I've been creating eBay stores using BANS and phpBay Pro for almost a year now. I continue to apply what I learn when finding new niches to tap into.
One resource I recently signed up for to determine profitable niches is Terapeak, a place that shows historical data for products sold on eBay. I've been very impressed with it, but find it overwhelming at times because it's like being a kid in a candy store.
Right now I'm faced with deciding how broad I should make my niche based on the information I'm finding in Terapeak. For example, let's say the niche is about T-shirts. That's pretty broad, so I could narrow it down to children's t-shirts, or go even narrower and sell boys red t-shirts and then by size.
So my question is this: assuming that the proper research has been done to find high-selling products on eBay that have low competition and that quality content exists on the site, do any of you have experience that shows the narrower the niche the better conversion rates you get?
I've read elsewhere that you shouldn't try to build another eBay, and I would agree with that. I'm just trying to figure out if Google would be more interested in sites that have a very narrow purpose in mind (boys red t-shirts) vs. a site that has a more general purpose (t-shirts).
The other thing I'm trying to avoid is creating too many "narrow" niche sites when they could/should be combined.
The whole keyword/niche research concept is interesting - and can also be very frustrating. A wide variety of methods and systems and tools, and no real magic numbers or standards that work across the board.
One of the things that I look for when choosing a niche is the depth of the market - or more specifically, the depth of keyword phrases relevant to the top level chosen. That top level being t-shirts, childrens t-shirts, or anywhere up or down the line from "clothing" to "red toddler long-sleeved t-shirts".
When you niche it down too far, you're limited in regards to how much content you can create and how wide your reach can be. When you go too broad, you run the risk of lowering conversions and not properly targeting a specific buying market.
You want to aim for somewhere in between - a targeted buying niche market with enough depth to be able to work that market. Make sense?
I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the topic. Back to you...
Yes, that does make sense. Finding a profitable niche is more an art form than a science, though we try to create reproducible formulas.
This has given me something to think about. In fact, using the analogy of the t-shirts, I can see that finding a niche to grow in is feasible in my case. Now I just have to polish my research to lay out a plan for it.
When is it bad to be too broad?
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