that is essential for daily living, such as clothes, food, and other necessary commodities.

Or, you may also sell artistic products such as paintings, handicrafts, designs, and customized ornaments.

Once you are ready with the platform and products, you will need to do some marketing. For Facebook, you may boost your profile to increase reach.

To grow your customer base, you must host contests regularly and giveaways to attract more buyers. It will also incentivize your existing customers.

If time permits, you must host contests multiple times a day to attract more people available at different times.

2. Become an Influencer

In recent times, the influencer marketing industry is exploding. It seems that every other person is aspiring to become an influencer.

While purchasing a product online, people tend to trust buyers’ reviews more than the brand description. That is why more consumers are turning into influencers.

Being an influencer does not mean you have to become a fashion model. You can choose any topic you like and influence people with common interests.

Regardless of your field of interest, it is vital to have a large number of followers. Once you have earned that, you may start reaching out to concerned brands for promoting their products.

If you have a good social engagement, these brands will come to you for a paid promotion.

Instagram is the best platform to increase your followers and close brand deals.

3. Selling Productized Services

If you have some specific skills that are in high demand online, making money will be much easier.

Currently, there is a huge demand for graphic designers, video editors, and content writers. If you fit in any of these profiles, you may start to sell productized services.

A productized service means offering your skills to serve customers as per their requirements at a fixed price.

For example, if you are a graphic designer, you can offer to design catalogs, logos, advertisements, and web pages for small and large businesses.

Try to avoid negotiation if you are selling a productized service. It is crucial for you to take some pride in your skills and value them.

Every day you will come across several customers who will ask you to work for them at a lower fee. You must not agree to that.

However, you can always adjust the price as long as you are comfortable, but you should be confident enough to decline a job if the client is offering too little money.

The most significant advantage of having a productized service is that it has fixed deliverables and allows you to scale up the business in lesser time.

That is why we recommend you offer a fixed package to all your clients instead of customizing the quote for each of them.

You may consider setting up a productized service even if you have not worked as a freelancer yet. If you have the necessary skills, you are good to go.

You may like to checkout BriteWRX, a leading productized service seller in Canada, to get a clearer idea of how to set up your services.

4. Drop Ship Physical Products

Dropshipping physical products online is definitely one of the fastest ways to earn money online that anybody can start.

All you need to do is learn about popular products on platforms like Shopify and Gelato, similar or the same products from dropship suppliers and sell them on your Shopify or Gelato store with a markup.

The only drawback of dropshipping is that the profit margin will be minimal, not more than 5-15%. So, we recommend listing a lot of products to earn handsome revenue.

As a beginner, selling your first few products will be challenging, but you will witness more buyers as you go along. You may also use digital marketing tools or even Facebook ads to get more exposure to your store.

5. Selling Virtual Experiences on Airbnb

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced all the countries to close their national borders. It is heartbreaking news for everyone who loves to travel.

It is hard for these travel freaks to retain themselves to domestic traveling. Their hearts are filled with wonder lust, and they constantly seek adventure and explore new places.

Virtual reality is one of the latest trends in the tourism industry. People are constantly upgrading their living standards with the advent of new technologies.

But it prevails in the tourism industry for a longer time than you think. The first virtual reality introduced to traveling was Google maps.

You make some extra money while offering local experiences to them on Airbnb online that will help them quench their thirst for a while.

6. Become a YouTuber and Sell Affiliate products

If you think you have an engaging personality and are confident in front of the camera, you may consider starting a YouTube channel.

Currently, 94% of the American population watches YouTube at least once a month. And this platform has over 2 billion users worldwide.

You can use this platform to showcase your skills, provide information, create content, review products and services, and many more. YouTube allows you to post videos on any subject of your interest.

But it may take a lot of effort and time for you to gain a certain amount of subscribers before you can get paid for the views.

YouTubers also make money through Adsense on this platform, but that is a time-consuming process as well. You will need at least a thousand subscribers before you can feature ads on your videos.

As a beginner, you may add affiliate links to your posts on YouTube.

