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Sep
6
A Glut in Small Business Sites?
September 6, 2007 | Anita Campbell
A friend and colleague writes me wanting suggestions for a topic niche that is not already saturated, for a small business site. His company plans to start a blog for business owners and managers. They are trying to stake out territory on a topic that is not already covered thoroughly.
In fact, he raises a point I’ve been thinking a lot about recently. It’s the question of “overbuilding” of small business sites. In this context, what I mean by small business sites is: sites designed to attract a small business audience.
Have we reached the point where the Internet-active small business population simply cannot support more small business sites and blogs?
Small business sites used to be centered on a limited number of well-known names, such as Entrepreneur and Inc magazines. Now they are everywhere. You can barely open up your browser without bumping into a small business site. They range from sections of large primo publications like the Wall Street Journal, all the way to independent blogs with intensely devoted followings of just 100 readers a week.
One school of thought says there are too many small business sites. There is a finite amount of time and attention that small business people are willing to devote to online content sites and communities. Like real estate where builders overbuild, and supply outstrips demand, value falls.
What do you think? Do we have an over-saturated market for small business sites?
Comments
3 Comments so far
No.It has not reached a saturation point because, most of these sites are managed by the ‘experts’either from home business environment or from online business.
As a small business owner, I find them lacking in experience in brick and mortar business, like small scale manufacturing or even retail.
Anita,
I think that the market is getting more and more competitive, but I also agree that we haven’t reached the saturation point yet.
We’re really just seeing the tail end of the first wave, with many more to come. Newer and better sites are coming around every day, and I think we can rely on small business owners to help the valuable ones stick around.
In Seth Godin’s book “The Dip,” he talks about how a difficult price of entry helps make the end result more worth while. There are more and more small businesses every day; and I think that the people who stick it out and create great products for them will get their reward.
Thanks for the thought-provoking article,
- Mason Hipp
The market is becoming very competitive every day, but I do not think that it has reached the saturation point…not yet.