16 replies to this topic

[Jim Drago]

As you may have noticed, we have changed the classified section of the site. Sorry, but the ads are no longer free. We will use the money generated to pay for the site hosting and improvements. The charges are as follows

The rates are as follows:

• 10.00 General Items
  Everything except Commercial Posts and Race Ready Cars.
• 50.00 Commercial Post
  Select this option if you are store or a vendor.
• 40.00 Race Ready Cars - Individuals
  Select this option if you are private owner selling a car. Note that if you select this option and you are a commercial business, your ad will be taken down.
• 75.00 Race Ready Cars - Commercial
  Select this option if you are a business selling cars.

This will be on the honor system, but if you "happen" to pay the wrong amount, the ad will be deleted and and no refund will be given
I know that this will not be a very popular decision, but it is a must.
Jim

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[Caveman-kwebb99]

I have a few ads coming up that I will have to re-list. Two questions come to mind.

Will these paid ads run till sold or will they expire in 30 days?

Will we be able to make edits to our ads after they are posted?

[Brad]

Jim, are the rates for a 30 day ad?

[Jim Drago]

yes, 30 day ad

Jim

[Ken Quartuccio]

Jim
Do the pictures work for paid ads
I can't see any right now ?

[Caesar Vielmas]

Ken:
Try clearing your browser cache and reloading. Pictures are working.

[Ken Quartuccio]

Thanks

[Weekend Warrior]

Any discounts for site contributors?

[Caesar Vielmas]

If you buy a classified ad, please make note of the following:

There is some confusion about Ads not showing up (or suddenly stop showing up). The ads will show atomatically after your payment is processed. This is what is happening. As the owner of the ad you have edit controls at the top of the page. One of those controls reads "Close item", please DO NOT click this to "close the page" - That button "closes the sale", use it if you want to stop your ad from showing.

[GROOTS]

Has anyone noticed that the classifieds have dried up ??

[Johnny D]

What do you mean ???
Drago, Weekend Warrior and Orlowskiva just put some.
J~

[Caveman-kwebb99]

It is just like when we changed to the new site, traffic dropped right away and stayed low for a while. Now it seems to be picking up again pretty heavily. We always had to pay for ads on the old site, I always kept it in the back of my mind that Free Classifieds wouldnt be offered forever. It sucks we have to pay for them, I know I have invested in a few ads of my own. What place is better to advertise a Spec Miata than on here? You can put stuff on specmiataclassifieds.com for free but last few times I visited didnt look like many people were tuning in over there as of late. I dont know of anywhere else to put an ad up for free? NASA forums I guess but then its not an ad just on a forum and gets hard to find the ad after a while.

[Jim Boemler]

Charge more, get fewer takers. It's a trade-off.

[GROOTS]

Thats right Jim B. I agree. @Johnny D. This is jim dragos site. He can dump all his products on here at will. I mean not many private adds rolling in. Especially as our season comes to a close. Usually see alot of stuff being exchanged at the end of the season. Not so much now. Fees ??

[Jim Drago]

I realized the number of classifieds would drop when we started charging for them. The unfortunate reality is that the site cost money to buy, it costs money to maintain, it costs money for Caesar to change and improve the site, the hosting and all your normal associated fees. While I hope the site is one day profitable, that was not reason I purchased it. I think it is a great community and a great asset for SM. I have always enjoyed my time on this and the old site. So far the money generated from donations and classifieds is less than 1% of what I have spent. My goal is for the money generated from the classifieds pays the hosting fees.


I have come up with a formula for Donations and classifieds...
$50 donation /1 free ad ( any non commercial)
$100 donation / 3 free ads ( any non commercial)

[Caveman-kwebb99]

That seems to follow with how it was done on the old site. I like the idea, and like that some things don't change even with a new owner/operator

[GROOTS]

That sounds great jim ! The site is fantastic. There is nothing else like the SM community. Proud to be a part of it ! I commend you for doing what you do for the site/community and all the other hard work and time spent.

Thanks
Jeff