Set
Any classified ads platform that allows to post free or paid static ads under various categories. Examples: craigslist.com (mostly free, USA/Canada), backpage.com (free, USA/Canada), fmclassifieds.com/europehome.php (mostly free, Europe), abadoo.eu (mostly paid, Europe), olx.com (free, India), justdial.com (mostly paid, India)
Theory
(1) Instant Monetization: You don’t need to worry about building any reputation or long term good faith among customers to run a classified ads based business successfully. You can start getting customers immediately as soon as you start such a business.
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(2) The Catch: The classified ads based business works best in a few specific types of niches only though. Some of them are real estate (renting only), used cars, furniture, jobs, handyman services, legal services and such. It works even better if you are able to provide such products or services for cheaper than market prices. If you need to learn how to get your hands on such products and services for cheaper, check out this article. <TODO>
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(3) Type of traffic: Most traffic involves people who are looking for cheaper stuff trying to save money. This is why the price plays an important role in such businesses. The price can make or break the business.
Another point on the type of traffic is that, most people when purchasing stuff through classified ads are super skeptical to protect themselves against scams. This is because people posting ads don’t have to go through any type of security checks or verifications, and so pretty much anyone can post an ad there. And so buyers try to make sure what they are buying is actually worth it. They will try to meet you personally and check the product themselves before any purchase is made.
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(3) Importance of Ad’s Rank: Every time you place the ad, the ad will appear at the top of the search results and after some time, the ad will be crushed by others’ newer ads. And so you have keep on posting your ads every few days. The frequency depends on how quickly your ad is crushed by others. You should post a new ad only if your previous ad is past at least first 2 pages of search results.
All popular classified ads websites have various filters specific to each type of category. And most people use those filters to do a search for the specific type of service or product that they are looking for. So when I when say that your ad should appear in first 2 pages, it should appear on first 2 pages when you apply those filters in the search results. For example, if you have a 2 bedroom apartment in the city of Champaign, you should do a search of all the 2 bedroom apartments in Champaign, and your ad should appear in first 2 pages of the result or preferablly first page to get the most portion of the traffic.
Some classified ads websites also provide a paid option to boost your ads up to the top of the page. I will be discussing such options and their viability on individual websites in another article in future. <TODO>
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(4) Summary: The classified ads based business is easiest to run provided your business is appropriate for placing such ads. Only milestone is to find a good classified ads website that does have good amount of traffic in the related category. Once you find it, all you have to do is to place the ads about your product or service every few days.
I personally have seen the most traffic in renting apartments or rooms, furnitures and used vehicles, and built a business out of these. I ran an apartment business of renting and re-renting for 1.5 years, and expanded to 12 houses, and I never had a shortage of customers due to my low price offers.
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Problems
How to get products and services for cheaper than market price to be able to sell others at a good margin?
How to know which website is getting good traffic in which category?
How to decide which category you should run a business in?
How to automate posting ads on classified ads websites when the business expands? For example, when you are renting out 100 different apartments in 50 different areas.
How to make money using jobs category?
Strategies