With “pricing,” we found ourselves at just about the right profit potential level. So it was not necessary to grow the concept.
With “Botticelli,” we needed to widen the concept to capture more profit potential.
With “fashion,” we’ll need to do the opposite -- narrow it down to a “do-able” yet
profitable level.
Heck, “fashion” is just too broad...
• You won’t be able to develop the unique positioning required by a good (VPP).
• It will take forever to fill a general fashion site with enough content so it does
not look bare.
• Winning the Search Engine wars for a General Keyword like “fashion” will be
extremely difficult. And even if you do win it for your home page, people
searching for “fashion” are so non-specific, looking with so many possible
different topics, that your site is unlikely to meet their needs.
And that’s why...
The only strategy on this over-congested Net is to target a specific niche with
a specific Site Concept and a strong VPP that tells people quickly what specific
and high-value information you are delivering.
When you start with a wide-open concept like “fashion,” you have two basic
choices...
1) Narrow down to a “fashion”-containing Site Concept that excites you...
something about “fashion design” or “fashion model” or “fashion designer.”
2) Change course somewhat, based on your BREAKOUT research.
(In fact, while you’ll start with one or the other, you will quickly end up using
both choices, as we’ll see now...)
Let’s cover each quickly, from a VPP point of view...
OPTION 1) Narrow down -- Remember some of our HIGH-PROFITABILITY
“fashion”-containing keywords?...
fashion magazine
fashion model
fashion designer
fashion design
Let’s focus on what excites you... designing and publishing. You decide to
publish an online magazine about fashion design and designers...
fashion-designers-magazine·com
The domain contains your VPP. It says exactly what your site delivers, and that
you’ll be delivering it through the format of an online magazine/Web site.
No, the name is not particularly clever. Using words like Herald or Express
would sound and look much slicker (ex.,FashionDesignExpress·com). But
using “magazine” gives you a better edge with the Search Engines, for two
reasons...
i) There’s a slight advantage to having your keyword within the domain name.
But more importantly...
ii) You’ll be using your name over and over in your copy. No one searches for
“FashionDesignExpress.” But lots of people search for “fashion magazine.” And,
since few people use quotes when they search, the “fashion” and the “magazine”
do not have to be together. So this gives you “findability” for “fashion magazine”
and “fashion designers” and even “designers magazine.”
Add a byline like...
“The Fashion Design Magazine
By, About, and For Fashion Designers”
Include this on every page, under your logo.
Your magazine format gives you the flexibility to cover a wide range of topics
related to fashion design and designers. Use the BREAKOUT techniques
described in DAY 3 to generate more and more topics related to fashion design
and designers (jewelry topics, famous designer bios, etc., etc.).
You’re off and running with a great concept like this. Just one more thought...
Let’s say that fashion-designers-magazine·com succeeds really well...
Hey, it should! You’re doing everything right. But...
It will be too late to register related domains later. Do it now, with an eye to
expanding your concept in a few months or so (as discussed above for
artchive·com)...
• fashion-model-magazine·com
• fashion-products-magazine·com (your future store?)
• factory-outlet-stores-magazine·com (see below)
• And, of course, tie it up all together with a Master Domain, fashionmagazine·
com or THEfashion-magazine·com. This Master Site will be
launched once your other sites are all up and running, much the same way that
you did for artchive·com above.
Let’s discuss your second option when dealing with a wide-open General
Keyword like “fashion”...