Board Game Business Ideas
There are a ton of online business ideas in the board game niche. In this blog, I’m going to break down a couple of niche board game business ideas focusing on the board game Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). This is how you can take your hobby of D&D and turn it into a board game niche business.
The D&D Business Idea
I have not personally played D&D. Though a few of my friends have been on a D&D campaign for the last year, so I’m pretty familiar with the game (I’m waiting for their next campaign to get in on it).
D&D piqued my interest. I know it’s an extremely popular game, so I knew there would be a niche opportunity here. I dove into using Long Tail Pro to find niche ideas within Dungeons and Dragons. In my research, I found three niche opportunities for a D&D board game business:
- D&D Maps
- D&D Dice
- D&D Character Generator
In this blog, I will show you how you can start your online business with a few D&D board game business ideas.
D&D Dice
D&D dice is the first opportunity that I stumbled across. I was quite surprised by the results of my Long Tail Pro analysis. There was a clear opportunity for a niche business focused on D&D Dice.
The Idea: Market Size ~600,000
If you have read Step One, you know that this idea came from my brain dump question “what games do (did) you play?”. This is the question I use to find board game business ideas, and it’s a good example of finding a niche within a niche. Rather than starting a business broadly about Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), I came across the business idea for D&D dice, a niche within the D&D niche. This meets the criterion set in Step One of at least 10,000 searches for the root niche, with 49,500 people per month searching for D&D Dice (~600,000 per year).
Product Potential
It meets the criterion for subtopics with 500 or searches, including D&D dice roller (27,100 searches, 26), D&D dice set (2,400, 27), D&D dice box (1,300, 41), wooden D&D dice (880, 32), and metal D&D dice (1,300, 28). Each subtopic I identified could become a product I could sell on my website.
Content Potential
I see dozens of keywords with KCs of 35 or less and at least 100 searches. There are general keywords related to D&D gameplay that I could write about to attract traffic to a website where I sell D&D dice: D&D 5e sorcerer subclasses (210 searches, 25 KC), D&D 5e rogue swashbuckler (210, 26), D&D healer classes (880, 28), and so on. When I look into the D&D niche, I see other businesses selling custom D&D dice; people are spending money in this niche. This meets all the criteria of a viable niche market.
There is huge potential for an Amazon FBA product or an affiliate product focused solely on D&D dice. There are a ton of different ways to differentiate in this niche. Any of these could be Amazon FBA products:
- D&D Dice Bulk
- Wooden D&D Dice
- Rainbow D&D Dice
- Metal D&D Dice
- Galaxy D&D Dice
For me personally, I didn’t go too in-depth into the Amazon research for Dungeons and Dragon dice because I knew this was not a product that I could succeed with, having limited experience playing Dungeons and Dragons. That being said, someone with experience or someone invested in board games could easily take this niche idea and create a viable business with D&D Dice through Amazon FBA.
D&D Maps
Similar to D&D dice, there is an opportunity to create a niche business about D&D Maps.
In my research I found opportunities that 8,100 people per month are searching for D&D Maps. 1,800 per month are searching for D&D battle maps and 210 are looking specifically for a “D&D battle map maker”. There is niche opportunity here.
This is a great opportunity to start an online business selling digital products. You could create curated D&D map packages, or you commission custom D&D maps for custom campaigns. There seems to be a lot of opportunities for battle maps in particular, you can be the D&D battle map curation expert. Or you could create a software that allows people to custom-build their own maps. Or you could teach people how to build their own maps, you could sell a mini-online course giving people the tools to create their own D&D battle maps.
There is a lot of opportunity within the D&D map niche to sell digital products. I would start with a niche blog, showcasing my maps, giving away some free maps, then upsell my premium maps. You might even be able to sell physical maps through the print on demand niche, if you print the maps on canvas or a poster.
D&D Character Generator
Similar to D&D Maps, there is an opportunity to build a business selling digital products relating to D&D character generation.
74,000 per month are searching for D&D character sheet. 5,400 per month are searching for D&D character builder. 2,900 per month are searching for dungeons and dragons character creator.
Could you build a software program to help people create their D&D character? Could you compile resources while publishing blogs and videos about D&D characters? Can you create a free download with a D&D character sheet to collect email leads?
There is an opportunity to create and sell digital products related to D&D characters. First, you will need to determine what people what to buy in this niche. Talk to your target market and ask them what their struggles are, let the market tell you what products and services they want to buy relating to D&D characters.
Board Game Business Idea: Real Case Study
Ellie Dix is a great example of the success you can have with a board game business idea. Ellie built an online business selling family board games; her business meets the Long Tail Pro analysis criteria. 246,000 people per month search for board games, and 14,800 per month search for family board games, the root niche. Subtopics include strategy board games (8,100 searches, 52 KC), cracker games (6,600, 36), and wooden board games (2,900, 36). I found dozens of keywords with KCs of 35 or less and at least 100 searches, including word board games (1,600searches, 34), and I see plenty of other businesses already generating revenue selling online games, board games, crossword games, and coaster games. Ellie’s business meets all the criteria of the Long Tail Pro analysis.
Be like Ellie. Start your niche business in the board game niche.
Ready to Start With Your Board Game Business Idea?
If you find yourself saying “I want to start a business, but I don’t know what to do,” this is the book for you.
In Step One you will come up with over one hundred and fifty business ideas, you will conduct market research to narrow your list of ideas down to one viable idea, and you will validate the idea so you can hit the ground running and launch your business.
Ready to start your business? Pick up your copy of Step One today, and get started building your business.
