How to Create an Ecommerce Site with Google Blogger

Whether for business or pleasure, blogging can be a lucrative and fruitful way of spending time on the web. Adding fresh content, adding your company voice to a subject or topic can propel your business and website from relative obscurity to overnight viral success. Blogging is something that many people enjoy and for a business, it is an essential channel for keeping in touch with customers.

It is also possible to monetise your blog through a number of avenues, including advertising and ecommerce shops.

This article will help you set up a blog on Blogger and help you monetise it.

What is Google Blogger?

Blogger is Google’s popular, free online blogging platform used many people to increase their online presence, from writing about to hobbies and interests to creating budding ecommerce empires.

Blogger was developed by Pyra Labs but bought in 2003 by Google. Since then, the free blogging tool has become an integral part of Google’s platform, with posts being published to BlogSpot. It is used by businesses across all industries and sectors to get their blogged material in front of fans, followers and customers.

If you have not used Google’s Blogger tool yet, you may be surprised at what it can offer your business, as well as a profitable sideline with Google Adsense too.

Getting started on Google Blogger

From keeping family and friends updated about your life, to starting your own advice column, discussing the latest politics or to satisfying your lust for a particular topic or subject, a blog is one way of doing it.

For a business, it is also a way for them to share knowledge and information about their products and services, garnering interest and generating sales, as well as showing their thought leadership on their industry through posts. Regular posting can also increase their search engine rankings.

Blogger offers many features and functions, making it a great platform for most businesses. It is also possible to host more than one blog if you feel you want to separate subjects or topics, or have multiple contributors. Bearing in mind it is a free to use platform, many bloggers feel that it offers far more than some of the blogging platforms that users pay for.

To set up a Google Blogger Blog, just follow these three easy steps:

Step 1 – Create an account

If you have a Gmail email account, this is more or less done for you. It is a simple case of connecting your current G+ profile with blogger. If you do not have a Gmail account, the steps are simple and straightforward – Input your name, a connected email address and a password.

Step 2 – Name your blog

You can assign your blog any name at all. You can also create other blogs and have them linked to one account. You can have a separate business and personal blogs, but have them all in one convenient place.

Step 3 – Choose a template

You may feel the number of templates options is limited but, as you blog grows, you’ll more than likely realise that simplicity is no barrier to grabbing a broad audience. However, the one factor that many people enjoy about Blogger is that despite its simplicity, it still has an impact online – unusual in today’s crowded web space.

Posting on Google Blogger

Once you have completed the above three steps you can begin posting. Blogger uses a WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get). On one hand, you may have been expecting something more complex but for many people, this simple approach works well. You create the post, format it and post it.

If you feel you need more formatting options, you can use Google Docs to post to your Blogger account, using advanced editing with HTML.

You can also configure your Blogger with a secret email address so that you can email completed blog posts to your blog. If you are not always at your desk, you can make quick updates and so on via your smartphone or tablet too.

It may be simple, but Blogger boasts a range of features:

• Pictures and graphics – You can upload photos from your desktop to your blog, choose a basic layout for them, and easily select the perfect size.
• Video – Adding YouTube clips is also a possibility, and it’s quite straightforward to embed these in.

There are lots of new features being added all the time, such as being able to directly load photos from your mobile too – despite being free to use, it’s constantly evolving.

Making money with Google Blogger

As mentioned previously, blogging can provide a good way to sell your products without the expense and maintenance required by a full ecommerce website. If you want to create a standout ecommerce site with Google Blogger, we recommend taking the following steps:

Find the right template

Blogger offers hundreds of templates, so once you feel more comfortable you should explore those available and try to find one that evokes the right look and feel for your ecommerce store.

Describe your products

More than likely this will be your first blog post – a description of your products, including photos. You can even embed a YouTube video if you wish. You may need to update these listings with new posts from time to time, or you may want to add a permalink to the post on your blog’s header menu.

Integrate PayPal

PayPal is one of the world’s most widely used payment systems and so you are missing out on an uncountable amount of business if it is not integrated with your ecommerce Blogger site.

It is actually very straightforward to integrate PayPal into Google Blogger. Once you have signed in to your PayPal account, you need to navigate to My Selling Tools – Selling Online – Update – Selling Preferences – Create New Button. This will create the HTML code required, and you can then simply copy and paste the code into your web page.

Make use of Google AdSense

Although Blogger is not the only platform to offer this, there is a possibility of creating income from your blog with the use of Google AdSense ads. The amount you earn depends on your subject matter as well as the popularity of your blog. Clearly, creating a blog that has frequent visitors, with fresh content posted regularly will make an impact on how much earning potential the blog has.

With your Blogger account, you will see a link to AdSense. You are not automatically subscribed – you can avoid the adverts if you like.

The ads appear down the side of your blog, or in another prominent place depending on your template. That said, they do not obscure or impinge on your content.

Creating and placing AdSense adverts is not complex, and with varying degrees of success, it can be a simple way of creating some very appealing extra revenue. There are examples of popular blogs that make around $500 a month from AdSense adverts. Or, you may be happy with a few extra pounds here and there!

Promote, promote, promote!

As you have set up your free ecommerce site using Google Blogger, what better way to promote your products than with free social media networking sites? Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ can all play a part in your online success, and regular exposure of products on these sites may also help you move up the search engine rankings.

Summary

If you want to blog for revenue, there are other ways of making better money, and faster, such as buying your own web space and customising adverts that way. If, however, you are looking for a simple, effective blogging platform that could bring you and your business much-needed exposure, then Blogger could be perfect for you.

Next Steps

If you’re looking to start up an ecommerce blog then why not talk to one of Expert Market’s approved suppliers. By putting your info in the form at the top of the page, we can match you with the companies best able to meet your needs.