How to Build Your Own Online Store With Zlio

PLEASE NOTE THAT ZLIO NO LONGER EXISTS, BUT I HAVE LEFT THIS HUB HERE FOR POSTERITY.

Zlio is a site that allows you to build your own online store, but in this instance you are not selling your own stuff, you are selling someone else's!. So you don't have to worry about managing stock or dispatching goods, that is someone else's problem. In return you are paid a commission for every item sold, or you can choose to be paid on a pay per click basis on some items. There are a number of different merchants partnered with Zlio, so there are quite literally hundreds of items to choose from.

The first thing you need to decide on is what niche your shop is going to specialize in. You really need to think why would anyone want to visit your shop rather than any other online store, so you need to choose a niche that will encourage people to visit. If you choose a niche that is too broad, then people are more likely to visit established online stores, but choose something too narrow then the number of visitors that you are likely to attract will be limited. Personally, I have been experimenting at both ends of the scale to see which is most effective.

Another thing you will need to check is there are sufficient items available that fit with your niche. Unfortunately, the only way to check this is to actually start your store to search the items available, but you can always delete and start again if need be. 

 Zlio provide a number of templates for you to use with your shop, so it is simply a matter of choosing one that fits with the theme of your shop. Alternatively, there is also a customisable template which you can change according to your needs. Unfortunately, this template does not allow you a great deal of flexibility to do much more than change colors. Simply click on Store Display, then Manage My Templates and then choose from the templates available.

You do have some options to personalize your template. If you click on the Display Parameters tab then you have the option of importing a picture which will appear at the top of the sidebar. You also have the option of adding to the header and footer - you can't import ads or you will have your shop banned!!

If you are feeling particularly adventurous then you can also edit your template's CSS.

Simply type a keyword related to your niche into the search box and see what comes up. Click on the check box for the products you want - you select up to 10 at a time - and click "add".

This then takes you to a page where you manage these products. From here you can create a category so people can find your product.

Also, here there are number of tasks you have available to increase the "visibility" of each product. You will see that each product has a "visibility index" scored out of 100 - most start at 0. What you need to do is try and increase the visibility index up to at least 35 for it to be found by the search engines. You can do this in a number of ways:

1. Re-write the description. This is the most effective way of increasing your product's visibility, but you need to make sure that whatever you write is accurate!
2. Add Tags - they need to be relevant! You will generally add 2 points per tag until you reach a point where adding tags has no further impact.
3. You can write a review of your product.
4. You can make product a featured item - there is a limit on how many featured items you can have.

You have the option of making some extra money on your shop by adding Google Adsense. First you will need to sign up with Adsense (if you haven't already done so).

Click on the modules tab and then choose Google Adsense from the right hand sidebar. Then it is simply a matter of choosing which ads you want! It's that easy.

You will see within the modules tab that you have a number of other options available to you:

1. Use the Sitemap module to automatically create a sitemap that is then submitted to search engines. This makes it easier for the search engines to index your shop.
2. Use the Shoproll module to add links to other Zlio shops. If you do this then the owners of may want to reciprocate and link to your shop. This increases the likelihood of your shop being found.
3. Use the Header Meta Tags module to add meta tags to your shop. Follow the instructions and it will more likely that you will be found by the major search engines.
4. Use the Statistics Tag module to add a counter so that you can track traffic to your shop - I use Stats Counter, but there are plenty of other free counters available.
5. Use the ZlioZone Widget module to create a widget that you can put onto your blog or website. But unfortunately not your HubPage - I've tried and it doesn't work!

Here are just a few suggestions as to how to promote your shop:

• Write a HubPage/Squidoo lens about it!
• Write a HubPage/Squidoo lens about a subject related to your chosen niche and add a link to your shop.
• If you have a blog, write a blog post about your shop.
• Add the ZlioZone widget to your blog/website if you have one.
• Write more articles (as many as you can!) on subjects related to your niche and submit them to article directories. Make sure that you put a link back to your shop in the resource box. If you write some decent articles then they may appear on other people's site, complete with you link back to your shop of course!
• Add your shop to web directories - but you will have to limit yourself to those directories that don't require a reciprocal link.
• Submit the RSS feed of your shop to wherever you can. Just type in "submit RSS", submit feed", "add feed" or anything similar into Google and see what comes up. Don't forget that you can put the RSS feed into your HubPages and Squidoo lenses.
• Use free classified ads - there are literally hundreds (possibly thousands) out there. Just see what you can find on Google. Some will be local, some national, some international. Why not try as many as you can. Your ad will probably be rejected by some as not meeting their terms and conditions as they are really intended for individuals to sell specific items, but your ad will cost you nothing, so no harm in trying.
• Use a free press release. Well why not?! They're free.
• Join a forum related to your niche. Make sure that you put a link to your shop in your signature. You will need to post fairly regularly to get your link seen.

There are probably more - but that should keep you going for a while!

Whilst you will not be physically handling stock, you will still need to keep an eye on when things go out of stock. This may be because some items are seasonal, or just simply discontinued. In this happens then you will need to delete these items and (if you can) replace it with something else.

It is also a good idea to rotate your featured items so that your store does not always look the same. 

What next you ask? Well build another Zlio store of course! You can build up to 50! Best get started then......