New Classifieds Website

dealerwa

Hi All,

I am currently in the planning stages of building a classifieds website in a niche area that I think will do well.

I have a few questions in relation to using PHP Script for this. I intend on using ilister for this which seems to have excellent functionality and has all the tools I need.

Il will be getting my web developer to build a brand and install this with an innovative site design. MY questions are as follows:

They offer hosting with the product at a monthly rate of 49 dollars per month. I intend on setting this up in a different country to where they keep the servers so would this be a problem if something happened, like they went down etc or would I need to get a package where I can host on servers in the country where I will set up?

Also what would be the cost of hosting a bust classifieds website such as gumtree, donedeal, buy and sell who have lots of photos? I know I am aiming high and that I may not get there immediatly but I am setting out my business plan and want to be aware of any hidden costs etc.

cormee

OK, think long and hard before launching a classifieds website - based on the postings in this forum over the last few years, every man and his dog seems to be opening one, and of all of those launched/mentioned in this forum, not one (that I've seen) has succeeded.

Unfortunately you won't know if your niche is going to be a success until you've launched, and by that stage you'll possibly invested a lot of money and time in it. You could save yourself a lot of (possible) heartbreak and cash by buying cheaper off-the-shelf classified software such as http://www.appthemes.com/themes/classipress/ spend the cash you've saved on Adwords, and, if it looks like your site's going to be a success, upgrade your software then.

Why are you getting a developer to create your brand and design? You do realise he/she studied computers and not design? Get a designer to design, get a developer to develop.

Hosting - for SEO reasons host the site in the country where your market is. Location of server is one of the signals Google uses to determine your rank.

GetWithIt

cormee wrote: »

OK, think long and hard before launching a classifieds website - based on the postings in this forum over the last few years, every man and his dog seems to be opening one, and of all of those launched/mentioned in this forum, not one (that I've seen) has succeeded.

Hmmmm, sounds like a classified site of classified sites could be a goldmine.

CptSternn

You can host your website anywhere you want in any country you want. It won't effect the website in the slightest.

However you need to be aware of a few things.

First of these things is legal liability. Where ever you host you will be subject to the laws of the country where your servers reside, where you reside, and where your products are being sold. If you, your customers, and your servers are in the same country it makes legal situations a bit less complicated. If you have servers in America and are based in the UK selling products in Ireland you will need to make sure you are familiar with laws in all three countries as if something goes wrong you could be held liable and you need to know where your exposure lies. Even if say you offer no refunds you might find the country where your server is hosted has laws in regards to consumers and will shut down your website if you ignore a problem which might not be an issue in the country where you live. That's before you get into things like copyright laws and defamation of character.

Second, as it was mentioned above you will need a designer or company the deals with branding, NOT a web guy to roll out your product.

Also as it also was said above, there are dozens of classified sites out there. What makes you think you have something to offer than the others do not? More importantly, lets say you DO have an original idea, a hook, that makes you unique. Is it patented? In what country? The country where you live, where your servers will be, or where your customers are? I ask because even if you have a great idea and you don't have it patented or don't have it patented in all the countries where you plan to launch it a larger, similar website only needs to incorporate your idea into their current website and you are left with nothing as they have an already established business with customers who can easily add in a new feature much easier than you can create a whole new website and company.

Finally, I don't know where you are getting hosting for 49 DOLLARS but it would appear to be America. This does not bode well for you already. A 49 dollar hosting package as little to no space or bandwidth and is going to be on a shared server meaning it will be slow, it will be small, and if you get too much traffic it is going to cost you through the nose with the fees you will be hit with. Cheap packages are made for small websites, personal websites, mom and pop shops and the like. A classified website would generate revenue based on a high volume of visitors, so you will need more if you actually expect to exceed. The other issue is the database. You are not going to have a classifieds site without a HUGE database. You will need a proper DBA. A basic web guy might be able to do SOME for you, but if you actually expect to run a successful site you need to plan your database system out now and your hosting package has to offer database solutions which are scale-able to handle the MASSIVE database you will eventually need. If you do not do this now, you will spend a hefty chunk of change later trying to re-do the site from scratch as it will have to happen if the site does take off.

What I am reading is first you are going to make things difficult by having your company spread across the globe, causing legal headaches down the road. Second, you seem to be shopping for bargain basement hosting and you plan to get the web guy to do the work of three or four people/companies which makes it seem like you have little to no actual money to invest here and are doing this whole thing on the cheap. You are going to need to make a substantial investment if you actually plan on this ever getting past a basic website design. If you go through with doing this on the cheap you will not get far. Personally I think the market is saturated and you won't get far anyway, and if you haven't patented your ideas they will be lifted and used and you will be out of business before you start.

Just a heads up sure.

daymobrew

CptSternn wrote: »

You can host your website anywhere you want in any country you want. It won't effect the website in the slightest.

It will impact the speed a bit as the web site content will take longer to get to the user.

CptSternn wrote: »

Finally, I don't know where you are getting hosting for 49 DOLLARS but it would appear to be America. This does not bode well for you already. A 49 dollar hosting package (h)as little to no space or bandwidth and is going to be on a shared server

He said $49 per month ($588/year) so it should be much better than a basic shared hosting package.

