Classified Website

Daddysway

Hi

I am trying to start up a classified website for a niche market and i am trying to get ads pusbished but it is hard to get people to publish ads on an empty site.

is there anything that you can think of that would help me get this business??

your help would greatly be appriciated

thanks

cormee

Hate to sound negative, but before you spend any time/money on this project, have a look through the dozens of old postings on this forum, from people setting up classifieds sites, then check out their sites, they're either dead or completely gone. Also, have a look at the deleted domain list on IEDR.ie, it's a graveyard for Done-Deal-type domain names.

tricky D

Also check in the Entrepreneurial & Business Management. Classifieds unfortunately are in the graveyard of broken dreams.

Daddysway

I have a niche enough market and i was thinking that it would be a very good market to tap into.
I have just setup an open source theme and classified template, so nothing much spent money wise as of yet.

if i was to continue, how would i proceed? how did the large classified websites get the info?

tricky D

Daddysway wrote: »

...how did the large classified websites get the info?

Mainly, they had a combination of: being first or early to market; having an existing large user base and brand from other media; or very large investments (6 figures min). Even having all of those factors is no guarantee of success. The rest fight over the scraps, niche or no niche.

Daddysway

So am I to just give up? Is there anything else I can try?

blue4ever

I think that the word 'classified' has very negative connotations and the person using it has another idea in mind but expresses it via the word "classified".

@Daddysway I have a "classified site" in a niche market (ents). There was tumbleweed blowing through it at the start and I had no choice but to populate it with data myself to give it some traction.

Worked!

Daddysway

blue4ever wrote: »

@Daddysway I have a "classified site" in a niche market (ents). There was tumbleweed blowing through it at the start and I had no choice but to populate it with data myself to give it some traction.

Worked!

Thanks for your comment, positivity is what I am looking for. I am trying my best to get a few extra pound in this climate and I seem to be getting knock back after knock back and I think the website would do well. If there is anything I could try I would be greatful for ideas but I am def going to follow this site through to the end wether it fails or not!

rankingelite

It will be hard to get the ball rolling, it's similar enough to starting a forum. The chances of making money are relatively slim but you will learn alot in the mean time. Can you pm me the niche you're hoping to tap into?

123qwerty

Yes, I would agree with others unless you develop many, many, many artificial/fake post/ads from different IPs.
DoneDeal took over the ovnership of any type of classfields and it will be very, very difficult to jump over donedeal in search results.
Donedeal was in the business about 5 years before it was recognized, so you can imagine how long will it take for your website to become recognizable after donedeal and its clones.

IRE60

Daddysway wrote: »

Thanks for your comment, positivity is what I am looking for. I am trying my best to get a few extra pound in this climate and I seem to be getting knock back after knock back and I think the website would do well. If there is anything I could try I would be greatful for ideas but I am def going to follow this site through to the end wether it fails or not!

Well to be honest, there is it your own sweat equity going into it - then fire ahead. Your investment is your time. You'll also gain some valuable experience in doing this.

If you want to have an "aside" via email - PM me details and we'll take it from there. I can show you what I did and the results (traffic!).

Daddysway

123qwerty wrote: »

Donedeal was in the business about 5 years before it was recognized, so you can imagine how long will it take for your website to become recognizable after donedeal and its clones.

ok so to stick with my market, is there any other way i can get people talking about it? do i need to come up with another idea other than classified website? Is it "Easier" to tap into another type of market/idea?

blue4ever

Yea - my site was around about two years before I got any real traction

Daddysway

blue4ever wrote: »

Yea - my site was around about two years before I got any real traction

Are you still around? how did you get yourself out there as such? its hard to get people to visit an empty or near empty site even if the adverts are for free!

cormee

You need to post a link to the site if you want advice on how to improve it.

Daddysway

daddysway.net is the link

sorry i taught i had it posted already - any advice would be greatly appriciated!

cormee

Daddysway wrote: »

daddysway.net is the link

sorry i taught i had it posted already - any advice would be greatly appriciated!

"Only registered users are allowed to post listings"

Death sentence right there. Merge the registration and ad posting processes. Make them as simple as possible, and if possible put the form on the homepage so the user can see the amount of work involved, and can post an ad, without leaving the homepage.

The design itself is quite bland, no graphics, it needs a family theme. But I wouldn't worry about that at this stage, get your forms sorted first.

Daddysway

cormee wrote: »

Merge the registration and ad posting processes.

Do you mean that when you click on publish ad, that it brings you straight to the registration page? and then when you input the regsitration details it brings you to the publishing page?

