Bob Olson – www.SightMarkOnline.com

Bob Olson and his wife are into photography. Someday they’d like to sell their photos on their own website. That was what they were thinking about when they got the StoresOnline mailer. They didn’t know anything about StoresOnline at the time but acted on the mailer because they felt it was time to start learning about e-commerce so they could eventually have their photography website.

“We’d just started thinking it was time to start learning a little something about doing business online. We got the invitation to the conference and decided to see if we could go and learn about how to run an e-commerce business.”

Bob, who is a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, had spent the last couple of decades of his career as a project manager in developing software for the paper and pulp industry, so he knew what good software should look and feel like. When he saw the demo at the StoresOnline conference, he knew it was a good product that was well thought-out. They knew StoresOnline had exactly what they needed.

They didn’t intend to have a full time e-commerce business. They thought they’d just have a little operation to run as a sideline (Bob’s wife is still a full time nurse). At the conference, and then the workshop, they learned about e-commerce, drop-shipping, and how to promote a website. The more they learned, the more they thought that the best thing to do would be to start a different e-commerce business selling solid products so they could “learn the ropes” before they started their photography website. They would use a drop-shipper and learn from experience how to promote a website and sell online.

They didn’t know what they wanted to sell at first but they liked what they heard about drop-shippers. Another of their hobbies was shooting sports. They went to a shooting sports trade show and found a product line and drop-shipper there.

Once he knew what he wanted to sell, it took Bob a while to learn to use the site-building software, but said it wasn’t hard to learn. Once he’d learned the software it was easy to use.

“StoresOnline had a lot of help available, both written and call-in support,” said Bob. Most of what he needed to know he found in the online documentation. On the occasions he really got stuck, he mostly used the online chat. He liked that feature because he could get help during off hours and also because he could keep working while he waited for the answer to come back.

They knew going into it that it would be a lot of work. Bob said it seemed overwhelming at times but they just took it took it one day at a time and it became quite doable.

Bob started building his website (www.SightMarkOnline.com) in March of 2009 and published it by the end of May 2009. He didn’t work at it full time and he enjoyed the work. They sell sporting optics: binoculars, spotting scopes, and rifle scopes; mainly products for shooting sports.

It was about three weeks before they got their first sale. After that they learned all they could from the StoresOnline tools to market their site.

“Those first few orders are exciting,” said Bob, “because they sort of validate all the work you’ve invested.”

Sales started slow but kept getting better and better the more they marketed their website. Bob says the online marketing techniques they’ve learned are impressive because their site is selling successfully in a very competitive market against large players.

Nowadays they only spend a couple of hours per week marketing. They spend about five hours a week on other aspects of their business. Sometimes it’s just checking email. His wife is still a full time nurse. They treat their online business as a part time job. They’re also looking to build additional websites selling other products. Now that they know how to do it, they want to do more.

They contact customer service only rarely now; maybe once every two or three months. They get between 85 and 120 visitors a day and their conversion rate is around one or two percent.

They’re still learning how to improve their website and conversion rate. That’s why Bob likes the StoresOnline newsletters and webinars.

“If you do your homework you learn an awful lot about what it takes to promote your website,” said Bob.

Bob has expanded his product line a lot since he first published and he’s still doing it. They have about 166 different products on their site now and they drop ship everything.

They recently had a manufacturer approach them about selling a new product.

“It was neat to have a manufacturer seeking us out because of what we’ve built,” said Bob. “We could even build a whole new site just for that new product, if we want.”

Of owning his own online business, Bob said, “You feel a certain amount of control that you don’t have when you work for someone else. There are also other big advantages like travelling and having it paid for by the business. We get into a big, exclusive shooting trade show now because of our business. We get to see all the latest and greatest stuff there and get better than retail prices on products for our own shooting hobby.

“Having your own business gives you a lifestyle you just can’t have when you work for someone else.”

Bob still hasn’t built his photography website. He’s been a little busy with his current site. When he does get around to building the photography site, he’ll know just what to do.