How This Popular Gardening Blog Blossomed Into an Empire
Shopify Masters episode in which the host talks with Kevin Espiritu, founder of Epic Gardening, about growing from a gardening blog and YouTube channel into an ecommerce business. The host says the store now accounts for about 90 percent of revenue. Kevin says that until 2019 he earned from ads, affiliate deals and brand deals, and decided that if brands wanted access to his audience he should offer something directly to it. He says he did not have to invent anything, because his audience pointed him to raised garden beds he found through a manufacturer after messaging them several times over a year. He says he set up his own Shopify store, used a third party logistics company and ShipStation at first, later brought warehousing in house, and shifted his executive assistant into customer support, with phone calls producing orders of a few thousand dollars. Shopify, which produces the show, is the sponsor named in the description. PARTIAL COVERAGE: the captions cover roughly the first 12 minutes of the 30 minute episode, so later topics such as acquiring another business are not summarized. All claims are Kevin's own and are not independently checked. Nothing here is financial, legal or business advice.
Executive Summary (TL;DR)
Shopify Masters episode in which the host talks with Kevin Espiritu, founder of Epic Gardening, about growing from a gardening blog and YouTube channel into an ecommerce business. The host says the store now accounts for about 90 percent of revenue. Kevin says that until 2019 he earned from ads, affiliate deals and brand deals, and decided that if brands wanted access to his audience he should offer something directly to it. He says he did not have to invent anything, because his audience pointed him to raised garden beds he found through a manufacturer after messaging them several times over a year. He says he set up his own Shopify store, used a third party logistics company and ShipStation at first, later brought warehousing in house, and shifted his executive assistant into customer support, with phone calls producing orders of a few thousand dollars. Shopify, which produces the show, is the sponsor named in the description. PARTIAL COVERAGE: the captions cover roughly the first 12 minutes of the 30 minute episode, so later topics such as acquiring another business are not summarized. All claims are Kevin's own and are not independently checked. Nothing here is financial, legal or business advice.