How to make money with a classifieds website?

Lynne Level 1

August 23, 2016, 6:23 am

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I have been bouncing around with ideas for a new website and one of these ideas is to start a classifieds website for our area. We are a few small towns and I think it would really go down well to have our own little classifieds website.

How would I go about this and would it be really hard to set up? Does anyone know of any plugins that might do a huge part of the job for me?

What are the different ways I would be able to make money from a classifieds website?

Any good ideas that you can share with me?

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TommyCarey

I was actually thinking of doing the same thing and then I would either charge like $12 a year for a listing or I would make it a free listing directory and charge for advertising space. I think the advertising space would pull in more than the yearly listing fee would.

I was looking through wpmudev.org because they have a ton of great stuff for wordpress which would make it super easy for me to set up. I could literally just pay their membership fee, or use the free trial, download the plugins and set everything up pretty quick. I think everything would be under $100 and wpmudev lets you use their plugins for life

You can cancel your membership but if you downloaded the plugin, you're free to use it even if you're not a member

This is the plugin of theirs I was looking at: https://premium.wpmudev.org/projec...press-directory/

It basically makes your site similar to yellowpages where you can add a description of a business and people can log in to rate it.

I didn't begin this project because I've had a full plate of things to do for a while now

This has been on the super back burner but I do plan on doing it one day when I can automate my current work load lol

Even if I don't profit right away it will be awesome to have a nice passive income coming in from this. And the beauty of this is that you can set one up for each town you're near, and even ones you don't live by lol

10 years ago

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Lynne

Thanks Razzy! I will have a look at that. I know what you mean about having a full plate. I am so full of ideas for new websites but I don't ever have the time to implement them. If I had 48 hours in a day where I had no distractions and the energy of my 2 year old the world would be my oyster!

10 years ago

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Webguy2024

I wanted to do the same thing and launch a classified site. I started looking for templates as a starting point but didn't find what I wanted. None had all of the features so, I came to the conclusion that I would build the site from scratch. To date I haven't built the site because I have too many projects in the works.

10 years ago

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Lynne

LOL like I just said to Razzy I have that problem too, never ever enough time!

10 years ago

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Everett

I wonder why people use Wordpress so much as a engine and not just get a custom script built. I've also thought about launching a classfieds ads site for my area, but there's always craigslist.org, and that classifieds website is too big to compete with. Most of the local classifieds sites, that I have experienced often do not do well in terms of earning revenue.

People would go elsewhere to sites such as craigslist.org because there is more traffic. If you really want to do something start with the businesses first, and then work your way down to the common person. Businesses are always looking for a place to advertise, and some will actually pay, so start there and see what happens.

10 years ago

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Lynne

Yes but not in our area, nobody here really uses Craiglist. Our community is a big strange, we have small town syndrome and people want things to be local. Not like nationally local, like in our own town local LOL. I think if I start a classifieds just for these few specific towns it will rock.

10 years ago

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Everett

If most people in your town do not use craigslist than you have money making oppertunity! I'm not saying you'll be rich with a classifieds website but it could help make you some money monthly to cover maybe a bill or car payment or something small. I think for areas that don't use craigslist, i believe they should have their own local ads classifieds. If this is something you're wanting to do than by all means go for it!

10 years ago

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Lynne

Yeah I totally think it is do-able and I am so keen to get started, I just don't have enough time in my day to do all my work already in the pipeline... so not sure how I will get going, but I really want to!

Here's hoping I can find a way to get started!

10 years ago

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anwebservices

Nice to hear that we have so many thoughts in common

Actually i was running my own website as classified ads before by using WordPress and Classipress premium theme (as IdealMike mention) and this theme is really perfect solution for your needs. You get option to charge your members for adding classifieds or to make it free. You can probably read more about it on theme sale page. But i would recommend this theme if you looking to make your website in WordPress.
Monetizing such website is probably better if you let members add their ads free and find some local stores, restaurants, cafe bars etc. to sell some ad spaces because it will be local website anyway. Specially if you running this website as part of your business, it's even better if your advertisers can pay you and claim this expenses on their tax return, that's way is even easier to sell some ad space on such site. Try also to invite many local businesses to add free classifieds, then try to sell some "featured" spots to them. That's another thing you can do with this theme.

Hope your idea will come trough and wish you great success with your new website

10 years ago

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Lynne

Thank you Anwebservices. I have so many ideas and it is awesome to run them by you all. Yeah that's what I wanted, to add in a free and a paid option.

10 years ago

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Kakashi2020

I really haven't tried making a classified site but I think it's a good idea. It would help a lot of local businesses plus you can charge them a monthly or annual fee for the service. If it's just for a couple of bucks then I think most businesses would go for it without even thinking.

8 years ago

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