How to Quickly Promote a new Classifieds Ads Website

I don't want to burst your bubble! But I don't see you offering anything different from the other million classifieds websites already out there?

You are entering a really competitive market. You better have something really good up your sleeve if you want to generate an income from running a classifieds website

99% of all new classified websites get scrapped or abandoned within 12 months or less and I've seen many people throw many thousands of dollars at them! They look great but people only want to post on the big name sites "Ebay, FreeAds, Gumtree etc.

If I can offer one a small bit of advice make your classifieds related to one specific niche and drill down from there adding sub categories.

I have been running classifieds for over 5 years there is no silver bullet, just remember people like the word "FREE"

Good luck with the new site

Thanks @ynotbluey for the words.
Sure the free word is written all over it, lol

I seem aware of most of your fears, and i am ready to move along

Spend some money on adwords to promote it.I would prefer their display ad network to promote this kinda site and I dont think it will cost you a lot to get a good amount of quality visitors.

If you are looking for free methods take a long term plan like SEO.For instant response you can submit your site in other classified sites.

the real challenge is to not have your classified sit empty. where are you finding the initial content?

Thanks to all for d reply.
@agc, I have 2 options to populate the site from launch:
1. 1st I will pay some guys to manually move around with Laptops, explain to local bizs and help them list their Ads (target average of 20 Ads a day x10 days - spread around d Categories). Also we intend contacting Newspaper Advertisers to ask them to put same Ads on our site for free.
2. After getting at least 30 Ads per Category average, we then contact advertisers on other Classified sites in my country (thru the contact us forms) and info them to list same Ads on our site (giving them reasons they will get better value (hyped lol).

As we are doing 2 above, we back it up with Adwords and FB advertising.
Pls where can I read about Adwords (say a WSO or other stuff to get d best out of a campaign)

Still expecting more ideas

wow the good old fashioned walk in the door of a business and sell the owner.

good for you. hope your hard work pays off!

if you have a local classified ads system, get "yourpace free ads", "yourpace classifieds", "yourpace classified ads" in the #1 place of Google.

as well - start working on protecting your website from spammers and scammers.

good luck,
Helmuts
Outlived Classifieds

Seems like a tough project to me, but one idea would be to make a "niche-classifieds" website.
If you're the best classifieds website for something people are enthusiastic about (model trains, golfing, etc) and you can provide a better framework than the big wigs, you might have an actual real competitive advantage. What I mean by better framework? A user experience that makes it possible for prospects to find exactly what they are looking for with less effort and time investment than the big wigs with their standardized software. I don't really know about model trains, but I'll just make it up along the way: maybe model train enthusiasts want to be able to search by year it was built, manufacturer, wheel size, "engine type", or model trains which have been designed by a particular model train designer (if that's an actual profession).
I have a friend who tried something similar to what you're talking about (knocking on doors to get people to list on his website). His was a site specifically for job listings. He distributed flyers, contacted companies who listed on other sites and in newspapers, etc. but ultimately it didn't work out, so if you want a general classifieds site (gumtree/craigslist style) I think that's going to be really, really tough.

It's been over a year since you've asked this question. It will be great if you can let us know how your classifieds came along. Did it meet your expectations? is it still running or did you decide to shut it down?

I agree With freeadstime, I would like to know the result. My site is one month old. I got ads from India, Pakistan, United Kingdom and Serbia. I put ads about my site to other classified sites.

social media + SEO its boost your new site.

The best tip I can give you about email marketing is to build a list and market to them regularly with offers. Daily. Sometimes more than once a day.

Get an autoresponder like GetResponse, set up an optin page and drive traffic to it.

I'm thinking of comming out with a service where I send my optin subscribers to people who want to grow their list. Would this sound interesting to anyone?

Regards
Alex

I have a classifieds website in Serbian, I'm going to try and English.