Judy Roberts described herself to me as “a lady with an idea that decided to take action.”ย One of her favorite quotes is: “Ideas don’t keep, something must be done about them” -Alfred North Whitehead.ย She thought that if there were other people already selling ugly sweaters that there must be a market, so she just ‘went’ for it!
Mike:ย buttuglysweaters.com is an unforgettable name.ย How did you come up with that?
Judy: I wanted a name that covered all the different genres of ugly sweaters and I wanted to stand out.ย I mean, if you’re looking for an ugly sweater, wouldn’t you rather have one that’s butt ugly?
Mike:ย Is there really a market for ugly sweaters?
Judy:ย People have been buying ugly sweaters for years.ย However, they really just started having ugly sweater parties for the past 3 or 4 years.ย These types of parties can occur at any time of the year.
Mike:ย How does one go about marketing ButtUglySweaters.com?ย Is there a butt ugly target market?ย Do you use online marketing such as SEO or banner ads?
Judy: I use the AscenderCart shopping cart to help me appear high in the search results.ย The AscenderCart helps me with all the on-page and in-site SEO.ย I accompany that with a few links and my blog.
Mike:ย I can’t imagine that you produce all the sweaters that you list for sale on the site.ย What advice would you have for others looking to start a site in a non-competing line of products.ย How difficult is it to get started?
Judy:ย You’re correct, I don’t make the sweaters.ย I have several suppliers that provide me with the sweaters.ย We accent some sweaters with “ugly” stuff to make them uglier.
Find a supplier that can help you meet the demands of your market.ย ย One’s business is only as good as oneself and those with whom one partners.
Starting a business isn’t too hard.ย It’s all about finding something one is passionate about and building a business from that passion.ย One can’t succeed in a field in which one is not joyfully passionate.ย You need to love what you do.
Mike:ย What is the volume of traffic the site sees on a monthly basis?
Judy:ย I launched the website on September 1, 2010 with modest hopes in selling a couple hundred dollars of ugly sweaters.ย I was astonished by the quantity of sweaters I sold and how much I earned.ย In the first 90 days we had over 4,500 visitors who found the site using over 430 phrases.ย The amount of traffic continues to increase, but I expect as Spring and Summer role in the traffic will decrease.
Mike:ย ย What advice do you have for others who are searching for a domain name for their business?
Judy:ย Find an easy to remember domain name.ย The domain doesn’t need to be solely a keyphrase; it can be something like bobslawnmowers.com or terryspooltables.com.ย Those are memorable while not being 100% keyphrase based.
5 comments
people WILL buy anything !
Now what to do with wrinkledbutts.com .. hmmm..
@Nacy – lol. Amazingly, that’s registered.
Mike, I don’t know how you do it, but this was actually a great find. She seems to have a great feel for how to succeed with any business. Love it.
Thanks guys! Just wait til THIS fall! It’ll be my 2nd year and I plan to ROCK it! ๐
interesting concept.
Is that family guy megan’s butt? I see the hat, but not sure ๐