Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

update...15th September, 2009...

We are pleased to launch the V2 of the website www.classifiedsnext.com

Feedback on updates is highly appreciated.

New features added.

1. Better SEO Links

2. Description can be viewed by users without logging in.

3. Upload limit of image raised to 5MB

4. Description - now user can enter up to 2000 characters.

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www.ClassifiedsNext.com has been started with one aim in mind. To provide quality free classifieds listing to a customer. The focus on the page is a users free listing rather than multiple ads being displayed from various sources.

Basically I am interested in finding how users find the interface, color schemes, navigation and how I can improve and promote the website to a larger audience.

Any number of simultaneous free listings can be done. The ad remains online till the user deletes it or is moderated by the admin or any other user who finds it offensive, inappropriate or spam. There are no success fees. All listings are totally free, no charges whatsoever.

Also there is nothing like "Featured Listing" or "Enhanced listing" at ClassifiedsNext.com - all listings are displayed as soon as they are added by the user. The ads are displayed on latest added basis. All ads have a direct link - basic SEO optimized link.

The member also gets his or her own profile page and a direct link to it. This page shows only listings posted by that member. Also another advantage is multiple RSS feeds that are available - right from member rss feeds to country/region/city wise or even category wise rss feeds.

One more advantage is that a member can create his own sub- categories within the main category. This allows flexibility to the user if he wants to post something specific within the category.

Another advantage is that a user can make the ad category as wanted, available, for sale, coupon, barter, garage sales & so on. Because of this the category is automatically easily identified as to which kind of listing it is.

The website also allows a user to place a link to their website. This is useful if the user wants to show his entire shopping cart or collection. Further, if it is a product listing, a user can select currency and price too.

Further there are advertising banners which advertisers can purchase and have their advertise displayed at predefined places.

ClassifiedsNext also generates a referral link which users can send across to their known contacts and get prizes announced each month for maximum referrals.

Finally, ClassifiedsNext.com does not display e-mail IDs anywhere on the site - unless of-course - the user puts it within description, address or some other field. This is a good feature because the user listing does not include emails - but when some one clicks email me then the messages are stored and visible to the Lister from a users control panel.

Finally to summarize - here is a snapshot of features offed at ClassifiedsNext.com

1. Free Listing - any number of simultaneous listings and stay online till deleted by user or moderated.
2. Add links to your website
3. Add price / currency to your listing
4. Add one image per listing
5. Add description up to 2000 characters
6. Add category up to 4 levels including top level.
7. Add complete address details as well as contact numbers (2)
8. Share links on various networks - view listing page integrated with addthis button
9. Refer a friend link which allows user to refer a particular ad to friend - it also includes referral code!

I don’t know where to start.  First of all your color scheme needs improvement big time.  I suggest hiring a designer to revamp the whole thing.  Having black as a background does not work well for professionalism.

You are to broad, you should start in a smaller niche area.  Do what craigslist did…wait you are, but in a weird way.  You need to bring something to the table different.  You seem as.

Login to view an ad doesn’t work for me.  My attention span isn’t the greatest.  If I have to sign up for information then the information isn’t worth my time.  Make it so the user doesn’t have to sign up to view the info.  The url I’m talking about is:

http://www.classifiedsnext.com/Classified-Advertisements/30072009002011168/M090720090137031101/0/Best%20Deals%20on%20Computer%20Accessories%20and%20Peripherals.aspx

speaking of urls. You url needs to be fixed.  The %20 is actually spaces.  This violates the rules of URL’s (don’t feel like looking up the exact rules)  you should change the spaces to be dashes.  Also see all that crap in the url (those numbers) they need to go. You should have clasifedsnext.com/category/subcat<if sub cat><unique title + id>

I could go on, but you need a lot more work to get it even to be a usable site.

First of all thank you very much for taking the time out to visit our website and posting your valuable feedback. Such feedback helps us progress and would also be useful when we update the site and launch future versions.

With regards some of your feedback - here are our responses:

1. URL has %20. Yes we figured that out at launch and are already incorporating it for the next version that we are launching. The %20 would be fixed and spaces would be replaced with -.

2. Sign in to view content. Yes, this has been a feedback from many users who visited the website. Hence in the next version we are doing away with requirement for sign in to view full content. At the same time users liked our idea about keeping the address, contact numbers visible only to registered users, as they felt this reduced spam.

3. With regards color scheme. Yes, this we consider a choice between different individuals. Some liked the color scheme while some suggested this is quite a boring combination.

But why we chose this design was mainly because our main aim was no graphics, fastest loading time for the site, no clutter of ads, free ads details should be visible without scrolling. Considering these aspects we designed the site.Hence if you see its not filled up with lots of ads and main focus is free ad space. Yes, but we would keep the suggestion of improving the color scheme open, if more users suggest this, we shall definitely incorporate it in future versions.

We value your feedback. It would be useful to us when we launch future versions of the website.

Thank you

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ClassifiedsNext.com

We are pleased to launch the V2 of the website www.classifiedsnext.com

Feedback on updates is highly appreciated.

New features added.

1. Better SEO Links

2. Description can be viewed by users without logging in.

3. Upload limit of image raised to 5MB

4. Description - now user can enter up to 2000 characters.

Your color scheme is very distracting. The blue is very vibrant on the black background. It's best to use a white background with a darker font color, it's easier on the eyes that way.

It's not clear what the boxes in the middle supposed to be, are those ads? You should have the categories or even the search box be your most prominent thing on the site. You're going to have a really hard time getting any users unless you change the black and make it more user friendly. Check out your competition and see what they're doing better.

- Yiana

--update - 16th September

Please give feedback on updated www.classifiedsnext.com .

Thank you all very much for your valuable feedback.

Based on the feedback received from this forum and other registered users - we have finally changed the color scheme. The background black has been removed.

Secondly many people had commented that they do not understand where the free listings are visible on the website. With this new version we have clearly marked the area where the free listing is visible and which part of the site has the paid advertisements.

Like always, feedback good or bad on the website is requested, so that it would help improve our website in the right direction.

Thank you

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Team ClassifiedsNext.com

Thank you for the feedback that you provided. This was the comment from many users that our site - because of its black color was not impressive and gave a dull feeling when someone visited.

We have updated the site with a brand new look and feel.

Do give your valuable inputs in this regard

Thank you

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Team ClassifiedsNext.com