Know-How Exchange : Research/Metrics

Why would you think it may be a better approach for me with your outlook on the competition?

The value is in the details. This idea came from commercializing a product. I found it very, very difficult to collect data for these products. Websites were ghastly and painful. In fact, for one category you don't even know what you're getting for the price. A disaster. And I used Google.

If the products are complex enough, fact is the attributes are not common and prices vary wildly when you change them, especially while crossing between brands. Again, this model makes sense when you avoid reproducing market niches which are done well. In any event, some of your words are interesting, if not unique to me to date. I'll take it on advisement, counselor.

Insider facts are part of the subscription. I have found data that has real value for articles that will exceed the hackneyed junk usually available. I will not use syndicated or like materials.

Instead of making your effort subscription-based, make it free. Collect income from affiliate sales of products in your database (and placing PPC ads). That'll make your information truly independent of bias, and collect no matter what choice your visitor makes.

Well, we're certainly not talking about CTR's... nevertheless.. you are both adding a layer of insight. I do have to increase peripheral value, like expert opinion, etc. We will offer a community, newsletter, and all the rest, too. That's because:

The product database is static data. People use it, leave. So to build a customer base I've added variable data. If you were covering counter-tops, then the variable data might be about maintaining them, etc.

re: free
Just so you know, that's a brilliant idea. Because that's what I'm doing. But I wasn't thinking affiliate, per se. I'm thinking cpc link on a brand/model/price page a user ends up on. If there's 800 pages of what I call "final result" pages in the DB, that's a lot of advertising space. Not to mention potential seo contributions. I'll give dealers an exclusive for these links. They are the only dealer on the page. Call it a premium link.

A - Possibly less complicated with an affiliate mechanism? My exp with affiliate stuff is very superficial. But I know there are more ways to do it today then 5 yrs ago. Remember, I'm broke so no CJ.

[BTW, today I think a cpc for a visitor who has designated brand/model/features/price can probably fetch 2x what the avg high-listing Adwords keyword could get. And you're probably talking about a 20% ctr to the web dealer's site for that product SKU, and he'll probably make a sale 1 out of 20 clicks. That's cheap for an item he sells at $1200. In better times, I'd bet I could get 4-5x the prevailing Adwords cpc rate. My plan is to tell manufacturer's this ad program, also program in C below, when I phone them for their product data. I hope to get manufacturers to ping all their dealers so I don't have to call them one by one.

B - I'm so hell-bent on charging a subscription because I plan to pick up partner sites. These partners will offer a free subscription to my site when their customer purchases x $ from them. This way we get free leads, including his visitors who do not buy anything from him.

C - I also plan to sell discounted gift coupons direct to visitors on my site, and in the newsletter. So I'm giving the public many ways to get in cheap. You know, when you don't set a price, you're losing the biggest merchandising angle ever used - the disct. Mark it up then mark it down - whatever you call it, you can't create spontaneity without the discount.

Of course --- we'll show free partial information for the entire site, just to prove who we are.

Any other ideas?? Problem is traffic. I think I can get 12,000 visitors monthly, after 6 months. Due to seo'ing about 35 keywords and PR in major newspapers, shelter magazines, business magazines, and contacting other websites. But after 6 mos there's still not much money. It'll be a haul unless someone has a brilliant idea...?

Well, we're certainly not talking about CTR's... nevertheless.. you are both adding a layer of insight. I do have to increase peripheral value, like expert opinion, etc. We will offer a community, newsletter, and all the rest, too. That's because:

The product database is static data. People use it, leave. So to build a customer base I've added variable data. If you were covering counter-tops, then the variable data might be about maintaining them, etc.

re: free Just so you know, that's a brilliant idea. Because that's what I'm doing. But I wasn't thinking affiliate, per se. I'm thinking cpc link on a brand/model/price page a user ends up on. If there's 800 pages of what I call "final result" pages in the DB, that's a lot of advertising space. Not to mention potential seo contributions. I'll give dealers an exclusive for these links. They are the only dealer on the page. Call it a premium link.

A - Possibly less complicated with an affiliate mechanism? My exp with affiliate stuff is very superficial. But I know there are more ways to do it today then 5 yrs ago. Remember, I'm broke so no CJ.

[BTW, today I think a cpc for a visitor who has designated brand/model/features/price can probably fetch 2x what the avg high-listing Adwords keyword could get. And you're probably talking about a 20% ctr to the web dealer's site for that product SKU, and he'll probably make a sale 1 out of 20 clicks. That's cheap for an item he sells at $1200. In better times, I'd bet I could get 4-5x the prevailing Adwords cpc].

My plan is to tell manufacturer's this ad program, also program in C below, when I phone them for their product data. I hope to get manufacturers to ping all their dealers so I don't have to call them one by one.

B - I'm so hell-bent on charging a subscription because I plan to pick up partner sites. These partners will offer a free subscription to my site when their customer purchases x $ from them. This way we get free leads, including his visitors who do not buy anything from him.

C - I also plan to sell discounted gift coupons direct to visitors on my site, and in the newsletter. So I'm giving the public many ways to get in cheap. You know, when you don't set a price, you're losing the biggest merchandising angle ever used - the disct. Mark it up then mark it down - whatever you call it, you can't create spontaneity without the discount.

Of course --- we'll show free partial information for the entire site, just to prove who we are.

Problem is traffic. I think I can get 12,000 visitors monthly, after 6 months. Due to seo'ing about 35 keywords and PR in major newspapers, shelter magazines, business magazines, and contacting other websites. But after 6 mos there's still not much money. It'll be a haul- worse there are 2 other founders - the database architect and the site designer, who are sharing the income.

Anyone have a good idea for speeding it up?