My Wife Quit Her Job is an ecommerce educational blog by Steve Chou. The name refers to his wife who quit her job to start their online business. Steve offers free and paid courses/mentorship on selling online on multiple platforms. Steve teaches about multi-channel selling and teaches that selling your own private label on your own brand site should be the primary goal. This My Wife Quit Her Job review will discuss his programs in detail.
Steve champions selling your own branded products on your own site. You still need to do work to rank your sites on search engines such as Google. Local lead generation is a business model that works with the same ranking strategies. With local lead generation, however, you don't sell any physical products; you rent out your ranked sites to local businesses. This creates predictable passive income without you having to worry about customers, products, or sales. Check out local lead generation for an easier way to achieve financial freedom.
7 Alternatives for Selling Online
Steve Chou's strategy is to sell in multiple marketplaces to maximize profitability. He highlights the problems of selling on Amazon and Shopify and advises his students to sell on other platforms to maximize profit. He teaches how to sell on Amazon and Shopify, but only to supplement your own brand site. Having your own site is the long-term sustainable goal.
Downsides of Selling on Amazon
Steve highlights some disadvantages of selling on Amazon, which may become a barrier to success for new sellers. Here are some disadvantages he listed:
These are just some of the biggest issues with selling on Amazon. Shopify also comes with its own downsides, such as high prices and lack of free customization. Therefore, Steve suggests selling on multiple channels in order to minimize the risks and maximize profits.
7 Alternatives
Steve makes 50% of his sales on his own site. For as little as $3/month for web hosting, you don't have to deal with selling fees or competition. One of the most important parts of having your own site is the ability to have your own customer list. Building your customer list will allow you to market using automated emails, Facebook Messenger bots, SMS marketing, and push notifications.
The downside of having your own brand site is that you will need to put in a lot more work to create your site. You need to build a high-converting website that ranks in search engines.
You can sell 2nd hand products on eBay. They also have flexible listings. You can use fixed price listings, which are good for bulk stocks, or auction-based listings, which are good for limited supply products in high demand. You can sign up for their Global Shipping Program, which will make it easier and cheaper for you to ship items from abroad. eBay also has lower listing fees ($0.35 & 10% or lower.) You already have access to a built-in audience.
However, you can be charged additional fees which are determined by your performance or reputation (they can charge you an extra 4% selling fee). The platform also has high competition, has a rampant piracy problem, and because items are usually cheaper on eBay, it is filled with bargain shoppers.
Bonanza has no listing fees, storage fees, or other hidden fees. You only have a 3.5% selling fee, and you can choose different commission tiers based on how much you want the platform to advertise your product. The platform is seller-centric and very customizable.
You will have the ability to import your listings from other platforms and brand exposure (Bonanza sends your listings to Google and Bing). They also have an affiliate advertising program. You can build your own customer list as well.
A big disadvantage is that Bonanza has a small user base. You need to spend more on ads to get more traffic. There can also be sync issues with listings from other platforms, which may lead you to cancel orders because of a lack of stock.
Overstock is the top marketplace for furniture and home decor. It is a great marketplace to sell name-brand, top-of-the-line designer home goods. You can achieve better success with recognized brands. Overstock has a huge audience base (30M unique visitors each month).
The listing fees range from $0.10-$3.15, and they only charge 3% commission for items sold under $25. They have good seller support, including online training tools. Overstock also has their own fulfillment services, which offer fast shipping at a discounted rate. You will also have access to customer analytics.
The major downside with Overstock is that they have a very selective process. You need to be a recognized brand for any chance to be accepted onto their platform.
Walmart has a wide reach (100M unique visitors each month). There are no listing fees, and referral fees range from 8%-15%. They also have their own fulfillment service.
The downside is that there is a lot of competition. You also might have to compete with Walmart's own brands. Product prices at Walmart are lower, leading to lower profit margins.
Smaller niche marketplaces have less overall competition. Because they are smaller, they will charge lower fees. The people who shop at niche marketplaces are passionate and motivated buyers.
