Monetizing Ideas for Classifieds Site

Hi

Nice looking site. Here is some feedback...

One thing I noticed about the site is you can't find local listings.

I tried to find all listings for my city, but there is no option or ad search feature to do that.

If I am looking to buy a guitar, I would much rather try and find something locally that I can test out and carry home.

This is especially important with live gigs. I would like to be able to filter gigs by my city so I can view listings for shows I would actually be able to go see.

In both the classified listings and gig listings, there is no "City" identified in the ad header so you have to open an ad to see where the gig is unless the poster gives the city/venue in the opening lines of their posting.

I think adding a "Location" feature and a search/filter option would make the site easier to use.

Similar to Craigslist, BackPage and Kijiji. I browse locally daily, but if I really want to find something specific, I can search nationally if I can't find it at home.

Then you could target locally for both users and advertisers.

There are a lot of local businesses that would pay for banner ads and display ads if they new they would be targeting their area. So Tampa,Fl recoding studios/venues could buy advertising that would only show to visitors on tampa.myrockbook.com (for example)

Then use your traffic stats to see what areas of the country are "catching" on to your site and target them.

Some cities will have a well established online music community where they can buy and sell and post gigs. You may find low traffic from those cities. Other cities may not have a local option so would use you. Especially if they could target locally as well as nationally.

Also, another tip. I would change the title from Free Classifieds Site for Music Enthusiasts to something like Free Music Classifieds Site

Right now the browser Title Bar and Tab open show: Free Classifieds...

When it would look better to your target market as: Free Music...

You can use AdSense or other PPC ad platform to insert ads like banners/display ads or text ads like AdSense.

With local traffic data you could sell ad space to non-music advertisers like restaurants who want to find all the musicians with the munchies.

Having a local filter option would also encourage Classified ads from local businesses like music repair shops, pawn shops, vintage shops,etc. Those are the kinds of customers who pay for featured ads and banner ads if you can show them you get traffic from their area.

Mahlon

We know there are over thousands of this template on the internet. If a site has been built over thousands of times, it has almost little to zero chance of becoming successful. Do a research yourself, see if you can find any successful classifieds using your script. We would say before going after the money, try to put a unique code together ensuring that you have better chances of getting traffic. This was a personal feedback and we may be totally wrong, but this is what we have learn from the experience.

I would agree with freeadstime.

The interface looks pretty cold and generic, especially for a community targeting artists.

It could be warmer and 'funkier'. But I'm sure it will improve as it gets more content.

A good way to get traffic to a site like this (and another reason it would be good to be able to filter by city) is to use flyers in the city you want to target.

If you go to fiverr and search for 'flyer distribution' you will find people offering to design/distribute 50-100 flyers in many cities across the US (and world).

Do some research to find cities that would have good populations that fit your target audience. Then pepper the universities and clubs/bars/studios/music stores with flyers.

You can get started by offering banner ad placement across your blog. Consider text link ads as well. Another good option would be to offer an upgraded listing for a minimal fee to your members, think of great promos they'd surely take in. These are a few ideas for you to get started.

Best of luck!