questions regarding branding and posting niche on this forum

[Raja]

Hi fastlaners,
I am starting my eCommerce store today.

my first question is
is it wise to post niche and business details on FLF for discussion(OUTSIDER, only buy insider when I make money from the business) as in the beginning it's easy to copy my plan but gets super difficult to copy in later stages? (I understand Idea is worth million dollars when it makes it)

my second question is regarding purchasing a domain name and brand name
my main thing ends with s so is it good if I end with store or shop
let's take sports for example
sportsstore.com, sportsshop.com (there are premium domains like sportstore.com or sportstore.com)

and how common is bazaar is for the marketplace (in the USA, Canada, and EU)
say sportsbazaar.com


I want to get the name and branding somewhat right so I don't have to rename my brand as with the same business in my niche
@Kid @RazorCut @Andy Black @Sebastya

 

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[Sebastya]

1. Yes
2. I personally don't like the double S as it can cause confusion, especially if the alternative is a competitor. Bazaar is pretty common imo. There's also market/mart but you don't need to use ecommerce terms.

 

[RazorCut]

and how common is bazaar is for the marketplace (in the USA, Canada, and EU)
say sportsbazaar.com

The word bazaar stems from North Africa and the Middle East and so most Europeans would associate it with those regions . I don’t know if you want to convey that image/region for your business? When I asked my girlfriend (American) her first thoughts about the word ‘sportsbazaar.com’ she said somewhere that sold secondhand sports goods. Again maybe not the impression you want to cultivate?

I’m with @Sebastya on the double ‘S’. And I wouldn’t spend forever overthinking the domain name and spending a bundle. Just get something short and as unique as you can. It’s not as if you can use it for ranking purposes.

Personally I’d leave out mart, shop, store etc. in your domain unless you really had no other option, as your best choices were all gone. One of my main e-commerce stores had 3 domain names pointing to it. The one almost everyone used to access it was the 4 letter acronym. And that was the one that Google ranked highest on (nailing my best product position 1 and 2 for years).

 

[Raja]

The word bazaar stems from North Africa and the Middle East and so most Europeans would associate it with those regions . I don’t know if you want to convey that image/region for your business? When I asked my girlfriend (American) her first thoughts about the word ‘sportsbazaar.com’ she said somewhere that sold secondhand sports goods. Again maybe not the impression you want to cultivate?

I’m with @Sebastya on the double ‘S’. And I wouldn’t spend forever overthinking the domain name and spending a bundle. Just get something short and as unique as you can. It’s not as if you can use it for ranking purposes.

Personally I’d leave out mart, shop, store etc. in your domain unless you really had no other option, as your best choices we all gone. One of my main e-commerce stores had 3 domain names pointing to it. The one almost everyone used to access it was the 4 letter acronym. And that was the one that Google ranked highest on (nailing my best product position 1 and 2 for years).

thankyou @RazorCut for replying,

would you mind answering my first question also which is
should I post the business aspect here on FLF for discussion and guidance as it is easy to copy at the start, like for 4 months?

 

[Black_Dragon43]

OUTSIDER, only buy insider when I make money from the business

That's why you're poor. Because you only buy when you make money. You have no faith. No trust. Fear rules your life. I can smell it coming through your words.

Buy INSIDERS. Read this thread. I reveal a method there that enables you to join a HOT MARKET faster than you can say "success".

Give your money to other people. And they will help you. Keep your money for yourself, and nobody will help you.

That's the problem with most Indians that reach out to me to hire them. They want the butter before they buy the bread. First get the f*cking bread. Put some skin in the game. Cowards don't get rich. You guys hold onto your $100 bucks as if it's made out of gold. It's just a piece of paper... or worse, just a number on the screen.

So do yourself a favor, side-step your fear, and get INSIDERS.

 

[RazorCut]

Depends on how confident you are that your business model cannot be replicated (or that someone would want to).

There are a LOT of eyes on these threads even though it is a minority of us that actually post. Members here have had their businesses copied in short order so are wary of sharing such details on a large open forum where many onlookers are looking for shortcuts to wealth.

If I started a post saying this is how I make 12k a month net profit working only 4 hours a week, and it cost me less than 100 bucks to set up with hardly any effort involved, you can bet your boots there would be a hundred copycats within weeks.

So my answer is ‘if in doubt, say nowt’.

 

[Raja]

That's why you're poor.

100% agreed.

I agree that I am poor, but don't plan to be in the future.
the thing is I lack time, here I am only building this venture, building my personal brand, and attending college(They increased our workload with virtual classes).

I am giving myself before the new year to set these things up(not general setup, I am aiming for more than a million dollars in 2 years) to start the year strong.

I will purchase it after I set these things up in place.

thankyou for your brutal advice, always looking forward to it.

