Thanks for joining
A Better Lemonade Stand
!
I wanted to make sure to start you off right so I have put together the absolute best resources for
you in this book.
Before I get into all of that, I wanted to highlight a few things to catch you up to speed with
what’s going on at A Better Lemonade Stand.
Top Rated Blog Posts
I have a few standout posts that I suggest you take some time to look at. The first is H
ow I Built
An Online T-Shirt Business In 24 Hours , the next is A
dvanced Instagram Tactics To Get More
Followers , and finally, make sure to check out B
ehind The Scenes of a 6 Month Old Ecommerce
Business .
#TheGreatBuild Project
I encourage you to check out #TheGreatBuild
. #TheGreatBuild was a several month project where I documented each step of building my
last ecommerce business. Check that out
here!
The Ecommerce Private Facebook Group
This is a private Facebook group with an active group of other passionate ecommerce entrepreneurs. If you’re interested in joining this
group, click here
.
Once again, I really want to thank you for joining A Better Lemonade Stand. I'm really excited to share my knowledge and experience with
you. Please feel free to email me anytime at [email protected].
Cheers,
A Better Lemonade Stand
|
Richard Lazazzera
| Last Update: August 26, 2015
1
About A Better Lemonade Stand
A Better Lemonade Stand in an online ecommerce incubator. It’s purpose is to inspire new entrepreneurs as well as to provide the tools
and resources to build, launch and grow online businesses better, faster and cheaper. It’s the goal of A Better Lemonade Stand to help
create and cultivate 20,000 new entrepreneurs in 2015.
If you’re interested in partnering with A Better Lemonade Stand to make ecommerce better, please contact me through my
partner
contact form .
About Richard Lazazzera
My Past - My name is Richard and I believe in ecommerce. I’m a ecommerce entrepreneur and founder of A Better Lemonade Stand. In the
last five years, I’ve built, launched, grown and sold several ecommerce businesses.
In that time, I’ve also been privileged enough to personally interview, learn from and consult hundreds of online entrepreneurs.
In early 2014, I also had the opportunity to join the Growth Team at Shopify for a year and a half, participating in growing it to a 2 billion
dollar company and going public on the NYSE and TSX in May of 2015. In that time, it was my responsibility to inspire and educate
thousands entrepreneurs to build, launch and grow their online business.
My Present -
I am currently focused on inspiring and educating 20,000 entrepreneurs to start and build their first online business in 2015.
My Future - Through A Better Lemonade Stand, my ultimate goal is to continue helping early stage entrepreneurs as well as partnering
with the most influential companies and people in ecommerce to assist in shaping the direction of online commerce for the future, always
in favor of entrepreneurship and small business.
A Better Lemonade Stand
|
Richard Lazazzera
| Last Update: August 26, 2015
2
My Blog Posts On Shopify
For a year and a half I worked on the Shopify Growth Team. In that time, I wrote
nearly 50 blog posts. Each one of those blog posts is the absolute most
comprehensive post on their respective topics. These blog posts cover
everything from finding a product to sell online to conversion optimization.
Take a look at each of the blog posts below, you’re sure to find something to
covers what you’re looking for.
1.
8 Strategies for Finding Your First Product
2. The 10 Best Places Ecommerce Entrepreneurs Go To Find Product Ideas
3. 10 Interesting Product Ideas Trending Right Now
4. How To Evaluate Market Demand For Your New Product Idea
5. The 16-Step Guide to Evaluating the Viability of Any Product Idea
6. Make, Manufacture, Wholesale or Dropship: The Pros and Cons of Each Model
7. How To Find a Manufacturer or Supplier for Your Product Idea
8. The Beginner’s Guide to Ecommerce Shipping and Fulfillment
9. The Beginner’s Guide To Keyword Research For Ecommerce
10. How To Build A Massive Following On Instagram
11. Countdown To Launching Your Ecommerce Business
12. Ecommerce Blueprint: How To Build, Launch And Grow A Profitable Online Store
13. How To Start An Online T-Shirt Business: The Ultimate Guide
14. Google Analytics For Ecommerce: A Beginners Guide
15. How to Track Your Marketing Campaigns in Google Analytics
16. Ecommerce Shipping Toolbox: Apps, Tools, and Resources
A Better Lemonade Stand
|
Richard Lazazzera
| Last Update: August 26, 2015
3
17. 9 Essential Podcasts Every Ecommerce Entrepreneur Should Subscribe To
18. 8 Marketing Tactics (And Apps) That Turn Shoppers Into Buyers
19. 5 Strategies To Validate Your Product Ideas
20. How To Build Buyer Personas For Better Marketing
21. How to Prepare Your Online Store for the Holiday Season
