Ask HN: What do I do?

#1

Post by stuckk » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 4:22 PM UTC

Hello HN.

I launched a website yesterday called Classfy. It's basically a marketplace that is open, free and easy to use.

After launching. I sent out a few emails to the people who had signed up before launch. Many of them came and looked around and left. That was expected since this is a marketplace and there were only a few items for sale. Some of them posted items for sale.

Now I don't know what to do. Do I keep coding, adding features, improving the UI. ( I want to make it look like pinterest). Do I try and get more people to signup and post, stuff for sale. This is the first time I have built something on this scale and scope.

any tips? suggestions?

Re: Ask HN: What do I do?

#2

Post by calculus » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 4:28 PM UTC

Marketplaces are hard to launch.

Try to be the leader in your district (post tracts, talk to people, geotargeted ads), then be the leader in the others nearest districts, then you city, then...

Re: Ask HN: What do I do?

#3

Post by kaolinite » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 4:29 PM UTC

Why not ask questions about things related to your website on forums, etc, so it seems like you're not advertising when in reality you are?

That was a joke ;-)

First of all, nice site. Not sure what market you're aiming for but I for one would love to see the death of ebay. How did you get those products on there? Are they yours? Friends?

Consider putting your site on here: http://www.betabait.com/

Maybe you could get in touch with a few local charity shops (or any shop really) and ask them if you could photograph their products and put them on your site? That's how Zappos got started :-)

Re: Ask HN: What do I do?

#4

Post by stuckk » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 4:49 PM UTC

kaolinite wrote: post #3

Why not ask questions about things related to your website on forums, etc, so it seems like you're not advertising when in reality you are? That was a joke ;-) First of all, nice site. Not sure what market you're aiming for but I for one would love to see the death of ebay. How did you get those products on there? Are they yours? Friends? Consider putting your site on here: http://www.betabait.com/ Maybe you could ge…

Some of them are mine and my friends but most of them are just people who had signed up before.

What we are aiming for is a place to sell your stuff. Hassle free and simple. Most people hate eBay because it's overly complex, restricted and expensive.

I think that's a good idea. Going to stores and selling their products. If I actually sell some items, then I can tell the manager and maybe they can start doing it themselves

Re: Ask HN: What do I do?

#5

Post by stuckk » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 4:49 PM UTC

calculus wrote: post #2

Marketplaces are hard to launch. Try to be the leader in your district (post tracts, talk to people, geotargeted ads), then be the leader in the others nearest districts, then you city, then...

Thank you. Never thought about that.

Re: Ask HN: What do I do?

#6

Post by debacle » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 5:05 PM UTC

Suggestion: I hate the scrollbar-within-a-scrollbar thing. Either lock the window height so I don't get two scrollbars, or don't limit the height of the scrolling div.

Re: Ask HN: What do I do?

#7

Post by stuckk » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 5:07 PM UTC

debacle wrote: post #6

Suggestion: I hate the scrollbar-within-a-scrollbar thing. Either lock the window height so I don't get two scrollbars, or don't limit the height of the scrolling div.

Gotcha. Will fix that ASAP

Re: Ask HN: What do I do?

#8

Post by kaolinite » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 5:11 PM UTC

stuckk wrote: post #4

kaolinite wrote: post #3

Why not ask questions about things related to your website on forums, etc, so it seems like you're not advertising when in reality you are? That was a joke ;-) First of all, nice site. Not sure what market you're aiming for but I for one would love to see the death of ebay. How did you get those products on there? Are they yours? Friends? Consider putting your site on here: http://www.betabait.com/ Maybe you could ge…

Some of them are mine and my friends but most of them are just people who had signed up before. What we are aiming for is a place to sell your stuff. Hassle free and simple. Most people hate eBay because it's overly complex, restricted and expensive. I think that's a good idea. Going to stores and selling their products. If I actually sell some items, then I can tell the manager and maybe they can start doing it them…

If I ever sell anything on eBay, I always do it through the mobile app because I've found the mobile app - even with the slower text entry - is so much faster to use. The regular web interface is utterly terrible.

Just a thought, btw (not sure if you're already doing this, haven't tried to sell anything with you) - have you considered using a webcam plugin so people can add pictures for items via webcam?

Both eBay and PayPal have such horrible, slow websites which are begging to be innovated against. I hope you do well :-)

Re: Ask HN: What do I do?

#9

Post by stuckk » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 5:23 PM UTC

kaolinite wrote: post #8

stuckk wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of them are mine and my friends but most of them are just people who had signed up before. What we are aiming for is a place to sell your stuff. Hassle free and simple. Most people hate eBay because it's overly complex, restricted and expensive. I think that's a good idea. Going to stores and selling their products. If I actually sell some items, then I can tell the manager and maybe they can start doing it them…

If I ever sell anything on eBay, I always do it through the mobile app because I've found the mobile app - even with the slower text entry - is so much faster to use. The regular web interface is utterly terrible. Just a thought, btw (not sure if you're already doing this, haven't tried to sell anything with you) - have you considered using a webcam plugin so people can add pictures for items via webcam? Both eBay an…

Thank You. That's a fantastic idea. I always found that it was kind of a hassle to take pictures then upload to my pc.

Thank You. :)

Re: Ask HN: What do I do?

#10

Post by paulsutter » Fri, Mar 16, 2012, 6:05 PM UTC

The most important decision a startup makes is to choose your customer definition.

It looks to me like you have chosen "anyone who sells anything on ebay" as your customer. The problem is, even if you could personally meet with each one of them, they'd probably still choose to list items on ebay because there are more buyers on ebay and they are likely to get a higher price.

There are lots of ways you can go. None of these are particularly good ideas, but hopefully they can help you think of a great idea based on your strenghts:

- You could choose a specific category that Ebay does poorly. Ebay has vacation lodging, but AirBNB is kicking their ass in that area. Ebay has arts and crafts, but Etsy is doing crazy well.

- If your advantage is an easier UI, maybe you can build an easier-to-use front end to list or find items on Ebay. Even for this, you might choose some specific target customer. Maybe old people who are nontechnical. Maybe young people who think Ebay is uncool.

- Here's a question, how can sites like policeauctions.com and propertyroom.com exist? wouldn't it be smarter to list all those items on ebay where you can get a higher price? Steal their customers and do something easier, list the items on ebay.

Whatever you do, dont try to compete head-on with Ebay. Ebay will always be a better Ebay than you. Choose one thing they are doing poorly, and do it great. Imagine if Etsy or Airbnb tried to expand to do everything ebay did. That would obviously suck. So be more like them.

Happy to brainstorm.