[villarrealsj]

Hey Everyone,

I've been working for the past 2 weeks to get my new site up and running. Being a complete "noob" to coding(still lost), I was up late nights, but the site looks good. Of course, I couldn't have done any of it without my buddy who did about 90% of the coding. What...? I'm a YE(Young Entreprneur)... not YC(Young Coder)

A little background about the site:

Name: My Military Classifieds
URL: www.mymilitaryclassifieds.com

Description: A classifieds/community site with a "Craigslist" feel for the military community. Searches and posts can be searched by Military Base instead of Citires.

QUESTION 1: What do you think? Thumbs up/Thumbs Down? Why?

QUESTION 2: Have any recommendations/suggestions on how to market/advertise this site "bootstrap" style? Not looking to invest much on ads.

[NeeJam]

all the images next to the categorys have a small box with a red x in it.

Secondly you have took yourself right out of the market only you should offer it by citys.

Also you need a new domain name mymilitaryclassified.com doesnt have the ring an attraction to it as craigslist does.

[nado]

Nice site.

Yep I agree that the domain needs to be shorter.

You know you could have created a craigslist type thing in about a minute oin ning.com ? ... you have the ning sidebar, but still pretty good considering it's up and running in around a minute.

[villarrealsj]

Originally Posted by nik_b02

all the images next to the categorys have a small box with a red x in it.

Secondly you have took yourself right out of the market only you should offer it by citys.

Also you need a new domain name mymilitaryclassified.com doesnt have the ring an attraction to it as craigslist does.

Ouch... tell me what how you "really" feel.

I thought I fixed the image problem. I use Firefox, so it doesn't show that problem. My IE wasn't working for some reason earlier. I just notice it. I'll get right on it. Thanks.

About taking me out of the market... well, if you mean the "general population", I would have to agree. Many will simply not be interested. But the military consumer will. I know from experience the frustration of having to relocate from one base to another at a moments notice. All of a sudden, I have all this stuff I have to drag cross-country with me. No space or time, so I decide to get rid of it. Sometimes I was so desperate to get rid of it I had to give it away or even toss it.

Posting ads in local classifieds won't always work if they can't get aboard the local base, but if another military person sees the posting and is interested, bingo!

There are flyers and community boards all over every base selling stuff from TV's and stereos... to clothes and cars.

I know I'm taking a chance, but what the heck. If it doesn't work out... lesson learned, right?

Thanks for your input.

[villarrealsj]

Originally Posted by nado

Nice site.

Yep I agree that the domain needs to be shorter.

You know you could have created a craigslist type thing in about a minute oin ning.com ? ... you have the ning sidebar, but still pretty good considering it's up and running in around a minute.

Funny you mentioned Ning. I actually messed around with Ning when it first came out. I liked the concept, but I just couldn't get the hang of it. Maybe I'll take another look at what they have to offer. Maybe I'm just "slow"...

About the domain... ahhhh!

I know... all the good ones were taken. Let's see:

MilitaryClassified.com: Taken! The darn thing is some sort of porn site.
MilitaryClassifieds.com: Taken! Redirected to some other ugly site, but when it was up... yuck!

Can't think of others that I particularly liked, so I stuck with the current.

Any better name suggestions?

[mxer210]

hate to rip off craigslist, but sammyslist.com? It is available...

but look for slang words for "military". If it's geared towards soldiers themselves, they will feel more at home at your website as opposed to something like "militaryclassifieds.com". Once you have your slang military words, then add your descriptive words, such as classifieds or listings or trader.

[villarrealsj]

Originally Posted by mxer210

hate to rip off craigslist, but sammyslist.com? It is available...

but look for slang words for "military". If it's geared towards soldiers themselves, they will feel more at home at your website as opposed to something like "militaryclassifieds.com". Once you have your slang military words, then add your descriptive words, such as classifieds or listings or trader.

LMAO... Trust me, that was the first thing that popped in my head too!

You're so thinking what I'm thinking. I've been racking my brain, searching through my Thesaurus, Answers.com for any slang or synonym for "military". Soldier is the closest and I definitely agree that adds that sense of trust, ease but Marines, Sailors and Airmen don't like being called Soldiers, which is why I went with "military".

I really want to include "lists" or "listings" in the name:

SoldierLists, SoldierListings, SoldiersLists, SoldiersListings... um... Soldierfieds...? Kidding, terrible name.

Here's what Anwers.com has to say:

Soldier: One who serves in an army.

If anyone comes up with a catch name, let me know.

[villarrealsj]

Update: Fixed The Problem With Missing Images. Thanks.

[Outta Hand]

I personally think you could do a lot with the site. It looks decent... in terms of a rip-off of CraigsList.com i don't know or really care. Its a different idea so i say just go for it.

One Suggestion: Add a forum... give it a more "community" feel and you'll probably begin to gain more traffic.

Suggestion two: The right hand side menu... make it expandable so that you don't need to scroll down the length of 3 pages... it'll keep it looking tighter.

Suggestion three: once you've got the traffic there get an Adsense account and/or Adbrite and start selling ad space.

Thats just off the top of my head.... anyone else got some ideas. I like the site BTW!