Bloggers are adept at sharing their ideas with others, which can position them as experts in their given field. Once you have a following as a blogger, it is not so difficult to make the transition to e-commerce entrepreneur. The community building skills you use to build your blog can help you create an authentic brand your readers will appreciate.

You have a head start as a blogger

As a blogger, you probably already have an email list and so it is not such a stretch to begin to sell to subscribers to your list. Attracting organic traffic to an e-commerce store you build from scratch can be difficult, but as a blogger, you have a head start.

There are many ways to monetize content but e-commerce is a sustainable way to earn money and is the logical next step for a blogger. If your blog is about health and fitness, for example, you can quickly curate products to a store, especially if you go the dropshipping route where you don’t have to worry about the logistics of order fulfillment.

Use the right tools and systems

The technical and financial aspects of e-commerce are easier to handle than ever before. If you invest in the right tools and systems, considering their usability, you don’t have to spend hours figuring out things like sales tax.

If you’re looking for a business phone system that allows you to do business from anywhere and at any time, TalkRoute has a virtual phone system with many features, like call forwarding, text messaging and call recording.

Find products that work for your brand

You need to find products relevant to your blog and consistent with your brand. If you want them to resonate with your audience, they must be in line with the content of your blog.

You will need to do some competitor research and think about how your products are going to stand out. What is their unique selling proposition? Consider how the different products fit together and whether they have a consistent theme. Will you be able to expand your product line as you grow?

Many bloggers sell digital products because this requires very little capital – printables, worksheets, ebooks and calendars are just a few of the digital products that bloggers can make money from.

Keep your content strategy community-focused

You may fear that by trying to turn your readers into customers, you will lose them. However, this is only likely to happen if you change your tone and attitude. Becoming pushy about selling could mean losing readers.

Bombarding them with promotional emails isn’t a good idea. Strategic, user-focused content is far more effective. Continue to humanize your brand and you can even take your readers to the start of your e-commerce journey with you.

If you keep your content strategy community-focused, you shouldn’t have to worry. You can leverage your community to get feedback about your store as you develop it. You could also ask other bloggers to write reviews of your products.

Set up your store on your domain

Today’s e-commerce platforms make it easy to do everything yourself. Simply adding an e-commerce extension to your blog is an easy way to add shop functionality. If you want a more store-focused website, you may want to use a full e-commerce solution with design templates you can customize.

You must have a proper payment portal for your customers as a clumsy interface will put them off. Upload your product photos to your product pages and keep them tightly focused on what your readers will appreciate.