Blog - Learn How To Make Soy Candles at Home

Set up Shipping in Woocommerce-Build a Web Store Part 4

April 17, 2015 by SoyCandleMakingTime 1 Comment

In this 4th video in the series about building a web store for your candle business (this certainly pertains to other businesses as well!), I show you how to set up shipping in Woocommerce with a real time shipping calculator by the company AuctionInc. This calculator works with Woocommerce to give you real shipping rates.

For candles, a real time shipping calculator is very important. Without one, you would have to set up zones and figure out how much it might cost to ship items to different zones, and then specify the weights, and in what increments the shipping price will go up and so on……..

It’s a big pain in the neck! lol

With a real time calculator, you just set up the weight for each item and dimensions, and a few other things, and then when someone purchases, the shipping calculator gets the shipping price straight from USPS, UPS or whoever your preferred carrier is!

How To Setup Woocommerce in WordPress-Web Store Part 3

March 6, 2015 by SoyCandleMakingTime 4 Comments

First off, if you haven’t watched the first 2 videos in this series, you can click one below:

If you already have a WordPress site up and running, you can probably skip the first two videos in the series and go right into this one.

*And, like I talked about in the first video in this series, if you don’t have a web host yet you can check out Bluehost . Yes, it is an affiliate link, and I do make a commission if you sign up using that link (thank you in advance if you do!), but I have been with them for over 8 years and they have been great!

In this video, How to Setup Woocommerce in WordPress, I will take you through installing a theme that works well with Woocommerce called Storefront. It is a free theme made specifically to work with Woocommerce. I decided to switch themes after the second video since this theme works much more smoothly with the Woocommerce plugin and I wanted to make things as simple as possible for you!

I will also walk you through installing the Woocommerce plugin and setting it up to get ready to start selling your products! I go through most of the setup, except for shipping. We will talk about setting up shipping in the 4th video.

Since this is the first time I’ve done a series like this, I am not certain how many more videos there will be, but I am anticipating 2 more before we are done and ready to start getting traffic to your store!

Some things I still need to cover in the next couple videos:

Setting up shipping with real time shipping costs
Adding useful widgets
Customizing site colors, background and text
Adding header image/logo
Cleaning up any other loose ends!

I hope these videos are helping get your website/web store up and running, and please let me know if you have questions or if I’ve left anything out! I can take constructive criticism too 🙂 It will help me learn how I can improve future videos.

Thanks for watching, and if you like these videos, please be sure to click over to Youtube and click like on the video, as well as subscribing to my channel if you haven’t already!

How To Build Your Website-Get Your Business Online Part 2

February 20, 2015 by SoyCandleMakingTime Leave a Comment

Here’s part 2 of how to build a website and get your business online. In this video I pick up where we left off in part 1 (I showed you how to register for Bluehost, and get WordPress installed, choose and install a theme, and get your first blog post up.

In this video, I am going to show you a few things that need to be changed right off the bat. Title, permalinks and adding pages.

I want to keep each video in the series fairly short so you don’t get overwhelmed.

Sure I could show you all this in one video, but with everything we need to do to get our web store set up, I wanted to break it down into bite sized pieces and give you quick, simple, actionable things that you can do before moving on to the next video in the series.

So, If you find these videos helpful in building your website and getting your business online, I would LOVE it if you could click the like button right under the video on Youtube, and of course share, share, share 🙂

If you don’t have a webhost provider yet, be sure to check out my first video as I talk about Bluehost, who I have used for over 8 years. You can register with Bluehost through my affiliate link here: www.soycandlemakingtime.com/bluehost

Questions? Suggestions? Leave a comment below!

Build Your Own Website for Your Candle Business-Part 1

February 19, 2015 by SoyCandleMakingTime 4 Comments

*Have some other business that’s not a candle business? This video series can still help you build your own website and get your business online!

I know many of you are thinking about starting a candle making business. I also know that having a web developer build your website for you probably isn’t in your budget!

And that’s ok, I’ve been there, and so I learned to build my own websites. The great thing is, you can build your own website for your business too, and I am going to do my very best to show you how. Of course, if you do have the funds to hire a web developer, that is certainly the easier and more efficient way to go to get your business online.

First, if you haven’t yet started your candle business, I encourage you to go to my Getting Started page and scroll down to the business section and read through those articles there.

