Marketing Ideas

[seymourjames +]

Some thoughts.

What makes an ideal classifieds site:

My marketing rules of thumb are simple. The most successful sites in my humble opinion need to always keep these things in mind.

1. choose a niche market that has enough volume potential to be economically viable. You are not ebay or craigslist.
2. Sites will tend to do better when buyers are sellers and visa versa.
3. buyers and sellers become repeatable visitors to the site.
4. buyers and sellers are passionate or genuinely interested in the subject matter.
5. It is relatively easy to prime the site with adverts (nobody likes a market with only a couple of stools selling their wares in it).

The 6th point is social. If you can connect buyers and sellers into a social network where the classifieds site is seen as part of that network then you have it in spades.

[HorseOptions]

Sir,

How can we market a site that is full of competition (some of who do not want to share the sandbox) and full of anti-advertising and anti-spam mentalities?

I have a few strategies we've been implementing that I'd like to share with you off site if possible. What is your industry again please? Please email me. robert@horseoptions.com

Please advise. Thanks.

Rob - robs@ccbsi.com

[MacJim]

I could not agree with you more. all of your points are very valid.

I have been investigating classified sites for some time and the ones that seem to be successful are the ones that fill a niche. Also I see very few "Free" ones that can turn a profit. Many have google advertising on every page with many of those ads competing against their own site's advertisers. Getting display type advertising can be very difficult in the beginning if you don't already have a lot of free ad postings to generate traffic.

So I support a model that caters to a specialized market of buyers and sellers... Most likely collectors who not only sell, but buy. Of course, you will have collectors/users only too.

I really agree with your #6.... Social media brings people together because of their common interest... There's your traffic. This makes a classified site very viable.

Question: Does 68C have some way of including a forum, blog or other social media tools?

Thanks for the great post.... Jim

Originally Posted by seymourjames

Some thoughts.

What makes an ideal classifieds site:

My marketing rules of thumb are simple. The most successful sites in my humble opinion need to always keep these things in mind.

1. choose a niche market that has enough volume potential to be economically viable. You are not ebay or craigslist.
2. Sites will tend to do better when buyers are sellers and visa versa.
3. buyers and sellers become repeatable visitors to the site.
4. buyers and sellers are passionate or genuinely interested in the subject matter.
5. It is relatively easy to prime the site with adverts (nobody likes a market with only a couple of stools selling their wares in it).

The 6th point is social. If you can connect buyers and sellers into a social network where the classifieds site is seen as part of that network then you have it in spades.

[seymourjames +]

On your last point , there is nothing to stop a 68C owner integrating a blog or forum alongside their system. If you look through the classified mods site you will see that we are already providing Wordpress integration with matching templates. Further levels of integration are indeed possible and being explored.

[SkGold +]

SEO is NUMBER ONE.

Craigslist, Kijiji and some other classified sites became so popular just (99.9%) because of SEO. Any time you search for something (almost in any niche and almost in any place) Craigslist and Kijiji on the top of SERPs.

Get to the top of SERPs and your site will be successful. Then implement suggestions from Seymourjames and you will be happy even more!!!

[tdisraeli +]

Originally Posted by MacJim

Question: Does 68C have some way of including a forum, blog or other social media tools?

Check out Ning lets you discover and create new social networks for your interests and passions.

I'll be using them minus the ads and with my own domain name.

[seymourjames +]

Social networking is very important in many markets but the fundamental points are to do your planning upfront. Answer the basic questions before worrying about SEO or social networking, albeit both may or may not be important.

There is one more point not mentioned which came up in a discussion I had the other evening. If you have competition. What are you going to do that will give you some competitive advantage or differentiation?

[tdisraeli +]

Originally Posted by seymourjames

Answer the basic questions before worrying about SEO or social networking, albeit both may or may not be important.

100% correct. As you may have noticed I said "will be using" Ning.

My sites have been up and running for months, very successful from a listing/members/traffic standpoint and the Social Networking element is still last on my list to tackle.