Newbe needing advice :)

[Moon to Moon]

Hi there,

I was wondering if any of you business pro's could offer me a bit of advice on whether setting up a small interiors e-business would be a good idea or if I am pipe dreaming.

I have a blog (frommoontomoon blogspot) which is doing quite well and currently gets about 100,000 views a month, it is mainly bohemian/hippie style interiors so was thinking of setting up a business selling the type of wares found on my site, maybe starting with an etsy account. A large proportion of my 'visitors' are from the US and Australia however, I have had 2000 visitors from the UK this week.

I have a full time job and thought maybe I could start small and see how i got on. Am i being unrealistic?

Cheers for any replies

Gabi

 

[fisicx]

100,000 visitors per month! Wow.

If you want to sell on etsy then go for it. Al you need is links form your blog to etsy. Remember though that etsy is for stuff you make yourself. If they are brought in products then ebay might be a better options.

On the other hand, are you sure your visitors are buyers. Maybe they like your blog because you aren't trying to sell them things.

 

[Andrew Baker]

Additionally get on Pinterest, your niche is perfect for this (I should know, I can't keep my Mrs off it).

 

[Deleted member 113575]

You could quickly test the interest by sticking a couple of "Pay Now" buttons with PayPal and see whether there is interest from your visitors. If it is a success, then you can go ahead and expand in Etsy, Ebay and other marketplaces.

dkofodimos

 

[kulture]

With that number of visitors, have you considered advertising space. This can bring in a nice income from doing nothing more than what you currently do.

 

[Websitehandyman]

You may find that very seasonal and due to the products mostly being heaving you need cheap shipping agreements to bring the price down. That means a decent turnover.

You could try affiliate links, the are a number of ways you can do that and it could bring in a few £1k a month with you do very little.

 

[amac]

I have a blog (frommoontomoon blogspot) which is doing quite well and currently gets about 100,000 views a month, it is mainly bohemian/hippie style interiors so was thinking of setting up a business selling the type of wares found on my site, maybe starting with an etsy account. A large proportion of my 'visitors' are from the US and Australia however, I have had 2000 visitors from the UK this week.

Go for it. You have exactly the right approach i.e start small, leverage existing third party tools. And another thing you've done well clearly is in building up that following/uniques.

 

[The Web Guy]

I agree with websitehandyman. If i was you, i'd migrate the blog over to wordpress - self hosted. You could make some serious money just by putting affiliate adds on your site and earning commission.
Wish i got that number of visitors wow!
Can you see? You've found a niche man! Keep it quiet!!
The cashcow is right there in the very content you're providing.
Now go out and milk it! Good luck.

 

[shopintegrator]

I have a blog (frommoontomoon blogspot) which is doing quite well and currently gets about 100,000 views a month, it is mainly bohemian/hippie style interiors so was thinking of setting up a business selling the type of wares found on my site,

Your visitor stats are great, I would definately give it a try and see if you can monetise your blog. Personally, I think you should try adding ecommerce buttons straight to your blogspot website so the products are directly for sale along with the information people have come to your site to look at.

If you try and direct people away to another site to buy, e.g. ets, it is one more step in the way of them buying from you and they have to leave your site. If they have it in front of them on your site, I think you stand more of a chance of making a sale.

You try basic PayPal buttons at first or you could also give the ShopIntegrator ecommerce button add-ins a try as this will give you some great shipping plan capabilities as well as stock control, which will be ideal if you are starting out an can't meet big demand and need to avoid overselling and disapointing people when you can't deliver.