Once you have gone through all the steps to get your candle business ready to roll, you’re serious about giving this business a go, and you’ve decided you want to build your own website and sell online, then come back to this video! 🙂

This first video is going to show you exactly how to set up your website through Bluehost (get a discount using this link). I have used Bluehost for my web hosting for over 8 years! I host this website and my other websites through them and in that time I have very rarely had any issues so I highly recommend this hosting company. Now, there are certainly other good hosting companies out there, but since I use Bluehost, I am going to show you how to set up your website through them.

*Now, just to be open and honest, the links to Bluehost that I provide, are affiliate links, meaning I do make a commission if you sign up with them using these links. If you do, I want to say a huge THANK YOU in advance for your support!

So, again, in this video you will see how to set up your website which includes going through the registration process with Bluehost, and then installing WordPress, picking a theme and writing your first blog post.

In the next video I will go through some important things to set up right off, and how to add pages.

Now, I know that it may seem like I’m going kind of slow with these, but I want anyone that wants to, to be able to understand and see exactly how to set up a website. I don’t want you to think you can’t get your business online just because you can’t afford a web developer!

What if I already have a website using WordPress?

Well, then you can probably skip this first video, and possibly the second, but after the second video, I will be getting into how to set up a fully functioning web store, adding a logo, a little on changing the design, adding plugins, adding products, setting up shipping, and everything you need to get your candle business ready for online customers.

I hope this video is helpful for you! Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any suggestions, comments or questions. I’m really excited to help you get your candle business online and growing your customer base!

Popular Valentines Day Candle Fragrances

January 5, 2015 by SoyCandleMakingTime 3 Comments

Candle making is a very seasonal business so you need to be sure you have fragrances available according to season and what holidays are coming up. Valentines Day is just around the corner. Are you ready? Whether you are a hobbyist or run a business, here are some popular Valentines Day fragrance ideas to use for your soy candles. Now is also a great time to give a discount on your extra Christmas fragrances as well.

Valentines Day is a time of flowers, chocolates and romance, so you’ll want to have those types of fragrances available to your customers, or if you are a hobbyist and you are just making your candles as gifts or just for yourself.

Here is a list of my favorite Valentines fragrance oils for soy candles, and then I’ll list some links to other sites that have some great ideas as well.

Love Spell (Victoria Secret type)
Chocolate Covered Cherries ( I made this as a chunk candle using red “wild cherry” scented chunks and a brown chocolate scented overpour) But you can also just buy the fragrance if you like.
Chocolate Covered Strawberries (you can make these chunk candles as well or just buy the fragrance oil)
Rose
Honeysuckle
Vanilla Rose (I just mixed Vanilla fragrance oil and Rose fragrance oil together)
Floral Bouquet
White Tea and Ginger
Japanese Cherry Blossom (popular Bath and Body Works fragrance)
Sweet Pea (Popular Bath and Body Works fragrance)

Here are some links to sites that have lists of Valentines Day fragrance oils:

Natures Garden

LoneStar Candle Supplies Pinterest page They also have some valentines candle craft ideas as well

Candlewic

“Most Loved” list of Bath and Body Works fragrances under their Valentines Day Gifts section. You can find probably all of these as fragrance oils for candles as well. You can find the equivalent of these fragrances mainly at Wholesale Supplies Plus: Japanese Cherry Blossom, Sweet Pea, Twilight Woods, Paris Amour, Forever Red

I searched for the above fragrance oils at some other suppliers, but, even though some of them had the same name, the description of the fragrance was not the same, so make sure to look at that as well. Wholesale Supplies Plus and Candlewic state that they are comparable to the Bath and Body Works fragrance.

You can also check out Victorias Secret Valentines Day Fragrances and try and find equivalents to those as well. For example, you can find the Bombshell (Type) fragrance oil at The Flaming Candle.

Here’s how to find the equivalent fragrance oil: Just type in the fragrance name into Google search and then “fragrance oil” at the end (example: Bombshell fragrance oil) and that should pull up some suppliers that carry it, if any.

Do you have Valentines Day favorites? Let us know in the comments below!

Do you have a candle business? I would love to hear what fragrances sell best for you in January through Valentines Day!

Would you like to have a book that will show you all about making the best soy candles, right at your fingertips?

Yes?

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