Changing to a niche site

[Darren Jaskowicz]

Hi all

Just wanted some opinions on the website.
Our site Currently cover all categories and ive been reading afew articles about other sites. I've found other sites have started with a niche covering a specific category.
I've been thinking about covering home furniture and building the brand to that.

Just wondered if anyone had any suggestions / ideas. I know a lot of marketing is involved but feel it would be easier to aim to s specific niche.

Thanks for reading

 

[fisicx]

To be honest, it’s not even worth going niche. There is just way too much competition. Unless of course you plan to spend a bucketload of cash on marketing. I see tv adverts for at least 3 new selling/auction services. I don’t see anything anywhere for zavit.

 

[Darren Jaskowicz]

It keeps me busy and I've had afew people email me saying eBay isn't doing it anymore for them and helping them use our tools bulk uploader etc. Strangely they are furniture companies being one of the reasons for choosing that niche.
I do know what your saying though, it is a hard market.

 

[fisicx]

Furniture companies are doing this because they are desperate to sell anywhere. Are people buying from your site?

 

[Darren Jaskowicz]

Only had afew sales but we are a new site and I've afew positives from sellers encouraging me to keep it going. I'm guessing the more items we get listed the more sales we can get. I've found a way to get hundreds of potential customers without advertising (But that's a secret atm ;-) ). Obviously I've got another job but it gives me alot of boring free time

 

[Paul Carmen]

The problem you've got is two fold: -

1. You need to find sellers to list on your site (this will requires decent volume marketing)
2. The products your site sells needs to be visible prominently in search engine results, or you need a big user base (which requires volume marketing again)

At present the site doesn't rank for your brand name Zavit in Google, let alone competitive terms like "online auction", "buy and sell online".

It also looks a bit like the wild west, with no company details, no contact phone number, no local geographic or business listing search engine rankings & it seems no buyer/seller protection other than PayPal.

You need a business plan for how it will attract sellers & buyers, plus what the USP is, at present it seems you're going up against eBay, plus a whole host of funded startups like Schpock etc.

 

[Darren Jaskowicz]

Thanks for replying. Yes I've noticed the search results and will work on that. Also with address etc. Because it's currently run at home should I add that as the address? Not sure what I can do yet regarding the protection. I've sort of offloaded that to PayPal as I've made PayPal the primary processor and I know you get protection.

Great to see responses! It guides me on what is needed/ next to address. Thanks

 

[Paul Carmen]

Consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone No.) is very important for trust, both for initial SEO & customers. I'd not recommenced a home listing though, as its easy to see this on maps.

This is why you need to think about your overall plan, as a consumer I'd want to know that this is a legitimate business that I can trust, that really means contact numbers, a registered company, at least some sort of head office location, even if its just a registered office. Otherwise many customers will stay away, even if you improve your organic rankings.

 

[WeddingsInWales]

A while since anyone posted on this forum but I found niche websites very useful in my sector, which is hotels / leisure. I needed to attract different types of buyer / visitor for my B&B in the Brecon Beacons. So I looked at which markets my location and standard (3 star guesthouse) might apply to and tried a few niches. The three that worked were castle weddings, mid-week dog friendly B&B stays (to avoid clashing with weekend weddings) and Ghost Hunters. None of these Niches are compatible with each other and each needs promoting on its own niche website. Over time, these separate sites have done OK on being found organically especially the dog friendly Wales B&B website and the ghost hunting one, because they are specialist niches. Each site has to be kept up to date as they move up and down in Google and are supported with Adwords and the usual social media. My sites are all 'home-made' on X5 Media, but they pull in enough income to keep the place going. My 'product' is the same - a B&B in a Victorian castle - but my clientele are all different niches. Relating this to someone selling a product, the clientele for your product may divide into specific niches who would buy the product range, so rather than having separate sites for the different parts of your product range, you would try to capture a specific set of niche buyers and tailor the presentation of the product to their needs and wants. Hence for a B&B guest I do not mention we are haunted, but for a ghost hunter we are, while for weddings, we do not mention ghosts or dogs (though we found a small niche for dog owners getting married).