Affiliate marketing is an online business model for YouTube where you can generate revenue by providing affiliate links with the videos that you upload.

These affiliate links can be of any product or service that you want to promote. You can place it over the video with annotations, or you may add it to the description.

That way, it is pretty similar to traditional affiliate marketing.

But remember, you must not compromise on your content. Adding affiliate links to random videos and uploading them will not do any good.

You must strive to create videos that people will enjoy and share. Only those who will watch your videos will be able to visit the affiliate link you have provided.

7. Launch Your Branded Store

With more people moving towards online shopping, it is a great time to start your own e-commerce store. A website is not mandatory for you to sell products online.

You can get started with a business account on Instagram and Facebook.

If you are willing to spend some money and extra time, it is better to launch a branded online store with a professional platform like Shopify.

Shopify offers you better control over your online shop and more efficient overall operations.

Unlike dropshipping, here, you can add several categories and sell them at any price that seems profitable. Also, the margin is more flexible than other selling methods.

You may develop a dedicated e-commerce website as well. But that will be expensive and difficult to maintain.

Also, you will need to update your website regularly and provide customer support.

We recommend you launch e-commerce only if you have all the necessary resources.

Moreover, you will need to hire a logistics service provider to deliver the products to your customer.

Overall, we suggest you start your e-commerce store with another platform first, and you can launch your own website once you have established your store in the online market.

8. Work as a Freelancer

Freelancing is an excellent means to use your skills to make money without working on a fixed schedule. If you enjoy working on multiple projects simultaneously, freelancing is for you.

You can freelance just about any skill- photography, handyperson, writing, graphic design, developer.

Freelancing offers all the comforts you can expect while working, but the only drawback is that one contract will not pay you enough to cover the cost of living.

So, you can work as a freelancer besides your full-time job, or you have to develop a system to generate sufficient leads if you are planning to rely on freelancing completely.

You will need to learn to craft cold pitches and identify where there are opportunities apart from regular channels.

There are several platforms where you can connect to thousands of clients and pick projects. Freelance.com is the leading platform where you can find millions of clients and freelance workers.

But closing a deal on these platforms can be challenging, as several other freelancers are willing to work on the same project as you.

Freelancing is a flexible way to work that gives you a certain degree of control time.

9. Selling Stock Photos

With the advanced configurations available, anybody with a smartphone can become a photographer.

All enterprises and influencers are looking for content, and most content needs to include a photo to make it presentable.

You can sell your photos as stock images for these enterprises to use. If you have a camera or a smartphone with good camera specifications, you are good to go.

You will need to focus on two things before selling stock images: you need to identify your niche and build your audience.

As a photographer, you need to develop a unique style that will make you stand out. It will also set high standards that your audience will expect you to meet each time.

For example, if you are good at aesthetic photography, your audience will reach out to you when they need an aesthetic image.

Having a niche does not mean that you will stick to a particular category. You may click pictures of anything you want, but it must have your touch.

As a beginner, exposure is the key to attract more buyers. Post as many photographs as you can take every day, and remember to use some hashtags to ensure you reach the correct audience.

10. Work as a Virtual Assistant

Virtual Assistance is becoming a popular way to make money online. You might have already figured out what a virtual assistant is.

It is exactly what it sounds like. A virtual assistant is someone who is willing to offer their skills to support a project virtually.

A virtual assistant’s job role mostly includes admin or secretarial tasks, but there is more to it.

You might also need to manage blogs, perform digital marketing, proofreading, translate scripts, and many more.

The key to becoming a successful virtual assistant is developing and sharpening a particular skill instead of trying to get your hands on everything.

Mastering a single skill is more valuable than performing a hundred tasks reluctantly.

But finding clients for this profile is way more challenging than you can imagine. That is why you have to be exceptionally good at marketing.

You will need to attract as many people as possible and demonstrate to them your skillset and how you can help them manage a project.

Starting your own website may be a compelling idea to find more clients and generate potential leads.

Conclusion

You never know what is waiting for you at the workplace. You may lose your job or suffer a significant loss in business.

Having some sort of income backup is a sensible idea that is becoming compulsory for more people day by day.