22. 6 Foundational Ecommerce Marketing Tactics to Stop Your Bucket from Leaking
23. 14 Ways to Use Offers, Coupons, Discounts and Deals to Drive Revenue
24. 7 Customer Retention Tactics to Get Current Ecommerce Customers to Purchase More
25. Referral Marketing 101: 7 Tactics to Launch Your Own Referral Campaign
26. Why You Should Be Using Popups on Your Online Store
27. How To Find A Product To Sell Online: The Definitive Guide
28. How to Create Beautiful (and Persuasive) Hero Images for Your Online Store
29. How to Safely Source Products from the World’s Biggest Supplier Directory
30. A 5-Step Plan to Updating and Optimizing Your Online Store
31. How To Create a Memorable and Shareable Unboxing Experience for Your Brand
32. The Importance of Focus for Your Ecommerce Business and How to Achieve It
33. How to Choose an Ecommerce Business Model
34. How to Increase Revenue with Upselling and Cross-Selling
35. How to Make Your First 10 Sales
36. Don’t Make These 7 Mistakes in Your Ecommerce Business
37. Building Backlinks: The Backbone of Your Ecommerce Business
38. 5 Ways to Use Packaging Inserts to Increase Customer Loyalty and Revenue
39. How to Use Video to Increase Conversions and Sales in Your Ecommerce Business
40. How to Craft a Morning Ritual to Supercharge Productivity and Your Online Business
41. 10 Secrets to Achieving the Elusive Work-Life Balance
42. How to Exceed Customer Expectations and Over-Deliver Every Time
A Better Lemonade Stand
|
Richard Lazazzera
| Last Update: August 26, 2015
4
43. How We Built an Ecommerce Business and Generated $922.16 in Revenue in 3 Days
My (FREE) Book - How To Find A Product To Sell Online: The Definitive Guide
While I was at Shopify, I also wrote the absolute most comprehensive guide on finding a product to sell online, evaluating your
idea, validating it, and sourcing a supplier.
This book was commissioned by Shopify and is
free
for you to read.
Click here to read the guide.
A Better Lemonade Stand
|
Richard Lazazzera
| Last Update: August 26, 2015
5
Check out the free directory of
50 drop shipping suppliers & manufacturers
or purchase myPremium Drop Shipping Supplier
Directorywith over 150 drop shippers.
Learn more about drop shipping companies.
A Better Lemonade Stand
|
Richard Lazazzera
| Last Update: August 26, 2015
6
This tool is no joke. After I developed the most comprehensive product evaluation criteria, I turned it into a tool. By answering 17
questions about your product and niche selection, this tool will give you a score on the viability of your product idea.
Most importantly, this tool will help you critically think about the strengths and weaknesses of your product idea in a logical manner so
you have a better understanding of it’s true viability.
Click here to check out the tool.
A Better Lemonade Stand
|
Richard Lazazzera
| Last Update: August 26, 2015
7
This tool is no joke. After I developed the most comprehensive product evaluation criteria, I turned it into a tool. By answering 17
questions about your product and niche selection, this tool will give you a score on the viability of your product idea.
Most importantly, this tool will help you critically think about the strengths and weaknesses of your product idea in a logical manner so
you have a better understanding of it’s true viability.
Click here to check out the #TheGreatBuild.
A Better Lemonade Stand
|
Richard Lazazzera
| Last Update: August 26, 2015
8
ABLS Approved Ecommerce Resources & Tools
The following resources and tools all carry my personal recommendation.
For most of these services, tools and apps, I have explored, used extensively
and/or I have had personal communication with their teams and founders.
Ecommerce Platforms
Shopify (Online/Offline)(Embed)(Re-Occurring*)(App Store)
BigCommerce (App Store)(Re-Occurring*)
Volution (Re-Occurring)
SquareSpace (Digital Downloads)
SparkPay (Online/Offline)(Multi-Storefront Login)(App Store)
Gumroad (Embed)(Subscription)(Digital Products)
GoSpaces (Subscription)
Selz(Digital Products)
NuOrder (B2B)
CrateJoy (Subscription)(Storefront)
GoSpaces (Subscription)(Free)(Physical Products)(Digital Products)
Celery (Pre-Orders)
Subbly (Subscriptions)
Sellfy(Digital Downloads)
Pulley (Digital Downloads)
Sello(Mobile Storefront)
Factory Sourcing Tools/Services
Makers Row(All U.S. Based Factories)
Examine China(Reports on Chinese Factories)
A Better Lemonade Stand
|
Richard Lazazzera
| Last Update: August 26, 2015
9
SEO Tools
SEMrush (Track Competitor Keywords)
BuzzSumo (Find the best/most shared content on a topic and make it better)
SEO Review Tools ( A comprehensive suite of tools to researching and monitoring your SEO efforts)
Colibro.io(A combination of SEO, keywords monitoring and analytics mixed with a simple to-do list)
Social Media Automation
TroopSocial - Build your Facebook page for you by posting several times per day.
