Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Classifieds Website Initial Listings

Posted by Anonymous on 4/24/2011 at 7:44 AM ET 250 Points
Hi,
I am planning to launch a classifieds website soon and needed some expert opinion.
Once the website is ready, I will start promoting it online, offline. However, what I want is that when I start promoting the website, there are enough listings for users to trust the site and post their ads.
Is there any way to do this where I can get listings before the promotions. It is not an everyday classifieds website so I cant ask friends to post listings.
Any help will greatly be appreciated.

Thank you

David
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 4/24/2011 at 8:57 AM Accepted
    Why don't you pay people for classified postings? That's a better deal than Craigslist, and can start to be an interesting story to build some initial PR around.
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 4/24/2011 at 1:51 PM Accepted
    All new advertising based media go through this. For example, I started a magazine from scratch. First I defined who the readers would be and how they would get it. Then I approached potential advertisers to try to get them to sign up for ads. I had to discount many of the ads, and even gave some free for first issue to get them to come back for future issues. These advertisers don't have prior issues of this brand new magazine to look at, so are taking a lot on faith and need some convincing (through discounting or allowing to pay after the magazine is printed).

    You have similar issues, but with classified ads instead of regular display ads. You likely will want to offer discounts, or even free, at first. And of course, you need to define who the readers of these ads will be. And something my magazine didn't have to worry about is that you also need to define when it goes live, as classified ads are often time sensitive.
  • Posted on 4/24/2011 at 3:44 PM Author
    Thanks for all the suggestions. The site anyways has free listings. Revenue will be generated through banners and premium listings which will happen only if people see there is traffic. What I want to figure out is how to find people to post free listings so when someone wants to advertise on the website, they have no inhibitions.

    My aim is to have around 300-500 listings before I can actually start marketing the site. Also, since it is a single product based classifieds site, I have to target people from that specific industry.

    Hope this helps

    David
  • Posted on 4/25/2011 at 9:46 AM Accepted
    David,

    If you plan on having some business related categories in your classifieds let me know. I might be able to drive some people your way. My email is [deleted by staff - please check profile]
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 4/25/2011 at 12:43 PM Member
    Well, considering you are trying to increase free classified ads, what you could do is approach people who are placing ads for your product group at other locations (other web sites, in printed media, etc.) and offer for them to place the ads on your site. You could even make it easier for them by actually copying their ad from the other site onto your web site and sending a link which would allow them to post as is with 1 click, or to make easy modifications to the ad before posting.

    Not sure about the legal issues or ethical issue of just up and re-posting ads from other sites on your site without the poster's approval. If that is legal/ethical, that would be one way of filling your classified ads.
  • Posted on 4/27/2011 at 2:47 PM Author
    Hey Experts,

    Sorry for the delay in replying.

    KSA - My website does not involve any kind of transactions. You can think of it as a catalyst for buying and selling though there will be no monetary transactions on the website itself so I cannot know if a deal has come through as I would not have any control on offline transactions.

    My advertisers will consist of both; companies and individuals.

    Peter - Your idea is actually very close to what I was thinking. I am trying to find out if there are any legal/ethical implications though I doubt there should be. If the user sees that my website can help them sell the product, I don't think they would mind.

    I have built a database of 20,000 people/companies and will send them a mailer as a pre-launch gimmick. I'm hoping to get some listings from there. Once I achieve that, I can market the website on a larger scale

    David
  • Posted by michael on 4/28/2011 at 9:05 AM Accepted
    If you google "online classifieds" you'll get a good idea of what you're up against. That's not meant to discourage you.

    The key will be to create a firm launch date and a solid marketing campaign that will drive customers visits the first day. Once you have that, you have something to take to those 20,000 prospects.

    Michael
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