Suryapratap

 

[Raja]

Depends on how confident you are that your business model cannot be replicated (or that someone would want to).

There are a LOT of eyes on these threads even though it is a minority of us that actually post. Members here have had their businesses copied in short order so are wary of sharing such details on a large open forum where many onlookers are looking for shortcuts to wealth.

If I started a post saying this is how I make 12k a month net profit working only 4 hours a week, and it cost me less than 100 bucks to set up with hardly any effort involved, you can bet your boots there would be a hundred copycats within weeks.

So my answer is ‘if in doubt, say nowt’.

I am aiming to build a platform, a marketplace for others.

it will be almost very difficult when I start getting even 10 customers, but in the beginning, anyone with appropriate knowledge can clone it.

it's just like Facebook, any small team can clone Facebook but it's nearly impossible to get their userbase.

that's why people trying to make new dating apps fail because they lack users.

my aim is to build authority in the niche, to dominate my niche.
that can't be copied but will take time and effort

 

[Black_Dragon43]

I am giving myself before the new year to set these things up(not general setup, I am aiming for more than a million dollars in 2 years) to start the year strong.

I will purchase it after I set these things up in place.

You say that, but you don't really believe it. Deep inside you still don't think you can make more than a million dollars in 2 years. Your ACTIONS show your BELIEF. If you really believed that in two years you'd have more than a million in your bank account, you'd flip out your wallet right now and get INSIDERS. Then you'd get all the help you need to set everything up. You'd have access to the knowledge you need. You'd speed up your progress.

Listen, if you want to be a millionaire, you need SPEED. Spend money on anything that increases your SPEED. If you won't do that, my belief is that 2 years will pass, and you won't be anywhere near close to a millionaire. You'll probably be off the forum too, because hey, fastlane failed me, hurr hurr, I'm still not a millionaire yet because that shit ain't working.

Maybe other people are not as cynical as me, but I've seen this happen over and over again.

 

[Lyinx]

You say that, but you don't really believe it. Deep inside you still don't think you can make more than a million dollars in 2 years. Your ACTIONS show your BELIEF. If you really believed that in two years you'd have more than a million in your bank account, you'd flip out your wallet right now and get INSIDERS. Then you'd get all the help you need to set everything up. You'd have access to the knowledge you need. You'd speed up your progress.

Listen, if you want to be a millionaire, you need SPEED. Spend money on anything that increases your SPEED. If you won't do that, my belief is that 2 years will pass, and you won't be anywhere near close to a millionaire. You'll probably be off the forum too, because hey, fastlane failed me, hurr hurr, I'm still not a millionaire yet because that shit ain't working.

Maybe other people are not as cynical as me, but I've seen this happen over and over again.

Absolutely true, but I will re-phrase it in a way that might make more sense to our youngun here:

How many hours will it take you to do it?
and how many hours would it take a pro?

example: coding for your market place, suppose you think that you can do a decent job with 5,000 hours (4000 spent messing around, and 1,000 actually doing it)

where a pro is already trained, and they can do it in 100 hours (your project is ready to go by the end of next week)

Also, if you program it, who will do the sales pitch? you won't have time, as you'll have to change something in the coding.

If you code it, who will do the marketing? you won't have the time, as you're still coding.

and so on.


If I were your competition (in whatever market place that you're in) and I can hire 20 people to do it for me, and have it done in a week. compare that to you, who takes a year to do it.

tldr: Hire, hire, hire!

 

[Raja]

Absolutely true, but I will re-phrase it in a way that might make more sense to our youngun here:

How many hours will it take you to do it?
and how many hours would it take a pro?

example: coding for your market place, suppose you think that you can do a decent job with 5,000 hours (4000 spent messing around, and 1,000 actually doing it)

where a pro is already trained, and they can do it in 100 hours (your project is ready to go by the end of next week)

Also, if you program it, who will do the sales pitch? you won't have time, as you'll have to change something in the coding.

If you code it, who will do the marketing? you won't have the time, as you're still coding.

and so on.


If I were your competition (in whatever market place that you're in) and I can hire 20 people to do it for me, and have it done in a week. compare that to you, who takes a year to do it.

tldr: Hire, hire, hire!

thankyou @Lyinx for replying and making it simpler for understanding.

my mentor suggests
Invest time before money, just trying to do that.(also I have limited money 680 USD to be precise)

so my first goal is to make money ($10,000) then go beast mode and make problems go away and also help with marketing.

would love to hear your take on this,
regards
Suryapratap

 

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[Lyinx]

thankyou @Lyinx for replying and making it simpler for understanding.

my mentor suggests
Invest time before money, just trying to do that.(also I have limited money 680 USD to be precise)

so my first goal is to make money ($10,000) then go beast mode and make problems go away and also help with marketing.

would love to hear your take on this,
regards
Suryapratap

what has your mentor done in his/her life?
have they started a business in a niche similar to where you want to start? or do they run the checkout counter at their local grocery store?