The downside to this is that they have small user bases, meaning you might still have to spend more on ads to generate more traffic. Smaller marketplaces also most likely do not have their own fulfillment programs.
Open source ecommerce platforms are a good and cheaper alternative to paid platforms. Steve suggests 3 best ecommerce platforms.
- WooCommerce - based on the open source program WordPress. It is free, but you need to be a little tech savvy to navigate it. You have to host the software on your own server and maintain it yourself. This is great for those who have a WordPress blog and would like to sell products directly from their blog site.
- Shift4Shop - 100% free for store owners in the United States. There are no monthly fees. The only catch is that you have to use their payment processing solution, which costs 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
- OpenCart - Very customizable and plugins cost a one-time fee. It is a small platform which is in danger of obsolescence if support for it wanes.
You can also try investing in the stock market. There are courses, like one by Dow Jones, that teach how to invest effectively. Emmaus Ferdinand’s My Freedom University is an educational platform where you can learn 9 ways to make money both online and onsite.
Pros and Cons of My Wife Quit Her Job
Pros
Steve Chou is very knowledgeable in ecommerce. His training materials are very detailed. The range of what he teaches is very broad.
My Wife Quit Her Job blog and YouTube channel have a lot of regularly updated information for free.
Steve's strategy of selling on multiple channels and using affiliate marketing creates multiple streams of income.
Payment plans are available for his courses and include a no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee.
Cons
The price may be reasonable given the amount of material in his courses, which cover a wide range of topics. However, this might be too expensive if you are looking to just learn specific skills.
This business model is a long-term investment. You need substantial capital and a lot of time to start up your business. It will then take further time before you earn a profit.
Selling on multiple channels creates a lot of work if you are doing it alone. You will need to learn a lot of skills in order to manage your business or be willing to hire workers.
Price
Ranges from free to $1,999. There are payment plans available.
Refund Policy
No-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee.
Origin
Founded in 2009.
Reputation
Excellent reputation.
Who Is Steve Chou?
Steve Chou is an ecommerce entrepreneur and ecommerce educator from Santa Clara, California. He founded My Wife Quit Her Job LLC in 2009, which is an educational blog and podcast that teaches how to sell physical products online. Steve also runs a YouTube channel, which has 134K subscribers, and his My Wife Quit Her Job podcast is available on Apple.
In 1999, Steve graduated from Stanford University with a degree in electrical engineering. He worked as a development systems manager for Tensilica, and then as an engineering director. Steve sold his private label products online for years while working in the electrical engineering field, which he finally left in 2016.
Bumblebee Linens, founded in 2007, is Steve’s principal business. He sells his products on his own site and on many online platforms as well. His children also sell kids' shirts on their own website, Kid In Charge. In 2016, he founded the Sellers Summit, which holds regular 3-day curriculum-based ecommerce events with many successful entrepreneurs as guests.
Stave also earns via affiliate marketing. His affiliate links offer discounts to tools such as Long Tail Pro, Jungle Scout, Bluehost, Scope, Viral Launch, etc.
Steve Chou's 2023 Wins and Brutal Losses, and Plans for 2024
Steve's Greatest Wins in 2023:
Record-Breaking Sales and Product Growth: From February to October, Steve's store exceeded their all-time best. He saw great potential in personalized linens' year-over-year growth, while non-personalized linens slightly decreased in demand.
Successful Email Marketing: Utilization of Retention.com helped gather significant new emails. This contributed to customer acquisition and sales.
Boost in Revenue from Other Ventures: Steve's other business, mywifequitterjob.com, saw a 60% revenue increase mainly because of the surge in traffic and sales following his book launch.
Steve's Greatest Losses in 2023:
Challenging Start to the Year: Steve's e-commerce store faced a rocky start with a move to a new office building, because of a 30% rent hike at their previous location. This move led to a temporary shutdown and a slow start in January.
