My Million Dollar Idea In The Works. What Do You Think!?

Hi there, welcome back to the forum.

This sounds like you are going well already, because you have a niche (that should be passionate, that's the auto market for you ), you have an email list and a facebook page, which is more than I can say for most 'wannabe marketers' and you are constantly driving new visitors to the forum.

To answer your questions in order;
1. I think that this is a good idea, you should have more specialized knowledge on this topic; if you need more help, then don't be afraid to attain some more related information/advice to help yourself out.
2. In terms of selling more adspace, here's two things. Firstly, if you're going to sell ads on your forum that has about 600 people on it, then some but not all advertisers will pounce on the chance to spend their ad money with you. Secondly, when you do start to sell ads, be prepared to lose a few members; some people just do not like seeing ads (don't worry about this, this will make your forum more targeted towards advertising, you could even charge a higher CPM because of this).
3. Apart from getting a professional relationship with someone who has done this kind of thing before, you might be able to change your forum to a theme that is optimized for ad CTR and you could even invest in some even better quality hosting, if you haven't got that already.
4. I don't think that you are a pansy, if you were a pansy, then you would be sticking to a "safe and secure" job out of fear. Your initiative to do this in itself shows courage. Well, you could have sold ad space from day one, but you could have gotten some different results, depending on how you went about it.
5. Mate, I believe in you. If for some reason you make a few mistakes along the way, that's fine, just make sure that you learn from your mistakes. Every entrepreneur has at least gone through one stage of uncertainty, I'm sure that you can do this; but it does help to get employees, if that's economical for you.

Were my answers helpful to you? Good luck to you, mate.

Jono

Sounds like a great idea. Ton of money to be made in the niche. And being so narrow and local, I'd think you could command higher ad prices, as already mentioned by kaptianklap.

The only weak link in the plan is that you might rely too much on the facebook group? Obviously you don't own that. Not saying it's bad, it's a good idea, just saying, your main goal should be building up your own site and forum, Well, you probably already know this. just in case.

As for ads in the forum. They should be there from day one, so your members are use to them. In moderation of course. Like kaptainklap said, you'll lose some, but those that stay should be better members.

Sounds like you have a good plan going!

Thanks guys for the input.

Most of my traffic does come from the group. I truly think its a gold mine with so much interest in the group. Its hard to transfer that interest to the forums. Which I dont understand. The forums are much cleaner and easier to navigate.

Ill explain a little more on my idea for monetizing in the group. Yes facebook is free but I dont allow any businesses to post in the group. I was thinking about offering businesses a fee to become a member and let them posts their ads. Of course there will be a limit per day. Dont want to piss off the other members. What do you think about this, is it even legal to do?

How should I go about on finding businesses that would be interested in ad space on the forums and group. Best thing I could think of is cold calling. Sell them a pitch on how it will raise sales for them.

And, what do you think I should charge? Right now, if its a good product with a great price, its a pretty much guaranty it will sell in the group. The forums is still slow, but I could always posts ads from the forums to the group (how I been transferring members).

I guess what I need/looking for is a detailed plan on what I have. Getting targeted traffic/members has been very easy for me. Now I just need to figure out the exact monetiazation plan. Writing this helps as im telling my ideas but I want an exact plan to proceed in. I have my pen and paper to write it down but so many questions. One thing I do know is a news letter.

Due to the localized nature of your market scope, you might want to try offline outreach.

As more and more offline merchants realize that they need an online presence to be 'credible' offline, there will be a growing local demand for what you're offering.

You might want to consider outsourcing the outreach to a call center in the Philippines or India.

'Do not call' registries don't apply to businesses.

In all honesty, I don't think you'll ever make a single penny from this business idea for many reasons. I write for multiple car dealers and I know exactly what they face dealing with these kinds of sites, so here are the top 6 reasons why this won't work-

1) People can list on AutoTrader, Cars.com and several other sites for free and get massive exposure. All these sites outrank you, they have a larger selection and they're updated more frequently.

2) Keeping dealers off your site is a MASSIVE mistake since they sell almost 98% of the used cars in your area. By keeping them out until they pay, you're ensuring that the site stays small.

3) Besides, dealers are already listing on dozens of websites and it is hard to get them to list with you for free. There are tens of thousands of sites like your out there and these people bombard sales managers with pitches, so it's going to be an extremely hard sell on your part to convince them to pay you.

3a) When these dealers do list on additional sites, however, they set it up so their car ads will export automatically from their own site. This means it costs them zero extra time for additional exposure....and that's the only types of websites they'll even consider. Your free forum can't do this so every dealer I know of would say no to you in a heartbeat.

4) When someone searches for an exact make/model of a vehicle plus the word "buy" or "fore sale", they're likely making a purchase within the next 48 hours. So your list is not nearly as effective as you think since people no longer care after they buy a new car.

