6 ms·

Remember the $400k/year parrot ebook? Here's sales figures for another similar site.

34 points by bemmu 18y ago

bemmu 18y ago
In the right sidebar there are screenshots of traffic stats, accurate sales figures. Found this very interesting after wondering if a parrot book site could really make that much.
- garyrichardson 18y ago
  I wonder if there are more parrot owners or oil painters? And which group requires the most help? using https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal, 'parrot help' reported 58 searches in february and a search volume of 320. 'oil painting help' was also search 58 times in February, but only had a search volume of 73. Based on those numbers, I'd assume that the parrot site is a bigger niche and should make more money.
  - sobriquet 18y ago
    oil painting techniques: 9,900 oil painting technique: 1,900 painting techniques: 74,000 I think people would search for 'help' when their parrot is misbehaving, but 'techniques' when they want to learn how to paint. Also, beginning/intermediate painters may very well be interested in becoming good enough to sell their work. As such, they might invest in lessons/ebooks, which could garner better conversion rate.
dkokelley 18y ago
I think I'm going to try something like this. I've always felt dirty when entertaining ideas of information marketing 'businesses', but if it works, it works. I'll see if I can do it all with outsourcing (minus the actual site), so, outsource the marketing copy, the product design, the customer service, the order fulfillment (or automate it), the marketing/selling. It looks like the only trick is to A: automate it, B: get a targeted, under served niche, and C: get a good marketing copy made and an affiliate system. It will be an interesting experiment. I'll report back after I'm making > $10k/month and living in Fiji.
- tocomment 18y ago
  How will you choose a subject?
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
  - dkokelley 18y ago
    I might chose something I have a little experience in, or just something so targeted that it has to work. I'll probably end up where experience and focus meet. Or... I could turn to the wonderful HN community for ideas. Any takers?
    - cubicle67 18y ago
      "How to generate over $400k in revenue each year", only $299
    - delano 18y ago
      I'd like to know how to grow my own almonds.
    - ftse 18y ago
      Parrots and Oil Painting... niche markets that couldn't be further from web 2.0. The majority of the population with high levels of disposable income, and the will to spend it (soccer moms, retirees, busy non-geek professionals etc) are not catered for. It is a massive, untapped market.
    - tocomment 18y ago
      I'm considering doing one too. Maybe we should team up? (email me if interested.). Here are a few ideas I have so far. What does HN think? 1. Growing Avocado trees 2. Raising Geese 3. Understanding statistics 4. Something with the Arduino
      - dkokelley 18y ago
        Actually, understanding statistics is something I might be good at teaching. Maybe we could focus it even more than that. Maybe it should be "how to pass college statistics," or "statistics for scorekeepers."
staunch 18y ago
> The current owner will provide written instructions on how he earned $100K in a year to the new owner. LIMITED OFFER: Buy snake oil instructions for growing your own snake oil business.
- graemep 18y ago
  Its fairly typical of the sites that are sold through Sitepoint and the like. The business peaked in 2006 and revenues fell for two years running - so it started declining before the owner fell ill. It looks like it is recovering in the first two months of 2009, but it could also be a spike. It also looks like it needs a fair amount of work to make that much money. So you pay somewhere between $120,000 and $160,000, give up your current job, take the risks entailed, work hard and you might make $100,000+ a year in revenues (not profits!). That does not sound like such a good deal. In general, the difficulty of verifying the profitability of small sites means that no one will risk paying a high multiple for them. No one with a decent site will sell it at a low multiple, so if it is for sale, expect it to have poor prospects.

34 points by bemmu 18y ago

bemmu 18y ago

In the right sidebar there are screenshots of traffic stats, accurate sales figures. Found this very interesting after wondering if a parrot book site could really make that much.

garyrichardson 18y ago
I wonder if there are more parrot owners or oil painters? And which group requires the most help? using https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal, 'parrot help' reported 58 searches in february and a search volume of 320. 'oil painting help' was also search 58 times in February, but only had a search volume of 73. Based on those numbers, I'd assume that the parrot site is a bigger niche and should make more money.
- sobriquet 18y ago
  oil painting techniques: 9,900 oil painting technique: 1,900 painting techniques: 74,000 I think people would search for 'help' when their parrot is misbehaving, but 'techniques' when they want to learn how to paint. Also, beginning/intermediate painters may very well be interested in becoming good enough to sell their work. As such, they might invest in lessons/ebooks, which could garner better conversion rate.

dkokelley 18y ago

I think I'm going to try something like this. I've always felt dirty when entertaining ideas of information marketing 'businesses', but if it works, it works. I'll see if I can do it all with outsourcing (minus the actual site), so, outsource the marketing copy, the product design, the customer service, the order fulfillment (or automate it), the marketing/selling. It looks like the only trick is to A: automate it, B: get a targeted, under served niche, and C: get a good marketing copy made and an affiliate system. It will be an interesting experiment. I'll report back after I'm making > $10k/month and living in Fiji.

tocomment 18y ago
How will you choose a subject?
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- dkokelley 18y ago
  I might chose something I have a little experience in, or just something so targeted that it has to work. I'll probably end up where experience and focus meet. Or... I could turn to the wonderful HN community for ideas. Any takers?
  - cubicle67 18y ago
    "How to generate over $400k in revenue each year", only $299
  - delano 18y ago
    I'd like to know how to grow my own almonds.
  - ftse 18y ago
    Parrots and Oil Painting... niche markets that couldn't be further from web 2.0. The majority of the population with high levels of disposable income, and the will to spend it (soccer moms, retirees, busy non-geek professionals etc) are not catered for. It is a massive, untapped market.
  - tocomment 18y ago
    I'm considering doing one too. Maybe we should team up? (email me if interested.). Here are a few ideas I have so far. What does HN think? 1. Growing Avocado trees 2. Raising Geese 3. Understanding statistics 4. Something with the Arduino
    - dkokelley 18y ago
      Actually, understanding statistics is something I might be good at teaching. Maybe we could focus it even more than that. Maybe it should be "how to pass college statistics," or "statistics for scorekeepers."

staunch 18y ago

> The current owner will provide written instructions on how he earned $100K in a year to the new owner. LIMITED OFFER: Buy snake oil instructions for growing your own snake oil business.

graemep 18y ago
Its fairly typical of the sites that are sold through Sitepoint and the like. The business peaked in 2006 and revenues fell for two years running - so it started declining before the owner fell ill. It looks like it is recovering in the first two months of 2009, but it could also be a spike. It also looks like it needs a fair amount of work to make that much money. So you pay somewhere between $120,000 and $160,000, give up your current job, take the risks entailed, work hard and you might make $100,000+ a year in revenues (not profits!). That does not sound like such a good deal. In general, the difficulty of verifying the profitability of small sites means that no one will risk paying a high multiple for them. No one with a decent site will sell it at a low multiple, so if it is for sale, expect it to have poor prospects.