Google's Core Updates Impact: In October, Google's core updates targeted spam, inadvertently affecting Steve's business. This led to a decline in search result rankings and a slight dip in sales.
Initial Struggles with New Product Line: The launch of a custom printed linens line on Black Friday was chaotic because of the lack of proper testing which resulted in operational inefficiencies.
Steve's Plan for His Business in 2024:
Innovative Customer Service: Introduction of an AI bot for basic customer service calls to cater to an older clientele who prefer phone communication.
New Handwriting Embroidered Product: Plans to automate a process for embroidering handwritten messages in response to customer demand.
Expanding YouTube Presence: Scaling the YouTube channel with a focus on producing more shorts, videos, Instagram Reels, and TikToks.
Continuous Content Creation: Aiming for high-frequency content production across multiple platforms to expand personal brand.
What's not mentioned in the interview: The e-commerce space has become increasingly crowded. According to the latest industry data, there are over 26.5 million ecommerce stores in the world today. This saturation makes it difficult for sellers to stand out and maintain a competitive edge.
My Wife Quit Her Job Free Course
Steve offers 4 free courses that can be found on his site and YouTube channel. The 4th How To Create A Profitable Blog is not available at the moment. Here is the breakdown of the other 3 courses:
This comprehensive 6-day mini course is a detailed introduction to the world of ecommerce. There are 10 videos in total. Here are the 6 lessons you will learn from the free course:
- Finding A Profitable Niche And How To Source Products To Sell Online - You will learn how to find the right niche and product to sell using tools such as Long Tail Pro, Jungle Scout, Viral Launch, and searching on Pinterest and Etsy.
- Where To Find Wholesale Suppliers For Private Label And Dropshipping - This lesson will teach you how to find dropship vendors or suppliers/manufacturers. Steve walks you through ReferenceUSA, WorldWide Brands, Alibaba, the Canton Fair in China, Panjiva, and ImportGenius.
- How To Choose The Right Domain And Webhost For Your Online Store - A detailed lesson on how to choose a domain name. The dos and don'ts such as checking with USPTO to make sure there are no trademarks, not using numbers or special characters. How to host your site using Bluehost, GoDaddy, or Namecheap.
- How To Setup Your Online Store Website With No Technical Experience - Walks you through setting up a store on Shopify, BigCommerce, and open source platforms like OpenCart and WooCommerce.
- How To Select A Credit Card Payment Processor For Your Online Store - You will learn how to set up your store to accept credit cards and PayPal. Steve walks you through on how to secure your site with SSL and that you should follow PCI standards and submit to a quarterly PCI server scan.
- How To Design A Great Looking Website With No Experience Necessary - This last lesson walks you through how to customize your site using free or paid themes and plugins such as Turbo for Shopify and Shoptimizer for WooCommerce.
This free course teaches the 4 pillars on how to scale your ecommerce store. The course is for sellers who have their own website. Here are the 4 pillars discussed in the course:
- Trust - how to build trust with customers. Show customers what your store and products are all about right off the bat. Give assurances on product quality, free shipping and times, returns and refund. Have social proofs such as testimonials and reviews. Have a polished "about us" page and give your contact information.
- Retain - how to drive more sales from your existing traffic using email sequences such as abandoned cart campaigns, re-engagement campaigns, and pre-purchase sequences.
- Return - get customers to return by providing incentives to come back via email or PPC ads. Give coupon codes to customers who haven't bought in 60 days. Use Klaviyo to automate the email sequences.
- Optimize - use SEO tactics to optimize your store for search engines. Choose the right keywords with high search volume. The 2 most important parts are the title and meta description. Optimize your URLs and use keywords on your image names.
The free course teaches you the basics of selling on Amazon FBA and how to increase your chance of success. The course totals 10 videos. Here are some of the important lessons you will learn from this course:
- How to get reviews on Amazon fast without getting in trouble - Steve goes through the review manipulation policy. New sellers have a higher risk of getting banned. You can get reviews by asking for customer reviews on your Amazon seller central. You can also use review tools like FeedbackGenius, Amazon Early Reviewer Program, or Amazon Vine Program.
