Internet Marketing Question

[Japher]

My older sister and brother-in-law are trying to start their own business. They plan to make and sale table bags aimed at custom, portable poker tables. Very niche, but not being in the poker biz at all, and having no interest in the game at all, I can't really judge the potential success. Personally, I think they should do table bags in general (card tables, message tables, etc.).

They didn't do any market research so that's rather scary. However, my b-n-law is also selling custom poker tables which he makes. In addition to the table he tacks on a bag, with all their profit from this sell coming mainly from the bag.

They have a website due up this week or next, will be posting on Craig's list, are having signs made for their vehicles, and will be putting them up on e-bay. Anyone have any other cheap ideas on how to sell/advertise/market them? They are new to the whole business idea; he's a special ed teacher and she's a stay at home mom.

What about affiliate marketing? Are there sites that can help him become an affiliate marketer? Would it be a good idea to take on a few affiliates for his own web site, or is that tacky?

I know there's some of you on here who work in this arena, so I'd appreciate your help.

Their site: http://www.pokertablebags.com/

[-Jrabbit]

WTF is a "table bag"?

[Lord Avalon]

Another place to hide an ace?

[Pekka]

OK, theres' tons of places to buy poker stuff, including tables and everything, so they're facing stiff competition. I'd say they should have done market research but oh well.

Maybe they should register on bunch of the bigger poker forums, for example 2+2, and try to sneak it in without spamming and becoming irritating.

Maybe they can look into what others are selling in the bigger forums and if they don't have what they're selling, pitching the idea to the owners or something.

So what I'd look into is how to sell bulk from the get go. It is likely that the biggest sites already sell this stuff as well so they won't be room for it, unless of course the price is right. So at the same time I'd look what the production resources are, as in how much can you make, how much does it cost and so forth. How much can you sell, provided that you'd be selling bulk. If you're going to sell individual items, it's going to be difficult IMO to break even or have any meaningful profit, unless they make really nice handy work and beef the price up, but then they really have to market them and put money into it as well.

That's my opinion. It might suck, so be warned. But I don't think there's much point making these things at home and selling them slowly, unless it's also a hobby and they like doing it. So I'd look to sell a lot to few places, not individual customers, or get these sites list their products and give them a kickback for every product sold.

[Japher]

Sites up, tell me what you think.

Thanks