This Guy Makes $36K/Month Selling Mini Trees

I stumbled across today’s niche business while taking my daughters to dance class. A friend was talking about how he bought an indoor citrus tree online.

I was intrigued. This sounded like it could be a great niche to build an e-commerce store around.

I asked him where he got it, looked up the company, and sure enough—they were making great money with this niche e-commerce store. (revenue numbers from entrepreneur.com interview)

So let’s get into today’s business…

Meet Via Citrus, an online store bringing the joy of indoor citrus trees to homes across the country.

It all started when Danny Trejo, the founder, moved to New York City and missed the citrus groves of his Florida childhood. Inspired by the nostalgia of fresh orange blossoms, he launched Via Citrus—a way for anyone, no matter where they live, to grow citrus trees at home.

Now? The business earns $36,000/month, with Mother’s Day and Christmas being their busiest seasons.

💡 How He Started

• Built an eCommerce website from scratch (without prior experience).

• Researched the best citrus varieties to sell—balancing size, growth habits, and customer demand.

• Figured out the logistics of shipping live plants, keeping them affordable while ensuring they arrived healthy.

📢 How He Gets Customers

Danny didn’t just throw up a website and hope for sales. He used smart, tactical marketing strategies to get customers:

🔍 SEO & Google Search Traffic

• He optimized product pages with long-tail keywords like "small citrus tree for apartments" and "easy-to-grow indoor lemon tree."

• He started a blog educating people on caring for citrus trees, driving organic search traffic.

📲 Instagram & Pinterest Ads

• He ran paid ads targeting plant lovers and home decorators.

• Pinterest became a key driver of traffic—people searching for "houseplants that bear fruit" found his products.

📰 Press & Media Features

• He got featured in home & garden magazines, which drove credibility and huge spikes in sales.

• He reached out to small bloggers first, then leveraged that social proof to get bigger media placements.

🎁 Holiday & Gift Guide Marketing

• Peak seasons (Mother’s Day & Christmas) were massive sales drivers. He pitched his products to gift guides and seasonal articles.

• He ran early-bird promotions for shoppers looking for unique gifts.

🤝 Partnerships with Local Nurseries & Influencers

• Teamed up with plant influencers who shared their experience growing his citrus trees.

• Partnered with boutique garden shops to cross-promote and expand his audience.

📈 Growth & Revenue

• The first few months brought in less than $1,000—mostly from family & friends.

• Sales quickly grew to $7,000/month, then scaled to $36K each month

• Key seasons like Mother’s Day & Christmas drive the highest sales.

🚀 Why It Works

✅ Low competition niche—Easier to stand out among the crowd and to rank with SEO

✅ Unique, gift-able product—Citrus plants make great presents, especially for plant lovers.
✅ Riding the indoor plant trend—More people want greenery at home.
✅ Strong emotional connection—Customers love the idea of growing their own fruit.

💬 Advice for New Entrepreneurs

Danny says the biggest mistake he made was waiting too long to launch. He spent years trying to make the website “perfect” before realizing the best way to improve was to just start and listen to customer feedback.

Now, his business is expanding with new greenhouses and more citrus varieties to keep up with demand.

Hope you enjoyed this one. My daughters are now convinced we need a mini citrus plant so I may end up being a customer.

— Tim