We analyzed 107 companies and we found out this industry is strongly backed by physical shops and birck&mortar businesses.
Lots of opportunities for digital entrepreneurs...
Table of Contents
2.1. Physical products (ecommerce, merchandise, ...)
2.2. Physical stores
2.4. Memberships/subscriptions
2.5. Digital products (PDF guides)
2.6. Google AdSense
2.7. Digital products (courses)
2.8. Affiliate products
2.10. Lead generation
2.11. Donations
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 Woodworking & Wooden Products.
The 107 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 78), the niche is not saturated and there are still opportunities for new and smaller sites (the smaller domain authority among the 107 websites is 2).
The chart above shows how the 107 websites are distributed in regard to MOZ Domain Authority.
The biggest group shows DA between 25 and 30.
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 66k organic visitors per month;
- 50% of the sites have less than 22k organic visitors per month;
- 20% of the sites have less than 4.1k organic visitors per month.
NOTE: all the traffic and keyword metrics in this report are estimated, as reported by SEMrush.
This confirms that smaller sites can become part of the elite of the "Woodworking & Wood Products" Industry.
The full dataset of this study is available as a Google spreadsheet and it contains data of all the 107 companies.
*you get the spreadsheet with the full dataset.
It also contains contact info for all the 107 companies in this study.
Price: $39
2. Monetization Opportunities
This niche is a gold mine.
Most of the businesses are oriented towards business models that involve physical products.
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, ...)
80.4% of the websites in this space sell some sort of physical product.
This Industry is strong, backed with material assets.
This way of making money is clearly saturated.
Nearly 90% of the companies in the Gold Tier run an ecommerce website.
2.2. Physical shop
34.6% of the companies in this space have one (or more) brick&mortar store.
For the companies n the Gold Tier, we talk about 66.7%.
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.
2.3. Sponsored Ads
The percentage of companies dealing with this third monetization method plummets to 15%.
The companies in the Bronze Tier are the ones leveraging it the most (25%).
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.
Among the companies that don't make it in the top 3 tiers, only 13.9% use sponsored ads.
There is definitely an opportunity for all the others to adopt this method for a quick infusion of cash.
2.4. Membership / Subscription
Membership communities are not something easy to set up.
However, with only 12.1% of companies offering this kind of service, it is worth to consider it and a long-term strategy.
Subscription services are the holy grail of digital sales. Every company should always strive to make them part of its product ecosystem.
Again, Bronze Tier companies are doing this better... at least 25% of them.
The reasons behind that might be that:
- Gold and Silver Tier companies are monetizing well with ecommerce and do not look into alternative systems;
- companies in the lowest tier are not structured enough (or mature enough) to offer membership/subscription services
Needless to say, the opportunity here is huge.
2.5. Digital Products (PDF guides)
Only 14% of companies provide PDF guides as a product.
Really??!?!
PDF guides are the easiest wat to make real money online.
They are easy to make and easy to sell.
Bronze Tier companies are (again) doing this better than other companies on the list: 18% of them offer digital products in form of PDF guides.
Companies in the lowest tier should learn from this and they should catch up.
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 ;)
2.6. Google AdSense
AdSense is not really a competitive form of monetization.
Every site can run it and your success with it does not affect the success of your competitor.
However, there are pros and cons to using AdSense... and this is why only 11.2% of the sites in this Industry are using it.
As the industry is more geared to physical products, there is a lot more money to be made here by selling infomercial products than using simple third-party advertising.
2.7. Digital Products (courses)
Digital courses are the second step on the value ladder of digital sales.
Interestingly enough, in an Industry dominated by physical products, only 8.4% of companies seem to have invested in teaching ho to use those products, how to chose them, how to pick tools, ...
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. Affiliate products
Only 8.4% of the websites in the space rely on affiliate or referral programs to make money.
This comes quite as a surprise given the nature of the niche.
However, it represents a massive underused opportunity.
Think about it: this Industry is all about wood products and tools for woodworking... and what better way to get traffic and monetize it than making product/tools review and referring got a product?
Probably the reason we don't see this too often here is that most of these sites already have their own ecommerce and they have physical products to sell.
Nevertheless, for all those that don't sell physical stuff, affiliation (even with Amazon) is a great way to place a foot in this Industry.
2.9. Consulting/coaching
From here, things go downhill.
Consulting and coaching work great when the outcome the user wants to achieve is something expensive. This Industry is more oriented to a DIY mindset and cheap or low-cost solutions.
Only the top tiers companies offer some sort of consulting, probably in the frame of developing large projects.
We would not recommend trying to sell consulting services here.
Definitely you'd have better luck scaling it up from the beginning with digital products (PDF guides or video courses).
2.10. 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.
2.11. Accept donations
Nothing to see here... no one is doing it.
You should know this can backfire.
Unless you have an engaged community that backs you up, don't try this.
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 22 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 difference in traffic volume is less pronounced if we look at the top 20% (image below).
However, in the top 20%, the difference in the value of the traffic increases in favor of the GoldTier companies.
The volume of organic traffic of Silver and Bronze tiers companies is comparable. However, the value of that traffic in terms of buying intent is very different.
Silver Tier companies seem to be targeting better keywords.
Again, the difference is less pronounced if we look at the top 20%.
The gap between Bronze Tier companies and all the other is quite big.
We are talking about a factor 4x for the lower 50% of the two groups and a factor 10x for the top 20%.
3.1. Gold Tier
In the "Woodworking & Wooden Products" Industry, we have 10 companies that are in the top 20% for all the evaluation metrics.
