While, I have set up a new site. It is local classifieds based on my State. Obviously there are only about one or two ads in there now, which are mine. Its not something like a forum where I can populate it, or pay people to populate it. So I am just wondering, does anyone have any good ideas to advertise? Will conventional advertising work on an empty site?
start with the basics:submit the site to directories, add a link in your signature, then exchange links with similar sites. Finally adwords or that yahoo sponsored stuff
Your best bet would be to advertise locally in newspapers. Asking businesses to put their ads in your classifieds.
Is it a free site? If it is a paid site, then you can use Adwords etc. to advertise and break even with the paid ads. On the other hand, if it's free then you don't have a lot of "quick" options unfortunately. You can submit to directories, exchange links etc and then wait for Google to start loving you. Unfortunately, this can be a long process.
While, its free but members can upgrade their accounts for more options. I don't mind investing some money into it. I will probably start with local advertising both in papers and online as iowadawg said. Thanks for the input all
I set-up a free classifieds site recently as well, based around buying/selling text links (in my signature). I thought that webmasters here would appreciate a free site focussed around "online advertising" theme. Unfortunately, it hasn't ruffled a lot of feathers so far. I have already spent $1,000 or so on advertising including a link on DP for $500 or so. It's up to you if you want to spend money on advertising, as long as you don't expect immediate magic results. It seems quite tough to make money from classifieds sites though. In fact, I doubt if I will ever recover my money. This is definitely the last classifieds site I am investing my time and money in. I have made much more money right from the word go, from simple informational sites and directories (that require much less set-up time and money).
I like the site, I was sign up and post a bit myself later on My site is more like a newspapers classifieds section, buy/sell/trade etc.
Thanks! I was originally going for the newspaper theme too, with buy/sell/trade, dating section etc. but then I couldn't decide which geographic area to target so I went for the "online theme". Iowadawg's right about advertising in local newspapers though. This would be a good advertising option for you. You could also look at advertising on local newspaper websites. This will be more expensive than advertising in the newspaper but you could get users straight to your website instead of counting on them on getting off their a** to their computer and visiting your site.