Transitioning from running a content site or affiliate site to launching your e-commerce brand is an exciting but challenging journey. It takes time, effort, and patience, but the rewards can be huge in terms of increased autonomy, higher profit margins, and brand equity.
In this comprehensive guide, we'll walk through the real-world story and key lessons from Garrett Yamasaki, who successfully turned his content site, WeLoveDoodles into an e-commerce business selling dog products.
Note: If you are interested in other guides to make money online, subscribe to our telegram channel today to stay up to date with our new content.
We'll cover:
- Garrett's background and how he got started with a content site
- Strategies for growing and scaling up the content site
- When and how to make the pivot into e-commerce
- Tips for product research, development, and launch
- Optimizing growth of the e-commerce business
- Key takeaways from Garrett's journey
Let's dig in and see how you can follow a similar path to e-commerce success!
Garrett Yamasaki with his Doodle Dog
Garrett's Background and Content Site Origins
Garrett Yamasaki worked as an electrical engineer after college but quickly realized the corporate world wasn't for him. He wanted to understand how businesses worked holistically and have creative freedom.
In 2012, he started dabbling in SEO but didn't find real success until 2018 when he launched a content site in the dog niche. This ended up becoming a career-changing endeavor.
Identifying the Opportunity
The idea for Garrett's site came about when he and his wife were searching for information on golden doodle dogs in their quest to get a pup. However, they found limited helpful information online, especially from authoritative sites.
Seeing an information gap, especially on mixed breed "doodle" dogs, Garrett realized this presented an opportunity. He decided to create a content site focused on topics around doodle breeds to serve this need.
This highlights one of the best ways to identify content site opportunities: by solving your problems or answering your questions. Chances are if you need certain information or solutions, many other people do as well.
Launching the Site
While working a full-time engineering job, Garrett started building his site in 2018. He took an aggressive approach initially, waking up early to write before work and finishing articles in the evenings.
This grueling schedule resulted in publishing around 100 articles within the first 3-4 months. Garrett knew this pace wasn't sustainable long-term and would eventually lead to burnout. But he pushed through knowing he needed to build initial momentum.
This demonstrates the importance of commitment and an "all in" effort in those early days to get traction and establish authority quickly. While not advisable long-term, making sacrifices with your time initially can pay huge dividends.
For his first articles, Garrett smartly targeted informational keywords with low competition and search volume. He checked tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush to identify topics with low difficulty scores to target. This allowed him to get some early wins and build credibility.
Scaling Up the Content Production
After a few months of intense effort in creating articles, Garrett started to see exponential growth in organic traffic to his site. This validated his approach and the viability of the website as an actual business.
However, Garrett knew he couldn't continue writing all the content himself forever. At this point, he needed to start scaling up his production capabilities.
Outsourcing Content Creation
In 2019, Garrett began investing money back into the website and hiring freelance writers to take over content creation. This allowed him to leverage others' time and expertise to grow his content library faster.
By the end of 2019, Garrett had grown his team to around 10 full-time and part-time writers. This level of outsourcing enabled him to produce 10X more content than he could single-handedly.
When looking to outsource writers, Garrett shared that Spencer and Matt Diggity mentioned discovering some of their best writers were moms from the Midwest part of the U.S. This highlights the opportunity to find high-quality writing talent in unexpected places if you take the time to experiment with job listings and targeting.
Developing an Efficient Process
In addition to building his team, Garrett worked hard to systemize and streamline his content production process. This ensured quality at scale.
Here is the workflow Garrett developed:
- Garrett handles keyword research himself and believes this is a critical skill for content sites. He builds topical clusters around target keywords.
- Garrett assigns target keywords and outlines for articles to his team of writers.
- The writers draft articles based on Garrett's outlines and templates. This helps them follow his style and formatting.
- A virtual assistant publishes the completed articles on the site and handles basic formatting and linking.
- A separate editor reviews the articles to polish the writing and optimize them for SEO.
- This pipeline allowed Garrett to scale from around 100 articles initially to 500,000+ words a month by the end of 2019.
However, he emphasizes focusing on quality over quantity. Investing in editors to refine and enhance content is crucial to prevent churning out mediocre filler articles.
When to Pivot into E-commerce
As Garrett's site continued growing over the next couple of years, he was earning a sizable income from Amazon affiliate commissions in addition to display ad revenue.
However, he realized he was driving 200-300K in sales but only earning a 2-3% affiliate commission cut. This turned on a lightbulb: there was an opportunity to dramatically increase margins by launching his products.
