"Build It And They Will Come"

A line straight out of the delightful Kevin Costner film, "Field of Dreams", just doesn't apply in the online world. Or does it?

I can't begin to count the number of times I have seen the line quoted, by experts and novices alike, as they point out such a thing only happens in the movies. Having built and marketed web sites since the mid-1990's, I tend to agree.

So imagine my surprise when I found a site I had yet to develop had received five orders over the summer!

Let's back up a bit. Nearly two years ago, I decided to sell a product I loved, but couldn't seem to find from anyone but the manufacturer (who was only selling the product wholesale at the time.) I purchase several cases of the product wholesale, created business card magnets at VistaPrint, and set up an osCommerce install on the new domain. I put up a splash page saying "future home of..." and then started to work on developing my new site.

Shortly after that, I found out I had to have cataract surgery in both eyes.

I had the surgeries, about two weeks apart, and found I was unable to complete any web site work during the recovery period. Staring at the computer monitor was downright painful, especially between surgeries! By the time I was able to work again, I was behind on my obligations. My new web site had to go on the back burner.

Fast-forward to September this year. After having issues with my dedicated server, I upgraded my host managing software to the latest version. While cleaning up the inevitable loose ends, I discovered several emails for this web site I had never finished developing, including the five orders.

I built it. They came. They bought the product.

Does that prove we've been wrong all this time? I don't think so. What I believe this does prove is the right product, with limited availability, will sell itself. With no page rank and only one IBL, (that I know of,) I'm getting traffic from organic search results. And sales.

What is it? Simply Silk™, an organic silk plant cleaner. Simply Silk is superior to any other brand I've ever tried, and apparently a lot of other folks feel the same way. (The product description for the 32 oz. bottle was "yada", I kid you not.) Needless to say, I went in and fixed up the site.

If you want to get an idea of what it looked like "before", check out the demo of osCommerce. The "after" is a much abbreviated site that only sells Simply Silk, Silk Plant Cleaner.