Even if you have a well-established business, you would still like to use your leisure time to make extra money.

The Internet offers uncountable opportunities to make money. All you need to do is invest some time and effort.

We have discussed 10 latest ideas that will help you earn some extra money online. Of course, there are many other ways to make money online, but these the fastest means to earn more revenue.

The post 10 New Ways to Make Money Online in Canada appeared first on Maple Loonie.

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sarajonesc · 3 years

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What are the best VPNs to use in China (2021)

Are you planning to visit China anytime soon? If you are, then getting a VPN membership that gives quality service within the Chinese borders would be highly advised.

We’re sure many of you are well aware of the heavy censorship protocols followed in China. Going there without a VPN will block access to almost all your favorite websites and applications like YouTube and Facebook, to name a few. It is also a well-known fact that the Chinese government monitors almost all people’s data, using the internet within its boundaries. That can compromise any sensitive data that you might want to access on your stay there.

That is why before you step into the People’s Republic of China, make sure to equip your devices with a reliable VPN service provider to avoid interruptions in your browsing experience from the great firewall.

To help you choose the best VPN that works in China, we have brought you a list of the top 4 VPN providers that actually work in China.

Before we hop onto the list, let us understand the Chinese censorship system called the great firewall.

What is the great firewall?

The great firewall is a censorship regulation enforced by the Chinese government to limit the public’s access to foreign information to develop the economy by encouraging domestic companies and reduce the influence of foreign companies. It was originally called the Golden Shield Project and has played a significant role in internet censorship by blocking access to foreign websites and applications like Google search, Twitter, Wikipedia etc.

They employ many techniques such as IP blocking, DNS tampering, keyword filtering and others to control the traffic coming and going out of China. And they have also blocked many VPN services that have provided the public a gateway to the outside world. Many VPN services have limited services as they work in one province but are blocked in others. Therefore, it is advised to get two VPN subscriptions.

However, many VPN providers have proved extremely competent that even the great firewall could not compete with them. If you want to know about these high-quality VPN providers, make sure to continue reading about the top VPN providers in China.

Is using VPN illegal in China?

The Chinese government has been after VPN providers for a very long time and has managed to block many of them. However, these VPN providers have managed to work the smart way and changed their IP addresses every time they are blocked, thereby resuming their services.

So, it is safe to say that using VPNs is not illegal in China. While their government is frequently blocking many VPN providers, they have no intentions of completely suspending VPN services as of yet.

Free VPN for China

You will find many VPN service providers that will offer you free services but are they reliable?

The answer is a flat no.

Most of these VPN providers will fill your devices with viruses and spyware, hampering your device’s functioning. Also, because these VPNs are free of cost, you are bound to see numerous ads disrupting your work in between because ads are the only source for these providers to make money. They are ineffective and offer very low-quality security to the users.

Therefore, one must always go for a paid VPN provider as they will never compromise your privacy and provide you seamless user experience.

Top VPN providers in China

PureVPN

PureVPN is one of the leading VPN service providers around the world that offer servers in China. Worldwide they have a network of more than 2000 servers located in 140 locations with more than 300 thousand IP addresses.

In China, their servers are located in Shanghai and Beijing with IP addresses to surpass the scrutiny of the great firewall. They are zero log certified service, which means that they do not keep any record of user activity and do not collect any data that would compromise your privacy.

Their subscriptions begin at $2.88 a month for 2 years, and for any queries, you can contact their team via email, live chat support, all of which are available round the clock.

You can use this VPN on 5 devices simultaneously regardless of the scale of activities you do at the same time. With PureVPN, you can use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and most of the restricted websites in China.

PureVPN protects your data using AES 256-Bit encryption keeping your identity hidden from the constant monitoring Chinese government.

For accessing additional services like port forwarding and DNS Leak protection, you can pay an additional amount of $0.99 every month. All of these services come with a 31-day refund policy, so if you are unsatisfied with their services, you can easily deactivate your subscription.

View Special PureVPN Deals

ExpressVPN

ExpressVPN has emerged as one of the most reliable VPNs to use in China. With its highly secure and robust servers, you can access outside content within China very easily.