But when is the right time to expand into e-commerce? Here are some signs your content site may be ready:
- Solid organic traffic and email list: Your site needs enough visitors and subscribers to be able to market products effectively. Garrett had over 500K visitors/month by this point.
- Proven affiliate potential: Look at your top-selling affiliate products and commission income. These demonstrate customers and demand. For Garrett, dog products were selling.
- Established authority: You need some brand recognition and trust to succeed with your products. After a few years of building his site, Garrett had established authority.
- Sufficient capital: Launching products requires financial investment. For inventory, advertising, etc. Garrett had generated income over time to fund his launch.
- Personal interest/passion: Selling physical products requires a hands-on approach. You need motivation beyond just money. Garrett had a genuine interest in dogs.
For Garrett, 2021 seemed like the right timing, a few years after launching his site. His traffic, income, and authority had grown sufficiently to take the next step.
Using Affiliate Data for Product Research
Once Garrett decided to make the pivot into e-commerce, his next steps were researching potential product ideas and finding suppliers to work with. Luckily, Garrett already had fantastic data to inform his product selection: his Amazon affiliate reports.
These reports contain detailed stats on which products are purchased frequently by site visitors through your affiliate links. So Garrett was able to see exactly which dog products were selling well for his site already.
By looking at his top-selling affiliate products, Garrett identified dog brushes as a strong candidate for his first product to launch under his brand.
This demonstrates why affiliate marketing can be a great stepping stone into e-commerce. The purchase data provides incredibly helpful consumer insights to validate product-market fit ideas. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. Look at the affiliate stats to see what's already selling from your audience.
Private Labeling vs. Custom Products
When sourcing his first product, Garrett had to decide between private labeling an existing product or developing a fully custom, unique product.
Private labeling involves finding a supplier that manufactures a product, and then negotiating to put your brand name/label onto it. Custom products on the other hand are designed and manufactured from scratch specifically for your brand.
Garrett chose to go the private label route for his first product to get to market faster. He found manufacturers in China via Alibaba and AliExpress that could produce dog brushes, then he branded them with his logo and packaging.
This allowed him to focus on the branding, marketing, and sales elements rather than product development. Plus it required less upfront investment. The tradeoff is less uniqueness from competitors.
Later on, if you want to differentiate more via custom products, the initial sales data and reviews from your private label products can help prove your new products.
Overall, private labeling offers a quicker, simpler entry point for e-commerce beginners. But custom products allow more room for innovation later once established.
Vetting Manufacturers and Suppliers
When sourcing any new supplier or manufacturer, you must do your homework on the companies you'll partner with.
Here are key factors to research:
- Product quality: Order samples and test thoroughly. Poor quality can sink your brand.
- Production capabilities: Ensure they can handle your order volumes and production needs.
- Reviews: Get references or reviews. Don't just take their word. Verify their reputation.
- Shipping/logistics: Evaluate where they ship from and delivery timelines to your warehouse.
- Payment terms: Know payment methods, upfront deposits, and timelines to avoid problems.
- Legal protections: Review contracts carefully. Watch for hidden fees or liability clauses.
While Garrett moved quickly with his first supplier, he advises doing more detailed vetting as your brand grows. Don't risk the quality and reliability of your products.
Launching Your Ecommerce Brand
Once you've developed your new products and set up relationships with suppliers, it's time! Here are key steps to get your e-commerce brand off the ground according to Garett:
1. Choosing sales channels
First, determine what sales channels make sense for selling your products. Common options include:
- Your own D2C website: Provides more control and ability to gather customer data. Requires investing in fulfillment operations.
- Amazon: Provides massive reach and built-in infrastructure like FBA. But Amazon takes a cut of revenue.
- Other marketplaces: Sites like Walmart, eBay, and Etsy also offer opportunities to expand reach.
- Physical retail: For select products like boutique apparel, exploring brick-and-mortar shops can also make sense.
For his product launch, Garrett chose to sell mainly through Amazon FBA, with some secondary sales on his own Shopify store. This minimized upfront fulfillment costs and allowed him to leverage Amazon's platform and existing traffic.
2. Building initial demand
When launching any new product, one of the biggest challenges is building that critical initial momentum. Here are proven tactics Garrett recommends to drive early sales and reviews:
- Promote to your email list: Warm traffic from subscribers is more likely to convert
- Run giveaways/contests: Give away free units in exchange for reviews
- Offer discounts: Discounted units can help spur initial interest
- Leverage affiliates/influencers: Pay partners to help market your launch
- Promote on social media: Run lead-generation ads targeting buyers
The key is to get sales velocity and customer reviews as quickly as possible. This kickstarts word-of-mouth and organic visibility. Be aggressive early on.
