Create a Digital Marketplace website

On your first point, I will say that most of the sites you see are actually affiliate sites of Envato or Template Monster. So while you may see thousands you'll only find about 2 or 3 industry leaders, a couple of off-brand competitors, and the rest are simply copy and paste from those.

With that being I said I wouldn't exactly recommend getting into that marketplace. Anything that is already affiliate marketed gives you a large entry barrier, but that doesn't mean you still can't make a good profit by either offering more to the providers, charging less to the buyers, or any other combination based on that.

I'm not really going to address your second point much though, since you seem to be focused on just copying another site's business model. What I would instead suggest is actually figuring out why they made as much impact in their market as they did. You could just copy a systematic method of buying and selling to and from third parties or you can go deeper with it- why do you think, for instance, Fiverr is as successful as it was? Because it gave people a place to trade? No - it literally reinvented internet outsourcing by making it insanely cheap for everyone.

What about Envato? They didn't just get big because they had a lot of products, they went aggressively towards a 'stylish and modern' design subset which, as it happened, was what nearly everyone wanted at the time TemplateMonster was shoving bloated Flash designs up our asses. They took the market by satisfying the flaws in the existing system. Take that and you'll find a path of your own to 'slay the giant' in whatever industry you choose.

There are far too many websites like this that exist, which do a fantastic job, of which you have any realistic way of even remotely being successful competing against them.

Unless you are doing this as a learning exercise, you might want to cut your teeth in the IM world in a profitable way by focusing on something else.

There are many websites for what you are proposing but that shouldn't hold you back. Make something new that everybody would like to use.

Thank you for your replies.

I disagree just with this one, even if they did not make it with wordpress, it's very possible to do a complete multisite marketplace like envato using wordpress, with profiles and everything just like the others ..
As a matter of fact, I saw a 100% templateforest clone made 100% wordpress, working perfectly. But I'm not interested in cloning, so ..

I agree with you guys, it's a saturated market .. I need to get back to reality before losing more time on this.

So the thing is, I believe I can make a stand-alone website where the visitor can buy and sell products or services. That's what I'm trying to make. Fiverr, envato, creativemarket, devianart, freelancer .. these are already existing ideas and the web is full of their clones..

Microjobs / Gigs / Fiverr ... already saturated ..
Freelance platforms also
Selling designs, themes .. already saturated

As you said I need something original, that works with buying / selling digital goods. I believe the idea is the most important part here.

Can you help me with some ideas?

Thanks

I will have my own freelance site for specific services only launched this 2014 but that business model has undergone a couple of years of planning. Freelance business online, although there are hundreds of sites, can still be effective if you have a good marketing strategy and budget to use.

Why not make the functionality you want as a Theme, then SELL IT on Envato/ThemeForest so all the other suckers who think they can compete in this space will buy your theme?

I know a guy who's made $175K selling his themes on ThemeForest. The buyers are already there... sell them something they want.

Never confuse how something is being offered with what is being offered.
If you have a great value proposition and people want it then you will get sales if you can get their attention.

Example. Fiverr is great for buying and selling. So great there are a gazillion things being bought and sold. If you identify a sub niche of buyers and sellers and focus just on them you can make a nice living because they don't want to be lost in the jungle of Fiverr that offers everything.

@ronrule Good idea (sell the dream by selling the theme ) I will think about it

@plessard I was thinking a lot about this exact idea, making a "fiverr" for a niche only. Great idea too

I am thinking about making a website where people can promote their services / Gigs on of other sites (with subscription plans / pay to get featured etc..) .

Any other ideas ? I appreciate the help guys

Okay thank you guys.
I need to find THE idea or THE niche..
I want to be the boss, not giving services in some boss' platform.

I will try to explore the different niches, try to find out what people want, what already exists and what is needed to exist. Then I will work the heck on it to make it happen.

I did once. I created audiobook marketplace for my local language in my country. I was copying audible.com business. It didn't work well because I was not ready with my local people enthusiast that was so surprisingly huge. And I didn't prepare for the cost of disk/cloud space, and as well as hosting resources. So, many people was upset. I also had problem with my local payment system. It was in 2005 where PayPal didn't serve my country yet.
Now, when everything seems possible... the big companies such as cellular phone providers in my country take this "cake" all out with them. And I don't have power to compete with them.

Why is this model so important?? Is it because you want others to do all the work??

Come up with something new or a better way, etc.

You can probably buy sites like that on Flippa. If premade sites ae already being sold similar to your idea, then the niche is overcrowded