website for small ads!

calerbass

Hi folks, I have a business idea which would be a specialist small ads website, i want to start small and hopefully develop it as i go. If it did take off well their should be a lot of traffic on the site, my question would be giving the nature of the site, what would be involved in developing and running a site like that, i do want it to be as professional as possible, and i'm prepared to spend the money on it. i suppose it would be the same format as some of our popular small ad online websites but in a specialist area, so could anyone give me any advice on any companies that would be good to speak to to get an idea of costs etc.or anyone here that may have experience in developing this type of site i would appreciate it.

cormee

calerbass wrote: »

Hi folks, I have a business idea which would be a specialist small ads website, i want to start small and hopefully develop it as i go. If it did take off well their should be a lot of traffic on the site, my question would be giving the nature of the site, what would be involved in developing and running a site like that, i do want it to be as professional as possible, and i'm prepared to spend the money on it. i suppose it would be the same format as some of our popular small ad online websites but in a specialist area, so could anyone give me any advice on any companies that would be good to speak to to get an idea of costs etc.or anyone here that may have experience in developing this type of site i would appreciate it.

There's no need to get the software developed unless it has some unique functionality you haven't mentioned.

There's hundreds of perfectly fine off-the-shelf scripts you can buy for a fraction of the price. I came accross a script called Oxy Classifieds ( http://www.oxyclassifieds.com ) I was going to use in a project and it seemed great. Lots of really nice features. The only issue with it iirc is that the PHP is encoded so that could affect you if you plan to customise it in the future. Otherwise it looks great.

Don't invest too much money in the project until you know for sure it's going to be successful, there are dozens of Irish small ad sites and a very high percentage of them will fail. Any money you do feel like spending on it you should spend on Google AdWords, given the competition in that sector it will take the site a few months (at the very least) to start ranking properly in search results, so you'll need to use AdWords to bring in the traffic.

calerbass

cormee wrote: »

There's no need to get the software developed unless it has some unique functionality you haven't mentioned.

There's hundreds of perfectly fine off-the-shelf scripts you can buy for a fraction of the price. I came accross a script called Oxy Classifieds ( http://www.oxyclassifieds.com ) I was going to use in a project and it seemed great. Lots of really nice features. The only issue with it iirc is that the PHP is encoded so that could affect you if you plan to customise it in the future. Otherwise it looks great.

Don't invest too much money in the project until you know for sure it's going to be successful, there are dozens of Irish small ad sites and a very high percentage of them will fail. Any money you do feel like spending on it you should spend on Google AdWords, given the competition in that sector it will take the site a few months (at the very least) to start ranking properly in search results, so you'll need to use AdWords to bring in the traffic.

Thanks for your reply there........interesting what you say.........so if i went and used oxyclassifieds or another off the shelve program, could i then design it the way i wanted the website, type etc? would i then apply to have it hosted? i know i have to register a business name before i get the domain if i'm not mistaken......i'm probably missing a lot in between here but i would start small and work on it as i would be aware of the competition, i've done some market research and it looks promising if i can go about it the right way and get it going.....

brian duffy

I'd take a look at wordpress. Its a really powerful content management system and really easy to use. You can extend it with a special theme called classipress which turns it into classified ad site.

You could be up and running with a classified ad site for about USD$100 in about 20 minutes. You could then hire a designer to play around with the design for you on the cheap too.

cormee

calerbass wrote: »

Thanks for your reply there........interesting what you say.........so if i went and used oxyclassifieds or another off the shelve program, could i then design it the way i wanted the website, type etc? would i then apply to have it hosted? i know i have to register a business name before i get the domain if i'm not mistaken......i'm probably missing a lot in between here but i would start small and work on it as i would be aware of the competition, i've done some market research and it looks promising if i can go about it the right way and get it going.....

You, or someone who knows CSS, would be able to edit the look & feel, yes.

Yes you'd need to have it hosted. Whoever sells you the software might have an installation service, enquire when you're buying. If your market is in Ireland go with a hosting company whose servers are located in Ireland.

You haver to be a registered company (or be a sole trader) if you're buying a .ie only, a .ie would be preferable to a .com if your market is Ireland.