Edgar -
Edgar makes sure that your social media updates reach as many of your followers as possible.
Toolset.co - Toolset allows you to copy your competitors followers quickly, easily and for free.
GetRiver - Instagram engagement made easy.
Archie.co - Auto favorite and engage with people on Twitter and Instagram.
Tweetful - Auto favorite and retweets with sentiment scoring and auto-unfavoring (not a real word) after 24 hours.
Latergram - Schedule Instagram Posts
Takeoff - Automatically schedule your Instagram posts for times when they'll be seen by most of your followers.
Snip.ly- Drive traffic back to your site with every social media post, when when linking to other peoples sites.
Instagress - Automatically follow and favorite Instagram users and posts based on geography and tags.
TweetFavy - Auto-favorite tweets based on keywords.
CrowdFire - Find and follow people quickly on Instagram and Twitter.
Fiverr
- Buy Fake Followers
Graphic/Logo Design
Tailor Brands
(Logo and Brand Generator)
Creative Market
(Premium Graphics & Templates)
Product Photo Editing
A Better Lemonade Stand
|
Richard Lazazzera
| Last Update: August 26, 2015
10
Pixc
(Photo touchup and removing the background)
Graphics, Templates & High Quality Photography
Creative Market
Adobe Photoshop Alternatives
PIXLR
Canva
Outsourced Work/Odd Jobs
Anything that can be done without physically being present can be done with one of the following services. I have used Fiverr for
Graphics and Video Intros, Elance for copywriting, Odesk and Rent A Coder for programming challenges (Customizing ecommerce
website templates).
Carson(It’s like having a employee for your Shopify store to help with any tweaks and changes you need)
Fiverr
Elance
Odesk
Business Incorporation
When you are ready to register your businesses, these services can help you through the legal mumbo jumbo. Make sure you
educate yourself on exactly what you need before you go and get it.
Corporation Center(Canada)
Corporate Creations
Legal Zoom
Business Advice (Including Accounting and Legal)
A Better Lemonade Stand
|
Richard Lazazzera
| Last Update: August 26, 2015
11
Clarity
(Connect with business consultants, lawyers and accountants and pay per minute to ask them questions)
Landing Page Creation/Testing
Create landing pages quick and easy. Ideal for testing ideas.
LaunchRock
Striking.ly
Surveying
A great tool while in your research stage. Use your social networks to send out a survey to get some quick insight in your
idea/market/product.
Survey Monkey
Website/Design Color Coordinator
These website will help you better understand and choose colors for you website/logo/product packaging/branding etc. I
particularly like the Abobe Kuler tool. You can use color pallets the community has designed or create your own and name it.
Color Scheme Designer
Adobe Kuler
Colour Lovers
Email Marketing Platforms
You're going to want to begin building a marketing list so you can target promotions and specials to those who want to hear
about it. Building a customer list is a fundamental component of all ecommerce businesses. Make sure you choose one that
integrates with your shopping cart. MailChimp and Aweber are two very popular ones that almost all carts integrate with.
MailChimp
A Better Lemonade Stand
|
Richard Lazazzera
| Last Update: August 26, 2015
12
Google Services
Google has a ton of services to help you with your new business. From researching your product/market viability to managing
your online advertising and analytics. They are all worth knowing.
Google Analytics
Google Adwords
Google Keywords Tool
Google Webmaster Tools
Google Merchant Center
Google Trends
Outsourced Order Fulfillment and Shipping
Once you begin selling product and are selling product at a steady rate, you're going to want to outsource your fulfillment. That
means that all your product will be stored on a warehouse and when an order comes in, it will go through your website and
directly to the warehouse so they can pick, pack and ship your order on your behalf. There are many companies that can take
care of this for you depending on the volume you plan to ship. Things to consider are integration with your shopping cart, total
costs to pick and pack your product, and location of their warehouses.
Fulfillrite
(USA)
Fulfillment (USA/Canada/Europe)
ThinkLogistics (Canada)
Shipwire (USA/Canada/Europe)
Importing
If your manufacturing takes place in another country, you are going to need to have it imported. To do that, your need a customs
broker to inspect and sign for your goods on your behalf.
Pacific Customs Broker
(Clear your imports through customs)
A Better Lemonade Stand
|
Richard Lazazzera
| Last Update: August 26, 2015
13
Duty Calculator
(This tools will tell you exactly how much in customs and duties you’ll have to pay on imports)
A Better Lemonade Stand
|
Richard Lazazzera
| Last Update: August 26, 2015
14
A Better Lemonade Stand
|
Richard Lazazzera
| Last Update: August 26, 2015
15