Peeling Back the Layers
Peeling Back the Layers
Exploring the Surprising Benefits of Selling a Simple Kitchen Utensil
Read time: 8 mins
Hey friends 👋
Have you heard about the company making a killing selling a potato peeler?
Their website is super simple. It’s a landing page with a rotating 3D image of the peeler and its best bits highlighted:
🗡️ Sharpness
⚙️ Versatility
🦾 Durability
🏋️ Strength
The site has a whole library of intriguing content (over 50 articles!) waxing lyrical about all things potato.
There’s a downloadable recipe book of dishes you can only make using a potato peeler.
And there are even guest posts from spud-loving celebrity chefs.
There’s nothing special about the peeler. It’s one of those thin, bell-shaped stainless steel ones you could find anywhere. The thing that drives people to the website (and makes them buy) is the novelty factor, the fact that someone has gone to all that trouble for something so benign.
We appreciate the commitment to going deep on one thing. Like farmers rooting for the perfect crop, we’re reminded how nuanced the world can be if we’re prepared to look.
You can’t see the site just yet because… we’re still planning it 😉
That’s right. It’s me and my mates, Matt and Zac, who are behind it.
Everything I described above is pure ideation at this stage. I’m sorry to have misled you briefly. But I wanted to start with the end in mind. I wanted to get the vision nice and clear so it got you enthused like it did me and Matt when we were in the pub.
Matt and Zac came back from Italy raving about some potato peeler they’d found in a supermarket. For a while now, Matt, who’s a software engineer at a FinTech scale up, has been looking for a low-stakes side project, so he suggested we have a go at an eCommerce store flogging these peelers. I happen to be looking for niche things to get my teeth into as well, so I said I’d help them.
Driving traffic to our new potato peeler eCom store
My job is to drive organic traffic to the site.
Our goal? To rank high on Google for potato peeler-related search queries so we get lots of clicks without having to pay for ads.
To do this, we’re going to prove our “topical authority.” Topical authority is as simple as Google saying, “We want to show content to our users by experts, aka those who have written extensively on a subject."
This means covering the breadth and depth of the potato peeler topic in a large number of keyword-optimised articles, like this example sitemap shows:
I’m (hopefully) going to achieve all this using a cool new AI tool I found (byword.ai). It’s built for generating high-quality articles at scale when you feed it titles and keywords.
And they really are good quality. Have a go yourself and see.
I met the Founder of byword when I purged my social media feeds and started only following people who’s interests I aligned with.
Before byword and other AIs came out, it would have taken donkey’s years for humans to write all those articles. With tools like byword, it now takes seconds.
The results are Google-optimised too. Google recently announced that whether content is written by AI or not is irrelevant. If the content’s good, they’ll show it.
There are stories popping up every day now about “programmatic SEO” and the new hockey stick-curve explosions of site traffic achieved using this previously untenable content-writing strategy.
So, to kick things off, I asked OpenAI’s ChatGPT to generate key potato peeler topics.
And then I simply asked it to expand each topic into 5 article titles ready to feed into byword, which I’ve pasted here (sorry about the long list but I want you to see them):
Type: What types of potato peelers are available?
"The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Best Potato Peeler for Your Kitchen"
"From Y-Peelers to Julienne Peelers: The Most Common Types of Potato Peelers and How to Use Them"
"A Deep Dive into the Different Materials Used in Potato Peelers"
"The Best Potato Peelers for Arthritis Sufferers: Our Top Picks"
"DIY Potato Peelers: How to Make Your Own from Everyday Household Items"
Material: what material are the best potato peelers made of?
"Stainless Steel, Ceramic, or Plastic: Which Material Makes the Best Potato Peeler?"
"The Pros and Cons of Stainless Steel Potato Peelers"
"Ceramic Potato Peelers: Are They Worth the Investment?"
"Eco-Friendly Potato Peelers: The Best Options Made from Sustainable Materials"
"Plastic vs. Metal Potato Peelers: Which Is Better for the Environment?"
Ease of use: what makes a potato peeler easy to use?
"The Importance of Ergonomics in Potato Peelers: How to Choose a Comfortable and Easy-to-Use Peeler"
"Blade Sharpness: The Key to Easy Potato Peeling"
"Peelers for Beginners: The Best Easy-to-Use Potato Peelers for Novice Cooks"
"Left-Handed Potato Peelers: The Best Options for Southpaws"
"Electric Potato Peelers: Do They Make Potato Peeling Easier?"
Comfort: how important is the grip and handle design in a potato peeler?
"Comfort is King: How a Good Grip Can Make All the Difference in Potato Peeling"
"Handle Design Matters: The Best Potato Peelers for Arthritis and Joint Pain"
"The Benefits of Non-Slip Handles in Potato Peelers"
"One Size Doesn't Fit All: Potato Peelers with Adjustable Handles"
"Design Matters: The Best Aesthetically Pleasing Potato Peelers"
Durability: what makes a potato peeler durable and long-lasting?
