The Wholesale Forums

[R.Mankelow]

Hi, i've been running a website for a while now and have seen a steady rise in sales, providing me with a bit of pocket money . I have not advertised the website at all yet, both online and offline, apart from via google base and shopping search engine.

I am looking into (in the future) expanding the brand 'MT' into other markets, including-premium branded fashion, dvd's/blu ray and hopefully homeware. Every market that i expand into will have it's own website with the MT branding.

I hope to also have a corporate website once they are all set up (a long way a way) bringing all the websites into one.

My main question for you is, do you think it would be best to fully establish and advertise my 1st website (the one in my sig) before setting up all the others or, setup all the other sites, find suppliers etc and advertise them all at the same time?

Thanks for your time,
Ryan

[hardwareheroes]

I think it would be a good idea if you arent spreading yourself too thin, physically and financially to set them all up. Linking to each one will cause you to widen your net significantly seeing as they are divergent markets which will still h.ave an element of crossover e.g. someone might be shopping for electricals and see the link to your premium fashion website and remember that they do, in fact, need a new pair of shoes with which to relax and watch the DVD player they just bought from you.

[R.Mankelow]

Originally Posted by hardwareheroes

I think it would be a good idea if you arent spreading yourself too thin, physically and financially to set them all up. Linking to each one will cause you to widen your net significantly seeing as they are divergent markets which will still h.ave an element of crossover e.g. someone might be shopping for electricals and see the link to your premium fashion website and remember that they do, in fact, need a new pair of shoes with which to relax and watch the DVD player they just bought from you.

Thats exactly what i thought, with the crossover idea and obviously the corporate website linking them all together. The day to day running costs of the website's would really not be significant enough to cause me any financial problems even if no sales were made for a while. It's just finding the supplier's really, which would mostly have to be dropshippers to start with. I know with dropshipping dvd's the profitability would be very minimal so emphasis would have to be on quantity. We'll see!

I really appreciate your reply,
Ryan

[hardwareheroes]

Within your post lies a problem however, that was not apparent in your initial post. You are going to be relying on dropshipping which not only reduces your profit potential but puts you at risk of a poor reputation as you are relying on others to earn it for you.

If you can raise capital to stock items on your website, you will earn higher profits and the website will grow quicker due to satisfied customer base.

Sorry if it seems like I am changing my mind but the goalposts changed a wee bit there

[hardwareheroes]

Have to say, your website looks very professional - thats a great start!

[Tango34uk]

What ever you decide, purchase all the webnames you need today! don't wait, then you can always just point them at your main site until its ready for the other sites to launch.

The last thing you want, is to find that someone else has purchased your webnames!

[hardwareheroes]

Originally Posted by Tango34uk

What ever you decide, purchase all the webnames you need today! don't wait, then you can always just point them at your main site until its ready for the other sites to launch.

The last thing you want, is to find that someone else has purchased your webnames!

Excellent advice. Have 6 or 7 domains myself which I have not/may never use but they were too good to pass up.

I have let a couple slip through forgetfulness but I doubt your plans will take too long to come to fruition somehow

[Tango34uk]

I would even think about purchasing the new .me domain name, as that will be the next big thing.

Just rather then think of using it as your name.me, think about your main product? Just think about it for a second, say you had sony.me or any other 4 letter word .me....... how much could you make! lol

French Connection UK.me jumps to my mind!