Would you believe there are lots of companies that would sell you a BBQ and almost none that would teach you how to use it?
That's pretty much what I found out when I analyzed 118 websites in the BBQ & Grilling niche.
Again, lots of opportunities here for digital entrepreneurs...
Table of Contents
2.1. Physical products (ecommerce, merchandise, ...)
2.2. Affiliate products
2.3. Physical stores
2.4. Google AdSense
2.6. Digital products (PDF guides)
2.7. Digital products (courses)
2.8. Donations
2.9. Memberships/subscriptions
2.10. Consulting / coaching
2.11. Lead generation
3. Competitive Landscape Analysis
3.1. Gold Tier
3.1.1. Gold Tier companies
3.1.2. Gold Tier monetization
3.2. Silver Tier
3.2.1. Silver Tier companies
3.2.2. Silver Tier monetization
3.3. Bronze Tier
3.3.1. Bronze Tier companies
3.3.2. Bronze Tier monetization
3.4. All other companies
3.4.1. "All others" - companies
3.4.2. "All others" - monetization
4. Full dataset
1. Industry Overview
The Industry my team and I examined for this report is BBQ & Grilling.
Even in this industry, the 118 websites included in this study span across a wide range of traffic and domain authority.
This means that, although the bigger sites have a huge amount of traffic and high domain authority (up to 79), the niche is not saturated and there are still opportunities for new and smaller sites (the smaller domain authority among the 118 websites is 9).
The chart above shows how the 118 websites are distributed in regard to MOZ Domain Authority.
The biggest group shows DA between 35 and 40.
The sites in the lower 20% of the distribution, have DA smaller than 25.
This clearly indicates new sites have a chance of getting on this list in a relatively short time, provided they get enough authoritative backlinks.
Concerning organic traffic, the chart above shows the % of sites that reach a given amount of monthly visitors.
You can see for example that:
- 80% of the sites have less than 41k organic visitors per month;
- 50% of the sites have less than 8.5k organic visitors per month;
- 20% of the sites have less than 2.5k organic visitors per month.
NOTE: all the traffic and keyword metrics in this report are estimated, as reported by SEMrush.
This confirms that to be part of the elite of BBQ & Grilling sites, you don't really need to have a seasoned website with lots of traffic.
This niche is really accessible!
The full dataset of this study is available as a Google spreadsheet and it contains data of all the 118 companies.
*you get the spreadsheet with the full dataset.
It also contains contact info for all the 118 companies in this study.
Price: $39
2. Monetization Opportunities
This niche is perfect for whoever is trying to start an online business and it presents lots of opportunities for those who are already in its elite.
In fact, most of the businesses are oriented towards business models that involve physical products OD affiliate products OR AdSense advertising.
There is plenty of opportunities for small businesses to build up a small empire by delivering digital services.
The table below reports all the monetization methods, from the easiest to implement to the more challenging. The figures are the same used in the chart above.
In the following paragraphs of this section, we review the monetization opportunities one by one, from the most to the least saturated.
2.1. Physical products (ecommerce, merchandise, ...)
49.2% of the websites in this space sell some sort of physical product.
This Industry is fairly strong, backed with material assets.
This way of making money is not saturated, although 75% of the Gold Tier companies have an ecommerce store of some kind.
2.2. Affiliate products
A staggering 45.8% of the websites in the space rely on affiliate or referral programs to make money.
This does not come as a surprise given the number of products one can recommend for BBQ & Grilling.
In the lower tier, the competition on this monetization method is more aggressive.
In fact, 43 of the 73 companies in that tier (58.9%) monetize with affiliate products.
I would not recommend starting a site with the intent to leverage affiliate sales.
This niche offers better opportunities (keep reading).
2.3. Physical shop
23.7% of the companies in this space have one (or more) brick&mortar store.
For the companies n the Gold Tier, we talk about 50%.
If you have an ecommerce it is generally never a good idea to "settle" on a physical location.
In fact, most of these companies expanded a physical business into an online one.
Since physical stores have a limited reach, in theory, there is lots of space for other companies to compete against those who are already established here. However, stores come with high fixed costs and we warmly recommend investing money and time into developing further the online business.... which is way more agile and less risky.
2.4. Google AdSense
AdSense is not a competitive form of monetization.
Every site can run it and your success with it does not affect the success of your competitor.
In this industry, 22.9% of websites are using AdSense to monetize traffic.
Although this form of monetization could be used more widely, I would recommend looking into on-site sponsored ads first.
2.5. Sponsored Ads
The percentage of companies dealing with this third monetization method plummets to 16.9%.
On-site sponsored ads are a very good way to make money if you are not selling your own goods or services.
Provided you have traffic, you can monetize it referring it to other sites that provide goods or services in the same space.
For details on how to do it right, read this article: How much to charge for sponsored ads on your website.
There is definitely an opportunity for all sites with more than 50k pageviews/month to adopt this method for a quick infusion of cash.
2.6. Digital Products (PDF guides)
Only 6.8% of companies provide PDF guides as a product.
PDF guides are the easiest wat to make real money online.
