chrison600
02-12-2004, 10:49 PM
Hi all,
I wanted to share with you some feedback (paraphrased) that I received after contacting someone about potentially promoting my site.
I presented this person with the opportunity to receive a percentage of the listings fees his promotion generated. My plan was to assign him a Registration Code and a means of distributing that Code at various motorcycle races (logo stickers with the Code and instructions on the back). Users that registered using his code and placed listings would be logged and he would receive a percentage of the listing fees.
His feedback was generally negative, but I was glad to receive any kind of feedback at all:
1) People [individuals] aren't going to pay to sell things when there are so many free options out there [forums].
2) eBay has too much of a dominating presence [in my market] for those few individuals, or businesses, that will elect to pay to sell.
3) The abundance of high membership forums with free classifieds that have an established feeling of "community" will minimize the attraction to another site, even if its intent is to centralize and reduce the overhead of selling items. It will be difficult to develop a similar sense of community around the buying and selling of 'things'. Communities revolve around a common interest, not selling stuff.
I knew I was going out on a limb to try and recruit a promotional agent this early in the game. I mostly did it as a learning experience.
After some inner searching, here are a few of my thoughts:
> I think the feedback I received reflects, to some degree, what we are all trying to combat, with our own creativity and through this forum.
> I feel that I need a bulk of listings to establish my site as legitimate and attract promotional partners, but I'm having difficulty attracting listings because of my lack of promotional partners. I haven't yet tried all avenues, however.
> In order to attract listings, I need a value proposition that is stonger than that of competitive offerings. I don't think free listings is the long-term answer. I think the feedback I received was right on regarding this topic, another classifieds site is not enough. The key is additional technology (Please pay attention Admin):
>> I need the ability to broadcast item listings to a variety of forums.
>> I need the ability to integrate eBay listings with my site - in both directions.
>> I need the ability to close transactions within my site.
>> I need the ability to manage transaction feedback.
>> I need the ability to design price plans to attract users to an infant site, yet not sacrifice too much revenue.
>> I need the ability to tightly integrate an affiliate module that allows me to track and reward more than just click throughs or registrations. It needs to monitor listing activity and reward for total listing billings above X dollars in X period of time.
>> I would like the ability to integrate other forum content, a forum hub of sorts.
Selling items brings with it some unique and challenging issues. The proliferation of the Internet and the segmented communities it cultivates demand a very creative approach from those desiring to profit from those communities. Building another community is not the solution.
Of course, I will read this post tomorrow with a much different mindset and may have different feelings.
I don't think all responsibility rests on technology. I still feel that there is a lot left for me to do as far as marketing.
I wanted to share with you some feedback (paraphrased) that I received after contacting someone about potentially promoting my site.
I presented this person with the opportunity to receive a percentage of the listings fees his promotion generated. My plan was to assign him a Registration Code and a means of distributing that Code at various motorcycle races (logo stickers with the Code and instructions on the back). Users that registered using his code and placed listings would be logged and he would receive a percentage of the listing fees.
His feedback was generally negative, but I was glad to receive any kind of feedback at all:
1) People [individuals] aren't going to pay to sell things when there are so many free options out there [forums].
2) eBay has too much of a dominating presence [in my market] for those few individuals, or businesses, that will elect to pay to sell.
3) The abundance of high membership forums with free classifieds that have an established feeling of "community" will minimize the attraction to another site, even if its intent is to centralize and reduce the overhead of selling items. It will be difficult to develop a similar sense of community around the buying and selling of 'things'. Communities revolve around a common interest, not selling stuff.
I knew I was going out on a limb to try and recruit a promotional agent this early in the game. I mostly did it as a learning experience.
After some inner searching, here are a few of my thoughts:
> I think the feedback I received reflects, to some degree, what we are all trying to combat, with our own creativity and through this forum.
> I feel that I need a bulk of listings to establish my site as legitimate and attract promotional partners, but I'm having difficulty attracting listings because of my lack of promotional partners. I haven't yet tried all avenues, however.
> In order to attract listings, I need a value proposition that is stonger than that of competitive offerings. I don't think free listings is the long-term answer. I think the feedback I received was right on regarding this topic, another classifieds site is not enough. The key is additional technology (Please pay attention Admin):
>> I need the ability to broadcast item listings to a variety of forums.
>> I need the ability to integrate eBay listings with my site - in both directions.
>> I need the ability to close transactions within my site.
>> I need the ability to manage transaction feedback.
>> I need the ability to design price plans to attract users to an infant site, yet not sacrifice too much revenue.
>> I need the ability to tightly integrate an affiliate module that allows me to track and reward more than just click throughs or registrations. It needs to monitor listing activity and reward for total listing billings above X dollars in X period of time.
>> I would like the ability to integrate other forum content, a forum hub of sorts.
Selling items brings with it some unique and challenging issues. The proliferation of the Internet and the segmented communities it cultivates demand a very creative approach from those desiring to profit from those communities. Building another community is not the solution.
Of course, I will read this post tomorrow with a much different mindset and may have different feelings.
I don't think all responsibility rests on technology. I still feel that there is a lot left for me to do as far as marketing.