Which shopping cart is best for online courses?

Here’s a question that is often asked…

Which shopping cart is best for online courses?

My answer is it depends.

There isn’t one go-to tool that fits in all situations.

My clients have used or currently use:

• 1Shoppingcart
• Woocommerce
• Shopify
• Clickfunnels
• Kajabi
• Clickbank
• Samcart
• Thrivecart
• Custom Programmed Solution

1Shoppingcart was the standard for a long-time, but it’s missing newer and more advanced features. It is easy to use, but it’s not the choice I’d recommend for those starting out today.

Woocommerce and Shopify are best for ecommerce stores where your customers add multiple physical products to their orders.

Clickfunnels and Kajabi are all-in-one-solutions that have page builders, digital product delivery options, and order forms all rolled into one. They’re good if you want everything in one platform, but I personally find them a little too restrictive if you want to plug-in outside elements.

Clickbank isn’t a shopping cart but more of a digital product retailer combined with an affiliate marketplace. They charge 7.5% + $1 on all sales, but several International clients use them specifically to access the affiliate network and because it reduces paperwork for them dealing in US and Europe.

And this is not anywhere near a complete listing of options. These are just the ones clients are using that come to mind.

A couple of high-volume clients have their own programmed solution that integrates in with their custom software and databases. This is not what I recommend for those getting started.

This brings us to Samcart and Thrivecart. They’re both great solutions with a lot of similarities and they have dozens of other tools you can connect as built-in integrations (payment processors, autoresponders, membership software, and fulfillment services).

Multiple clients use these two and they’re the options I’d most often recommend for online courses.

You can use multiple payment options in either cart with no additional processing fees.

Plus, they both allow you to add immediate bumps on your order form.

You can create upsell and downsell sequences after the first-sale.

They provide detailed stats on your sales, rebills, and cart abandonments. You can split test your order forms on either to maximize your sales and revenue.

They both have affiliate centers so you can recruit affiliates and track their sales, although Samcart only offers this in their highest priced option.

Samcart has a more user-friendly interface with drag-and-drop predesigned templates and customization available. It is easier to use overall.

Click here to try out their 14-day trial…
(these are affiliate links)

Thrivecart has one major advantage over Samcart.

At the moment they’re still offering lifetime subscriptions.

That means you pay for it one time and can use all the features for life.

Find out more about Thrivecart’s lifetime option here…
(these are affiliate links)

More clients are currently using Samcart or Thrivecart than all the other options.

Either one is a great choice, although any of the options I shared here will give you what you need to get your online business started.

* This article was originally published here

Why Online Marketers Chase Bugs and Other Distractions

Angel, my one-year-old female German Shepherd, has an ‘interesting’ backyard habit.

She chases flying bugs. And before anyone asks, yes, she gets a lot of exercise including playing daily with us and our other 4-year-old German Shepherd.

But she has a lot of energy and sometimes that means chasing high-flying bugs with gusto.

This includes big jumps at bugs she has zero chance of reaching.

It’s kind of funny since it only shows up in the backyard and doesn’t distract her at other times.

At the same time, it sadly reminds me of a lot of online marketers.

They’re jumping at every distraction that comes their way.

One week it may be Facebook bots.

The next is all about Tik-tok.

Then Clubhouse is their next big thing.

Nothing wrong with any of those…if it’s part of a consistent, ongoing plan to communicate with your ideal client.

The problem is when you start jumping at every bug you see, even if you have no chance to reach them.

There are so many opportunities online today that one of the biggest challenges you can face is deciding on what is essential to your business.

You have to learn to say NO.

It’s easy to find success stories for virtually everything.

But you don’t have the time or energy to chase every idea that flies past your eyes.

To succeed online today requires laser-like focus.

Find a hungry buying audience.

Choose a way to communicate with them regularly.

Make offers that will improve their lives.

In some ways it was easier way back in the stone age when I first started online.

Not technically. I can’t imagine going back to when I had to collect credit cards and process them offline, create websites using HTML without all our easy web design tools today, or having to use email broadcast software that ran on our own personal computer.

But it was easier from the standpoint that we didn’t have anywhere near the number of distractions you have today.

Online business was simple.

Get a targeted audience on an email list.

Send infotaining emails that provide value and make a connection with your audience.

Make offers.

Profit.

Here’s the funny thing though.

Business can be that simple today.

You have a LOT more options for attracting the target audience. You could choose blogging, podcasting, Youtube channel, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and all sorts of advertising just to name a few.

But you can’t do it all. You have to choose one or two good ways to attract an audience.

While you should build up your audience on whatever platform you’re using, you want to also move them onto your email list.

Send infotaining emails that make a connection. Make offers. Profit. It worked when I first started online. And it’s still the #1 profit center of my clients today.

Autoresponder Alchemy will help you focus on this simple system.

It gives you the alchemy that turns your emails into gold…over and over again…as often as you want.

It comes with step-by-step modules and cheat sheets to help you find your profitable voice.

And you also get 80 of my own email templates…ripped apart and provided in template form so anyone can model them to create better emails immediately.

Click here to stop chasing distractions and start profitable consistently with Autoresponder Alchemy…

* This article was originally published here

What is Internet Marketing? Your Guide to Today's Online Marketing - Search Engine Journal

What is Internet Marketing? Your Guide to Today's Online Marketing  Search Engine Journal

* This article was originally published here

Is Remarketing Dead & Other PPC Questions [Podcast]

Remarketing refers to the process of serving targeted ads to people who have already visited or taken action on your website. Search Engine Journal has published a new podcast ‘Is Remarketing Dead & Other PPC Questions’ featuring Navah Hopkins. The SEJ team says, “Loren Baker hosts Navah Hopkins, host of SEJ’s Ask a PPC column […]

* This article was originally published here