Stone Sculpting website for sale

[LimeCutter]

Hi all

After reassessing where I am and where I want to go as a sculptor I have decided that I am doing too many things. As a consequence of prioritising I have decided to stop running my stone sculpting courses as of next year.

They have been great fun and I have built the foundations for a good business and I will miss the variety of people I have been meeting.

I am preparing to sell the website, it's content, images, logo and web copy for a reasonable offer.

http://www.sculptingstone.co.uk

Since I last year I have managed to get a first page ranking in Google for both the following search phrases:
'stone sculpting course'
'stone carving course'

There will id a national bias to searches in Google so the above applies to the UK.

The site has a Google page rank of 3 which is quite good considering it's young age. This can be maintained if it is used for the same purposes (i.e.
the content and relevance stay the same).

This could be a great advantage to anyone thinking of starting a course or wanting to take advantage of a strong internet position.

I will also throw in some of my time to help you understand the website, set it up for yourself and maintain a good Google position through a sensible online marketing plan.

[Landseer]

More correctly to be clear- you are selling your DOMAIN NAME which has a web site on it, not just a web site.
The high rankings no doubt would be largely in part due to the unique search terms used, after all, there's not a lot of stone carving course sites out there to begin with just as there's not much for "architectural gargoyles"

[Portoro]

I'd be interested in it, but I wouldn't want the domain name or the 'Google' ratings, as I already have both.

[LimeCutter]

Originally Posted by Landseer

More correctly to be clear- you are selling your DOMAIN NAME which has a web site on it, not just a web site.
The high rankings no doubt would be largely in part due to the unique search terms used, after all, there's not a lot of stone carving course sites out there to begin with just as there's not much for "architectural gargoyles"

Yes - thanksyou Landseer

It is correct that the sale is for the domain, the hosting and the website itself.

I agree to some extent that the search phrases are more niche than generic but the whole point of the site is to attract people who want... (wait for it).... yes that's right - stone carving courses.

The more generic the terms the more possibility of hits but then you would have more of a shot gun approach to your marketing. You know you are using a shot gun approach when your answer to the question - 'who would buy your product' - is 'anyone or everyone would'. So when you fire your marketing shotgun at your wide target you get a peppering across the whole thing and only a tiny amount of it hits the bullseye.

I have optimized my site and tartgeted it at what I believe is the appropriate niche market - my bullseye.

I don't want to attract people looking for just 'stone' or even 'stone sculptures'. I agree it wouldn't hurt, but the competition for top google ranking starts to include non-relevant site or site content. Anyone looking for a course would also encounter a similar problen in the search results returned using such broad search phrases. That person would soon realise that they neeeded to be more specific in their phrasing.

As for google results based on the keywords I have listed - 1.9 million results are returned. You don't start at the top of a google search when you make your site live - you have to build it up, so consequently part of the value of the domain name and the website combination is based on the large amount of effort I have put into getting that first page position against 'relevant' keyword searches.

Hope that clarifies the use of strategic, targeted marketing.

[LimeCutter]

Originally Posted by Portoro

I'd be interested in it, but I wouldn't want the domain name or the 'Google' ratings, as I already have both.

Hi Portoro

I have a couple of poeple looking at buying the whole package. If that fails I will let you know and we can discuss the website only.

Thanks

[Landseer]

Sort of, but if I search for "reproductions of gargoyles" only 13 results come up and 4 of the links are mine nyc1664.com, arc-elements.com lostnewyorkcity.com, or link to me in some way.

arc-elements.com was an architectural antiques site whose domain expired, I bought it for the cost of registering it, same for riversidetileworks.com and I redirect the traffic from them to my site. Both have a number of old listings, ads, etc, and the latter is included in a book about subway tile ceramic art.

[LimeCutter]

Not all niche markets are the same size - if yours is proving too small then it is well worth considering widening the net. It's not easy to get it right and online isn't necesarrily the best route. For my other website about my actual sculptures (seperate) I don't expect to get a lot of online passing trade from it and use it more as an online portfolio.