Having trouble with Kingsnake.com Help Please!! Sorry, kind of long

I wonder which one he broke?

Webslave,.....

Excellent Post and food for thought. I am going to mull over it awhile before I digress any further.

I think that Familiarity is the key of why Kingsnake is as popular as it is, and the fact, as webslave stated, that they have had more time at it.

Good post webslave....now back to my cave......




Fred Albury
Aztec Reptiles

In regards to how to draw traffic:

1. Take a big pile of money, and buy advertising. You can pay off most search engines in one form or another, including buying advertising that will list your site in a sponsor's section at the top or side of the search results. I'm not sure on the current state of search engine bribery, but I'm pretty sure the practice still exists to be exploited.

2. Be relevant. Have links coming to your site from as many sources as possible. Have links going from your site to other sites covering the same topics. Use meta tags with appropriate key words, but don't overkill them. Use key words you want indexed in your page content.

It's true that KS has the advantage of time and word of mouth, and of having a lot of breeders who have heavily-trafficked sites themselves (hence creating a web of links that search engines will give high relevence to when indexing), but they're not the first hit on searches for "reptile classifieds" or "reptiles for sale", etc. BUT they're always near the top of the page, which is where any business site wants to be. There's no need to compete directly with KS. The contest is to get onto at least the first page of any relevent search, and it can be done easily enough.

Providing quality content and updating it is what keeps people coming back. KS has quite a few care articles, but those haven't been updated in a long time. They host and link to a good number of breeders' sites, and have forums, which are the main two draws. Frankly, the only reason I hit their page is for the list of breeders. It wouldn't take too much effort for me to copy their links onto a bookmark file on my hard drive and ignore their site. The forums are of dubious quality. Some good discussion goes on, but there's enough drek to wade through that most days it's not worth the effort.

As for this site, I think it meets the content criteria with the BOI alone. I think the place has grown a lot since I've found it, and that's based largely on word of mouth. I'd venture a guess that any substantial increase in traffic might be a bit of a Catch-22, since all that bandwidth has to be paid for.

Anyway, who cares about beating KS? It's already possible to run a business without them. It's even possible to run a classifieds site, though I wouldn't think it's possible to shut them down.

Think of it this way: New guy comes along offering you a classifieds account similar to KS's deal, but at only 25 bucks a year. You're paying 54 a year for KS -- BUT you get so much business from KS that you sell out of stock on a regular basis. What's your motivation for switching? Get that price down to ten or fifteen bucks a year, and a few people may fork over the extra money for the extra hits on their ads if your site is good.

Or, you could offer free classifieds, and links, but sell secondary services. You could build and host affordable sites for smaller breeders who aren't as web-savvy, for example. Heck, I think KS used to do that, and still does as far as I know. Anyway, that's one example. Getting traffic by promoting your site, including free ads and forums, and perhaps good content for care, etc, is easy enough. Finding some creative way to make money off that traffic is another matter. It's unlikely that classifieds for reptiles will be a huge money maker unless you're already drawing traffic, though.

Anyway, just a few stray thoughts. Sorry for the rambling.

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas or Happy whatever it is you may be celebrating this winter.

OK, I hate to knock anybody, especially since I don't know the owner of this site, but by way of illustration, look at:

http://www.angelfire.com/biz6/ReptileClassifieds/


That is the first hit (after the paid sponsor) that pops up on a Yahoo! search for "reptile classifieds." If that can be first on the list, ANY site should be able to claim the spot.

