BEGINNINGI'm a professional website developer with 10 solid years of experience and SKYtech (http://skytechlasers.com) is a spare-time project I started in October 2013. The site went live in mid April 2014, so it took more than 6 months of hard work negotiating with the manufacturer, setting up the business entity & merchant account, implementing the shopping cart, research & copywriting, product photography & editing, making videos, and much more. Although the website has only been live for 1 month, it has already generated $1903.67 in profits working less than 2 hours a week. Read below for more details. THE NICHELaser pointers. It's a tool. It's a toy. It's a great niche with great margins! Lasers can be used for conducting presentations / lectures. It has great commercial value for event planners, architects, construction crew, and any profession requiring long distance pointing. Astronomers love lasers, especially the green ones, and use them for star pointing where lasers are often hooked up to telescopes. Lasers are used to scare away birds near airports. Lasers are used in sports such as in football where a line laser can be used as the line of scrimmage. We've had a customer that own a race track ask about using lasers for the starting/finish line.Men love lasers (some ladies do too). I don't know about putting lasers on sharks (as in austin powers), but high power lasers always appear in holiday gift lists. Laser enthusiasts love lasers that burn�, check out our youtube videos, you may just want to buy one for yourself! SKYtech's youtube channel (I made all the videos myself): https://www.youtube.com/user/laserpointerco (Hey, if you don't buy the website, why not buy a laser?)TECHNICALDomain: Hosted with GodaddyHosting: Nexcess.net (Magento Hosting)Shopping Cart: Magento CE v1.8SSL: Positive SSL (Comodo)Merchant Account: Checkout.comDROPSHIPAll products on this website are drop shipped direct from the manufacturer. No inventory necessary. PRODUCT REVIEWSWhat better way to prove we have a great product than receiving raving reviews from high profile gadget blogs and news sites! It also establishes trust for customers purchasing from this website. So far, these reviews are up:http://akihabaranews.com/2014/05/01/article-en/review-sky-technologies-445nm-1000mw-blue-laser-683030559http://the-gadgeteer.com/2014/05/04/sky-technologies-blue-handheld-laser-review/We've sent in samples for reviews for the following:
http://techwarelabs.com/ (Review should be live very soon)
http://ohgizmo.com/ (Review should be live very soon)
http://makezine.com/ (They are going to make 1. some kind of RC ariel combat vehicle (airship, plane, quadcopter, etc) or ground vehicle (tank, Attacknid, etc), 2. Laser Weapon Prop with real laser installed, 3. laser sight for guided projectile (cannon cam or homemade missile with a goPro inside of it))
http://www.astronomyreviews.com (Review should be live very soon)
OVERHEAD (MONTHLY)Nexcess Hosting: $24.95Merchant Account: $75 + transaction feesComodo SSL: $2 (paid for the year)888 Toll Free Number: $9.99 (not required)Live Chat: $12 (not required)Total Monthly Overhead Costs: $123.94 + ~3.3% transaction feeORDERSSKYtech launched in mid April where the first order came in on 4/16/2014. It's 5/23/2014 today (a little over 1 month) and I have sold approximately 30 lasers and various accessories such as laser glasses and stands. MONEY MONEY MONEY...After the initial setup of store which took many, many hours, I have not spent more than 2 hours per week running this business. I guess I can write a book called 2 hour work week. Most of the time is spent updating the shipping list (a shared online excel sheet), reviewing credit card payments, reviewing the analytics and adwords, and sending/replying to emails. There are just so many things going on with my life and work that has limited my time on this project. Given more time, the total revenue should be double or even triple the amount shown below. $5371.42 (sales)-$123.94 (overhead)-177.25 (transaction fee @ 3.3%)-$2779.64 (cost to manufacturer)-$386.92 (adwords - mainly using google merchant centre)Total Revenue: $1903.67 (not bad for the first month)WHY AM I SELLNG NOW?I don't want to. I didn't set this business up for a quick sale. Looking back, I spent so much time making every bit of the website perfect. I've setup a dedicated offshore business entity, corporate bank account, and merchant account, so I'm definitely not happy about letting this go. However, in life, you need to make sacrifices and time is one of the most valuable things you have. Although I could have probably sold this for more in a couple of months, I have so many projects on hand and have spread myself so thin that I don't even have time for my kids / family. Last week, I finally decided to leave my computer behind and sit at one of my favourite coffee shops alone to reflect. I've decided to leave this life of busyness behind. No more side projects. No more trying to make extra money. No more spending nights up programming. I'm going to treat myself better and make time to spend time with family. As SKYtech is a relatively new project, there is still much more work to be done to get this business on track. This is why I have decided to let this go compared to my other more established businesses. WHO IS THIS BUSINESS FOR?Look, there are no free lunches. This is not one of those auto generating� websites where you can make millions without lifting a finger. While you don't need to be extremely experienced with running an e-commerce