With more than 3000 servers across 148 locations, ExpressVPN indeed provides you high-speed connectivity even in China. Express VPN maintains a strict no-logs policy, so you can rest assure about doing your activities without the worry of your data being compromised.

This VPN service begins for $6.67 a month, which is slightly on the higher side, but you won’t complain about the price when you use their services. If at any time you get unhappy with the services and wish to discontinue, you can request a refund under their 30-day refund policy. And if you cross that 30-day limit, you can cancel your subscription before the beginning of the next billing cycle.

This VPN also comes with AES 256-bit standard encryption, which makes sure to protect your data and offer you advanced protection from the prying eyes of the Chinese monitoring agencies. In addition to its high-quality features, ExpressVPN also offers you DNS protection that will help to mask your location.

You can use Express VPN on 5 devices at the same time with a single account, and if you have any queries, you can contact the support team via a 24/7 live chat system or email.

View Special ExpressVPN Deals

Surfshark

Next on our list is Surfshark, one of the most inexpensive and most uncomplicated VPN services in China. Their subscription plans begin for $1.99 a month along with a 30-day refund policy. Also, it allows multiple users to access a single account, so it is safe to say that surf shark VPN is one of the best deals for you and your family.

They have over 1000 servers spread across 61 countries, which provide you fast speed internet connectivity. For China, their servers are located in nearby regions of Vietnam and Hong Kong to provide you the best possible user experience at this price point.

It comes with the standard AES 256-bit encryption along with DNS protection and an internet kill switch. They also maintain a Zero logs policy to ensure that none of your data is stored.

Surfshark provides many unique features to its users, like the NoBorders mode, which is very beneficial for people visiting China. It will help them access the internet without being bothered by the great firewall. The Camouflage Mode helps the user access streaming services like Netflix and Hulu by masking the fact that they are operating the internet with a VPN. Another fantastic feature is the MultiHop feature that changes the user’s server location at unplanned intervals, making it harder for anyone to track the user activity.

Therefore, if you want a VPN service for short term use but with the highest qualities, then make sure to check it out.

AstrillVPN

AstrillVPN is one of the most secure VPN providers that offer you some of the best features to ensure your confidentiality and safety. They have over 300 servers in 62 countries around the world.

Their services are being used by a very limited audience who strives for fast servers and Premium quality encryption. Not to mention, AstrillVPN maintains a complete no-log policy for your security.

They offer very high-quality features like the smart mode, which allows you to manage your connection on different websites according to your needs.

Their application feature lets you filter out the application that does not require a VPN to reduce the server’s load when doing extensive activities.

You can also access the dark web using this VPN without installing search engines like tor. Other features include:

An internet kill switch that stops your connection if your VPN disconnects for any reason,

Port forwarding and

A MultiHop system that randomly changes your server locations to prevent tracking, all of which contribute to increased safety without hindering the speed of your connection.

You can also share your VPN connection with other devices using their VPN sharing feature.

Their membership starts at $10 per month, which is higher than the other counterparts and comes with a 10-day refund policy. AstrillVPN offers a VIP plan for advanced users under which you can avail of 100GB of VIP traffic.

In case of any questions, you can ping their support system at any given time, and they’ll be ready to help you.

How much will a VPN for China cost?

All the VPN providers offer different subscription plans to cater to your needs. These plans range from one month 2 to two years or five years.

You should choose a VPN subscription plan according to your requirement. If you are going to visit China for a short trip, then you should buy a plan for one month, which would be suitable for you.

If your priority is the budget, you can go for VPN providers that are quite affordable, like pure VPN or surfer shark, which will provide you with a secure connection at the price of $2.88 per month and $1.99 per month, respectively.

However, if your aim is advanced security to protect your sensitive data, you can go for Express VPN or AstrillVPN. They might be a bit pricey, but it can be justified by the quality of services they provide to their customers.

Setting up a VPN in China

You should keep in mind that after visiting China, it would become difficult for you to access the customer service or to install a new VPN software on your device.