5) Likewise, your one and only goal is to let people find a car with you before they find it on Auto Trader, Craigslist or one of the many other websites. That's the ONLY advantage you can have worth paying for. And I can't see you doing that in one of the most competitive markets online.

6) And here's the kicker- you don't even have a standard template to ensure that people give you the correct make/model, the equipment or anything else about the vehicle to allow it to rank in the search engines. Most of the listings are a dozen words or less, and people don't call about cars that don't give decent information. So from both a consumer and a Google standpoint, your site doesn't work at all.

Trust me, I know this from 10+ years of experience in this industry- you just don't have enough there to capture a business's interests. Other companies are building apps with videos and tons of other free tools to help dealers sell their cars AND these folks are being told no left and right. So trying to charge on a free forum with no showcase features...it's just not going to work.

Sorry for the bad news but you asked for honest advice....and that's as honest as I can be. This is a terrible idea.

I wouldn't focus on banning anybody (like shop owners) from posting. Rather, I would focus on limiting spam.

Take kijiji for example... they allow everybody to post for free, and make their money on charing free posters to promote their listing.

I understand what you are saying and thank you for the realization.

But, this is not only for dealers. That was just an idea.

Right now I have a large "Milwaukee" automotive community at my finger tips. That has to be worth something.

This is not only about cars. If it was, yes, a search for a make and model ect.. would be needed. This is far beyond that. I have a market base for paint shops, mom and pop shops, back yard mechanics, small tire shops, tuning shops, muffler shops ect... Everything automotive. Plus this is a community I built. They trust me and other members. Thats far more important then someone walking onto a lot/online looking to buy a car.

Right now I talked to a very good source and sponsors seems to be the way to go. If I can guarantee sales/customers (witch I can) I will get sponsors.

Thank you guys for all the help but I think I have figured out my plan.

As someone that was in the car business for a long time I have to agree 100% with kk075.

Essentially you have an amateur looking dead forum and a FB group. Big whoop.

Look long and hard at your competition. The car business is EXTREMELY competitive and your competitors are light years ahead of you.

The FB group is essentially worthless. I can build a FB group on anything and get 100K members easily - it's still worth nothing.

Do you have any experience in the car business or are you just an "enthusiast"?

Yes I have experience. I went to school and have a degree in auto body. I have built many cars (mainly my personal n2o performance projects). Been working on cars for over 12 years.

I don't think you guys get the point. Yes you can build a group of 100k members. But are those member local and know you personally? My members in both the group and my slow ass forums I know. I talked to and met most. Even worked on their cars. I have bought and sold them products.

You can have 100k in traffic but means nothing when they don't care what you say or selling. I can have just 1k of targeted local friends that trust me and make 10x more money. Any experienced marketer would know this.

Personally I dont think you guys even looked into what is going on. I have people on both the forums and group asking, where can I find this, who can help me with this. Thats easy money for the small businesses that can do it. Im just going to get sponsors for a cheap price as I can guarantee them sales and customers. I mean I bet I can get a small business a sale in 30 minutes right now. 90% of people on this forum right now cant do that. Most will say they can but is all bs, I been there and done that. This is not my first site. I did IM for over 2 years straight.

I think you guys are thinking to much of IM. There is a lot of off line marketing going on here. Im only looking at local people and personally talking to them (making more as I type this). Would rather have just 100 local friends then 100k online visitors you know nothing about.

Point is, even if I get a tinting shop for a sponsor at $50 a month is a start. Im getting a lot of tinting requests right now. Have a shop in mind, Its where I go and know the owner personally. And that's just for tint. Find a good welder for a sponsor and then a auto body shop, then a good mechanics shop ect. Then raise my tiers in sponsor as things grow.

Sorry but I cant and wont listen to this. I just needed to write my ideas down to figure it out. Basically you guys are saying my friends and community are useless, I haven't even told them yet. Making sure I get things in order before I do.

By experience in the car business I meant from the sales side. Clearly the answer is no.

Obviously you came here to have everyone tell you how brilliant you are and how much money you're going to make. Sorry to disappoint.

There's a huge disconnect between your "million dollar idea" and "Im just going to get sponsors for a cheap price" and "even if I get a tinting shop for a sponsor at $50 a month is a start". How is that even close to a million dollar idea.

"I can guarantee them sales and customers" proves to me you have no true sales background. If it was that easy guys like me (I'm in outside sales) couldn't enjoy the income that we do.

I'm likely wasting my breathe as you've already stamped your feet and thrown your little hissy fit....

Good luck. Come back here in a year and let us know how "easy" it's been.

Great idea but I think you are too limited

Facebook started from 1 college and spread to other colleges and then went global

Someone may wake up and start a national automart to rival yours in no time and then sell for billions