I have no real idea, of the perfect Board for this. We don't have a specific board for questions, about specific things.

Now, the question is this. I'm trying to do a sort of Online business (that adds in my shop) and others. Sort of an Amazon thing and/ or E-bay thing.

Now, the idea, is to get many people to join, and sell their products. They join the site. Post their stuff, and try to sell it. May it be books, Art, clothing, games, what have you, that they have made.

Now, would it be too much, to take seller fees? The fees would go into a sort of pot, so to speak, that goes into bettering the site, products and such, as well has a sort of end of the year bonus for everyone. If it could be fixed better, how would you do it?

Also I'm not advertising any groups. I'm getting opinions and help. Also I thought about it going in the PERSONAL BOARD, but it wouldn't really fit. Also it isn't Main worthy. Is this a good enough place for it to be?

I cannot answer any of your questions... But the title? "qurstions". K.

It almost sounds like it would be better in Tech or Personal, but it doesn't quite fit either, so it should be fine here.

Is this going to be a site of its own that links to other sites for the selling?

Questions* Sorry about the spelling mistake in the title.

It should be fine here.

[Well, let me word >>3 better.] Is it going to be your own personal site that people sell things on.

Also, no. It's going to be one site, and each person has their own web space within the site. That is what I feel would work.

Damn Ninja.
Anyway, yes and no. It'll be MY site in the sense I make it, but also their site in the sense they will have their own web space, and that is what the majority of the site will be made up of, if it makes any bit of sense.

Alrighty then :O

I wouldn't suggest taking a seller fee. Perhaps having a very cheap membership fee, or relying on general donations from the sellers. Also, you would want to have something in return, but it would be a waste of money to have an end of the year bonus. Perhaps, for donating a certain amount, they get credits. When they have enough credits, they can "buy" an advertising spot on the site for their brand/name/whatever. That way, it's not something they HAVE to do (if you had to get credits to get more space to sell items, that would be necessity and people would get more frustrated), and so it would sort of reverse-psychology people into being more interested into donating. It wouldn't feel like they had to do, but, rather, that they want to.

If that makes any sense.

Well in the end, they still are using my means, to sell their stuff. If I did a seller's fee, I'm thinking 2 percent of what they make per sell, could go stored away.

Though the membership fee is tempting, and what you said as a whole, would interest people, a small seller's fee is also tempting as well. If it's only a 2% fee, they don't lose much, and it still will build up if the site gains a lot of people.

But the credit idea. I'm liking it, but not exactly sure how I would go about adding something like that in, to keep track of it. I know I could manually do it, but if it gets big, that is hard to do.

>>9 If people had to purchase the credits from the site as per donations, they could choose packages(donations in preset amounts). Each time they buy a package, it automatically adds X number of credits to the account that bought it.

The main problem is coding something like that in. Which if I could, I'd love to do that idea.

Also maybe it can be like this.
Level 1 version: What everyone uses. It will allow donations and a membership fee every month. Each month they pay, they get credits, and can donate for more as so suggested by you.

Premium Version: They get more credits and bigger web space, but in return, they do a seller's fee of the 2 percent. This will allow them to gain double or triple the amount of credits that can go into advertising directly on the home page.

How does it sound?

I also think, maybe having promotional codes, that lower the prices down, could also work out.

Have it where the seller types in a code anytime they want to have these promotional codes, and it saves it into their database as a password, and they are placed on the forums the site uses. Anyone who see's it for a week, uses it.

Then when the Seller is done, they delete the code, and it deactivates it. Thus making the prices not lower.

Thiamor, have I ever told you that you vaguely remind me of Eddy from Ed Edd and Eddy?

I don't care about myself getting the money as much as you might be thinking. I just love doing stuff like this, and what better way, than to make something people can use?

I already have a source for my own money. I love building sites. I love people using them. I love making things as unique as I can make them.

>>12 If they're already paying a membership fee, I highly doubt they're going to donate. With the premium version, again, people will feel less interested in donating at all if they had to get a premium version to get more space. I don't think you can expect this much out of a new site, either. You have to start off low and, if you really need to, move up to these things. If you start off immediately with basic and premium accounts, people who haven't seen anything decent come out of the site aren't going to bite.

