Setting Up Your Website Store with Guest Melissa Tallman

Last month we stepped out of our comfort zone to talk about selling on our websites. Today we invited someone who knows way more about the topic than we do to share more information. And, we're continuing the conversation in our Mastermind group. Head over there to share what works for you and hear what others are saying: www.growwithusmastermind.com.

A few podcast episodes ago, Angie and I shared our own experiences with selling directly from our websites. And, now we are really excited to bring Melissa Tallman from Teacher Thrive onto the podcast. She has been running her own store for about eight months and can speak to some of the things that we can't, like WooCommerce.
What made Melissa decide to sell on her website
Like Angie and I, Melissa is grateful for TpT. It's a great way for teacher sellers to really get started. But, Melissa is no longer teaching in the classroom and has turned her business into her full-time income.

Because of that, she doesn't want to keep all of her eggs in one basket. Just in case anything were ever to happen with TpT, she can't afford to lose all her income. So, she decided to set up her website store and use her own platform.
Deciding on WooCommerce and setting up her store
Melissa gave the DIY path a try when she first started to set up her store but realized it wasn't for her. So, she hired a developer.

She knew from the start that she wanted to use WooCommerce because she prefers how it's customizable and knew that it offered the look that she wanted. Some things, like writing a blog post or resource descriptions were really simple. But, when she started to try to customize the storefront to be easy for the customer to use, it wasn't as simple.

Melissa didn't want to spend her own time trying to figure out how to set it up from scratch, so she hired a developer.

It can be easy to spend a lot of time trying to make all those little tweaks to get things looking just right and still not end up with what you're looking for. That's why sometimes it's just easier and faster to hire someone that knows what they're doing.
Melissa's advice for teacher sellers
When we asked Melissa what advice she had for teacher sellers when setting up a store, it all came back to hiring help. It's not that she's against people setting it up on their own. But, she highly recommends finding someone that knows what they are doing.

She found a person on Upwork. Her recommendation is that you find examples of stores that you like the look and functionality, find a developer that you'd like to work with, and ask them for a quote on how much it would cost. There are a lot of talented freelancers on Upwork.

Another area that you might want to consider hiring help in is moving your products over from TpT to your own store. You can go the simple route and just copy them over, but eventually, you'll want to update all the links so you are keeping your bundles together on your own website store.

Either route is time-consuming, but copying them over is a lot less intensive. You can hire a virtual assistant to help you out if needed. Melissa bit the bullet and did the work all at once from the start with the help of her husband.
WooComerce plugins
Melissa uses a bundle plugin called YITH that works with WooComerce. While she suggested that there might be newer ones, she liked the look of it and that it was similar to setting up bundles on TpT. It also provides pagination where teachers can see all the items within the bundle. It allows them to click on it to see the exact product page that's included.

Another plugin that she recommends is called Discount Rules by Flycart Technologies. This allows you to offer a "build your own bundle" option on your website. Melissa used the example of the grammar units that she sells. She of