I think you should reduce the price and get feedback to increase the quality of your product. $20 is quite expensive for just some invalid information. Maybe charge somewhere form $1-$5. Get more people to test it and find more ways to better your product.
I'm planning to launched a promotion for a free movie ticket if they invite 3 friends and upload a video of something they want to sell. What do you think about that?
I assume AirBnB have received many cease and desist letters from craigslist. Craigslist is just waiting for AirBnB to get bigger so they can get big chunk of money.
Ask your members how much they are willing to pay for your service. Send them a form for feedback about pricing. If you build something valuable, people are willing to pay for it.
Yes I totally agree why craigslist dominates the industry because of simplicity and ease of use for users. Craigslist has always been the place where i go first to look for used products especially cars. But there are two things i dislike about craigslist. One is sometimes you'll receive fishing emails asking you to reset password where you later noticed your computer is contain with viruses. Second, buying stuff on craigslist can be very time consuming especially with cars. You'll definitely have to travel multi times to different sellers before finding your ideal item. Plus the photos on craigslist are so low quality, you barely can see any scratches or damages. One time i had to traveled 2 hours to check out a car posted on craigslist then realized the seller lied to me which wasted 4 hrs of my time driving back and forth. So i started a website to help people buy and sell used stuff via videos instead of photos. I believe video is the best way to showcase something second hand online. It can save people so much time traveling to many places when they can instead watch it online without leaving the comfort of their homes. Although there are some disadvantages of using video to advertise your products but it can go a long way in the future as technologies increasingly advance. What do you think about the video concept? Can video replace photos for second hand market sometime in the near future?
The website has been up for around 2 months. Sharing on Facebook and twitter have mostly been friends and families. We are in the process of going to yard sales offering them to list their products with us for free (probably we even have to do the recording for them). We have reached out to sellers on craigslist but it didn't go so well because they thought we were spammers. We are planning to reach out to pawn shops and used car dealers. As for the mobile app, we are working on getting one as soon as possible to make the process much easier for people to upload their listings. Thanks for your feedback. You gave me a great idea of having to do all the dirty work (uploading video, creating a store, marketing for the users) at the beginning.
Anyone can think of a good idea but not many of them can turn it into a successful business. To create a successful business the idea/product should be the last thing you need to worry about because idea changes all the time during stages of a startup. There are many other factors that are more important than your idea i.e ( financing, marketing,legal, team). Many entrepreneurs have the same ideas but why are some more successful than others? For example Gowalla vs Foursquare. An idea is worthless without an execution plan. You can begin by researching your market and form a team who believes in your idea and vision. I give you props for your youth entrepreneur's spirit. Don't wait too long to start because you will mistakes. Just learn how to fix them along the way. Just remember Nike's Slogan "Just Do It". Good Luck
Our startup is helping people buy and sell with video. People can enjoy watching video listings without leaving the comfort of their homes. http://www.123exchanges.com
Some of the lighter grey must be changed. You don't want your users to have a hard time reading and searching for links. Yes try changing the content of the homepage. Styckyd was built by enthusiasts, for enthusiasts, this does not explain what the website is. You can put it somewhere else. Try using 5-10 words intro to capture your users attentions. Like " A marketplace for ... built by ...". Make sure your audiences know you're communicating directly to them. Good luck
Success of a business depends on how you execute it. Paul Graham has once said if your idea is a good one, you'll have not just one competitor but hundreds of them. Don't give up with just one adversary. Plus i just tweeted and facebook shared your website for my support to your marketing journey.
I'm still a bit confused on the values of your website. Plus are you building a community to share parts' feedbacks or a marketplace to connect buyers and sellers? But one thing i believe you should change is the font color. I barely can read your text. You can make it a bit darker. Hopefully that helps.
Hi Havoc2005,
I'm from DC too and currently starting my own startup. We can always meet up and share ideas. Meetup.com is a good start to meet up with tech startup entrepreneurs in this area.
Here's a link to our website: http://www.123exchanges.com