"Built to Last: What Materials Make the Most Durable Potato Peelers"
"The Importance of Blade Quality in a Durable Potato Peeler"
"Maintenance Matters: How to Keep Your Potato Peeler in Top Shape for Years to Come"
"Battle-Tested: The Most Durable Potato Peelers as Rated by Users"
"Warranty Matters: The Best Potato Peelers with Long-Term Guarantees"
Price: is there a correlation between price and quality in potato peelers?
"Investing in Quality: Why a Higher Price Tag Can Be Worth It for a Potato Peeler"
"Finding Value: How to Choose a Quality Potato Peeler That Fits Your Budget"
"Don't Break the Bank: Surprisingly Affordable Potato Peelers That Still Get the Job Done"
"Debunking the Myth: Why High Prices Don't Always Mean High Quality for Potato Peelers"
"The Sweet Spot: Balancing Price and Quality for the Best Potato Peeler for Your Money"
Performance: what are some factors that impact the performance of a potato peeler?
"Sharp vs. Dull: How the Blade of a Potato Peeler Impacts Its Peeling Performance"
"Ergonomics and Design: The Importance of Comfort in Potato Peeler Performance"
"The Role of Material in Potato Peeler Performance"
"Size and Shape: How the Right Potato Peeler Can Improve Performance"
"Finding Your Perfect Fit: Why Choosing the Right Potato Peeler Matters for Optimal Performance"
Features: what are some unique features that make a potato peeler stand out?
"Multifunctionality: The Versatile Potato Peelers with Extra Features"
"Innovation in Design: The Latest Potato Peeler Trends"
"Blade Quality: The Most Important Feature of a Potato Peeler"
"Ease of Cleaning: The Hidden Feature of Great Potato Peelers"
"Customization: Personalizing Your Potato Peeler for Maximum Effectiveness"
Reviews: what do customers have to say about the world's best potato peelers?
"Customer Favorites: Top-Rated Potato Peelers According to Reviews"
"The Pros and Cons of Popular Potato Peelers: A Customer Review Roundup"
"The Voice of the People: An Analysis of Customer Feedback on Potato Peelers"
"Expert and Customer Reviews: What Makes a Potato Peeler Truly Great?"
"The Most Reliable Potato Peelers According to Real Customer Experiences"
Maintenance: how easy is it to clean and maintain a potato peeler?
"Potato Peeler Maintenance 101: Tips for Keeping Your Peeler Clean and Sharp"
"The Do's and Don'ts of Cleaning and Maintaining Your Potato Peeler"
"Easy-Peasy Potato Peeler Care: Keeping Your Peeler in Top Shape"
"Longevity Lessons: How to Extend the Lifespan of Your Potato Peeler"
"Maintenance Matters: Why Regular Cleaning and Care is Critical for Your Potato Peeler"
50 articles should give us a good stab at making Google think we’re potato peeler prodigies. And with any luck, this should translate into cost-free sales. Ka-ching!
Well, not quite. We’ll need to spend $198 for 50 byword credits. But that’s small potatoes compared with what you’d normally have to spend on pay-per-click advertising.
There are lots of things to do besides driving traffic to the site:
🔎 Sourcing product
📢 Replying to customers
📦 Setting up drop-shipping
👩🎨 Designing the website and CMS
💳 Adding payments infrastructure, etc.
So, there’s potential for me to learn quite a bit by having a go at this.
It’s not going to define my career, sure, but it’s going to be fun.
And I’ll be sharing it all with you, of course!
Other side-projects I’m working on right now
Just so you don’t think I’ve lost the plot completely, know that the peeler site isn’t the only thing I’ve decided to niche-down on.
I’m getting ready to convene my first Junto. Heard of them?
Expect lots of updates and insights on this as it unfolds.
🚀
And more significantly, I’ve agreed to collaborate with a brilliant management consultant to build a lifestyle design programme aimed at people who want to start or develop a small business, side hustle or creative pursuit.
I want to know: do you (or someone you know) want to start or develop a business or creative pursuit? Are you facing challenges? If so, I’d like to speak to you and ask you some questions for my research. I won’t try to sell you, I promise. I only want to gather feedback at this stage.
If you’re happy to chat, hit reply and let me know.
See you next time.
– Harrison
Don't keep this newsletter to yourself, share it with your fellow potato enthusiasts. It can help establish them as an authority on the topic. Plus, you'll help me grow my readership and that's way more exciting than peeling potatoes any day.
Care for another helping? I wrote about getting out of your own way to reveal your area of niche interests →