A common debate among bloggers is whether or not to set up a separate ecommerce site for selling online. The thought of creating and attracting traffic to multiple websites is irritating at the very least.
If you don’t have the time or money to start a separate online store, you can sell your products or services through your existing website.
The easiest way to start selling from your blog is to incorporate buy now buttons. These buttons can be placed anywhere within a blog post, subtly prompting people to buy a product or subscribe to a service. Some benefits of buy now buttons include:
- Actionable call to action phrases (CTAs) placed strategically throughout posts help sell products.
- Sales channels for existing products and services.
- Making the purchasing process easier through a simplified and secure checkout page.
Of course, in order to use buy now buttons you need to have an online store ready to go. The store should allow you to:
- Easily embed a shopping cart in your blog.
- Create buy now buttons that can be used as html code or in WordPress.
- Provide a customized checkout page.
- Have a secure checkout process that protects your customers.
If you don’t already have your own online store, Ecwid offers a free version that can be scaled up as your business grows. Click here to learn how to create an Ecwid account and set up an ecommerce shopping cart.
If you already have an online store with Ecwid, great! You can jump right into creating buy now buttons.
Why You Should Use Buy Now Buttons in Blog Posts
Whether you’re just getting started on a new website, or already run an ecommerce business through your blog, buy now buttons are a game changer. Instead of waiting for customers to find your product pages or search through your entire store, you can start selling products by enticing them within blog posts.
Buy button layout example
Buy now buttons help sell physical products, digital products, SaaS, services, and subscriptions. There are several ways that you can use buy now buttons on your website. Here are just a few.
Launch your product line or service
If you already have an established website, you can sell your products from your online store using buy now buttons. By putting buy now buttons in your posts, you create obvious CTAs. And since you already have a loyal following, it should be fairly easy to get your products and services in front of the masses, turning lurkers into potential customers.
Generate demand and make a sale at the same time
Most small business owners understand the importance of maintaining a regular blog on their website. They use their blog to generate demand for their products and services.
The buy now button takes that demand and creates immediate satisfaction for your customers, letting them purchase products with just the click of a button. You can write posts as normal, simply adding a button to promote your shop.
Offer your own products and services on your already successful blog
If you have already monetized a blog selling other people’s products and services, it is fairly easy to start linking your own. In some cases, you can do both without ever directly competing with other businesses. And when you sell your own products and services, you earn more because your customers will purchase directly from you.
There are many reasons to add buy now buttons to your blog or website, the main one being that it will help you make more money! Adding them, though, depends on the website builder you use and where you want to put them.
How to Add a Buy Now Button and Start Selling Online
The primary way to add a buy now button to your blogs is with html code. What you do with that code depends on your site builder. Since WordPress manages most blogs, we’ll start there before moving onto other site builders.
How to add a buy button using WordPress
If you manage your own blog site, you likely use WordPress. WordPress.com is hosted, which means that it comes with a lot of tools to design a great website, but you cannot access the source code that your website is made from. WordPress.org uses open source software, which means you can modify the source code in the backend.
The easiest way to add a buy now button to your WordPress site is through the WordPress plugin for your Ecwid store. Once you’ve downloaded the Ecwid Ecommerce Shopping Cart plugin to your WordPress site, you can add buy now buttons by following these directions:
- Go to your WordPress Dashboard and open Pages.
- Open the page you want to add a product, either on a new or existing post.
- Click the + icon in the upper left corner to add a new block.
- From there, you can choose Buy New Button. Make sure to place it thoughtfully!
- Then click Update to save the changes.
Learn more about how to feature your products and services on your blog.
If you want to add the buy now button in the backend, you’ll have to use html code. Follow the directions in the next section to generate html code for your buy now buttons.
How to create a buy button on other platforms
If you use a site builder besides WordPress.org to manage your blog, you may not know how to alter your source code. You will need to contact your website developer or host to find out.
Luckily, Ecwid can be a workaround for you. If you have an Ecwid account and shopping cart set up, you can create buy now buttons from your Ecwid dashboard. The same buy now button code will work for most websites, including WordPress. You can place it wherever you want in your posts. From your dashboard, you will:
- Go to overview and select the Buy Now Buttons card.
- Select which type of button you want to display: compact, button only, or full size with 2 or 3 columns.
- Customize the button’s design and appearance including shape, colors, and text.
- Click Generate Code, then copy it to your clipboard to paste wherever you want a button to appear on your site or blogs.
Learn more about making buy buttons with html code here.
Where to Add Your New Buy Now Buttons to Your Blog Post
It is very easy to use buy now buttons to monetize any page on your site. However, you must be careful where you actually put them, both on your website and within a post. Once you get your buy now buttons set up, you’ll need to decide how to optimize their placement.
Optimize the buy now button on your blog page
You need to carefully consider where you will place buy now buttons on your website and blog. Not every page will be suitable for selling products. Look over each page and blog topic carefully so the buttons are as effective as possible.
You must choose carefully where on the page to put buy now buttons. Putting a buy now button at the top of a post makes it easy for customers to buy a product. Unfortunately, it can turn off visitors who just wanted to read your blog. Disgruntled readers may either ignore the button or leave your website altogether.
Placing the buy now button at the bottom of the page is just as risky. If you don’t manage to hold your reader until the end, they will never see the button. You can include a buy now button at the end of the post, but it should not be the only one.
Most buy now buttons should be placed organically throughout your post. When the blog leads to a natural plug for your product or service, that is where you should put a buy now button. But keep the formatting clean and professional. The buy now button should be centered and between paragraphs.
Use the same buy now buttons on other pages of the site
It is very easy to use an html buy now button to monetize any page on your site, not just your posts.
Here are some additional places you might want to use your buy now buttons:
- Landing page
- Messages in email campaigns
- Error pages
- Social media platforms
Adding your buy now buttons in these locations only takes a moment of your time, and it could have a big payoff. Take advantage of your new buy now button html code and put it anywhere you can (without oversaturating your customers, of course).
Grow Your Online Store Using Buy Now Buttons
Buy now buttons are vital to the success of online businesses, especially for small businesses. They present customers with the opportunity to buy your products precisely when they are thinking about them, increasing your online sales.
Whether you are starting a new ecommerce business, or have a blog that’s been earning money for years, buy now buttons will push your online store to the next level. And using Ecwid, you can easily integrate buy now buttons into your website.
You should use every tool at your disposal to create a profitable ecommerce business, so now’s the time to start using buy now buttons!