- Optimize your listing and rank in search - Use tools like Scope and/or Viral Launch to find which keyword and related keywords to optimize for. Learn how to apply keywords where relevant. Keywords should be in your product title, backend search terms, bullet points, and description.
- How to beat Chinese sellers dominating the platform. Traditional method creates 50%-100% price markup. Now Chinese manufacturers can sell directly on Amazon FBA for the lowest price. Black hat tactics and sabotage have been common in Amazon. The best way to compete is by making your product stand out, such as making your brand unique, making a great presentation, or simply selling your product on other platforms or on your own site.
- Set up and run Amazon PPC to maximize your sales. You can use Amazon Product Targeting Ads to have your product show up on the competition's listing. Make sure your product is selling well before bidding higher for ads.
Who Is My Wife Quit Her Job Courses For?
My Wife Quit Her Job courses are perfect for beginners, but the information and coaching can also help those who already have a store. The courses are for:
- Newbies who have zero experience or knowledge of online selling.
- Existing store owners who have a problem generating traffic, marketing, ranking in the search engines, or have low conversion rates.
- This course, apart from the legal lessons, applies to all countries. Students from anywhere in the world can use the course to start their own business, and can sell in their own home countries or in other markets abroad.
Create A Profitable Online Store Course
Create A Profitable Online Store is Steve's step-by-step course, with 300 lessons in over 100 hours of training videos or in PDF format organized into 15 modules. The course costs $1,999 or $699/month for 3 months. You can also apply for monthly access for $299. The course comes with a no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee.
The training materials are updated weekly to ensure the information is up-to-date. In addition, you will have access to weekly live webinars with Steve, access to previous webinars and interviews, and access to exclusive member forums, worksheets, and checklists.
15 Modules
The first module teaches you how to pick a profitable niche by evaluating the competition. This module will teach you the different online store types, such as dropshipping or private label. You will learn ways to find a set of products to sell by determining the size of the market and evaluating the niche for profitability. You'll also learn how to assess your competition.
In module 2, you will learn how the retail chain works. The lesson will walk you through how to buy wholesale from legitimate sources and avoid middlemen. Profit margins are directly related to how cheaply you can source your products. This module will teach you how to wholesale from domestic vendors and how to import products from overseas. You will also be taught ways to source your products directly from Chinese factories for rock-bottom prices.
In addition, you will learn how to create your own product branding. You will also learn how to have your orders fulfilled by others.
If you aren't tech savvy, it shouldn't matter. There are many easy-to-use open source ecommerce solutions available. You will learn how to select and set up a functional shopping cart for free. You'll find out how to find a good web host and how to secure your online transactions on your website with SSL. The module also covers how to process credit cards online and how to design your website to look professional so that it will build trust with visitors.
The module will teach you how to make immediate sales on Amazon while you work on creating your own brand website and selling in multiple marketplaces. You will learn how to create and optimize a high converting product listing on Amazon. How to attract reviews for your product and how to use Amazon to validate your niche is also included in the module.
The average conversion rate for an ecommerce store is 2%. Module 5 will teach you how to increase your conversion rate by creating effective sales funnels. You'll learn ways to create return customers and how to get existing customers to buy more from you. This module is all about getting the most out of your traffic.
Module 6 covers all the legal paperwork involved and how to get through it. You will also save money on taxes by learning how to deduct business expenses on your tax return. You will find out how to decide on the right corporate structure for your business and whether you need business insurance. In addition, you will learn how to trademark your business and how to protect your intellectual property rights through patents, trade secrets, and copyrights.
The module will also cover how to get a FEIN, DBA, seller's permit, and business license. You will also learn how to deduct your vehicle, office, etc. from your taxes. Module 5 will also cover how to hire employees, how to keep track of expenses, and how to do accounting for your business.
