Hi all, I have gone through a lot of threads of the site about marketing, and I am placing adverts in local magazines which should be sent out in a few weeks, in the mean time as Larry suggested on another post concentrate on getting listings on your site. To help with this I have placed several adverts of my own on the site under different names, I have approached other users on other classifieds sites, and although a few have put ad's on I would say that more havent than have. I am not sure whether or not to have the listings totals showing or not, what puts people off more to see low numbers or no numbers ?
I would not bother to show totals. What you need is to get some dealers on your site with numerous items - offer them free listings. Put the listings on for them if necessary.
Thats the key. Right now your site has no ads and in turn no traffic, so what do you have to offer a potential advertiser? The answer is little or nothing so when you ask people to place an ad on your site you are asking them to spend their time to help YOU. People helping people is not unheard of BUT for the most part people are not going to spend a lot of time out of the goodness of their heart for nothing so you have a couple choices. Make it as easy as possible by following Davids advice or have something in place that they will benefit from since right now listing on your site has little perceived value.
One idea that I have seen work (especially in advertising in newspapers) is to offer a coupon code that gives them a free ad or something. You must give them something to entice them. Local newspaper Ad. Announcing My Classifieds Website... blah, blah, blah (marketing text). Use this coupon code MYFREEAD to place your FREE classified ad good through April 30th, 2010. Set up your coupon code in advance with a date expiration.