They are easy to make and easy to sell.
Selling PDF guides is a massive opportunity in this nice!
PRO TIP: suppose you have a starter website in this Industry.
You could get referral traffic from already established sites without ecommerce (there are a few in the Silver And Bronze tiers), by placing sponsored ads on that site.
Once the traffic is flowing, you can monetize it by selling PDF guides.
If you manage to create a product that sells well, you can make more money than you spend... think about it ;)
2.7. Digital Products (courses)
Only 3.4% of companies provide online courses as a product.
Really??!?!
THIS is the best monetization opportunity in this industry.
Digital courses are the second step on the value ladder of digital sales.
Interestingly enough, in an Industry dominated by physical products, only a handful of companies seem to have invested in teaching how to use those products, how to chose them, how to pick accessories, how to cook, ...
When it comes to digital courses, there are endless possibilities for creating something that appeals to your audiences.
The key is to figure out what your audience wants and what people are willing to pay for.
Keep an open dialog with them.
Survey them... you'll thank me later.
Need help to figure out the best strategy to monetize your website?
No obligation from your side.
Straight to the point.
No BS.
2.8. Accept donations
Only one company is going this... but I do not recommend you do it on your site.
You should know this can backfire.
Unless you have an engaged community that backs you up, don't try this.
2.9. Membership / Subscription
Membership communities are not something easy to set up.
No company in this space is offering this kind of service.
Subscription services are the holy grail of digital sales. Every company should always strive to make them part of its product ecosystem.
Needless to say, the opportunity here is huge... but one needs to have an existing community (or audience) before starting any kind of membership service.
2.10. Consulting/coaching
Consulting and coaching work great when the outcome the user wants to achieve is something expensive.
This Industry is just not the right fit for this kind of service.
2.11. Leads generation
No one seems to collect and sell leads.
Very much like the case of consulting, lead generation works well when the outcome is expensive and the know-how to reach that outcome is highly specialized.
Not the case in this Industry.
3. Competitive Landscape Analysis
The competitive landscape analysis for the Woodworking & Wooden Products Industry is based on a selection of 107 companies.
In the analysis, we rank the companies by the 3 evaluation metrics and, for each metric, we determine which ones fall in the top 20%.
In this report, the top 20% is made up of 24 companies.
At each sorting operation, we mark the companies which are present in the top 20%.
After the three sorting operations, we have companies which:
- are in the top 20% for all sortings (Gold Tier);
- are in the top 20% for 2 sortings (Silver Tier);
- are in the top 20% for 1 sorting (Bronze Tier);
- are never in the top 20%.
This table summarizes the situation for the "Woodworking & Wooden Products" Industry, concerning:
- number of companies in each tier;
- median Organic Traffic and Organic cost (by tier);
- top 20% Organic Traffic and Organic cost (by tier);
- the MOZ Domain Authority - Top 20%, median, and minimum (by tier).
There is a substantial difference in the volume of organic traffic between Gold Tier companies and Silver or Bronze.
The fact that Bronze Tier companies have more traffic than Silver Tier companies is quite interesting.
The reason for this lays in the fact that that the websites of Silver Tier companies are more "optimized".
In fact, those companies do better on the metrics KV and VK while Bronze companies excel in the overall value of organic cost.
In other words, Bronze Tier websites rank for lots of keywords of no particular value while Silver Tier websites rank for fewer but more valuable keywords.
The phenomenon is clearly visible also in the top 20% of each tier.
3.1. Gold Tier
In the "BBQ & Grilling" Industry, we have 8 companies that are in the top 20% for all the evaluation metrics.
3.1.1 Gold Tier companies
These companies are*:
- weber.com
- franklinbbq.com
- beta.traegergrills.com
- citybbq.com
- heygrillhey.com
- rectecgrills.com
- saltpepperskillet.com
- smokedbbqsource.com
* sorted by MOZ Domain Authority, then estimated Organic Cost (according to SEMrush).
All these companies are based in the US.
3.1.2. Gold Tier monetization
This is how Gold Tier companies in this Industry make money:
- 6 out of 8 sell physical products in online stores;
- 4 out of 8 have physical stores;
- 3 out of 8 monetize with affiliate products or Google AdSense;
- only 2 companies monetize with sponsored ads;
- only 1 company offers digital products in the form of PDF guides.
- no company offers memberships, online courses, consulting/coaching, lead generation. affiliate products, on-site sponsored ads, and AdSense;
- 1 company accepts donations (interesting).
The Gold Tier in this industry is quite strong.
50% of these companies have a brick&mortar business behind the website.
This leaves ample opportunity for all the digital forms of monetization which are largely underused at the top of this Industry.
Consulting and digital products (both in the form of PDF guides and courses) are low hanging fruits.
Gold Tier companies could easily diversify their income streams by leveraging these opportunities.
3.2. Silver Tier
In the "BBQ & Grilling" Industry, we have 11 companies that are in the top 20% for all at least 2 of the 3 evaluation metrics.
