Local Chattel Web Site Idea

Mr. Ross,
Again thank you for your reply to my post.

I did some thinking for the past day after your reading your reply and thought to myself that if I'm going to be doing a local website as a business, then I better put together a site that deals with something I know about and can relate to, so having two young kids and knowing what I know about the cost of kids stuff these days, I came up with the idea of doing a specialized site like you suggested with used baby/kids goods items, such as cribs, strollers, bunk beds, car seats, cloths, toys, videos, bikes, etc.

My wife and I have so many toys, strollers, car seats and kids videos in our basement that could be better of used, then to just sit in our basement and collect dust. So my thinking was that other parents, probably have kids things in their basement that they would like to get rid of and make a few bucks, just as I would. This is how I came up with the idea of the used baby/kids goods website.

I'm not sure yet how I will set the site up, I will be thinking of this today and drawing some pictures, etc. One of my first thoughts was to create a Internet consignment shop with used kids stuff, but I'm not sure how that idea would work online.

Anyway...

Any thoughts or ideas you may have would be helpful.

Thanks for your time!

Martin

> Martin:

> The easiest answer is: create the product
> You would want. You described it pretty
> well. So you already have an idea about it.

> The site itself would be pretty easy to do
> until you get thousands and thousands of
> listings. But does your local newspaper get
> thousands and thousands of listings? And
> even if you did... the "work"
> could easily be spread out instead of trying
> to be done all in one sitting.

> When I mentioned trader publications I was
> thinking of the trader pubs we have down
> here in Australia. They come out once a
> month... are actually called "Trade A
> ProductNameHere" and are full of
> photos.

> Layout?

> Easy. Something like this. Maybe. (Scroll
> down to see the layout. For some reason the
> board software is putting a large break in
> the text here.)

> Picture here Lengthy description of
> the product can go here. Together with
> contact information Picture here
> Lengthy description of the product can go
> here. Together with contact information
> Picture here Lengthy description of the
> product can go here. Together with contact
> information Picture here Lengthy
> description of the product can go here.
> Together with contact information
> Picture here Lengthy description of the
> product can go here. Together with contact
> information Picture here Lengthy
> description of the product can go here.
> Together with contact information If you
> had a page like that for each catagory you
> would then have a directory on the front
> page.

> This format can also be used for a
> specialized site - such as one which sells
> dining table and chair sets only. On the
> main directory page you would have them
> broken down by price and/or seat numbers
> and/or style (all wood, glass top, marble
> top, etc.) and/or age and/or any other way
> you can think of. Whatever makes more sense
> to you.

> That way... if I want a four seater I click
> the four seater link and all I see are four
> seater dining table and chair sets. Ranked
> by price. So if I am on a budget I can
> scroll up and down the page to find
> something in my price range.

> To get started... get started. Create a one
> page "demo" to see how it looks.
> Take photos of things around your house to
> see how you can format it and the picture
> sizes. Consider which niche you will go
> after - if you go after one.

> Just get going and begin to create the
> simple version. If you know HTML or have
> Dreamweaver you can have the basics done in
> a few hours.

> Michael Ross