New Venture: BoardShorts.com

The online gaming industry has taken quite a few hard hits since Black Friday. So, I think now’s a good time to start looking to diversify. I probably should have done it sooner but it’s hard to walk away from an industry that I have spent more than 5 years working in.

I’ve been doing a lot of keyword research looking for another industry to devote my time. I looked for an industry where items could be purchased online and if it needed to be shipped, it could very easily. I also wanted it to be something that I was familiar with myself.

So, that’s how I ended up buying Boardshorts.com.

I don’t know how interesting the boardshorts market is, but I know that I wear O’Neill boardshorts so at least I am a comsumer. Also, the action sports market is always growing and boardshorts are sold for both men and women. According to a boardshorts wikipedia article, they are even a popular choice for MMA fighters.

The business model for the site hasn’t been determined yet. I could try selling boardshorts myself, which would mean keeping an inventory, shipping..etc. I think that it would be a nice change to have my own customers and be able to control my company more than I can as an affiliate. Obviously, the downsides are that it can be very time consuming and I’d need a lot of upfront capital.

A good option would be for me to be an affiliate for sites selling boardshorts. I live in California so with the new sales tax laws I wouldn’t be able to promote Zappos which would be my first choice. Although after doing some research, I could sell them through PacSun and a couple other clothing sites that offer affiliate programs.

I could also do a combination of those and team up with a larger online retailer and sell their inventory through my site. This could be a good option depending on the deal I could get.

There are many things to decide on the site and as you can see there isn’t much content on the site right now. The Boardshorts logo has been created and a couple articles about the different surf brands that sell boardshorts. I have a temporary design up but know that I need to decide how I’m going to monetize before I create a permanent design. At this point, I’m still working on my gaming sites but I allocate a couple of hours every week on the site to begin to diversify.