• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
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    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Add-ons? Do you make money off of them?

X

Xelda

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Well, I've been running BugChick.com for nearly a year and have learned quite a bit more about business than I ever thought I would. Basic principles about supply and demand, marketing strategies, advertisement--it's all been a great experience for me. :) I started off selling just my surplus roaches, but I've noticed that it helps me to start offering more varieties of species. Not only does it make me look like a little bigger and give reason for customers to return, but it makes me more competitive since I can accomodate more customers.

So now I'm thinking if I should also begin selling roach products: food, water crystals, egg cartons, literature. What I have now are links where people can get those items directly from the source for cheaper. But that doesn't seem to weigh much because people want to get all their stuff from one source.

How many of you take advantage of this? Do you sell t-shirts, books, supplements, etc. with your animals? What do you feel you've gained by offering or selling these add-ons?
 
Olivia,
The Add-Ons are a definite plus.

Although I have bred and sold animals for several years, I decided to offer some additional products in 2004. I started carrying books for the species that I worked with. I seem to deal with a lot of first-time buyers, and I thought it would be helpful to be able to offer them books for the animals being purchased.

The books turned out to be a huge success. I started adding a couple of additional titles with each order I placed and now stock over 40 titles. Since starting with the books in 2004, I have sold over 1000 copies. I go to the Post Office almost every day to ship out books and/or supplies.

I have now expanded into some other products (mainly hides) but am adding new products all of the time.

My core business is still the animals, but the supplies are becoming an integral part of the business as well. I have had many customers who started out purchasing books from me who have later purchased animals.

The Add-Ons will definitely enhance your business.
 
Mike, thanks for your feedback! I guess I'll take the leap then.
 
There is a business / marketing formula about how much it costs in time and money to secure each new customer (can be quite a lot, but I can not remember what it is). But once you have secured the customer, it costs very little to sell additional items to the same customer - much less than trying to always find new additional customers to buy more of the same product you already sell. So try to think of items that your present customers would probably need or want, and try to supply them.

If you can think of items that are hard to find, or that you may group together but are usually sold by several different vendors, you can save time and shipping costs to your customers by offering the items in a one-stop shopping experience from your website. These items will not require the care of livestock, and don't die, either. So with some research and thought, you can offer a savings of time and money to your customers, and add to your own bottom line. Sounds like a win-win situation to me!

There are several pet trade business magazines, such as Pet Age and Pet Product News, that are available for free if you are in the retail pet business. Although they focus on more traditional pets, they often contain a lot of general business info presented in terms that benefit those in the pet business. You can probably find out how to order those journals on the Net.

Good luck!
 
Hey Kathy I was just curious how many t-shirts you really sell and if its worth doing. I've thought about offering t-shirts on my site but wasn't sure who would really be interested.
 
T shirt sales have actually been rather disappointing.

I really thought we would sell more, both online and at shows. But I partly blame the fact that we haven't tried to really market them, other than just on my website. And we don't have a great way to display them at shows. In the future, I plan to market shirts and posters in other ways, with some ads here or maybe even on eBay. OTOH, once the initial investment is made, you don't have to feed, clean, or care for them, and they DON'T DIE, either!
 
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