[timbo6585]

Hello,

I run a free classifieds site for the small city I live in, in southeastern Michigan. I just launched it a week or so ago and am having trouble figuring out how to get people to come to my site and to start posting. I realize it's discouraging for them(and me!) to see that there are hardly any postings on there so they think that it's not worth the time to post anything since it seems noone is using the site. So the tough part is getting over that initial hump of not having any postings.

I use google analytics to track my traffic and have learned a little bit about the effectiveness of flyers, they don't work that well for this. I have seen though that knocking on people's door and introducing my self and handing them flyer seems to work better than just hanging it on their door.

I have some ideas about how to market this that I hope to implement in the next week or so here and figured I'd ask to get some people's feedback on them. They might be stupid ideas, don't be afraid to tell me that. The site's name is AdrianApe.com, the city's name is Adrian. I have a gorilla costume hopefully arriving in a few days or so that I plan on running around town waving a picket sign around that has my URL on it, I'm hoping this will intrigue people and they'll go to the site, maybe word of mouth advertising too about the crazy gorilla.

My other idea is to offer to mow people's lawns for free. I realize that doesn't have anything to do with classifieds but my thinking is if my phone number is posted on the site and people have to go there to get it to call me to mow their lawn for free then it'll draw more traffic. Plus they very well could tell their friends and family how to get their lawn mowed for free which would be great word of mouth advertising and get people talking about the new site.

I'm also considering just going door to door with a clipboard and a digital camera and asking people if they'd like me to post an ad for them to sell something and just manually put all the ads up myself.

I don't know, just some random ideas. I'm having a bit of a tough time deciding the best avenue to take in promoting this site. I think it has potential, I'm basing it on craigslist idea, have mostly free classifieds to draw lots of traffic then charge for job listings(and business related listings )

Any suggestions and feedback would be much appreciated, here is the URL if anyone is interested: http://adrianape.com

Thanks
Tim

[Nigami Enterprise]

Sorry i dont have to much time for a reply but heres a quick one.

I think one of your problems might be that your targeting people that might never use classifieds.

What i think your best off doing is going through other Payed local classifeds in your area and actually call the people selling items and say that they can place there item on your classifeds for free.

Ok so that will get people selling now you need buyers.

Basically take advantage of other classifieds and place ads in them saying to vistit your site for..........


sorry it was quick and messy good luck with it

[profitablesynergies]

I wouldn't bother mowing people's lawns for free. You will end doing a lot of work for minimal results.

Have you looked at emailing people from your town who are on myspace, or searching ebay?

[postman da rich kid]

lol@mowing people lawn's. I think your problem my friend is in your planning. Before you start a business you need strategic planning. That way you could have thought this out before you actually started your business. Who is your target market? What is your advertising budget? these are things I would need to knwo in order to give you sound advice.

Good luck my friend.

[quiteshirty.com]

i wouldnt do the lawn mowing, as you could use the time you are mowing lawns to bring in many more customers. Think about it, half an hour to mow a lawn, when there is a, about 5% chance of that person buying?many will jus ask for there lawn to be mowed for no listings.

I would, put up all the classifieds you personal have to sell, and get friends and family to do the same to make it look more used, then go on from there..

[DrMoney]

I agree with Quite, and also, yes ADVERTISING, is the dilema here.
Word of mouth; do what Quite said, and get the family involved.

Once, you city knows that free classifieds are their, they will utilize them.
Local craiglists are good, but marketing is key.

Flyers, around high traffic businesses--Low cost, and easy to put up.
Advertise on the radio---Its very inexpensive, and they set you up with multiple spots.
Advertise in local paper---low cost, alot of small towns read the paper.

These are just some simple ones.

UTILIZE THEM.

[The Stealthy One]

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