website (you can learn on the way), you'll need to spend quality time with marketing, contacting editors to test out lasers, guest posting / blogging, adding content rich articles, forum posting, updating social media, and much more. Great news is I've already started this business on the right track. As you can see in the product review section above, there are two reviews up and four on the way (samples have already been sent). Based on the feedback I receive from editors, they're very excited about trying out our products since our lasers can be used as a flashlight. If you're experienced with running an e-commerce store, you'll know that what I have setup to be extremely valuable. If you're not very experienced and would like to give working at home a try, this is a great way to get started! WHY WAS THE DOMAIN REGISTERED IN APRIL 2014?There was a huge discussion about .co domains a couple years ago about if Google treated .co domains the same as .com domains. I actually had the idea to start this business a while back, at that time, I purchased www.laserpointer.co (redirects to skytechlasers.com). My original intention is to have the business called "Laser Pointer Co." since I had the great opportunity to purchase this domain name. After launching www.laserpointer.co in April, I realised Google wasn't indexing the pages. At this time, I purchased skytechlasers.com and moved the site over. Lo and behold, all the pages got indexed. This sale will include the premium domain name laserpointer.co�. *you'll notice some of the videos I made earlier uses the trade name "Laser Pointer Co."SEOA potential buyer just asked about my SEO and keyword targeting strategy. Being a SEO consultant for many, many years, I can tell you the market has changed dramatically. SKYtech is built focusing on long-tail keywords that include the type of laser, wavelength, power output, and color. For example, a keyword focus maybe "300mW 532nm green laser pointer". All product pages, youtube videos, as well as Google Merchant Center make use of these keyword phrases. No time has been spent on directory or article submission. My plan for link building is to have solid, high-profile websites write about the products. As you see above, there are already two solid links to the site with 4 more on the way. No black-hat SEO has been done. If you follow my path to include around 2-4 solid links a month, SKYtech should rank quite well in the following months. These are the exact links Google wants to see. BUSINESS ENTITYThe merchant account is linked to the business entity which is SKY Technologies Inc. Limited registered in Hong Kong, one of the greatest places in the world to own a business. Why? There is no corporate/business tax for all revenues made outside of Hong Kong. Additionally, a corporate bank account is setup in HSBC Hong Kong. This is not just a website sale, instead, I'm willing to transfer the entire business which costs thousands of dollars to setup. It's an all in one solution if you're new to e-commerce. For those that already have a registered business, talk to your accountant about have an off-shore account and learn the benefits. LEGALHigh power laser pointers have been in the news (not in a good way) where people have pointed at flying aircrafts, moving vehicles, and even used to distract professional athletes. It's very clear that the website does not condone these actions. In fact, our disclaimer states clearly the use of our lasers to be by professionals and adults over 18 years of age only. Unlike vendors in the market that offer unqualified laser products, the products on SKYtechlasers.com have all safety features and locks required by the FDA to make the import of these devices legal. Additionally, all shipments are backed by the manufacturer including all warranties. INCLUSIONS
transfer of laserpointer.co & skytechlasers.com including the domain itself and all associated data currently on the server.
transfer of all social media / email accounts.
all raw image files taken of the products.
manufacturer contacts and bridging the hand-over.
transfer of business entity (optional) - I've never transferred a business before, however, I'm sure it's possible. If you would like to transfer the business entity, you will be in charge of all costs associated.
If you're new to e-commerce, I'll be glad to offer you pointers and help make this project successful. Trust me, there's nothing I want more than having this project become a success.
IMAGESPlease take a look at the images to confirm traffic / sales based on the work I've done. If you need additional images, please don't hesitate to contact me. WHAT NOW?This is a real business with serious potential. Without much effort, I was able to make almost 2K where most sales came from Adwords & the product reviews. If you plan on taking over the business, I will help you along the way, however, you'll need to put in time to turn this business into auto-income. Although this business is on the right track, there is much room for progress and improvement. How I see it, you have three choices:
You leave this page and never look back.
You leave this page and try to copy what has already been accomplished thinking you can do better.
You ask me questions to see if this is legit with the intention of taking up this once in a lifetime opportunity.
Which will it be?By the way, if you have questions or need me to upload anything, please don't hesitate to comment below or send me a message. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Date Listed: 05/26/14