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Data Glasses

Top Contributor
I am wondering if perhaps i should be aiming smaller ? yes smaller, at the moment i am having trouble getting people to advertise for free on barterbuysellswap , it seems that perhaps the site is too vague ????

I noticed that gumtee has many many sub gategories and plenty of listings , so i am starting to think better off being a big fish in a small pond rather than being a small fish in a big pond ???

I feel i could add many more topics by doing this and be seen as a local site ?
also more able to approach people in just one state (victoria)

I wonder what your views are ??? happily start small and allow to mature at its own pace ? its quite amazing i have given about 150 advertising 'tabs' directly to people but they dont seem to follow through with the free ad part ? at this point i am feeling i could not give away free money ???

I really am starting to think offer more direct categories may be the go ??
and expand later on when ready

love to read your views ...... oh wise ones !!!!!
 
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soj

Founder
I have always believed in niche markets, target a small area, and master it, get big market share, then move onto another niche area, gain market share, etc. After gaining market shares, and mastering those areas, you can easily onsell your other areas to these people. You have a loyal group that are placing ads and such, so they may just have other items which they are interested to sell, but didnt want to put them on your niche site. Now they have an option to do that with the bigger site.
 

Data Glasses

Top Contributor
so you agree it seems , i could be offering music lessons , instruments, music teachers
sheet muic , singing lessons and so on intead of just MUSIC ,... that is my thinking

I am wondering if google qould pick me up as victorian ??? in other words if i had a google ad for this site would it be able to say 'servicing victoria' in the title , would people from victoria see my ad first. if i am to concentrate in just my state

thanks for your views soj
 

soj

Founder
Actually spacey, what i was meaning was, make a site which deals in the trade of just piano equipment, so pianos, piano lessons, piano tuning, etc. Then you could move onto guitars, guitar lessons, guitar accessories, amplifiers, etc. This way your building a niche site based purely on these individual areas. People would rather see a small selection with lots of listings, than a million different categories with maybe one or two listings withing 20 or so categories.

See what i have done with DN Trade is to start with a small amount of Forums, populate them, and have a good conversation going within, then expand into newer areas, such as this Web Development one. People are drawn to sites with more activity, as it would be more beneficial.

With your site, BarterBuySellSwap, what are you offering which other classifieds sites dont have? You have to ask yourself, if you were a person browsing the web, why would you advertise on your site? Is it easier, is it faster to sell your items, is it going to help sell your items for more money. If it is just the same as another website (or even harder to use) why would someone be swayed over to your site. I think you had good intentions on taking on the classifieds market, but I think you need to do a bit more thinking and planning on how you can break into the market, and take market share.
 

Data Glasses

Top Contributor
I am seeking to learn some aspects of admin and how to properly run a site , so the site is currently running fof free , although many are it seems

But what i mean is pull back and just concentrate on one state , victoria

At this point i am committed to this site due to the fact i have already paid for software and hosting

Also i have discovered the confirmation emails are being considered as spam
by hotmail and not getting to the advertisiers to activate their ads

oh the hassles
 
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Ross

Top Contributor
Listen to SOJ

Hi Spacey,

I think you should put your technical troubles aside and listen to what SOJ is talking about ... because i believe it's 100% correct.

The main problem is the business model. It's a chicken and the egg situation where the buyers are unlikely to visit because they believe there won't be many sellers and the other way around. Everyone likes a market with lots of buyers and sellers. This is what gumtree has right now and your site does not at the moment.

You've probably seen all the commercials that jobsjobsjobs.com.au has been running just to reach critical mass and even become a credible player in the job market... and the company has millions of dollars. They've been doing this for almost 2 years and without much success. Sure the market is huge, but it requires lots of time and very deep pockets. Hence it's a strategy which you probably don't want to persue.

Even with this domain industry, there were heaps of sites coming online around June 30 (heck, even i registered a site DNmarket.com.au :) ), but most have consolidated over time... to the point where this is the primary "watercooler" for the australian domaining industry.

So listen to SOJ, pick a niche... get people interested and then expand overtime. If anything, it's probably good that you're having technological problems because it will stop you sooner... which is better than getting the technology right but the business model wrong.
 

Data Glasses

Top Contributor
Yep no doubt a problem to crack the market and yes i do understand what both of you are saying , but as i said this is what i am committed to, at the moment , and dont worry my pockets are not deep enough to do the jobsjobsjobs thing, i guess what i am saying is that victoria is my niche and that's where i would concentrate on , but with more categories for people to advertise on, this site would considered late on the scene, that is true. Yes i do listen to you folks ....... i do have other niche ideas to think about and act upon in the future

Simple truth is a cant just throw away the site that i paid for to set up , but yes there is a cut off point , i will allow it some more time yet, due to fact there are still things i can learn from it, i need to rethink somewhat. Hey i still my tee-shirt at least !

As usual i thank you for views
 

soj

Founder
Well if its Victoria you are going to focus on, remove all the other states on the front page. Then list all the categories and such on the front page, filling in any space you had created. If your going to focus just on the Victorian market, then there really is no point in having all the other states present with empty categories.
 

Data Glasses

Top Contributor
that's where it's at for me at the moment, yes that's what i meant by 'smaller' but of course what you both have said regarding niche makes complete sense
 

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