Well, the cat's out of the bag...

Congradulations Larry. You and Your Sweetheart are probably the best Team I could think of to keep this Forum up and Running.....Now can I get 1 order of Salsa? Cheers......

 

Congratulations Larry & Minnie,

Dean

 

I was worried we'd have some crap owner who sued and won the site and just planned to destroy it. Glad I was wrong and hopefully you guys can take the site further.

My suggestions, keep the same color theme or least don't change it much. Also classified section for 20k+.... lower the price of posting considerably. I haven't ever used it or considered myself (however have looked at things on it) however have known many fellow expats and a couple Filipino's who have gotten really pissed at the *high price* and driven off a number I have known from the site and forums all together being pissed at high ad prices. Maybe instead weekly rates also 1/4 the cost of monthly. I also know a few who are currently in the process of building new classified ad websites for Dumaguete and Negros and 1 of them is very good at advertising his business.

 

Thank you for your feedback, the classified section is going to be revamped.

The last time I checked the cost of posting an add in the 20K+ section was P500 per year. How low should I go, say offer advertising for P10 for life? This person who is very good at advertising, is he going to advertise someone's home for less than P500 per year? At the current rate of P500 per year works out to P9.6 per week, should we drop this to say P2 per week? How would it be worthwhile? At P500 per year, it would need at least 40 advertisers just to cover the basic cost of webhosting. Pissed off and leaving due to high advertising rates? Hmmm.

Actually you are the second person to raise this issue with me, but I do not feel that P500 per year is too much. Granted, there may be some changes that need to be made regarding the classified section, but either people are interpreting the fees differently than I am or people here are much poorer than I thought. I would think that listing a P3 million home for sale at P500 per year is an extreme bargain.

All that aside, yes, there will be changes to the classified section, if nothing else to word it clearer.

Thanks,

Larry

 

Larry, as far as ads/time goes, that 500P a year...is that for one ad for one year? Can I change the ad during the year to anything else I choose to sell...say...if I ad a house and the house sells in three months or maybe I decide not to sell it after all...can I now change that ad space to sell a car? or something else? Or, do I have to pay another 500P because the first ad was successful and now I want back in to sell something else?

A FAQ section in advertising may help clear up some of these types of questions. I'm sure you'll get to that and I hope that there is some file of questions that have been asked in the past that you can draw on.

 

Like I mentioned I haven't used it myself so don't know besides what I hear but from what I have heard has pissed off many which may be incorrect info to begin with.

The word on the street is when someone asks to post an ad the cost is 500p. Misconception I guess is people think its 500p a month for a single ad. Now this is sounding as wrong information but its what people *think* which is a key issue. Also many are just looking to post a single ad, trying to sell that old motorcycle, or whatever it happens to be so they take it as a 500p cost to post a single ad because that's all they are looking for.

My suggestion would be maybe offering weekly rate of 25p per ad, or monthly rate of 100p an ad maybe. If want to have a yearly rate with unlimited ads then that could work also. However do need to also work out a simple system of payment as well maybe but can't help you out there really.

The value of your ad space as we know goes up when you can offer a large market for the ads which currently the site doesn't have. Sure we have plenty of expats and a few filipino's but for a solid classifieds we don't have enough volume. I'd suggest if have a few peso's to spare maybe advertise in the city the website as well as classifieds and maybe first couple months of *new ownership* offer classified section fully for free to build more volume of users in it. If my neighbor lists their rental place for instance and gets it rented quick when they have a friend who needs to advertise word of mouth and all as that's how its done here. I'd think you could make up a few cheap cardboard signs and find a few trike driver's willing to put it on their trike. Maybe offer 200p or so and get 10 trikes going. Maybe can even find 20 trikes at 100p, just have to work it out. Make a bunch of small fliers and put them on motorcycles at tourist hotspots or pay parking boys a little bit to hand one to interested people / foreigners. Lots of cheap and even almost free ways to advertise.

At DavyL200 who says 500p seems extremely fair, while it may the problem is many locals aren't willing to pay that and many expats w/o much money also as they are looking for volume advertising and their is no guarantee it will sell on your site. Often those who do such post a classified on every site they can find like Asoydito and Sulit among others and if think 500p for each ad that gets very expensive (of course others are free). At this time Dumaguete doesn't have the volume of viewers and potential buyers to warrant that price though.

 

Well, I didn't set up the ad schedule, but it seems extremely fair to me considering most of the people posting these ads cannot pay with Paypal or other "simple method" so requires a meetup, then their ad must be edited, pictures resized, etc... You are taking 2 hours or more out of my day. We have already approached quite a slew of trike drivers about advertising our other site on them, the going rate seems to be P500/month.

While I do know the classifieds section needs work, those "many" that got pissed off and left the forum due to a cost of P9.6 per week to post something in the ad section are probably not going to be any happier with my plan. Those that post an ad on every site also tend to overload the board with multiple ads every day, which we will not allow. The ad section brings in a very small amount of cash and is labor intensive, it is more of a member service than anything else, so goodbye to them, they are welcome to post their multiple free ads on Ayos Dito, I really don't need their nine pesos for a week of advertising their overpriced rusty Rusi. If the classified section does not bring in enough to pay for my time, I will simply delete it. Better to have no ad section at all than one who runs off so many valuable forum members.

Thanks for the feedback, the ad section is a problem area and it will be addressed in due time. Your thoughts and opinion is appreciated.

Larry

 

Sure, and personally I see nothing wrong with 500p a year. Just passing along what have *heard* from friends often with wrong info.

 

No case to answer I feel, Alternative is an Agent, this could cost 1% + of the selling Price