Hence, it is highly advised that you install the suitable VPN software on your device beforehand to avoid any last-minute hassles. As you know, the internet is very strictly monitored by the Chinese government; therefore, installing the VPN software after going to China would be impossible.

Also, you should install the VPN software two to three weeks before your departure so that you can check out all its features and, in case of any problems, get them resolved with the help of customer service.

Being prepared for any situation is always necessary; that is why we recommend that you subscribe to two VPN providers so that you can access the other if one doesn’t work.

Softwares and applications that are blocked in China

China is known for its strict censorship over the media and internet to prevent and suppress the spread of information. The great firewall of China has blocked over 10,000 websites, making it very difficult for any person visiting from a foreign country to carry out their regular work.

So, it becomes necessary to use a VPN to access all the major websites and applications otherwise blocked by The Chinese government.

The list of all the websites that are blocked by the great firewall is quite long, but we would like to list some of them here:

Social media sites and applications: YouTube, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Spotify etc.

Productivity applications like One Drive Android box.

Google and its various services like Gmail.

News websites like CNN, New York Times, BBC etc.

These were a few applications and websites that have been blocked by China, and the list keeps on growing day by day. Therefore, one should always rely on a VPN if they want to access these sites after going to China.

Getting a Chinese IP address

You might need a Chinese IP address if you want to access Chinese content if you stay outside the Chinese border. You can do this by connecting to a Chinese server using a VPN. However, not all VPN providers have servers that are located in China.

If you want to view content from Chinese streaming services like CNTX or Youku, then you should go for PureVPN that has servers located in China in regions of Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu. You can select any of these Chinese servers, and you’ll be good to go.

Conclusion

You should always have a VPN installed on your device if you visit a country like China. Due to their restricted access to the internet, it becomes challenging for a person to stay updated regularly with the world outside.

Not many VPN providers work in China, and those that offer free services are just trying to make money through advertisements.

The above mentioned were some of the best VPN providers that work efficiently in China. Make sure to test them out before you leave for China to have a seamless and hassle-free experience.

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sarajonesc · 3 years

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Top 5 Platforms to Create Online Courses

The advent of technology has enabled people to access loads of information sitting anywhere in the world. Moreover, in today’s world, where it became difficult for the world to function normally due to the dangerous pandemic, we realized the benefits of technology in education and related services. Online platforms came as a boon to bridge the gap between teachers and students. Also, it provided the liberty to students to learn from anyone they wished and enabled instructors to impart their skills and knowledge around every corner of the world.

In this article, we have listed the top 5 platforms that can help you create courses and monetize them without the need to spend extra dollars to create a website.

Teachable.com

If you have a zeal for sharing knowledge and want to mint money using this passion, then Teachable.com is one of the best platforms you can look forward to. This platform is very popular among people because of its ease-of-accessibility, and one can create an unlimited number of courses using the resources available on this platform.

You don’t need to worry about getting any specific multimedia devices as this platform can be accessed via any device like tablets, iPad, smartphones, or computers. You can design your websites using pre-existing templates or adding your customized content.

Now, let us talk about the pricing of this platform. When you join this platform, you’ll be given a trial period of 14 days to get a demo of all the features of the platform before you spend any money. You can upgrade your subscription if you are satisfied with its interface and functioning. If you don’t want to spend any money, you can keep up with the free plan. It will limit your usage to 1 admin user, and for any purchases made by students, you will be charged a commission of $1 + 10%.

This platform provides you the following three subscriptions plans to choose from:

The basic plan begins at $29 a month in which only 2 admin users will be allowed, and for each of your courses purchased, you will be charged 5% of the fee.

The next is the professional plan, which will cost you $79 a month and allows up to 5 admin users. Under this plan, you won’t be charged any transaction fees, unlike the free and basic plans.

The final plan is the business plan costing $399 a month. This entire plan allows as many as 100 admin users to access the platform without any transaction fees.

Among all the mentioned plans, the professional plan is the most sought after because of its budget and the fact that no transaction fees are involved. So, if you want to sell a few courses per month, it is advised to upgrade to the professional plan to avoid the high transaction fees of the free and basic plan.

