Running an online business is expensive
That’s hardly possible, right? I mean, the list of tools you need when creating and running a business online is quite long. Starting from a page builder to create landing and sales pages, which comes with hosting costs, to payment integrations (cart modules), then mailing solution to keep sales up, not even mentioning the stats you need to react to markets… It’s a long story. And it can easily cost hundreds and thousands per year, depending on the level you want it to grow to. But there’s a chance right now for you to run your entire business free for life.
Interested? Read on.
Running a business online
First of all, let’s check shortly what you need to run a business online. This is by no means the complete list of needed tools, it’s just here to give everyone an idea what running a real business can cost an average Joe.
There are many ways you can run an online business, and I don’t intend to analyze each and every one. I have neither the knowledge nor the time to do that.
Instead, let’s focus on a very simple idea – I want to run a small store where I will sell PLR products I have purchased. If you’re not familiar, PLR stands for Private Label Rights – products sold like that give customers the rights to sell them as their own products. I can therefore purchase a PLR product, customize it to my liking (like graphics, text, links, whatever I want) and sell it as my own product. It’s a very interesting and popular way of earning online, because it’s a cheap and cimple way to start a business. So, let’s assume I have already purchased 5 such products and I have them ready to sell.
Here’s a short overview of the tools I’ll need before running a business and to build a system that will bring me income.
- Landing Pages: I’ll need that to have a place I can direct my customers to. Here, they will find everything about my product and have a chance to buy it.
- Marketing Funnels: I’m planning to create funnels where I can offer more than a single product to my customers, effectively multiplicating the income per customer.
- Product Delivery: I have to make sure only paying customers get my products – I don’t want them to become public and worthless to me.
- Cart Module: I need a mechanism that will collect customer data, like email and address, and enable them to access the products they buy.
- Mailing: I want to be able to mail to my customers, selling more products to them. I will build myself a mailing list, which is probably the most impoprtant asset I can create for running a business in any environment.
Let’s say a few words about those.
Landing pages
The first thing I’ll need is some sort of a website. This can be a simple shop with my product listings, or a complete web store. I can build that easily using WordPress and WooCommerce, using a premium theme (like Divi, for instance) or page builder (like Elementor), right? True – if I have time and knowledge to do that. I can also buy a pre-made solution, like a WordPress theme that’s specialized for my needs.
The first thing I need is a hosting solution. I can create an account at hosting providers such as Hostinger, Namecheap etc. It will take me minutes, but cost me at least $200 per year. Done.
Depending on my level of expertise, it can take me days or weeks, maybe even months before my solution is ready and running smoothly. During the process, I will also have to take care of design, provide imagery, possibly videos and so on. A premium WordPress theme like Divi will cost me $80 per year, and I will probably need a few more add-ons to make everything my way, adding $50-$100 per year.
If I go and buy something already made, I will spend somethin like $100+ and still have to customize it to my needs and liking, taking me at least a few days. That’s provided I know the system, otherwise I first have to learn about the theme I’ve bought, possibly having to get acustomed to a whole new environment.
Marketing Funnels
You’ve heard of funnels, right? Basically, it’s a logical extension to sales pages, designed to let you earn more from each and every customer.
The concept is simple – after visiting the landing page (that is, the sales page for a product), the customer is redirected to the second offer, typically an upgrade or something that adds value. Then, the third offer, offering even more, and so on. I’m pretty sure you’ve been through such funnels yourself.
This is all simple and easy to make, you would think. Wrong. Having a working funnel requests you to have a system that supports that functionality, and WordPress by default does not. This means you have to do it all manually, creating all needed redirects and everything in between. It’s possible, but prone to errors. Lots and lots of testing is needed before that all works – I’ve tried. Not so very good.
The solution is simple – buy an add-on (a plugin or theme) that can do that for you. One solution I partucularly like is OptimizePress – a plugin with a specialized theme that supports funnels, cart module with all the needed functionalities (payment processors, product delivery) and everything you need to create sales funnels that will work. The downside is that it costs roughly $250 per year, plus, you’ll have to learn it. I’m using it on this very site, and you can check a sample of one of the opt-in funnels I have in place HERE.
Another solution is to subscribe to a SAAS platform like Convertri or ClickFunnels – these are fantastic tools that supports pages, funnels, memberships, email and payment processors integration. Convertri is also fantastically fast, and we all know a second of loading time can affect visitors.
Plus, it’s not WordPress – so no updating and tech stuff is needed from your side. The bad side, of course, is the cost which starts at $900 per year and can go as high as $2,388 per year. You have the money to invest? Great! If not, forget it, unless you absolutely need it.
Disclaimer: Yes, I’m using Convertri, but I was lucky to get in on a special deal that costs me only $500 per year. If you’re interested, I suggest you wait for Black Friday deals, I’m sure they will offer something. Here’s one of my funnels built in Convertri, by the way, check it out.
Product Delivery
Since I’m selling digital products, all I need is a platform that I can upload my stuff on and then get the download links to my customers. Easy. Wrong again.
I can do that using Google Drive, for instance. Or Microsoft OneDrive, or PCloud, od Amazon S3. These are all great and support uploading bigger files also, creating links and sharing them.
One thing they’re all lacking is secure downloads. I surely want only my paying customers to get access, right? If I give someone a download link for something I’m selling for $27, it’s incredibly easy for that link to go public, meaning my product suddenly becomes worthless to me. This is not the way of running a business.
It’s mandatory that I have a membership site where only paying customers will get access to the products. Like already said, systems like Convertri and ClickFunnels support that, and it works – if you can pay the price.