This module will focus on how you can effectively market your store for free or at a minimal cost. You will learn how to generate multiple streams of quality traffic using free marketing techniques. The module also covers how to market to existing customers and how to upsell and cross-sell your products to maximize profits.
Email generates over 30% of revenues, and it's a great way to consistently bring customers back to your store. In this module, you will learn how to implement email autoresponders and how to write effective emails to close sales. You will learn how to build your email list and how to turn it into a high-converting sales funnel.
You can reach over a billion people using Facebook advertising. This module will teach you how to launch a profitable Facebook advertising campaign. You will learn how to leverage Facebook's dynamic ads retargeting and how to quickly optimize your ad campaigns. The module will also cover how to develop sales funnels around your Facebook ads.
Marketing using Facebook Messenger can achieve 5-10x better conversions than emails. Module 11 will cover the rules of Facebook Messenger marketing and how to launch automated messenger campaigns. You will learn how to quickly build your Facebook subscriber list for free. You'll also learn how to create Facebook Messenger broadcasts that have high conversion rates.
The least expensive and best way to get traffic is through search engines. Module 12 will cover how you can optimize your website for search engines. You will be taught how search engines work and how they rank websites. The lesson includes how and where to get quality backlinks, how to take advantage of free SEO resources, and how to boost your search ranking. You will learn how to take advantage of blog networks and guest postings.
Finding the right price to set is crucial to your profit margins. Module 13 will cover how to command premium prices for your products. You will learn how to create your own unique selling proposition and how to find the optimal pricing for your products. The lesson will teach you how to use psychological strategies that will increase your profit margins. In addition, you will also learn how to deal with competitors that undercut you with pricing.
This module covers how to optimize your own brand store to maximize profits. You will learn the fundamentals of effective website design to create the right mood, such as effective use of photos and fonts. The lesson also covers the necessary pages to include in your store to build trust. You'll also learn how to improve your store's search engine.
The module will also teach you how to use calls to action to influence the sale, when to offer coupons, and how to recover lost sales. How to use Google Analytics together with Google AdWords will also be covered in this module. Last, you will learn how to automate backups in case of issues such as hacking.
Module 15 will cover how to create and maintain an excellent reputation for your store. You will learn how to interpret what a customer really wants and how to avoid frustrating the customer. The lesson will cover how to handle customer service disasters and how to reduce the likelihood of returns. You will also learn how to reduce unnecessary phone calls and how to handle customer support with few or no staff. Last, you will find out how to deal with credit card chargebacks.
There are 4 bonus lessons included:
- How to mitigate risk when starting your online store
- How to run a business while working a full-time job
- How to test the market before you launch your store
- How to pick the right type of product to sell
You will also be provided with a checklist for everything you should include on your site.
There's also an alternative way to do dropshipping without having any products. Print-on-demand products lessen some risks of dropshipping. You can check out Rachel Rofe's Low Hanging System course that specializes in this method.
Create A Profitable Audience Course
Create A Profitable Audience is a 15 module course instructed by Steve Chou and Toni Anderson (a successful blogger and corporate trainer for social media marketing). It costs a one-time fee of $1,097. You can also choose to pay $399/month for 3 months or $225/month for 6 months. The course comes with a no-questions-asked 30-day money-back guarantee.
Like with Steve's other course, you will also have access to live weekly group coaching calls. Access to the private Facebook group and 24/7 email support is also included.
15 Modules
In the first module, you will learn the 3 most important things to keep in mind when getting started, what types of content will make you money, and how to find the balance between passion and profit. You will learn Steve's framework for making a successful ecommerce site. Last, you will learn how to find your ideal audience.
The module will cover how you can set up your website from scratch for less than $3. You will go through the steps of finding and installing a theme that matches your niche and how to create your own web pages without a designer. You will also learn the essential plugins to run your website without sacrificing speed.
Module 3 will teach you how to create outstanding content that gets customers to love and subscribe to your site. You will learn the process of how to format a post that both caters to Google and your readers. The 4 elements of essential copywriting will also be covered. Last, you will learn how to outsource your content to writers and how to create an editorial calendar.