Have a look at Brian Duffy's suggestion too. WordPress is an excellent piece of software.

was.deevey

Joomla + Sobi2 is another option for you to have a look at (both free)

cormee

was.deevey wrote: »

Joomla + Sobi2 is another option for you to have a look at (both free)

Compare http://www.appthemes.com/demo/?theme=classipress to http://joomla.sigsiu.net/directory.html

I'm not surprised Sobi2 is free. It looks awful, and the code is dreadful.

The money OP would save not having to purchase it, he'd lose many times over paying someone to make it presentable, and you could forget ever making it mobile.

Sometimes shelling out a few euros on a good piece of software is the wisest thing to do. Free isn't necessarily better.

Of the three suggested so far I'd say Brian Duffy's is best.

Marsden

calerbass wrote: »

Hi folks, I have a business idea which would be a specialist small ads website, i want to start small and hopefully develop it as i go. If it did take off well their should be a lot of traffic on the site, my question would be giving the nature of the site, what would be involved in developing and running a site like that, i do want it to be as professional as possible, and i'm prepared to spend the money on it. i suppose it would be the same format as some of our popular small ad online websites but in a specialist area, so could anyone give me any advice on any companies that would be good to speak to to get an idea of costs etc.or anyone here that may have experience in developing this type of site i would appreciate it.

I would think it through before registering with the CRO. Would you not try a .com or .net address instead, that way if it doesn't work out you wont have the hassle of having to get voluntarily struck off the CRO etc.

cormee

Marsden wrote: »

I would think it through before registering with the CRO. Would you not try a .com or .net address instead, that way if it doesn't work out you wont have the hassle of having to get voluntarily struck off the CRO etc.

Good point. Or if you're intent on a .ie just register as a sole trader, it doesn't carry the same obligations as a company, you just pay the registration fee and forget about it, and you can register .ie

amk2010

brian duffy wrote: »

I'd take a look at wordpress. Its a really powerful content management system and really easy to use. You can extend it with a special theme called classipress which turns it into classified ad site.

You could be up and running with a classified ad site for about USD$100 in about 20 minutes. You could then hire a designer to play around with the design for you on the cheap too.

ya this is very nice suggestion.... i have also looked at classipress provided by appthemes, it looks good but a little bit costly as well.

cormee

amk2010 wrote: »

ya this is very nice suggestion.... i have also looked at classipress provided by appthemes, it looks good but a little bit costly as well.

A little bit costly for what? Homeless people? Sweet mother of God, it's only $99. You're getting about 1000 hrs of developer's work for the price of about two hours custom work.

calerbass

Marsden wrote: »

I would think it through before registering with the CRO. Would you not try a .com or .net address instead, that way if it doesn't work out you wont have the hassle of having to get voluntarily struck off the CRO etc.

Ya actually it will be a dot com address, so is it the case then that when i do register the name i do it as a sole trader and i can park it then until such time as i am ready to launch it?

amk2010

cormee wrote: »

A little bit costly for what? Homeless people? Sweet mother of God, it's only $99. You're getting about 1000 hrs of developer's work for the price of about two hours custom work.

but my dear 1000 hrs of developer's work is only one time effort and they ll be getting 1000s of customers against that effort.... and you know price of developer's edition is $159 which is costly

cormee

amk2010 wrote: »

but my dear 1000 hrs of developer's work is only one time effort and they ll be getting 1000s of customers against that effort.... and you know price of developer's edition is $159 which is costly

I think we'll agree that Joomla + Sobi2 is probably the best match for you, and leave it at that.

Marsden

calerbass wrote: »

Ya actually it will be a dot com address, so is it the case then that when i do register the name i do it as a sole trader and i can park it then until such time as i am ready to launch it?

You don't need anything to register a .com. Start your website get as many visitors as you can and when your ready to start making sales of ad space or whatever then register as a sole trader. If it doesn't go as planned you've registered as a sole trader for nothing.

Good luck.

tricky D

cormee wrote: »

Free isn't necessarily better.

Yup. Looking for free, usually is neglecting opportunity costs. So many entrepreneurs neglect to factor in the costs of their own time properly, resulting in massive false economy.

There was a thread a few months ago where someone boasted that they spent 9 months getting up to speed for their project. They could have got a developer to do the same for €2k in a few weeks which is a lot less then the cost of those 9 months in training time and lost business time.