Don't Do It Yourself

Review of Steve Chou’s “Create a Profitable Online Store” Course

Profitable Online Store ReviewWhether you’re new to selling online or ready to transform your existing store into a seven figure business, you’ll definitely want to read this review of the Create a Profitable Online Store course from Steve Chou.  Like any fair review, I’ll share both the good and the bad and let you know if it’s really worth the money.

And if you want to see inside of the course, check out my detailed course walk-through and unboxing.

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Who is Steve Chou? And Why Should I Listen to Him?

Who is Steve Chou (mywifequitherjob.com)Steve Chou is an expert on creating online stores and importing products from Asia.  Steve was able to make over $100k from his own store, Bumblebee Linens, in its first year!  Now his store makes 7 figures a year.

Steve runs his own annual ecommerce conference, Sellers Summit, where top minds convene to discuss the latest strategies and tactics for growing online stores.  He also started his own venture funding show, similar to Shark Tank, called the 5 Minute Pitch.

He has implemented everything he teaches in his own store and blogs about his success and failures on MyWifeQuitHerJob.com.  With his electrical engineering background, Steve isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and handles all his own technical issues, sales and marketing, and even writes his own WordPress plugins.  Steve has taken all his techniques, tools, and hacks to run an ecommerce business and shared them in his course Create a Profitable Online Store.

Steve has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The New York Times, MSNBC, ABC, Mixergy, Smart Passive Income with Pat Flynn, and many more media outlets.

In full transparency, I’m actually friends with Steve, but I will attempt to provide an unbiased evaluation of his course.

Course Reviewed by Wall Street Journal

Who Else has Taken the Class?

Steve has taught many online store owners about the detailed steps to build an ecommerce store.  Here are a few of his students:

  • Abby Walker, creator of VivianLou.com makes over 2.5 million dollars per year and has been featured on Oprah, the Home Shopping Network, and QVC
  • Ron Eiger, creator of SunnyDecals.com makes 7 figures per year
  • Jen Depaoli, creator of ShowerCurtainHQ.com makes over $50k per month
  • TheOilCollection.com made $25k in her first 3 months and 6 figures in a single month during its first holiday season
  • Vizcosa.com makes 6 figures per year
  • LifeAndLimbGel.com makes 6 figures per year

Who is this course for?

This e-commerce master class is for people that are serious about starting an online business or increasing profit margins for an existing online store.  It provides a detailed blueprint of all steps and tools needed to grow an online store from an idea to profitability, and even scaling into a million dollar a year business.  If you want to save months of pain and expensive mistakes trying to figure everything out on your own, it’s worth a look.

Intended Audience

  • Anyone that wants to get into selling inventory online, either through your own store or selling on Amazon.
  • Entrepreneurs of any age.  Steve has successful students from 14 years old to their 60’s.
  • Solopreneurs looking for a community (or mastermind group) to trade ideas, get accountability, and support each other
  • Small and medium sized businesses that have existing stores and want to move the needle and increase sales
  • You do not need to be tech savvy, just motivated.
  • You do not need to have a product idea yet, Steve has a systematic process to help you find one.
  • You can fulfill your own products or use a 3rd party for drop shipping

Who Shouldn’t Buy This Course

Let’s be honest, this course is expensive.  It should be treated as a business investment.

You don’t need to quit your day job to get started, but you do need to be ready to apply at least 5 hours a week.  If you’re not serious about starting an ecommerce business, do not buy this course.

What does the course cover?

Steve delivers the course in well over 300 videos (and counting).  You can jump around to those that are the most applicable to you, but all of them contain useful nuggets of wisdom.

The course takes you through the entire process of starting an ecommerce business and is broken down into these sections (each containing many videos):

  1. Module 1: Find a Profitable Niche Market
  2. Module 2: Discover Where To Source Your Products
  3. Module 3: Set Up Your Online Store
  4. Module 4: How To Sell On Amazon
  5. Module 5: How To Create Sales Funnels
  6. Module 6: Make Your Business Legal
  7. Module 7: Market Your Online Store For Free
  8. Module 8: Email Marketing
  9. Module 9: Google Adwords And Google Shopping
  10. Module 10: Facebook Advertising
  11. Module 11: Facebook Messenger Marketing
  12. Module 12: Optimize Your Store For The Search Engines
  13. Module 13: Price Your Products For Maximum Profit
  14. Module 14: Advanced Website Optimization
  15. Module 15: Customer Service And Managing Your Online Reputation
  16. Bonus Lessons

A few bullets directly from Steve about Create a Profitable Online Store:

  • Learn the cheapest and fastest way to put up a professional looking website WITHOUT hiring a developer.
  • Learn how to attract customers to your store without spending a dime.
  • Discover what products to sell that will make you the most money.
  • Find a niche market and products that you can make a profit selling online.
  • Find genuine wholesale vendors that will sell you products at rock bottom prices.
  • Sell goods online from the comforts of your own home while someone else does the order fulfillment for you.

Course Walk-through

There is simply way too much content within this course for me to cover in this review.  So I’ve created a separate post and video that walks-through Create a Profitable Online Store in great detail along with a video unboxing.