3. Managing inventory
Another major hurdle with physical products is inventory management. You need to balance keeping adequate stock levels without overordering.
For his high-velocity dog products, Garrett initially underestimated demand. He stocked out early on until additional inventory could be shipped from China. To avoid this issue, he recommends ordering more upfront than projected if you anticipate a successful launch. Have backup inventory on hand to prevent any out-of-stock.
In general, closely track sales velocity and plan on needing 2-3 months for manufacturing plus shipping times when reordering. It takes practice, but you'll get better at predicting optimal inventory levels.
4. Optimizing growth of the e-commerce business
Once your products are in the market, the work has just begun. Next, you need to focus on optimizing growth across all aspects of the business.
5. Diversifying traffic sources
One important priority is diversifying your traffic sources to fuel sales. This reduces the risk of Google updates.
Garrett leveraged his established content site to drive a lot of the early traffic to his new products through links and reviews. But over time, he also invested in pay-per-click advertising through Amazon's proprietary platform. This allowed him to cost-effectively scale reach and sales.
He recommends focusing on title/display ads at the top of search results. And target long-tail keywords with lower competition but higher purchase intent.
6. Improving product rankings
When selling on Amazon itself, optimizing your product's ranking in search results is also crucial for organic visibility.
Garrett achieved top rankings by:
- Generating a high volume of external sales from his website
- Asking early customers for reviews via follow-up emails
- Running occasional promotions/discounts to boost sales velocity
- Ensuring high in-stock levels to prevent going "out of stock"
Amazon wants to surface products that will result in purchases for their customers. So anything you can do to demonstrate sales momentum and happy buyers will improve your rankings over time.
7. Expanding the product catalog
Rather than remaining a "one product company", Garrett knew he needed to diversify his product line to grow the business.
Using the same playbook, he researched new product ideas that made sense for his brand, sourced new manufacturers, and iterated his launch process with each new product.
Within the first couple of years, he expanded his FBA catalog from just 1 product to over 8 unique products. And he had plans to reach 20+ products by the end of 2022.
This expansion in products supported huge growth — from over $1M in sales in 2021 to a projected $4M+ in sales for 2022.
9. Developing your team
Finally, don't forget about building your team to support this growth. Garrett emphasized that you can't scale a business alone.
He leveraged agencies to help with pay-per-click ads, Amazon listing optimization, and more. For customer support, he hired dedicated virtual assistants.
The goal is to focus on what you do best. For Garrett that's strategy, product research, and traffic generation from his site. Outsource more tactical aspects to experts.
Tips for Managing Both Businesses (a Content Website and an E-commerce Business)
Once your e-commerce brand takes off, Garrett recommends maintaining your content site rather than leaving it neglected:
- It continues to provide brand awareness and customer trust signals for your e-commerce business. Don't let it stagnate.
- Keep creating new informational content, not just affiliate content. This broadens your audience's reach and authority.
- Revisit old evergreen content periodically to update it and reinforce relevance
- While e-commerce has great margins, display ad income still provides revenue diversification
Think of your content site and e-commerce business as complementary elements that support each other. Don't lose sight of your content foundation.
Key Takeaways from Garrett's Journey
Garrett Yamasaki's transition from a content site to a 7-figure e-commerce brand provides tons of helpful lessons for anyone looking to follow a similar path.
Here are the key takeaways:
- Solve a real problem: Choose a niche where you can provide solutions you'd want yourself.
- Start informational: Establish authority before shifting to commercial content.
- Commit fully early: Be "all in" even if it requires sacrifices to gain traction.
- Scale smartly: Outsource and streamline processes but maintain quality.
- Watch affiliate data: Leverage sales insights to pick products strategically.
- Private label first: Get to market quickly by using existing products.
- Leverage your assets: Use your site and audience to bootstrap the launch.
- Promote aggressively: Discounts, contests, ads, etc. drive initial buzz
- Diversify everything: Products, traffic sources, sales channels, team, etc.
- Maintain both businesses: Let your content site and e-commerce brand thrive together.
The road to launching a successful e-commerce business is long but rewarding. Garrett serves as an inspirational model for making the transition from content sites to physical products.
What key lessons resonated with you from Garrett's journey? What aspect of growing your online business are you ready to level up on next?
The opportunities waiting ahead are endless. Hopefully, this guide provided a blueprint to get you started in your e-commerce journey. Let's see what you build!
