Hi there, I've got a huge problem here which is a problem in that it is very real and isn't a problem in that I'm so far 'in' that I have no alternative but to live with it! Ok, they always say that when you start a niche business product you should focus on one that you know your customers will buy and not one that you simply want to sell...well needless to say I did it the other way around. Fortunately this is very much a hobby business. I make interactive guided tours. You know those 360 real estate tours you get which have panoramic 'look around' photographs? Well I make those - I add detailed, informative text, have many of those images in a well worked out tour around the location, add still images, maps, archive images and have video clips and audio commentary. I package them nicely and have them on cd-roms. I've got them on sale in a couple of places and they've sold out in very small runs. I've had some very positive reviews, including one from a hollywood producer! My big problem is the market area because basically this type of thing was done pretty badly (aside from a very very few companies) in the mid nineties, very early 'nauties' and isn't really being done now. In the locations I'm covering now there is no competition - which is either great or is very worrying. I'm aiming at the same market as travel literature and also the wallking tours. I figure that basically I'm offering a cd-rom based version of the walking tours around the streets (I do virtual tours around the streets of my historic town for example) and also the same market as the travel books for the same type of thing. This all seems very easy but I have to say I'm really finding it hard. Classifying on some product pages is really hard 'book, software, music' drop down menus often kill me and SEO has been really hard because its taken me a long time to narrow down my target market to this and even now I'm still 'dithering'. I posted on the SEO general forum that at present I'm getting a pitiful 9 hits a day and I've done a fair bit of research (and a lot of investment in books softare etc). I can't post a link to my site as my signature but I will when I can and will when I'm ready as a review request, if suitable. First n foremost I want to have a good quality value for money product, which I think I have but blimey getting online traffic is hard. I'd appreciate any advice from anyone who found themselves in a similar position although I appreciate my lack of specific detail makes this hard. Yours Robert
Make an affiliate system. Use CJ to promote your products through affiliate. Seo is good but it will take time.
Sounds like you could be on a winning idea there if the quality of product is good I wish i had some advice on promo and marketing....... Maybe offline marketing will be your most effective means locally? You know flyers, brochures, biz cards at tourist locations and main points where visitors go or even directly approach tourism operators like motels, well know eateries, gas stations, museums and other attractions. Just make sure you have a good and simple domain name to list on all your ads - make sure your site allows interested people to get in contact easily and look professional. Have photos and examples of your vitual tour locations which you have done. There is big potential so stick at it, good to see someone doing something different. Word of mouth and recommendations from other people offline are going to a big part of success. If its a success you could offer franchises to people to run their own business for their region and have a package that trains them how to do it all etc. Charge them $5,000 or $10,000 for the rights, cha ching $! Possibilities are endless - just dont let someone steal your idea without getting good $ if you have done all the hard ground work.
if i were you I would: (you may have done these already): make a plan of where you want the business to be in 3 months, 6 months and three years. Make a plan of how to will acheive those results. For your online side of the business make a big list of every way your service can be used. Once you have the list type it into google and see if people want to buy what you are selling i.e. is there actually a market there? Once you find a market, use the google keyword tool to find the top ten keywords in that niche, go to the top ten websites also and use the googlekeyword tool to find their keywords also. Make sure you have a page on your website that relates to those keywords, drive traffic to the site, hope that helps you get your thinking cap going.. dave
Thanks guys and girls, There are some really good ideas here and I'm going to print these out and get going with them. I'm actually a teacher (but an ill one) so I'll have to get into class and get well before I can act upon them...kiddies need me well first but mentally I'm keen to get going. Its just the worry about being the only person doing this and that I've had to learn to do it all myself...I'm still worried I've messed up but everyone who has bought one seems to be happy enough so far! Certainly one of my very early customers keeps emailing me regulary for when the next one is out! Many thanks for all your ideas...the positivity alone helps
One of the future problems of this is Google is now doing street level views, wholst limited I think they will look to make these quite extensive. To market test you could set up a blog with examples and ask people for opinions and ways to use your technology/service. I would get someone to go out and sell the service pay them a commission per sale or joine your local chamber of commerce or business organisation.
Thanks its a good point but I'll be ok once people see the website I think. I think many people who make 'virtual tours' simply stick up some 360 pictures and believe 'hey presto' thats it but really all they have is a rotatable photo and Google will blow them out of the water. My work has been done on the text and the research. Essentially my products strength is that is really more of an audio guide book that just happens to be in cd-rom form and the 'virtual tour' images accompany each scene (in one tour there are over 100 of them) and let the user actually see where history happened. It does make it much more interactive but to have image without text or audio is pretty dull I think. Good point to make that obvious to the web visitor though
Then you have answered your own question.....Put one area together and offer it a ebook/disk package (or whatever) and sell it on ebay (not digital of course) to test and hone a product like 'secret tour of florida' or something and make is interesting, valueable information with actual contact info like bars, clubs , restaurants etc You got to think out of the box with this.- how much are you selling your tour for?
You can also write a few articles using the keywords researched using the above method, and submit them to any of the numerous Free Article Directories available on the web, targeting educators or historians, this will serve to create backlinks toyour site, as well as put the product in front of the general web public, just be sure to abide by the submission guidelines in the Article Directoried you choose to submit to.
Hi actualeducation, I have been at small business for over 10 years now. I have seen big success, and lost my shirt on others. I recommend that you go Google and search for "SCORE". Its a NPO that you can use to talk to many retired professionals that put in their time and advice for free. First off if there is little to no search market don't put your time into it. Why target for searches that are not their. Reach out to clients that would be interested in buying or hiring you to product such products. That said; my big concern with what you said is that in the 90's people did this product, but now of days there are non or little competition. This is a red flag for me, as it tells me that the "market" was not their and it fizzed out. You could be really late to the party and about to learn the hard way about losing money/time. Hope it helps, and welcome to biz startup!