My Automotive business www.justgoodcars.com is a free worldwide classified car service, we will have over 700,000 cars online in a few days and have over 1000 websites all with unique content. We are a serious threat to the giant companies such as autotrader and ebay cars. The PROBLEM we have is that most of the classified automotive sites are owned by huge newspapers and magazine companies. We have a great product to shout about and over 1 Million unique visitors a month to our network of sites but the papers will not print information about us beacuse it is competing with their own interests. We had an instance where we advertised a full colour page advert in one of the largest automotive magazines in the world. They called us a week later to say that we could not advertise in their magazine anymore. We have heard through the grapevine that some big companies spoke to the magazine and said we will not advertise in your magazine anymore if you let justgoodcars advertise again. So we are being bullied out. How do we get our name out there to the public when people wont print information about us? I would really appreciate your help. We do not have much money at the moment to spend on advertising. We provide a service that everyone is looking for and it has the public's best interest at heart. Thanks Gary
If you have a $500 car to giveaway you might get some airtime on a radio or tv if you just say win a Free car!! But sorry to hear about that, i wouldnt be happy....
Make your own newspaper and ad newspapers. Or try to imitate the behaviour of the big guys. Brand yourself... There is a lot of methods to reach the next levle if you have the money to invest into it. Egomancer
you could try advertising on car forum websites / see if you can get air time on tv channels (eg men and motors) / try contacting a local radio station /
make an internet press release first of all, contact some mechanics and say what you have created and ask if they maybe will help you with something. Print businesscards you may also can give to the mechanic so he can pass them on, contact ezine owners and tell them you have something who maybe has value to ther subscribers
Thank you everyone for your advice, I think speaking to businesses like mechanics etc.. is a good idea I had done this previously, its very time consuming but pays off at the end of the day. The revenue model is profitable as I charge businesses to be listed on key areas of the site. For example if you are a business that supplies parts and spares in the United Kingdom for Porsche 911 cars your business would be placed here. Porsche 911 parts and spares I am helping to educate automotive businesses about SEO and the benefits of backlinks from highly targeted websites. What is the best way to find ezines that would be interested in talking about our service?
http://www.ezine-dir.com/Automobiles/ http://www.autopages.com.au/autopages-online-magazine.php www.autotrader.co.uk hope that helped
If that is the case, then it is more a legal issue than a commercial issue. They are breaching your companies rights. Anyway I guess payperpost is a good site to start pronoting your site. You will get promotion in small publications.
Wow, I'm glad to hear you're making big moves . The big dogs are trying to shut the door on you and this is a big issue if you want to become big. I suggest speaking to the top authorities involved with the placement of the ad(s). Make them a deal that they can't refuse , explain your situation and try and work a deal out with them. That's why they shut you out because they have a deal with the big companies. The only way to beat them is to join them. There's no easy way out of this just make the contacts and connections and build solid relationships with the people with the power. Good luck.
I do agree, I discussed this with my business partner awhile ago, the thing thats annoying is I will probably have to give away a percentage of the business to do this This equals more people with more opinions on the board! The most positive thing is that all the automotive dealers are backing our idea. I think we will attempt to reach as many as we can with some kind of campaign and try to get them to all simultaniously leave the paying sites.
That sounds good to me. Perhaps only offer a % of net profit from each sale that resulted from there add. This will hurt but will be made up in the increase in sales. Good luck and keep us updated.
TV maybe... if you live here in the US the superbowl is expensive but make a good commercail and you are all set for life my friend
it is good to see that there is an alternative to the likes of autotrader, as the few times I have had to use it, all I have got out of it is a whole host of calls from companies that can sell my car for a fee! I notice you also have http://www.justgoodbikes.com/ (looking to sell mine soon), but there seem to be a lot on the site that are over 300 days old which is a little off putting, as a potential seller makes me wonder if they are sold via your site. Nice set of site though, looks good and is easy to use. on promotion, perhaps some form of promotion at events such as motorshows? ( motorExpo in June - Canary Wharf or Max power live in July at NEC) I will certainly tell everyone I know who is looking to buy/sell cars bikes! best of luck...
Yeah the give away a free car is a very good idea. i know if i saw or heard an advertisment like that, i would be immediately interested and look into it further.
Oh yes the Bikes site, well we actually have Bikes, Boats, Planes, Trains, etc.. The bikes one is a trial site at the moment and still in beta mode, It works fine but needs attention in the near future. I thought it best to concentrate on one site at a time and the cars was the main area. Yes, unfortunately those spammy phone calls are crazy on autotrader and the like and I am sure when we become a strong enough brand we will have the same issues. I hope to correct this by having information in my terms and conditions prohibiting the calls and if a customer reports the name of a company to us we will pay them some kind of reward and then deal with the company personally. Also 1 fake car in every 10,000 hooked up to our phone lines with a recorded system should also catch them in the act. There are so many ways to do things that the big companies dont have half the brains for, it drives me nuts!
Advertise in local newspapers and magazines - they should not bother you for that. Or advertise in national media who are unbiased and you could sue for doing that to you.