I have been working on my main site for a few months now, had some real major problems from useless 'coders' who weren't up to the task to difficulties in converting the original mess into something useable. It's finally at a stage where the main usability of the site works, still some minor issues to deal with but they are mainly cosmetic. (ongoing at the time of post but should be finished soon). So now it's time to market it but.. ..it's completely unique, as in there is nobody that is currently providing a service anything like it at all. Sure there are similar things, but nothing even remotely close to the service my site is offering. Now, because it's unique, there isn't any standard way of marketing it. I have distributed flyers around the local area and, to a smaller extent, around the country; a local radio campaign is going to cost in the region of anything from £5k to £15k so this is, obviously, not something I want to do just yet, which leaves the online promotion. I don't think that the likes of Digg and SU are the kind of thing to use to promote this site (what do you think?), so what else can I do? The site is www.tradeafavour.net I have plans to submit a Press Release, surely a totally new service like this is newsworthy? I've already begun to do directory submissions, not sure what category it should be placed under in some of them though, any suggestions? signature links, kind of obvious site reviews on blogs, paid & free, PM me with offers. (already checking out the freebie section of BST) links on sites that have lots of traffic, but what sites should I buy links on and what's the usual rate? looking into online radio advertising, has anybody any experience of this and does it work? backlinks from other sites (again, freebie section of BST helps here ) Articles? Again, not sure what category or even if anybody would pick them up? Adwords? Well I have considered, nay even plan to have, an adwords campaign, but the keywords are either highly, highly competitive, (e.g. trade), or not even a common search, (e.g. "a favour for a favour"). I'm trying to hire forum posters and such to add some content/adverts for visitors to see. (see BST) and I also plan to buy sig links, avatars, etc. (PM me with offers) I'm also considering hiring professional SEO and marketing experts. The question is, do I need to? The key thing is, how on earth do I get people to search for this kind of service? The site is #1 in all the major search engines for the phrase "trade a favour" (oh, except msn, for some reason one of the other urls I own has that privilege ) Comments, suggestions, help, please? Laz
I see posts about trade this for that all the time on craigs list. maybe you can post there?? but then why would a user pay for a service they can get for free on craigslist? I like the concept. J
Search marketing can possibly work for you, as you will have few competitors to bid against you. Try Yahoo, MSN AdCenter, and Google Search Marketing. I suggest putting your budget on a credit card with all of these, as mistakes can and do happen. You don't want your mortgage money getting sucked away due to circumstances beyond your control.
I think you have an innovative idea, that requires innovative marketing techniques. What I would suggest is playing to the uniqueness of your idea, and the benefits of a barter-exchange system, and working to create a bit of hype behind your site. I posted on my blog (see sig-link) about ways to create a buzz about your site without investing too much money. If you're interested in discussing this in more depth, I offer marketing and business development consultancy, and feel I could help build up for a big launch of your site.
A great idea, well done! But the cosmetics of the site let your project down. The text is small on the home page and I didn't really know what is was all about until I read the whole paragraph so in actual fact you'll lose vistitors before they will even find out what a great site you have.
Thanks for the input, and I agree with you. I read your blog too, interestingly I was hoping to do most of the things you said. I'm not sure just how to pull it off so that its a success. I'll keep your offer of a discussion in mind, I may need it. Thanks MWD, the homepage is actually a 2nd or 3rd revision, and this one is proving to be more successful than the others. More of my visitors are staying around longer since I put that one up, but still not long enough in many cases. The site is still developing, and I am still learning, and I'll take any improvement when I can, until the next one.. Laz
any more suggestions? I'm particularly interested in people's experiences with Internet Radio advertising. If anybody who has a well trafficked blog is interested in writing a review, whether paid of free, I'd be interested in your offers aswell. Any tips on improving the site, especially, as MWD suggested, the homepage, what else should I do to make more people interested? TIA Laz
very cool idea, Lazaru5. it has the potential to be the next swicki. i recommend you check out similar sites and copy their simplicity. it makes all the difference when u have a splash page of a quick descriptive catchline and a simple 1-2-3 get-started tip, rather than pages full of small print that i certainly didn't bother reading! consider turning the 'about' documentation into a snappy FAQ (makes easier reading and still has plenty of content for good seo) as jpoke5 said, it should be free. if you can create the right image for it then it will burst to popularity with social bookmarking and word of mouth. the money can be generated in ad revenue. to sum up - it needs to be deadly simple with a very catchy catchphraze. quality graphics will be important.
If you don't know how to market this, why did you create it? Didn't you do market research first? Creating a site without knowing how to advertise it is like throwing money out of the window
I think you may have missed the boat right up front. Your logo. Your site title is "Trade A Favor" Your logo says "Trade At Favor"
Of course we performed market research, this idea has been almost 12 months in the planning, research and development. Our intial MR focused on whether we had a marketable product, i.e. would people go for it. The answer to that was a resounding "yes", IF we could get people to the site. So, development began on the site whilst research was carried out into traditional online advertising methods, offline is pretty simple, "throw lots of money at it". The research has made it apparant that "traditional" methods may not work as well for this site as for others, mainly because of the whole "unique" idea of it. First, splash pages like you suggest suck so badly and look unprofessional, my opinion only. True, we need to do something with the homepage/landing page, call it what you will, but that isn't a route I want to go down, again, personal opinion. Second, I agree with perhaps changing the about page, and maybe even changing it to a "snappy FAQ", thanks for the suggestion. Third, the MR told us that people would rather not be bombarded with ads. Sure we can add some minimal ads to supplement income without frightening off potential members, but to make it totally ad supported wouldn't work, based on the results of our MR. The logo was professionally designed, the @ being used to symbolise that the whole idea is online based. It has been seen and commented on by many business professionals and all, but you it seems, have been able to recognise the symbolism. The logo says exactly what the service is, is clean, and is memorable. I don't think that we could have had a more perfect logo, imo.
You should be able to view most of the stuff without logging in. I was curious as to what kind of stuff people were trading but couldn't see anything.
If we had adverts then you would see them. The main problem is too few members spread over too wide an area, the only member that is within easy reach of another is me, and I am actually midway between two. We're assuming that most of those people that have registered are saving their free advert until there are more people with which to trade, although I have had to reject one tonight because the content wasn't within T&C's Would you suggest that we put "sample" adverts up? @Moderators: Why was this thread moved to here? I was asking for marketing advice not a site review, which is why I originally posted it in GM. Laz
I have heard of a large organisation in the UK (but worldwide i think) called LETTS whch has been on the go for years, at its heart LETTS and your concept are very similar but they have taken it further into an alternative currency. You may want to contact the organiasation to further your marketing. regards
I couldnt find that organisation Mozzer, this time google was not my friend... the only LETTS I could find was the one I knew about, i.e. LETTS study guides... the site has had a MAJOR redesign, please check it out and give me your critiques please also, if anybody thinks that they can write some decent copy for the homepage at a reasonable price, please PM me with details.. thanks Laz