This module is all about SEO. You will learn the right way to perform keyword research, structure your posts, and generate backlinks in order to maximize your search visibility.
You will learn how to quickly increase your website traffic and gain subscribers. They will teach you the 5 critical elements of an effective website. In addition, you will learn to set up funnels that convert your subscribers.
Module 6 covers how to drive Facebook traffic to your blog, email list, or store. You will also learn how to generate free traffic using Facebook pages and groups, how to use Instagram to grow your following, and how to use Facebook Messenger Marketing.
This module will teach you how to grow your Pinterest account. You will learn the best practices for creating evergreen content on Pinterest and how to convert this traffic into leads.
In module 8, you will learn a simple Facebook ad strategy to generate cheap traffic to your site. The module will also cover leveraging Pinterest Ads to grow your email list, how to run Google Display ads to re-target visitors back to your pages, and how to run Facebook Messenger ads to add subscribers.
Module 9 will teach you about the types of digital products you can sell. You will learn the process of creating your first digital product and how to sell it on Amazon. Creating printable and digital files to sell will also be covered.
The module will cover how and where to find effective affiliate offers to promote. You will learn different ways to convert affiliate sales using your content, social media, and email. In addition, you will also learn advanced affiliate marketing strategies to track conversions and run paid advertising.
Module 11 summarizes how display advertising works. You will learn where to find ad networks to sign up for. You will also be taught the best practices for negotiating, working, and landing sponsored content deals with other brands.
This module is all about outsourcing work in order to scale. You will learn where to find and how to manage inexpensive writers and marketing virtual assistants. The lesson also covers how to scale content across different platforms.
Module 13 is all about pre-selling and validating your course idea. You will learn how to set up your website for content delivery as well as how to host a high-converting webinar.
First lesson in this module is about the tools you will need to start a podcast. You will then learn how to record and edit your podcast and how to launch it to the top of the Apple Podcast charts.
The final module will teach you the tools you need to start a YouTube channel. You will learn how to perform keyword research and how to attract search engine traffic. The module also covers how to create engaging videos that lead to an increase in your subscriber list.
Are Students of Steve Chou Successful?
Steve Chou and his programs have been around for a long time. There are hundreds of student success stories you'll find on his site. There are video testimonials, but most of them are interviews on his podcast. This is a positive sign his courses are legit.
Private Label Online Selling In 2024
Dropshipping is a short-term business that is not sustainable. You constantly have to put time to look for new products and to watch your competition. As with selling private label, it is a long-term investment. It takes a lot of time before you earn enough that you can afford to leave your day job. It could take years before you can be able to fully automate a successful ecommerce business.
Most niches in marketplaces like Amazon and Shopify are saturated with competition. Selling on your own site will mean you have to deal with server issues and maintenance, order fulfillment, payment processors, and many other things that the platforms usually deal with.
You can still find success with selling on Amazon or your own website, but it will take a lot of time and work, and capital, to reach that point where you can fully automate it into a passive income business.
Why Local Lead Generation Is the Best Alternative?
With local lead generation, you create and rank your site on Google using tactics like SEO and then rent it out to local businesses. Just like creating your own open source site to sell products, you only have to spend very little on your hosting and such. And since you don't sell any products, you don't need capital to purchase goods or spend time finding suppliers.
Local lead generation works like a sort of digital real estate. You rent out your digital space on your ranked sites to local businesses for them to generate leads. This provides you with a predictable passive income. You don't even have to worry about high competition as you do this locally.
All you have to do is repeat the process in order to scale your business. With enough sites generating passive cash flow, you can create time and financial freedom for yourself. This makes Local Lead Generation the best passive income model.
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Do you help to create the boutque
Hey, Azathlaye. Are you referring to our program or the featured course? If it’s the former, then the answer is yes. We help students create profitable websites that are sustainable in the long run.