Newb with crazy idea.

[redfella]

Hey guys. Newb here.

I have, what I believe to be, a great idea for a website. But I need some help and advice.

Let me give you some history:

They always say follow your passion, so I toke some time to think that over and thought of a product that I would love to sell. I figured I would sell this product on the internet as it would probably fail in a brick and mortar store. Not enough local interest to sustain it, I would guess. But probably enough interest online for it to thrive (I'm hoping).

It would be a website that sells art, posters, books, guides, dvds and stationary all regarding a certain topic. The only thing is is that for it to operate in the fashion that I am envisioning I would have to purchase nearly 50,000+ unique items! This would put inventory expenses in the millions of dollars. I can't do that at the moment.

So, during my research I discovered affiliate marketing....

My question is this... Would it be insane to make a one website with 50,000+ product links pointing to affiliate stores (like art.com and amazon.com)? Keep in mind that the site would be extremly well organized and designed.

Is it possible, and if so, how would I do it? Would I have to do a lot of coding? Because art.com's virtual store creator has a lot left to be desired.

Thank you!

 

[Clintoc]

It would be pretty insane.

I would probably break it all down into seperate niches.

In saying that, however, you can do it a niche at a time (product line.. same deal) and have it all from the same site. So you could tackle the DVD side of things first, for example, then step up to the art. That way you start with one completed concept, and just continue to build upon it.

My current project is a similar spin on this idea. Im promoting one product at a time via article marketing efforts, while working on SEO on the site. There are another dozen or so related products that I plan to promote on the site, all marketed similarly. If things work out, the site should be pretty solid on an SEO standpoint, and have plenty of traffic funneled in through the articles.

Im not sure I would tackle 50,000 products myself, but I know people do.

 

[redfella]

The lowest I could go on my inventory and still create what I am envisioning would be somewhere in the ballpark of 5,000 items. However, somewhere around 25,000 items would be ideal. And 50,000 items would be the apex.

What is the methodology for handling large inventories in affiliate marketing? I am a complete layman when it comes to affiliate marketing. I do have other business skills however.

 

[Linda Buquet]

The way you build a store full of merchant's products is called a datafeed.

I'm curious about the fact that you are focused on the # of items.

Typically you'd pick a niche. Then find a merchant that had products that would appeal to your niche market. Then add all the merchant's products or just a specific category of products. So the merchant's inventory would determine yours.

One of the easiest ways to build a niche store with lots of products from a variety of merchants is with PopShops. You can pull a category of products and it will pull products from all the merchants you've joined and have a relationship with.

Watch the video on the homepage to see a 4 year old building a datafeed store with Popshops and see if that would do what you have in mind.