Perhaps having a free, limited-space beta would be best, as well. Before officially launching the site, start out with a few new members trying it out. Advertise the beta, and when it starts to get known, close it for a day and enhance it with all the updates and fix what you need to fix from what you've seen, and then open it back up with necessary accounts as the full version. For a month or two, keep the free beta open, and then close it. Obviously, you would only be able to sell X number of items with the beta version, and there would be both more space and rights with the basic and premium versions.

Again, though, you can't do both donations and membership fee. It really has to be one or the other :V

How about this, then, and I'd still rather have membership and donation options.

Say you get 10 credits a month.
Then you donate for a package that will up your credits you earn a month. Now you're getting 30 credits a month, and also it gives you a bonus of 10 or 20, based on the package, to spend or save up right then.

Why can it not be both? Donations are optional. So it isn't like I'm telling them to give more. They still earn credits, just not as much.

>>19 But if you pay for a membership, you're going to be a lot less likely to donate at all. You're already paying; why should you pay more? And by getting credits for the actual membership, they're even less likely to feel the need to donate, because it's not the only means of getting credits then.

Ex: For premium memberships, most groups who use this method give a lot of credits without expecting anyone to donate. However, the other membership is free, and the only way to get credits is by donating/buying cards/participating in surveys, et cetera. Having a membership where they have to pay is fine, but if you want larger donations, you have to have an option where they can have a membership that doesn't have a fee.

Well credits just need to be obtained through the means you listed. Donations.

Also how could the memberships be tweaked?
Month to month like normal, and they could do a bundle for more, and have like 3 months or longer?

Note: Donations are never required, and are completely optional. It is entirely up to a user whether or not they donate. Above that, it is almost entirely gain and nearly no loss. The cost to keep a donation box running is so minuscule that it doesn't make sense for a site not to have one. Pulling in any amount of revenue will create a positive addition to the accounts when compared to the draw that the donation box has.

But, if I may offer my own input:

2% seller's fee sounds fine. It's not too imposing, and it gives the illusion of "I'm getting this service practically for free!"

I would take the funds raised from the fee and use them to expand and repair the site as necessary, save some of it for an impromptu server upgrade should the site become increasingly popular.

At some point you would (in theory, assuming all goes well) have more money than you knew what to do with. At that point, congratulations on your successful internet business.

However, I would nix the 'membership' idea. It adds a layer of elitism as opposed to a community of buyers/sellers. You would sooner go to a member than a random that rides on the minimums, thinking that they will have the best products and methods. This would drive your minimums out of business.

However, each 'storefront' may be offered the opportunity to spend some of their earnings on advertisement within the site.

Remove elitism, add a community (I suggest a BBS system where people who buy ads are stuck at the top of X board for X amount of time per X amount of dollars), and keep your interactions to moderation and maintenance, while remaining open to ideas from your customers.

Those are my rather disorganized thoughts at the moment. Trying to do physics while thinking about business economics isn't easy >.>

Well I did make the forums like the BBS in terms of not having to join to post. That may help in some parts of the site.

I based the Message Board loosely on how the forums are laid out and how they look, as well.

The Boards are very conveniently placed on here.

My forums will help with keeping the site as a whole, more organized.

Bump.

Anymore suggestions, ideas and whatnot?

yo man yea that sounds pretty good and junk but hey you should stick with high value items and get contracts with good company's

and with that i leave this pic

>>28 You do realize you're stating to do something, when most of the items will be ORIGINAL items people create. It won't be no high valued, name brand items.

I'm still stuck between Membership or 2% Seller's Fee.
One Con with Membership, is the fact they still have to pay, every month, year, what-have-you, even if they don't sell anything for a long while.

Whereas, with the Seller's Fee, they only pay when they sell their stuff.

I think this could work. Do it like "CafePress" does it.
You only pay when you make a sell, and the PAYMENT is just taken out from the buyer's cash they used. So basically they only earn profit, and don't actually spend their money directly.
How's that sound?

Also this is not a pawnshop, so only original items. Ebay, Amazon and such, is just a giant ass Pawnshop, to me. I think selling original items YOU make, is better.

Any opinions on >>31?

Anyway, to keep this conversation going, I'm posting the link to the Forums to get layout opinions, and advice on how to make the forums better.

Don't bother registering. Just post. It allows people to post, like this place does, without having to sign up. Only admin register.

http://meetyourmaker.darkbb.com/forum

>>33
The Forums are going to be PART of this selling site/Community.

Bump.

Bump.

The site was kinda hard to use on my phone cuz my phone sucks.