Minimum possible traffic to be worth making site

At what point is a niche just to small

[Mcadieux]

I'm going to try and explain my question the best I can. I want to get into eCommerce after doing affiliate marketing many years ago. We have created a website to sell some arts and craft type widgets that we make. The problem is I am looking at some of the very specific keywords and they only get 500 - 1000 monthly searches. Some of the more general keywords are in the 10,000 range but the estimated cost per click seems high at over $1. Most of are products are under $20. I need to create each product for pictures etc so there is a cost involved to add each product. At what point do you consider possible traffic just to low to even be bothered to attempt a site. Are products do sell well in person, I think there just isn't a large internet presence. What would you guys do in this situation?



Just a small note we are not looking to necessarily make this are full time job. Getting a handful of sales a week would make us happy.

[dpd1]

I think you already know what the deal is. With arts and crafts, as you said... it's a very 'see it in person' type of item. It's a tough nut to crack, but I don't think that means you couldn't sell it online. Personally, with that kind of stuff... I wouldn't even approach it thinking about SEO and all that. That is a word of mouth niche. I would participate in forums and become part of the community involving that. My guess is that you could make more connections and sales that way, then you ever could just waiting for people to find you, or using any sort of SEO techniques. Put a link to your site in your sig on forums and also on lists. maybe do some articles on the subject.

[Mcadieux]

Thanks for the advice we already started planning out the article route. I thought that combined with finding the right blogs.

[lorax]

You can do eCommerce with low numbers like that as long as you don't mind working with the site slowly and figuring out how to earn more with it over time.

[mhansen]

Have you considered testing the market at a place like Etsy? Instead of investing in your own infrastructure, you could minimize your own technology investment up front, and put a handful of products in their marketplace first.

[Mcadieux]

We did look at Etsy in the beginning but items are posted so quickly you drop off the first page within an hour. I found I still needed to do SEO and traffic generating ideas. If I was going to put that work in I figured I was better off with my own site. Our site is up and running now we just need to add more products and drive traffic. I just go from being excited and really putting the effort in to sometimes feeling like this may be all for nothing due to such a low possible traffic. I figured I would get some reassurance by posting here, which I did.