How to turn my current Reviews website into Ecommerce

Need some tips :)

[wfernley]

I was thinking of turning my website into an online store. I currently have good SEO and I get over 16k visitors a month. Is it worth it to turn my website into an online store and do that as my job?

I don't really know where to start. Some questions I have are:

- Should I dropship?
- Should I keep inventory? If so, Where?
- What kind of conversion rate would I be looking at?
- What do I need to get started? (not inc. website)

Thanks everyone for your help! :)

[Wlauzon]

Well, what do you plan to sell.

Figuring that out would seem to be the first step.

[wfernley]

Well I would sell products relating to my website. My website offers reviews on a specific type of product and because my site has become very successfuly, I thought - hey why not sell stuff off it ;)

I can easily setup a shopping cart on my site and get a SSL certificate and payment gateway. I think my main problem is shipping to the customer. Should I get into drop shipping or carry my own stock. If I carry my own stock, I will have issues sending stuff over the border as I live in Canada.

[haggul]

Become an affiliate - but do it carefully so your SEO doesn't get ruined.

No shipping, no customers, no problems....

[rj87uk]

I would really consider starting a new website and keeping your main one a reviews website.

I would look into drop shipping but this has pros and cons too.

I would point people over from your reviews website to your new Ecommerce one so they can buy if they would like.

This way you could advertise and track ROI better or so I would think.

[wfernley]

Thank you for your posts. I have hesitant to do dropships but I do agree with starting a seperate site. It would keep them seperate and help track ROI.

I was thinking about affiliates but I don't much much about those. Would I go through a 3rd party company such as Comission Junction?

[rj87uk]

First I would do a lot of research on affiliate programs and also search around your field and see if any of the big players are offering an affiliate program.

Joining a 3rd party is also an option, there are several major players that do list just about every supplier however you might get less money per sale you should research these things.

I would think your better setting up a new shop and going down dropshipping or something like that as websites that just have affiliate links don't do too well IMO. (Why would average joe go through an affiliate if you could go to a supplier?)

Just food for thought I guess.

[8foldpath]

You might want to talk directly to ecommerce shops that sell the items you have reviews for. Review sites are good when they appear unbiased. You could work deals into your site and probably get better commission than you would if you were just working with a regular affiliate program

As a fall-back, the standard affiliate path should be pretty easy for you to integrate into.