Reply With QuoteWhat do you see as the main draw over, let's say, tz-uk.com....?
I have this idea to make a watch blog with basic news, reviews and a sales section.
I've made a mock up here that isn't finished yet here: vintageforum.dk It is not the final domain and name, just a place I have!
The idea with the site is that the services are for free and there might be some payment extra options to better position a sales listing, but income will be donated to charity.
Advertisement? Yes still free and will be kind of an endorsement if companies are recommended by users/buyers.
Is this a stupid idea?
Martin
What do you see as the main draw over, let's say, tz-uk.com....?
I'm not sure why you would want to sell other peoples watches for free.
You would have sellers liability (Unless it took the form of an alternative sales corner)
When you get everything set up, maybe we can sell our homemade vintage straps there,
or discuss setting up a rival watch sales website.
I will also like to sell my own stuff on the site, since I have no business selling the straps I make here. So the site won't give the same comfort as SC, but it is open for profit making, if anybody wants to do this. It is not a Forum, the url was just something I had that I don't use.
You are welcome to discuss a rival site, but there wont be any forum section where you can do it!
Martin
Originally Posted by Reeny
Well people who would use eBay, chrono24 and private/pro dealers.
Martin
...and what would be the draw over them...?
Facebook, communities, invite letters to dealers and the fact that it is a free service with hopefully a great presentation of the sellers articles.
I am not sure if this is what you mean with draw over?
Martin
I'm just wondering what the unique selling point is.
For most watch stuff I come here (TZ). I also browse the other sites you mention and can't quite see the advantage of your site (apart from you selling your straps there).
I think it will come down to how much traffic you end up drawing in. The success of TZ-UK and other sites is the sheer volume of users. A sleepy mini-SC with no USP somewhere else on the Internet isn't going to be a worthwhile resource.
The advantage for sellers is that the service is free for both privat and pro.
Martin
I think you're setting a hard task for yourself. If you think how long some pieces take to shift on SC here with an average of 13000 visits a day, I can't see why someone would visit your site in preference to others. Free it may be, but until you're getting decent traffic I can't see that anyone would advertise solely on your site, and if its just going to be a collection of links to eBay auctions and traders sites I really can't see the point. Sorry.
No advantage to the buyer though.
I think that you are right, but a site have to start somewhere at some point. Maybe I should offer a technical better SC to Eddie, but I think that he is running a forum rather than a "sales site"?
Maybe links to references in the sellers account could be a benefit for buyers and rss feed from newly added articles from sellers and categories.
Martin
I'm not trying to be awkward, I just don't see it offering anything that's not available elsewhere. If it's just a hobby then why not, but expect it to take quite a while to take off.
Personally I don't necessarily see the benefit of a completely standalone site (i.e. independent of a bigger established community) for the same reasons others have mentioned (low traffic, no real USP etc).
SC is a fantastic part of TZ-UK and is already very successful and some kind of enhancement to allow items to be viewed by type, brand, year etc would be nice from a user interface perspective. However I suspect the amount of work required to achieve seamless integration would far outweigh the benefits!
If it ain't broke etc.....
Sounds to me from a buyers point of view you're just trying to recreate Chrono24, but initially you'll have no track record of sellers which will make it harder to lure in buyers.
Also who will moderate seller feedback, maintain the website, control inappropriate content and provide liability against misrepresentation - if it's you then you're not going to be paid directly by sellers for providing these services where is the income stream that will cover this; or are you providing this at your own cost?
User ID and password integration is fairly easy and finding the color hex codes and modifying the style sheet is also easy. Finding an agreement on design and functionality might take some time.
vintageforum.dk has cost me aprox 7 hours and mostly due to Joomla bootstrap problems!
Martin
Maintaining a joomla site is fairly easy. Controlling the site can be a problem, but some problems can be avoided with general rules and warnings. Well a man has to have hobbies:-)
Martin
I think that might be the key statement here - "Well a man has to have hobbies" - if it is a hobby as againt a "pack in work / remortgage the house to fund it / be a millionaire in 12 months" type of thing then why not give it a go. All I'd say is be very careful of the legal aspects in terms of joint liabilities for misrepresentation and having the right to withdraw the service as and when you wish. After that what's the worst that can happen, you spend a bit of time setting it all up, get to learn a load of stuff, but it doesn't really take off.
"liabilities for misrepresentation" I am looking into this also regarding termination of account (Fraudulent behavior, trying to sell replicas and other situation). Maybe I'll just copy eBay's disclaimer:-)
Martin
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