In my late teens I was heavily into paintball, which led to an interest in airsoft lasting until my late twenties. Every weekend, and sometimes for full weekenders once a month, I’d head out with friends to play, socialise, have a BBQ, and enjoy the camaraderie. It was a great way to stay active and keep in touch with friends.
When I moved to New Zealand in my late 20s, I wasn’t actively involved in airsoft anymore, but I kept an eye on the local scene through a few community groups. In early 2016, a massive change occurred;
Facebook banned the sale of imitation firearms on their marketplace and within groups.
This left the airsoft community scrambling for alternatives as Facebook had gradually eaten in the market share of Forums.
Identifying the Opportunity
With my background in web design and past projects, I knew I could get a minimum viable product (MVP) up and running quickly. I started researching the market and quickly realised that there were few centralised platforms for buying and selling airsoft gear in New Zealand. There were scattered Facebook groups, but no dedicated, easily accessible platform.
The alternative, TradeMe (New Zealand’s version of eBay), still allowed airsoft listings but charged large listing fees. Additionally, an existing site asnz.nz had a buy/sell area that was locked to members of specific clubs, which limited accessibility. Seeing this gap and the opportunity to create something that would benefit the community as a whole, I felt it was a personal obligation to step in and set up AirsoftTrader.
With a clear idea in mind, I launched the MVP of AirsoftTrader just three days after coming up with the idea in February 2016.
Why WordPress and ClassiPress
Since I wasn’t a developer, I needed a framework that would be flexible and scalable without requiring deep coding knowledge. WordPress was an obvious choice due to its vast repository of themes and plugins. I also had a good number of years experience with using it.
After trying a few different themes, I settled on ClassiPress by AppThemes. It offered exactly what I needed—a built-in user registration system, customisable listing forms, monetisation options, and more.
While I initially used ClassiPress’s default theme for a quick launch, analytics soon revealed that 60% of the site’s traffic was coming from mobile devices. To optimise the experience, I designed a custom child theme focused on mobile usability, enhancing the look and feel while maintaining core functionality.
Building Traffic: Community and Strategy
Getting traffic to AirsoftTrader wasn’t as difficult as expected. With the support of various Facebook groups that still existed despite the sales ban, I received permission to promote the site as an alternative marketplace for airsoft enthusiasts. I also created a Facebook page for the site and utilised an automated posting tool that shared new listings on Facebook. This approach helped drive traffic from Facebook without violating their policy.
To generate buzz, I ran competitions offering giveaways of airsoft-related consumables, leveraging the social sharing features to build early momentum. These efforts, combined with user-generated content (ad listings), resulted in AirsoftTrader organically ranking as Google’s top search result for relevant airsoft keywords in New Zealand.
Challenges and Growth Strategies
AirsoftTrader’s success didn’t come without challenges. As the site gained traction, spam registrations became a persistent issue. I addressed this by implementing additional security measures and limiting signups to New Zealand-based users.
Despite the overall positive reception, I faced pushback from a few community members who accused me of orchestrating Facebook’s ban to promote my site. Although dealing with these accusations was tiring, I stayed focused on improving the platform and serving the majority of users who genuinely appreciated the service.
To encourage adoption, I made the site free to use, offering optional paid features like “featured listings” and the ability to “bump” posts which would also repost them to Facebook. While I experimented with affiliate marketing for local retailers, it didn’t gain traction, and Google AdSense ultimately banned my account due to the airsoft-related content after a couple of years. Finding alternative ad networks proved challenging, highlighting the importance of aligning monetisation strategies with platform policies.
Creating and Selling Custom WordPress Plugins
As the site continued to grow, I encountered missing features that inspired me to develop custom WordPress plugins.
To implement these features, I hired a junior developer through Upwork and worked closely with them to scope out the plugins’ requirements. I handled the design and CSS to reduce costs, and together, we developed several successful plugins;
- User Feedback System: Allowed users to rate each other, leave reviews, and display ratings on listings.
- User Last Online: Displayed the last login time of users, helping buyers gauge if sellers were active.
- User Notifications: Alerted users of questions on their listings, with visual cues and email notifications.
These plugins not only enhanced my site but became popular with other ClassiPress users, allowing me to monetise them through the AppThemes marketplace.
A further opportunity also came about after getting back into the airsoft community in New Zealand, including a business I set up selling smoke grenades. Pyrotechnics were a huge part of paintball and airsoft in the UK and New Zealand didn’t have the same luxury.
Wrapping Up and Key Takeaways
Over time, I dipped my toes back into playing airsoft but struggled to find the same excitement I’d experienced in the UK. Eventually, I decided to sell the site to one of the airsoft clubs, ensuring it would continue to serve the community.
Looking back on this journey, here are some key takeaways if you’re thinking of starting your own niche site:
- Stick to What You Know: Leverage your existing knowledge and passion to create something meaningful.
- Solve a Real Problem: Identify genuine pain points within a community and create a solution around them.
- Build Before You Monetize: Establish a strong community and user base before focusing on monetization.
- Consider Your Monetization Strategy: Ensure your content aligns with the policies of ad networks or revenue sources you plan to use.
- Ignore the Haters: Focus on the positive feedback and genuine users who appreciate your work.
If you’re thinking of starting your own niche site, remember that there will always be challenges and detractors. Stay committed, listen to your community, and remain adaptable to changes in the market.
You never know where things may lead. Setting up this nice community trading site, led me down a path of creating and selling WordPress plugins (gaining skills in project management, hiring and managing contractors, UI and UX, and more), then running a physical product eCommerce business out of my garage and the dealing of red tape required to store, sell, and ship pyrotechnics!
We’ll dive more into the learnings of running that nice eCommerce business and why I had to stop that in the future!
Ultimately, whilst I made some ok money from AirsoftTrader, I ended up making significantly more through opportunities that came after. So remember that it’s not necessarily the ‘thing’ you’re setting up now that’ll be the money maker, but what comes later.
