SEO for EclipseCarTuner.com

To get this blog started I figured I would give my readers a quick overview of my e-commerce website, Eclipse Car Tuner, that I will be referencing when discussing search engine optimization. Eclipsecartuner.com was officially launched Mar 23rd, 2007; the site is targeted towards Mitsubishi Eclipse enthusiasts who might be looking for an 'all-in-one' solution for their after market auto parts needs. If your interested in starting an e-commerce site it is actually not as difficult as it may seem at first thought, and requires little monetary investment to get started. I bought the domain from, GoDaddy.com, for only $7 (the regular cost for a domain is $8.95, but you can usually find godaddy coupon codes on the internet like this site: http://www.dealtaker.com/GoDaddy-coupon-code-a528-c40.html ).
Anyways, after purchasing the domain name and getting GoDaddy's cheapest hosting package I am able to keep EclipseCarTuner up and running for only $3.99/mo. + $7/yr. hosting.

My site was just launched 7 weeks ago and has been climbing steadily both in the search engines and also in terms of traffic since it was launched. I have used a variety of techniques (to improve my rankings) that I will be discussing in detail in future posts. My profit margins on the site range from 5 - 50% depending on the product genre and shipping costs, but on average I typically receive a 15% margin. I have signed with 3 auto parts distributors, all of which dropship the products for me so that I can focus my efforts on customer service, marketing (seo in particular), and maintaining my website.

A few people have asked me how I expect to compete with large auto parts dealers that carry as many as 50, 60, or 100 thousand auto parts and also offer extremely competitive pricing. My response is that none of these sites will offer as many products for the Eclipse as I do, and that I also have a forum focused on just Mitsubishi Eclipse's as well. With such a narrow niche, I will always understand my specific market better than the 'massive e-commerce auto parts stores' and will be able to easily cater to their changing needs as necessary. Additionally, it will be easy for me to rank higher in the search engines than my competitors for my keyword terms. For instance, Since I sell only parts for the Mitsubishi Eclipse, I can focus ALL of my efforts on optimizing keywords for the term 'Mitsubishi Eclipse' and variant terms such as 'Mitsubishi Eclipse Body Kits' and 'Mitsubishi Eclipse Parts'; this just means I will have a significant advantage in competing on these terms with my competitors.

Anyways, this should give you an idea of what my website is all about and how I will plan on running the site and dealing with competitors; I will now be concentrating primarily on the aspects of SEO in future posts.