Free advertising for farmers

CMC2021 · 06-12-2025 06:19PM #1

I just wanted to share something I’ve been working on over the last few months that I hope will be useful to others in the farming community.

I’ve set up a new website called FarmFair.ie. Simply put it’s an online marketplace for anything farming related- machinery, livestock, buildings, land, services, even farm jobs- and it is free to use.

I put a good bit of time into making sure everything is well categorised, because I found it frustrating on other sites when you had to waste time browsing through unrelated adverts to find what you were after.

There are no 3rd party ads, which i also found frustrating on other sites as you’d accidentally hit one and waste time being brought to a new page or site.

I hadn’t experience with creating sites or software before this, I am a farmer and we’ve advertised cattle and bits of machinery before and I just felt if nothing else there was an opportunity there for farmers to cut down on costs as some advertising fees have gone haywire.

If anyone wanted to give it a try that would be great as the more ads that are placed, the easier it is to drive traffic to the website and in turn the more effective it is as an advertising platform. You can find the site here: www.farmfair.ie.

Maybe it’s of no use but I said to myself there’s no harm in giving it a try. If there are any suggestions give me a shout!

Jb1989 · 06-12-2025 06:34PM

Just browsed it there, you've 7 adds. Looks good. Don't have to be registered to contact seller, it has good filters. Should be grand site. Will you not charge for adds down the line? Your getting no income from it?

CMC2021 · 06-12-2025 06:51PM

Thanks very much for the feedback, I plan to keep it free until it actually becomes useful- I don’t want to be charging for ads when the traffic just isn’t there and sales aren’t being achieved from it. If it does eventually get going, ie. hundreds of ads and thousands of viewers, I was thinking of just a simple flat rate of €4.50 per ad. Realistically that’s a long way away so it will remain free and I’m happy enough to be footing the cost and getting feedback on how to improve the site to make it as useful as possible.

Limestone Cowboy · 06-12-2025 07:47PM

Best of luck with it. Maybe try some of the farming groups on Facebook to promote it too. Donedeal is gone very expensive recently I think livestock ads costing as much as mart commission now. Keep it simple.

lmk123 · 06-12-2025 07:47PM

Looks good, from a buyers point of view if you could make sellers put up the actual price instead of €1234 etc. it would be brilliant, that and good filters, I absolutely hate Donedeal but there doesn’t seem to be an alternative for farming stuff

Sacrolyte · 07-12-2025 09:05PM

yeah site looks great. Best of luck with it and the previous poster said it would be great if lads put prices up.

Cushtie · 07-12-2025 09:20PM

Best of luck with it .

CMC2021 · 07-12-2025 10:51PM

Thanks very much for the well wishes and feedback everyone! Hopefully it will become a useful platform for the farming community. I will do my best to get it out there, I have been calling around with flyers the past week to try build up the site and will continue doing that with any spare time I have away from the farm. Thanks again!

epfff · 20-12-2025 10:06AM

Has anybody used this to buy or sell?

_Brian · 20-12-2025 10:54AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124048518#Comment_124048518

This 100%

Silverdream · 20-12-2025 11:43AM

Site looks good, easy to use, although I haven't looked from a mobile device.

My 2 cents of advice would be to reach out to the trade machinery sellers, they would not be long bulking up the amount of ads. Currently, they are getting hammered by the Dungdeal fee's.

Here's the clickable link for folks to use

https://www.farmfair.ie/

Back4more · 20-12-2025 12:16PM

I barely look at dd nowadays,pages and pages of ads for water troughs repeated daily wtf. DD farming is now also full of repeated ads ,an item sold will even keep repeating.If they left well enough alone but greed took over. Such a waste of time reeling trough 10's of pages to even not 1 item of interest to anyone!

If traders are allowed advertise ,there should ba a limit of 10 or less items every month,otherwise they just takeover.

cjpm · 21-12-2025 08:49AM

What pisses me off with DoneDeal is the stupid search. I lad can fill the bottom of his add with keywords that are unrelated to the add and when you search you find all that shite

My buddy actually emailed them to ask them to consider an ad title only search function. They politely told him to PFO

148multi · 21-12-2025 02:01PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124086309#Comment_124086309

Very polite 🤣, get the feeling that dd has an agenda.

893bet · 21-12-2025 02:05PM

Done deal need competition to put manners on them. Adverts.ie is largely free and barely used (but owned by done deal also)

CMC2021 · 09-01-2026 12:00AM

Just said I’d come back with a quick update and see if anyone had any more feedback.

The site has been live a few weeks now and there’s been a steady bit of activity, with ads going up regularly and a sale confirmed through the site this week, which is encouraging to see.

I’ve made a few tweaks along the way — changing some categories and adding more filters — and it’d be great to hear any other suggestions or feedback, good or bad!

CMC2021 · 25-03-2026 03:17PM

The FarmFair app is now live if anyone wanted to have a look.

You can download the app via:

iOS- App Store:

https://apps.apple.com/app/farmfair/id6759644177

Android- Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ie.farmfair.android.app

Ads are €4.50 now with the app launch to keep things running and to continue to making improvements.Hopefully it proves useful 👍

Boardnashea · 25-03-2026 03:35PM

Well done, site looks great. Is there room for a "looking for" section. I'm after a few small bales of straw in east galway as my usual suppier has stopped doing his own tillage. I'll never be a big customer but I'm usually looking for a few bits.

CMC2021 · 26-03-2026 08:25PM

Thanks very much! I can certainly include one if there is demand, in the meantime if you’d like to create a ‘wanted’ ad for it in the feed and bedding section feel free to and I will share it on the FarmFair Facebook page also 👍

Reggie. · 27-03-2026 08:41AM

Is there a way to see how many views and ad got? Like DD?

CMC2021 · 27-03-2026 11:32PM

At the moment only I can see how many views an ad gets, but its something I’ll be adding as FarmFair progresses 👍 Have a number of features I will be hoping to include in the future

Reggie. · 28-03-2026 08:41AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124346529#Comment_124346529

Maybe a save feature too for the ads do you dont have yo go search them again.

Cushtie · 28-03-2026 09:57AM

I'm getting an error going into it. Security certificate. Maybe it's just my phone though @CMC2021

Edit, that's into the site as opposed to the app

28-03-2026 12:25PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124339953#Comment_124339953

Is there a mart near you ?

There is normally lads selling square bales of straw at them

Boardnashea · 29-03-2026 01:41AM

Neverthought of that. I'll give it a try. Thanks

Free advertising for farmers

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