WordPress by itself has a Password Protected pages functionality, which works until the passwords leak out to the public, and it’s rather tedious to use. WooCommerce supports it, but you’re still limited.
Personally, I’m using a system called ProductDyno – a complete suite of tools specialized in digital product and course delivery. It’s a great tool, and relativey cheap (the pricing starts at $150 for a lifetime account) that connects easily to payment processors (Paypal, ThriveCart, etc) and many other systems, including affiliate networks (like JVZoo) and also funnel builders (Convertri etc). Each customer gets login details right after purchase, and can download everything I pack inside securely.
A word on secure delivery
Bear in mind that completely securing your deliverables is close to impossible – after all, even the login details for my ProductDyno accounts could be shared somewhere. But paying customers are relatively less likely to share their access. In any case, don’t bother with that too much, because trying to achieve a bulletproof delivery area would likely make you employ CIA or similar – but hey, even they have problems as we know. 🙂
Cart
Running a business without a cart module is impossible, because you will simply not earn anything without it.
Cart is a module that customer sees upon clicking the Buy button. It collects customer data, such as email and address, and interacts with a payment processor module that accepts credit cards or Paypal payments.
The most important function of the cart module though is the connection to the product delivery platform. The system has to know whether the payment has been successful or not. Then, the access data have to be prepared and mailed to the customer, and that would be the end of yourney.
Again, WordPress does not have that. WooCommerce does, but it can be tricky without additional add-ons. Systems like Convertry have this, and it works. And also ProductDyno has it.
There are great stand-alone solutions out there, one of the best is ThriveCart. It even supports secure product delivery, and checkouts can be embedded in any page, even if it’s a basic WordPress page. But – as usual – it costs money. The lifetime account will cost you $670. For what it does, it’s worth the price for sure.
Autoresponder – Mailing System
After a customer buys my basic product, it’s very important for me to continue selling to them. And I’ll do it by sending them emails with additional things they can buy from me. For this purpose, I’ll need something called an autoresponder – a system that will let me save customer’s data (email etc) and send them automated or on-the-fly messages. Really, running a business online without this is leaving money for others to pick. Nobody wants that.
I’m using Aweber. It’s an established product that servers millions of users worldwide. It supports automation, meaning I can define a sequence of emails to go to the people I tag appropriately, as well as broadcast functionality. It’s great, but it takes $74 every month from me. If you’re just beginning, they also have a free account available, which of course is somewhat limited, but supports the basic things.
Using WordPress to run a business online
Well, it can be done. Millions of sites across the web prove that, as over 40% of the sites worldwide are using it. But is it really the simplest, most effective way, especially if you’re a beginner, non-techy, or you’re simply in a hurry to start selling?
No. Far from it.
WordPress by itself is a free system that anyone can download, install and do whatever needed. True. But getting a specific functionality that requieres a bit more planned approach and is not merely publishing articles about cat grooming – well, that becomes another story. Running a business online using WordPress is definitely possible, but it will cost you either a lot of time or a lot of money. Or both. It’s just how things work.
What you need along with the free WordPress is a bunch of add-ons, like plugins and outside tools that can become expensive if you sum it all up.
Running a business online FOR FREE
What is you could get all the functionalities I’ve mentioned above completely free? Would you consider traing it?
Here’s the deal.
Groove.cm: Run your business for free
At Groove, they have decided to open the platform and give access away for free – not even a credit card is needed to create an account. I have no idea how long this offer will last, so if you’re interested you better hurry and see if it’s still there.
Groove.cm is a platform similar to ClickFunnels, but it contains even more functionalities and makes running a business online much easier.
There’s no doubt it takes some time to figure everything out, especially if you’re not familiar with everything they offer. But learning WooCommerce also takes time, right? Here’s what’s included in YOUR FREE ACCOUNT, along with the systems Groove.cm replaces and the potential savings:
Yes, you read it right: Groove even includes a complete affiliate system, similar to ThriveCart, that allows you to register your own affiliates to promote your products for certain commissions. Neither Convertri nor ClickFunnels have that.
Groove features compared
There’s a really long list of features Groove.cm supports. I’ll just include an image, for more details, please follow this link.
Running a business with Groove
In the image above, you can check the features Groove offers completely free at the moment of writing.
As someone who’s paying thousands per year for tools, I can share my reactions on this: it’s awesome, it’s fantastic, it’s freekin’ unbelievable.
I’ve registered a free account at Groove already some years ago, to be honest, but at that time, it was at the very beginning. It simply did not offer everything I wanted, hence I have looked in other ways. But since then Groove has grown into a serious platform that actually includes everything I might think of.
There are certain limitations, of course, like with the autoresponder functionality – you can only collect 500 contacts and send 15,000 emails per month with a free account, and you need your own SMTP server or integration (such as SendGrid or even your shared account mailing for start). It’s not enough for me, but if I only take ONE business there, it might work. And if you’re just beginning, it will probably last you for some time. Upgrades are not really expensive, though, and are easily purchased when needed with immediate activation.
Running a business online – Conclusion
Running a business online is no different than any other business. If you invest some time and money, you have a good chance of succeeding. Not everybody is ready to do that, it’s a fact.
But if you’re willing to do that, if you’ve had enough of working fixed hours, if you would want to earn something aside and maybe even grow your business to the full job-replacing heights, I can honestly not think of a better platform for running a business online than this Groove.cm offer.
Take a chance, register an account, and get your income to a new level with Groove.cm.
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