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Trekkie
Joined:
03 Feb 2004
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7
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Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2004 4:56 am
Post subject: An idea I had today - would you mind giving advice?
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Hi again,
I think I stumbled upon an opportunity today and was thinking about it for a while now. I hope you guys can help me make a decision.
I saw a report on a (very small) TV channel this afternoon. It was about a certain product, let's call it "widget", being re-introduced in a couple of months. These widgets were extremely popular a few years ago. A huge hype evolved around them. But after some months (or maybe 1-2 years) that hype diminished and eventually, widgets were no longer sold.
Most sites on that topic died during the past years. Since they weren't produced anymore, widgets are mostly collectible items now, so a few hobby/collector sites exist, but not many. The company that created them now made some changes to the product and is going to start selling them again soon.
The TV report I saw was in a show that is mainly targeted to young, internet-savvy people, mostly ages 13-25. And so are widgets. The show features websites on-air, nearly all the time. The show is actually based on the internet. The point is, when reporting about the reintroduction of widgets, they featured a personal web site about that topic which is one of the last sites remaining.
Now, that web site is ranked #1 in Google for the term "widget". It has a PR of 4 and the feature on television got them close to 300 visitors during the past couple hours. As you can see, that TV show does not have a huge reach but it did benefit their traffic some. The site also provides quite some good content and pictures on the different types of widgets.
Obviously, I thought - "Wow, what an opportunity. Go buy the site for peanuts (it's a personal hobby type of site, not commercial), use their content and turn it into a really nice, keyword-rich affiliate site! As soon as the widgets are released again, you'll get insane traffic due to #1 position on Google and make some nice money, especially if widgets become again as popular as some years ago."
But then it hit me. Unfortunately, their domain name is "www.widget.com" (actually it's not .com but another country code). I think I make a fair guess when I say that the company owning the trademark is probably going to reclaim that domain name in some unknown period of time. The fact that the TLD is not .com but a country code may decrease the probability some, but if they are in any way serious about their business, they will do it.
However, I am still pretty certain that preparing a site for that market is a great idea, since it is likely to grow rapidly within the next months - plus there is close to no competition yet. That leaves me with the question of how to do it. Of course, I still want to benefit from that personal page. I see three major options now, and maybe you can give me your thoughts on those. 
1. Buy the site, turn it into a great affiliate site and hope that the company owning the trademark doesn't notice or simply ignores me. Unlikely.
2. Buy the site, transfer all the content to another domain and use the "widget.com" domain to link or redirect to the new site, until it is shut down.
3. Simply build my own site from scratch and ask the owner of "widget.com" to link to my new site prominently, maybe for a small fee.
Right now I think No. 2 is the best way but that raises another question. If I delete the content from "widget.com" and simply use a redirect or a short text link to the new site, won't it's Google position suffer? But if I don't delete it, visitors will be likely to stay on "widget.com" and won't go to the new destination. Also, I think I read somewhere that Google frowns upon owning more than one listing per keyword.
I'd be very thankful if you could give me some suggestions on those issues. What do you think is the best way to go? And if you think No. 2 is the best way, then how to do it without hurting my listings?
Thank you very much in advance.
Oliver |
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AllanGardyne
Site Admin
Joined:
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6326
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Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2004 1:48 am
Post subject: Re: An idea I had today - would you mind giving advice?
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Sounds as though you've identified a very tasty niche.
| Quote: | | 1. Buy the site, turn it into a great affiliate site and hope that the company owning the trademark doesn't notice or simply ignores me. Unlikely. |
I think you've answered that one yourself - too risky.
| Quote: | | 2. Buy the site, transfer all the content to another domain and use the "widget.com" domain to link or redirect to the new site, until it is shut down. |
Depends on all sorts of things, such as how much you'd have to pay and whether you'd receive value for money.
| Quote: | | 3. Simply build my own site from scratch and ask the owner of "widget.com" to link to my new site prominently, maybe for a small fee. |
That's the option I prefer - as long as you know enough about widgets or are sufficiently interested in doing the research. That way, you can stamp your own personality on the site. You have a couple of months in which to create the site and get links to it.
It would be helpful to have "widget" or "widgets" in the domain name. Perhaps you could phone the manufacturer and seek permission to set up a site called widgets-fan-club.com or whatever. Who knows? You might be pleasantly surprised by the answer. You might even receive useful info you can use on the site.
Perhaps there's a fourth option to consider...
Buy the site, turn it into an affiliate site, and ALSO create your own widgets-fan-club.com . If the niche is the fantastic opportunity you believe it is, that ought to be well worth doing.
Perhaps you could come to some legal arrangement with the maker of widgets over the widget.TLD site. You might be able to convince the company that if it lets you hang on to the site, you could send it lots of business. It might be worth trying.
Allan Gardyne
Web sites that work. See the proof...
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/results |
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tmendham
Joined:
30 Aug 2003
Posts:
31
Location:
Edinburgh
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Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2004 9:59 am
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Sounds like a fantastic niche. If these widgets do take off again you could be positioned as a recognised expert if you move quickly.
I definitely favour starting a new domain with your own content. Apart from anything else this means that you can target individual pages to your desired keywords. Even if you kept the "content" of the old website you'd have to rework all the pages anyway to introduce your money-making links.
Obviously you can't copy content from the existing site, but there's no reason you shouldn't let it inspire you with ideas for pages, eg "widget maintenance", "microwaved widgets" or whatever.
_________________
Wyrdology - For all things strange |
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Trekkie
Joined:
03 Feb 2004
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7
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Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2004 12:12 am
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I just wanted to thank you both for your input. However, it looks as I am letting the idea go since I can't buy the site and I can't build enough content myself - I am not much into those widgets...  Plus, it seems competition will be heating up fast so I'm not gonna bother.
I'm very thankful for your ideas though, this board is such a helpful place.
Oliver |
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AllanGardyne
Site Admin
Joined:
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6326
Location:
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Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2004 1:06 am
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If you're not going ahead with the idea, is there any chance you'd tell us what "widgets" are? Someone here might want to build a site on the topic.
_________________
Allan Gardyne
AssociatePrograms.com - You're here. Explore it! |
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