I need some business advice :)

Maybe you can help.

I am trying to (honestly) establish a website business. I have found that people are apprehensive about using the site. I can understand the cautiousness of using a "new" site or service that involves money.

Because I am not here to (only) promote my site I will only tell you that it is an auction style site. There are about 50 users and the site is about 3 weeks old.

The site doesn't ask for any money...or access to your PayPal account. When you bid on something...if you win the item the site will direct you to the "posters" PayPal email with the amount owed to them.

There are fees associated with posting an item in the auction..however they are on an "account" basis. Meaning I don't require you to pay me first. You can post an auction and pay me later. By the way the fee is only $1.00 to post an auction.

The only way to compare it is to eBay. That is how it works. Post then once a month you get a statement of how much you owe. Easy enough..

I had someone say that they would not use it because they are scared and they "haven't heard of" the site before.

So, the question I present to you here is...

How do I make it "ok" to use the site? What can I do to ease the fears of the people?

Nathan Hoxsie
My Cell: (321) 225-1562

 

Firstly the fact that you have 50 users in only 3 weeks isnt a bad start!

You have some BIG competition in the area you are targetting, thats more you problem I think that a lack of trust.

You need to make the site look as professional as you can, make yourself look like a big established business, that always helps.

Sadly as always you need to spend time and money promting your site, and again the more professianal that looks the better chance you have.

The other big danger you have right now is the current 50 users may go if the influx of new users dosnt continue.

Think of a way to make your site stand out from the other similar sites(yup thats really easy!!!...LOL) but if you can that will help.


Trust?....you have to earn, it cant be bought!

 

I am not worried about the competition. Healthy competition is good.

Do you feel like the site isn't professional enough? and if not..any ideas on how to fix it....oh yeah i didn't tell you where it is LOL

I will PM the link if you want to look at it

 

You just need to get some more visitors to your site. As triphp said, 50 users in 3 weeks isn't bad at all, but you need to give users a good reason to sign up to your site and bid/post auctions. Do promotional offers... something like a prizegiving ($50 or something) to a random member or something. This will get people to sign up because they want to win the money

 

Yeah trust is an issue that you can spend years trying to build. I would maybe introduce a free trial and ensure you use SSL (if you trade online) you also need to ensure you have contact details on there and a resolution process set in place (the trust may be an issue against the other members rather than the site itself)

Have a good look at the following two pages, the first being the history of ebay, the second being the information about trust (between the buyer/site and buyer/seller.

news.ebay.com/about.cfm

pages.ebay.com/aboutebay/trustandsafety.html

Ebay has been up and running for 13 years and you can't expect to replicate this in the short term, it needs a long-term view.

 

I sent a reply to your PM, hope it helps.

Sites like yours can do all right if you stick at it, and it's much easier if you keep it to a niche, i.e. websites, domains and related stuff like you have now - there aren't actually that many of those around that are doing really well.

The one thing I would worry about though is the domain name, Bid4MySpace.com - (assuming you're talking about the ones in your sig?) I don't think it gets across what you're actually doing, it sounds like your selling Myspace accounts or something, and there's so many domains around already based around the 'mySpace' phrase I think it's just not unique enough to do well. It sounds like a here today gone tomorrow sort of name with the '4' and the 'myspace' in the name, I don't think it's solid enough.

I would also suggest to anyone to steer clear of using numbers in domain names for any reason, I personally think it looks naf now but I'm sure it will look old to everyone in a few years if you're intending sticking at it that long. In fact if you can it's also better to avoid prepositions, or linking words, like 'for', 'in' and 'of' etc or number equivalents - apart from being ignored by search engines, they just take some of the punch out for the name.

The number thing goes for CrunkMP3s.com too, it's okay now because we have mp3s still, but who knows what technology will be used in a couple years' time? I think it will be a much more solid sounding, and lasting business, if the name didn't date it. Once you date stamp something with a 'current' name, it's already aging from day 1. It's the same as using plasmatv or lcdtv, or bluray in your domain name, it's doomed to go out of date the moment you begin.

P.S. That pic7 site in my sig is a perfect example, utter shite.

 

I totally agree. I don't particularly like the name Bi4MySpace. I actually own Bid4MySpace and BidForMySpace, but I felt it was easier to use the "4" Now that you mention it..I can't stand it

However, I have done a little research on "the right name" and a lot of people suggest that your name be "relative/relevant" to the content. That sounds good..If I sell shavers my site would sound awesome at shaveroutlet.com but then I got to thinking...what the hell is an "eBay" or a "Google" or a "Yahoo" or even a "DigitalPoint" with no "digital" anything? I am not trying to be argumentative.....I just want to talk this all out so I can be the best I can.

I have a domain name I am concidering using for this project and moving my data to the new address. But what do you think about the (possible) new address? DNSBarter(.)com?

 

Personally I prefer words to initials, i.e DNS, and I think barter means to swap thing rather than pay for them. You're right about Google, and Yahoo though that is an actual word, but they go back eons in web time - before names mattered so much, where people gave their companies silly names that didn't reflect what they were doing - like Orion or Poseidon or some such things. I believe, because of the internet mainly, such things are in the past unless you have millions to spend marketing made up words. Also I believe Google wanted to be called Googol (a math term) to begin with, but some other nerd already used that name.

 

SSL helps for trust. get a tusted SSL certificate and hackerproof seals. stuff like that help the users feel safe.

 

SSL is a must of you're processing your own payments, but not something you really need to think about if third parties are doing it, like Paypal etc.

 

What if the poster did not pay you at the end of the month?
What you gonna do?Suspend his account?
What is the max post/user/month?

 

with the competition in your kinda field, I suggest you need to look at Building your Brand that appeals to your end-users and mostly importantly at a quick speed (quicker than 50 members in 3 weeks). That will need you to be different enough to generate Value.

That been said... I understand its easier said than done.... So... how do you get on with doing this???

I recommend LEARN more about 'Blue Ocean Strategy'.. If you implement it, I Bet youll build yourself a good internet Business.

 

Yes the account is suspended once you have an outstanding balance. The automatic threshold is $40 but this can be change overall..or individually

 

Truthfully, the website doesn't look very professional, the orange and blue on the site just turns me away. I have a headache from it still, seeing colors right now as I type....just busting your chops.

One thing I did notice right way is
bid4myspace.com/PHPFox-Social-Networking-Script,name,100069,auction_id,auction_details

This guy is selling something illegal on your website. You must pay for that script at the authors website.

You really need to monitor what is posted on your website.

If you have the funds, I'd consider a professional web designer to overall the website to look more professional, as an auction website you want something very clean and quick to load.

Good Luck

 

That listing is perfectly legal. He is selling the "license" that he has already purchased through the authors page.

I do monitor what is posted on my site.

I appreciate your kind opinions and suggestions.