Article #9

eCommerce Stores Work Best in Instagram

The funny thing about Instagram marketing is that if you ask the same question 100 times to 100 self-professed Instagram marketing professionals you will get 100 different answers. I guess this should not be unexpected because there old saying "100 ways to skin a cat." You start with the same objective, but there are many different ways to get to that objective. It's like driving in the city. They made different roads: Sideroads and byroads just to get to the same place. Well, with Instagram and monetization I would beg to disagree.

Sure, you can promote an AdSense page using Instagram traffic, but that's like using a Ferrari as a door stop or a paperweight. It would be a complete and total waste of an amazing resource. The best way to monetize Instagram traffic is to get your own online store going. Now, you may be thinking to yourself that this is impossible. You don’t own a warehouse. You don't have any interest in running a warehouse. It seems like dealing with physical products, as well as returns and refunds is going to be a massive headache. Let me stop you while you're thinking this.

Thanks to dropshipping, you can kiss all of that a goodbye. You just set up an account with Shopify, install the Shopify plugin Oberlo, pull up some products from AliExpress and you have yourself a dropship store. Seriously. No joke. Real story. How? Well, it's actually quite simple. When you use your Chrome plugin to populate your store with Oberlo products, when somebody orders from your store that's the only time your Oberlo software will kick in and order from the AliExpress vendor, whose product you feature on your website.

This all happens behind the scenes and automatically. You don't have to wake up to process this order. You don't have to be there. This all takes place automatically and the best part of all of this is, if you set-up your profit margins right, your Shopify store can make money hand over fist. Just how big are the profits? Well, it's not unusual to find charms on AliExpress for $1 and pay $1 in shipping and then turn around and sell that charm for $15 or $17 in the United States. You make up to $15 in cold hard profit.

When it comes to monetization, Instagram and eCommerce stores are two peas in a pod. They are like Siamese twins, they are the best fit. They go together. Instagram is for the product focused, it is influence focused. People are into buying personas, dreams and perception. People are quite cynical. They know that there is such a thing as reality, but they want to live in a dream. They want to live in some sort of fantasy lifestyle, that's why they follow personas on Instagram.

Work that angle, work with how that dynamic plays out. This way, you can sell tangible products and if things went south, your profit margin is so big and you can easily absorb it. Now, the key here is to buy ad mentions from influencers. Start low and slow. Target small buyers can limit your losses if things went south.

Don't put yourself out on a limb. You might get burned, still if you figure how to gain works and you know what you're doing, these targeted small ad buys, shout outs, or other forms of promotions from Instagram influencers can go a long way in helping you make quite a bit of money from your online store. The profit is big enough for you to come put well ahead in terms of profitability.
