Have you ever walked into a café, restaurant or a local grocery shop and saw money framed and mounted on the wall like an award or medal? For many businesses their first sale, the first rupee earned is a monument because it is the result of all the hard work they have put to make the sale. The first sale.

I’ve interviewed several business owners in the last 5 years and talked about how they made their first sale. Below I have listed 11 ways you can make your first online sale even before Google or YourStory have bothered to notice you.

1. 1. Tell Family and Friends

      Imitate the IntuPlus.com guys of multi-level marketing and tell all of your family and friends about your eCommerce store. Encourage them to share your eCommerce website link on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, SnapChat, Instagram or Google+. Remember you are not asking them to make a purchase, you’re asking them to share your eCommerce store with their network.

   2. Ask Vendors for some Love

      Distributors often help new retailers by mentioning them in front of their customers and other merchants. Don’t be afraid to ask them for some help while you’re building your business.

   3. Hand Out Business Cards

      Every eCommerce owner should have business cards. Get some cards made. Make sure they are stylish and reflect your eCommerce store design. Put your eCommerce website URL in the front and center of the card.

   4. Get Interviewed

      Retailers are frequently experts in a particular industry. If you sell printed handmade t-shirts and you have good knowledge of current fashion trends, then approach media houses about providing them with an expert comment on fashion. Reporters are often on the hunt for industry experts, and you’ll often get the opportunity to mention the eCommerce store you represent.

   5. Make an awesome Blog

      Content marketing is the technique of turning your site visitors into potential customers by providing high-quality blog posts. Make your blog worth sharing: Offer fashion tips and advises if you are in the apparel business, show your products in action.

   6. Submit to Product feed and Classifieds sites

      Sites like Google Merchant aggregate product information and prices so that consumers can find and compare prices with ease. Adding a feed to one of these sites and sometimes paying a small fee could send good online traffic to your online store. Also, put your ad on Classifieds sites like OLX and Quikr. Provide as many details as possible about your online store and add your contact information.

   7. Give Freebies

      Search Google for the influences and celebrities in your industry and in your region. Tell them you’re selling a cool new gadget, find the reporters, blogs, and magazines that may be interested in your product and send them a free sample with a short description of what your product and online store is all about. Big businesses have been doing this for ages, and it works if done correctly. Don’t expect a huge response from this tactic, but even if you only get 1 article in the local newspaper or an FB post about your business as a result, the campaign should be considered a success.

   8. Use Google AdWords (PPC Campaign)

      Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing, at its core, is the act of buying site traffic. Although PPC marketing can be nuanced, it’s a pretty sure fired way to get site visitors and, thereby, sales.

   9. Facebook Advertising

      Facebook advertising can be a great way to access a very targeted audience. Let’s say you sell watches, with Facebook Advertising you can target people who have “watches” or “bracelets” or “jewelry” with custom banners that have a message specifically to their interests.

   10. Start an Affiliate Program

       With an affiliate program, you can pay people to sell your products. In return, your affiliate partners get the commission from you, for making the sale.

   11. Be Patient

       Building a business is not an easy task. If you are launching a new restaurant you probably wouldn’t expect your business to be profitable for the first little while. Same goes with eCommerce business – it takes time, so be patient.

   This article was originally written on StoreZigo.com.