The Entrepreneur Forum | Financial Freedom | Starting a Business | Motivation | Money | Success

Welcome to the only entrepreneur forum dedicated to building life-changing wealth.

Build a Fastlane business. Earn real financial freedom. Join free.

Join over 80,000 entrepreneurs who have rejected the paradigm of mediocrity and said "NO!" to underpaid jobs, ascetic frugality, and suffocating savings rituals— learn how to build a Fastlane business that pays both freedom and lifestyle affluence.

Free registration at the forum removes this block.

Two opportunities, which one should I choose?

aardvarky

Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
152%
Jan 18, 2014
61
93
Hi guys, I haven't been active here for around a year - I haven't been active in much, actually - as I've been busy giving birth to a little boy :)
But now that the hazy months of pregnancy are well behind me, I am very much ready to get back into the swing of things! The thing is...I'm feeling a little confused on what to do next. Am hoping the smart minds here could help me out! Thanks in advance for your advice :)

Background: I've been building websites since 2012. By the time I got pregnant, I had a handful of well-performing sites that were netting me a little over $10,000 per month. I planned on working on them - maintaining, expanding - through my pregnancy but I ended up feeling foggy and fatigued for nearly the whole pregnancy, to the extent that I'd work on something and then actually forget what I'd just done ten minutes ago!

Long story short: my income has almost halved since then but the main sites are still doing well in terms of traffic. And I think there are still many more opportunities to expand the sites, which is where my dilemma lies.

The dilemma: The most opportunity, IMHO, is in two of my main sites:
- 1st site: My site is currently one of the biggest in the niche (home improvement) although a few worthy competitors have entered it in the past year. It gets around 100K visitors per month and it is a hungry niche in a market looking for both DIY and professional solutions.

I've focused only on the DIY side of things so far and my revenues are from advertising and affiliate sales. I'd like to venture into the professional side of things and my options here are either to do lead generation as an affiliate, as part of an affiliate network. I am talking to these networks to see how much I could expect to make per lead, what qualifies as a lead, etc.

The thing about this niche is that there are a lot of professionals but they are very disorganized - it's hard to get quotes - prices, type of home (i.e. size), etc. And because it's such a difficult, disorganized arena, I'm thinking there is significant opportunity here if I could consolidate partners to send these leads to myself. I understand MJ DeMarco did this for Limos.com and, well, a girl can aspire, right?

So that's the first option I could pursue...

-2nd site: This site is in the beauty niche and again, mine is one of the main sites in this niche. The traffic isn't as good - around 20K a month - but it's highly focused and it is a buying audience. This beauty need is also a constant thing - i.e. customers need to keep ordering the product(s).

The opportunity I see for this site is ecommerce - specifically, to create my own brand for this beauty product as well as related products. I've had a look at the KW competition and it's still very low although there are new FBA products popping up on Amazon in this niche every day. I've also looked into private labeling products from China and the options look good.

For both of the options above, I imagine the time investment will be substantial since I haven't tried either lead gen or ecommerce before. There will be significant research as well as trial and error and at the end of the day, my efforts may not work out. And with my new baby, I won't have the time or energy to do both.

So having read through this, which do you think would be the best option to pursue? Any advice is much appreciated. Thank you!
 
Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

Bourbons

Bronze Contributor
Speedway Pass
User Power
Value/Post Ratio
226%
Mar 28, 2016
76
172
35
Newcastle, UK
Hi guys, I haven't been active here for around a year - I haven't been active in much, actually - as I've been busy giving birth to a little boy :)
But now that the hazy months of pregnancy are well behind me, I am very much ready to get back into the swing of things! The thing is...I'm feeling a little confused on what to do next. Am hoping the smart minds here could help me out! Thanks in advance for your advice :)

Background: I've been building websites since 2012. By the time I got pregnant, I had a handful of well-performing sites that were netting me a little over $10,000 per month. I planned on working on them - maintaining, expanding - through my pregnancy but I ended up feeling foggy and fatigued for nearly the whole pregnancy, to the extent that I'd work on something and then actually forget what I'd just done ten minutes ago!

Long story short: my income has almost halved since then but the main sites are still doing well in terms of traffic. And I think there are still many more opportunities to expand the sites, which is where my dilemma lies.

The dilemma: The most opportunity, IMHO, is in two of my main sites:
- 1st site: My site is currently one of the biggest in the niche (home improvement) although a few worthy competitors have entered it in the past year. It gets around 100K visitors per month and it is a hungry niche in a market looking for both DIY and professional solutions.

I've focused only on the DIY side of things so far and my revenues are from advertising and affiliate sales. I'd like to venture into the professional side of things and my options here are either to do lead generation as an affiliate, as part of an affiliate network. I am talking to these networks to see how much I could expect to make per lead, what qualifies as a lead, etc.

The thing about this niche is that there are a lot of professionals but they are very disorganized - it's hard to get quotes - prices, type of home (i.e. size), etc. And because it's such a difficult, disorganized arena, I'm thinking there is significant opportunity here if I could consolidate partners to send these leads to myself. I understand MJ DeMarco did this for Limos.com and, well, a girl can aspire, right?

So that's the first option I could pursue...

-2nd site: This site is in the beauty niche and again, mine is one of the main sites in this niche. The traffic isn't as good - around 20K a month - but it's highly focused and it is a buying audience. This beauty need is also a constant thing - i.e. customers need to keep ordering the product(s).

The opportunity I see for this site is ecommerce - specifically, to create my own brand for this beauty product as well as related products. I've had a look at the KW competition and it's still very low although there are new FBA products popping up on Amazon in this niche every day. I've also looked into private labeling products from China and the options look good.

For both of the options above, I imagine the time investment will be substantial since I haven't tried either lead gen or ecommerce before. There will be significant research as well as trial and error and at the end of the day, my efforts may not work out. And with my new baby, I won't have the time or energy to do both.

So having read through this, which do you think would be the best option to pursue? Any advice is much appreciated. Thank you!
Hey, well done on getting to 10k/month, and making a baby.

I like the sound of option 2.. I'm not sure I've ever liked the affiliate/traffic for marketing sake route, and maybe just don't understand the proposed model for your DIY site.

I do however like that you can build a brand, sell your own products, and have repeat customers.

Baby's are hard work, though, maybe get a nanny!

Best
 

Post New Topic

Please SEARCH before posting.
Please select the BEST category.

Post new topic

Guest post submissions offered HERE.

New Topics

Fastlane Insiders

View the forum AD FREE.
Private, unindexed content
Detailed process/execution threads
Ideas needing execution, more!

Join Fastlane Insiders.

Top