Suggestion for a "frag homepages"

[Paintguru]

I've suggested this on my local reef boards, but alas, it was not taken up. My suggestion, and I have NOOOO idea if this is even possible, is to have a little "home page" where each person can post the coral frags that they have available for sale/trade with pictures. This way, owners can keep them updated with current stock and it would likely result in more trading all around. Make it a pay service if you'd like. I know this is basically what frags.org is, but since we are a little family here, I think it would help out a lot. Of course, again, it may not even be possible.

 

[surfn]

Make it a pay service if you'd like.

thanks for your input, and yes...we've talked about this before.

the logistics are a bit difficult, as it would HAVE to be a paid feature due to its direct competition with sponsors, probably in addition to what the premium membership free already is (and we dont want to charge members more money). the reason is b/c sponsors already pay a monthly fee, it wouldnt be fair for one group to pay a monthly fee, and the other group to pay a yearly fee.

granted, you could argue sponsorship fees are more expensive b/c they get banners, and their own forums......but the problem is most dont use the forums to their full advantage by offering sales and other catchy marketing schemes to lure in members to take a look.

theres all kinds of arguments, in that alot of members have better quality stuff than some sponsors etc.....

i'm all for the idea...it just complicates issues having to deal with money (which sucks).

 

[Paintguru]

Understood on all the points made. If you do decide to do it and need help in any way (not that I can do much), please let me know.

 

[BigBadZoaDaddy]

frags.org, pretty much closed the market on that subject don't ya'll think?

 

[revhtree]

frags.org, pretty much closed the market on that subject don't ya'll think?

NAH! There is more than one way to skin a cat right?? :tongue5:

 

[surfn]

i know the classifieds is set to an ebay style to remove it after a certain amount of time, like a clock counting down auction style (which i'm not too crazy about..i like the frags.org layout better than an ebay style...and then putting a 1-2month cut off or something before you have to remake your post for that frag).

i think searches/listings based on how much time is left is pretty tacky, cuz its just like ebay...

so would that be user designated? or site designated time? (frags.org says the listings are always newer than 6months)

here are some of the things i like about frags.org:
-that map on the front page showing where users are located (frapper plugin?)
-being able to search for frags by species name, common name (having those drop down menu's and clickable boxes are good for people who dont know how to spell stuff in a regular search)
-being able to search frags by user (but it does suck that people dont update their availability),
-i really like the layout of the search pages (not necessarily the content, just the way its displayed so you can search quickly, then click on a specific one to get more details)

things i dont like about frags.org:
-the fact that people dont update their availability, but it looks like they've remedied that to some extent by having stuff only newer than 6months
-the blog thing seems pretty unorganized, it would be nicer if they had a general forum and the possibility of sponsor forums so higher end propagators (dont have to be commercial, just "higher end propagators") had an avenue to get their stuff more noticed than a general user (kind of like what Paintguru suggested, as this would have to be a paid service)
-the front page should have something on there showing the newest pieces listed for trade/sell (kinda like how we have the newest posts on our front page), and obviously some kind of plug for the users paying for "higher end propagator status" to point members to their area.



i agree they could do things to make it ALOT better....but i dont think they blew it as they have tons of users and businesses using them every day...they seem to be doing well for themselves and are content with their success.

 

[surfn]

oh, another thing i like about frags.org is that its free to members and places no restrictions on how many corals you can post, and for how much you can post corals for, also no royalties collected by the site for individual sales (unlike ebay). making things free is how you get members to join up.

 

[czieler]

If people that want to have an open list of corals for sale/trade and don't have a website, they 'could' just register at blogspot.com and make their blog page a list of trade photos/sale photos ( not sure on blogspot rules on this ).

Just a thought.

Also, you can host with hostgator.net for $7 a month, with unlimited sub domains... and add a word press blog to each domain... so a group of people here could get together, pay for hosting, then decide on a domain name... like clubzoatrading.com or something like that... then create sub domains

surfn.clubzoatrading.com
coralnutz.clubzoatrading.com

And have each be a wordpress page with their corals ( or whatever they want on it) ... and each user would be in charge of admining his home page... just brainstorming here... seems like a cheap/easy way to get something going like you are suggesting.

 

[surfn]

yeah, what you are suggesting is a cheap/easy way of doing it. the problem is by setting up webpages with corals for sale, we would have to put in rules that restrict linking to them on this forum, as they would offer a direct competition w/ sponsor sales. and that would open up a whole new can of worms on defining who is commercial and who isn't.

i mean, whats the point in sponsoring this forum, if sponsors could just drop their sponsorship and do as you suggested for essentially free? (granted, they wouldn't get their own forums and banners)

i know what you are saying, and i agree with you that it *should* be like that, as this forum was created by hobbyists, and is for hobbyists first and foremost. i'm just trying to play devils advocate from a sponsors point of view.

dont get me wrong, i'm not against any of these ideas....theres just alot of unknown questions/variables that i want answered before we did anything like this. cuz if we did it wrong....it could be the end of CZ....

 

[czieler]

Well... if it was officially a way for club zoa members to list their corals for trade... as in... clubzoa offered a blog page for each user ( whether its usename.clubzoa.com or username.clubzoatrading.com ) ... then the rule could be that they could link to it on there if they were just trading corals...etc.

Was just a thought .. in the absence of a whole trading system

 

[surfn]

yep, that would probably work. but how would selling work?

if we allowed people to have their own blogs to sell, we'd have to charge them as we charge the sponsors, correct?

i kind of see trading/selling rules hand in hand. as having a member blog showing what corals are for trade, could also be used for secretly selling corals. the blog is essentially for advertising purposes, regardless if the purpose is for trading/selling.

any ideas?

my idea would be to have the same selling rules for ALL members (including anyone deemed "commercial").

however, there would be some sort of restrictions for regular members, and less restrictions for premium members (the site has to have some sort of revenue to operate the licensed software)

possible perks for premium members could be they are the ones who could get their own "homepage" and/or "blog", regular members couldn't have this, but can still sell freely.

and if you want sponsor status, you can get your own forum and banner in addition to the premium member perks. that way it gets your name out more since you are paying a little more for the advertisement.

 

[surfn]

yeah, the blog idea doesn't sound like it will work very well.

the blogs on frags.org is prettly lame, and on RC its even worse.......pathetic at best.

i think if a member wants a blog specifically to sell/trade corals, thats essentially what sponsor forums are for. they function exactly the same as far as i can see.

members dont necessarily need a blog to sell/trade corals, they just list the corals for trade/sell just like on frags.org

 

[czieler]

There are plenty of apps out there for selling/trading...it's also pretty easy to write one... I was just suggesting that as a cheap/easy solution ... which required no real setup or monitoring by clubzoa ... that's all....was just brainstormng.

I don't trade/sell at all anymore since insanecorals tanked... so doesn't affect me one way or the other

 

[Paintguru]

What if you did something where the only "advertising" someone could do is having a link to their "sale area" in their sig? That not only limits their exposure, but rewards those that post more in the forums. The benefit of being a sponsor then is to have banner ads and a dedicated forum section. Just a thought.