CptSternn

daymobrew wrote: »

It will impact the speed a bit as the web site content will take longer to get to the user. He said $49 per month ($588/year) so it should be much better than a basic shared hosting package.

I would disagree with you on the speed. I have hosting accounts in America and Ireland and host a list of sites on both. There is no speed difference between the two. In fact, until recently I was hosting everything in America, but then Blacknight dropped their prices and I moved all my Irish websites over to their servers. There is no difference in the speed. Well, there might be a few milliseconds difference, but nothing the end user will notice.

$588 a year does sound better. I read the original post wrong.

After looking back and seeing my error I also noticed that the OP mentions ilister. I also seemed to have overlooked this the first time.

So in regards to Ilister, am I correct in assuming that you are not actually going to be building a website at all, but just using a third party product and slapping a skin on top to make it look a bit different? There will be no development here other than a little CSS theme/skin, like on Wordpress? This would help with the database issue as it will setup the MySQL tables for you, however, you are severely limited in website design options as you will be for the most part locked in to a pre-made template as you will just be using a third party product and are not actually developing anything.

Aside from the fact you will basically be slapping a template over a third party product, which of course will be very noticeable, the issue you then will have to contend with is updating the Ilister software regularly. See, if you go with a third party product instead of actually developing your own website security becomes a huge issue. That is because hackers spend large amounts of time finding holes in third party packages because if they find one hole they will be able to hack hundreds if not thousands of websites due to the fact they all will be using the same code.

Wordpress, Joomla, and all of those other popular packages are rife with security issues, new ones being discovered almost daily, and they need to be constantly updated else your website will be compromised. Sometimes they just deface your website but if you are hosting a classifieds site if you have ANY user data there you could be held criminally liable under the data protection act if your website is compromised and any user details are taken. Failure to report a security breach could mean even more penalties. This means having to patch the site every week or two and modify your template/theme/skin when necessary. Failure to do so not only means your site will go down but it also could mean criminal and civil penalties for you as well.

stapolinhosting

CptSternn wrote: »

Wordpress, Joomla, and all of those other popular packages are rife with security issues, new ones being discovered almost daily, and they need to be constantly updated else your website will be compromised.

This is more true than people realise. I am forever having to fix clients accounts who use open source scripts. No matter how much security I put on the servers, as long as there is scripts like wordpress, osc, zencart, joomla etc etc on them, there is always a hack around the corner. Of course, the very popular quick install packages don't help the situations either..

So in my opinion, your probably best to have something developed from scratch. I have developed a number of sites from the ground up and none have been hacked so far (except for 1, but that was an attack directly on the hosting account). You also get exactly what you need.

Other than that, directories themselves are hard to get off the ground unless you have a pretty good niche and a lot to offer.

IRE60

Ohhhhhh the 'hacking boogy' - yea - go with me from scratch and let me charge you for the privilege - and don't worry about the thousands of bug feedbacks joomla/WordPress/drupal get each day on their core dev.

Its not core that gets fcuked - it sloppy components, extensions and plugins.

If opensorce is such crap how come one of the most anally retentative organisations in the world uses Drupal - the White House.

On the first issue - your tld and your hoisting IP "may" influence your pecking order in search results - both +/- - well documented in Google webmasters forums

stapolinhosting

IRE60 wrote: »

If opensorce is such crap how come one of the most anally retentative organisations in the world uses Drupal - the White House.

I never said they were crap, I said they were easy to hack. Like any script, if not maintained and updated with latest fixes, it can/will be hacked by someone eventually.

Unlike the Whitehouse.. start-ups on a budget looking for the cheapest way to get online, don't have the top pros in the country to keep their website clean and tidy from hackers 24/7 365. Many have no clue when they are even hacked.

I use open-source all the time, especially on eCommerce sites, but I make sure they are up to date with latest patches/fixes.

stapolinhosting

Update: I had a mess around with oxyclassifieds script over the last few days for a client, and its possibly one of the best scripts I have come across in terms of what it can be used for... From reading a few reviews and forums, I found that customer support for them is the worst in teh world, but the script itself is really good and can be used for anything from car classifieds to dating site and anything in between.

Anyway, just though I would share that in case your still looking.

kbfdirect

Hi All,Its been good reading. I also had a site developed in php from scratch recently.If you would ask me now I probabally would go with a script, I wanted it developed a certain way and paid the price in time and heartache. Personally I went with Blacknight. I would have to say they have a very good service (Most times). Had an issue with what I thought was a Paypal fault and was going around in circles between PayPal, Blacknight and the developers for 2 months while they all pointed the finger at each other. That was a real bummer. But outside that I would have to say that blacknight have been excellent.

I would also agree to get a designer to design and a developer to develop. Because it is my first venture I done it arse ways. I thought that the developers would design the site as well but it was a disaster from design point of view.I then had to get it redesigned, now though not 100% we went live this week and are screaming for customers to place free ads . If anyone knows a good way of attracting customers on a shoe string I would love to hear from them. Also I would like some feedback (good or bad).If you could contact me I can send the name of the website .I presume i cannot name it here.