Setting Up My First Eccommerce Store...Using Affiliate Links
Hey all! Decided I'm going o be posting a lot more on Indie Hackers - a little bit of accountability about what I'm actually accomplishing (I'm hoping) will kick my ass into gear.
Anywho, I'm setting up my first affiliate store on my website! hippieonholiday.com
I'm using woocommerce, and I've read about being able to set it up so when the user clicks on the product it takes them to the affiliate page. I'm getting all of my data ready for the products - it should be live by this weekend!
I'll be setting up with a Travel category, a Van Build materials category, a Blogging Tools category, and a Lifestyle products tab. This is going to be good not only for ease of use for users, but also GREAT for my internal linking structure! I'm so excited.
It's definitely taking me some solid time to set up though 🙄
Do you have an e-commerce store? I'd love to see it and get some inspiration!
Have any tips for newbs like me?
Does anyone else have an eccomerce store or their affiliates?
Thanks in advance! Talk more soon!
Hi @hippieonholiday and welcome!
I run a multi-vendor ecommerce store built on woocommerce, check out my profile. It's a side project (I'm involved in multiple outdoor recreational activities) and a slow work in progress.
I'll offer you a few considerations to ponder. They're not meant to be criticisms, you can take them or leave them, we are all here to learn from each other!
I am actually sitting in my RV 1000km from home right now, remoting into my desktop computer. When I went to your site, it disconnected me from my remote connection due to the animated background (BTW I also own a tech company so I can confirm this is an unwanted feature of remote access with some products). Anyhow, I decided to see what it looked like on my Android phone, and although it appears nicely, it is still an animated background. Think about your audience, travellers, who more than likely will be wanting to access your site from a remote cafe, or on roaming, and the animated background may make it a pain point in going to your site. Looks great at home but on the road...
The initial popup for the newsletter is cool, what are you using for that one? The one for the hashtag organizer is a bit of a nuisance however.
I'm using Chrome and a strange thing is happening with the double-down arrow symbols next to your menu names. They appear for about 2 seconds, then disappear and are replaced by an empty square. I'd do some testing on different browsers.
The Yt Fb etc really confused me at first until I realized they were social media links. You never want to confuse your audience, so you might want to remove those and stick with the tried and true social icons at the bottom that everyone is familiar with.
The "Log In" is a bit unclear, what am I logging into? The marketplace? Am I a member of something? etc.
Back to your affiliate comment. Help me understand, are you going to offer others an affiliate link so they make money when selling your products, or are you an affiliate for other products? My site will have both as an option, though I haven't set it up yet. I'm on holidays for another 3 weeks so it will be at least a month before I get back to it.
What I think you might consider as a feature may actually be a hindrance, so take this with a grain of salt. I'm referring to your "5 countries visited, 23 flights boarded, 29000 miles flown." That's kind of cool, and might sound exciting to a young person fresh out of college, but to a seasoned traveller that's just a month-long jaunt. It may question your authority as a well travelled person, so what you might want to do is a survey your contacts and include "what countries have you visited?, # flights boarded?", etc and present that as a cumulative total of all your readers. That way, it takes the focus from your travel experience to a larger number that encompasses all of your readership. Just a suggestion!
Some of the things I really love are the consistency of colors of the site with the photos, your About Me which gives readers a really personal welcome and insight into who you are, and your submenu names which are super clear and make me want to click on each one. Best of luck with the site going forward!
Oh I might add, if you feel the inclination I'd be happy for any feedback on my site!
Kindest regards
Wow! Thank you so much for this suuuuper inciteful feedback!
That is SUCH a good point about the wifi used by travelers, and being as I built this whole site during covid lockdown it definitely did not once cross my mind. 😂 I'll definitely swap out that vide - at this point sticking with it for the looks (after the million and one issues I've had with it) is just silly.
I'm actually using Mailerlite for both. How was the hashtag one a nuisance? Just curious. It's just supposed to show up in the sider or footer so if it was acting silly I'll have to look into that.
And how weird!! I personally use chrome and I've never experienced that arrow issue - but I'm planning on hiring someone to work out a few kinks so it's stuff like that I'll be adding to the list haha.
I'll definitely move those - I didn't think about them potentially being confusing and no one ever clicks on them there anyway lol
The login is because I'm trying to start up forums/build a digital nomad community. I've got buddy press setup so users that join my community but it's not quite ready to go yet.
I haven't thought at all about how to present the login button. 🤔 I suppose I should probably add a section to my home page about the community to clear that up. Have any other suggestions?
Eventually I'll be adding my own products, but currently I am just setting up a store of other people's products that I am affiliate for.
And I did think about that when posting my flights but I went with it out of the desire to be transparent (also this year I was expecting to up that number quite a bit but not so far haha). Doing an audience survey is a great idea!! Thanks for that.
Once again, thank you so much for this thoughtful review. I will most definitely repay the favor shortly.
Sorry for the long delay, on the road in the Yukon. The hashtag ad appeared as a popup twice which I found annoying, but it never did that again, not site if a bug or feature.
As to the login button, if it were me I would just hide it until such time as you need it, and have made it clear to you audience what it's for.