LearnWorlds.com

On number 2nd, we have LearnWorlds.com- an online platform that enables instructors to impart knowledge with fun and engaging courses. The best thing about this platform is that it allows you to include upsells and coupons within the courses for added benefits. You can create unlimited courses and make them more interactive by creating a social media community. You can also customize your courses into different languages to target a broader learning audience.

LearnWorlds.com offers you a diversified way to teach your courses with its vast options for customizations. They will provide you templates for designing your website and liberty to access the content via any multimedia device like smartphones or iPad. You can generate leads, track lead conversions, and get assistance from their marketing team for scaling up your course.

Under this program, you’ll be provided a free trial period of 30-days, and after that, you can select any one of the following subscriptions available.

The lowest order or the starter plan is based around $29 a month. You can also make an annual one-time payment for $24 a month. It will allow only 1 admin user with a $5 transaction fee.

Next, we have the pro-plan, which will cost you $99 per month or $79 a month if you choose to make a one-time annual payment. You will not be charged any transaction fees for any purchases. This plan allows up to 5 admin users.

Lastly, for $299 a month comes the learning centre plan, allowing 20 admin users to access the platform. You can make an annual payment, which will cost you $249 a month. This plan includes no transaction fees.

Teachery.co

If you want to get started with online teaching without the hassle of learning the technicalities of digital platforms, then Teachery is the most suitable option for you. With its straightforward and sophisticated interface, your courses can be set up in no time.

With the help of real-time statistics and pictorial representations, you can analyze the progress of the students and further enhance your courses to improve the results.

As for the subscriptions, you’ll first get a 2-week trial period to check out the platform’s features and figure out if they suit your taste. Then, if you want to upgrade your membership, you can do so by making a payment of $49 a month. You’ll get the features to create unlimited online courses, including upsells, coupons and discounts. You can create landing pages, customer support team and also export the data from the platform.

To save the costs, you can opt for the yearly payment method, which will cost you $470 annually, and you’ll not be charged any commission, regardless of the mode of payment. This platform’s biggest attraction is that there is no transaction fee involved with creating countless courses. That makes this program a complete value for money.

Thinkific.com

Another platform that provides a ground-breaking opportunity to the people who have a zest for teaching is Thinkific.com. The platform provides users a means to monetize their content and customize the courses however they want.

On joining this program, you’ll get a free plan that will allow you to create only 3 courses. If your target is more than that, make sure to upgrade to the paid memberships, which also come with lots of perks.

For starters, the basic plan is billed annually and costs $49 a month. This plan allows only 1 admin user to access the account.

The next is the pro and growth plans, both of which allow a total of 7 administrators. Out of these 7, only 5 can teach content, and 2 can access the admin accounts. These plans cost $99 a month also billed annually.

The difference between the pro and growth plan is that, after the first 100 students for free, the growth plan will charge you 10 cents for every student.

Last of all, the premier plan with the total admin capacity of 55 out of which 50 can access the account as teachers and 5 of them are meant to be site admins. This plan will cost you $499 for a year.

All of these pricing plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee to help you make a wise and practical decision.

Podia.com

The last of the top five is Podia.com, which is one of the most trusted online course-creating and selling platforms by users. It gives users all the necessary tools and technologies to help users create the most engaging and interactive courses for students. You can design your store and customize it to cater to the needs of your target audience. Users can create unlimited courses that can be downloaded an unlimited number of times under their subscription plans.

This platform provides two plans you can subscribe to, namely, movers and shakers.

The ‘movers’ is the basic plan, which will cost you $38 monthly, or you can avail of a discount of $78 by subscribing annually. This plan has a limited number of features like unlimited curses, unlimited clienteles, and unrestricted sales.

Next is the ‘shakers’ plan, which comes with an annual fee of $158 or $79 a month. This plan comes with the included benefits of the mover plan and added benefits for the user, including affiliate links, membership plans for students and blogging.

These plans allow you the necessary benefits for scaling up your store like e-mail marketing, no commission, all round the clock customer service and many more.

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