Help needed with my website

porte

OK, I have been teaching myself how to create a website, I have the domain name paid for and its a .co.UK site.
My aim is to create a buy and sell site for the people of a county in the uk. I would like it to look a small bit like done deal, I'm thinking simplicity and not copycat.
Anyway there is no room for another site like done deal in Ireland so I have focused on one of the larger counties in the UK, it has a population of approx 650,000, has 21 large towns and a city so there is plenty of potential (and money).
My domain name is catchy simple and easy to remember.
Many people use Ebay for there bargains but that bargain soon become expensive when they have to pay the high postage costs, listing fees and the percentage Ebay takes from the sale. So with 650,00 people living in an area that is 54 miles by 35 miles, driving to purchase your new found bargain is hassle free.
Then there is the bordering counties who will list items!!!
Here is the deal, if you can create the site ready to publish then I'm offering half the business to you.
I'm not looking for money, this will only cost you your time in creating the site,
you have nothing to lose.
As for making money, surely at the very least we would get 50,000 customers wanting to sell something, and at £2.50 per listing for a period of 6 weeks we could have a very good return.
All payments are via paypal or mobile phone call credit as most people looking for a bargain might not have a credit card and find it frustrating when they cant buy from Ebay.
If your seriously interested in this offer then act fast, I will still crack on myself in trying to create this site but would prefer a speedy end result.
Forgot to mention I'm originally from this county so I know the area very well.

Freemancon

You would be surprised how many offers like this web designers get. You learn very quickly that they are a waste of time...and money. But you never know there might be someone out there that wants to take up your offer.

Little bit of advice: I would do a lot of homework on this idea. Ebay style sites are a dime-a-dozen on the web today. Most of them make no money. Don't get me wrong .. I do wish you all the best of luck.....just wanted to give some friendly advice.

Oh, and you should really move this to the correct thread.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055802922

cormee

You're not really bringing anything of any worth to the table. If any designer was interested in such a business idea they'd probably just set it up themselves and keep 100% of the profit.

You'd be better off going it alone - oxyclassifieds sell an excellent small-ads script for €179 which includes free installation, going down that route is probably your best bet.

But as the previous poster mentioned these small ad sites are everywhere at the moment, and you're up against some pretty big names like eBay and Gumtree.

I personally wouldn't go near this idea, but having said that I remember when Done Deal first launched I thought they hadn't a hope in hell against Buy & Sell, eBay and the likes

tricky D

Sorry mate but unfortunately:

• The listings market is saturated. We see dozens of these each year for Ireland.
• County-based model isn't enough of a USP if at all
• Your version is late to market
• The business/charging model isn't properly thought out or researched
• These proposals pop up every other week
• Developers/designers would prefer to get paid in the regular manner

Cormee's go it alone is your best option. Keep up the enthusiasm!

Good luck

porte

Thanks for your positive replies.
If it goes belly up then at least I tried, as long as I dont plough in my life savings I have nothing to lose.
You never know I could be the next Pierre Omidyar!!!!!:D

p

Small bit of advice. You're asking someone to do all the work, and own half the business. Be realistic, what are you offering to the business at all that earns you 50%?

If your putting in the same marketing budget as donedeal.ie to advertise & promote the site, then a few people might be interested. If you're not willing to put considerable time or money into a venture yourself, then you'll find it very hard to get anyone else to do the same.

All the best.

tomED

p and Cormee are on the money.

You're looking to give 50% of a business to someone who will in effect do all the work to get a product to market. You're investment was coming up with the idea and from there probably brainstorming and putting a lot of stress on the chosen web developer as you add new "great features" that you think up as you go long.

Believe it or not, it will be extremely difficult to get 50,000 customers wanting to sell something on your website. Especially since it's unlikely that they'll ever hear about you unless you put a good amount of money into marketing the site.

Unless you have a decent budget to market the site, it's destined for failure - unless you get massively lucky and people pick up on your site for some odd reason.

jmcc

As TomED, p and cormee have pointed out above, there are very good reasons why web developers might not get involved with this project. The other, more technological argument has not been touched upon. Building and running a large classified adverts type site is not exactly the kind of thing you would do on shared web hosting. So even if the website gets reasonable traffic, it would require some monitoring and care and attention. So who does all that - the poor webdev? More importantly, who pays for the server and bandwidth charges? Who is responsible for sorting out things when they go wrong?

Who takes care of the arguments and issues that typically arise with sites where the public interact with one another? How do you deal with bogus or fraudulent listings?

The approach to quantifying the market is a classic business school one: the market size is X therefore we should get n % of the market. The main competition for your site is mentioned above. Have you done any research to see how many of your target audience are active on these sites? Have you broken down the potential market according to spend?

And the killer aspect for a web dev when it comes to shares: what is the corporate structure of this venture? Is it a properly formed company with shares and all that goes with it? Or have you thought that aspect out yet?

Other than these points, good luck with your venture.

Regards...jmcc