How Small is Too Small?

Hello all,

I have been in eCommerce for a while but I have been in a larger market all this time. I'm about to open the doors to a new venture which is in a totally different market (still ecommerce). I was looking around at the search engines / keywords and I noticed that the PRIMARY keyword for my product only has about 22,500 searches monthly. This seems quite low. It makes me a little bit nervous that maybe I am in a niche where there just isn't enough people interested in my product. What do you think?

I am just curious, you don't have to reveal your primary keyword, but if you are profiting in your business, I would be curious to know how many searches your keyword is getting.

I used this tool to find that number: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Thanks!

 

I think there are several other factors you should consider before you take your decision:
1. how strong is your competition and what percent of these 22,500 searches you think you can get on your site;
2. how many secondary keywords can contribute traffic (and how much traffic);
3. what do you expect to be the gross margin per sale on your site;
4. what percent do you think your conversion rate will be (visitors to buyers);
5. what will be your fixed and variable expenses for setting up and running your site.
After you have the above figures, you can simply do the math

 

Actually, let me me refine my question a little bit. While this one keyword/phrase is getting 22,500 searches (the vast majority), other keywords I would be targeting probably sums up to be about 30,000 monthly searches for my product(s).

I think I can answer most of those, but traffic has me concerned right now. I think conversion rates and things will be pretty good, but I'm not sure if there is enough monthly searches out there to really provide enough traffic for a sustainable income. Luckily though, I won't have very much in overhead expenses at all.

 

Well then, I think you ought to try. Setting up an ecommerce site is not that hard and if you have a low burn rate, then go for it! Even if it doesn't live up to your expectations, you will learn a great deal by doing it and you won't have much sunk cost.

 

It's one of the oldest puzzles in the world. A big fish in a little pond or a little fish in a big pond. If you think you have a Unique Value Proposition (why should someone deal with you instead of your competitor?), and the margins are there, (2 very big caveats), the big fish in the little pond can be very rewarding.

I am in the same boat as you, with even fewer searches. So far, so good.

 

Nothing ventured nothing gained...right? If it is easy to rank top 5 then your workload with it will be small.

 

Yeah, after reading a little bit more and even watching a webinar about product sourcing, I'm actually quite pleased. It seems others have even smaller niche's. While I double I'll be able to retire anytime soon, I'm pretty confident now that I can get a sustainable income in my niche. We'll see though!

Thanks for all the responses guys! You guys encouraged me a lot!