 

[Lyinx]

thankyou @Lyinx for replying and making it simpler for understanding.

my mentor suggests
Invest time before money, just trying to do that.(also I have limited money 680 USD to be precise)

so my first goal is to make money ($10,000) then go beast mode and make problems go away and also help with marketing.

would love to hear your take on this,
regards
Suryapratap

there are 100's of ways to start a business, time tells which ones are successful.

Microsoft, seen a need, filled it, and keeps filling it (improving)
Apple, seen a need, filled it, and continues to fill it

if they are still making money and in business, then its successful (even if we think that Apple is defunct and not improving, and we think that Microsoft is crap because they aren't linux mint)

my/your opinions of how to start a business are merely that, opinion. until they are proven by having a business, they are worthless.

Currently, I work at expanding current business, which my father started, so there is (of course) a different mentality. Study how people like apple/google/microsoft grew (if your in tech) or Ebay, amazon, and markito (if your in selling things online)

your competitors have done a lot of market research, and they have proven to have a successful business model. if you want to compete with them, then study their way of doing things.

However, if you want to make a new niche in the market, and not be competing with them, then look at the market does, and go the other way. you want to sell cars... every car dealership has sleezy sales people, with out-dated pricing and huge lots with lots of cars sitting there. what is the exact opposite? making cars on demand, to the customers exact specs, where you build 2 cars a year in your small facility, for $1M each.

 

[Raja]

what has your mentor done in his/her life?
have they started a business in a niche similar to where you want to start? or do they run the checkout counter at their local grocery store?

I was referring to Noah kagan, even though I have never met him I consider his advice as guidance.
yes, his site appsumo is somewhat similar to what I want to do.

 

[Kid]

Hi @suryapratap

For first question - rather not. You would be better off by telling just as broad niche as possible , like its "something for pets". Its not enough to copy it , but enough for us to know if we have any experience or knowledge to help you.

As for second. I would also exclude bazaar for reasons mentioned by previous posters.
Your brand is ending in "s" and all domains are taken then you might consider ending with double "ss".
Like dogs- dogss.com, pets -petss.com.
Doing it in the middle is rather hard (so no "sportsstore"). Doing it at the end is more memorable and easy on user.

Be sure to check if single "s" domain isn't trademarked (basically check if they are doing business using it and/or do they have trademark for it).


Keep it up.

 

[Lyinx]

I was referring to Noah kagan, even though I have never met him I consider his advice as guidance.
yes, his site appsumo is somewhat similar to what I want to do.

Never read up on him.

Agreed with the others on the first question, keep it general. Some folks like to share everything (especially insiders) as they most likely feel that they are doing the best that they can. If someone else out there figures out a better faster way of doing it, then it would be silly for them to continue doing it the old way, and they would adapt the new method into their workflow as well.

 

[Xeon]

You say that, but you don't really believe it. Deep inside you still don't think you can make more than a million dollars in 2 years. Your ACTIONS show your BELIEF. If you really believed that in two years you'd have more than a million in your bank account, you'd flip out your wallet right now and get INSIDERS. Then you'd get all the help you need to set everything up. You'd have access to the knowledge you need. You'd speed up your progress.

Listen, if you want to be a millionaire, you need SPEED. Spend money on anything that increases your SPEED. If you won't do that, my belief is that 2 years will pass, and you won't be anywhere near close to a millionaire. You'll probably be off the forum too, because hey, fastlane failed me, hurr hurr, I'm still not a millionaire yet because that shit ain't working.

Maybe other people are not as cynical as me, but I've seen this happen over and over again.

What if the money runs out faster than you can spend? Bear in mind that for many new businesses just starting up, cash flow is very limited.

If there's a huge amount of $ flowing in steadily every day from some source, of course it's not an issue.

I also have the same problem as Surya. I hate to spend. Before I spend that $25, I need to analyze and think about how much is left in my bank account.

 

[biophase]

What if the money runs out faster than you can spend? Bear in mind that for many new businesses just starting up, cash flow is very limited.

If there's a huge amount of $ flowing in steadily every day from some source, of course it's not an issue.

I also have the same problem as Surya. I hate to spend. Before I spend that $25, I need to analyze and think about how much is left in my bank account.

Spending on an insiders subscription is different than spending $100 on a logo prebusiness.

Insiders would open up a new world of advice for him because he can ask very specific questions. The ROI would be incalculable.

 

[Raja]

thanks, @Xeon for replying to this thread.
I get your point, guess I will try to earn by freelancing first to invest in the business as it is the quickest way.

Highly appreciate your input

Regards
Suryapratap

 

[Raja]

thanks, @biophase and @Black_Dragon43,
I respect both of you, will purchase insider this week itself.