Well, here are my 2 cents, for what its worth....
I think Fauna Classifieds could become another Kingsnake.com, but there are a few things that are the reason why Kingsnake is more popular. Of course, first of all its better known and has been around for a long time.
Fauna Classifieds seems to me to be the BOI and the other forums were built around that.....which to ME is great, but for newcomers and beginners....well, they are looking for something different.
They are looking for Forums, that point them in the right directions, that provide help and guidance....They are looking for caresheets....they are looking for a easy to navigate site that offers a little bit of everything.
And newcomers and beginners are what makes a site grow.
Fauna Classifieds is GREAT for the people that have been in the herphobby/industrie for a while and know the ropes.
The BOI is priceless. But it fills a niche, doesn't provide the whole nine yards.
Acutally there are forums here, for other things then the BOI, but I think the way they are placed and the site is constructed....they are really more of stepchildren of the BOI. Don't get me wrong, i love this site.
To turn it into a big reptile/amphibian (and whatnot) site, i think first of all the name would have to be changed...many people looking for info on snakes, or forums to help them.....just wouldn't consider "FAUNA CLASSIFIEDS" the place to go......just by the name of it.
A homepage with easy to navigate info, and placement of forums that are geared towards the experts AND beginners would help. Yes there would have to be quite a few more forums, to help steer people in the right direction...
The classifieds and BOI section would have to become part of the site, not the main focus.
Poor Rich would have to deal with a lot more very ignorant people....hehe, some beginners like "does this snake eat crickets??"
But the good comes with the bad, i suppose.
It would be AWESOME if we could add a chatroom. Of course there would also need to be a lot of links going out (breeders) and coming to this site.
All of this is just IMHO, so please don't take any offense to it.
I would love to have another site "like" kingsnake.com to go to.
I do realize this would be a gargantual project for Rich, which he probably wouldn't find the time to dedicate to it...and for what Fauna Classifieds is right now.....i love it...

One thing I would modify in the for sale section is the reply to the adds option.

There have been recent examples of people making uncalled-for comments after a seller has placed an add. That doesn't happen in KS.

I'm not saying that is bad as you are protecting the buyer. Kingsnake.com on the other hand protects more the seller, which is not necessarily bad, although every now and then we see some really shady posts.

But there are probably a lot of sellers that think about it twice before placing an add in fauna. Don't forget that what attracts viewers (and thus future potential clients) are the "for sale" adds.

Just my thoughts.

Daniel,

Actually I did give this a lot of thought when I set up the classifeds sections. My feelings on it that giving people the capability to reply to a posted ad provides a bit of added protection to the BUYER in that a shady deal might possibly have a red flag thrown up on it by someone with some bad experiences. Hopefully before someone gets hurt by it.

Yes, there is the opportunity for abuse, but quite frankly, I am more on the side of the buyer than the seller in this instance. There are far too many people whom are likely to see a good deal and buy first, ask questions later. In some cases they might get burned this way.

I guess I am more interested in having my site geared more towards the higher end of the people in this field. I want people to be knowledgeable about their purchases and I want people selling to KNOW they will have an uphill battle if their intentions are to scam the public. I WANT sellers to understand that they will be called out in public if they knowingly screw someone and act accordingly. I cannot stop the first one from happening, but can make the second one much tougher to accomplish. And if this can be done right at the source, right when and where the ad is placed, then I am all for it. I expect people to have enough brains to be able to weed through the chatter of some mindless troll, and I also expect people to take heed if something doesn't smell quite right with an ad. If someone has their hard earned money saved by getting a timely warning, then I think the manner I have set up the classifieds sections will be justified.

Thanks.

ps - perhaps I should set up a section such as Wish List or Suggestions for Improvements. But I thought my forum entitled 'Comments about this site' would server that purpose. Maybe I need to be more specific. Bear in mind, however, that I have no intention of trying to make this site something for everyone. There just isn't enough of me to go around to be able to do that.

Webslave,

I agree with alvaros post, I have posted ads on boi/fauna only to have someone come along that HAD NO INTEREST in purchasinganything post just to heckle me or belittle the ads I put on. I really didnt think that was right, as that is what the BOI is for, to complain about somebody or herald somebody depending on the goods service they provide.

So I do agree with Alvaro on this one. It would bemuch better if the ads were just that..ADs and not personal commentaries whether someone should or shouldnt buy from so and so, it leaves it open to way to much abuse.

Sincerely

Fred Albury

OK, I'm willing to admit I may be off base with my assumptions on how to handle the classifieds. I will put up a poll in the Discussions about this site section at the top of the forums main page to see what the general concensus is.

That fair enough?

I encourage anyone with an interest in this issue to contribute there with your opinions.

Thanks.

AdamBlock


I was sort on your side Until i saw you post richie's private emails to you,

what a little girl move..........






al nunez