3.2.1 Silver Tier companies
These companies are*:
- kamadojoe.com
- howtobbqright.com
- grillgrate.com
- gquebbq.com
- bigpoppasmokers.com
- coolsmokebarbeque.com
- ceramicgrillstore.com
- stumpssmokers.com
- gatewaydrumsmokers.com
- theelectricsmoker.com
- lonestargrillz.com
* sorted by MOZ Domain Authority, then estimated Organic Cost (according to SEMrush).
All these companies are based in the US.
3.1.2. Silver Tier monetization
This is how the Silver Tier companies make money:
- 8 out of 11 sell physical products in online stores;
- only 2 out of 11 monetize with affiliate products or Google AdSense;
- only 1 out of 11 have physical stores;
- only 1 company offers digital courses;
- no company offers memberships, PDF guides, consulting, lead generation;
- no company uses AdSense;
- no company accepts donations.
By looking at the chart above, you can see that kamadojoe.com has a share of over 34% when it comes to organic traffic.
However, this is a company that just sells barbeques and it is the perfect example of how to leave a lot of money on the table.
If they were to introduce digital courses and memberships for their community, they'd be making a lot more money... and perhaps selling even more BBQs.
The second on this list is howtobbqright.com.
They monetize on the opposite side of the spectrum: affiliate products and sponsored ads.
Even in this case, they'd be making lots more money by introducing a membership area, digital courses and PDF guides.
Summing up, there are a lot of opportunities for all the digital forms of monetization.
Silver Tier companies could easily diversify their income streams by leveraging these opportunities.
3.3. Bronze Tier
26 are the companies in the BBQ & Grilling Industry that rank in the top 20% only for 1 of the 3 evaluation metrics.
3.3.1 Bronze Tier companies
The first 10 of those companies are*:
- lanesbbq.com
- amazingribs.com
- barbecuebible.com
- bbqguys.com
- lynxgrills.com
- smokingmeatforums.com
- vindulge.com
- chargriller.com
- smoking-meat.com
- bradleysmoker.com
* sorted by MOZ Domain Authority, then estimated Organic Cost (according to SEMrush).
All these companies are based in the US.
3.3.2. Bronze Tier monetization
Here is how the 26 Bronze Tier companies make money:
- 17 out of 26 sell physical products in online stores;
- 8 out of 26 have a physical store;
- 6 out of 26 make money with affiliate products or Google Adsense;
- 8 companies run a 100% digital business.
- still no company offers memberships, courses, consulting;
- no company accepts donations or makes money with lead generation;
- just 4 companies make money with sponsored ads.
Some of these companies could definitely make insta-cash by starting to sell sponsored ads.
In case they want to invest some time and resources in developing their own products, digital guides and courses are the low-hanging fruit to go for.
There is nearly no competition for those in the entire industry!
3.4. Other competitors
In addition to the Top Tier companies, there are other 73 companies in this study that never fall in the top 20% when sorting the list for 1 of the 3 evaluation metrics.
This does not mean these companies are underperforming.
As a matter of fact, some of them are doing really well... just they are not as optimized as the others in the way they get organic traffic.
3.4.1 "All others" - companies
From the pie chart above you can see these companies have a wide range of organic traffic and some of them are quite similar when compared on this metric.
From the chart, you can see the names of the biggest websites in this group. The full list is too long to report it here.
If you are interested to see all the 73 competitors (with their contact information), you can buy the full dataset of the study.
3.4.2. "All others" - monetization
Here is how these companies make money:
- 27 out of 73 sell physical products in online stores;
- only 13 out of 73 have physical stores;
- 43 companies run a 100% digital business.
- 43 companies make money with affiliate products;
- 18 companies monetize with AdSense;
- 12 companies monetize with sponsored ads;
- 5 companies offer digital products in the form of guides;
- 3 companies offer digital products in the form of courses;
- no company monetizes with memberships, consulting, lead generation or donations.
The opportunities for improving revenue for all these companies are massive.
In fact, only 5-12 companies are selling digital products and none of them has put together any membership program.
Although the rate of success when offering these services to an audience varies case by case, it is safe to assume that most of those businesses could make a lot more money if they turn their attention to the needs of their audience.
Again, starting with a simple survey is the way to go to find out hidden monetization opportunities...
4. Full Dataset
The full dataset contains 118 companies. For each company, the following information is provided:
- Website URL
- Country
- City (where available)
- Email address
- website form URL (in case there is no contact email)
- contact (first name)
- contact (last name)
- Monetization information
- Accept donations
- AdSense
- Sponsored Ads
- Affiliate products
- Sell leads
- Consulting
- Digital Products (PDF guides)
- Digital Products (courses)
- Membership / Subscription
- Physical products (merchandise/stuff)
- Physical shop
- Metrics
- MOZ DA
- Organic Keywords
- Organic Traffic
- Organic Cost
- Adwords Keywords
- KV (our calculated evaluation metric)
- VK (our calculated evaluation metric)
- Tier
The full dataset is available as a Google spreadsheet and it contains data of all 118 companies.
*you get the spreadsheet with the full dataset.
It also contains contact info for all the 118 companies in this study.
Price: $39
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