Has Your Niche Ever Been Invaded by a Corporation?

[zulufox]

A friend of a friend had a pretty good niche and was making good money. While he did have competition, it was only from part time webmasters such as himself and they all got along pretty well, regularly linking to eachother.

But a few months ago, a large company "expanded" into his niche and launched a multimillion site.

This virtually destroyed his niche because there was no way he (or any other webmaster) could keep up with a full staff creating new sections and features.

Has this happened to anyone else here?

[txbakers]

one of my biggest fears

[decaff]

It's called Wal-Mart being SEO'ed ...watch for more of this in the shopping sectors...we are seeing this in one of our coveted sectors...though they haven't reached the top ten yet...they will eventually and if they ever reach the number 1 spot (where our solid site has been for many months through all the Google updates and all)...we may never see that spot again...can't compete with site the size of a Wal-Mart...

[zulufox]

Apparently my friend's friend did some researching and found out that there were about 20 people working full time on his niche. There is absolutely no way he could compete.

[4string]

This is the most depressing thread I've read on WW. I can now envision almost any money-making endeavor quickly jumped on by some mega-corp hiring Chinese SEOs for a nickel a day. Ugh.

This really is just the beginning of the internet. We're like the first ones out to California. Now look at the place. :)

Just another reason to diversify your sites.

[crescenta]

I think the thing that protects me (so far) is that no one wants to bother. It would take too long to explain (without getting specific), but the subjects I write about are quite niche and there isn't a ton of money in them.

Right now my site does well, along with the site of a bestselling author who writes on the same subject. Both of us could be left out in the cold if some big corporation gets in on the action, but, hm...I don't know how likely that is. Right now I'm thinking, not terribly likely. But--I guess anything could happen.

Edited to add: I suppose no "niche" subject is immune from a "Walmart-ization," but I think some niches are well represented with a "personal touch," and wouldn't necessarily be better with 20 different people writing about it.

I have a hard time imagining a big corporation offering the same experience in their site as this best-selling author, me, and other people who write about this same niche do. I guess a big corporation could make a dent, but having 20 different people writing content sounds like it would be too scattered, and too expensive. This niche is something that not *anyone* can write about. It takes years of experience to be able to understand this niche well enough to write about it with any credibility.

[zulufox]

I don't have to worry about my niche because it has a very fat "long tail". There is no perfect keyword for my niche so people end up typing all sorts of stuff. Even if a big corporation took over the main keyword, there are just so many other great keywords that I can surely pick up enough scraps to make a decent living.

[Marketing Guy]

I read an article a couple of months ago that 75% of the FTSE 100 companies had no search space presence (in their industry) due to the large amount of work done on small sites by SEOs. ;)

It's not all doom and gloom for the little guy - for all the marketing budgets and resources of large companies, they don't have *that* large an advantage in the SERPs. Plus many ignore SEO simply because they can generate a lot more traffic from traditional media marketing.

For the past while I've been slowly creaping up on the market leader in my area to the point I just knocked them off of no.1 on MSN for my (main) term and I'm not far behind in Google and Yahoo as well. If I (with no budget) can do that to a multi-billion dollar advertising agency, then anyone can.

At the end of the day, the big guys still have exposure and traffic at levels the little guy can only dream of, but you can still win minor victories in niche markets - you just need to step up the level of your game. Chances are they won't bat an eyelid - it's the little guys you need to watch out for! ;)

Scott

[jomaxx]

IMO the key is longevity. If the niche is worth spending a couple of million a year on, there's no way that any company can take it over so effectively that it drives a small operator out of business. In 5 years I have outlasted lots of competitors, some of whom had even IPOed or were setting themselves up for one.

Companies have very short attention spans. Most of those people will probaby be doing something very different next year, while their links break and their content ages and their site gradually becomes superfluous.

[trillianjedi]

I've always felt, for this very reason, that community sites are the long-term winner against the blue chips.

A forum with a few hundred active members will outgrow even the largest commercial site, and the unbiased nature of a community site within a niche gives it a key advantage (you're not trying to sell anything of your own).

Online vendors on the other hand always have this risk present. It's really no different to bricks and mortar business.

TJ