New Website Query

i.D

Hey all,

I intend on building a site for selling goods online. The site would be similar to donedeal.ie or the likes.
It will involve people being able to submit photos and a short few words to describe item they are selling

My questions would be would the cost opf hosting such a site be expensive once you register your domain name?

I am new to webdesign and online business so any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

i.D

cormee

Call me cynical, but unless you have some sort of a competitive edge or unique selling point, or unless you have influence over a large community, the best advice to you would be to forget the project. Every man and his dog are building the next donedeal.ie these days.

I know someone who works in one of the bigger Irish design agencies and pretty much every second enquiry they get is from someone looking to build a donedeal-type site.

You're new to online business and web design, which means you probably don't know anything about SEO or online marketing, this puts you at even more of a disadvantage.

The days of just building a site and people flocking to it are long gone, you need certain skills - which you don't have - to build and maintain a successful site, and even then you aren't guaranteed it's going to work out.

If you ignore my advice, you could look into using software such as Oxyclassifieds, or Classipress for WordPress (Classipress would be the better of the two). They both have pretty much the same functionality as DoneDeal and retail between €100-€150 excluding installation. You'd also have to factor in annual hosting, about €50, domain name renewal, say €25, and online advertising, such as Adwords, which would be as big as your budget allows.

tricky D

To expand a bit on some of Cormee's points:

He's not really being so much cynical, more practical. Until recently we were getting a classifieds site review request at least once a fortnight. There's only so much a market can take. You are also late to market at this stage, so will have a steep climb and will be chasing the scraps end of the market as eBay, Gumtree, DoneDeal, Buy and Sell and others are the long established leaders.

His point about being new to the business is true. Developing a web presence is no where near as simple as most believe. There's a huge list of skills which are required. You need someone with these skills which will cost and cost a good bit more than hosting. Note, a partnership will not cut it as almost no one with the required motivation and experience will go for it. Take a look at the classifieds site reviews from months ago and you'll see almost all in similar positions as yours making what are basic mistakes to us who have more than just few years experience.

Lastly, the days of 'build it and they will come' are long gone. You need a proper marketing and promotion budget, otherwise you have no hope of getting the required visibilty in the market unless you have a killer niche or USP. The required budget for that needs to be many multiples of any budget for hosting. Even then as you haven't the skills as noted above, you risk ending up with a poor site which will fail just like Ben Dunne's who had a huge marketing budget.

Apols for the dampener, but just being honest.

gl

ivanc

cormee wrote: »

every second enquiry they get is from someone looking to build a donedeal-type site.

Plus one on that.

Percentage wise I get an inordinate amount of requests for quotes for classified sites, none of which go ahead once they have their eyes opened to the amount of competition out there.

Have a look at the site review section on The Irish Webmasters Forum.

Every second site is a classified of some description.

Try searching for the ubiquitous bendunne.com and see what you find.

TheWaterboy

cormee wrote: »

I know someone who works in one of the bigger Irish design agencies and pretty much every second enquiry they get is from someone looking to build a donedeal-type site.

+2 on that...and not only are they looking for 'the same site as DoneDeal'....but also 'I need it done for less than 500 euros' or 'the budget is small'

As everyone else said, unless your website has a USP then Im afraid you are flogging a dead horse.