Create a Profitable Online Store Review

Pros:  Here’s what I like most about the course

  • Profitable Online Store-Review- ProsIt goes into great depth (with no fluff) across a very wide variety of topics related to online stores and drop shipping.  And it’s an excellent resource about importing goods from overseas.  Steve knows his shit!
  • You get access to a community of like-minded entrepreneurs going through a similar journey in a highly supportive environment.  Not only do you get access to the private Facebook group, but you will get paired in a group of 4 students to meet once a week in a focus group.  Each group will bounce ideas off each other, share tips, support each other, and hold each other accountable.
  • You get the ability to pick Steve’s brain through office hours, his private email address, and the private forum where you can ask Steve and other members questions.
  • A lot of topics are portable (like SEO, optimizing websites, and dealing with partner companies) and they apply to other online businesses like affiliate marketing.
  • Lifetime access to interviews and webinars with other industry experts in addition to Steve.
  • If you follow Steve’s steps to setup your online store and are active in the program, he will review your online store with a full video website critique to point out areas of improvement.  All previous website critiques are posted and available for students.
  • Steve is very upfront about costs.  Starting an online store does require some upfront investment.  It’s nothing that the average Joe can’t afford, but many other scheisters try to hide this info from you.
  • Steve has negotiated special discounts on ecommerce related products and tools for students in the class
  • Many other courses charge monthly fees forever to access new content.  This course only has a one time payment which gets you lifetime membership and access to new videos and the community.
  • Steve continuously adds and updates content weekly.

Cons: My only dislikes

  • Profitable Online Store-Review- ConsThere is SO much content in this course across hundreds of videos that it can be a little overwhelming at first!  Steve groups content into 15 modules and within each module there are links to all videos sequenced in a recommended curriculum.  But I'd prefer to see the sub-categories of video content laid out in a more intuitive manner that's easier to navigate if I want to jump around.
  • I’m old-school and not a big fan of video. If you are, this will be up your alley.  I just happened to be one of those odd birds that absorbs more from reading.  Fortunately, Steve includes PDF’s and slides of all video content for the rest of us dinosaurs that don’t like videos.
  • Each lesson has a written outline of the topics contained with the video.  In these outlines, Steve used to include the times within each video to watch specific topics, but he stopped doing this (my guess is that there are so many videos and they are updated so often this became more trouble than it was worth).
  • I’d love to learn more about prototyping complex product ideas: costs, design steps, protecting IP, etc.  Steve does a great job reviewing how to import finished goods, replicating existing products, and simple product creation but I’d like to see a little more detail about new production creation. (Steve, feel free to correct me if I missed a section).
  • Steve is an Asia expert (which is typically where you can find the lowest cost products), but I’m also curious about the differences in sourcing from various other continents and countries as well.

Does the Course Really Work?

According to Steve, 56% of students who have stayed with the course for over a year are making at least 4 figures a month in revenue and 9% of students are making over $50k per month.

Student success statistics - online store income

Is the Create a Profitable Online Store Course Worth the Money?

All in all, if you really want to make a living (or a decent side income) through an online store, Create a Profitable Online Store will give you a sturdy foundation to build upon and drastically speed up your ability to get going and start taking orders.  If you think of this as a business investment, the decision is quite simple.  There is so much value packed into these videos along with getting into a community of budding online store owners, the course is unquestionably worth it.

An easy way to decide for yourself is to sign-up for the free mini-course.  And if you are still on the fence, remember that Steve has a 30 day money-back guarantee.

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Alternatives to Create a Profitable Online Store

There are certainly other ecommerce courses out there, but I’ve yet to find any alternative course that goes as in depth as Create a Profitable Online Store into every single aspect of starting, running, and marketing an online store.  And it’s the only course that covers both selling on Amazon and your own online store.

But, if you are interested in other ways of earning a living online, read our review of Mushfiq's Website Flipping Course.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Steve Chou legit?

Yes, Steve Chou is a legitimate drop shipping expert.  His online store made $100k in its first year and now it makes well over a million dollars per year.   Many of his students have gone on to make 7 figures per year as well.  Read the pros and cons of Steve’s course.

What references does Steve Chou have?

Steve has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The New York Times, MSNBC, ABC, Mixergy, Smart Passive Income with Pat Flynn, and many more media outlets.  Read the pros and cons of Steve’s course.

What is Steve Chou’s net worth?

Steve doesn’t publish his net worth (not many people do), but he is a frugal guy that has been killing it.  If I were to speculate, between his two 7 figure businesses (Bumblebee Linens and MyWifeQuitHerJob.com) and his ecommerce conference, Sellers Summit, his net worth in non-business assets and cash is between 10-15 million dollars.   If you add in the value of those businesses then it’s probably closer to 30 million dollars.  Read the pros and cons of Steve’s course.

Is there a free drop shipping course?

Yes, Steve has created a free mini course.  Get the free mini-course here.

Who has the best drop shipping course?

There are dozens of drop shipping courses out there. Some good, some very bad.  Steve’s course is probably the most thorough covering every aspect of product sourcing, ecommerce, and marketing.  And he has an enthusiastic, supportive community of like-minded entrepreneurs that jump in and help new members.  Read the pros and cons of Steve’s course.

How much money do I need to start a drop shipping business?

You can bootstrap a drop shipping business for as little as couple hundred dollars if you do not purchase inventory and setup the website yourself.  As you outsource functions, the cost goes up, but it is one of the cheaper business models to launch.  Read the pros and cons of Steve’s course.