3.1.1 Gold Tier companies
These companies are*:
- rockler.com
- lumberliquidators.com
- wood-database.com
- 84lumber.com
- flooranddecor.com
- woodworkerssource.com
- advantagelumber.com
- woodfloorwarehouse.co.uk
- luxuryflooringandfurnishings.co.uk
* sorted by MOZ Domain Authority, then estimated Organic Cost (according to SEMrush).
All these companies are based in the US, except for the last 2 which are based in the UK.
3.1.2. Gold Tier monetization
This is how Gold Tier companies in this Industry make money:
- 9 out of 10 sell physical products in online stores;
- 7 out of 10 have physical stores;
- only 1 company offers a membership/subscription service;
- only 1 company offers digital products in the form of PDF guides.
- only 1 company offers consulting services
- only one company monetizes with affiliate products, on-site sponsored ads, and AdSense;
- no company sells digital products in the form of courses;
- no company seems to monetize with lead generation;
- no company accepts donations.
The Gold Tier in this industry is strong.
Exception made for wood-database.com, all the 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 "Woodworking & Wooden Products" Industry, we have 10 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*:
- familyhandyman.com
- flooringamerica.com
- bellforestproducts.com
- floorcritics.com
- northwesthardwoods.com
- flooringsuperstore.com
- ukflooringdirect.co.uk
- directwoodflooring.co.uk
- expressflooring.com
- rarewoodsusa.com
* sorted by MOZ Domain Authority, then estimated Organic Cost (according to SEMrush).
7 out of 10 companies are based in the US. 3 are based in the UK.
3.1.2. Silver Tier monetization
This is how the Silver Tier companies make money:
- 8 out of 10 sell physical products in online stores;
- only 4 out of 10 have physical stores;
- only 1 company offers a membership/subscription service, digital products, consulting services (familihandyman.com);
- only one company monetizes with affiliate products, on-site sponsored ads, and AdSense (floorcritics.com);
- no company seems to monetize with lead generation and no company accepts donations.
Even by looking at the chart above, you can see that Family Handyman dominates this tier.
They don't offer any physical products and they specialize in digital products and digital services.
This company is a perfect example of how to "milk" and Industry which is mostly built around traditional business models.
Floor Critics stands out for the good amount of organic traffic they get (nearly 400k visits per month, according to SEMrush) and the value of that traffic (over half million dollars per month, according to SEMrush).
They also are a "fully online" company although their monetization strategy is more oriented towards the low-end spectrum (no digital products, no membership).
Although one can already find two companies that are 100% digital enterprises, the Silver Tier in this industry is still strong and backed by brick&mortar businesses.
There are a lot of opportunities for all the digital forms of monetization + consulting.
Silver Tier companies could easily diversify their income streams by leveraging these opportunities.
3.3. Bronze Tier
16 are the companies in the Woodworking & Wooden Products Industry that rank in the top 20% only for 1 of the 3 evaluation metrics.
3.3.1 Bronze Tier companies
These companies are*:
- thisoldhouse.com
- ana-white.com
- builddirect.com
- woodcraft.com
- shawfloors.com
- popularwoodworking.com
- finewoodworking.com
- woodmagazine.com
- woodpeck.com
- cookwoods.com
- andersonplywood.com
- wood4floors.co.uk
- flooring365.co.uk
- directflooring.co.uk
- mctimberproducts.co.uk
- woodenartdecor.com
* sorted by MOZ Domain Authority, then estimated Organic Cost (according to SEMrush).
10 out of 16 companies are based in the US.
3 are based in the UK.
3 are based in Canada.
3 are based in Scotland.
1 is based in Turkey.
3.3.2. Bronze Tier monetization
Here is how Bronze Tier companies make money:
- 13 out of 16 sell physical products in online stores;
- only 5 out of 16 have physical stores;
- 3 companies run a 100% digital business.
In the Bronze Tier, there is more competition for monetizing traffic with digital products/services:
- 4 companies offer a membership/subscription service;
- 2 companies offer digital products in the form of courses;
- 3 companies offer digital products in the form of guides;
- only one company offers consulting services;
- only 4 companies offer on-site sponsored ads;
- only 3 companies monetize with AdSense;
- no company monetizes with lead generation;
- no company monetizes with affiliate products.
Although they are in the same niche, these companies hardly offer the same products or services.
Some of them propose one-of-a-kind products and they thrive from niching down into Industry-specific needs.
A perfect example is woodpeck.com.
This company is the last one you can read on the pie chart above... and yet, they thrive by offering an exotic and rare selection of small pieces of wood!
Although this might sound "too niche", their site has a healthy organic traffic of over 40k visitors per month.
Even the Bronze Tier companies are not fully leveraging the opportunity of monetizing with digital products.
Most of these sites could benefit from offering PFD guides and courses.... and even subscription programs.
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:
- 57 out of 73 sell physical products in online stores;
- only 22 out of 73 have physical stores;
- 14 companies run a 100% digital business.
- 7 companies offer a membership/subscription service;
- 6 companies offer digital products in the form of courses;
- 10 companies offer digital products in the form of guides;
- only one company offers consulting services;
- 7 companies monetize with affiliate products;
- 10 companies offer on-site sponsored ads;
- 7 companies monetize with AdSense;
- no company monetizes with lead generation or donations.
The opportunities for improving revenue for all these companies are massive.
In fact, only 6-10 companies are leveraging digital products or subscriptions.
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 107 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 107 companies.
*you get the spreadsheet with the full dataset.
It also contains contact info for all the 107 companies in this study.
Price: $39
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