I guess you could say that in the car business, there's still a lot of dealers who believe in the old philosophy, "you get what you pay for."
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A better solution?
- Thread starter Autoswaprz
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- Dec 30, 2009
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JoeyD,
To a certain degree, not only that still valid but it still applies to every business.
Everyone complains about Autotrader for example but they are the result of where the business took them and not so much where they wanted to be. They had a site, grew the biz, spent money on advertisement, made an investment, dealers wanted more results, asked for more money, competition for leads got expensive, etc. The cycle happens and you can't stop it.
I've been working with the Craigslist system for years now and it gave me a tremendous insight about why Autotrader did and does things the way they do.
Dealers behave a certain way: they will ask for more leads and less money, they will cancel just because one girl showed up with another site and they want to "try something else", they will say they get leads but they don't sell cars, etc. The market will not go to your site unless you advertise, SEO alone can't sustain any volume of traffic. The website owner needs to spend money to advertise and get more results, improve features that every dealer known to man will tell you you need.
So the cycle starts...
To a certain degree, not only that still valid but it still applies to every business.
Everyone complains about Autotrader for example but they are the result of where the business took them and not so much where they wanted to be. They had a site, grew the biz, spent money on advertisement, made an investment, dealers wanted more results, asked for more money, competition for leads got expensive, etc. The cycle happens and you can't stop it.
I've been working with the Craigslist system for years now and it gave me a tremendous insight about why Autotrader did and does things the way they do.
Dealers behave a certain way: they will ask for more leads and less money, they will cancel just because one girl showed up with another site and they want to "try something else", they will say they get leads but they don't sell cars, etc. The market will not go to your site unless you advertise, SEO alone can't sustain any volume of traffic. The website owner needs to spend money to advertise and get more results, improve features that every dealer known to man will tell you you need.
So the cycle starts...
I'm wondering if we should just scrap the 6month & 1year terms and just do simple monthly pricing.
- Apr 29, 2011
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Offer monthly pricing, but also offer committed terms with a significant discount (3/6/12 month).
- Apr 7, 2009
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500 shoppers daily is 15,000 p/month. That's a number I'd hide.. unless... you say the traffic is local, how local? Thats a great number if you zeroed on a tight geo.
- Apr 7, 2009
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- Apr 28, 2009
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- Apr 7, 2009
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Awww JT, don't ya feel for the lil' guy. He came across genuine, we all took a liking to him.
- Apr 7, 2009
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Went to Autoswaprz.com, I put in my zipcode and it returned: No Records Found.
He's got a long long road ahead of him.
He's got a long long road ahead of him.
Agreed, this particular setup isn't ideal in a one-market test area. Long-term, yes, short-term, "Hey, we're starting in Kansas City!" would fare better.
(Related: Use 64129.)
✨ AI Highlights
A startup founder presents their new car marketplace platform designed to improve the consumer experience by eliminating paid listings and advertisements, then seeks feedback on pricing strategy ($39-$299/month tiered by inventory size) to attract small and large dealerships. The discussion reveals tension between undercutting competitors with aggressive pricing versus charging premium rates that reflect the value of lead generation, with experienced dealers arguing that the startup risks appearing cheap rather than affordable if they don't properly communicate their ROI metrics.
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