Guys, I am working on an idea for the most popular classified ads site for the UK market. I have so far registered the domain name and designed a logo as per my process of building sites as discussed on another thread recently.
I want to implement this really well so I am asking for community input here. Please share your thoughts and ideas.
First off, I have been running a free ads site for several years now and a directory so I know what people like as users of these services. But for my new site I want to push the boundaries and make it the most popular site in the UK. I could go for the world, but this would be a good start.
Some ideas I have so far include:
* Keep it very simple like Google e.g. category list, search box and place ad button.
* Remove all the barriers to people that want to post an ad (this will require some good spam detection code).
* Allow various customizations to ads such as text color and icons
* Limit the paid ads to ones that blend in well rather than lots of banners like you see on most free ad sites
* Have a UK map image to click on to go to ads in your local area
* Have an image display of phone numbers and email addresses of advertisers to limit harvesting of these details
For images I am thinking of hotlinking to sites such as flickr rather than hosting images myself. That way, their community would police the images and I don't get all the associated problems with image upload, file size, image dimensions etc. Also videos on YouTube could be hotlinked.
I also have some questions about SEO:
I am wondering if it is OK to use the word "free" in titles and urls or is this a negative ranking factor?
I am going for sub domains for each category. Since eBay does this I think it should be OK.
I have more ideas up my sleeve but: I don't know what you think about this approach and it would be great to hear about any tips you may have based on your experience of using free ads sites.
Bookmark this link to track progress:
http://www.dailyads.co.uk/
p.s. the same name for the dot com was registered 9 years ago by a cyber-squatter. Here is an excerpt from the whois:
status: clienttransferprohibited
updated date: 03-apr-2007
creation date: 07-apr-1998
expiration date: 06-apr-2009
There is no way I will ever buy a domain name off a cyber squatter. Just let them veg, in this case 11 years and keep paying the renewal fees. Interestingly, this person can't even transfer their domain name since: clienttransferprohibited
Here is one of the top sites in the UK for classified ads:
http://www.friday-ad.co.uk/
Maybe it's just me but I can't stand a page saturated with links like this. I like the search form though. I would rather see latest free ads showing up on the home page. If people who just added their ad saw it immediately on the home page I think they are going to be excited about it unlike sites that send you an email about your ad being in an approval queue.
Also, I think visitors will like to see a selection of latest free ads on the home page.
Help with a free classified ad site
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