Daddysway

ok i have just changed it now - so you do not need to register to publish an advert - so it should be straight forward enough.

and when the advert is publish the publisher is asked if he/she would like to make it a premium ad.

?????

cormee

Daddysway wrote: »

Do you mean that when you click on publish ad, that it brings you straight to the registration page? and then when you input the regsitration details it brings you to the publishing page?

If I was doing it I'd have a collapsible div on the homepage, the user clicks "Post Ad", the div expands and the form (including registration) is there.

Your current process seems to be Click button > Click Register Account button > Fill registration form > Confirm registration > Return to site > Log in > Click Post Ad > Fill out form > Submit

What I proposed above would replace that whole process.

Daddysway

Daddysway wrote: »

ok i have just changed it now - so you do not need to register to publish an advert - so it should be straight forward enough.

and when the advert is publish the publisher is asked if he/she would like to make it a premium ad.

?????

Thanks i have it changed now, do you think this would be a better option than before - this way at least i will get items posted??

123qwerty

To spread the word you should use social media ie. facebook. There are plenty pages that allow post items/products/services for free.

Daddysway

123qwerty wrote: »

There are plenty pages that allow post items/products/services for free.

You mean to create a new facebook page?

smash

Daddysway wrote: »

You mean to create a new facebook page?

No he's talking about gumtree, adverts and many more.

123qwerty

Or
facebook.com/ArklowBuySell
facebook.com/pages/Kilkenny-Items-For-Sale-Or-Free/252714648130868
facebook.com/pages/Buy-and-Sell-in-your-local-area/107630122598770
or
wikihow.com/Sell-on-Facebook

and similar pages, use google

Daddysway

123qwerty wrote: »

Or
facebook.com/ArklowBuySell
facebook.com/pages/Kilkenny-Items-For-Sale-Or-Free/252714648130868
facebook.com/pages/Buy-and-Sell-in-your-local-area/107630122598770
or
wikihow.com/Sell-on-Facebook

and similar pages, use google

OK Sorry Guys but how is this going to help me and my site??

beauf

A lot of these site are around for years before they take off. Usually as a niche market place for a club or similar with a common interest. Perhaps commuters, phones, etc. When they get the numbers up the start adding other sections. Or they just stay at the club/niche level.

cormee

Add a link to your site from your forum signature, add meaningful posts to relevant forums.

Maybe set up an RSS feed and use dlvr.it to push new adverts to Twitter, Facebook, Google+ (this suggestion is based on a low volume of new postings)

Good to see you've merged those forms, you need to jazz up the front end of your site though. It's quite plain.

Tell all your friends, neighbours, etc. who have kids to post the stuff they want to sell, or if they're lazy sods, you collect it off them, post the adverts and sell it for them. It's a lot of extra work but you'll be getting great content. You'd only need to do it until you start getting traffic and organic advert postings.

Daddysway

Guys

just an update on this - i have 17 adverts placed on my site without promoting it at all!
not sure how the word got out there or if people just serached for a buy and sell site for baby items or not but thats pretty good even thou im not pushing it anywhere.

Is this a good sign? have a look so far

daddysway.net

CptnCrunch

I dont know man, If I were buying baby stuff I'd use main ads websites, Donedeal, Adverts etc and use something like adsearch.ga to search them all at once.

If I were you i'd either put all my effort into a fully fledged Ad network or not bother at all.

Daddysway

A fully fledged ad network ?? What do you mean by that?

CptnCrunch

I mean just make a site like adverts.ie or gumtree.ie, that sells everything, I'm not sure if a niche ad market would work for something like baby stuff

Daddysway

That's where we differ niche markets are always key to survival. Be it motor, baby or sport.... Thanks thou but I think I will stay plodding along! Thanks for the comments thou! Www. Daddysway.net

CptnCrunch

Good luck with it,

As far as the website goes I think its a nice simple design, easy to read, If I were selling that kind of stuff id use it, I think it could do with some css work making it a bit visually better though, callers/patterns/font etc

Daddysway

CSS work is not my strong point and would love some help with that type of stuff, if you know anyone please do pass on the name etc

Thanks again for your comments 😀

CptnCrunch

Ya I know a fair bit, if you wanted to learn you'll find some good tutorials on YouTube, I could do the css etc on your website, but of course I wouldn't do it for free =D

doubie

Anyone interested in exchanging links?

guitarrrszz

not sure about the niche but id try change the domain, .net always looked dodgy to me but that just personal opinion i suppose